The European Research Council (ERC) is planning to include a number of changes in its 2024 Work Programme, the draft of which is available on the UKRO Portal. The draft document – expected to be adopted and published in July this year – includes a number of novelties, particularly in the evaluation process that may be of interest to subscribers. Note that, at this stage, this information is still tentative.
Maximum number of proposals per panel at Step 2
There are two novelties of the evaluation process for the 2024 calls. The first is that the ERC is introducing a maximum of 44 proposals per panel that are invited to Step 2 of the evaluation process for the Starting (StG), Consolidator (CoG) and Advanced (AdG) calls. How will this “44 proposals per panel” limit affect potential applicants?
The number of proposals submitted to each panel for each call per year varies. Using the 2023 StG call as an example, the ERC stated that they will fund 407 StG grants at Step 2. The number of proposals invited per panel is up to three times the panel budget, so for all the panels together, that would have been a maximum number of proposals invited to Step 2 of 1,221 proposals. If the “44 proposals per panel” limit had been in place for the 2023 StG call, the maximum number of proposals invited to Step 2 would have been 1,188 proposals (44 x 27 panels). If the “44 proposals per panel” limit had been in place for the 2023 StG call, then 33 proposals across the 27 panels would not have been invited to Step 2. However, these 33 proposals are very unlikely to be ranked high enough on the list at Step 2 to be fundable.
An analysis of the 2022 calls per panel
Starting Grant call
- If the “44 proposals per panel” limit had been in place for the 2022 StG call, this would have affected six out of the 27 existing panels. Of those six panels, the panel with the highest number of proposals at Step 2 was 50, so the threshold would have removed 6 proposals from that panel.
Consolidator Grant call
- For the 2022 CoG Step 2 results, only one panel was above 44 proposals (PE10), so if the “44 proposals per panel” limit had been in place, only one panel out of 27 would have been affected.
Advanced Grant call
- For the 2022 AdG Step 2 results, none of the panels had invited more than 44 proposals. This is due to the fact that AdG proposals are larger than StG and CoG proposals and the overall budget for AdG calls is always lower than for StG and CoG, so it is unlikely that the “44 proposals per panel” limit will be met for the AdG call any time soon.
What happens if I score an A at Step 1 but my proposal is not ranked in the top 44 proposals?
There will be no resubmission restrictions and the applicant is free to submit their proposal to the following year’s call (subject to adhering to the PhD eligibility window criterion).
The primary focus of the evaluation on the excellence of the research project
The second novelty in the draft 2024 ERC Work Programme is that the focus of the evaluation process is now more on the ‘excellence’ of the research project over the ‘excellence’ of the PI. This is a change where previously panels would consider the excellence of the research project and PI equally, now the weighting has shifted more towards the research project.
Scientific excellence remains the sole evaluation criterion for the ERC, however from 2024 onwards, ERC panels will primarily evaluate “the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of the research project” while at the same time considering “the intellectual capacity, creativity, and commitment of the Principal Investigator(s), with a focus on the extent to which the Principal Investigator(s) has the required scientific expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project”.
Other novelties
The draft 2024 ERC Work Programme lists a number of novelties, which we have previously reported on, such as lump sum funding for the 2024 AdG call, the merging of the applicant’s CV and Track Record into one four-page document and the tentative call deadlines for 2024.
UKRO can only share draft Work Programmes in certain cases and do so on the basis of trust that the information is treated as confidential by European Liaison Officers. This means that we rely on ELOs to only disseminate the information internally and to include a disclaimer that it must only be used within your institution. The documents must not be placed on any externally accessible websites. Please also note that the information included in such drafts is subject to change during the drafting process.