Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Prof. Donald B. Dingwell ERC Secretary General

''Destination Europe'' conference, San Francisco, 6-7 December 2012

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

What is ERC?

ERC supports excellence in frontier research through a bottom-up, individual-based, global competition

Budget: €7.5 billion (2007-2013)- 1.1 billion € /year

Motivation: making Europe more attractive for global scientific talent

Principles:- Excellence- Bottom-up/all fields- Individuals

Structure - Council- Agency

Catch: ≥50% of time in Europe

Average success rate: 12%

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Jean-Marie Lehn

ERC Gra

ntee

AdG 2011

│ 3

ERC success stories

5 Nobel Prize laureates funded by ERC

3 Fields Medalists currently funded by

ERC

Stanislav Smirnov AdG 2008

Simon Donaldson AdG 2009

Elon Lindenstrauss AdG 2010

Other Prizes awarded to ERC granteesEMBO GOLD MEDAL 2011 – Simon BOULTON - AdG 2010

FEBS|EMBO WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2011 - Carol ROBINSON - AdG 2010

EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2010 – Jason W CHIN - StG 2007

THE SHAW PRIZE IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 2011 - Christodoulou Demetrios - AdG 2009

CRAFOORD PRIZE 2011 and EUROPEAN LATSIS PRIZE 2010 – Ilkka Hanski - AdG 2008

L'ORÉAL-UNESCO AWARD FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE 2011 - Anne L'Huillier - AdG 2008

WOLF PRIZE 2010 – Anton ZEILINGER, David BAULCOMBE-AdG 2008, Alain ASPECT–AdG 2010

MILLENIUM AWARD 2010 – Michael GRATZEL - AdG 2009

2012 Prizes awarded to ERC grantees

EMBO GOLD MEDAL 2012

Jiri FRIML - StG 2011

Royal Society of Edinburgh

KELVIN PRIZE 2012

Colin McINNES - AdG 2008

LEIBNIZ PRIZE 2012

Michael BRECHT - AdG 2008 &

Joerg WRACHTRUP - AdG 2010

CNRS SILVER MEDAL 2012

Paolo SAMORI - StG 2010

Ehrlich-Darmstaedter Prize Young 2012

Kathrin MAEDLER - StG 2010

James Heckman

ERC Gra

ntee

AdG 2010

Theodor Hansch

ERC Gra

ntee

AdG 2010

KonstantinNovoselovNobel 2010

ERC Gra

ntee

StG 2007

Serge Haroche

Nobel 2012

ERC Gra

ntee

AdG 2009

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Independence

research topic of own choice

financial autonomy

portability of grants

• Visibility

prestige

Flexibility

negotiate with the host

attract top team members

• Attractive features for researchers from outside Europe Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving to Europe Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe

Team members can be based outside Europe

Creative freedom of the individual grantee: ERC offers

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Attracting excellent researchers

Countries with at least 50 foreign members of staff

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Composition of ERC team

Breakdown by nationality (97)(sample of 636 Starting and Advanced projects)

EU: 69% Ass. Countries:

11% non-ERA: 17% unknown: 3%

661 non-ERA researchers among

the 3,845 team members

Most non-ERA from China, US, India,

and Russia

50% of non-ERA ''attracted'' to

Europe

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

Gender distributionDependent on PI gender and project domain

Female PIs in the sample*LS: 22%PE: 15%

SH: 32%*) similar for all grants

PolicyPolicy Research and Innovation

Research and Innovation

To provide opportunities for US-based scientists and engineers with NSF-funded CAREER awards and Postdoctoral Research Fellowships to pursue research collaboration with European colleagues already supported through ERC grants

• Signed on 13 July 2012 at ESOF in Dublin by NSF Director Dr. Subra Suresh and the European Commissioner for RTD Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

• Implementation Single and long-term (6-12 months) or multiple short-term visits (e.g. for

joint experiments) from researchers based in the U.S., and preselected by the NSF, to ERC-funded projects.

NSF to launch a call for expressions of interest addressed at CAREER awardees and Postdoctoral Fellows (January 2013)

Time spent in Europe additional to the NSF-funded postdoc fellowship

Agreement between NSF and EC