The workshop will take place on 5 February 2016 at the Auditorium, University of Malta, Valletta Campus. The training workshop will be held from 09:00 till 15:30.
University of Malta academics interested in this a unique opportunity can fill in and submit the online form.
While the 2017 calls for ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants have not been published yet, this workshop will discuss the European Research Council (ERC) and panel specifics for the scientific proposal and Principal Investigator, with specific focus on how to write an ERC proposal.
To address the selection criteria, the applicant should define an ambitious overall aim with a clear set of objectives/research questions, and explain how and why the scientific approach proposed is suited to address the objectives. Depending on the scientific scope the evaluation panels have different focuses. Most panels are selecting projects that validate a novel hypothesis, generate high quality data, and lead to fundamental insight into mechanisms and material and thereby contributing significantly to new knowledge. Other panels are selecting projects leading to a new theory, device or methodology valuable for different applications. In this workshop novelty, groundbreaking and impact related to the topic, concept and scientific approach will be examined, while taking into account the panel specifics and the research field.
Project specific issues, like high-gain/high risk and feasibility and their interpretation by the different panels, will be addressed. The key steps in the proposal preparation will be looked into by asking questions such as:
- Have you thought about alternative approaches or mitigation plans?
- How can you convince the reviewer of the feasibility?
Aspects of feasibility, like clear project structure, intermediary goals, time schedules and contingency plans, will be discussed.
Panel specifics concerning the quality of the CVs and track-record of selected PI's will also be dealt with, as for example:
- What is the norm per panel and what does this mean for the CVs of the participants planning to submit under H2020?
- What "actions" do participants have to highlight or undertake, to bring their CV in line with the expectations of the selected panel?