Annual Report on the ERC activities and achievements in 2021

Commissioner’s message

This report tells us fascinating stories of how the ERC boosts Europe’s excellent science. The entire spectrum of human knowledge is explored, and through research, new understanding is generated. This is possibly one of the most rewarding ways to invest in our future.

A strong research and innovation system has proven to be a key asset in understanding and mitigating the negative impacts of the pandemic on our health, our economies, and our societies.

The European Union has shown dedication and responsibility with the launch of the new European Research and Innovation Programme Horizon Europe. With a budget 30% higher than Horizon 2020, reaching 95.5 billion euros for the next seven years, Europe has sent a clear political message of commitment to investing in science, technology and innovation. The ERC took the lead by adopting in February 2021 the first work programme, paving the way for launching calls that, this year again, supported top researchers at different stages of their careers and their teams to pursue frontier research.

The ERC has been doing this for more than 14 years, and has become a real powerhouse of science, recognised as the best in the world in supporting fundamental research. This has enabled thousands of top researchers to pursue ground-breaking ideas in all fields of science.

In May, I had the honour to announce the name of the 10,000th scientist who was awarded an ERC grant. That was a special day for Europe, for the entire European research community and of course for the ERC. Let me thank all the 10,000 ERC grantees and the more than 80,000 post-docs, PhD students and other team members that put together their vision, passion and experience to generate the new knowledge that humanity badly needs.

I extend my appreciation to the whole ERC structure, its Scientific Council and staff for ensuring a fruitful investment for the next generations. A special thank goes to the former President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon for his dedication and a warm welcome to Maria Leptin who took over the presidency in November. I count on her experience, backed by an internationally renowned scientific career and proven record of innovation and leadership, as much as she can count on me.

This Annual Report highlights activities and achievements of the ERC in 2021, and some of the wonderful results of the science it funds and the successes of the researchers it supports. We say that the ERC is a factory of Nobel prize winners, because of the several ERC grantees who are Nobel laureates. Two more were added this year and I warmly congratulate both of them on winning one of the highest accolades in the world of science. ERC grantee Giorgio Parisi shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics, “for ground-breaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems”; and ERC grantee Benjamin List shared the one in Chemistry “for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.” The ERC has trusted these researchers and has empowered them to pursue their ideas to push the boundaries of knowledge further. Their success proves that this pays off and that we must continue to invest in frontier research and give the best brains a free hand in going where their curiosity takes them.

Other parts of this report tell us more fascinating stories of how the ERC boosts Europe’s excellent science.

From innovating green catalytic processes or protecting biodiversity, to studying the influence of colours on art, literature, printing and fashion. From the creation of in vitro organoids mimicking their corresponding in vivo organs, to questioning the notion that the ancient hunter-gatherer diet consisted mainly of meat and fish. From investigating the role of remote areas in the world, to improving treatment for childhood leukemia or solutions for people with autism. The entire spectrum of human knowledge is explored, and through research, new understanding is generated. This is possibly one of the most rewarding ways to invest in our future.

Let’s make sure to continue, the thirst for knowledge is never quenched.

Mariya Gabriel

European Commissioner for Innovation,

Research, Culture, Education and Youth

Personal message from the Presidents and Vice-Presidents

We look back at 2021, another special year for the ERC, and would like to report some highlights and some challenges.

The pandemic has reminded us of the importance of investing in long-term fundamental research and of giving our brightest minds free reign to push the scientific frontiers. This approach is the best way to be prepared for the next crisis: it is an investment into an unpredictable future. That has been and will remain the backbone of the European Research Council’s action.

Although the constraints induced by the pandemic continued to take a toll on the staff of the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA) and the members of the ERC evaluation panels, the gradual availability of vaccines gave much hope for a return to a more normal way of life.

There was also time for the ERC to celebrate, such as the new milestone of having funded 10,000 grantees across Europe. We witnessed on this occasion the strong support it enjoys also from many leaders, such as the late David Sassoli, European Parliament President, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President.

The award of the 2021 Nobel Prizes in Physics to Giorgio Parisi and in Chemistry to Benjamin List provided more good news. Both had been funded by the ERC for ten years. They joined the ranks of seven other ERC grantees who won the Nobel Prize since 2007, bringing the number up to nine. Many other grantees who took home other awards or made remarkable breakthroughs are presented in this report.

2021 also saw a changing of the guards at the ERC. After the extension of the interim President’s term until the end of August, the three Vice- Presidents covered September and October until the new President took office in November. Furthermore, we take the opportunity here to thank Waldemar Kütt, who retired as ERCEA Director in December. His involvement with the ERC goes back to his days in the Cabinet of Commissioner Geoghean Quinn, much before his time at ERCEA. His commitment to the ERC values, as well as his forward-looking attitude concerning the working of the Agency have been highly appreciated.

The year was the first of the new Framework Programme Horizon Europe for 2021-2027, after the budget negotiations were finally concluded in December 2020, with around €16 billion for the ERC. Transitioning into a new programme is always a particular moment, but at last all Member States and the European Parliament reached a political agreement and approved Horizon Europe. The ERC 2021 work programme, the first to be published under Horizon Europe, prepared the ground for a new set of ERC grant calls, giving the chance to more top researchers to pursue their scientific curiosity.

In this transition, the ERC took pains to keep the focus on the science with as little bureaucracy as possible. This settled, the evaluation schedule could eventually be kept, also thanks to support from Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and other key people from the European Commission. Similarly, after some effort, the next ERC Work Programme for 2022 was published by mid-July, allowing for the prompt opening of the Synergy Grant call and the revised Proof of Concept call.

The ERCEA, like all other EU executive agencies, faced demands for improved productivity for the Horizon Europe period, which had to be balanced against the reality of the workload, especially in view of the increased ERC budget. The case was made to the European Commission regarding the possible negative impact on the functioning of the ERC.

Another issue of great importance for the ERC were the negotiations to associate some countries to Horizon Europe. After the good news that the UK association was part of the Brexit deal at the end of 2020, the final signature was blocked by political difficulties that remain unsolved. Despite this, researchers based in the UK could apply to ERC calls. The association talks with Switzerland came to a close, and researchers based in the country could no longer apply to ERC calls.

Last year was another occasion to speak up for frontier science and ask the question ‘what is the future of Europe without science?’ It is an ongoing duty for us and the scientific community as a whole to make our voices heard, convincing more people of the power of frontier research.

Lastly, in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe, launched in Spring 2021 and due to be concluded in 2022, last year was another occasion to speak up for frontier science and ask the question “what is the future of Europe without science?” It is an ongoing duty for us and the scientific community as a whole to make our voices heard, convincing more people of the power of frontier research.

The ERC President ad interim until 31st August 2021

Prof. Jean-Pierre
Bourguignon

The ERC President as of 1st November 2021

Prof. Maria
LEPTIN

The ERC Vice-Presidents for the year 2021

Prof. Eveline
CRONE

Prof. Andrzej
JAJSZCZYK

Prof. Nektarios
TAVERNARAKIS

Strategy and Governance

Performance

ERC in figures

A brief summary of ERC calls in Horizon 2020

ERC grants attract applicants of all ages. The median age of a Starting Grant applicant at the time of application was 35 years, whereas the median age of Consolidator and Advanced Grant applicants was 40 and 53 years, respectively.

There has been a positive upward trend in the share of female applicants in Horizon 2020, with the highest share being in the Starting and Consolidator Grant call cohorts. However, the Advanced Grant calls have shown the highest increase (8 percentage points) in the share of female applicants throughout Horizon 2020. Moreover, since 2017, the overall share of female grantees across calls has exceeded the share of female applicants.

Female applicants outperformed male applicants in a large number of panels, across different calls and years, as demonstrated by the ratio of their success rate to that of their male counterparts.

Researchers from UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Israel have consistently performed well across most evaluation panels. Eleven countries host currently at least one grant from each panel.

Almost nine in ten grantees were residents in the country of their Host Institution at the time of application, and almost 3% of grantees came from overseas.

Around 15% of all ERC main grants in Horizon 2020 have been awarded one or more Proof of Concept grants. Out of a total of 1,125 Proof of Concept grants, around 58% were in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering, 35% in the Life Sciences and 7% in Social Sciences and Humanities.

Over 760 Host Institutions were awarded at least one Starting, Consolidator or Advanced grant in Horizon 2020. The table shows the success rates of the Host Institutions awarded at least 30 grants in the ERC main calls 2014-2020.

Top organisations hosting ERC Principal Investigators

Data as of December 2021

The compilation is done based on the total number of main grants (StG, CoG, AdG). The Synergy PIs from all SyG calls are presented in the last column. The grants distribution is according to the Participant Identification Code (PIC) of the current Host Institution, as appears in CORDA, the European Commission’s database of projects. Prior to the compilation of the table, the Helmholtz Association had requested the grouping of the PICs that corresponded to its research centres, providing the appropriate information to the ERC. The ERC Scientific Council is discussing a new policy for presenting data at institutional level in the ERC Annual Report during Horizon Europe. Depending on the outcome of these discussions, there might be new adjustments in the list.

Closing the gap between research and innovation

Promoting strong collaboration between the ERC and the EIC

A joint plenary meeting between the ERC Scientific Council and the (pilot) Board of the European Innovation Council (EIC) took place via videoconference on 17 May 2021. After brief introductions from Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Mark Ferguson (Chair of the EIC Board) and Kurt Mehlhorn (Chair of the ERC Working Group on innovation), the participants were divided into six virtual breakout rooms. They openly discussed the best ways to stimulate interaction between researchers and entrepreneurs and considered the joint actions that the two entities can envisage in full compliance with the respective mandates.

The meeting ended with the publication of a joint statement promoting strong collaboration between the two institutions.

The ERC Scientific Council and the (pilot) EIC Board recognised in their statement that curiosity- driven research and technology-driven innovation always involve a certain degree of risk-taking, and not all projects succeed in their ambition to answer difficult questions or apply knowledge to deliver new products or services. Yet, the societal benefits of successful research and innovation are so high that public investment in these areas remains essential for the future of the society.

The ERC Scientific Council and the (pilot) EIC Board were united in promoting strong collaboration between the institutions that they respectively govern and advise, and acknowledged several common achievements in 2021.

Recognising that major innovations could not exist without the body of knowledge acquired over years of curiosity-driven research, they underlined how important it is for Europe’s future that the EIC and the ERC serve the needs and specificities of the worlds of research and innovation, while bringing them together as a community in full compliance with the respective institutional mandates. Fully committed to ensure that the ERC and the EIC support the best European talent, the two boards look forward to harvesting the benefits of further cooperation that will reinforce this shared community.

Revision of the Proof of Concept funding scheme

The Proof of Concept funding scheme (PoC) did not appear in ERC Work Programme 2021 because it undertook a thorough revision, initiated by the three following reasons:

• The introduction into the Horizon Europe (HE) legislation of a provision that included the PoC in the definition of “frontier research”, with the consequence that it would be awarded on the sole evaluation criterion of excellence, as opposed to the three criteria of excellence of the innovation potential, socio-economic impact and quality and efficiency of the implementation used since 2011.
• The introduction by the EIC of the Transition funding scheme, supporting the maturation and validation of novel technologies beyond proof of concept and the development of a business case and model towards the future commercialisation. The scheme is open to proposals stemming from PoC projects.
• A reflection of the Scientific Council on the assessment of the PoC funding scheme conducted during Horizon 2020. The PoC was created in 2011 with the ambition to bridge the valley of death between the idea generation in the lab and the innovations on the market and in society. After 10 years of experience and a thorough assessment of the PoC scheme, the results of PoC-funded projects, with some exceptions, remain closer to the idea generation phase than to the innovation.

The Scientific Council looked at these as an opportunity to re-think the PoC funding scheme. By shifting the focus away from the socio-economic impact, the PoC was re-designed as a process that looks into ideas generated in ERC-funded projects and selects among them the most competitive to be further developed towards an innovation and/or an entrepreneurial venture.

The revised PoC was then re-introduced in Work Programme 2022, which was published in July 2021.

As a result of this revision, the objectives of the PoC have moved from the “generation of unexpected or new opportunities for commercial or societal applications” to the “generation of radically new ideas that drive innovation and business inventiveness and tackle societal challenges”.

The aim of the PoC is not any more to “maximise the value of ERC-funded research by funding further work to verify the innovation potential of ideas arising from ERC funded projects”, but rather to “facilitate the exploration of the commercial and social innovation potential of ERC funded research”.

While the focus of a PoC proposal was to provide a clear description “of how the proof of concept activities will lead to a commercial or social innovation”, it is now to provide a clear description “of how the idea will eventually lead to an innovation”.

Finally, while a PoC proposal needed to “outline the economic and/or societal impact expected from the project”, in the revised version the applicant has to describe “how the project will make progress on the path from ground-breaking research towards innovation”.

For PoC proposals, excellence is now the sole criterion of evaluation. It is applied in conjunction to the evaluation of both: the breakthrough innovation potential, approach and methodology of the project, and the strategic lead of the Principal Investigator.

2021 in Review

ERC and EIC workshop on Cell and Gene therapy

In the framework of the collaboration between the ERC and the EIC on potential synergies and complementarities between the two organisations and opportunities for joint activities, a portfolio analysis exercise was started to identify trends in ERC-funded research in areas considered as top priorities in industry.

A first pilot was conducted in the area of cell and gene therapy that brought to the organisation, on 29 June, of an on-line workshop bringing together ERC grantees working in this area of research with EIC grant holders, representatives from industry, venture capitalists, and innovation leaders.

After the welcome and introduction from Jean-Pierre Bourguignon and Mark Ferguson, Chair of the (pilot) EIC Board, the event started with a keynote speech from ERC grantee Luigi Naldini, who shared with the audience his highly recognised expertise in gene and cell therapy as well as his entrepreneurial experience as scientific co-founder of several companies. Iordanis Arzimanoglou (Programme Manager EIC) gave then his views on the current global landscape and trends in cell and gene therapy.

The workshop continued with four parallel thematic sessions. The first was on Cell therapy (including stem cell therapy) and was moderated by ERC Scientific Council member Margaret Buckingham. A second one, on Disease modelling including 3D-bioprinted organs/organoids and other Regenerative Medicine novel approaches, was moderated by Geneviève Almouzni (ERC Scientific Council member). The third session was on New vectors (viral and non-viral) for gene therapy, moderated by Marja Makarow (member of EIC Board). Finally, a last one, moderated by Nektarios Tavernarakis (ERC Scientific Council member), was on Novel gene therapy approaches including RNA-based technologies.

A roundtable discussion moderated by Brady Huggett (Senior Editor of Nature Biotechnology) and focused on the transition from research to innovation in cell and gene therapy concluded the event.

In each of the sections, about 60% of the speakers were from the ERC portfolio and 40% from the EIC, industry and the investment world. Around 170 participants attended the workshop, 68% of them from academia and public research organisations and 19% from the private sector.

The contribution of ERC Scientific Council members in identifying scientific thematic areas and speakers has been crucial to the success of this extremely informative and exciting event. Presentations displayed a range of excellent scientific results within the four thematic sessions that were selected because they represent very dynamic areas in medicine today, with expected developments of innovative successful treatments that will benefit the life of many patients. The workshop was an excellent opportunity to listen to ERC-funded researchers working at the frontier of knowledge in these areas and hear from them about the scientific breakthroughs that can make these innovations possible.

EIC-funded projects and entrepreneurs provided inspiring examples of application and commercialisation in this cutting-edge field, but also underlined serious challenges in translating scientific results into potential cures. This came out clearly during the final panel discussion on the way forward to accelerate the entry of cell and gene therapy-based solutions to the clinic and to scale up investment in the field.

Building on the success of this first event, the ERC and EIC are exploring the possibility to organise further joint thematic workshops to discuss fast moving fields of science and their potential for innovations benefitting society.

Roundtable on work and workplace of the future

On 5 July, four top-level scientists, whose work has been funded by the ERC, shared their insights and reflections during a two-hour roundtable organised by the ERCEA on how the changes that the world has gone through since 2020 due to COVID-19 are accelerating and shaping work trends and their evolution.

The round table discussion touched upon different aspects related to how COVID-19 has disrupted the way in which people work and has accelerated already existing trends. The impacts on the labour market, work-life balance, workspace and working conditions are undeniable and will continue to unravel in the years and decades to come. Many jobs have been pushed outside of the office into private homes. As a result, the boundaries between private and working life have become more porous, bringing a new (to be found) work-life balance. However, remote working is not the only trend to consider. There is also an emergence of innovative work practices, particularly in relation to digital technologies, and a rise of open office spaces, hot- desking and co-working where architectural models and computational tools play a key role in the design of the new workspace.

Tanja van der Lippe, recipient of two ERC grants (SustainableWorkforce and Work-STeP), highlighted some of the positive aspects of working from home such as a bigger focus on tasks, greater autonomy, willingness to put in more effort. She also shared some reflections on the aspects that require careful consideration. These include less social interaction (especially important for newcomers), less inspiration and innovation, new inequalities related to gender and to digital skills, and the important question of who is responsible for the good, safe and fair work.

Darja Reuschke (PI of the project WORKANDHOME) addressed how the pandemic has changed previous patterns of working from home and the implications for the future of work, in particular: (1) potential for homeworking for several of sectors, e.g. public sector, administration, (2) multi-locational working and its effects on lives; (3) combining different workplaces.

She was followed by Alessandro Gandini (ERC project CRAFTWORK), who explored the meaning of “work” by addressing questions such as: is the society based on work still sustainable, is this the beginning of a “post-employment society” – with a full transition to a digital economy? Is “platformisation” undermining the meaning of work?

Davide Schaumann, (senior team member in the ERC projects NextGenBim and USE), then brought the discussion to the interface between architectural design, artificial intelligence, and human behaviour science. He looked at the implications of occupancy volatility on the design and operations of the physical workplace and at how work environments can be designed to cater for the new and dynamic needs of the occupiers.

Scientific seminar
“In AI We Trust. Power, Illusion and Control of
Predictive Algorithms”

On 13 December, the Scientific Seminars organised by ERCEA’s staff hosted former President of the ERC Helga Nowotny, Professor Emerita of Science and Technology Studies at ETH Zurich.

In a videoconference, Prof Nowotny spoke about her most recent book, published in September 2021, entitled “In AI We Trust. Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms”. She explained how one of the most persistent concerns about the future is whether it will be dominated by predictive algorithms of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and, if so, what this entails for social behaviour, for institutions and for what it means to be human. She pointed at the paradox that lies at the heart of humans’ trust in AI: we leverage AI to increase our control over the future and uncertainty, while at the same time the performativity of AI, the power it has to make us act in the ways it predicts, reduces our agency over the future. The main conclusion in the book and in the presentation was that while science and technology have enabled us to embark on an open-ended co-evolutionary path with the machines created by us, we are well-advised to have wisdom on our side and to remain critical and reflective about the impact of AI in our lives.

Helga Nowotny is currently member of the Board of Trustees of the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin, Vice-President of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, a member of the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development and Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She has received multiple honorary doctorates including from the University of Oxford and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Highlights

Jean-Pierre Bourguignon participated in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s meeting “Davos Agenda”, a mobilisation of global leaders to shape the principles, policies and partnerships needed in the challenging new context of the pandemic. The event took place virtually from 25 to 29 January and was dedicated to helping leaders choose innovative and bold solutions to halt the pandemic and drive a robust recovery.

President Bourguignon notably spoke in a live-streamed issue briefing on “Improving Science Literacy” on 28 January, moderated by Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General at CERN. The discussion focussed on how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital role of science in society and revealed the need to improve public understanding of evaluating evidence, risk and uncertainty.

© www.weforum.org/

On 3 February, ERC President Bourguignon addressed the EU Informal Competitiveness Council organised by the Portuguese Presidency with a speech on “Promoting attractive research careers across Europe”. He addressed EU research ministers on the importance of taking a long-term approach to investing in research. The extraordinary achievement of having highly effective vaccines for COVID-19 available in less than a year was only made possible by work carried out in previous decades. This proved that the slow accumulation of knowledge can deliver huge results. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon argued that boosting the attractiveness of research careers and increasing research investments to the level of leading world nations would be the critical foundations for Europe’s future success.

Abel Prize 2021 to László Lovász - The Abel Prize recognises pioneering scientific achievements in mathematics. In 2021 László Lovász, together with Avi Wigderson, was one of the laureates “for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics”. László Lovász from the Rényi Institute of Mathematics (Hungary) has devised powerful algorithms with wide-ranging applications, from number theory to mobile computing.

In 2018 together with two other scientists, Lovász was awarded an ERC Synergy Grant to develop a mathematically sound theory of dynamical networks.

DYNASNET, funded with a EUR 9.3 million grant for six years, with Jaroslav Nesetril, Charles University in Prague (Czechia) and Albert Laszlo Barabasi from Central European University in Budapest (Hungary).

This year the ERC reached a special milestone: its 10,000th grantee. The successful applicant was Inga Berre, an applied mathematician. Berre researches unconventional geothermal resources, specifically the interaction between thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical processes in the subsurfaces that occur when drilling and extraction take place. Her ERC grant is helping understand systems of equations describing geothermal dynamics with computers and simulation technology.

Over 1,000 participants tuned in to watch the live ceremony with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen and European Parliament President David Sassoli on 6 May. Over 15,000 watched the recording, with grantees and Host Institutions sharing their stories on social media around the world.

The ceremony also highlighted the work of some ERC grantees who have contributed to transforming the European research landscape with their breakthrough science in different ways.

© Eivind Senneset

The ERC took part again in the annual European Research and Innovation Days, the European Commission’s flagship event, bringing together policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and citizens to debate and shape the future of research and innovation in Europe and beyond. The ERC organised and participated in different sessions of this virtual event on 23-24 June. President Bourguignon and Vice-President Eveline Crone engaged in a conversation with the public at the session “In Conversation with the ERC’s Scientific Council”, moderated by Tony Lockett, Head of Unit for Communications at the ERCEA. A session on “Scientific breakthroughs as opportunities to address societal emergencies” moderated by Sir Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief Springer Nature, featured ERC grantees Nuria Montserrat Pulido, Gabriella Conti and László Lovász with Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. Finally, in a session co-organised with the EIC on “Disruptive innovators - from frontier research to conquering new markets” moderated by Jean-David Malo (Director European Innovation Council and SME Executive Agency), ERC grantee Martin Vechev, co-founder of the company LatticeFlow, discussed with Ana Maiques (CEO Neuroelectrics), Christian Eheler (Member of the European Parliament) and Špela Stres (Center for Innovation and Technology Transfer, Jožef Stefan Institute) in the presence of Commissioner Gabriel.

In addition, short video calls were organised over the two-day event with a few of the ERCEA’s Scientific Officers to learn more about ERC grants, discuss the evaluation process and criteria, proposals and panels as well as get personal assistance with technical and administrative matters.

On 19 July, ERC President Bourguignon addressed the EU Informal Competitiveness Council organised by the Slovenian Presidency with a speech on “European Research Area: Translation of shared European objectives to action on national levels”. He reminded EU research ministers of the reasons for trying to build a European Research Area together. Europe has to act in a coordinated way and gather the adequate resources to find the talent to lead the world in Research and Innovation. Making the most of EU talents and resources is ultimately the goal of maintaining a European Research Area. This is why it has to provide the best possible foundation for heading into an increasingly unpredictable future, and with the scientific communities on board.

In July, the ERC announced its formal endorsement of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), in line with its long-standing adherence to the highest standards of research assessment. Since its inception, the ERC’s peer-review evaluation process has been carefully designed to identify scientific excellence irrespective of the gender, age, nationality or institution of the Principal Investigator and other criteria that could potentially introduce bias, and to take career breaks, as well as unconventional research career paths, into account. The evaluations are monitored to guarantee transparency, fairness and impartiality in the treatment of proposals.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the publication of the ERC Work Programme 2022, which introduced several changes to the way applicants are expected to describe their scientific track record.

These changes strengthen even further the ERC’s alignment with research assessment principles that recognise the intrinsic quality of researchers’ work and the value and impact of all research outputs. The ERC is convinced that the broad implementation of research assessment procedures that integrate the DORA principles is the key to an equitable transition to Open Science.

Between 25 August and 2 September, ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon took part in several sessions at the European Forum Alpbach 2021 as part of the Symposium focused on health. ERC grantees Antje Boetius, Hélène Rey and Johan Rockström were also amongst the speakers at this international forum. The European Forum Alpbach is a platform that drives ideas for an empowered and democratic Europe. It brings together young people, leading scholars, thinkers, scientists, policy makers, business people and civil society actors from Europe and from all over the world to engage and contribute to its mission of shaping a stronger Europe.

Just few days after taking office, the new ERC President Maria Leptin, represented the organisation at the Berlin Science Summit and the Falling Walls Conference on 6-8 November. She spoke in a session on “Translating Science into Medical Application”. Thirteen ERC grantees brought their perspectives to the discussions on the latest research. In addition, four Falling Walls 2021 finalists had been funded by the ERC. The finalists qualify for the title of Science Breakthrough of the Year, which is awarded in ten categories, from Life Sciences to Science Engagement.

In the context of this event, the Berlin Science Week also took place, where President Leptin participated in a joint session of the Berlin University Alliance and the ERC on “The Transformative Effect of Science”. Four ERC grantees explained the transformative effect of their projects in this session. In one of her first speeches as ERC President, Maria Leptin made the case for why society should support science. She put forward the view that it is by understanding the world, that we can change the world.

Researchers therefore need freedom to explore the world as it is, in all its complexity. For this reason, she argued that investing in long-term curiosity-driven research is what allows science to have its maximum impact for the benefit of society.

On 17 November, Maria Leptin made her first public appearance in Brussels as President of the ERC at the 2021 edition of the European Business Summit (EBS) that focused on “Beyond recovery: Towards a sustainable and innovative Europe” and gathered a range of personalities from the world of business, politics and beyond, including Sir David Attenborough.

Participants discussed the role of science in tackling the COVID pandemic, as well as how to meet challenges such as climate change and ways to best prepare for future crises. The questions of how to keep Europe on the map with growing global competition and citizens’ trust in science was also addressed.

In a dialogue with Financial Times correspondent Javier Espinoza, Maria Leptin discussed “Surviving the Pandemic: What Role did Science Play?”

Maria Leptin participated in the European Innovation Council first Summit, which took place on 24-25 November. This hybrid event was put together to celebrate the launch of the EIC and to offer the opportunity to European start-ups and innovators, in particular SMEs, researchers, corporates as well as potential investors and venture capitalists to connect and network. The event was opened by Jean- David Malo, Director of the EIC Executive Agency (EISMEA) with introductory speeches from the Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager and Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. This was followed by a panel discussion on “Diversity in innovation” moderated by Jean-Eric Paquet, Director General of DG Research and Innovation with Mark Ferguson, Ana Barjasic (both members of the newly appointed EIC Board), Yousef Yousef (former member of the EIC Board) and Maria Leptin as panellists.

Prof. Giorgio Parisi,
Sapienza University of Rome (Italy)

2021 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS

Giorgio Parisi received the prize “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales”.

The other half of the prize is shared by Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann.

Giorgio Parisi’s research has been funded by the ERC since 2009 with two consecutive Advanced Grants. His ERC funded research focussed first on large-scale phenomena in classical and quantum disordered systems, and more recently, on large-scale properties of the free energy landscape of glasses at low temperature.

“The ERC is extremely important in the whole of Europe: it supports basic research that is the basis of future applications. In my case, most of the support in the last ten years came from the ERC.” -Giorgio Parisi

ERC projects:

Critical Phenomena in Random Systems (CriPheRaSy) funded with a EUR 2.1 million grant for five years, AdG 2009 Low Temperature Glassy Systems (LoTGlasSy) funded with a EUR 1.8 million grant for five years, AdG 2015

2021 Nobel Prize

Prof. Benjamin List,
Max Planck Institute of Coal Research (Germany)

2021 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY

2Benjamin List shared the award with David W.C. MacMillan. They received the prize for “the development of asymmetric organocatalysis”.

2Benjamin List’s research has been funded by the ERC since 2010 with two consecutive Advanced Grants. With his ERC funding, he has developed some of the most efficient organocatalysts that chemistry knows, including organic Lewis acids and other enantioselective organocatalysts.

2“To gain momentum, every good idea in science needs freedom and confidence. With its trust in my research and its generous funding, the ERC has been an incredible help to ignite the spark of Asymmetric Organocatalysis.” - Benjamin List

2ERC projects:

2High Performance Lewis Acid Organocatalysis (HIPOCAT) funded with a EUR 2.5 million grant for five years, AdG 2010

2C-H Acids for Organic Synthesis (CHAOS) funded with a EUR 2 million grant for five years, AdG 2015

New survey: 11% of ERC grantees wish their research to have an impact beyond science

In November 2020, the ERCEA conducted a survey among the 9,270 Principal Investigators (PIs) who had received one or more ERC grants since its creation in 2007. The survey ‘s results help assessing how the ERC fulfils the expectation that its funding will also contribute to driving innovation and business inventiveness.

The survey consisted of two questions: 1) whether the results of the ERC-funded research directly contributed to the creation of a new company and 2) whether the results of the ERC- funded research had been transferred to a pre-existing company.

It closed on 4 December 2020 with 4,875 responses received (52.6%. response rate). Around 10% of the PIs who responded to the survey also had an ERC Proof of Concept grant (PoC), a percentage that reflects the share of PIs with a PoC in the total population of ERC grantees. ERC grant-holders who apply for a PoC express in a bottom-up way their intent to undertake activities aimed at exploiting academic research opportunities to introduce innovations. Their final goal is the generation of value for themselves and socio-economic benefits to potential users.

Figure 1 – Summary of survey responses

More than 560 ERC PIs (over 11% of respondents) declared that they had either created companies or transferred the results of their research to pre-existing companies (41 did both).

However, as shown in Figure 1, the ERC PIs who also managed to obtain a PoC have a much higher tendency towards academic entrepreneurship. More than half of the PIs with a PoC have either created companies or transferred the results of their research to pre-existing companies, compared to only 7% among the PIs who do not have a PoC. Among the non-PoC “academic entrepreneurs”, the preference goes towards knowledge transfer to pre-existing companies rather than company creation, while the opposite applies to PoC grantees.

According to the results of the survey, the PoC scheme seems to meet successfully the objective to facilitate the work of those ERC grant holders who seek to investigate the commercial and societal potential of their research. It represents the initial step to help the transfer of new ideas from the lab to where they can be applied, further developed, and possibly used and commercialised.

The survey results and further desk-research provide valuable data on and indicators of the creation of start-up companies, their industry of operation, their geographical location, the role of the PI, as well as data on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)/licence transfer, R&D contracts and consulting agreements with pre-existing companies. Further analysis on these knowledge transfers as well as on the created companies - their type, their size, year of foundation, further funding, patenting activities etc. is in progress – and will provide additional valuable information on the impact beyond science of the ERC-funded frontier research in comparison with similar non ERC-related ventures.

Figure 2 - Role of the PI in the newly created company (as a % of the respondents who declared that they had created a company – multiple answers possible)

Figure 3 – Transfer of results to pre-existing companies

Figure 4 - Type of industry and location of the companies receiving the knowledge transfer (number of companies)

Research Highlights

Showcase of ERC-funded research

Are predators keeping our world green?

How colour influences the arts and literature

Intestinal organoids: a solution for gut diseases?

The importance of plant foods in early prehistoric times

What’s the role of remote areas in the world?

One step closer to a treatment for childhood leukemia

Quantum Computer Lab

An early detection of autism

Safer and faster algorithms for internet communications

A greener, cleaner world

ERC-funded research: Outstanding publications

Advancing Frontier Research

ERC calls 2021

Starting Grant 2021 - Submitted proposals

Starting Grant 2021 - Funded projects

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Consolidator Grant 2021 - Submitted proposals

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Advanced Grant 2021 - Submitted proposals

* An exceptionally high number of applications were submitted to Advanced Grant 2020

Geographical distribution of grantees for each call

* Following the termination of the exploratory talks, Switzerland was considered a non-associated third country and host institutions established in Switzerland were not eligible for funding in StG 2021.

Data as of January 2022

Chairs of ERC evaluation panels 2021

Strategy Support

January

• 25-29: World Economic Forum “Davos Agenda” (virtual event)

February

• 3: Informal meeting of EU competitiveness ministers – research (virtual meeting from Lisbon)

• 3: ERC Information Workshop in the Baltic Countries (virtual event)

• 23-26: 21st International Union of Materials Research Societies - International Conference in Asia (Chiang Mai, Thailand)

March

• 4-5: ScC Plenary (virtual meeting)

• 11: Virtual event of the IGLO ERC and Implementation Working Groups

• 17: Euroaxess Event for Latin America

• 24: ENRIO Network Meeting (virtual)

• 24: EURAXESS / NUS Event for Singapore

• 31: SISSA Opening Ceremony 2020-21 (virtual event)

• 31: WIRED Health 2021 (virtual event)

April

• 14: European Academy of Sciences 2021 Annual Symposium (virtual event)

• 14: Science Business virtual event “Horizon Europe: New frontiers for the ERC?”

• 14-16: Gender Summit 2021 Europe (virtual event from Munich)

• 22: FORTH Scientific Workshop to honour the memory of Theodore Papazoglou (virtual event)

• 22-23: EUA Annual Conference “Universities 2030: From vision to reality” (virtual event)

• 29-30: ScC Plenary (virtual meeting)

May

• 6: Celebrating 10 000 ERC grantees (virtual event)

• 19: Research Summit / Forschungsgipfel 2021 (virtual event)

June

• 12: German U15 and Konrad Adenauer Foundation high-level symposium 2021 (virtual event)

• 16: Advanced Materials Conference 2021 (virtual event)

• 22-23: ScC Plenary (virtual meeting)

• 23-24: European Research and Innovation Days 2021 (virtual event)

• 28-30: Ciência 2021 “The Science that creates the Future and transforms the Economy” (Lisbon)

July

• 12: German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) Strategy Talk (virtual event)

• 19: Informal meeting of EU competitiveness ministers - research (Brdo Kranj)

August

• 24-3/9: European Forum Alpbach 2021

September

• 28-29: EU LIFE ERC Master Class (virtual event)

• 28-1/10: 15th Berlin Open Access Conference (virtual event)

October

• 3-5: UEG Week Virtual 2021

• 6: ERC Information Day in Greece (virtual event)

• 8: ERC Webinar for Researchers in Russia (virtual event)

• 21-22: ScC Plenary (virtual meeting)

• 27: Virtual event of the IGLO ERC Working Group

November

• 6-9: Falling Walls Conference 2021 and Berlin Science Week (Berlin)

• 8: Young Academy Leiden symposium on interdisciplinary research (Leiden)

• 17-18: European Business Summit 2021

• 24: High-Level Science Europe Workshop on ERA 2021 (virtual event from Brussels)

• 24-25: EIC Summit (Brussels)

• 28: EU-LIFE Policy Webinar “Moving forward in research assessment” (virtual event)

December

• 2: Forum Horizon Europe 2021 (Paris)

• 8: “Towards a European Agreement on Reforming

Research Assessment” (virtual event)

• 9-10: ScC Plenary (virtual meeting)

Standing Committees

The Standing Committee on Panels deals with the selection of evaluation panellists.

The Committee met three times in 2021.

The Standing Committee on Conflict of Interest, Scientific Misconduct and Ethical Issues (CoIME) provides guidance on conflict of interest, scientific misconduct and ethical issues.

In 2021, the CoIME gave its advice on 25 cases of alleged scientific misconduct. An anonymised reporting of these cases can be found on the ERC website.

The Committee met once in 2021, besides the consultations of members on specific cases.

The Standing Committee for Programme Impact Monitoring and Evaluation (PRIME) provides guidance regarding ERC tasks to monitor the quality of operations, evaluate programme implementation and achievements and make recommendations for future actions.

The Committee met twice in 2021.

Working Groups

The members of the Scientific Council also meet in Working Groups (WGs) that carry out analyses and contribute to the ERC’s scientific strategy through proposals to be adopted by the Scientific Council in plenary in areas addressing specific issues.

There are currently five Working Groups dedicated to the following topics, which are of particular interest to the ERC:

Innovation, to examine the impact of ERC funded research on innovation and ERC’s relationship with the industrial/business sector.

The WG met three times in 2021.

Gender issues, to ensure that the ERC is at the forefront of best practices with regard to gender balance in research.

The WG met three times in 2021.

Widening European participation, to encourage low performing countries and, in particular, Central and Eastern European countries to better nurture their scientific talent and invest more in research.

The WG met twice in 2021.

Open Science, to develop an ERC position on issues related to open access to publications, research data management and sharing and open science more broadly.

The WG met three times in 2021.

Science behind the projects, to perform an ex-ante content analysis of the ERC funded projects, using expert judgment that will enable ERC to systematically report on the research areas, topics and fields that it funds, including on funding trends.

The WG met twice in 2021.

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