European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grants

Professor Georgina Born (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences), who acted as an evaluator of the first ever cycle of calls for the scheme, will share her views and give hints and tips on writing a successful proposal for Social Sciences & Humanities domain. In addition, an RSD applications expert will give a brief overview of the essentials of the application process for this particular scheme. There is no need to register.

What is the ERC?
The European Research Council (ERC) is the first pan-European funding agency for frontier research. ERC Advanced Grants are designed for fully established investigators, from across Europe who are able to compete for ERC grants with scientific excellence as the sole criterion for funding. The ERC, which started in 2007, is funded by the European Commission as one part of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for European Research & Technological Development (2007-13). The ERC schemes operate on a 'bottom-up' basis across all research fields, without predetermined priorities, and fund projects lead by a Principal Investigator (PI) and their team.

What are ERC Advanced Grants?
This scheme aims to encourage and support excellent, innovative research projects which are initiated and led by established top research leaders. It targets active researchers who have already established themselves as being scientifically independent and world-class leaders in their own right. ERC Advanced Grants provide an opportunity to established scientists and scholars to pursue frontier research of their choice. Applicants for Advanced Grants are expected to be active researchers who have a track record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years. The second call (ERC-2009-AdG) was just published, and the deadline for Social Sciences and Humanities domain is April 15th, 2009.  It will fund ~250-300 grants.