Starting Grants – Monitoring European Research Council’s Implementation of Excellence

Objective

This project aims to develop and implement instruments for a continuous assessment of the ERC Starting Grants impact on funded researchers. The main item will be a panel study (standardized online interviews) which includes two waves and which is complemented by qualitative interviews and bibliometric studies (triangulation of methods) applied to second stage applicants. The first wave will take place at runtime of the respective projects when grantees will have made sufficient experiences under funding. The second wave will proceed at an adequate time after the end of funding (rejection of the proposal respective) to gather possible middle-term (long-term) effects. In focus are direct impacts of the Starting Grants on the grantees scientific careers, scientific merits (bibliometric analyses), motives concerning mobility, selection of and relation to the host institution, job satisfaction, soft skills and their prestige gained from being funded by the ERC. Furthermore the financial strength of the grant, the broader conditions under funding and the ERC grants in comparison to other (national) funding schemes as seen by the grantees, will be addressed. Besides personal backgrounds (family status, etc.) the grantees opinions about several aspects of EU and trans-EU research conditions and policies also will be surveyed. Qualitative interviews on a sub sample of second stage applicants are planed to gather deeper insights into specific terms not ascertainable in a standardized questionnaire.

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• bibliometrics
• evaluation
• funding
• grant
• impact of funding
• online survey
• starting grants
• young scientists

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• ERC-OA-2008-EPS - Exploratory and preparatory studies

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2008-Support
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CSA-SA - Support actions

Host institution

Beneficiaries (4)