ERC opens 2016 programme with Starting Grants
More details have been announced on the European Research Council’s Work Programme for 2016.
Wednesday sees the EU blue sky research funding body open the call for its 2016 Starting Grants scheme, which has a budget of €485m and deadline of 17 November. This scheme is open to researchers with two to seven years of experience since completion of their PhD and a promising scientific track record.
Other grant competitions will follow according to the work programme’s calendar: on 15 October the call for Consolidator Grants opens, which is aimed at for mid-career researchers; the deadline is 2 February 2016. This is followed by the opening of the call for Advanced Grants (for established research leaders) on 24 May, and has a deadline of 1 September 2016.
ERC grant holders can also apply for Proof of Concept grants, a top-up scheme to verify the innovation potential of ideas arising from ERC-funded projects. There will be three rounds of this call in 2016.
Compared to last year, the main novelty for ERC applicants is a relative ‘softening’ of the resubmission rules. Applicants who scored B at step two of the evaluation in the last call will be able to reapply immediately, while under the 2015 work programme they had to wait for one year. There are also new restrictions for applicants whose proposals have been rejected on the grounds of breach of research integrity.
Among other actions, the work programme introduces a new action to widen participation in ERC competitions: a support to a consortium of formally nominated ERC National Contact Points to identify and share good practices and raise the quality of support to applicants.
