ERC Success Rates

Interesting stats from UKRO on the ERC Starting (StG) and Advance (AdG) Grants. There's now been three complete calls for each scheme, and UKRO's statistics show how the success rate for both StG and AdG has risen:

• Starting Grants: 3.3% (2007-8) to 14.9 (2009-10)
• Advanced Grants: 12.7% (2007-08) to 13.2% (2009-10)

Interestingly, the success rates for Grants hosted at UK HEIs is higher than the European average for StG (17.3%), but only marginally so for AdG (13.6%).

Now compare these figures with those published by the ESRC in their Demand Management Consultation Paper on the recent success rates for all the UK Research Councils:

• AHRC: 16%
• ESRC: 17% (small and standard grants combined)
• MRC: 19%
• BBSRC: 22%
• NERC: 24%
• EPSRC: 30% (following the introduction of its blacklisting procedure)
• STFC: 53%

So the ERC success rates aren't a million miles away from the bottom three Research Councils - and the UK Starting Grants are actually the same or better than the AHRC and ESRC. No wonder the ESRC is making moves to introduce demand management measures, and the AHRC is following fast in its footsteps.

ERC Advanced Grants Info Day

The UK Research Office (UKRO) will hold a series of information events for researchers who are based in or moving to the UK and are interested in applying for the ERC Advanced Grants call (ERC-2011-AdG). This call is expected to open on 2nd November 2010, with deadlines in spring 2011. A flyer is now available for these events, and bookings have opened.

I think the event will be invaluable if you are thinking of applying. It’s free to attend, and the nearest events to us are at LSE as follows:

• London School of Economics, Friday 3rd December 2010
The session will start at 13:30 promptly (with registration from 13.10) and close at 17.30.
• London School of Economics, Wednesday 8th December 2010
The session will start at 13:30 promptly (with registration from 13.10) and close at 17.30.

A flyer (.pdf) which covers all four events - the second page includes a summary of the ERC, including some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on the ERC Advanced Grants.
UKRO ERC Events webpage with details of how to register.
UKRO subscriber webpage on the ERC Advanced Grants calls, which will include the relevant call documentation once the call is published
UKRO overview (.pdf) of the ERC Advanced Grants.

ERC: Call for Advanced Investigator Grants

The European Research Council (ERC) has launched a call for its flagship 'Advanced Investigator Grants'. Pitched at 'exceptional' established researchers and academics, they offer up to €3.5m for up to 5 years. Applications should tackle pioneering and far-reaching challenges at the frontiers of the field(s) addressed, and involve new, ground-breaking or unconventional methodologies, whose risky outlook is justified by the possibility of a major breakthrough with an impact beyond a specific research domain/discipline.

But you need to get your skates on: the deadlines are relatively short:

• Physical Sciences & Engineering Domain : 24 February 2010
• Life Sciences: 17 March 2010
• Social Sciences & Humanities: 7 April 2010
  

This is Europe, so there's a positive tsunami of information and guidance. Start by looking at the UKRO ERC pages, and if you need further help, get in touch with me.