EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL
Current developments
The ERC in FP7: practical information
Archives: creation of the ERC
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Archives: creation
of the ERC
The
Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE) is a platform of
European learned societies and scientific organisations whose aim is to
promote mechanisms to support basic science at a European level, involve
scientists in the design and implementation of European science
policies, and to advocate strong independent scientific advice in
European policy making.
EPSO
actively supports this initiative from the start and is a founding
member of the ISE, that published an appeal 'Crucial
choices for the nascent ERC'
in Science in March 2006 stating that “…decisions in the coming months need
to ensure the ERC meets the high expectations as a truly autonomous
agency that funds fundamental research in all disciplines on the basis
of scientific excellence ..”. That followed its previous
appeal
calling on research ministers to decide in favor of the creation of a
European Research Council (ERC) that is independent and whose budget is
commensurate to the needs. The appeal is endorsed by 44 European
organizations in all scientific disciplines, representing several
hundred thousand researchers across Europe.
The
European Commission established the 'Identification Committee' whose
task was to identify potential members of the governing body of the ERC.
The Committee was chaired by Chris Patten, former EU Commissioner and
current Chancellor of Oxford University.
Following consultation with some representative organizations, the
Identification Committee issued the
final report
in June 2005.
Based on
this, the European Commission finalised the
Members of the Science Council to the ERC
in
July 2005 and undertakes further steps to discuss the ERC concept with the
Member States and the European parliament.
The Science Council
then invited representative organisations of the
scientific community and organisations engaged in research funding
activities in the MSs and FP associated countries to propose possible
candidates for peer review panel members evaluating ERC Starting
Grant applications.
Peer review of proposals will be carried out by panels of independent
high-level scientists and scholars, supported by referees. It is
anticipated that approximately 18 panels, each of about 10 members, will
be established to cover all areas of science, including engineering,
social science and humanities, covered by the ERC.
On 3 May 2006, the ERC Science Council
published published two strategy notes (
Note 1
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Note 2
) stating
the ERC Principle of supporting investigator-initiated frontier
research across all fields of research on the basis of excellence. Two
funding streams, operating on a ‘bottom up’ basis across all research
fields, will be the core of the ERC’s operations for the full duration
of the 7th Framework Programme:
1st call: ERC Starting Grant = Adequate support ot he independent careers
of excellent researchers, located in or moving to the EU and
associated countries, who are at the stage of establishing their
first research team or programme, whatever their nationality (close
beg’07)
2nd call: = 1st + ERC Advanced Grant = Projects led by investigators
at all subsequent career stages (later ’07), more details to be
published in a future strategy note.
Major documents:
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