2,528 proposals in Consolidator Grants competition
A total of 2,528 proposals have been submitted in the ERC’s 2014 Consolidator Grant competition.
After last year’s sharp rise in the number of applications (48%), which totalled 3,679, the demand in the 2014 call represents a 31% decrease. The 2014 figures are comparable to the equivalent group in 2012.
ERC President Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon commented: “I am pleased to see that, after a massively subscribed 2013 Consolidator Grant call, the demand is back to the level of the previous years. This also means that the success rate in this call is likely to be more encouraging, probably around 15%.
“Although it is difficult to identify with the reasons for these fluctuations, it is not unlikely that the new more restrictive re-submissions rules for ERC calls have played a role in this decrease.”
Due to the past consistent increase in demand for ERC funding, the ERC Scientific Council decided to introduce stricter re-application rules for candidates in the 2014 ERC calls. Research institutions in 38 countries are eligible to host ERC grantees under this call, compared to 41 last year.
A total of 1,201 proposals were submitted under the ‘Physical Sciences and Engineering’ topic; 797 in ‘Life Sciences’; and 527 in ’Social Sciences and Humanities’.
In this year’s call, the overall call budget is €713m, which means a success rate of around 15%, allowing for the funding of approximately 400 grants. In 2013, 312 top researchers were awarded grants of nearly €575m in total, with a success rate of 8.5%.
