Basic HTML Version
from their ERC-funded projects and to bring them to a pre-demonstration stage where potential commercializa-
tion opportunities have been identified. Successful applicants will have additional funding to prepare a dossier
for potential investors (venture capitalists or companies) that could take the innovative idea (technology etc.)
through the early commercialization phase. The PoC Grant supports activities such as viability studies; technical
validation; market research; clarifying intellectual property rights issues and strategies; investigating potential
business opportunities; establishing pathways to later-stage funding; and covering the initial expenses for es-
tablishing a company.
The ERC Coordination & Support Actions (CSAs)
and the calls for tender are not
regular ERC Grants, but instead are projects for the monitoring, assessment and evaluation of ERC activities.
These include projects, studies, expert groups, seminars, data access and dissemination, as well as information
and communication activities on the ERC. The CSAs or calls for tender do not support research, technological
development or demonstration activities.
ERC Grant Schemes: a Learning Process.
Since the beginning of the ERC and the
launch of the first ERC call, fine-tuning measures have been applied to the grant schemes. These were based on
ERC policies, lessons learned (past experiences), feedback from applicants and review panels (evaluators).
Based on the lessons learned during previous calls - more specifically, the extremely high number of appli-
•
cations in the first Starting Grant call (ERC-2007-StG) - the application procedure has been changed from a
two–stage submission process to one where the full application is submitted in a single stage process, re-
submission restrictions have been established, and benchmark features regarding the profile of the applicant
(Principal Investigator) have been incorporated in order to encourage proposals and researchers at the right
level of ambition and competitivity.
In line with the ERC’ s main objective to attract & repatriate researchers, in addition to the relatively attractive
•
funding conditions, both ERC Starting and Advanced Grant schemes offer incentives to encourage research-
ers of any nationality to move from countries outside the European Research Area (ERA) to an EU or Associ-
ated Country. Those applicants can request additional financial resources to cover “start-up” costs such as the
purchase of major equipment they may not have in their new research environment (500.000
€
for a Starting
Grant and 1 Mio
€
for an Advanced Grant). Clearer indications of the expected commitment to the ERC-funded
activity by the selected PIs have also been included. In this sense, both types of grantees are expected to
spend 50% of their time in Europe whereas Starting and Advanced grantees have to dedicate at least 50% and
30% of their time to the ERC project, respectively.
In compliance with the strategy of the ERC Scientific Council to target & support the next generation of re-
•
search leaders in Europe, there has been a significant budgetary strengthening of the Starting Grant scheme
which has led to an extension of the eligibility window for Starting grantees (3-9 years post PhD in the ERC-
2007-StG call; 2-10 years post PhD in the ERC-2009-StG call and from 2010 2-12 years post PhD). It should be
noted that since the 2010 Work Programme, there is an approximate 50/50 split in the funding for both main
schemes the Starting and the Advanced Grants.
Following feedback from applicants and reviewers (evaluators), the ERC evaluation criteria have been ad-
•
justed to take into account justified career gaps and/or unconventional research career paths. In addition, and
in order to ensure that the ERC is at the forefront of best practices regarding the gender balance of grantees,
since 2010 women researchers have been awarded with an increased extension of the Starting Grant eligibil-
ity window of 18 months per child born before or after a PhD award. Finally, there has also been fine-tuning
measures to the ERC Grants such as a simplification of the proposal structure (no self-evaluation) and the
recognition of two streams of applicants to the Starting Grant scheme (“starters” and “consolidators”). In this
sense, in the 2013 ERC Work Programme, the ERC Starting Grants have been divided into two separated fund-
ing schemes, named ERC Starting Grants and ERC Consolidator Grants.
13
INTRODUCTION