ERC Stats

We all love a good stat or two, and UKRO have obliged by providing some for the last round of ERC Starting Grants. I tweeted these yesterday, but in case you missed them, here are headlines:

• Success rate by domain: Physical &Engineering Sciences 11.5%; Life Sciences: 12.0%; Social Sciences & Humanities: 9.7%
• Top 5 host countries: UK (131), Germany (78), France (73), the Netherlands (51) and Switzerland (33).
• Top 5 countries by PI nationality: Germany (92), UK (68), France (67), Italy (42) and the Netherlands (37)
• Top 5 (or 7) in UK: UCL (16); Cambridge (13); Oxford (12); KCL (8); Bristol, Edinburgh and Imperial (5 each) 
• Average age of PI: 37 (the same as for the previous call) 
• Percentage of female PIs: 24%  (an increase from 21% last year) 

A fuller breakdown of previous rounds of both the Starting Grants and Advanced Grants is available on the UKRO website (pdf). Start crunchin' those numbers...

Mists, Mellow Fruitfulness & ERC Deadlines

Ah, Autumn. Season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and ERC deadlines. Yes, with the deadline for Starting Grants on 17 Oct and Advanced Grants on 22 Nov applicants should now be polishing and pimping their applications, fettling and finalising their bids. UKRO has been providing some useful workshops for those planning to apply (there's still time to attend the ones that are scheduled for later this month and October), and it's worth bearing in mind some hints and tips that have come out of these.

• Firstly, try and get a look at previously successful applications. This is true for any funder, of course, but perhaps more so for the EU, as people are often confused by the specific language and structure that is expected. Seeing how someone else has done it really helps.
• Secondly, and following on from this, make sure you 'give them what they want'. Look at the criteria, and make sure you are meeting them. These grants are about you and your project: be clear why you are the right person with an exciting, ground breaking project at the 'frontier' of knowledge.
• In turn, leading on from this, the ERC are looking for something different. Perhaps more than any other funder, this is the chance to take risks, to do something challenging. So use your imagination and think big - but couch it in a robust managerial framework that will reassure those of a nervous disposition.
• Get feedback. Lots of feedback. Here at Kent we've got the Internal Peer Review system, so get in touch with us as early as possible. But get feedback elsewhere, too: your proposal needs to be easily understood and inspiring by people who might not know the field, and whose first language may not be English. 
• Submit early and often. Each time you submit it overwrites your last version. Don't leave it until the last minute when there will be, inevitably, a software crash.
• If you're shortlisted for interview, prepare throughly. Set up a mock panel (we can help with this) and go through a dry run. Take on board the feedback. Go over to Brussels the day before the actual interview and scout out the terrain. You don't want to get lost and arrive breathless, confused and red faced, or get derailed by Eurostar holdups. 
• At the interview, they will use reviewers' comments to question your proposal. You won't have seen these, but try and pre-empt them by thinking what elements of your project will be seized on.
• Finally, think of the poor panel. Not only will they have ploughed through hundreds of applications, but they then have to sit for days in a small, stuffy room watching anxious academics perform. Engage them, and be enthusiastic and confident.

Thanks to Jo Frost at UKRO for running these events, and to Dr Lawrence Moon of KCL for sharing his experiences of applying to the ERC.

The Consolidator Grants came later, on 21 Feb, so annoyingly don't fit neatly into my Keatsian reference. But we never let the truth get in the way of a glib opening sentence here at Fundermentals Towers.

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 - Stats from the Last Round of Starting Grants

It feels like this blog has been a bit ERC-heavy lately. But hey, that's obviously what's in the news at the moment (assuming you're keeping your eyes averted from the blow-by-blow commentary on the Comprehensive Spending Review). UKRO's got hold of some interesting stats from the last round of the Starting Grants. The most interesting, to me, is the fact that the success rate has rocketed from a derisory 3.3% three years ago to an almost respectable 14.9% this year. RCUK's declining success rate and ERC's rising one are just about even now.

More stats as follows:

• Average age of researchers – 36 years;
• Genders – 26.5% female (an increase from the previous call where 23% were female);
• Grantees by country of Host Institution: UK (79), France (71), Germany (67), Switzerland (27), Israel and the Netherlands (25 each), Spain (23), Italy (22) Sweden (20). The results for other countries are in the attached statistics;
• Grantees by nationality: Germany (83), France (62), Italy (41), UK and Israel (28 each) and the Netherlands (26). The results for other nationalities are in the attached statistics;
• Mobility: the statistics presented also include an analysis of those grantees that are: staying in their country where it is the country of their nationality; staying in the country but who are nationals of another European country; staying in the country but who are non-EU nationals; and those moving to the country of their Host Institution (whatever their nationality);
  • Of the 79 grantees based at UK Host Institutions: ~22 are UK nationals staying in the UK; ~39 are European nationals already based in the UK and staying in the UK; ~8 are non Europeans already based in the UK staying in the UK; and ~10 are where the Principal Investigator is moving to the UK (whatever their nationality).

More information on UKRO's information services - though you need to login in order to access this.

ERC: Panel Members & Chairs

UKRO has passed on info on who the panel members and chairs will be for the current round of ERC Starting Grants. It's worth having a look at these, to get some idea of the great and the good who will be looking at your application, and to do a bit of digging if you've not come across them before, so that you can try to prepare for the angle they will take on your proposal.

Note that the panel members list is for the last call, not the current one. However, the ERC is intending to use these members to form the core of two new panels, which will sit in alternate years. I'll pass on the info on this when it's available.

You can have a look at the lists here:

• Panel Chairs 2011 (pdf)
• Panel Members 2010 (pdf)
  

ERC Starting Grant: Funding 'Almost Doubled'

I've posted before about the ERC's current Starting Grant and UKRO's Info Day. One piece of info that might have slipped below your radar is the fact that the EC is almost doubling the funding for the grants compared to last years round: from €325m to €661m. Better still is the fact that the field of potential applicants is somewhat limited by the ERC's rules that state that, if you applied to the last round, you can't apply to this one. So think seriously about applying: if you're between 2-12 years out from your PhD and are a promising up and coming academic it's well worth a shot.

An overview and FAQs on the scheme are available, via UKRO, here.