Calls for proposals
Horizon 2020, Excellent Science, “European Research Council Synergy Grants” - ERC-2018-SyG
(017/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 fund projects of an interdisciplinary nature
which cross the boundaries between different fields of research,
pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research or
proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and
scientific inventions are encouraged. This should enable transformative
research not only at the forefront of European science but also to
become a benchmark on a global scale. Applicant PIs must demonstrate the
synergies, complementarities and added value that could lead to
breakthroughs that would not be possible by the individual PIs working
alone.
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
Groups applying for the ERC Synergy Grant must be made up of a minimum of two and a maximum of four Principal Investigators
and, as necessary, their teams. One of the Principal Investigators must
be designated as the Corresponding Principal Investigator.
Applications are expected from a
group of innovative and active Principal Investigators and must present
an early achievement track-record or a 10-year track-record
whichever is most appropriate for their career stage (see Starting,
Consolidator and Advanced Grant profiles in the ERC Work Programme
2018). There is little prospect of an application succeeding in the
absence of such a record.
Applicant
Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground breaking nature,
ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal.
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 30% 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 250 million EUR. The ERC expects to fund approximately 30 proposals.
Synergy Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 10 000 000 for a period of 6 years. However, up to an additional EUR 4 000 000 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 14 November 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-syg.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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