The European Research Council (ERC) is established by the European Commission to support frontier research. It provides funding through competitive grants for individual researchers in Europe based on a bottom-up approach. The ERC operates under Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation program, with a budget of €13 billion from 2014-2020. It offers grants through different schemes to support researchers at different career stages, evaluating proposals solely based on excellence.

1. Established by the European Commission
HORIZON 2020
The European Research Council
© Art & Build Architect / Montois Partners / credits: S. Brison

2. Established by the European Commission
Support for the individual scientist – no networks!
Global peer-review
No predetermined subjects (bottom-up)
Support of frontier research in all fields of science
and humanities
The ERC supports excellence in frontier research through
a bottom-up, individual-based, pan-European competition
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What is ERC?
LegislationStrategy
Scientific governance: independent Scientific Council
with 22 members including the ERC President; full
authority over funding strategy
Support by the ERC Executive Agency (autonomous)
Excellence as the only criterion
Budget: € 13 billion (2014-2020) - 1.9 billion €/year
€ 7.5 billion (2007-2013) - 1.1 billion €/year

3. Established by the European Commission
Horizon 2020 Budget € 77 billion
ERC budget € 13 billion

4. Established by the European Commission
ERC in the H2020 Structure
 The HORIZON 2020 main components:
 Excellent Science (budget under H2020: € 24.4 billion)
 World class science is foundation of technologies, jobs, well-being
 Europe needs to develop, attract, retain research talent
 Researchers need access to the best infrastructures
 Industrial leadership
 Societal challenges
 Excellent Science:
 European Research Council (budget under H2020: € 13 billion)
 Future and Emerging Technologies
 Marie Sklodoswka Curie Actions
 Research Infrastructures
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5. Established by the European Commission
Starting Grants
starters
(2-7 years after PhD)
up to € 2.0 Mio
for 5 years
Advanced Grants
track-record of
significant research
achievements in the
last 10 years
up to € 3.5 Mio
for 5 years
Proof-of-Concept
bridging gap between research - earliest
stage of marketable innovation
up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders
Consolidator Grants
consolidators
(7-12 years after PhD)
up to € 2.75 Mio
for 5 years
ERC Funding Schemes

6. Established by the European Commission
ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility
• to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team of own choice
• to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years
• to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions of work
• to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) and collaborators
• to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability
of grants)
• to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC is a quality
label
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Creative Freedom of the Individual Grantee

7. Established by the European Commission
Evaluation of excellence at two levels:
• Excellence of the Research Project
 Ground breaking nature
 Potential impact
 Scientific Approach
 Added-value of the Group (only SyG)
• Excellence of the Principal Investigator
 Intellectual capacity
 Creativity
 Commitment
Referees and panels evaluate and score each criterion, which results
in a ranking of the proposals.
Excellence is the Sole Evaluation Criterion

8. Established by the European Commission
Physical Sciences & Engineering
 PE1 Mathematics
 PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter
 PE3 Condensed matter physics
 PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences
 PE5 Synthetic chemistry & materials
 PE6 Computer science & informatics
 PE7 Systems & communication engineering
 PE8 Products & process engineering
 PE9 Universe sciences
 PE10 Earth system science
Life Sciences
 LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology &
Biochemistry
 LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics &
Systems Biology
 LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology
 LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology &
Endocrinology
 LS5 Neurosciences & neural disorders
 LS6 Immunity & infection
 LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies & public health
 LS8 Evolutionary, population & environmental
biology
 LS9 Applied life sciences & non-medical
biotechnology
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Evaluation Panel Structure (WP 2015)
Social Sciences and Humanities
 SH1 Markets, individuals & institutions
 SH2 The social world, diversity, institutions & values
 SH3 Environment, space and population
 SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity
 SH5 Cultures & cultural production
 SH6 The study of the human past

9. Established by the European Commission
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SH Panel Descriptors (WP 2015)
SH1 Markets, Individuals and Institutions:
Economics, finance and management
SH1_1 Macroeconomics; development economics;
economic growth
SH1_2 International trade; international business;
international management
SH1_3 Financial economics; monetary economics
SH1_4 Banking; corporate finance; international finance;
accounting; auditing; insurance
SH1_5 Labour economics; human resource management
SH1_6 Econometrics; operations research
SH1_7 Behavioural economics; experimental economics;
neuro-economics
SH1_8 Microeconomics; game theory
SH1_9 Marketing
SH1_10 Management; organisational behaviour;
operations management
SH1_11 Industrial organisation; strategy; entrepreneurship
SH1_12 Technological change, innovation, research &
development
SH1_13 Public economics; political economics; law and
economics
SH1_14 History of economic thought; quantitative
economic history; institutional economics;
economic systems
SH2 The Social World, Diversity, Institutions
and Values: Sociology, political science, law,
communication, education
SH2_1 Social structure, social mobility
SH2_2 Social inequalities, social exclusion, social
integration
SH2_3 Diversity and identities, gender, interethnic
relations
SH2_4 Social policies, educational policies,
welfare
SH2_5 Democratisation, social movements
SH2_6 Political systems, governance
SH2_7 Conflict and conflict resolution, violence
SH2_8 Legal studies, constitutions, comparative
law
SH2_9 Human rights
SH2_10 International relations, global and
transnational governance
SH2_11 Communication and information,
networks, media

10. Established by the European Commission
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SH Panel Descriptors (WP 2015)
SH3 Environment, Space and Population:
Sustainability science, demography, geography,
regional studies and planning, science and
technology studies
SH3_1 Sustainability sciences, environment and
resources
SH3_2 Environmental and climate change, societal
impact
SH3_3 Environmental and climate policy
SH3_4 Population dynamics; households, family
and fertility
SH3_5 Health, ageing and society
SH3_6 Transportation and logistics, tourism
SH3_7 Spatial development, land use, regional
planning
SH3_8 Urban, regional and rural studies
SH3_9 Human, social and economic geography
SH3_10 Geographic information systems, spatial
data analysis
SH3_11 Social studies of science and technology
SH4 The Human Mind and Its Complexity:
Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, philosophy of
mind, education
SH4_1 Human development and its disorders;
comparative cognition
SH4_2 Personality and social cognition; emotion
SH4_3 Clinical and health psychology
SH4_4 Neuropsychology
SH4_5 Attention, perception, action, consciousness
SH4_6 Learning, memory; ageing
SH4_7 Reasoning, decision-making; intelligence
SH4_8 Language learning and processing (first and
second languages)
SH4_9 Theoretical linguistics; computational linguistics
SH4_10 Language typology
SH4_11 Pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse
analysis
SH4_12 Philosophy of mind, philosophy of language
SH4_13 Philosophy of science, epistemology and logic
SH4_14 Teaching and learning

11. Established by the European Commission
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SH Panel Descriptors (WP 2015)
SH5 Cultures and Cultural Production:
Literature, philology, cultural studies, anthropology, arts,
philosophy
SH5_1 Classics, ancient literature and art
SH5_2 Theory and history of literature, comparative
literature
SH5_3 Philology and palaeography; historical
linguistics
SH5_4 Visual and performing arts, design, arts-based
research
SH5_5 Music and musicology; history of music
SH5_6 History of art and architecture
SH5_7 Museums, exhibitions, conservation and
restoration
SH5_8 Cultural studies, symbolic representation,
religious studies
SH5_9 Social anthropology, myth, ritual, kinship
SH5_10 Cultural heritage, cultural identities and
memories
SH5_11 Metaphysics, philosophical anthropology;
aesthetics
SH5_12 Ethics; social and political philosophy
SH5_13 History of philosophy
SH6 The Study of the Human Past:
Archaeology and history
SH6_1 Historiography, theory and methods of
history
SH6_2 Archaeology, archaeometry, landscape
archaeology
SH6_3 Prehistory, palaeoanthropology,
palaeodemography, protohistory
SH6_4 Ancient history
SH6_5 Medieval history
SH6_6 Early modern history
SH6_7 Modern and contemporary history
SH6_8 Colonial and post-colonial history
SH6_9 Global history, transnational history,
comparative history, entangled histories
SH6_10 Social and economic history
SH6_11 Gender history
SH6_12 History of ideas, intellectual history, history
of science and techniques
SH6_13 Cultural history, history of collective
identities and memories

12. Established by the European Commission
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ERC calls Budget Call Publication Submission
Deadline(s)
Starting Grants
ERC-2015-StG 430 M€ 7 October 2014 3 February 2015
Consolidator
Grants
ERC-2015-CoG
585 M€ 13 November 2014 12 March 2015
Advanced Grants
ERC-2015-AdG 630 M€ 10 February 2015 2 June 2015
Proof of Concept
ERC-2015-PoC 20 M€* 7 November 2014
DL1: 5 Feb 2015
DL2: 28 May 2015
DL3: 1 Oct 2015
Upcoming ERC calls
*) full-year budget

13. Established by the European Commission
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