ERC 2016 Starting Grant Results and Advanced Grant Application Numbers

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The ERC has released results of the 2016 ERC Starting Grant call.  Here’s a breakdown of the headline stats:

  • 2,935 proposals were submitted of which 325 were funded giving a success rate of 11%
  • Funding was €485 million (up to €1.5m per grant).
  • Of the awards made,   45% were in Physical Sciences and Engineering, 30% were in Life Sciences, and 25% in Social Sciences.
  • The UK hosts the second highest number of awards, 59 (18%), behind Germany which hosts 61 awards.
  • 70% of awards went to male PIs.

For the 2016 ERC Advanced Grant Call which closed on 1 September 2016 at total of 2,401 proposals were submitted.  The ERC expects to make around 235 awards.  Results will be available in the fist half of 2017.

 

EC Launches Consultation on IPR

The European Commission has launched a consultation on the evaluation and modernisation of the legal framework for the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR).

Amongst the actions envisaged in the European Commission’s Digital Single Market strategy is the modernisation of IPR enforcement, focusing on commercial-scale infringements (the ‘follow the money’ approach) and its cross-border applicability.

The consultation consists of a set of questionnaires for different stakeholder groups, notably rightholders, the judiciary and legal profession, intermediaries, Member States and public authorities, citizens, and consumers and civil society. It will run until 1 April 2016.

Horizon 2020: FET Consultation

It seems that the Commission is all about the work programme consultations at the moment. In addition to the consultation they’re running on Network Technologies & Internet of Things (IoT) they are also interested in gathering feedback for Future Emerging Technologies (FET) which is a favourite here in department.

These consultations give us the chance to influence the development of already identified emerging areas, as well as suggest completely new ones. If you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions for this area I cannot stress enough how important it is to feed into this process as it will give you the opportunity to shape future funding to fit into your own priority areas.

The consultation will be open until 15 June 2014, giving you just over a month to participate.

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/content/consultation-new-fet-proactive-topics

Future Calls: Cyber-Physical Systems / Human Language Understanding

A future call has been announced by CHIST-ERA which I think will have a broad interest across the department.

  • Resilient and Trustworthy Cyber-Physical Systems

Update: Two topics were announced however the second is not open to UK researchers as EPSRC is not participating in the Human Language Understanding call.

The CHIST-ERA ERA-NET is a consortium of 18 research funding organisations (including EPSRC). CHIST-ERA specifically promotes multidisciplinary and transnational ICT research with the potential to lead to significant breakthroughs. The funding organisations jointly support research projects selected in the framework of CHIST-ERA.

Below is a link to a flyer which gives more information, including a quick-view list of keywords which will allow you to decide if the calls are relevant to you (e.g. intrusion detection, verification, software and systems engineering).

A key point to note about this call is that it can be shaped by those who attend the CHIST-ERA Conference (Istanbul, June 17-18). If you would like to feed into the full topic description registration is still open: http://conference2014.chistera.eu

[ CHIST-ERA Call 2014 – Topics Flyer ]

ERC Calls 2014-15

UKRO have shared some information regarding the planned call dates for the 2015 European Research Council calls, as well as the indicative interview dates for applicants whose proposals are retained for step 2 of the 2014 Starting Grants call.
2015 Call Dates

UKRO understands that the 2015 ERC call publication dates are very likely to be as follows:

  • Starting Grants: October 2014
  • Consolidator Grants: November 2014
  • Advanced Grants: February 2015

The exact dates are not yet known, however UKRO will communicate this as soon as the information becomes available. The deadlines for these three calls are expected to be the same as are stated on p.4 of the 2014 ERC Work Programme. The 2015 ERC Work Programme is expected to be published in late July 2014.

2014 Starting Grants Call Interviews
The 2014 Starting Grants call closed on 27 March 2014, and some 3272 proposals were submitted. The results for step 1 of the evaluation process are expected to be sent out in around early July 2014. For applicants whose proposals are retained for step 2, the indicative dates for the interviews with the evaluation panel in Brussels are as follows:

  • Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE): 23 September to 2 October 2014
  • Life Sciences (LS): 1 October to 10 October 2014
  • Social Sciences and Humanities (SH): 14 October to 17 October 2014

Please note that this information is still indicative at this stage, and could still change.