European Research Council

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The European Research Council (ERC) is a funding body for science in the European Union. It is part of the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7), which succeeded FP6 in 2007. The European Research Council is similar to the United States' National Science Foundation.

On 18 July 2005, the 22 founding members of the Scientific Council for the European Research Council were announced. Currently Fotis Kafatos is the President, Helga Nowotny and Daniel Esteve are the both Vice-Presidends of the Scientific Councils.

On 27 February 2007, the ERC was launched. It has been given a budget of €7.5bn to 2013, and will focus solely on fundamental, or "blue skies", study. It is hoped the initiative can find the breakthrough thinking - and eventually new products and services - to keep the EU's economy globally competitive. The Council is envisioned as an independent, quality-driven funding body run by the scientists themselves.

Its creators expect it to stoke competition, and, by extension, drive up the quality of all scientific endeavour within Europe. "We have a collection of small scientific communities, and that means you have a tendency to select the best in small parts, rather than looking for what will survive in global competition," explains Professor Fotis Kafatos, the ERC's president. "The ERC is about pooling our efforts so that all of Europe can be a big player. We want to be the best in the world, not just the best in the local neighbourhood."

The ERC was created in response to fears that Europe would lag behind in this area, due to its spending (in relation to GDP) on scientific research being less than the USA and Japan, and only just ahead of India and China.

Earlier in 2007 a call for submission of research proposals was announced. The programme begun with the ERC Starting Grants (ERC-StG) scheme intended to award up to 2 million Euro for up to five years to independent researchers with no more than nine years of postdoctoral experience. For the evaluation in Stage 1, 9167 proposals were submitted, of which a mere 559 (6%) were selected to advance to a Stage 2. It is expected that around 250 grants will finally be awarded, representing a 3% overall success rate.