Call for proposals for the European Research Council Advanced Investigators Grant
The European Commission has published a call for proposals for the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigators Grant under the 2011 'Ideas' work programme of the Seventh Framework Programme. The ERC has established the following indicative percentage budgets for each of the 3 main research domains: - physical sciences and engineering: 40% - life sciences: 35% - social sciences and humanities: 15% In addition a "fourth domain" with an indicative budget of 10% has been established to fund research projects of a cross-panel and/or cross-domain nature.. The European Research Council (ERC) has a unique position in European research funding. It is a science-led funding body, supporting research at the highest level of excellence, operating to world class standards. Pursuing non-conventional or high-risk research projects is a well recognised way to promote major scientific advances but many funding agencies find it difficult to set aside significant amounts of funding for this purpose. ERC Advanced Grants are intended to promote substantial advances in the frontiers of knowledge, and to encourage new productive lines of enquiry and new methods and techniques, including unconventional approaches and investigations at the interface between established disciplines. The peer review evaluation of proposals will therefore give emphasis to these aspects, in full understanding that such research has a high-gain/high-risk profile, i.e. if successful the payoffs will be very significant, but there is a higher-than-normal risk that the research project does not entirely fulfil its aims. The ERC is particularly keen to encourage excellent proposals which involve the establishment of a new research activity in the EU or the associated countries by a principal investigator who is moving from a third country into the EU or the associated countries. To provide additional assistance to cover "start-up" and relocation costs, which may include the purchase of major equipment, proposals with these features may request an additional element of funding, the justification for which will be assessed by the panels. The indicative budget for the call is EUR 661 million.To see the official call announcement in the Official Journal of the European Union please consult: OJ No C 298 of 4 November 2010