| The European Research Council – Next Call for Starting Grants for Young Researchers Opens in July 2010 |
|
|
|
bridges vol. 26, July 2010 / Re$earch Re$ources Just over three years after its launch, the European Research Council (ERC) offered its 1000th grant on June 24, 2010, to perform innovative blue-sky research in Europe, highlighting the dynamism and growing importance of this relatively new institution in the European research system. ERC's next call for starting grants is slated for publication July 20. An official note on the ERC Web site, providing the details with links to the calls documents, will be posted on that date. This call will have three different deadlines, all in Autumn 2010, each focusing on a different scientific domain. In February this year, at the AAAS 2010 annual conference in San Diego, ERC had organized a workshop and a press conference to inform North American scientists and researchers about research opportunities in Europe. Also, several ERC representatives visited the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Davis, and Stanford University to promote the ERC and its funding possibilities. The ERC opened its doors in February 2007 as the first European funding body, which gives generous grants to top talent in frontier research. Created by the European Union and financed by the European Commission under its 7th research Framework Program (FP7), the ERC has a 2007-2013 budget of €7.5 billion. Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by supporting and encouraging truly innovative researchers to explore new opportunities and directions in any field of science. Thus, ERC can be seen as a new research funding body with several characteristics that, when combined, make it quite unique: It focuses on frontier research, it is bottom-up and science-driven, it is open to researchers of all nationalities, and it delivers generous and very flexible grants to both young and experienced researchers. From basic to frontier research Taking notice of the fact that emerging areas of science and technology today often cover substantial elements of both "basic" and "applied" research, and that the distinction between the two has become blurred, the European Research Council adopted the term "frontier research" to describe its activities and clearly express the fact that they will be exclusively directed towards fundamental advances at and beyond the "frontiers" of knowledge. The creation of an institution at the European level entirely devoted to fundamental research shows the strong commitment of the European Union to supporting this type of research and its belief in the benefits it can bring to society. Because of this inclination towards frontier research, ERC particularly encourages proposals of an interdisciplinary nature which cross the boundaries between different fields of research, pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research, and proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches. ERC then assesses these proposals on the significance of their expected impact. A bottom-up system, open to researchers from all over the world As a logical consequence of this emphasis on innovative research, the ERC's approach is bottom-up, or investigator-driven, in nature. It aims at allowing researchers to identify new opportunities and directions in any field of research rather than following priorities set by politicians or administrative authorities. This approach should ensure that funds are channeled into new and promising areas of research with a greater degree of flexibility. Hence, ERC accepts proposals in all fields and doesn't exclude any specific topic as long as the project deals with frontier research. This is illustrated by the diversity of projects that have been funded so far and are reflected in this "1000 ERC Striking Projects" document. In full coherence with its acknowledgement of the fundamental role of frontier research in the innovation process and in the non-linear nature this process can take, ERC does not provide grants for predefined research outputs or well-specified deliverables, but leaves the grantees free to follow the paths on which their research guides them and gives them the opportunity to modify their research direction as they consider appropriate. Moreover, ERC doesn't set any requirements concerning the nationality of the principal investigators (PIs) making the proposals, nor concerning the nationality(ies) of the members of his or her research team, nor are its decisions to award the grants affected by the origins of the candidates. Scientific excellence is the sole criterion for evaluating the proposals and researchers from all over the world can receive a grant if their projects appear to be the best. Access to the full article is free, but requires you to register. Registration is simple and quick – all we need is your name and a valid e-mail address. We appreciate your interest in bridges. |
