‘Many’ strong Synergy Grant bids miss out amid ‘fierce’ competition

Image: Orlen Crawford for Research Professional News. Sources: World Economic Forum [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0], via Flickr and Leo Harrison for Research Professional News.

ERC president calls for more funding but hails most “international ever” cohort

“Many outstanding proposals” for European Research Council Synergy Grants could not be funded in the latest round due to budget shortages, according to ERC president Maria Leptin.

On 6 November, the ERC announced that it will fund 66 Synergy Grants from 712 proposals, giving a success rate of just 9.3 per cent.

In a statement, Leptin (pictured) lamented having to turn away so many high-quality bids.

Fierce competition

“The competition was fierce, with many outstanding proposals left unfunded. With more funds, the ERC could fully capitalise on this wealth of first-class science,” she said. “Such scientific endeavours are what Europe needs to be at the real forefront.”

It is not the first time the ERC’s leaders have highlighted the share of quality proposals the funder has to turn away: last month, Leptin said the “single most important” issue facing the ERC is its budget shortfall.

This longstanding issue has been exacerbated by a recent surge in applications: bids for the latest Starting and Advanced Grant calls increased by 22 and 31 per cent respectively, with many more bids coming from the United States.

Partly in response to these trends, the European Commission has proposed to double the ERC budget to about €31 billion over 2028-34.

‘More international than ever’

Despite the low success rate, Leptin hailed the successful research teams as “more international than ever”.

Unlike other ERC schemes, Synergy Grants support collaboration between several principal investigators. The 66 awards in the latest round bring together 239 PIs, with projects to be carried out in 26 countries in Europe and beyond.

This includes six projects with PIs based in EU countries that have so far hosted few ERC grants: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and Portugal. Additionally, over 40 per cent of the projects will involve one PI based outside the EU and its associated countries.

EU research commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva said: “Twenty-eight of the 66 newly selected teams include a researcher based outside Europe, mainly in the United States, but also Canada, Australia, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa and Singapore.

“Europe’s frontier research has never been so international. This global collaboration strengthens European science, gives our researchers access to world-class expertise and infrastructure, and brings leading scientists from around the world closer to Europe.”

The grants will provide an average of €10.3 million to each successful team, totalling €684m.