UK, Germany dominate ERC grants list

Around 300 researchers of over 30 nationalities will benefit from the grants, which have been awarded to a range of projects from physics and engineering, life sciences and social sciences, in research institutions in 21 countries, the ERC said in a statement on Friday.

Each project will receive up to €2 million to cover five years of research. The first grants will be signed in February 2008.

Institutions in the UK account for 19 per cent of the grants, followed by France and Germany with 13 and 11 per cent respectively.

But on an individual basis, German researchers come out on top. They make up 13 per cent of all the principal investigators. The next most numerous are Italians (11.5 per cent), French (10.5 per cent) and British (9.5 per cent).

Although the criterion for selection was, simply, scientific excellence, the ERC did favour young researchers. The average age of selected researchers is 35. Roughly a third of grants went to researchers with between two and five years of post-graduate experience. The remaining grants went to researchers with between six and nine years experience.

With institutes in 21 countries benefiting from starting grants, the ERC can discount criticism that the grants favour large countries. The dominance of the UK, Germany, and to a lesser extent France, was expected, said officials close to the ERC. These three countries are the most populous in the EU and they have more science institutes than other countries.

“The shared commitment to science and research across the European institutions, the member states and the scientific community has enabled the ERC to establish itself in record time and to make a tangible contribution to the careers of researchers as well as to Europe’s attractiveness to the very best scientific talent,” said Janez Potočnik, commissioner for science and research, adding: "I congratulate the successful grantees and look forward to the fruits of their work."

From the three broad areas of science included in the starting grants, the most prominent disciplines to benefit from grants are molecular, cellular and developmental biology (life sciences), material and chemical sciences (physics/engineering) and the study of the human mind (social sciences).

Other disciplines to benefit from the grants include mathematical foundations, condensed matter in physics and chemistry and engineering sciences (physics/engineering), genetics, genomics, neurosciences, biotechnology and bioengineering (life sciences), and “cultural diversity”, “individuals and organizations”, and “the study of the past and of cultural artefacts” (social and human sciences).

The ERC was created under the FP7 research framework programme. whose seven-year mandate began at the beginning of this year. Its objective is to champion excellence in European scientific research.

The lion’s share of its budget goes to frontier research, so-called advanced grants for the best researchers in Europe, regardless of age or experience. Depending on the nature of the research, ERC advanced grants may be up to €3.5 million for a period of 5 years.

The budget for advanced grants is around €4 billion, around twice the amount being channelled into the starting grants.

The advanced grants are open to researchers of any nationality, working or planning to work in Europe, and working in any field of science, scholarship or engineering, as well as to those projects that cross the boundaries between disciplines and which explore new fields, the ERC said.