Background

Excellent Science is the basis of innovation. To promote and incentivise Excellent Science performed in Europe and beyond, Horizon Europe supports frontier research and breakthrough scientific ideas through competitive funding calls. Calls are aimed at fostering individual researchers or teams of researchers with bold and impactful research projects. To increase chances of being awarded, applicants need to have a thorough understanding of the principles and aim of each call, as well as to analyse if their scientific strategy and profile aligns with the funder’s expectations.

European Research Council (ERC)

ERC grants are among the most prestigious European funding opportunities. Open to independent researchers from any scientific discipline, they provide generous support to perform ground-breaking research. Through the Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grant calls, the ERC enables projects performed by excellent individual Principal Investigators (PIs) and their teams for up to five years and €3.5 million. The ERC Synergy Grant supports small groups of two to four PIs with up to €14 million to work synergistically on transformative research projects that could not be addressed by individual PIs and their teams alone.

Any ERC proposal should contain a number of key aspects, including potential breakthroughs, clear originality, high-risk/high-gain, strong ambition, and demonstrable feasibility. These aspects allow evaluators to determine whether a proposed project meets the sole criterion of Scientific Excellence. Often the granted projects develop new approaches that cut across traditional disciplines. Impactful ERC projects are further expected to provoke new research lines. In addition, the profile and previous achievements of the applicant researchers also need to show strong and persistent evidence of Scientific Excellence.

For most applicants, receiving an ERC grant will be a career-changer. Therefore, meticulous preparation and identifying the optimal moment to apply are essential. To determine if their project idea aligns with the focus of the ERC calls, researchers need to understand the ERC´s unique aim, scope, and evaluation process. Before starting to develop an ERC research proposal prospective applicants should also further benchmark their achievements against previous grantee profiles in their respective discipline.

Many applicants struggle with preparing a cohesive and convincingly structured presentation of the proposed research. The largely undefined proposal template of the ERC calls makes it a priority to develop an easy-to-follow internal logical structure. Particular attention should also be paid to target the two main proposal documents - part B1 and part B2 - towards their different audiences.

Helix Delivery Team

Crowdhelix, together with ERC experts sciencepoint.eu and Bekk Research Support, helps prospective applicants to develop top-level proposals with increased chances of receiving funding.

ERC-2024 Calls - An in-depth analysis

Past Event

Thu, Sep 7, 2023 10:00 AM - Thu, Sep 7, 2023 11:30 AM

Part of the Excellent Science Helix community, the aim of this online seminar is to share a series of best practices and tips for researchers applying to the next ERC-2024 calls. The Helix leaders, Malte Beringer -PhD Grant Advisor, Scientific Editor and Consultant at SciencePoint - and Stewe Bekk - MSc Grant Advisor, Scientific Editor and Consultant at Bekk Research Support will discuss what is or isn't an ERC project, to ensure that your research project fits with the call spirit. For this, they will focus on how to prepare a convincing part B1 in terms of content and structure. The seminar will also put a special emphasis on the changes that the ERC has been implemented compared to previous calls and we will discuss how applicants can adapt the presentation of their achievements to these changes. The content of the seminar is based on our Helix leaders' experience as ERC grant consultants and trainers, having consulted researchers and scientists of more than two hundred ERC applications to date.

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