Applications for ERC starting grants exceed expectations
A massive 9,167 proposals have been received by the European Research Council (ERC) Scientific Council in response to its first call for proposals, targeting young researchers. The deadline for submitting proposals for the Starting Independent Investigator Grants (ERC Starting Grants) passed on 25 April. Peer review panels, the members of whom were announced by the Scientific Council on 26 April, must now begin the mammoth task of evaluating each application. Some 20 panels have been established, each with 10 members. ERC President Fotis Kafatos had said at the ERC launch event in February that he was expecting around 3,000 proposals. 'We are very pleased with this powerful message of support for the ERC and its strategy,' he said when the actual figure became known. 'The high response rate is a clear signal of the expectations and interest in the ERC by Europe's young scientists and a measure of the need for grants of this kind in Europe,' he said. The budget for the call was €290 million, and this is expected to result in between 200 and 250 grants. Research areas were not pre-defined in the call, and many project proposals are interdisciplinary in nature. A broad breakdown of the proposals received shows that the majority (43%) address physical sciences and engineering. Life science and medicine were also very well represented, constituting 37% of proposals, while social sciences and humanities were addressed by 17%. The next few months are likely to be a challenging time for the newly-established ERC. Professor Kafatos says that the Scientific Council will be working closely with the European Commission's 'ERC Dedicated Implementation Structure' and the Secretary General in order to ensure a smooth and fair evaluation process. EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik also welcomed the obvious enthusiasm within the scientific community for the ERC. 'The level of interest in the ERC among researchers at the beginning of their careers is a solid vote of confidence in this new body to support frontier research in Europe. I very much hope that we will see similar levels of interest among established researchers when the next call for proposals is issued later this year,' he said. The ERC Starting Grants provide funding for researchers who completed their doctoral studies between two and nine years ago, and who now wish to make the transition to becoming independent research leaders. The ERC's Scientific Council believes that there has been a lack of funding opportunities for young researchers embarking upon a career, and hopes that the Starting Grants will go some way towards filling this gap. Scientific quality will be the sole criteria used by evaluators when assessing the proposals. Applicants whose proposals have passed the first round of evaluation (due by July 2007) will be invited to submit a more detailed proposal for the second stage evaluation that will take place in autumn 2007. The first awards should thus be granted by the end of the year.