One of the key tasks of ICUB is to identify and fund research projects with a chance of becoming successful projects in the European research project market. In this way, ICUB aims to co-opt high-performance research teams at an European level and to form research groups and even think tanks with notable performances in a certain field over time. The pre-project scholarship system offers the possibility to select high-performance projects and exceptional researchers from the level of preparation of research projects. These projects will be transformed into project files for European projects (in the first stage only ERC projects are targeted: ERC Starting Grants, ERC Consolidator Grants, ERC Advanced Grants, ERC Synergy, but the list of projects will be able to expand to Horizon 2020 competitions or bilateral projects) which will be hosted by ICUB during their development.
The ERC pre-application scholarship system aims to bring to ICUB researchers with already proven potential and chances to access projects such as ERC Starting Grants, ERC Consolidator Grants, ERC Advanced Grants, ERC Synergy, respectively researchers who:
– meet the minimum requirements for these types of projects for which they will submit the application at the end of the project period;
– have an already recognized international research profile (by participating to international conferences or talks as a guest, invited courses or seminars at foreign universities, doctoral or postdoctoral fellowships at prestigious institutions, etc.) and
– a research record consisting of publications in international journals, citations in the community of specialists and at least one significant[1] paper published since the doctorate.
These project managers will in turn set up international research teams and will be able to contribute, over time, to the formation of strengthened research groups.
Presentation of pre-project scholarships
Pre-project fellowships involve the funding, for a maximum of 6 months, of a project director (‘principal investigator’) preparing a project at a European level (see above). Pre-project fellowships provide funding for research and preparation of the project proposal.
Funding is provided from the ICUB budget, from which an amount of no more than 25,000 lei will be allocated for each selected project, ensuring:
- Funds for the organization of international exploratory seminars with potential project partners.
- Travel funds: research internships, working visits to institutions hosting ERC-type projects, participation in conferences with relevant presentations on the project theme.
- Logistics funds to support research activities, in order to obtain preliminary results or complete research included in the topic of the project proposal.
ICUB will provide assistance in project preparation through:
- providing a workspace within the ICUB and the possibility to use the ICUB infrastructure (seminar rooms, computers, scientific databases);
- providing administrative and accounting assistance in project preparation.
Obligations of scholarship holders:
- To prepare and submit an ERC project on time, knowing that non-submission of the project is sanctioned with the return of the amounts received within the scholarship.
- To present the structure of the project and the request for its submission in a public seminar.
Eligibility:
- For ERC Starting Grant: Fulfilment of eligibility requirements for an ERC Starting Grant in the next competition.
- For ERC Consolidator Grant pre-project scholarships: Eligibility for an ERC Consolidator Grant in the next competition.
- For ERC Advanced Grant pre-project scholarships: Eligibility for an ERC Advanced Grant in the next competition.
- For ERC Synergy Grant pre-project scholarships: Eligibility for an ERC Synergy Grant in the next competition.
Calendar:
Each request will be announced 12 months before the ERC project submission date for that call. Filing for ERC Pre-Project Scholarships will be done 9 months before the official ERC deadline for the respective competition. The evaluation of the received files will be done so that the contracting can take place 6 months before the submission of the ERC projects.
Selection system
A three-stage selection system:
1. The stage of verifying the eligibility criteria
The following aspects will be checked:
• The project manager meets the minimum criteria required to apply for ERC projects;
• There are no conflicts of interest;
• The project is in English and complies with the project development standards presented on the ERC page.
2. The evaluation stage in a committee of experts
Projects applying for an ERC pre-project fellowship will be evaluated in a committee formed at the level of each section of ICUB. The Commission will be composed of a maximum of 5 members, foreign evaluators, with internationally recognized scientific activities, which are not in situations of conflict of interest, kinship or affinity with the applicant, appointed by the coordinator of the ICUB section in which he / she is a candidate. The evaluators will have 3 weeks to complete the evaluation and will not be remunerated for this activity. Given that the funding applications will be evaluated by foreign evaluators, the candidates’ projects will be evaluated with a rating system (A +, A, A-, B +, B, B-, C +, C, C-, D), used to evaluate international projects. In point system, they are equivalent as follows: 10 = A +; 9 = A; 8 = A-; 7 = B +; 6 = B; 5 = B-; 4 = C +; 3 = C; 2 = C-; 1 = D). Projects evaluated with A-, A and A + (score greater than or equal to 8, as an average of the evaluation criteria) will be selected for the next stage.The Commission will evaluate the proposals received with one of the grades A +, A, B +, B, C +, C …. list of candidates’ publications. Based on the ratings, a list of selected projects will be prepared.
3. Stage of validation and ranking of projects
The final list will be discussed and approved by the ICUB Board of Directors at the request of the Section Coordinators.
Application system
The application file will contain:
• CV (with list of papers and research ID) – written in English, according to the submission requirements for ERC applications (Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant, Advanced Grant, Synergy Grant).
• The text of section c) of Part B1, “Early achievements track-record” (see ERC documentation).
• Sample writing: the 5 (Starting Grants) or 10 (Consolidator Grants) representative publications.
• A summary of the project proposal (maximum one page; similar to the first page of the ERC documentation).
• a letter of intent in which the candidate explains how such a pre-project grant will help him / her to turn the pre-project into a successful project. The letter of intent will also contain a description of how the requested funds will be used.
The application file will be sent by email to office@icub.unibuc.ro by the date specified for each type of ERC grant (see above).
This procedure shall enter into force on the date of its approval by the Senate of the University of Bucharest and shall take effect until its express repeal.
More information is available here.
[1] This requirement also appears among the minimum requirements for ERC Starting Grants. “Significant work” means: critical edition of a reference work (published in the international circuit), author’s volume published by a prestigious international publishing house, editing of a collection of works that has already had an impact in a certain field (impact is estimated by number of citations). These papers must prove independence in research (published independently by the coordinator of the doctoral thesis). See ERC Work Program, http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018_2020/erc/h2020-wp18-erc_en.pdf.