As top EU science funder releases a new round of early-career grants, a Science|Business analysis of ERC history shows Germany has collected the biggest share of funding
Photo credits: Nestlé / Flickr
The latest round of European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants was announced last week, committing funding to 494 researchers to develop their ideas. This is the 17th year since the introduction of the grants, which have awarded a total of €9.3 billion over the years.
The success rate this year of 14.2% was slightly lower than last year, when 14.8% of the proposals submitted received funding. But those years are both up from the past: The average success rate since the programme’s start has been 11.3%, with 60,630 proposals evaluated and 6,868 selected for funding.
The Starting Grants are aimed at researchers in the relatively early stages of their careers – and represents a deliberate attempt by Europe’s premier fundamental-research funder to cultivate new talent.
Since the programme began, Germany holds…
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