Calls for proposals
Horizon 2020, Excellent Science, “European Research Council Starting Grant” - ERC-2018-STG
(2017/C 251/03)
Objective and description
The
fundamental activity of the European Research Council (ERC) is to
provide attractive, long-term funding to support excellent investigators
and their research teams to pursue ground-breaking, high-gain/
high-risk research. Research funded by the ERC is expected to lead to
advances at the frontiers of knowledge and to set a clear and
inspirational target for frontier research across Europe. Scientific
excellence is the sole criterion on the basis of which ERC frontier
research grants are awarded.
Applications can be made in any field of research with an emphasis on the frontiers of science, scholarship and engineering.
In particular this calls for proposals aims to support
excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are
starting their own independent research team or programme. Applicant
Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature,
ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal.
Research
proposed for funding to the ERC should aim high, both with regards to
the ambition of the envisaged scientific achievements as well as to the
creativity and originality of proposed approaches.
Eligible applicants
The Principal Investigator shall have been awarded their first PhD at least 2 and up to 7 years prior to 1 January 2018. The effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD can be reduced in certain properly documented circumstances.
A
Competitive Starting Grant Principal Investigator must have already
shown the potential for research independence and evidence of maturity
by:
1. having produced at least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor;
2. demonstrate a promising track record of early achievements such as:
· Up
to five publications in major international peer-reviewed
multi-disciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading
international peer-reviewed journals, peer-reviewed conferences
proceedings and/or monographs of their respective research fields,
highlighting those as main author or without the presence as co-author
of their PhD supervisor (properly referenced, field relevant
bibliometric indicators may also be included);
· Research monographs and any translations thereof;
· Granted patent(s);
· Invited presentations to internationally established conferences and/or international advanced schools;
· Prizes/ Awards/ Academy memberships.
The
ERC actions are open to Principal Investigators of any nationality and
any age from anywhere in the world provided their host institution is
established in a Member State or an Associated Country.
They shall spend a minimum 50% of their total working time on the ERC project and a minimum of 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country.
Budget and duration
The indicative total budget of this call is 581 million EUR. The ERC expects to fund approximately 391 proposals.
Starting Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 1 500 000 for a period of 5 years. However, up to an additional EUR 500 00 in total can be requested in the proposal to cover:
- eligible
"start-up" costs for Principal Investigators moving to the EU or an
Associated Country from elsewhere as a consequence of receiving the ERC
grant and/or,
- the purchase of major equipment and/or,
- access to large facilities.
An ERC grant can cover up to 100% of the total eligible direct costs of the research plus a contribution of 25% of the total eligible costs towards indirect costs.
Grants
are awarded to the Host Institution with the explicit commitment that
this institution offers appropriate conditions for the Principal
Investigator independently to direct the research and manage its funding
for the duration of the project.
Deadline for proposals’ submission
The deadline for this call is 17 October 2017, 17:00:00 (Brussels local time).
Applications for an ERC grant must be submitted through the online submission service on the participants portal.
Further information
Please find attached the call documents.
More information is available at the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/erc-2018-stg.html
Kind regards,
Flora
Flora Stavropoulou
Intern
European Office of Cyprus
Rue du Luxembourg 3, 2nd floor
B-1000, Brussels
Tel/Fax: +32 (0) 2 280 22 85
E-mail: eoc.brussels2@ucy.ac.cy
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