The European Research Council (ERC) is the first pan-european funding body supporting the best frontier research in Europe.

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1 Data as of 18 July 2013 The European Research Council (ERC) is the first pan-european funding body supporting the best frontier research in Europe. The ERC was created by the European Commission in February 2007 and has a total budget of 7.5 billion ( ). In November 2011, the Commission proposed a major increase of its budget, to over 13 billion under Horizon 2020 ( ). The ERC aims to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by supporting the very best scientists, scholars and engineers in any field of research. Excellence is the sole criterion for selection; there are neither thematic priorities, nor geographical quotas for funding. ERC competitions are open to top researchers from anywhere in the world. Since 2007, some projects have been selected for funding throughout Europe. ERC expects that its grants will help bring about new and unpredictable scientific and technological discoveries - the kind that can form the basis of new industries, markets, and broader social innovations of the future. Three core grant schemes: 'ERC Starting Grants' targeted at early-career, emerging research leaders 1 ; 'ERC Consolidator Grants', aimed at excellent researchers who are already independent; 'ERC Advanced Grants' that support already established top researchers. Two additional funding initiatives with a very limited budget: (i) 'ERC Synergy Grants' introduced on a pilot basis to support a few small groups of researchers working together on the same project; (ii) 'ERC Proof of Concept' funding open only to ERC grantees. Each ERC grantee employs on average six team members, thus contributing to train a new generation of excellent scientists. By 2013, it is estimated that it will have funded over grantees and will have supported some other team members, offering cutting-edge research training for nearly doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. Facts and Figures Location: Brussels, Belgium Budget: 7.5 billion ( ) Budget year 2013: 1.75 billion Grant sizes: o Starting Grants up to 2 million per grant o Consolidator Grants up to 2.75 million per grant o Advanced Grants up to 3.5 million per grant o Proof of Concept up to 150,000 per grant o Synergy Grants up to 15 million per grant Number of evaluated proposals since 2007: over Number of Starting and Advanced Grants' calls since ERC launch: 11 completed ERC President: Prof. Helga Nowotny ERC Secretary-General: Prof. Donald B. Dingwell ERC Vice-Presidents: Prof. Pavel Exner and Prof. Carl-Henrik Heldin ERC Executive Agency Director: Pablo Amor Members of the ERC Scientific Council For more information: - Also follow us on Twitter and Facebook 1 Since 2013, the ERC Starting Grant scheme has been split in two: the ERC Starting Grant, targeted at researchers with at least 2 and up to 7 years of experience after their PhD, and the new ERC Consolidator Grant for researchers with over 7 and up to 12 years of experience after their PhD. The results of the first ERC Consolidator Grant competition are expected to be published towards the end of 2013.

2 ERC grants selected for funding by country of Host Institution (*) (*) current Host Institutions; data as of 18/07/2013 EU Member States Assoc. Countries Starting Grant (StG) Advanced Grant (AdG) Total Country of HI Total Total StG+AdG AT BE BG CY CZ DE DK EE EL ES FI FR HR HU IE IT LV NL PL PT SE SI SK UK CH IL IS NO TR Total Since 2013, the ERC Starting Grant scheme has been split in two: the ERC Starting Grant, targeted at researchers with at least 2 and up to 7 years of experience after their PhD, and the new ERC Consolidator Grant for researchers with over 7 and up to 12 years of experience after their PhD. The results of the first ERC Consolidator Grant competition are expected to be published towards the end of 2013.

3 Participation of Australia to ERC calls 1. ERC grantees and applicants of Australian nationality 2. Background information 3. Objectives of ERC's Widening strategy Annex A: general ERC statistics (data as of 15/07/2013) 1

4 1. ERC grantees and applicants of Australian nationality To date, the ERC funds 20 Australian researchers, of which 17 Starting grantees and 3 Advanced grantees. All three Advanced grants were won in the first AdG call in ERC grantees with Australian nationality (11 calls): StG calls AdG calls All ERC calls LS PE SH of these grantees are based at British host institutions, 2 are in Germany, 2 in Austria, and 2 in Denmark. Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and France each host one Australian grantee. The research topics of the projects having an Australian principal investigator are in the following fields: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology 3 projects, Neurosciences and neural disorders 2 projects, Applied life sciences and biotechnology 2 projects, Synthetic Chemistry and Materials 2 projects, Physical and Analytical Chemical sciences 1 project, The study of the human past 2 projects, Cultures and cultural production 1 project, Other 8 projects. 2 Australian grantees won each a Proof-of-Concept grant. Proof-of-Concept is a small scheme introduced in 2011 to allow researchers who are already ERC grant holders to bridge the gap between their research and the earliest stage of an innovation. Overall, among the 3,800 ERC-funded researchers, 267 are non-era nationals (of non-eu Member States/FP7 associated countries), which is around 7% of all (187 StG and 80 AdG). These grant holders are mainly nationals of the US (122), Canada (25), Russia (21), Australia (20), India (16), and Japan (12). Submitted applications from Australian researchers (13 calls): StG calls AdG calls All ERC calls LS PE SH The ERC received 160 applications from researchers holding the Australian nationality (of which 36 women and 124 men): 121 proposals were for Starting Grants (including Consolidator Grant 2013), and 39 proposals for Advanced Grants. At the time of application, most of the Australian applicants were already resident in UK (72). Only 17 were resident in Australia, and the rest applied from host institutions in Germany (16), Finland, Norway, Switzerland (each 6), and other countries (most of them European). Overall, in terms of applications received in the first 13 ERC calls 1, non-era researchers were mainly nationals from US (853), Russia (460), China (224), Canada (217), India (190) and Australia (160). 1 StG 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and StG/CoG 2013 and AdG 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,

5 2. ERC Background information The European Research Council (ERC) operates on a bottom-up basis without predetermined priorities. Researchers from anywhere in the world can apply for ERC grants provided the research they undertake will be carried out in an EU Member State (EU) or Associated Country (AC) 2, i.e. within the European Research Area (ERA). Since 2007, the ERC has completed eleven calls for its main schemes, Starting Grants (StG) and Advanced Grants (AdG) 3. The eleven completed competitions yielded over 35,000 proposals out of which more than 3,800 have been selected for funding through a rigorous peer review process with a total commitment of over 6 billion (see annex A for more detailed information). The grants are open to top researchers of any nationality anywhere in the world, provided they will carry out their ERC-funded research in Europe. 3. Objectives of ERC's Widening strategy One of the ERC Scientific Council's goals for the future is to increase the number of excellent researchers from outside the ERA applying for ERC grants (be they of European origin or not). Working towards this goal implies devising a medium- to long-term internationalisation strategy with clear priorities and an overall strengthening of efforts. The Scientific Council has decided to intensify current 'outreach' measures and to make sure that this goal will be reached in the years ahead. In order to help researchers who are currently based outside Europe to participate in the ERC calls, additional funding is available to cover 'start-up' costs for scientists moving to Europe (up to for Starting grantees, and up to for Advanced grantees). Dual affiliation is also possible; Starting grantees are required to spend 50% of their time in Europe, while Advanced grantees have to spend 30% of their time in Europe. Team members can also be based outside Europe. The ERC Scientific Council has also set up a working group on Widening Participation (initially called the 'Internationalisation strategy working group') in order to address various issues which could help to boost the participation in the ERC schemes of researchers from European countries which perform less well and researchers from non- ERA countries. In 2012, the ERC launched an international awareness-raising campaign, "ERC goes Global", led by the ERC Secretary General Prof Donald Dingwell. It started in Canada and continued with visits to South Africa, Russia, and countries in South America, and Asia. 2 Associated Countries are those with science and technology cooperation agreements that involve contributing to the EU's research framework programme (FP7) budget: All Associated Countries: ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/third-country-agreements_en.doc 3 StG 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, and AdG 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and

6 Annex A: general ERC statistics (data as of 15/07/2013) Total number of applications received, evaluated and funded Total number of which of applications Evaluated* Funded success rates** Starting Grant ,167 8, Starting Grant ,503 2, Starting Grant ,873 2, Starting Grant ,080 4, Starting Grant ,741 4, Starting Grant ,329 3, Starting Grant 26,693 25,858 2, Advanced Grant ,167 2, Advanced Grant ,584 1, Advanced Grant ,009 1, Advanced Grant ,284 2, Advanced Grant ,304 2, Advanced Grant 10,348 10,041 1, Proof of Concept & Proof of Concept & Proof of Concept Synergy Grant * withdrawn and ineligible proposals not taken into account ** percentage of funded proposals in relation to evaluated proposals Success rates by country of Host Institution (evaluated applications also plotted): awarded / evaluated proposals (%) France UK The Netherlands Austria Germany Belgium Denmark Sweden Hungary Spain Estonia Ireland Cyprus Portugal Finland Italy Latvia Greece Croatia Czech Republic Bulgaria Poland Slovakia Slovenia Switzerland Israel Norway Iceland Turkey evaluated applications / 1000 public researchers 4

7 ERC grants per country of host institution ('host country') *) first legal signatories of the grant agreement taken into account 5

8 ERC grantees with non-era nationality Top host institutions (Starting and Advanced Grants) first legal signatories of the GA Country Higher-Education Institution No StG AdG Total LS PE SH UK University of Cambridge UK University of Oxford UK University College London CH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) CH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) IL Hebrew University of Jerusalem IL Weizmann Institute UK Imperial College BE University of Leuven UK University of Edinburgh DE University of Munich UK University of Bristol NL University of Amsterdam NL Leiden University IL Technion - Israel Institute of Technology NL Radboud University Nijmegen FI University of Helsinki CH University of Zurich UK King's College London IL Tel Aviv University SE Karolinska Institute Country Research Organisation No StG AdG Total LS PE SH FR National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) DE Max Planck Society FR National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) FR French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission ES Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) FR National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automatic Control (INRIA) Basis: Starting Grants , Advanced Grants Institutions that signed/were invited to sign the first grant agreement taken into account Data as of 15/07/2013 6

9 30 November 2010 ERC grant to Nano-Science Center Assistant Professor Gemma Solomon has just received an ERC grant of approx. 11 M DKK for her research on current induced heating in molecular electronics. Gemma is a part of nano-chemistry group at the Nano-Science Center, Department of Chemistry. Gemma Solomon is one of two young researchers at University of Copenhagen receiving the muchcoveted ERC starting grant this year. The grant is given to promising young scientists so they can establish themselves as researchers. Gemma Solomon will use the grant to investigate how molecules are heated by the passage of electrical current and how this heat dissipates. "I'll look at how we can control heating and cooling processes by changing the molecule's chemical structure. The results will be used to design new thermoelectric materials, which can transform heat or cold to electrical power or vice versa. If we can develop new, efficient thermoelectric materials it will be possible, for example, to utilize waste heat in industrial processes for power generation", says Gemma Solomon. Originally from Perth, Australia, she received her PhD from the University of Sydney. Since then she has been a post doc in the U.S. for three years at Northwestern University and now she works as an assistant professor in Denmark. Gemma Solomon moved to Copenhagen in July and is funded by a Steno Grant from the Danish Council for Independent Research Natural Sciences. She has an office at first floor in D Building, where she amongst others is working with the group theory. It is not a coincidence that the 30-year-old Gemma has chosen to live in Denmark and make a career here. "I know HCØ and many of the scientists well from my many visits here since 2003, when the Nano- Science Center was new. In addition to all the interesting research going on here, I have a Danish boyfriend I met in Sydney so it is very nice to come and learn Danish ", says Gemma Solomon. Establishment of a new research group The ERC grant gives Gemma the opportunity to establish her own research group and in the forthcoming years she will look to employ three PhD students and three post docs on the project. "It is really exciting to establish my own group. The project is running for five years so I have some time

10 to find the right people for the research and a good chance to try to make significant progress on this problem", Gemma Solomon concludes. This schematic digram illustrates an organic molecule bound between two gold electrodes. As electrical current passes the molecule can be heated, gaining energy from the current.