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Science Management & Management Efficiency
The ERC has become a recognised success story of the 7
•
th
Framework Programme, having established
itself as an indispensable component of the European Research Area with a high reputation for the quality
and efficiency of its operations. Since its establishment in 2007, the ERC has launched 15 calls for propos-
als and completed 8 calls for proposals for the Starting and Advanced Grant schemes. The ERC schemes,
which have been designed for and adapted to frontier research, have been well received and fully supported
by the research community, with over 26.000 applications submitted so far. Meanwhile, the ERC’s evalua-
tion procedure is widely accepted as the gold standard in finding and funding the best researchers from all
over the world.
The ERC Executive Agency has set up efficient and fast grant management, which compares favourably
•
with other International funding agencies. The efficient operation of the Starting and Advanced Grant calls as
well as the additional funding initiatives entitled ‘Proof of Concept’ and the ERC Synergy grants underlines
the successful organisational development of the ERC Executive Agency, created to implement the IDEAS
programme as an integrated constituent of the ERC. In its five years of existence, it has served a popula-
tion of more than 2.500 excellent scientists and scholars from all over the world to carry out their research
in around 470 prestigious research institutions in Europe and has acquired a considerable experience in
the management of grants. By the end of 2011, the Executive Agency had managed to consolidate its key
performance indicators in relation to grant implementation and had largely met its targets, with the excep-
tion of the “time to grant” (the time from the call deadline to the signature of grants) which was short of the
target established by the ERC in consideration of international benchmarks. The target was to sign Grant
Agreements for at least 75% of grants within 365 days. However, the “time to pay” remained a record with
an average of 10 days for pre-financing and 13,6 days for interim payments
.
Nevertheless, concerns have been expressed about the long-term sustainability of the ERC’s legal and
•
administrative structure. In this sense, the
(9)
and the
10)
have recom-
mended that the ERC Grant application process be simplified, as well as the procedures related to the
way grants are administrated and accounted for (timesheets, audit strategy…), following a funding and a
science management philosophy more in accordance with frontier research. In addition, the ERC funding
schemes are relatively new and researchers still have problems in understanding and applying the rules for
the implementation and the management of ERC Grants. Although host institutions are expected to pro-
vide adequate support to PIs on grant management without compromising the scientific independence of
grantees, following the Task Force recommendations, the ERCEA has established a PI Helpdesk and has
started to offer training to both HIs and PIs on grant preparation and grant management including financial
and audit issues.
In 2011, Athens hosted two International Workshops on ERC grant management for HIs and for PIs located
in Greece and the surrounding countries (Balkan countries & Cyprus).
Direct Impact: Reinforce Excellence, Dynamism& Creativity
Advancing Knowledge
With the establishment of the ERC, a
•
(17)
has emerged that is
founded on the competition for research funding at European level, solely on the basis of excellence. In this
regard, the ERC has provided excellence with a leading role across the European Research Area by detect-
ing, encouraging and channeling resources to the best ground-breaking ideas and the very best promising
and established researchers irrespective of age, gender and nationality and from a wider pool than national
schemes would allow. A European benchmark of excellence has also been developed that is expected to
58
the
case of
GREECE
5
years of
Excellence in
the European
Research Area
2007-2011