Support Services for ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant Applicants – Sign up by 1 October

The second European Research Council’s (ERC) work programme under Horizon Europe for 2022 calls was adopted mid-July.

Starting Grant call supporting excellent Principal Investigators with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD will open for applications 23 September 2021 (dl 13.1.2021). With the budget of 749 million euros the StG call is expected to fund some 502 grants.

Consolidator Grant call supporting Principal Investigators with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD will open 19 October 2021 (dl 17.3.2022). With the budget of 776 million euros the CoG call is expected to fund some 388 grants.

The University of Oulu wants to encourage its Starting and Consolidator Grant level researchers to apply and will provide a support scheme for selected applicants to prepare for the 2022 Calls. All researchers planning to submit ERC StG or CoG can express their interest to be included in the support process by answering to a short Webropol questionnaire by 1.10.2021. The applicants will be asked to provide a short description of the research idea (max. 2000 characters). All information provided will be kept confidential. The Research and Project Services will assess the technical eligibility of the applicants against the ERC Starting/Consolidator Grant eligibility criteria. The applicants who are selected for the coaching will follow a pre-agreed timetable for the proposal preparation and submit their final proposal to the calls in early 2022.

Timetable of the support process for 2022 ERC StG and CoG applicants:

• Beginning of October (StG)/end of October (CoG): Proposal preparation kick-off: Research Support Services will schedule a short meeting with the PI to go through the main aspects of ERC, proposal templates and discuss the preparation process.
• October-January (StG)/November-March (CoG): Proposal preparation coaching with monthly meetings. The proposal drafts will be reviewed in stages by the Research Funding Specialist of the Faculty and a peer mentor. The coaching will provide the PIs with feedback on e.g.:
• PI profile: CV and Track Record
• Key ideas and concept of the ERC project
• Ground-breaking nature of the research project
• Feasibility of the outlined scientific approach

• Mid-December (StG)/mid-February (CoG): Final draft proposal reviewed by an external expert specialised in the ERC funding

• In addition, the following technical support will be provided to the PIs:
  - Annotated proposal templates
  - Controller of the respective Faculty will support the PI with the budget preparation
  - Support from the Research Funding Specialists to fill in Participant Portal administrative forms, comment draft applications etc.

Contact: Janika Luukinen/Emma Pirilä

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Emma Pirilä, PhD

Research Funding Specialist

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine

Biocenter Oulu

Aapistie 5A, 2nd floor

FIN- 90230 University of Oulu

Finland

Phone: +358503426428

e-mail: emma.pirila@oulu.fi

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