ERC Starting Grants: Limited budget
Research Council to fund qualified candidates turned down for ERC grants
Competition for ERC Starting Grants is keen. Even if grant proposals satisfy the stringent quality criteria, funding is not guaranteed. The Research Council has established a new funding scheme for applicants from Norwegian institutions who measure up for ERC grants but who are turned down due to budget constraints.
Ayumu Tashiro, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
The ERC received 9,167 grant applications in response to its previous call for proposals. Of the 430 applicants who demonstrated scientific excellence, only 300 were awarded funding. Among them was Ayumu Tashiro, a researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), who was allocated a grant of EUR 1.7 million over five years for basic research on neurons and memory.
Meanwhile, a researcher at the University of Bergen was one of 130 qualified candidates who were refused funding. This researcher will benefit considerably from the Research Council's newly-established scheme in which applicants will be awarded a sum equivalent to 75 percent of the ERC grant they would have received.
Inspiring younger researchers
Anders Hanneborg
ERC Starting Grants target promising younger researchers who are in the process of advancing their careers or creating their own research groups. "The ERC offers attractive funding schemes and provides an important arena for competition among leading European researchers. The Research Council is seeking to enhance the ability of Norwegian researchers to compete," says Anders Hanneborg, Executive Director of the Division for Science at the Research Council.
He continues: "By giving support to candidates who make the grade but are nevertheless denied a grant, this new national scheme is expected to encourage a greater number of ambitious younger researchers at Norwegian institutions to apply for ERC Starting Grants." To be eligible for funding, proposed projects must be based at a Norwegian host institution at the time the grant application is submitted.
Three Starting Grant application deadlines this year
The call for proposals for ERC Starting Grants issued on 24 July 2008 has the following application deadlines:
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Research domain Physical Sciences & Engineering: 29 October 2008, 5:00 pm
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Research domain Social Sciences & Humanities: 19 November 2008, 5:00 pm
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Research domain Sciences: 10 December 2008, 5:00 pm
- Published:
- 22.10.2008
- Last updated:
- 01.02.2010
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Contact
- Per Magnus Kommandantvold Senior Adviser +47 22 03 74 59 pmk@forskningsradet.no
