The UB pays homage to researchers with European Research Council projects in the 10th anniversary of this European program

Moment in the event with a representation of researchers who got ERC grants.
Moment in the event with a representation of researchers who got ERC grants.
Institutional
(23/06/2017)

This year is the 10th anniversary of the grant program European Research Council (ERC). During this time, researchers of the University of Barcelona got twenty-two grants, in several calls, from different disciplines that make up a total of more than 33 million euros (33.181.8 82), which accounts for the 37% of the obtained capital for European projects in the period 2007-2017 for the UB. Derived from these ERC projects the UB has managed, through Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, thirty-three applications of patents and the creation of a spin off. The UB is the second university with more ERC grants at a state level.

Moment in the event with a representation of researchers who got ERC grants.
Moment in the event with a representation of researchers who got ERC grants.
Institutional
23/06/2017

This year is the 10th anniversary of the grant program European Research Council (ERC). During this time, researchers of the University of Barcelona got twenty-two grants, in several calls, from different disciplines that make up a total of more than 33 million euros (33.181.8 82), which accounts for the 37% of the obtained capital for European projects in the period 2007-2017 for the UB. Derived from these ERC projects the UB has managed, through Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, thirty-three applications of patents and the creation of a spin off. The UB is the second university with more ERC grants at a state level.

On June 23, the University of Barcelona held a ceremony in the Historical Building of the UB to honor the task of the awarded researchers by ERC. The event, chaired by the rector of the UB, Joan Elias, had the participation of Domènec Espriu, vice-rector for research, and José Manuel Fernández de Labastida, head of the scientific department in ERC, as well as some of the UB researchers who were awarded ERCs over these years and representatives of the current and the previous teams in the Rectorʼs Office.

In his speech, Joan Elias highlighted that the impact of ERC showed it was “a good initiative” and defended that “investment in research has to be sustained in time”. Domènec Espriu remembered that ERC grants of the UB “are around the 10% of grants that get to Catalonia” and stressed that “we want research to be the identity sign of the UB”.

ERC grants are aimed at “individual researchers who propose projects in the knowledge frontiers” said José Manuel Fernández de Labastida, who highlighted that the research results of these projects are “outstanding” and allowed listing ERC the first in the ranking of research funding agencies, both in citations and international collaborations. He also put emphasis on the “need” to increase ERCʼs funding in the new framework programme to move from the current 1.5% to the 3% of the research European funding.

The awarded UB researchers with ERC projects at the UB are: Anna Alberni, Guillem Aromi, Carles Boix, Eva Isabel Cacho, Antonella Consiglio, Ruth De Diego, Silvia De Zordo, Roberto Emparan, David Mateos, Susana Narotzky, Daniel Prades, José´Remesal, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, Mel Slater, Pietro Tierno, Licia Verde and Peter Wagner.

The twenty-two ERC projects given to these seventeen researchers are divided into different types: Starting Grants (ten), Consolidator Grants (two), Advanced Grants (seven) and Proof of Concept (three). Moreover, there are three other projects the University of Barcelona is partner of. Disciplines cover physics, astrophysics, psychology, philology, chemistry, sociology, marine geosciences, medicine, psychology, anthropology, history and biology.

 

Grants for excellent researchers

For Mel Slater, awarded with four ERC grants, two Advanced Grants and two Proof of Concept, ERC “is a great program, since it gives researchers enough money, enough time and a small administrative burden, compared to other research funding lines in the agencies of the European Comission”. “Moreover -he says- it is based on the excellence and trusts researchers”. Slater, expert on virtual reality, is a researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and member of the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB.

Peter Wagner, researcher in the field of sociology at the Faculty of Economics and Business and awarded with an Advanced Grant, believes the program is “generous” and that “these are more free and flexible aids compared to others. You have five years to work on your project, create your research group and you can modify your ideas while new knowledge comes up”.

Although there is not a general profile set for the researchers who got an ERC, lots of them are either ICREA researchers or come from calls such as the programs Ramon y Cajal or Marie Curie. Regarding the researchers who already belong to the UB, lots of them were awarded with other honours such as ICREA Academia. According to Isabel Cacho, who started her project -awarded with a Consolidator Grant, she spent almost a year thinking about her project and another more year to write about it, and she admits that receiving an ICREA Academia was “an encouragement” , thanks to which she could spend extra time on the project (since this kind of grant allows them reducing teaching hours). “Such a grant marks a before and after in a research career” says Cacho, researcher in the research group of Marine Geosciences of the Faculty of Earth Sciences.

“The freedom with which you can work” is what the researcher Daniel Prades values the most. He has a Starting Grant and a Proof of Concept, which he works on at the Faculty of Physics. Prades also values the trust this program has on the researchers, compared to other “more target-like and fiscal”, although he admits that some cases have to be like that. He also highlights that in ERC projects “you can propose what you really want to do, instead of the project you think that can be more likely to be funded, and that allows you to be more creative”. There should be more calls like ERC, since it “broke the traditional scheme and its success is clear in indicators” says Prades.

 

Projects with great scientific impact

ERC calls are divided into three areas, which are distributed in specialized theme boards. Among the latter is divided the acting budget of the applications. After a first selection stage, researchers are interviewed about their project. “The interview is a demanding experience” says Prades. “You are in front of a group of experts in a difficult situation and you have to convince them with your project”.

In these calls, the résumé and the submitted project accounts for a 50%. The project has to seek excellence and scientific impact, and has to be understood as a paradigm shift and has to involve a transformation in the state of the science field it represents. As an ERC project evaluator, Peter Wagner says that “the main and only criterium is the excellence of the project and the researcher”. “There are not interventions from the agency, and evaluators are free to assess the excellence in accordance to our criteria, together with the other members of the board, with which you have an open communication” he says. According to Wagner, a researcher who wants to apply for a call has to submit a good project “on what s/he really wants to do, without being scared it will be a new and ambitious thing”. Also, the way to develop the project and the team the researcher will have is important too.

“The project has to be presented as risky, without being nonsense, and the experience in the résumé has to guarantee you have the skills to carry the project out” says Isabel Cacho, who thinks “the interview is the essential part in which you have to be able to transmit your excitement and conviction for the project”.

Mel Slater remembers that, in his field, ERC projects allowed him “to explore aspects of virtual reality that were risky, in the sense that there were new ideas that could not have been successful”. In this sense, he highlights that “continuing the project with a Proof of Concept is a great idea”. “I was lucky to get two grants to explore the possible advantages of our discoveries for society and business” he says.

Daniel Prades shares this idea related to the Proof of Concept, and higlights the possibility to hire people from other fields, such as creation of companies. At the moment, the researcher is in the patent process with the aim of creating a start-up.

 

Supporting researchers

The UB manages ERC grants at the International Research Projects Office (OPIR), which organizes information sessions and contacts faculties and institutes to look for possible candidates among research groups. It also assesses and supports them in their candidacies, apart from working on their management once they get the grant. “It is clear that getting an ERC project is a great encouragement for the research career” says Iñaki Sánchez, head of OPIR, who adds that getting these grants is, also, an opportunity to take part in other collaboration projects.

These calls are highly competitive and therefore researchers “have to self-assess themselves to decide when to apply for an ERC project” concludes Sánchez.