Dear researchers,

The ERC consolidator grant call is soon closing but in the summer, the call for the ERC Advanced grant will open and later in the autumn the ERC Starting grant will be open. The ERC Starting grant is for ambitious young researchers going towards independence 2-7 years after their PhD. The applicant should have at least one publication without their PhD supervisor's name to show a starting independence. If you are interested in this call, you are very welcome to contact me and we can discuss if you should apply in the autumn call. The university offers several support actions for applicants. You can have an AoF postdoctoral fellowship ongoing when applying, the academy encourages applying ERC grants.

The ERC Advanced grant is for professor-level applicants and the university now offers an intensified support scheme for this years' applicants. Please see info below and if you are considering applying, please submit your interest via the link below.

The University of Oulu wants to encourage its Advanced Grant level researchers to apply and will pilot an intensified support scheme for selected applicants during spring and summer 2019. This will include: February: Proposal preparation kick-off: a short meeting with the PI to go through the main aspects of ERC, proposal templates and discuss the preparation process. March-June: Mentoring group consisting of researchers and support staff to support the different stages of the proposal development. Monthly meetings. The group will provide the PIs with coaching/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 August: 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 budget preparation * Possibility to participate in Yellow Research ERC Proposal Writing Workshop (preliminarily planned in June) * Support from the Research Funding Specialistshttps://www.oulu.fi/university/node/38326 to fill in Participant Portal administrative forms, comment draft applications etc.

All researchers planning to submit ERC AdG can express their interest to be included in the support and coaching pilot by answering to a short Webropol questionnairehttps://www.webropolsurveys.com/S/3C33B79884F3E1CD.par by 4th February. The questionnaire will ask the applicants to provide a short description of the research idea (max. 2000 characters). All information provided will be kept confidential. The Research Support Services will assess the technical eligibility of the applicants against the ERC Advanced Grant 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 call in August 2019.

European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grantshttps://erc.europa.eu/funding/advanced-grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators who have a track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years. Advanced Grant Call 2019 will open 21.05.2019 with a deadline 29.8.2019.

With best regards, Emma

************************ 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.fimailto:emma.pirila@oulu.fi ************************