Crossing the Bridge - ERC Advanced Grants
By Nilay Papila
For the researchers who plan to return to Turkey from the non-European Countries such USA, Canada, and Japan, there is an extra 1 Million Euro for their start-up activities in addition to 2,5 Million Euro of European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant. Those who will return to Turkey should spend at least 50% their working time in Turkey, and at least 30% of working time for the project.
About ERC
ERC’s mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence.
The ERC complements other funding activities in Europe such as those of the national research funding agencies, and is a flagship component of Horizon 2020, the European Union's Research Framework Program for 2014 to 2020.
Being 'investigator-driven', or 'bottom-up', in nature, the ERC approach allows researchers to identify new opportunities and directions in any field of research, rather than being led by priorities set by politicians. This ensures that funds are channeled into new and promising areas of research with a greater degree of flexibility.
ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or moving to work in Europe. The sole criterion for selection is scientific excellence. The aim here is to recognize the best ideas, and confer status and visibility on the best brains in Europe, while also attracting talent from abroad.
ERC supports the best researchers and cutting-edge research projects in 2015 through its four different types of calls with a budget total of 1,7 Billion Euros.
There are three ERC core funding schemes (Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants) and one additional scheme (Proof of Concept) as shown in the below figure.
Brief information about the ERC Advanced Grant Call
Deadline: June 2, 2015
Target Group: Researchers who actively involve in advanced research and scientific activities in the last 10 years
Duration: Maximum 5 Years
Total Budget: Maximum 2,5 Million Euros for 5 years (additional maximum 1 Million Euros in case if the project is star-up; large quantity of equipment is purchased, and there is access to large research infrastructures.
Type of Funding: 100%
Aspects of Projects: Cutting-edge, high risky, frontier research
Evaluation Criteria: The profile of the researchers and the project proposal is only evaluated according to the scientific criteria
Subjects to be supported: Bottom-up approach (no priority or criteria yet inter-disciplinary projects are encouraged.
New TÜBİTAK Incentives and Awards
TÜBİTAK, which is in charge of coordinating the ERC Programs in Turkey, has currently launched new Incentives and Awards as listed below:
1) “Support for Consultancy Services” for proposal writing
2) “Support for Pre-Evaluation Service” provided by “Consultancy Firms and/or Experts”
3) “Threshold Award” for the projects that pass the threshold, but not be funded
4) “Success Award” between 160,000 - 350,000 EURO for the projects selected for funding
5) “Transfer Fee” between 25,000-35,000 Euro for the project that is transferred to Turkey, or for a researcher who brings his/her project to Turkey.
As a consequence of the support and assistance provided by TÜBİTAK, a considerable success has been recorded among Turkish researches applied for ERC Grants. Two researchers in 2012, four researchers in 2013, and two researchers in 2014 have been granted a total amount of 14,2 Million ERUO at ERC Programs. According to the researches, it has been pointed out that Turkey, due to the number of published papers, should have more ERC Grants. Hence, one of the most important targets of TÜBİTAK International Coordination Office is to increase the number of ERC Projects in Turkey.
References/ documents
ERC Advanced call description: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/calls/erc-2015-adg.html