ERC Consolidator Grant - ERC-2019-COG

Deadline: Feb 7, 2019  
CALL EXPIRED

Scope:

Objectives

ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. Applicant Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal.

Size of ERC Consolidator Grants

Consolidator Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 2 000 000 for a period of 5 years (The maximum award is reduced pro rata temporis for projects of a shorter duration. This does not apply to ongoing projects).

However, up to an additional EUR 750 000 can be requested in the proposal to cover (a) 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 (b) the purchase of major equipment and/or (c) access to large facilities (As any additional funding is to cover major one-off costs it is not subject to pro-rata temporis reduction for projects of shorter duration. All funding requested is assessed during evaluation).

Profile of the ERC Consolidator Grant Principal Investigator

The Principal Investigator shall have been awarded their first PhD over 7 and up to 12 years prior to 1 January 2019. The effective elapsed time since the award of the first PhD can be reduced in certain properly documented circumstances (see ERC Work Programme 2019).

A competitive Consolidator Grant Principal Investigator must have already shown research independence and evidence of maturity, for example by having produced several important publications as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor. Applicant Principal Investigators should also be able to demonstrate a promising track record of early achievements appropriate to their research field and career stage, including significant publications (as main author) in major international peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journals, or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals of their respective field. They may also demonstrate a record of invited presentations in well-established international conferences, granted patents, awards, prizes etc.

For further information please see the ERC Work Programme 2019

1. Eligible countries: The conditions specific to the ERC are described in the ERC 2019 Work Programme under the heading Eligibility criteria and in Annex 3. An overview is provided below:

The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or H2020 Associated Country. Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. ERC Principal Investigators do not have to be based full-time in Europe.

The host institution must either be established in an EU Member State or H2020 Associated Country as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an International European Interest Organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) or any other entity created under EU law.
 

2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions:

The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in the ERC Work Programme 2019 under the heading Eligibility criteria and in the ERC Rules for Submission and Evaluation under Section 2.4. An overview is provided below:

Eligible proposals: All proposals must be complete and submitted before the relevant call deadline. A complete proposal needs to include all parts or sections (see “Proposal submission and description” below). Incomplete proposals may be declared ineligible. The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives and to the grant type set out in the call, as defined in ERC Work Programme 2019. A proposal will only be deemed ineligible on grounds of ‘scope’ in clear-cut cases.
 

Eligible Principal Investigator: Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. All Principal Investigators funded through an ERC grant shall spend a minimum of 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country and a minimum of 40% (for PIs of Consolidator grant) of their total working time on the ERC project. 

Eligible Host Institution: The host institution (Applicant Legal Entity) must engage the Principal Investigator(s) for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must either be established in an EU Member State or H2020 Associated Country as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an International European Interest Organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) or any other entity created under EU law. Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams.

Restrictions on submission of proposals: The restrictions for submission are related to the outcome of the evaluation in previous calls and are designed to allow unsuccessful Principal Investigators the time necessary to develop a stronger proposal. For further details please consult page 19-20 of the ERC Work Programme 2019 or the Frequently Asked Questions.
 

Proposal page limits and layout: A complete proposal is composed of:

• Administrative proposal forms (including Ethics Review Table): available in section 5 of the topic conditions and in the submission tool below. To access the submission tool, you need to register to the Participant Portal first.

• Research Proposal (Parts B1 and B2), available in the submission tool below, should be uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as PDF files.

Proposal Part B1
Extended Synopsis: max. 5 pages (references do not count towards the page limits)
Curriculum Vitae: max. 2 pages for each Principal Investigator
Funding ID: no page limits
Track Record: max. 2 pages for each Principal Investigator

Proposal Part B2
Scientific Proposal: max. 15 pages (references do not count towards the page limit).

• Host Institution Binding Statement of Support (available as a word-template in the submission tool below).

• PhD record and supporting documentation for eligibility checking

• Ethics review self-assessment (if applicable) and supporting documentation.
 

Evaluation

The conditions specific to ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2019 under the heading 'Evaluation procedure and criteria' and in the ERC Rules for Submission and Evaluation. An overview is provided below:

Evaluation procedure

For the Starting-, Consolidator- and Advanced grant calls a single submission of the full proposal will be followed by a two-step evaluation. The evaluation will be conducted by means of a structure of high level peer review panels as listed in Annex 1 of the ERC Work Programme 2019. The panels may be assisted by independent experts working remotely. 
Applicant Principal Investigators can request during the electronic proposal submission that up to three specific persons should not act as an evaluator in the evaluation of their proposal. 
At step 1, the extended synopsis of the scientific proposal and the Principal Investigators’ track records and CVs will be assessed (and not the full scientific proposal). 
At step 2, the complete version of the retained proposals will be assessed (including the full scientific proposal) and their Principal Investigators may be invited for an interview to present their project to a panel meeting in Brussels. 
 

Evaluation criteria

For all ERC frontier research grants scientific excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. It will be applied in conjunction to the evaluation of both: the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of the research project; and the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the Principal Investigator. The detailed evaluation elements applying to the excellence of the research project and the Principal Investigator are set out in the ERC Work Programme 2019.