European Research Council (ERC): Keeping an Eye on Indian Scientists
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The European Research Council (ERC) is actively wooing promising scientists from non-European countries, including India. In the latest round of selection for grants, four Europe-based Indian scientists have made the grade. Currently, the ERC's annual budget is €1.5 billion and this will reach €1.7 billion by 2013. The ERC is the first European funding body that supports investigator-driven frontier research through open and direct competition.
"The idea of supporting investigators solely on the basis of scientific excellence is not new. What is new, however, is that this is for the first time at the core of a funding agency for frontier research in Europe," ERC president Prof Helga Nowotny told HT Horizons in an interview in Turin. The usual tenure of funding of a project is five years and ERC applicants must have at least two years of research experience after completing their PhD.
The ERC, which was formed in Brussels in 2007, offers two types of grants without pre-determined research priorities. First, the ‘ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grants' that supports independent careers of outstanding researchers who are at the stage of establishing or consolidating their first research teams or programmes.
Applicants for this grant are eligible from two to 12 years after their PhD. Second, the ‘ERC Advanced Investigator Grants' that supports pioneering frontier research projects by leading established researchers who have original and innovative ideas. For both the grants, there is no restriction on nationality and age, the only requirement being that the applicant must be willing to work at least 50 per cent of his/her time in Europe.
The ERC funds about 300 projects in each of the two grant schemes a year. As of this year, the ERC has funded around 1,200 projects of scientists and scholars at an average of €1.3 million for five years, but this sum can go up to Euro 3.5 million.
Prof Nowotny says the ERC is different from other programmes in having no thematic priorities or themes.
Evaluation panels are multidisciplinary and consist of reputed scholars, engineers, and scientists. In each scheme, 25 panels carry out the two-staged selection process. As a result, some 1,400 distinguished scientists from across the world, selected by the ERC's Scientific Council, evaluate ERC applications. They are assisted by an even larger number of specialist reviewers, again from all over the world.
"Compared to the average scope and infrastructure available [to scientists] in India, things are better in west European countries. The US is still the mecca of science but Europe is trying to catch up," said Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellow Dr Saibal Chatterjee, post-doctoral fellow, department of epigenetics, Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland.
Prof Dr Vikram Panse, Institute for Biochemistry (IBC), ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Switzerland, and in particular the ETH in Zürich, is very supportive of young investigators. Hiring of research leaders is often done in a strategic manner to strengthen specific areas rather than covering a broad range of topics. This creates a collaborative atmosphere and centres of excellence are born. In the long run, such centres use the available resources better.
Dr Ramesh Pillai: European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Grenoble Outstation, France
Europe provides world-class facilities for basic and applied research at the level of both universities and dedicated research institutes. The EU has made available significant research funding under various schemes. Such projects would not have materialised in the absence of EU funding.
Author: KumKum Dasgupta (HT Horizons)
Date: 28th September, 2010
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