Presentation from Peter Hedden, Rothamsted Research, UK, Deputy Chair, ERC LS9 panel for Starting Grants, at the 7th EPSO Conference, 2 Sept 2013. "An opportunity for the plant science research community in Europe"

1. ERC – European Research Council
Peter Hedden
Deputy Chair, LS9 panel for Starting Grants
Jean-Luc Khalfaoui
ERC Research Programme Officer
ERC support for life sciences -
An opportunity for the plant
science research community in
Europe

2. To encourage the highest quality research in Europe
through competitive funding and to support investigator-
initiated frontier research across all fields of research, on
the basis of scientific excellence.
ERC – Mission
│ 2

3. │ 3│ 3
ERC - Principles
• Part of the 7th EU Research Framework Programme (IDEAS
Programme)
• Frontier research projects; high risk/high gain research
• Excellence as the only valid criterion
• No predetermined subjects (bottom-up); all science fields
• Support for the individual scientist
• International peer-review
• Open to researchers from anywhere in the world willing to do
research in Europe
• Projects can involve partners from anywhere in the world,

4. │ 4
ERC Structure : 3 pillars
The Scientific Council
• 22 prominent researchers proposed by an independent
identification committee
• Appointed by the Commission (4 years, renewable once)
• Establishes overall scientific strategy; annual work programmes
(incl. calls for proposals, evaluation criteria); peer review methodology;
selection and accreditation of experts
• Controls quality of operations and management
• Ensures communication with the scientific community
The ERC Agency
• Executes annual work programme as established by the Scientific Council
• Implements calls for proposals and provides information and support to applicants
• Organises peer review evaluation
• Establishes and manages grant agreements
• Administers scientific and financial aspects and follow-up of grant agreements
• Carries out communications activities and ensures information dissemination
to ERC stakeholders
The European Commission
• Provides financing through the EU framework programmes
• Guarantees autonomy of the ERC
• Assures the integrity and accountability of the ERC
• Adopts annual work programmes as established by
the Scientific Council

5. 10.8%
4%
7.3%
15.1%
17.8%
21.6%
23.4%
0
300
600
900
1200
1500
1800
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
MillionEuro
FP7 budget € 50.5 billion
ERC budget € 7.5 billion; Increase by € 250 M/year
Co-operation
(65 %)
Ideas
(15 %)
People
(9 %)
Capacities
(8 %)JRC non-
nuclear (3 %)

6. │ 6
ERC Funding Schemes
Creative freedom of the individual grantee
ERC offers independence, recognition & visibility
• to work on a research topic of own choice, with a team of own choice
• to gain true financial autonomy for 5 years
• to negotiate with the host institution the best conditions of work
• to attract top team members (EU and non-EU) and collaborators
• to move with the grant to any place in Europe if necessary (portability
of grants)
• to attract additional funding and gain recognition; ERC is a quality
label

7. │ 7│ 7│ 7
ERC Funding Schemes
Who can apply?
• Excellent Researchers
• Any nationality, any age or any current
place of work to attract researchers to EU
In conjunction with a Host Institution
 Based in EU or associated countries

8. Incentive:
 Additional “start-up” funding for scientists moving to Europe
(€ 500 000 for Starting, € 750 000 for Consolidator and € 1 Million for Advanced grantees)
Flexibility:
 Host institution shall be in an EU member state or an FP7
Associated Country
 Grantee can keep affiliation with home institute outside Europe
(“significant part” of work time in Europe)
 Team members can be based outside Europe
 Grantee can move within Europe with the grant
Negotiation:
 Several European countries/host institutes assist applicants
and reward grantees with top-up funds or long-term
professorships
Attractive features
for researchers from outside Europe
│ 8

9. Achievements of the ERC - so far
• More than 2,600 funded proposals (58% of them StG)
• More than 480 different host institutions in 26 countries
• 50% of PIs in 50 institutions (“excellence attracts
excellence”)
• Average success rate 12 %
│ 9

10. Starting Grants
2-7 years after PhD
up to € 2.0 Mio for 5 years
Advanced Grants
track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years
up to € 3.5 Mio for 5 years
Synergy Grants
2 – 4 Principal Investigators
up to € 15.0 Mio for 6 years
Proof-of-Concept
bridging gap between research - earliest
stage of marketable innovation
up to €150,000 for ERC grant holders
ERC Grant schemes
Consolidator Grants
(new from 2013)
7-12 years after PhD
up to € 2.75 Mio for 5 years

11. Starting
Grants
Consolidator Grants
Advanced
Grants
Eligibility
PhD award 2-7 years
before call publication
PhD award 7-12 years
before call publication
for max. 5 years
max. € 1,500,000
+ €500,000 if moving from
third country to EU or AC,
purchase of major equipment
and/or access to large
facilities
max. € 2,000,000
+ €750,000 if moving from
third country to EU or AC,
purchase of major
equipment and/or access to
large facilities
max. € 2,500,000
+ € 1,000,000 if moving from
third country to MS or AC,
purchase of major equipment
and/or access to large facilities
Dedication to ERC
project
min. 50% of PI’s working time to the ERC-funded
project and in an EU Member State or Associated
Country
min. 50% of PI’s working
time in a EU MS or AC
and min. 30% of PI’s
working time to the ERC-
funded project
EU financial
contribution
Direct costs: personnel, equipment, consumables, travel, admin…
Up to 100% of the total eligible and approved direct costs
Indirect costs: flat-rate financing of 20% of the total eligible direct costs (excl.
subcontracting and costs for resources made available by third parties outside HI) │ 11
Features of ERC StG, CoG and AdG

12. • Potential for research independence
• Evidence of scientific maturity
• At least one publication without participation of PhD
supervisor
Promising track-record of early achievements
• significant publications
• invited presentations in conferences
• funding, patents, awards, prizes
Specific stage of research career at time of application
• Starter (2-7 years)
• Consolidator (7-12 years)
│ 12
ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants
The applicant’s profile
│ 12

13. │ 13
ERC Advanced Grants
The applicant’s profile
 Track-record of significant research
achievements in the last 10 years
 Exceptional leaders and mentors
 10 publications as senior author in major
scientific journals
 5 granted patents
 10 invited presentations at international
conferences
 3 international conferences where Principal
Investigator was an organiser
 International prizes/awards

14. Age of StG and AdG grantees
│ 14
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73
Age of the grantees
Numberofgrantees

15. │ 15
Host institution
Not evaluated during evaluation process!
Applicant legal entity: institution that engages and hosts the PI for the
duration of the project
Any type of legal entity: universities, research centres, business
research units or an International European Interest Organisation (eg
EMBL), or JRC … as long as it is in MS or AC
Commitment of HI: to ensure that the PI may
- apply for funding independently
- manage research and funding for the project
- publish independently as senior author
- have access to reasonable space and facilities
│ 15

16. │ 16
Excellence as sole criterion, to apply to:
1. Research Project (RP)
 Ground breaking nature
 Potential impact
 Scientific Approach
2. Principle Investigator (PI)
 Intellectual capacity
 Creativity
 Commitment
ERC Peer review evaluation:
Evaluation criteria
│ 16

17. Who evaluates the proposals ?
• Panel members: typically 600 / call
 High-level scientists
 Recruited by ScC from all over the world:
~14% from outside Europe
 About 12 members plus a chair person
• Referees: typically 2000 / call
 Evaluate only a small number of proposals
 Similar to normal practice in peer-reviewed
journals
Europe and
Associated
Countries
(86%)
US
(7%)
Other
(7%)

18. │ 18
Eligibility check
Step 1 (remote) evaluation on
the basis of section 1 of
proposal by panel members
Proposals
passing to step 2
Individual assessment of full
proposal by panel members &
referees
AdG :
2nd Panel
meeting
Submission of
full proposals
Proposals
selected for funding
ERC Grants: how does it work?
Submission, evaluation and selection
1st Panel meeting
StG/CoG: 2nd
Panel meeting
incl. interviews
of applicants

19. │ 19│ 19
Call budget distribution for 2013 calls
Indicative call budget
Starting Grant : ~ €395m
Consolidator Grant: ~ €515m
Advanced Grant: ~ €660m
Breakdown per domain
• Life Sciences – LS
• Physical Sciences &
Engineering – PE
• Social Sciences &
Humanities – SH
Within each domain, budget is broken down according to total
funding requested per panel (equal chance in each panel)

20. │ 20│ 20
ERC Grant Schemes (StG, CoG & AdG)
Panel structure : 3 domains and 25 panels
Panels in the area of Plant Science
Each panel :
Panel Chair and
10-14 Panel Members
Life Sciences (LS)  9 panels
LS1 Molecular & Structural Biology &
Biochemistry
LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics &
Systems Biology
LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology
LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology &
Endocrinology
LS5 Neurosciences & neural disorders
LS6 Immunity & infection
LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies & public health
LS8 Evolutionary, population & environmental
biology
LS9 Applied life sciences & biotechnology
Social Sciences and Humanities (SH)  6
SH1 Individuals, institutions & markets
SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour
SH3 Environment & society
SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity
SH5 Cultures & cultural production
SH6 The study of the human past
Physical Sciences & Engineering (PE)  10
PE1 Mathematical foundations
PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter
PE3 Condensed matter physics
PE4 Physical & Analytical Chemical sciences
PE5 Materials & Synthesis
PE6 Computer science & informatics
PE7 Systems & communication engineering
PE8 Products & process engineering
PE9 Universe sciences
PE10 Earth system science

21. │ 21
The LS9 Panel Descriptors :
Applied life Sciences and Non-Medical Biotechnology
Descriptors in the area of Plant Science

22. │ 22
Distribution of submitted StG proposals along
the LS9 panel descriptors (2008-2012)
• Weighted number of applications per descriptor
(No. of applications as Keyword 1 + 50% as Keyword 2)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
LS9_1 LS9_2 LS9_3 LS9_4 LS9_5 LS9_6 LS9_7 LS9_8 LS9_9 LS9_10 LS9_11

23. ERC Panel LS9
95 projects selected 2008-2013
53 StG + 42 AdG
26 projects selected in plant science and
agriculture/forestry
10 StG + 16 AdG
10% success rate for StG 2013

24. │ 24
Projects funded by LS9
Starting Grants
Do forests cool the Earth?
Reconciling sustained productivity
and minimum climate response
with portfolios of contrasting forest
management strategies
(DOFOCO)
2009
Sebastiaan Luyssaert
COMMISSARIAT A L' ENERGIE
ATOMIQUE, FRANCE
Development of super-wheat crops by
introgressing agronomic
traits from related wild species (SWCD)
2009
Maria-Pilar Prieto
INSTITUTO DE AGRICULTURA
SOSTENIBLE-CSIC
CÓRDOBA, SPAIN

25. │ 25
Projects funded by LS9
Starting Grants
Priming of plant immunity: from its
onset to trans-generational
maintenance (PRIME-A-PLANT)
2012
Jurriaan Ton
THE UNIVERSITY OF
SHEFFIELD, UNITED KINGDOM
Floral integrating networks at the shoot
apical meristem of rice (FLARE)
2010
Fabio Fornara
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO,
ITALY

26. │ 26
Projects funded by LS9
Advanced Grants
Simultaneous multi-pathway engineering in
crop plants through combinatorial genetic
transformation: Creating nutritionally
biofortified cereal grains for food security
(BIOFORCE)
2008
Paul Christou
UNIVERSIDAD DE LLEIDA, SPAIN
The Plant Immune System: a
multidisciplinary approach to uncover
how plants simultaneously deal with
beneficial and parasitic organisms to
maximize profits and protection
(PLANTIMMUSYS)
2010
Cornelis Marinus Jozef Pieterse
UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT,
NETHERLANDS

27. │ 27
Projects funded by LS9
Advanced Grants
FUTUREROOTS: Redesigning root
architecture for improved
crop performance
2011
Malcolm John Bennett
THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM,
UNITED KINGDOM
Is there a limit to yield? (YIELD)
2011
Daniel Zamir
THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL

28. Future perspectives
HORIZON 2020
 HORIZON 2020 structure:
− Excellent Science
− Industrial leadership
− Societal challenges
− EIT; Spreading excellence and widening participation; Science with
and for society
− JRC
 Excellent Science: reinforcing and extending the excellence of the
EU’s science base and consolidating ERA to make EU’s R&I system
more competitive on a global scale
 European Research Council (budget under H2020: € 13 billion)
 Future and Emerging Technologies
 Marie Curie
 Research Infrastructures
│ 28

29. Budget Horizon 2020 after negotiations between
Parliament-Council-Commission
Co-operation
(65 %)
Ideas
(15 %)
People
(9 %)
Capacities
(8 %)JRC non-
nuclear (3 %)
FP7 budget € 50.5 billion
ERC budget € 7.5 billion
H2020 budget € 77 billion
ERC budget € 13 billion (+73%)

30. │ 30
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