Workshop on EU FP7

1. Workshop on EU FP7 Dimitra Koutsantoni John Montgomery

2. What is new in FP7? Programmes, themes,funding schemes Rules of participation/eligibility Funding opportunities for Social Scientists: New themes New programmes (ERC-Starting researcher grant) Changes in existing programmes (Marie Curie) Calls timetable and deadlines Making an application Forms (electronic forms, parts of the form) Structuring a proposal-what to include Evaluation criteria-how to address them Where to go for information (websites, etc) Partners (where to find them, paperwork needed) Costing issues Dos and Don’ts Overview of workshop

3. What is new in FP7? • More money! (€54 billion vs. €19 billion in FP6) • New terminology • New programmes and themes • New costing rules • Simplified application guidelines and procedures • Fewer evaluation criteria (for example no 'relevance to Commission objectives' criterion, though they still need to be addressed!) • Higher rates of reimbursement • Changes to reporting and audits

4. New terminology

5. The programmes • Cooperation (new theme: Socio-economic sciences and humanities) • Ideas (new, European Research Council-ERC) • People (Marie Curie-changes) • Capacities • EURATOM • Joint Research Centre (similar to UK Research Councils)

6. FP7 Funding Schemes • Collaborative Projects (CP) • Networks of Excellence • Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) • Support for Frontier Research (ERC) • Research for the Benefit of Specific Groups • Support for Training and Career Development of Researchers (Marie Curie) • Combinations – e.g. CP and CSA

7. General eligibility criteria • Three independent participants from three different Member States (MS) or Associated countries (AC) • Additional conditions can be established by the work programme or specific programme • Co-ordination and Support Actions/Training – at leastone legal entity (no limit on place of establishment) • Frontier research actions (ERC) – at least one legal entity established in a MS or AC

8. EU-27 Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK Associated Countries (FP7) Croatia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey Third Countries (not EU-27 or AC) low-income, lower-middle-income or upper-middle-income country, identified as such in the work programmes Note: Industrialised third countries (such as Australia, Canada and the USA) can participate under the FP7 ‘Rules for participation’, but under their own funding, unless specifically set out differently in the relevant work programme Member States (MS), Associated countries (AC), Third countries

9. Cooperation: Socio-economic sciences and humanities ICT Energy Transport Read work programmes carefully to identify suitable research questions ERC-Starting Research Grant Marie Curie Actions ITNs (International Training Networks) Industry Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPPs) Capacities: Science in Society Research Infrastructures Funding opportunities for Social Scientists

10. Cooperation: themes • Health • Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology • Information and CommunicationTechnologies • Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies • Energy • Environment and Climate Change • Transport • Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities(new theme) • Space • Security Research

11. Socio-economic sciences and humanities: research questions to be addressed • Growth, employment and competitiveness in a knowledge society (innovation, competitiveness and labour market policies; education and life long learning; and economic structures and productivity) • A combination of economic, social and environmental objectives in a European perspective (socio-economic models within Europe and across the world; economic and social and cohesion across regions, the social and economic dimensions of environmental policy) • Major trends in society and their implications (demographic change, reconciling family and work, health and quality of life, youth policies, social exclusion and discrimination) • Europe in the world (trade, migration, poverty, crime, conflict and resolution) • The citizen in the European Union (political participation, citizenship and rights, democracy and accountability, the media, cultural diversity and heritage, religions, attitudes and values) • Socio-economic and scientific indicators (the use and value of indicators in policymaking at macro and micro levels) • Foresight activities (the future implications of global knowledge, migration, ageing, risk and the emerging domains in research and science).

12. Ideas: European Research Council (1) Two funding schemes: • ERC Starting Grantattract & retain the next generation of researchers • ERC Advanced Grantattractive & prestigious grants for established leaders

13. Eligibility for ERC Starting grant: Applicants should have at least 2 years of experience after their PhD, but no more than 9 years This can be extended by up to 12 years after the PhD in special circumstances (maternity/paternity leave, military/civil service) No allowance for part-time work (e.g. 2 yrs half time=2 yrs full time) Preference for projects NOT to be collaborative Need for collaborators MUST be absolutely justified Ideas: European Research Council (2)

14. People: Marie Curie actions (1): Funding schemes

15. People: Marie Curie actions (2) Host Actions-This means: • Host institutions/network applies for a number of fellows/researchers • Host’s proposal is evaluated • Selected host/network advertises fellowship position and selects fellows/researchers • Contract duration with host, usually 4 years • Fellows’ stay depending on Action (up to 3 • years)

16. Multi-site projects, mono-sites or twinnings At least at post-graduate or equivalent level researchers, typically during the first five years(or full-time equivalent) of their careers in research (with some exceptions) Typical Activities of an ITN: Training activities Networking Visits and secondments Visiting scientists Organisation of international conferences and other training events open to external researchers Recruitment procedure should be in line with the principles set out in the European Charter for Researchers and in the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. See: http://ec.europa.eu/eracareers/europeancharter For a number of European policy links, see: http://www.grad.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Policy/European_policy/p!eFjlkal ITNs

17. Two-way partnership with at least one commercial enterprise and one academic organisation in two different Member or Associated Countries Typical activities: Staff secondments between both sectors within the partnership Temporary hosting in both sectors of experienced researchers recruited from outside the partnership workshops and conferences As an SME specific measure: a contribution to small equipment related to their participation in the co-operation. Industry-academia partnerships and pathways

18. Marie Curie actions-Differences between FP7 and FP6

19. Science in Society: 3 action lines Action Line 1: A more dynamic governance on the science and society relationship Action Line 2: Strengthening potential, broadening horizons Action Line 3: Science and society communicate Action Line 2: The evolving role of universities Defining better conditions for university research Partnerships with the business sector Reinforcing knowledge-sharing Gender and research Young people and science Capacities (1)

20. Capacities (2) Research Infrastructures • ‘soft’ tools • databases • surveys • e.g. SHARE-Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

21. 25 April: ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant- Call identifier: ERC-2007-StG –A 7 May: Initial Training Networks-Call identifier: FP7-PEOPLE-2007-1-1-ITN 10 May and 29 November: Socio-economic sciences and humanities-Call identifier: FP7-SSH-2007-1 31 May: Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways: FP7-PEOPLE-2007-3-1-IAPP Calls: timetable and deadlines

22. Making an application (1) • Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS) (available at least four weeks before the call deadline) • Co-ordinator must register on CORDIS and be sent password and access details • Passes on access to other participants • Complete A forms • Upload .pdf file of Part B (10Mb limit) • Can revise up to deadline • Deadline strictly enforced • ‘Submission’ must be selected • EPSS user guide on: http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber_services/fp6/submission_evaluation/epss/050803_epss_user_guide.pdf

23. Making an application (2) The application forms • Part A • Participant Identity Code (PIC) - a unique organisational identifier, not running for first calls • Basic info – call details, title, summary, partners, budget… • Part B Cover Page, Table of Contents S&T Quality (plus templates for work packages, deliverables and milestones) Implementation Impact Ethical Issues Consideration of gender issues

24. Take the steer from the Work Programme Understand the Commission’s objectives Be aware of Lisbon and Barcelona objectives and mention them!!! Also mention recent relevant communications from the European Commission (e.g. White and Green Papers) Be aware of the outcome of previous programmes and the nature of ongoing projects Understand the funding schemes Know what the evaluator is looking for (read evaluation criteria in work programme) Writing the proposal-general guidelines (1)

25. Involve all partners Think about the impact of the project European or Regional Economy Impact on European Policy or Legislation Social Impact Ensure that ALL aspects are addressed (science, management, integration, training, technology transfer, dissemination….) Pay attention to layout Follow the guidance Stick to the guidelines e.g. page and budget limits Address ethical, safety, regulatory and gender issues Writing the proposal-general guidelines (2)

26. Cooperation: Evaluation criteria(1) S/T Quality Excellence Implementation Impact 3/5 3/5 3/5 3/5 Overall threshold 10/15 Relevance

27. Cooperation: Evaluation criteria (2) Addressing ‘S & T Quality’: • Have you explained the concept of the project? • Have you clearly identified your objectives? • Are your objectives achievable within your project? • Have you addressed the state-of-the-art? • Do you have improvement or innovation? • Have you clearly described your aims and methodology? • Have you described your overall strategy of the work plan? • Have you used Gantt Charts ? • Are the work packages explained?

28. Addressing ‘Implementation’: Have you described the management structure? Do you have an information management strategy? Do you have a knowledge management strategy? Its it matched to the complexity and scale of the project? Individual Participants and the Consortium as a whole: Have you identified the role of the co-ordinator? Have you described individual participants? Have you explained the consortium structure? Do you have the appropriate personnel/is it well balanced? Can you demonstrate relevant management experience? Do partners have the appropriate equipment? Can they illustrate integrated financial planning? Can they illustrate integrated project planning? Cooperation: Evaluation criteria (3)

29. Cooperation:Evaluation criteria (4) Addressing ‘Impact’: • Have you described how your project will contribute to the expected impacts in the Work Programme? • Does the project have suitably ambitious goals? • Can you illustrate a contribution to economic competitiveness? • Can you illustrate impact on quality of life? • Can you illustrate the effect of shaping research in the field? • Have you elaborated on your dissemination strategy? • What about exploitation of results, IP (if appropriate) and knowledge management?

30. ERC-Starting Grant: Evaluation criteria (1) (1) Potential of applicant (?/5) (2) Quality of project (?/5) (3) Research Environment ("pass/fail" and commented but not scored)

31. ERC-Starting Grant: Evaluation criteria (2) • Principal Investigator: Potential to become a world class research leader a. Quality of research output • Has the Principal Investigator published in high quality peer reviewed journals or the equivalent? • To what extent are these publications ground-breaking and demonstrative of independent creative thinking and capacity to go significantly beyond the state of the art? b. Intellectual capacity and creativity • To what extent does the Principal Investigator's record of research, collaborations, project conception, supervision of students and publications demonstrate that he/she is able to confront major research challenges in the field, and to initiate new productive lines of thinking?

32. ERC-Starting Grant: Evaluation criteria (3) (2) Quality of the research proposal a. Ground-breaking nature of the research • Does the proposed research address important challenges in the field(s) addressed? • Does it have suitably ambitious objectives, which go substantially beyond the current state of the art (e.g. including trans-disciplinary developments and novel or unconventional approaches)? b. Potential impact • Does the research open new and important, scientific, technological or scholarly horizons? c. Methodology • Stage 1: Is the outlined scientific approach (including the activities to be undertaken by the individual team members) feasible? • Stage 2: Is the proposed research methodology (including when pertinent the use of instrumentation, other type of infrastructures etc.) comprehensive and appropriate for to the project? Will it enable the goals of the project convincingly to be achieved within the timescales and resources proposed and the level of risk associated with a challenging research project?

33. ERC-Starting Grant: Evaluation criteria (4) (3). Research Environment a. Transition to independence • Will the proposed project enable the Principal Investigator to make or consolidate the transition to independence? b. Host institution [normally applicant legal entity] • Does the institution hosting the project have most of the infrastructure necessary for the research to be carried out? • Is it in a position to provide an appropriate intellectual environment and infrastructural support and to assist in achieving the ambitions for the project and the Principal Investigator? c. Participation of other legal entities • If it is proposed that other legal entities participate in the project, in addition to the applicant legal entity, is their participation fully justified by the scientific added value they bring to the project?

34. Marie Curie: Evaluation Criteria (1) (1) S & T Quality • Inter/multi-disciplinary, intersectoral and/ or newly emerging supra-disciplinary fields • Scientific quality of the research programme • Appropriateness of research methodology • Originality and innovative aspect of the research programme • Knowledge of the state-of-the-art (2) Training and knowledge transfer • Quality of the training programme • Several methods of training • Complementary skills offered: Management, Communication, IPR, Ethics, Grant writing, Commercial exploitation of results, Research Policy, entrepreneurship, etc. • Conferences and training courses part of training package

35. Marie Curie: Evaluation Criteria (2) (3) Implementation • Infrastructure, work plan, feasibility of project • Adherence to principles of Code of Conduct of the Recruitment of Researchers • Detailed management processes and plan (4) Impact • Long-term collaboration prospects • Researcher professional development • For IAPPs: extent of SMEs’ participation, adequacy of infrastructure Note:If you have received previous funding under the Marie Curie actions under the Seventh Framework programme or under similar actions under previous Framework Programmes, you have to clearly demonstrate the substantial added value of the new project in relation to the project previously financed.

36. Where to find information CORDIS: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ncp_en.html ERC Home page: http://erc.europa.eu/index_en.cfm UKRO: http://www.ukro.ac.uk http://www.ukro.ac.uk/mariecurie http://www.ukro.ac.uk/erc EC’s Framework Programme Websites: http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm http://cordis.europa.eu/en/home.html Cass Research Support pages: http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/ressupport/secure/eu.html

37. Policy websites Information on green and white papers, reports & press releases: http://europa.eu/documents/comm/index_en.htm EUR-Lex (EU legislation): http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm Official statistics agency of the EU - wide range of useful data for your proposal: http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/ Lisbon Strategy: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/et_2010_en.h ml European Research Area: http://cordis.europa.eu/era/concept.htm Barcelona objectives: http://cordis.europa.eu/era/3percent.htm

38. Where to find them: CORDIS:http://cordis.europa.eu/partners-service/ Welcome Europe: http://www.welcomeurope.com/default.asp?id=1510 UKRO: (electronic system currently down, but UKRO can put you in touch with partners) Singleimage:http://www.singleimage.co.uk/index.html Documentation needed: Consortium agreement (draft can be found on UKRO website) Advice: If you already have contacts in other countries, use those (safer!) Network in conferences, seminars, etc. Partners

39. Costing issues (1) Costs are eligible if: • Actual • Incurred during the project • Determined according to usual accounting and management principles • Used solely for project objectives • Consistent with principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness • Recorded in accounts • Exclusive of non-eligible costs

40. Costing issues (2) Management costs include: • maintenance of the consortium agreement, if it is obligatory • the overall legal, ethical, financial and administrative management including [for each of the beneficiaries] obtaining the certificates on the financial statements or on the methodology • implementation of competitive calls by the consortium for the participation of new beneficiaries, where required by Annex I • obtaining any financial security such as bank guarantees, when requested by the Commission • any other management activities foreseen by the annexes, except coordination of research and technological development activities • NB 7% limit of total costs in FP6 limit removed but….participants are expected to self-regulate

41. Carefully read the text in the work programme Research previous and current projects Meet with consortium partners (if applicable) Register in EPSS Make sure all forms are completed correctly Get someone to read through your proposal Discuss budget early with us For ERC: Absolutely adhere to page limits-longer proposals WILL NOT be evaluated Submit before the deadline-STRONGLY advised! Register as an expert with CORDIS (evaluator, reviewer or monitor expert): https://cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7/ Contact us for advice and support Register with UKRO Attend UKRO proposal writing training events Dos!

42. Don’ts! • Do not undertake co-ordination of a consortium if this is your first EU application • Do not submit a proposal without having obtained approval from the university (this involves contacting us and having us cost and process your application) • Do not submit proposals for collaborative projects to ERC • Do not solely rely on CORDIS/UKRO etc. for finding partners-use existing contacts • Do not submit on the last day of the deadline!!!

43. Any questions?

44. We are here to help! We can give you detailed information on: the work programme how to apply how to structure the proposal what documentation you need eligible costs Call us on extensions: 0140 (Dimitra) 4193 (John) E-mail us: dimitra.koutsantoni.1@city.ac.uk j.montgomery@city.ac.uk If you are thinking of applying for EU funding…

45. Further training • UKRO (free): http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber_services/events/index.htm#0607_training_development • Bluebell Research: http://www.bluebell-res.co.uk/