Äîêóìåíò âçÿò èç êýøà ïîèñêîâîé ìàøèíû. Àäðåñ îðèãèíàëüíîãî äîêóìåíòà : http://ideas.msu.ru/docs/Guide_SyG_2012.pdf Äàòà èçìåíåíèÿ: Tue May 29 15:15:22 2012 Äàòà èíäåêñèðîâàíèÿ: Mon Oct 1 19:29:57 2012 Êîäèðîâêà:

European Research Council

ERC Grant Schemes Guide for Applicants for the Synergy Grant 2012 Call
Version of 10/10/2011

The Guide is published by the ERC Scientific Council on http://erc.europa.eu It can also be downloaded from the Participant Portal on http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FP7 Specific Programme IDEAS


Purpose of the Guide
This guide provides practical information to potential applicants in preparing and submitting an application for an ERC Synergy Grant. In addition, it provides a general overview on the ERC peer review evaluation process and presents the main features of the ERC grant agreement and the management of ERC grants. The ERC Guide for Applicants for the Synergy Grant call is divided into three parts: 1: Applying for an ERC Synergy Grant 2: Managing ERC grants 3: Annexes For detailed information on the ERC peer review evaluation process, the ERC grant agreement and the management of ERC grants, the following document is available on the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu/document-library: o Guide for ERC Peer Reviewers1: This guide provides practical information to peer reviewers as well as detailed information on the peer review evaluation and project selection process. ERC Model Grant Agreement: The grant agreement, which will be concluded between the ERC and the host institution of the Corresponding2 Principal Investigator3 (the Corresponding HI4). Templates for the 'Supplementary Agreements' between each PI and their respective host institution will be made available on the ERC website (http://erc.europa.eu/) in early 20125. For general information on the Model Grant Agreement, please see the Guide to Financial Issues relating to FP7 Indirect Actions6.

o

The present guide is based on the legal documents setting the rules and conditions for the ERC grant schemes, in particular the ERC Work Programme, the ERC rules for the submission of proposals and the related evaluation, selection and award procedures relevant to the 'Ideas' Specific Programme, and the ERC Model Grant Agreement. This guide does not supersede the afore-mentioned documents, which are legally binding. The European Commission, the ERC Executive Agency or any person or body acting on their behalf cannot be held responsible for the use made of the guide. For further information, please go to the website at http://erc.europa.eu/contact-us

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Please note that a specific version for the ERC Synergy Grant will be published in early 2012. Any reference to 'Corresponding Principal Investigator' or 'Corresponding PI' refers to the 'Lead Principal Investigator' as described in the ERC Work Programme 2012. Similarly, any reference to 'Corresponding Host Institution' or 'Corresponding HI' refers to the host institution of the 'Lead/Corresponding Principal Investigator'. 3 In the case where the PIs are not engaged by the same host institution of the Corresponding PI, the other host institutions of the other PIs shall be beneficiaries to the grant agreement. 4 Any referral in this Guide to 'Corresponding Host Institution' or 'Corresponding HI' means the host institution of the Corresponding PI and any referral to 'host institutions' means the host institutions of the group of PIs where more than one host institution is associated with the proposal or project. 5 In case of more than one host institution, the other host institution(s) will be requested to undertake the same obligations through a supplementary agreement signed with their respective PI(s). 6 http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/guide%20to%20financial%20issues.pdf

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Note: As with other parts of the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme, National Contact Points (ERC NCPs) have been set up across Europe7 by the national governments to provide information and personalised support to ERC applicants in their native language. The mission of the ERC NCPs is to raise awareness, inform and advise on ERC funding opportunities as well as to support potential applicants in the preparation, submission and follow-up of ERC grant applications. For details on the ERC NCP in your country please consult the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu/ncp

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This applies to EU Member States and Associated Countries. Some third countries also provide this service.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PURPOSE OF THE GUIDE ....................................................................................................................... 2 THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL ................................................................................................ 6 THE ROLE OF THE ERC SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL ................................................................................. 6 THE ERC EXECUTIVE AGENCY ........................................................................................................... 6 1: APPLYING FOR AN ERC SYNERGY GRANT ..................................................................................... 7 1.1 ABOUT THE ERC SYNERGY GRANT FUNDING SCHEME ...................................................... 8 1.1.1 What kind of research can be funded? ................................................................................................ 8 1.1.2 Who can apply for an ERC Synergy Grant? ....................................................................................... 9 1.1.3 Who could be a competitive candidate for an ERC Synergy Grant? ................................................ 10 1.1.4 What is the level of funding of an ERC Synergy Grant? ................................................................... 11 1.1.5 Where can the Principal Investigators run an ERC-funded research activity? ................................ 12 1.2 PREPARING AND SUBMITTING AN ERC SYNERGY GRANT APPLICATION ...................... 14 1.2.1 When are the grant applications submitted? .................................................................................... 14 1.2.2 How are the grant applications completed? ..................................................................................... 15 1.2.2.1 Overview of the grant application ................................................................................................ 15 1.2.2.2 Instructions for completing 'Part A' of the proposal .................................................................... 15 1.2.2.3 Instructions for completing 'Part B' of the proposal .................................................................... 26 1.2.2.4 Supporting Documentation .......................................................................................................... 31 1.2.3 Is the proposal ready for evaluation? ............................................................................................... 31 1.2.4 How are the grant applications submitted? ...................................................................................... 32 1.2.4.1 EPSS registration and submission ............................................................................................... 32 1.2.4.2 EPSS proposal submission ........................................................................................................... 32 1.2.4.3 How is the proposal submitted via EPSS? ................................................................................... 34 1.2.4.4 Has the proposal been received by the ERCEA? ......................................................................... 34 1.2.4.5 How is a proposal modified or withdrawn? ................................................................................. 34 1.3 EVALUATION AND SELECTION OF GRANT PROPOSALS ................................................... 35 1.3.1 Eligibility Check................................................................................................................................ 35 1.3.2 Peer review evaluation of proposals ................................................................................................. 35 1.3.2.1 What are the ERC Synergy Grant evaluation panels? ................................................................. 36 1.3.2.2 Two-step peer review evaluation.................................................................................................. 36 1.3.3 Ethics review ..................................................................................................................................... 38 1.3.4 Evaluation criteria ............................................................................................................................ 38 1.3.4.1 Application of criteria .................................................................................................................. 40 1.3.5 Feedback to applicants ..................................................................................................................... 40 Redress ............................................................................................................................................................ 41 2: M ANAGING ERC SYNERGY GRANTS .............................................................................................. 42 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 PREPARATION OF A GRANT AGREEMENT ........................................................................... 43 FLEXIBILITY WITHIN AN ERC GRANT AGREEMENT ............................................................ 43 2.2.1 Change of scientific strategy and/or objectives ................................................................................ 43 2.2.2 Grant portability ............................................................................................................................... 43 PROJECT PROGRESS REPORTING ........................................................................................ 44 2.3.1 Scientific reporting............................................................................................................................ 44 2.3.2 Financial reporting ........................................................................................................................... 44 PAYMENT OF ERC GRANTS .................................................................................................... 45 PUBLICATION AND EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS................................................................ 45 2.5.1 Acknowledging ERC support ............................................................................................................ 45 2.5.2 Dissemination, exploitation and IPR ................................................................................................ 45 FURTHER INFORM ATION AND SUPPORT .............................................................................. 45

3: ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................................ 47 ANNEX 1: ERC KEYWORDS .................................................................................................................. 48 Social Sciences and Humanities ...................................................................................................................... 48 Physical Sciences and Engineering ................................................................................................................. 50

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Life Sciences .................................................................................................................................................... 54 ANNEX 2: ETHICAL ISSUES ................................................................................................................. 58 Annex 2a: Specific Information on Ethical Issues ........................................................................................... 58 Annex 2b: Ethical Issues Table (template) ...................................................................................................... 62 ANNEX 3: TEMPLATE OF BUDGET TABLE ......................................................................................... 65 ANNEX 4: COMMITMENT OF THE CORRESPONDING HOST INSTITUTION..................................... 66 ANNEX 5: SECURITY ISSUES .............................................................................................................. 69 Annex 5a: Security Aspects Letter (template) ................................................................................................. 71 Annex 5b: Security Classification Guide (template) ....................................................................................... 72


The European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) is a European funding initiative, designed to support the best scientists, engineers and scholars in Europe. The ERC's mandate is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-initiated frontier research across all fields of research, on the basis of scientific excellence. Three types of ERC grants are currently available to support researchers in carrying out frontier research projects: ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant (ERC Starting Grant), ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (ERC Advanced Grant) and ERC Synergy Grant. In addition, ERC grant holders can now apply for additional funding through a Coordination and Support Action to establish the innovation potential of ideas arising from their ERCfunded frontier research projects. Grants are awarded and managed according to simple procedures that maintain the focus on excellence, encourage creativity and combine flexibility with accountability. The ERC, which is established by the European Commission and funded through the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme with a budget of EUR 7.51 bn for 7 years (FP7, 2007-2013), complements other funding schemes in Europe, such as those of research funding agencies operating at the national level and those within the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme. The ERC consists of a Scientific Council and an Executive Agency. It operates under conditions of autonomy and integrity, guaranteed by the European Commission, to which it is accountable.

The role of the ERC Scientific Council
The Scientific Council establishes the overall scientific strategy of the ERC, including the annual W ork Programme where the calls for proposals and the corresponding funding rules and selection criteria are defined. The Scientific Council establishes and oversees the ERC's scientific management and the implementation of the Work Programme, including the peer review and project selection processes and the selection of peer reviewers.

The ERC Executive Agency
The ERC Executive Agency implements the FP7 Specific Programme 'Ideas' and manages ERC operations. It executes the annual Work Programme as established by the Scientific Council, implements calls for proposals and organises peer review evaluation in accordance with methodologies designed by the Scientific Council, and establishes and manages grant agreements. Additionally, it provides information and support to applicants and grant holders.

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1 : Applying for an ERC Synergy Grant

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1.1 About the ERC Synergy Grant funding scheme
Building on the success of its support for individual Principal Investigators (PIs), the ERC is extending its portfolio of instruments to cover small group-scale research efforts in EU Member States8 and Associated Countries9. ERC Synergy Grants are intended to enable a small group of PIs and their teams to bring together complementary skills, knowledge, and resources in new ways, in order to jointly address research problems. The aim is to promote substantial advances in the frontiers of knowledge, and to encourage new productive lines of enquiry and new methods and techniques, including unconventional approaches and investigations at the interface between established disciplines. The peer review evaluation will therefore look for proposals that demonstrate the synergies, complementarities and added value that could lead to breakthroughs that would not be possible by the individual PIs working alone. The grant can be up to a maximum of EUR 15 000 000 for a period up to six years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). Box 1:
· · · · ·

Guiding principles of the ERC Synergy Grant
Scientific excellence is the sole selection criterion. Projects in all fields of research are eligible for funding . A small group of PIs (2-4) with a designated Corresponding PI is supported. Grants are awarded to the host institution that engages the Corresponding PI . The host institution(s) guarantee(s) the PIs' independence and provides the research environment to carry out the project and manage the funding.
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1.1.1 What kind of research can be funded?
Applications may be made in any field of research covered by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union10. The ERC seeks pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research or proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and scientific inventions. The expected impact on science, scholarship or engineering should be significant. New types of joint effort may be needed perhaps built around specialized infrastructure, or that allow for new combinations of skills and disciplines, or the bringing together of researchers from different institutions, sectors or countries. It is therefore expected that the organization of such activities will vary widely, depending on the particular needs of the research.

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The EU Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom. 9 The Associated Countries are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Faroe Islands, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. Moldova shall be considered to be an Associated Country for all grant agreements signed after 1 January 2012. 10 Research proposals within the scope of Annex I of the EURATOM Treaty directed toward nuclear energy applications should be submitted to relevant calls under the Seventh EURATOM Research Framework Programme (this annex is available at: http://eurlex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/12006A/12006A_AN1.htm).

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Some frontier research activities and methodologies may have ethical implications or may raise questions which will require sound ethical assessment in order to ensure that research supported by an ERC grant respects the fundamental ethical principles (see Annex 2). Additionally, as established in the ERC rules for the submission of proposals11, ERC actions addressing security-sensitive subjects need to be identified and scrutinised according to the applicable legislation (see Annex 5).

1.1.2 Who can apply for an ERC Synergy Grant?
Box 2: ERC Synergy Grant - Eligible Principal Investigators (PI)
· PIs applying for an ERC Synergy Grant should be active and innovative researchers who combine their skills and disciplines in new ways for the proposed frontier research. No specific eligibility criteria with respect to their academic requirements are foreseen. The ERC Synergy Grant is open to researchers of any age or nationality residing in any country in the world at the time of their application. PIs have to establish and conduct their research activity in a Member State or Associated 8,9 Country .

· ·

Restrictions on Applications As established in the ERC W ork Programme 2012, the following application rules12 apply for ERC Synergy Grants: · · · · A PI or Co-Investigator (Co-I)13 may only hold one grant from the ERC at any one time; A PI may submit only one proposal to the ERC per calendar year14; A PI who holds an ERC grant cannot submit a proposal for the ERC Synergy Grant unless that grant expires before 15 November 2013; A PI who is a serving Panel Member for the 2012 ERC Synergy call may not apply to the call.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Potential applicants must strictly observe these rules. Proposals which do not comply with these rules during the submission of a proposal may be ruled ineligible for the evaluation and will not be further reviewed.

11 12

See Annex D: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:327:0051:0070:EN:PDF Ineligible applications submitted to previous calls for proposals are not subject to the resubmission restrictions. 13 Co-Investigator projects were supported under the Ideas Work Programmes from 2008 ­ 2011. 14 Ineligible proposals do not count against this limit.

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1.1.3 Who could be a competitive candidate for an ERC Synergy Grant?
Groups applying for the ERC Synergy Grant must be made up of a minimum of two and a maximum of four Principal Investigators (PIs) and, as necessary, their teams15. One of the PIs must be designated as the Corresponding Principal Investigator (Corresponding PI) as 'primus inter pares'. Applicants for the ERC Synergy Grant are expected to be active researchers and must present an early achievement track-record or 10-year track-record whichever is most appropriate for their career stage (see section 1.2.2.3). There is little prospect of an application succeeding in the absence of such a record. It is expected that in most cases ERC Synergy groups will be interdisciplinary, often using multidisciplinary approaches; the description of the innovative ways of working together will be evaluated by peer reviewers. It is also expected that in most cases ERC Synergy groups will be physically located in the same place to ensure face to face contact for significant periods of 'core time' over the course of the project. The concept of 'core time' is left open, as is the concept of physical location in the same place, which could mean three departments in the same university or two research institutions in the same city or area. As stated in the W ork Programme, any group which can demonstrate the synergies, complementarities and added value that will make the whole greater than the sum of the parts in order to promote substantial advances in the frontiers of knowledge will be considered. This means that ERC Synergy groups may be of either national or trans-national character. Neither the Corresponding PI nor the other PIs necessarily need to be employed by the Corresponding Host Institution or by the additional participating host institution(s) at the time of submission of the proposal. If not already employed by the Corresponding Host Institution or the additional participating host institution(s) in the case of a multi-beneficiary grant agreement, the PIs must be engaged by their host institution(s) at least for the duration of the grant. The composition of the individual research teams is flexible and may involve, for instance, senior researchers, post docs, graduate students, PhD researchers and administrative assistants. Depending on the nature of a project these researchers can be from the PI's research group and/or from the same institution, or may be from other research institutions situated in the same country or may be hosted by other institutions that can be located in any country, including third countries16. Team members can be of any age, nationality and country of residence. Team members operate under the leadership of the PIs. Their participation (and possible funding to support the work of the respective team members) is subject to appraisal by the ERC peer review evaluation panels, which assess whether their involvement is justified and essential in terms of scientific competence and capacities. The legal entities hosting/engaging these additional team members shall also become beneficiaries (i.e. additional participating beneficiaries of a multi-beneficiary grant agreement) in case funding is requested for their participation. PIs must be strongly committed to the project and should devote at least 30% of their total working time to the ERC-funded project and spend at least 50% of their total working time in Europe at the host institution(s) (EU Member State or Associated Country)17. With

15

In certain fields, research is often performed individually, aside from guiding research students. The term 'team' is therefore used in the broadest sense. It includes cases where an individual works independently. 16 Third countries are neither EU Member States nor Associated Countries. 17 A specification about each PI's commitment should be provided in part B1 and part B2.

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the support of the host institution(s), successful PIs will be expected to lead their teams and be fully engaged in the running of the ERC grant.

1.1.4 What is the level of funding of an ERC Synergy Grant?
As indicated in the ERC W ork Programme 2012 ­ section 6.3, the grant can be up to a maximum of EUR 15 000 000 for a period of up to six years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). The total requested grant should reflect a realistic estimation of the project needs and should not be unnecessarily inflated to reach the maximum grant level. The evaluation panels will review the requested grant and recommend the total amount to be granted on the basis of the needs of the project, using rounded figures. The panels may also suggest a modification to the indicative budgetary breakdown in the application but the PIs have the freedom to re-budget during the course of the project. An ERC Synergy grant can cover up to 100% of the total eligible direct costs of the research plus a flat-rate financing of indirect costs on the basis of 20% of the total eligible direct costs (excluding the direct eligible costs for subcontracting and the costs of resources made available by third parties which are not used on the premises of the host institution). The costs which can be covered by an ERC grant are described in Box 3. Please note that the above-mentioned limits include indirect costs. The level of the grant represents a maximum overall figure ­ payments must be justified on the basis of the amounts actually disbursed for the project. Project costs covered by third parties are allowed but need to be declared, and will be deducted from the total of eligible costs covered by the ERC grant. Nevertheless, ERC grants are expected to be significant and cover a major part of the project and its costs. Thus, ERC funding aims neither at topping up the funding of running projects, nor providing a means for co-funding. Applicants should specify any current research grants and their subject in the 'funding ID' included in part B1 section 1c. The actual project costs claimed should be presented in line with the usual management practices and accounting rules of the Corresponding Host Institution and the other additional host institution(s).

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Box 3: Eligible and non-eligible direct and indirect costs Direct eligible costs are those which support all the research, management, training and dissemination activities necessary for the project, such as: · Personnel Costs; · Equipment Costs; · Consumables; · Travel and Subsistence Costs; · Publication Costs (page charges and related fees for publication of results). Indirect eligible costs are those which cannot be identified as directly attributable to the project, but which are incurred in direct relationship with the project's direct eligible costs, such as: · Costs related to general administration and management; · Costs of office or laboratory space, including rent or depreciation of buildings and equipment, and related expenditure such as water, heating, electricity; · Maintenance, insurance and safety costs; · Communication expenses, network connection charges, postal charges and office supplies; · Common office equipment such as PCs, laptops, office software; · Miscellaneous recurring consumables. Non-eligible costs can not be reimbursed through the ERC grant, in particular: · Any identifiable indirect taxes, including VAT or duties; · Interest owed; · Provisions for possible future losses or charges; · Exchange losses; · Costs declared, incurred or reimbursed in respect of another Community project; · Costs related to return on capital; · Debt and debt service charges; · Excessive or reckless expenditure. More detailed information and documentation is provided in the Guide to Financial Issues relating to FP7 Indirect Actions: http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/guide%20to%20financial%20issues.pdf

1.1.5 Where can the Principal Investigators run an ERC-funded research activity?
A host institution can be any legal entity (public or private), which has the infrastructure and capacity to carry out a frontier research project, such as a university, a research organisation or a research-performing company. Research-performing companies can host a PI as long as the PI's independence is not constrained by the research strategy of the company. The project and all institutions hosting the PIs must be established in one of the EU Member States8 or the Associated Countries9. This does not exclude field-work or other research activities in cases where these must necessarily be conducted outside EU Member States or Associated Countries in order to achieve the scientific objectives of the project or activity. A host institution may also be an International European Interest Organisation18 or the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. The ERC Synergy grant is awarded to the Corresponding Host Institution (Corresponding HI) that engages and hosts the Corresponding PI for at least the duration of the grant. The Corresponding HI must provide a commitment letter offering appropriate conditions for

18

Such as: CERN, EMBL, ESA, ESO, ESRF, ILL.

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the Corresponding PI and the other PI(s) supported by it to independently direct the proposed research and manage the project's funding for its duration (see Annex 4)19. These conditions, including the 'portability' of the project, are the subject of an agreement between the Corresponding PI and the Corresponding HI (Supplementary Agreement) and are described in the ERC Model Grant Agreement20. The ERC Grant Agreement itself will be concluded between the ERCEA and the Corresponding HI, the latter becoming hereby the principal beneficiary of the ERC grant. In case of more than one host institution, the Corresponding HI will be the principal beneficiary and the other host institution(s) of the other PI(s) will be beneficiary(ies) upon the definitions of the ERC Model Grant Agreement. In such a case, the principal beneficiary and the other beneficiary(ies) shall make appropriate internal arrangements consistent with the provisions of the grant agreement to ensure the efficient implementation of the project. It is a condition for all ERC funding that the Corresponding HI commits to the following conditions of independence21, ensuring that the Corresponding PI and each of the PIs may19: · · · · · apply for funding independently; manage his/her part of the research and the funding for the project and make appropriate related resource allocation decisions; publish independently as senior author and include as co-authors only those who have contributed substantially to the reported work; supervise team members, including research students, doctoral students or others; have access to reasonable space and facilities for conducting the research.

Registration of legal entities in the Commission's Early Warning System (EWS) and Central Exclusion Database (CED) To protect the EU's financial interests, the Commission uses an internal information tool, the Early Warning System (EWS) to flag identified risks related to beneficiaries of centrally managed contracts and grants. Through systematic registration of financial and other risks the EW S enables the Commission services to take the necessary precautionary measures to ensure a sound financial management22. EW S registrations are not publicly disclosed. However, registrations will be transferred to the Central Exclusion Database (CED) if they relate to entities that have been excluded from EU funding because they are insolvent or have been convicted of a serious professional misconduct or criminal offence detrimental to EU financial interests. The data in CED are available to all public authorities implementing EU funds, i.e. European institutions, national agencies or authorities in Member States, and, subject to conditions for personal data protection, to third countries and international organisations.

19

In case of more than one host institution, the other host institution(s) will be requested to undertake the same obligations through a supplementary agreement signed with their respective PI(s). 20 Available on the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu/document-library 21 Note that the conditions of independence provided to the PI and his/her team are consistent with 'The European Charter for Researchers and The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers', C(2005)576, 11.03.2005. 22 The EWS covers situations such as significantly overdue recovery orders, judicial proceedings pending for serious administrative errors/fraud, findings of serious administrative errors/fraud, legal situations which exclude the beneficiary from funding.

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The W ork Programme informs the applicant that the details of their organisation(s) (or those of a person who has powers of representation, decision-making or control over it) may be registered in the EWS and the CED and be shared with public authorities as described in the relevant legal texts23. More information on the EWS and CED can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/budget/explained/management/protecting/protect_en.cfm

1.2 Preparing and submitting an ERC Synergy Grant application24
An ERC Synergy Grant application should be submitted by a Corresponding PI as 'primus inter pares' on behalf of the group. Together all the PIs have scientific responsibility for the group's project on behalf of the Corresponding Host Institution which is the applicant legal entity. Grant applications are assessed by peer review evaluation panels (ERC panels), which may be supported by additional independent experts. These ERC panels assess, score and rank the proposals. The key features of the ERC Grant application procedure are highlighted in Box 4. Box 4: Key features of the ERC grant application procedure
· · · · Applications should be submitted by the Corresponding PI in conjunction with and on behalf of the group and her/his host institution (the applicant legal entity). A proposal consists of administrative forms (part A), a research proposal (part B) and supporting documentation. Proposal formats and page numbers are strictly limited. Submission of all the documents is accepted only via the web-based Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS). The application procedure consists of a single submission stage. Strict rules apply for re-applications and multiple applications that must be checked before applying for a grant.

·

1.2.1 When are the grant applications submitted?
ERC grant applications can be submitted only in response to a 'call for proposals'. Calls announced in the ERC W ork Programme 2012 are published on the ERC website25, the Participant Portal26 and in the Official Journal of the European Union27. The provisional timing of these calls for proposals is indicated in the table below. ERC Synergy Grant Call Provisional Schedule ­ 2012 Call open
ERC-2012-SyG 25 October 2011

Call Deadline
25 January 2012

Evaluation
Spring 2012 - Autumn 2012

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The basis for registrations in EWS and CED is laid out in: - the Commission Decision of 16.12.2008 on the Early W arning System (EWS) for the use of authorising officers of the Commission and the executive agencies (OJ, L 344, 20.12.2008, p. 125), and - the Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1302/2008 of 17.12.2008 on the Central Exclusion Database ­ CED (OJ L 344, 20.12.2008, p. 12).
24

The working language of the ERC evaluation panels is English. Please note that accordingly the panel reports will be available in English only. If the proposal is not in English, a translation of the full proposal would be of assistance to the experts. An English translation of the abstract must be included in the proposal. 25 http://erc.europa.eu/ 26 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/appmanager/participants/portal 27 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOIndex.do?ihmlang=en

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The foreseen electronic proposal submission deadline (single submission of full proposals) is:

25 January 2012 17.00.00 (Brussels local time)
Please note that this foreseen submission deadline may be modified after the publication of the call. You are therefore invited to periodically consult the ERC website where any modifications of the submission deadline are indicated.

1.2.2 How are the grant applications completed?
1.2.2.1 Overview of the grant application

A complete ERC SyG grant application involves the following three separate components: o o The administrative forms (part A) : on-line forms A1, A2, A3, The research proposal (part B) · Section 1 (part B1): o o Section 1a, b, c: The scientific proposal. Section 1d: Ethical and security issues. The ethical issues table (and, when necessary, the explanatory annexes on ethical and security-sensitive issues and how they will be treated). Section 2a, b: The Principal Investigators. The 'funding ID' should be specified (separately for each PI). Section 2c: The Extended Synopsis of the scientific proposal.

· Section 2 (part B2): o o o

The supporting documentation - Supporting statement from the Corresponding Host Institution (Annex 4). - If applicable, ethical and/or security-sensitive issue documentation. (Annex 2 and Annex 5).

1.2.2.2

Instructions for completing 'Part A' of the proposal

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the web-based Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS) (see section 1.2.4 of this guide). In the A forms, the PIs will be asked for administrative data that will be used in the evaluation and further processing of the proposal. The A forms are an integral part of the proposal28. Part A: section A1 gives a snapshot of the proposal and of the PIs; section A2 concerns the Corresponding PI's host institution, while section A3 deals with financial matters. Please note: · Section A1 concerns information about the research proposal and the PIs, including a non confidential abstract of the proposal and the chosen ERC keywords for evaluation. The Corresponding PI must indicate a minimum of four ERC keywords to describe the research field(s) of the proposal (see Annex 1). There is no hierarchical ordering of the selected

28

Details of the scientific project that the applicants intend to carry out will be described in the research proposal, part B1 and part B2.

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keywords and they are not linked to predefined panels i.e. keyword 1 is equally weighted with keywords 2, 3 and 4. The keywords are used to best allocate proposals to experts. · · · · It is the Corresponding PI's responsibility to choose the most relevant free keywords for the evaluation of the proposed research. Section A2 concerns information about the Corresponding PI's host institution29. Subcontractors are not required to fill in section A2 and should not be listed separately in section A3. Section A3 concerns information about the estimated project costs and grant required. Please ensure that all costs are given in whole Euros (integer), not thousands of Euros, and must exclude value added tax (VAT). Please ensure that the amount given in the financial section A3 corresponds precisely to the information provided in the research proposal text (part B1: section 1c: resources). In case of discrepancy, the A3 data will prevail. Participant Identification Code (PIC): Those who are familiar with the proposal submission and grant preparation forms know that, in the past, participants had to provide their legal and financial information to the European Commission every time they submitted a proposal or negotiated a contract. To eliminate these redundant requests for information, applicants are invited to register their organisational data once in the Unique Registration Facility (URF), which is hosted in the Participant Portal30. This self-registration will lead to a request by the European Commission for the organisation to provide supporting documents and to nominate a Legal Entity Authorised Representative (LEAR). The LEAR is a person nominated in each legal entity participating in FP7. This person is the ERC Executive Agency's contact for all questions on legal status. The LEAR has access to the online database of legal entities with a possibility to view the data stored on their entity and to initiate updates and corrections to these data. After the validation of the entity has been finalised, the contact person/authorised representative named in the URF receives the PIC number. Once the LEAR is validated, he/she manages the modifications of the entity-related information in the URF and distributes the PIC number within the organisation, which can be used in all proposal submissions and negotiations. Applicants who think their organisation already has registered in URF and wish to PIC, should query the PIC database online by using the PIC search functionality31. the 'Frequently Asked Questions' of the URF page for any additional general Applicant legal entities possessing a Participant Identification Code (PIC) can use to identify themselves in the Electronic Proposal Submission System. retrieve the Please visit information. this number

On entering the PIC, some parts of the A forms will be filled in automatically. Please note that in the cases where a PIC is not available it will always be possible to submit a proposal by entering the organisation details manually. However, the use of PICs will lead to a more efficient handling of the proposal.

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The filling of additional A2 forms, corresponding to other institutions of other PIs and/or team members ('additional participants'), may be necessary. 30 For participants not yet having a Participant Identification Code (PIC), i.e. not yet being registered and validated in the Commission's Unique Registration Facility (URF) their existence as legal entities and their legal status will have to be validated before a grant agreement can be signed. 31 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/myorganisations

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Reviewer Exclusion: As established in the ERC Rules for the submission of proposals32, applicants submitting proposals may request that up to three specific persons are excluded as peer reviewers in the evaluation of their proposal. Such a request is done at the time proposal submission in the Part A (the administrative forms). Applicants will have to specify one of the following reasons: 1. Direct Scientific Rivalry; 2. Professional Hostility; 3. Similar situation which would impair or put in doubt the objectivity of the potential evaluator. If the person(s) identified is an independent expert participating in the Synergy Grant 2012 evaluation, he/she may be excluded from the evaluation of the proposal as long as ERCEA remains in the position to have the proposal evaluated. Applicants need to provide the following data about the persons which they intend to exclude from the evaluation: - Name of the expert(s); - Institution/employer, city and country; - Web page, if possible. Such a request will be treated confidentially by the authorised staff of ERCEA and the concerned Panel Chair. If the excluded expert is a member of a panel he/she will be informed about the request concerning him/her. Please note that the request for exclusion is accepted by ERCEA as long as the proposal could still be evaluated by other reviewers having the necessary expertise. Additionally, in application of the existing regulation33 an excluded expert may be granted access to all data linked to his/her exclusion in order to provide information which could rectify an inaccurate statement made by the applicant34. Preparing the Proposal:
The following notes are for information only. They should assist applicants in completing the A forms of their proposal. Online guidance will also be available. The precise questions and options presented on EPSS may differ slightly from these below.

Please consult the Participant Portal call page regularly for updated information or contact the EPSS HELPDESK by e-mail, or by phone +32 2 233 3760.

Section A1: Proposal and PI information

Proposal Number

[pre-filled by the system]

32

Commission Decision 2010/767/EU of 9 December 2010 amending Decision C(2007) 2286 on the adoption of ERC rules for the submission of proposals and the related evaluation, selection and award procedures for indirect actions under the Ideas Specific Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme (2007 to 2013), OJ L 327, 11.12.2010, p. 51-70. 33 Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 articles 13 and 14, OJ L8 of 12.1.2011, p. 10. 34 Please refer to the Specific Privacy Statement provided on the ERCEA website http://erc.europa.eu/documents/erc-specific-privacy-statement-exclusion-independent-experts-applicants

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Proposal Acronym

The short title or acronym will be used to identify your proposal efficiently in this call. It should be of no more than 20 characters (use standard alphabet and numbers only; no spaces, symbols or special characters please). The same acronym should appear on each page of the research proposal.

General Information on the Proposal
Type of project
[pre-filled] Support for Frontier Research ­ ERC Synergy Grant [pre-filled] The call identifier is the reference number given in the call or part of the call you are applying for, as indicated in the publication of the call in the Participant Portal call page. A call identifier looks like this: ERC-2012-SyG followed by a number. [pre-filled] ERC Synergy Grant

Call identifier

Topic Code

Proposal Title (max 180 char. Non Confidential Information) Duration in months

The title should be no longer than 180 characters and should be understandable to the nonspecialist in your field. In order to best review your application, your agreement is needed below so that this non-confidential title can be used when contacting potential external experts. The estimated duration of the project in full months.

ERC Keyword 1 , 2, 3 and 4

[drop-down menu] Please choose a minimum of 4 keywords that best characterise the research area of your proposal. Note that the keywords are neither hierarchical nor linked to predefined panels. They are used to allocate proposals to experts. The full list of ERC keywords is in Annex 1 of this ERC Guide for Applicants for the Synergy Grant 2012 Call.

ERC Keywords 5-10

[drop-down menu] You can select additional ERC keywords. Keywords 5-10 are optional. Note that the keywords are neither hierarchical nor linked to predefined panels. They are used to allocate proposals to experts. In addition, please enter free text keywords that you consider best characterise the scope of your research proposal. There is a limit of 200 characters.

Free Keywords

Abstract (min.100/ max. 2000 char.) (non confidential information)

The abstract (summary) should, at a glance, provide the reader with a clear understanding of the objectives of the research proposal and how they will be achieved. The abstract will be used as the short description of your research proposal in the evaluation process and in communications to contact in particular the potential referees and/or inform the European Commission and/or the programme management committees and/or relevant national funding agencies35 (provided you give permission to do so where requested below). It must therefore be short and precise and shall not contain confidential information.

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The consent for disclosing to relevant national funding agencies the evaluation results of your proposal, in case it is recommended for funding, is requested.

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Please use plain typed text, avoiding formulae and other special characters. The abstract must be written in English24. There is a limit of 2000 characters (spaces and line breaks included).

In order to best review your application, do you agree that the above non confidential proposal title and abstract can be used, without disclosing your identity, w hen contacting potential review ers?

[Yes/No] In the course of the evaluation procedure, the non-confidential title and abstract of your proposal may be communicated to potential external experts. Please specify your agreement or disagreement.

Reviewers requested to be excluded (up to three can be listed)
You may indicate the names of up to three reviewers to be excluded from review ing the proposal. Please indicate one of the follow ing as the reason for exclusion ­ 1: Direct scientific rivalry; 2: Professional hostility; 3: Similar situation w hich would impair or put in doubt the objectivity of the potential evaluator. Family Name First Name(s) Institution City Country Webpage Reason for exclusion
.

How many principal investigators (including the corresponding principal investigator) intend to participate in this proposal?

[2/3/4] ­ Please indicate how many Principal Investigators (including the Corresponding PI) intend to participate in this proposal.

The Corresponding Principal Investigator
Family Name Family Name at Birth First Name(s) Title Gender Female(F)/Male(M) Nationality Country of residence Date of Birth (DD/MM/YYYY) Country of Birth Tow n of Birth
Last name as given in Passport or Identity Card. Your last name at birth. Your first name(s) as given in Passport or Identity Card. Please choose one of the following: Prof., Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms. This information is required for statistical and mailing purposes. Indicate F or M as appropriate. [drop-down menu] Please select one country. [drop-down menu] Please select the country in which you legally reside. Please specify your date of birth using the format (DD/MM/YYYY). [drop-down menu] Please select the country in which you were born. The town in which you were born. Insert the name of the town in English (please avoid any

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district codes).

Contact Address
Current Organisation name (if applicable) Current Department/Faculty/ Institute/Laboratory name (if applicable) Street name Number Tow n Postal Code/Cedex Country Phone 1, 2 Fax
Name under which your organisation is registered.

Name under which your Department/Faculty/Institute/Laboratory is registered.

The street name. The street number. The town, in English (please avoid any district codes). The postal code. [drop-down menu] Please select one country. Please insert the full phone number including country and city/area code. Example +32-22991111. The 2nd phone number is optional. Please insert the full fax number including country and city/area code. Example +32-2-2991111. Please insert your e-mail address. The 2nd e-mail address is optional. Please note that e-mail 1 is the main channel of communication between the ERCEA and the PI, therefore please verify that the e-mail 1 provided is correct. Additionally, e-mail 1 will be used to generate the PI's ERC web account where official communication from ERCEA to the PI may be posted.

E-mail 1, 2

Academic Training
Date of first PhD (or equivalent) aw ard (DD/MM/YYYY)
Please specify the date of award of your doctoral degree (or equivalent degree) using the format (DD/MM/YYYY).

Principal Investigator 2 (3 & 4 if applicable)
Family Name Family Name at Birth First Name(s) Title Gender Female(F)/Male(M) Nationality
Last name as given in Passport or Identity Card. Your last name at birth. Your first name(s) as given in Passport or Identity Card. Please choose one of the following: Prof., Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms. This information is required for statistical and mailing purposes. Indicate F or M as appropriate. [drop-down menu] Please select one country.

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Country of residence Date of Birth (DD/MM/YYYY) Country of Birth

[drop-down menu] Please select the country in which you legally reside. Please specify your date of birth using the format (DD/MM/YYYY). [drop-down menu] Please select the country in which you were born. The town in which you were born. Insert the name of the town in English (please avoid any district codes).

Tow n of Birth

Contact Address
Current Organisation name (if applicable) Current Department/Faculty/ Institute/Laboratory name (if applicable) Street name Number Tow n Postal Code/Cedex Country Phone 1, 2 Fax
Name under which your organisation is registered.

Name under which your Department/Faculty/Institute/Laboratory is registered.

The street name. The street number. The town, in English (please avoid any district codes). The postal code. [drop-down menu] Please select one country. Please insert the full phone number including country and city/area code. Example +32-22991111. The 2nd phone number is optional. Please insert the full fax number including country and city/area code. Example +32-2-2991111. Please insert your e-mail address. The 2nd e-mail address is optional. Please note that e-mail 1 is the main channel of communication between the ERCEA and the PI, therefore please verify that the e-mail 1 provided is correct. Additionally, e-mail 1 will be used to generate the PI's ERC web account where official communication from ERCEA to the PI may be posted.

E-mail 1, 2

Academic Training
Date of first PhD (or equivalent) award (DD/MM/YYYY)
Please specify the date of award of your doctoral degree (or equivalent degree) using the format (DD/MM/YYYY).

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I acknow ledge that I am aw are of the eligibility requirements for applying for the ERC Synergy Grant as specified in the ERC Work Programme 2012, and certify that, to the best of my know ledge, my application is in compliance w ith all these requirements. I understand that my proposal may be declared ineligible at any point during the evaluation or granting process if it is found not to be compliant w ith these eligibility criteria. Do you allow the ERC to disclose the evaluation result (score and ranking range) together w ith your names, non-confidential proposal title and abstract, proposal acronym, host institution and your contact details to the relevant national funding agency in case your proposal is recommended for funding at the end of the evaluation process (for example if requested by national funding agencies interested in funding your proposal)? In addition, for purposes related to monitoring, study and evaluation foreseen by the Ideas Work programmes, the ERCEA may need that submitted proposals be processed by third parties (Contractors and/or beneficiaries of Coordination and Support Actions. The subject and required data of the processing are identified in the Ideas Work Programmes.) in compliance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (For details, please refer to the Specific Privacy Statement on Grants published on the ERC w ebsite). Do you give your consent that the content of your proposal, including your personal data, be processed by such third parties? This consent is not requested on a compulsory basis and it is only provided on a voluntary basis. Refusal to give the individual consent does not affect the evaluation process.

[Yes/No] As established in the ERC W ork Programme 2012, rules apply to reapplications for ERC Synergy Grants by researchers who apply as PIs: · · · · A PI or Co-Investigator may only hold one grant from the ERC at any one time; A PI may submit only one proposal to the ERC per calendar year; A PI who holds an ERC grant cannot submit a proposal for the ERC Synergy Grant unless that grant expires before 15 November 2013; A PI who is a serving Panel Member for the 2012 ERC Synergy call may not apply to the call.

[Yes/No] For communication purposes only, the ERC EA asks for your permission to publish your names, the proposal title and acronym, the host institution name(s) and country(ies) should your proposal be in category A at step 2 of the evaluation process. The decision about this permission will not affect in any manner the outcome of the evaluation and will not be communicated to the reviewers.

[Yes/No] The Ethical Issues Table has to be completed even if there are no issues (by confirming in the table that none of the ethical issues apply).

Does the proposal raise any ethical issues, as specified in the Ethical Issues Table at the end of Part B section 1 (B1)?

If any of the issues in the Ethical Issues Table (in part B1) apply to your proposal, you must provide a brief explanation of the ethical issue involved and how it will be dealt with appropriately. An Ethical Issues Annex template is provided in EPSS together with the part B1 template. See Annex 2 of this guide.

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The Host Institution (Please fill in the information for the Corresponding Host Institution) (This is different from A2)
The Authorised Legal Representative of the Host Institution
The person who can commit the Host Institution according to the requirements of the applicable ERC Model Grant Agreement (C(2007)1625, 16/04/2007).

Family Name First Name(s) Title Gender Female(F)/Male(M) Position in the Host Institution

Last name as given in the Passport or ID card. First name(s) as given in the Passport or ID card. Please choose one of the following: Prof., Dr., Mr., Mrs., Ms.

This information is required for statistical and mailing purposes. Indicate F or M as appropriate.

e.g. senior administrative officer

Contact address of the Host Institution and administrative contact person for the ERC EA

Institution legal name

Name under which your institution is registered.

Office/ Section/ Department/ Faculty Family Name (contact person) First name(s) (contact person) Street name Number Tow n Postal Code/Cedex Country Phone 1, 2 Fax

The name under which the host Office/Section/Department/Faculty/Institute/Laboratory is registered. Last name as given in the Passport or ID card. First name. The street name. The street number. The town, in English (please avoid any district codes). The postal code. [drop-down menu] Please select one country. Please insert the full phone number including country and city/area code. Example +32-22991111. The 2nd phone number is optional. Please insert the full fax number including country and city/area code. Example +32-2-2991111. Please insert the e-mail address. The the main channel of communication please verify the E-mail 1 provided is Host Institution's ERC web account Institution may be posted. 2nd e-mail address is optional. Please note that E-mail 1 is between the ERCEA and the Host Institution; therefore correct. Additionally, E-mail 1 will be used to generate the where official communication from ERCEA to the Host

E-mail 1, 2

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Section A2: Organisation Information
One form for the Corresponding Host Institution. If there is more than one beneficiary ­ in the case of one or more PIs engaged by a host institution different to the Corresponding Host Institution and/or one or more team members engaged by organisation(s) other than the host institution(s), please generate and fill in another A2 form by adding another participant.
Proposal Number Proposal Acronym Organisation Number [pre-filled]
[pre-filled by the system] [filled in from A1] The number allocated by EPSS to each organisation participating in the proposal. The Corresponding PI's Host Institution (or the 'principal beneficiary') is always number one.

The Organisation
Applicants possessing a Participant Identification Code (PIC) can use this number to identify themselves in the Electronic Proposal Submission System. On entering the PIC, parts of the A forms will be filled in automatically. Please note that in the cases where a PIC is not available it will always be possible to submit a proposal by entering the organisation details manually. However, the use of PICs will lead to more efficient handling of the proposal. The process for assigning a PIC is triggered by a self-registration of an organisation at the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/myorganisations. On this website you will also find a search tool for checking if your organisation is already registered (and has thus a PIC). For a Public Law Body, it is the name under which the organisation is registered in the Resolution text, Law, Decree/Decision establishing the Public Entity, or in any other document established at the constitution of the Public Law Body; For a Private Law Body, it is the name under which the organisation is registered in the national Official Journal (or equivalent) or in the national company register. Choose an abbreviation of the organisation legal name, only for use in this proposal and in all relating documents. This short name should not be more than 20 characters exclusive of special characters (./;...), e.g. CNRS and not C.N.R.S. It should be preferably the one commonly used, e.g. IBM and not Int.Bus.Mac. Town where the organisation is located, in English (please avoid any district codes). The country where the organisation is located, in English (please avoid any additional regional or district code or information).

If your organisation has already registered for FP7, enter your Participant Identity Code

Organisation legal name

Organisation short name Organisation Tow n Organisation Country

Department/Faculty/ Institute/Lab Name Department/Faculty/ Institute/Lab Tow n Department/Faculty/ Institute/Lab Country

The name under which the Office/Section/Department/Faculty/Institute/Laboratory is registered.

The town where the Office/Section/Department/Faculty/Institute/Laboratory is located, in English (please avoid any district codes).

The country where the Office/Section/Department/Faculty/Institute/Laboratory is located, in English (please avoid any additional regional or district code or information).

Internet Homepage

Insert the address of the organisation internet homepage.

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Section A3: Budget
Financial information (in Euros) ­ whole duration of the project
This financial data summarises the total costs and the requested ERC grant, also presented in the research proposal text (part B1: section 1c: resources). Please note that there is a difference in how the financial information is presented in A3 (online form) and in the proposal text. In the A3 form, the budget details should be provided by beneficiary. In the proposal text, the budget breakdown (Annex 3) should be provided by PI, together with a summary table for the full budget. The project cost estimation should be as accurate as possible. There is no minimum contribution per year; the requested contribution should be in proportion to the actual needs to fulfil the objectives of the project. 36 The host institution(s) should enter the different types of costs (personnel, other direct, indirect and subcontracting). Please ensure the table contains the correct amount of the different types of costs and the correct total eligible costs and requested grant. Eligible and non-eligible direct and indirect costs An ERC grant can cover up to 100% of the total eligible direct costs of the research plus a flat-rate financing of indirect costs on the basis of 20% of the total eligible direct costs (excluding the direct eligible costs for subcontracting and the costs of reimbursement of resources made available by third parties which are not used on the premises of the beneficiary). Costs claimed should be in line with the host institution's own accounting rules. Direct eligible costs are those which support all the research, management, training and dissemination activities necessary for the project, such as: Personnel Costs; Equipment Costs; Consumables; Travel and Subsistence Costs; Publication Costs (page charges and related fees for publication of results). Indirect eligible costs are those which cannot be identified as directly attributable to the project, but which are incurred in direct relationship with the project's direct eligible costs, such as: Costs related to general administration and management; Costs of office or laboratory space, including rent or depreciation of buildings and equipment, and related expenditure such as water, heating, electricity; Maintenance, insurance and safety costs; Communication expenses, network connection charges, postal charges and office; Supplies; Common office equipment such as PCs, laptops, office software; Miscellaneous recurring consumables. Non-eligible costs cannot be reimbursed through the ERC grant, such as: Any identifiable indirect taxes, including VAT or duties; Interest owed; Provisions for possible future losses or charges; Exchange losses; Costs declared, incurred or reimbursed in respect of another Community project; Costs related to return on capital; Debt and debt service charges; Excessive or reckless expenditure. · · · Please ensure that the amounts given in this form correspond precisely to the information provided in the research proposal text (part B1: section 1c: resources). In case of discrepancy, the data contained in this A3 form will prevail. Please make sure that all costs are given in whole Euros (integer), not thousands of Euros. All costs must be given excluding the value added tax (VAT). For further questions about the budget please consult the FAQs on the ERC website.

Participant Number in this proposal Organisation short name

The Corresponding Host Institution for the proposal is always number one.

The same name that has been used in form A2. Personnel costs are only the costs of the actual hours worked by the persons directly carrying out work under the project and must correspond to the percentage of dedicated working time to run the ERC project. Such persons must: ­ be directly hired by the beneficiary in accordance with its national legislation, ­ work under the sole technical supervision and responsibility of the latter, and ­ be remunerated in accordance with the normal practices of the participant. Participants may opt to declare average personnel costs if certified in accordance with a

Personnel Costs (in )

36

Additional lines should correspond to any legal entities that have filled form A2.

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methodology approved by the Commission and consistent with the management principles and usual accounting practices of the participant. Average personnel costs charged by a participant having provided a certification on the methodology are deemed not to significantly differ from actual personnel costs.

Other direct costs (excluding subcontracting) (in ) Indirect costs (max. 20 % of direct costs) (in )

Means direct costs not covered by the above-mentioned categories of costs.

Indirect costs are all those eligible costs which cannot be identified by the participant as being directly attributed to the project but which can be identified and justified by its accounting system as being incurred in direct relationship with the eligible direct costs attributed to the project. They may not include any eligible direct costs. A subcontractor is a third party which has entered into an agreement on business conditions with one or more participants, in order to carry out part of the work of the project without the direct supervision of the participant and without a relationship of subordination. Where it is necessary for the participants to subcontract certain elements of the work to be carried out, the following conditions must be fulfilled: - subcontracts may only cover the execution of a limited part of the project; - recourse to the award of subcontracts must be duly justified in part B of the proposal having regard to the nature of the project and what is necessary for its implementation; - recourse to the award of subcontract by a participant may not affect the rights and obligations of the participants regarding background and foreground; - Part B of the proposal must indicate the task to be subcontracted and an estimation of the costs; Any subcontract, the costs of which are to be claimed as an eligible cost, must be awarded according to the principles of best value for money (best price-quality ratio), transparency and equal treatment. Framework contracts between a participant and a subcontractor, entered into prior to the beginning of the project that are according to the participant's usual management principles may also be accepted. Participants may use external support services for assistance with minor tasks that do not represent per se project tasks as identified in part B of the proposal.

Subcontracting (in )

Total Eligible Costs (in ) Requested Grant (in )

The sum of direct costs (personnel and others), indirect costs and subcontracting.

The total budget that you are requesting as the ERC grant (in Euros).

1.2.2.3

Instructions for completing 'Part B' of the proposal

The research proposal (part B) consists of two parts: part B1 (including cover page, sections 1 a, b, c and d) and part B2 (including sections 2 a, b and c). The templates for these two sections are provided in EPSS and their use is mandatory. IMPORTANT NOTICE: Both part B1 and part B2 are evaluated at step 1. However, in case of oversubscription (defined as the requested budget of the submitted proposals being more than 10 times the indicative call budget), only part B2 is evaluated. When drafting part B2 you should pay particular attention to the extended synopsis (section 2c) and should not consider it as simply complementing part B1. It is important that the extended synopsis contains minimum information relevant to the evaluation criteria (core time and resources, methodology), since the panel may only evaluate part B2 at step 1. The information to be included in each of the sections is described below. The maximum length of each section or its sub-sections, which needs to be respected strictly, is described below. The research proposal needs to be uploaded and submitted via EPSS (see section 1.2.4.2). Only the material contained within the page limits mentioned below while respecting the layout parameters will be evaluated. It should provide sufficient information to the peer reviewers to assess the proposal according to the evaluation criteria. Each proposal page must carry a header presenting the acronym, and the reference to the respective proposal section (part B1 or part B2).

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The following parameters must be respected for the layout:
Page Format A4 Font Type Times New Roman Font Size At least 11 Line Spacing Single Margins 2 cm right and left side, 1.5 cm bottom

Part B1 ­ Cover page Name of Name of Proposal Proposal Proposal Proposal A1) the Corresponding Principal Investigator and the other PI(s) the Corresponding Host Institution for the project full title short name duration in months summary (half page, possibly copy/paste of abstract from the administrative form

Part B1 a, b, c and d: The scientific proposal [max 15 pages, excluding the Budget Tables (obligatory), Ethical Issues Table (obligatory) and Annex (only if applicable), and the Security Aspects Letter (only if applicable)] Describe the scientific, technical, and/or scholarly aspects of the project demonstrating the ground-breaking nature of the research, its potential impact and research methodology. Describe the significant synergies, complementarity and added value of the group beyond the current work of the Principal Investigators to enable it to jointly achieve the project's scientific objectives. Indicate the fraction of each PI's working time that will be devoted to this project, a full estimation of the real project cost and any ethical considerations raised by the project. Indicate innovative ways of working together and how the core time spent together will be utilised. a. State of the art and objectives: Specify clearly the objectives of the proposal, in the context of the state of the art in the field. W hen describing the envisaged research it should be indicated how and why the proposed work is important for the field, and what impact it will have if successful, such as how it may open up new horizons or opportunities for science, technology or scholarship. Specify any particularly challenging or unconventional concepts and approaches of the proposal, including multi - or interdisciplinary aspects. b. Methodology Describe the proposed methodology and feasibility in detail including, as appropriate, key intermediate goals. Explain and justify the methodology in relation to the state of the art, including any particularly novel or unconventional aspects addressing 'high-gain/high-risk' balance, i.e. if successful the payoffs will be very significant, but there is a higher-thannormal risk that the research project does not entirely fulfil its aims. Highlight any intermediate stages where results may planning. In case it is proposed that team members participate in the project, their participation has to be emphasising the scientific added value they bring to the c. Resources (incl. project costs) It is strongly recommended to use the resources by the panels (see Annex following the template is subdivided consumables, travel, publication costs, provided by each PI and a final table require adjustments to the project engaged by another host institution fully justified. This should be done project.

budget table template to facilitate the assessment of 3). The summary and the breakdown of the budget in personnel costs, equipment and infrastructure, and any envisaged subcontracts. This table has to be will summarise the overall budget breakdown for the

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project. These figures should be summarised in the financial information form A3 as well (although according to host institutions and not according to PIs). Describe the size and nature of the Synergy group, including each PI and where appropriate, their key team members and their roles. The participation of team members engaged by another institution besides that of the participating PIs should be justified in relation to the additional financial cost this may impose to the project (see section 1.1.3 of this guide). Describe other necessary resources, such as infrastructure and equipment. Specify any existing resources that will contribute to the project. It is advisable to include a short technical description of the equipment requested, a justification of its need as well as the intensity of its planned use. Please ensure that a short narrative description is provided for all budget lines for which funding is requested. State the amount of funding considered necessary to fulfil the objectives for the duration of the project. This should be a reasoned estimate of the projects costs. Each PI should take into account the percentage of their dedicated time (each PI is expected to devote at least 30% of their total working time to the ERC-funded project while spending at least 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country) to run the ERC-funded activity when calculating their personnel costs. Include the direct costs of the project plus a flat rate financing of indirect costs on the basis of 20% of the total eligible direct costs (excluding subcontracting and the costs of reimbursement of resources made available by third parties which are not used on the premises of the beneficiary) towards overheads. The project cost estimation should be as accurate as possible. The evaluation panels assess the estimated costs carefully; unjustified budgets will be consequently reduced. There is no minimum contribution per year; the requested contribution should be in proportion to the actual needs to fulfil the objectives of the project. d. Ethical and Security-Sensitive Issues The Ethical Issues Table serves to identify any ethical aspects of the proposed work. This table has to be completed even if there are no issues (by confirming in the table that none of the ethical issues apply to the proposal). If any of the issues in the Ethical Issues Table (in part B1) apply to the proposal, the Corresponding PI must provide a brief explanation of the ethical issue involved and how it will be dealt with appropriately. Annex 2 of this guide describes the ethics review process and gives guidance on the completion of the Ethical Issues Table. An Ethical Issues Annex template is provided in EPSS, which has to be uploaded in case there are any ethical implications in the proposal. The PIs are encouraged to include any supporting documentation, such as any authorisation they may already have. This will allow a more effective ethical clearance and an accelerated granting process if the proposal is retained for possible funding37. Please upload this Ethical Issues Annex and any related documents in the 'Extra Annexes Upload' section included in the EPSS tab 'part B & annexes'. Please be aware that no grant agreement can be signed by ERCEA prior to a satisfactory conclusion of the ethical review.

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A full description of the Ethics Review is provided in the in ERC rules for the submission of proposals and the related evaluation, selection and award procedures relevant to the Ideas Specific Programme: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:327:0051:0070:EN:PDF

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A dedicated website that aims to provide helpful information on ethical issues is now available at: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ethics_en.html Security-Sensitive Issues ERC actions may be classified if they are considered as security-sensitive. The proposal can be considered security-sensitive for a variety of reasons, most notably: · · if the proposed action may need to handle classified information as background; if some foreground is planned to be classified.

In addition, a proposal may also be considered as sensitive, independently of any security classification, if it plans to exchange material subject to transfer or export licensing. If export licences (or intra EU licences) are required for carrying out the planned work, applicants must clarify the requirement to have such export or transfer licences and must provide a copy of export or transfer licences (or of the requests). For further information on security-sensitive issues relevant to this Call, see Annex 5 of this guide. If your proposal is security-sensitive, describe (in your description of work) why, which are the participants concerned by the sensitivity and what are the measures foreseen to cope with it. Please annex to your proposal a first version of the Security Aspects Letter (SAL) and its annex, Security Classification Guide (SCG) as part of the proposal using the templates provided in Annex 5. Describe also your experience in managing security-sensitive projects, if relevant. Please note that these security related parts of the proposal are not considered as part of the scientific evaluation. These will only be considered in the scrutiny of security-sensitive actions. The pages of the Budget Tables, the Ethical Issues Table included in part B1 and additional Annexes (separate documents) where relevant in the case of ethical issues and/or security-sensitive subjects do not count towards the maximum page limit for part B1. Part B2 a, b and c: The Principal Investigators Each of the Principal Investigators must provide a list reflecting their track record. This can be either an 'early achievement track-record' (for PIs 2 to 12 years after their PhD) or a '10-year track-record' (for advanced researchers) chosen by the applicants based on which is most appropriate for their career stage. The evaluation experts will be instructed to judge each PI against the benchmarks relevant to his/her career stage. The experts will also pay particular attention to the joint effort of the group that may be built around specialised infrastructure, or that allow for new combinations of skills and disciplines, or the bringing together of researchers from different institutions, sectors or countries. a. Curriculum Vitae (max 2 pages for each PI): In addition to the standard academic and research record, the CV should include a succinct 'funding ID' which must specify any current research grants and their subject, as well as any ongoing application for work related to the proposal. This facilitates the proper assessment of the proposal and the granting process in case the proposal is retained for funding.

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Any research career gaps and/or unconventional paths should be clearly explained. Peer reviewers will take this into consideration when assessing the PI's quality and career progression. b. Track-Record Early achievement track-record (max 2 pages for each PI): The PI should list: his/her activity as regards: 1. Publications in major international peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals, peer-reviewed conferences proceedings and/or monographs of their respective research fields, indicating the ten best, those without the presence as co-author of their PhD supervisor, and information about the citation response they have attracted. 2. Granted patent(s) (if applicable). 3. Invited presentations to peer-reviewed, internationally established conferences and/or international advanced schools (if applicable). 4. Prizes and Awards (if applicable). or 10-Year track-record (max 2 pages for each PI): The PI should list his/her activity over the past 10 years (dated from the deadline of the call) as regards: 1. A list of the top 10 publications, as senior author (or in those fields where alphabetic order of authorship is the norm, joint author), listing all authors, in major international peerreviewed multidisciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals and/or peer-reviewed conferences proceedings of their respective research fields, also indicating the number of citations (excluding auto-citations) they have attracted. 2. Research monographs, chapters in collective volumes and any translations thereof (if applicable). 3. Granted patents (if applicable). 4. Invited presentations to peer-reviewed, internationally established conferences and/or international advanced schools (if applicable). 5. Research expeditions that the applicant has led (if applicable). 6. Organisation of International conferences in the field of the applicant (membership in the steering and/or programme committee) (if applicable). 7. International Prizes/Awards/Academy memberships (if applicable). 8. Memberships to Editorials Boards of International Journals (if applicable). The above mentioned page limits for sections 2a and 2b apply individually, i.e. maximum 4 pages per PI. c. Extended Synopsis of the scientific proposal (max 5 pages) The extended synopsis should be a stand-alone description of the scientific proposal, including the scientific feasibility of the project, with particular attention to its ground-breaking nature and how it may open up new horizons or opportunities for research. Describe the proposed work in the context of the state of the art of the field. References to literature should also be included. It is important that the extended synopsis contains minimum information relevant to the evaluation criteria (working arrangements, core time and resources, methodology), since the panel may only evaluate part B2 at step 1 in case of oversubscription49 (see section 1.3.2 on the evaluation process).

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Specify briefly the commitment of each PI to the project. (According to the evaluation criteria specified in the Work Programme 2012 the Principal Investigators have to be strongly committed to the project and expected to devote at least 30% of their total working time to the ERC-funded project and spend at least 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country.)

1.2.2.4

Supporting Documentation

A scanned copy of the following supporting documentation needs to be submitted with the proposal by uploading electronically in EPSS in PDF format using the corresponding template available on EPSS (see Annex 4: 'Commitment of the Corresponding Host Institution' of this guide). The Corresponding Host Institution (applicant legal entity) must provide a binding statement that the conditions of independence set out in the supplementary agreement to the ERC Grant agreement are already fulfilled or will be provided to the Corresponding PI and the other PIs' Synergy project if the application is successful5. This document needs to be originally signed, stamped and dated by the institution's legal representative. Proposals that do not include this institutional statement will not be considered for evaluation. Please provide only the documents requested above. Unless specified in the call, any hyperlinks to other documents, embedded material, and any other documents (company brochures, supporting documentation, reports, audio, video, multimedia etc.) will be disregarded.

1.2.3 Is the proposal ready for evaluation?
Incomplete proposals (where parts or sections of the proposal and/or the Corresponding Host Institution's commitment statement are missing) are considered ineligible and will not be evaluated38. The proposal must be submitted before the call deadline. Where there is a doubt on the eligibility of a proposal, the peer review evaluation may proceed pending a decision by an eligibility review committee. If it becomes clear before, during or after the peer review evaluation phase, that one or more of the eligibility criteria has not been met, the proposal is declared ineligible and is withdrawn from any further examination.

Checklist ­ Is your group's proposal complete?
For the submission of a complete Synergy Grant proposal, the following components have to be prepared: The Administrative Forms (part A): to be completed in EPSS - on-line forms A1, A2, A3 The Research Proposal (part B): part B and the supporting documentation should be uploaded 39 and submitted via EPSS as PDF files. Make sure all file names contain the 'Proposal Short Name', such as PartB1_[Proposal-Short-Name].pdf Part B1: - Section 1a, b, c ­ The scientific proposal. - Section 1d ­ The ethical issues table (and, when necessary, the explanatory information on ethical and security-sensitive issues and how they will be treated).

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See also 'Eligibility Check' in the ERC rules for the submission of proposals and the related evaluation, selection and award procedures relevant to the Ideas Specific Programme: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:327:0051:0070:EN:PDF 39 Please note that filenames cannot exceed 75 characters long including the file extension.

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Part B2: - Section 2a, b ­ The Principal Investigators. The 'funding ID' should be specified for each PI. - Section 2c ­ The Extended Synopsis of the scientific proposal. The Supplementary Documents: - The supporting statement from the Corresponding Host Institution: originally signed, stamped and dated by the host institution's legal representative (see Annex 4). - If applicable, the explanatory information on ethical issues and how they will be treated (Ethical Issues Annex, see Annex 2 of this guide). - If applicable, the explanatory information on security-sensitive issues and how they will be treated (Security Issues Annex, see Annex 5 of this guide). Please ensure that all forms and supplementary documents are uploaded correctly in the EPSS system before the final submission. It is strongly recommended to double-check by downloading them and verifying their completeness.

1.2.4 How are the grant applications submitted?
1.2.4.1 EPSS registration and submission

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the web-based Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS)40. The Corresponding PI first needs to register the Synergy group's intention to submit a proposal via the web-based EPSS in order to receive a login name and password and thus to get access to EPSS for preparing, uploading and submitting a proposal. This should be done as early as possible before the call deadline for the submission of proposals. EPSS can be accessed via the ERC website41 and the call page on the Participant Portal42, or directly at https://www.epss-fp7.org/epss/welcome.jsp. Full instructions will be found in the 'EPSS preparation and submission guide' at https://www.epss-fp7.org/epss/EPSSUserguide.pdf. Please consult the Participant Portal call page regularly for updated information or contact the EPSS HELPDESK by e-mail support@epss-fp7.org, or by phone +32 2233 376043.

1.2.4.2

EPSS proposal submission

Following registration and agreement to the conditions of use of EPSS, the application can be prepared, uploaded and submitted via EPSS. Further information on the preparation of the application (parts A and B) is given in section 1.2.2 of this guide.

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In exceptional cases, if an applicant has absolutely no means of accessing the EPSS and if it is impossible to arrange to do so, he/she may request permission from the ERCEA to submit on paper. Such a request, which must clearly explain the circumstances of the case, must be received by the ERCEA no later than one month before the call deadline. The ERCEA will reply to such a request within five working days of receipt. If a derogation is granted, the ERCEA will send proposal forms for paper submission to the applicant concerned. Such a request should be sent to the following address: European Commission, European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA)/ Unit B 3, COV2 21/126, 1049 Brussels, Belgium. 41 http://erc.europa.eu/ 42 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/ 43 Please note that some web-browsers and/or Operating Systems (OS) may not be supported by EPSS, for further information please consult the 'EPSS preparation and submission guide' mentioned above.

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·

Completing the part A forms in EPSS and uploading a part B does not yet mean that your proposal is submitted. Once there is a consolidated version of the proposal, you must press the button "SUBMIT NOW" (If you don't see the button "SUBMIT NOW", first select the "SUBMIT" tag at the top of the screen). Please note that "SUBMIT NOW" starts the final steps for submission; it does not in itself cause the proposal to be submitted. After reading the information page that then appears, it is possible to submit the proposal using the button marked "Press this button to submit the proposal". EPSS then performs an automatic validation of the proposal by carrying out a number of technical verification checks. A list of any problems ('validation error message') such as missing data, viruses, wrong file format or excessive file size might then appear on the screen. Submission is blocked until these problems are corrected. Once corrected, the applicant must then repeat the above steps to achieve submission. Only upon completion of these basic verification checks EPSS allows the applicant to submit. However, these checks do not replace the formal eligibility checks described in section 1.3.1 and cannot ensure that the contents of the proposal and of the uploaded files correspond to the requirements of the call. Once the proposal is submitted, the applicant receives a message that indicates that the proposal has been received. This automatic message is not the official acknowledgement of receipt (see section 1.2.4.4 of this guide: 'Has the proposal been received by the ERCEA?'). The applicant may continue to modify the proposal and submit revised versions overwriting the previous one right up until the deadline. The sequence above must be repeated each time (see section 1.2.4.5 of this guide: 'How is a proposal modified or withdrawn?'). If the submission sequence described above is not followed at least once, the ERCEA considers that no proposal has been submitted. The research proposal and attached supporting documentation must exclusively use PDF ('Portable Document Format', compatible with Adobe version 3 or higher, with embedded fonts)44. Other file formats will not be accepted by the system. Unless specified in the call, embedded material and any other documents (company brochures, scientific papers, reports, audio, video, multimedia, etc.) sent electronically or by post, will be disregarded. However, panel members and/or referees may (but are not obliged to) access relevant web pages in order to further assess the applicants' previous work (including openly accessible published manuscripts of the applicant). Proposals must be submitted before the deadline specified in the call for proposals45. EPSS will be closed for a specific call at its call deadline. After this moment, it will be impossible to access EPSS for the respective call.

· ·

·

·

· ·

· ·

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Irrespective of the sections/sub-sections page limits specified above, there is an overall limit of 10 MB to the size of the PDF proposal file. There are also restrictions to the file name you give to the PDF proposal - use alphanumeric characters only. Special characters and spaces must be avoided. 45 In the unlikely event of a failure of the EPSS service due to a breakdown of the EPSS server during the last 24 hours of a call, the deadline will be extended by a further 24 hours. This will be notified by e-mail to all applicants who had registered in EPSS for this call, and also by a notice on the call page on the ERC website (http://erc.europa.eu/) and the Participant Portal (http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/ ) as well as on the website of EPSS. Such a failure is a rare and exceptional event. Therefore, it should not be assumed that there will be such an extension of a call. If an applicant encounters difficulties in submitting a proposal, it should not be assumed that it is because of a problem with the EPSS server. For technical inquiries on the use of EPSS, please contact the EPSS helpdesk (see section 1.2.4 of this guide). Please note that the ERC will not extend deadlines for system failures that are not its own responsibility. In all circumstances, the applicants should aim to submit their proposal well before the deadline to have time to solve any problems.

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Early registration and submission in EPSS is strongly recommended and should be done as early as possible in advance of the call deadline. Applicants, who wait until too near to the close of the call to start uploading their proposal, take a serious risk that the uploading will not be concluded in time and thus the 'SUBMIT NOW' button will not be active anymore in order to conclude the submission process.

1.2.4.3

How is the proposal submitted via EPSS?

The research proposal, part B1 and B2 and the supporting documentation should be uploaded and submitted via EPSS as PDF files. Please ensure that all file names46 contain the 'Proposal Short Name', such as: PartB1_[Proposal-Short-Name].pdf Host-Letter_[Proposal-Short-Name].pdf Box 5: Proposal submission - important to know:
· · · Proposals cannot be submitted without prior registration, which is required to obtain an EPSS login name and password. Proposals sent by means other than EPSS will not be accepted. Up to the call deadline, it is possible to modify a proposal simply by submitting a new version. So long as the call has not yet closed, the new submission will overwrite the old one. After the call deadline no updates of the proposal will be accepted. Only the material that the proposal contains within the given page limits while respecting the indicated layout parameters will be evaluated. Submission is deemed to occur only if the submission sequence described in section 1.2.4.2 has been followed. Proposals are kept under secure conditions at all times. W hen no longer needed, all copies are destroyed except those required for archiving and/or auditing purposes. In some rare occasions the proposal may be altered while in transit on the Internet. To check that the uploaded proposal has been received unaltered, please download and verify all uploaded files.

·

· · ·

1.2.4.4

Has the proposal been received by the ERCEA?

If the submission is technically successful, the Corresponding PI receives an automatic computer-generated acknowledgement from EPSS. Acknowledgement of receipt is subsequently provided by e-mail after the call deadline.

1.2.4.5

How is a proposal modified or withdrawn?

Up to the call deadline, it is possible to modify a proposal simply by submitting a new version. As long as the call has not yet closed, the new submission will overwrite the old one. Once the deadline has passed, the ERCEA cannot accept any further additions, corrections or re-submissions. The last version of the proposal submitted before the deadline is the one which will be evaluated, and no later material can be submitted. A read-only access to the submitted proposal is granted in case the Corresponding PI wishes to verify what has been submitted. This option is available for 30 days after the call deadline.

46

Please note that filenames cannot exceed 75 characters long including the file extension.

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Proposals may be withdrawn before the call deadline by submitting a revised version of the administrative form A, with the following words entered into the abstract field: 'The applicant wishes to withdraw this proposal. It should not be evaluated by the ERCEA'. A proposal may Corresponding PI proposal must be Agency (ERCEA)/ be withdrawn after the call deadline until the ERCEA has notified the of the final outcome of the peer review evaluation. The withdrawal of a done by sending a signed letter to: European Research Council Executive Unit B3, COV2 21/126, BE-1049 Brussels, Belgium.

Please consult the Participant Portal pages regularly for updated information or contact the EPSS HELPDESK by e-mail, or by phone +32 2233 3760.

1.3 Evaluation and selection of grant proposals 1.3.1 Eligibility Check
Proposals are first checked to ensure that all of the eligibility criteria are met. A proposal must fulfil all of the following eligibility criteria: o o o o o It must be submitted before the call deadline. It must be complete (i.e. all of the requested forms, parts or sections of the proposal, and supporting documents must be completed or present). Its content must relate to the ERC Synergy Grant scheme which is subject of the call for proposals. It must meet the eligibility requirements of the ERC Synergy Grant scheme as well as other criteria mentioned in the relevant call for proposals. It must be in compliance with the restrictions on applications rules (see section 1.1.2 of this guide).

Where there is a doubt on the eligibility of a proposal, the peer review evaluation may proceed with the evaluation pending a decision by an eligibility review committee. The eligibility is checked on the basis of the information given by the Corresponding PI in the proposal. If at a later stage, an eligibility criterion is found not to be fulfilled (for example, due to incorrect or misleading information), the proposal will be immediately declared ineligible.

1.3.2 Peer review evaluation of proposals
Understanding the evaluation process and the evaluation criteria is important for the completion of the administrative forms and preparation of the research proposal. The peer review evaluation process for the ERC Synergy Grant scheme differs from the ERC Advanced and Starting Grant schemes and includes interviews. A single submission of an ERC Synergy Grant proposal will be followed by a two-step peer review evaluation. Grant applications are assessed by peer review evaluation panels (ERC panels), which may be supported by additional independent experts. These ERC panels assess, score and rank the proposals on the basis of the individual evaluations and on the panel discussion which follows them. Depending on the budget available for the call, a budgetary cut-off applies to the ranking list and only the highest ranked proposals are offered an ERC grant until the call budget is consumed.

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Schematic Representation of the Evaluation Process Step 1 (5 Panels) Remote evaluation of full proposals by panel members and external independent experts* Step 2 (1 new Panel) Panel members meet and examine retained proposals and their reports

Select proposals for interview Panel meeting Discussion on all proposals Panel meeting and interviews Retain proposals for Step 2
*in case of oversubscription a preselection is done first based only on the extended synopsis, track records and CVs of the PIs (part B2).

Select proposals up to available budget

1.3.2.1

What are the ERC Synergy Grant evaluation panels?

The peer review evaluation of ERC Synergy Grant proposals is in the hands of five high level peer review evaluation panels (ERC SyG panels) in step 1 and an additional panel in step 2. Approximately 60 panel members have been proposed by the ERC Scientific Council on the basis of their scientific reputation in frontier science, scholarship and engineering. Before the deadline of a call, the names of the panel chairs are published on the ERC website. However, the names of panel members are published after the evaluation process is concluded. The composition of the panels in step 1 is not predefined. The five panels will be formed in a dynamic way after all proposals were received to ensure the best expertise for a group of proposals. Step 1 panels will be formed from approximately 50 panel members and chairs. The step 2 panel will be composed of 15 experts: 10 new panel members together with the five step 1 panel chairs.

1.3.2.2

Two-step peer review evaluation

A single submission of an ERC Synergy Grant proposal will be followed by a two-step peer review evaluation. Proposal allocation to an ERC panel: As there are no predefined panels and to facilitate the allocation of proposals to the right experts the applicant has to indicate between four and ten fixed keywords. These keywords are the same as the ones used in the ERC Starting and Advanced Grants and given in Annex 1 of this guide. There is no hierarchical ordering of the selected keywords. The fixed keywords and free keywords are analysed together to ensure the best expertise for each proposal. It is the Corresponding PI's responsibility to choose and indicate the most relevant keywords for the evaluation of the proposed research (administrative form A1, see section 1.2.2.2 of this guide). The allocation of the proposals to the various panels will be done by grouping proposals based on the given keywords and panel members.

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Step 1: Proposals which fulfil the eligibility criteria are evaluated by the ERC SyG panels, which in step 1 assess, score and comment on the quality of the full proposal (part B1 and part B2). Each proposal will be assigned to at least four panel members and several external independent experts. Both the panel members and the external experts complete individual reviews. At this point, all experts are acting individually; they do not discuss the proposals with each other, nor with any other person. They record their opinions in individual reports, giving scores and comments against the evaluation criteria (see below, section 1.3.4). After the completion of their individual reviews, the five panels meet to discuss and assess the proposals based on the evaluation criteria, arbitrate controversial opinions in individual reviews (including those received from external experts), calibrate final marks and establish a common ranking list of those proposals meeting the quality threshold. An indicative budget will be allocated to each panel, in proportion to the budgetary demand of its assigned proposals. This indicative budget is calculated as the cumulative grant request of all proposals to the panel47 divided by the cumulative grant request of all proposals to the call, multiplied by the total indicative budget of the call. At the end of step 1, the proposals will be ranked by the panels on the basis of the marks they have received and the panels' overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. Proposals will be retained for step 2 based on a ranked list constructed in order of their 'normalised accumulated budget'48 and a budgetary cut-off level of 2.5 times the indicative call budget. Depending on the outcome of evaluation, some applicants may be subject to restrictions on applying to subsequent calls. Applicants will therefore be informed that their proposal: A. B. C. is of sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation; is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to step 2 of the evaluation; is not of sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation. The applicants may also be subject to resubmission limitations in the next ERC Synergy call.

In addition, applicants will be told the ranking range of their proposal out of the proposals evaluated by the panels. Please note that if necessary, and in order to ensure the quality of the evaluation in the case of heavy oversubscription to the call49 at step 1, panels may identify the less competitive applications by assessing the proposals solely on the basis of the extended synopsis and the Principal Investigators' track-records and CVs (part B2). These proposals will not be further evaluated and will be rejected, allowing the panel to focus on a thorough evaluation of the retained proposals. Therefore particular attention should be paid to the full completion of both part B1 and B2 of the grant proposal.

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Proposals containing grant requests above the maximum limit will be treated as at the limit for the purpose of calculating these indicative budgets. 48 The recommended normalised accumulated budget (NAB) for every panel is calculated by summing the normalised budget (recommended budget divided by panel's indicative budget) of each proposal from the top position down to the actual position of the given proposal. Thus, the normalised accumulated budget takes into account the position of the proposal in its panel ranking, the recommended budget of the proposal and of all proposals ranked higher in the same panel and the indicative budget of the panel. 49 Defined as the requested budget of the submitted proposals being more than 10 times the indicative call budget.

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Step 2: The complete version of the retained proposals (part B1 and B2) will be reassessed by a single panel at step 2 using the reports completed in step 1. Based on this assessment a subset of proposals will be selected for interviews based on a budgetary cut-off level set anywhere up to 2 times the indicative call budget. The PIs of this subset of proposals may be invited for an interview to present their project to a panel meeting in Brussels. They will be accordingly reimbursed for their travel and subsistence expenses. As part of the preparation for interviews site visits may be conducted in cases where features of the site form a significant part of the proposal. The final decision of the panel is based upon the panel discussion and interviews. After a panel discussion, when the controversial opinions are arbitrated and a decision is reached, final marks are assigned to all proposals and a ranking list is established on the basis of the marks they have received and an overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. Applicants will be informed that their proposal: A. fully meets the ERC's excellence criterion and is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available; B. meets some but not all elements of the ERC's excellence criterion and will not be funded. In addition, applicants will be told the ranking range of their proposal out of the proposals evaluated by the panel. Projects recommended for funding will be funded by the ERC if sufficient funds are available. Proposals will be funded in priority order based on their final rank. Please note between a PI one side and may result in question. that any direct or indirect contact about the peer review evaluation of a call and/or the Corresponding HI submitting a proposal under the same call on the any independent expert involved in that peer review evaluation on the other side the decision of the ERCEA to exclude the proposal concerned from the call in

1.3.3 Ethics review
The objective of the ethics review is to ensure that the ERC does not support research which would be contrary to fundamental ethical principles (see Box 6 and Annex 2 of this guide) and to examine whether the research complies with the rules relating to research ethics set out in the Seventh Framework Programme and the related statement of the Commission, the Rules for Participation and the Specific Programme 'Ideas'. After the peer review evaluation and before any funding decision is taken, all proposals retained for funding will undergo an ethics clearance procedure. The proposals involving sensitive ethical issues will undergo an ethics review as a step of the ethics clearance procedure.

1.3.4 Evaluation criteria
Excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. It will be applied to the evaluation of both the Principal Investigators and the group's research project in conjunction. The detailed elements applying to the 2 sections of the proposal are specified in the ERC Work Programme 2012 ­ section 6.7, and reproduced here below:

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1. Group Research Project Added value of the Group To what extent does the group's proposal demand and demonstrate novel working arrangements, significant synergies, complementarities and added value to enable it to achieve its scientific objectives going beyond what the individual Principal Investigators could achieve alone? Ground-breaking nature and potential impact of the research project: To what extent does the proposed research address important challenges at the frontiers of the field(s) addressed? To what extent does it have suitably ambitious objectives, which go substantially beyond the current state of the art (e.g. including inter- and trans-disciplinary developments and novel or unconventional concepts, methods and/or approaches)? Methodology: To what extent does the possibility of a major breakthrough with an impact beyond a specific research domain/discipline justify any highly novel and/or unconventional methodologies ("high-gain/high-risk balance")? To what extent is the outlined scientific approach feasible? To what extent is the proposed research methodology (including the proposed timescales and resources) appropriate to achieve the goals of the project? To what extent are the resources requested necessary and properly justified? If it is proposed that Principal Investigators or team members engaged by another host institution participate in the project to what extent is their participation fully justified by the scientific added value they bring to the project? 2. Principal Investigators Intellectual capacity and creativity: To what extent are the Principal Investigators' records of research, collaborations, project conception and publications ground-breaking and demonstrative of independent creative thinking and the capacity to go significantly beyond the state of the art? Commitment: To what extent are the Principal Investigators committed to the group project and willing to devote a significant amount of time to it including significant "core time" spent together at the same physical location (they will be expected to devote at least 30% of their total working time to the ERC-funded project and spend at least 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or associated country)? What are the novel working arrangements they propose towards this aim?

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1.3.4.1

Application of criteria

Panels and referees will evaluate the proposals under the criteria of Heading 1: Group Research Project and Heading 2: Principal Investigators. The evaluation panels will review the level of the requested grant and, as appropriate, suggest adjustments. At the end of each evaluation step, the proposals will be ranked by the panel or panels on the basis of the marks they have received and the panels' overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses. At the end of the step 1 evaluation, applicants will be informed that their proposal: A. is of sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation; B. is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to step 2 of the evaluation; C. is not of sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation. The applicants may also be subject to resubmission limitations in the next ERC Synergy call50. At the end of the step 2 evaluation, applicants will be informed that their proposal: A. fully meets the ERC's excellence criterion and is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available; B. meets some but not all elements of the ERC's excellence criterion and will not be funded. Projects recommended for funding will be funded by the ERC if sufficient funds are available. Proposals will be funded in priority order based on their rank.

1.3.5 Feedback to applicants
Official communications and feedbacks from the ERCEA to the Corresponding PI and the Corresponding HI (as the applicant legal entity) may be done via an ERCEA secured web-mail account. At the time of the first communication or feedback, the Corresponding PI and the administrative contact person of the Corresponding HI will receive an activation email (at the address Email 1 provided in form A1) inviting them to activate their ERC web-mail account. Following this first activation the ERC web-mail account will be maintained for any further communications or feedback. The Corresponding PI and Corresponding HI are provided with feedback on the outcome of the peer review evaluation in the form of an evaluation report. This indicates whether the proposal meets the quality threshold and is retained, and provides the score and corresponding comments given by the panel as well as the comments given by the individual reviewers. Please note that the comments by the individual reviewers may not necessarily be convergent ­ controversy and differences in opinion about the merits of a proposal are part of the 'scientific method' and are legitimate. Furthermore, the ERC panel may take a position that is different from what could be inferred from the comments of the individual reviewers. This is the case for example, if the panel discussion reveals an important weakness in a proposal that had not been identified by the individual reviewers. The panel comments reflect the consensus decision taken by the panel as a whole based on prior remote individual assessments from independent reviewers, which can be remote referees as well as panel members, and on a thorough discussion and on the ranking against other proposals during the panel meeting.

50

Applicants will need to check the restrictions in place for each call.

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Redress
Upon reception of the feedback on the outcome of the peer review evaluation with the evaluation report or with the results of the eligibility check, the Corresponding PI and/or the Corresponding HI may wish to introduce a request for redress, if there is an indication that there has been a shortcoming in the way a proposal has been evaluated, or that the results of the eligibility checks are incorrect. The redress procedure is not meant to call into question the scientific judgement made by the peer review panel; it will look into procedural shortcomings and ­ in rare cases ­ factual errors. Such requests for redress should be raised within one month of the date of the feedback on the outcome of the peer review evaluation sent by the ERC Executive Agency, and should be introduced via the web-based mailing system at http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ideas/redress_en.html Requests must be: · · · · related to the peer review evaluation process, or eligibility checks, for the call and funding scheme in question; set out using the online form via the above-mentioned web-based mailing system, including a clear description of the grounds for complaint; received within the time limit specified on the information letter; submitted by the Corresponding PI and/or the Corresponding HI (as the applicant legal entity).

An initial reply will be sent to complainants no later than two weeks after the deadline for redress requests. This initial reply will indicate when a definitive reply will be provided. A redress committee of the ERC Executive Agency may be convened to examine the peer review evaluation process for the case in question. The redress committee will bring together staff of the ERCEA with the requisite scientific/technical and legal expertise. The committee's role is to ensure a coherent interpretation of requests, and equal treatment of applicants. The redress committee itself, however, does not re-evaluate the proposal. Depending on the nature of the complaint, the committee may review the evaluation report, the individual comments and examine the CVs of the experts. In the light of its review, the committee will recommend a course of action to the ERC Executive Agency. If there is clear evidence of a shortcoming that could affect the eventual funding decision, it is possible that all or part of the proposal will be reevaluated. Unless there is clear evidence of a shortcoming there will be no follow-up or reevaluation. Please note: · · · This procedure is concerned with the peer review evaluation and/or eligibility checking process. The committee will not call into question the scientific judgment of the individual peer reviewers, who are appropriately qualified experts. A re-evaluation will only be carried out if there is evidence of a shortcoming that affects the quality assessment of a proposal. This means, for example, that a problem relating to one evaluation criterion will not lead to a re-evaluation if a proposal has failed anyway on the other criteria. The evaluation score following any re-evaluation will be regarded as definitive. It may be lower than the original score. Only one request for redress per proposal will be considered by the committee. All requests for redress will be treated in confidence.

· · ·

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2 : Managing ERC Synergy Grants

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2.1 Preparation of a grant agreement51
The ERC Executive Agency prepares grant agreements for projects on the basis of the proposal and the recommendations of the ERC panel. The grant preparation involves no negotiation of scientific/technical substance. Applicant legal entities and Corresponding PIs are expected to provide, if requested, further information on the project and its envisaged management in view of the rules applicable to ERC grants and if needed on the legal and financial capacity of the legal applicant entity or other additional legal entities. If the conditions are accepted, the ERC Executive Agency prepares the draft grant agreement: the template of the grant agreement and its annexes can be found at the following link: http://erc.europa.eu/document-library Additionally to the standard text of the grant agreement, each HI (Corresponding HI and the other HIs) shall conclude a 'Supplementary Agreement' with their respective PIs to ensure the minimum requirements for the project implementation, such as the host institution's commitment to grant the PIs' Synergy project the requisite basic support and the independence to manage the research funding for the duration of the project, amongst others. Any provisions of the supplementary agreement52 which are not in accordance with the ERC grant agreement shall be deemed to be void for the purposes of the ERC grant agreement. The start of the project normally takes place the first calendar day of the month following conclusion of the grant agreement. Due to the ground-breaking nature of frontier research projects, it is expected that all projects start within 6 months from the invitation to initiate the preparation of the granting process. The ERC reserves the right to cancel a grant if the proposed start date goes beyond this limit.

2.2 Flexibility within an ERC grant agreement
2.2.1 Change of scientific strategy and/or objectives
The PIs are expected to carry out the project as described in the grant agreement, however, it is possible to adjust the scientific strategy and reallocate expenditure (e.g. regarding staff, equipment, consumables) accordingly, provided the research performed is still in line with the original scientific or scholarly objectives. Please note that if one of the PIs withdraws from the project, the project will be subject to a re-evaluation.

2.2.2 Grant portability53
It is expected that the group of PIs establishes and concludes the funded research project in association with the original Corresponding HI (or with the group of HIs in the case of a multibeneficiary project). However, the ERC grant scheme allows PIs having received a frontier research grant to transfer their project or part of the project from one host institution to another in the course of the project. The PI(s) concerned should then present the reasons54

51

Detailed information and documentation, including the template structures and forms for financial and scientific reporting are provided in the ERC Guidance Notes for preparing the Grant Agreement available at http://erc.europa.eu/document-library 52 See template with minimum requirements available at http://erc.europa.eu/document-library 53 The portability refers to the project or part of the project. 54 This may, for example, be necessary if the provisions for the PI's leadership of the research have not been respected.

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(via the Corresponding PI) for wishing to move to another institution. In many cases, in order to facilitate mobility of researchers, when there is a common agreement among the PI(s) and the original and the new host institutions, such a request will be dealt with by the ERC Executive Agency55,56. The original host institution is expected to transfer funds other than those that have not already been covered by an accepted cost claim or funds permanently committed to resources required for the project (on personnel, consumables, etc). It is expected to take all reasonable steps to transfer equipment and other purchases made for the benefit of the project, such that the aims of the project can be secured57. If more than one beneficiary is involved in the project, only that part of the grant that is assigned to the host institution of the concerned PI is transferable (unless otherwise agreed with the other beneficiaries). In case of transfer of the entire project or a part of it, the beneficiary and the new beneficiary(ies) shall define before the transfer the background and foreground needed for the purposes of the project in a written agreement and, where appropriate, may agree to exclude specific background.

2.3 Project progress reporting
Project reporting is carried out Corresponding PI as corresponding and financial reporting on the use of is responsible with the endorsement in two streams: scientific reporting (for which the PI is responsible on behalf of the PIs' Synergy project) resources (for which the Corresponding Host Institution by the Corresponding PI).

2.3.1 Scientific reporting
The Corresponding PI is required to send scientific reports to the ERC Executive Agency (normally two intermediate reports for a 6 year project and one at the end of the project). These reports inform the ERCEA on progress and achievements of the project. Specific outputs from the project should be included (e.g. publications). The scientific reports may be subject to review by a pertinent scientific review panel convened by the ERCEA, which may also involve site visits. The review panel will make recommendations as to the future course of the project.

2.3.2 Financial reporting
The Corresponding Host Institution is required to send financial reports (normally every 18 months) justifying the use of any expenditure. A certificate on the financial statements shall be submitted for claims of interim payments and final payments when the amount of the financial contribution of the Union claimed by a beneficiary58 under the form of reimbursement of costs is equal to or superior to EUR 375 000, when cumulated with all previous payments for which a certificate on the financial statements has not been submitted.) Where the project involves more than one legal entity, the Corresponding Host Institution must provide a consolidated cost claim.

55

However, in some cases, only after a careful analysis of the request by the ERC Executive Agency, which may involve a review of the project, will the PI be entitled to request transfer of the remainder of the grant to the new host institution. 56 This would not normally be done within the first two years of the start of the project. 57 In some countries, equipment is formally owned by the State and the consent of the host institution alone may not be sufficient. 58 In this case, the beneficiary includes the Corresponding Host Institution, other host institution(s) and any other beneficiary under Special Clause ERC 30.

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Applicants are reminded that the Commission's Research DGs have adopted a new and reinforced audit strategy aimed at detecting and correcting errors in cost claims submitted in projects on the basis of professional auditing standards. As a result, the number of audits and participants audited will increase significantly and the Commission's services will ensure the appropriate mutual exchange of information within its relevant internal departments in order to fully coordinate any corrective actions to be taken in a consistent way. More information can be found here: http://cordis.europa.eu/audit-certification/home_en.html

2.4 Payment of ERC grants
Grants are paid in several instalments: an advance payment (as pre-financing) is made within a maximum of 45 days of the date of entry into force of the ERC grant agreement. Interim payments are made on the basis of actual expenditures accepted for each financial reporting period. The total amount of the pre-financing and the interim payments paid out to the beneficiary shall not exceed 90% of the maximum amount of the financial contribution attributed to the project. A final payment is made corresponding to the last financial reporting period plus any adjustment needed.

2.5 Publication and exploitation of results
2.5.1 Acknowledging ERC support
Whenever achievements resulting from ERC-funded research are published (such as in journals, patents, presentations, etc.) each PI should highlight the ERC's financial support under the Seventh Framework Programme. This may imply a written acknowledgment and/or the application of the ERC logo and the European emblem: "The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC Grant agreement n° [xxxxxx]" For downloading the image files of the ERC logo and the European emblem, please consult http://erc.europa.eu/logos-and-banners

2.5.2 Dissemination, exploitation and IPR
A strategy to disseminate and exploit project results should be developed, with due regard to applicable local and national regulations and the rules regarding Intellectual Property Rights described in detail in the ERC grant agreement. The ERC Executive Agency may publish information on projects which it supports financially. This could include the name of the PIs and host institution(s), the project's objectives, the amount of funding awarded, and the location of the project and the project reports. However, in clearly justified cases, the host institution(s) may request that the ERC Executive Agency does not make this information public.

2.6 Further information and support
General information and key documents are available on the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu and on the Participant Portal at

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http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/. The ERC website also includes 'Frequently Asked Questions'. As with other parts of the Seventh Framework Programme, National Contact Points (ERC NCPs) have been set up across Europe59 by the national governments to provide information and personalised support to ERC applicants in their native language. The mission of the ERC NCPs is to raise awareness, inform and advise on ERC funding opportunities as well as to support potential applicants in the preparation, submission and follow-up of ERC grant applications60. For details on the ERC NCP in your country please consult the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu/ncp. Technical questions related to the Electronic Proposal Submission Service (EPSS) should be directed to the EPSS Helpdesk by e-mail support@epss-fp7.org, by phone +32-2-233 3760 or via its webportal61 on the Participant Portal. A general ERC Helpdesk is also available and accessible via the Europe Direct Contact Centre at http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=enquiries Information events (seminars, conferences, exhibitions) on the ERC or with participation of ERC speakers are published on the ERC website.

59 60

This applies to EU Member States and Associated Countries. Some third countries also provide this service. Note: The ERC will provide the coordinating NCP organisations with information and statistics on the outcome of calls and the evaluation of each proposal. This information is given under strict conditions of confidentiality and allows NCP organisations to customise their service. 61 http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/fp7_calls

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3 : Annexes

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ANNEX 1: ERC KEYWORDS
Social Sciences and Humanities
SH1 Individuals, institutions and markets: economics, finance and management
SH1_1 SH1_2 SH1_3 SH1_4 SH1_5 SH1_6 SH1_7 SH1_8 SH1_9 SH1_10 SH1_11 SH1_12 SH1_13 SH1_14 Macroeconomics, business cycles Development, economic growth Microeconomics, institutional economics Econometrics, statistical methods Financial markets, asset prices, international finance Banking, corporate finance, accounting Competitiveness, innovation, research and development Consumer choice, behavioural economics, marketing Organization studies, strategy Human resource management, labour economics Public economics, political economics, public administration Income distribution, poverty International trade, economic geography History of economics and economic thought, quantitative and institutional economic History

SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour: sociology, social anthropology, political science, law, communication, social studies of science and technology
SH2_1 SH2_2 SH2_3 SH2_4 SH2_5 SH2_6 SH2_7 SH2_8 SH2_9 SH2_10 SH2_11 Social structure, inequalities, social mobility, interethnic relations Ageing, work, social policies, welfare Kinship, cultural dimensions of classification and cognition, identity, gender Myth, ritual, symbolic representations, religious studies Democratization, social movements Violence, conflict and conflict resolution Political s ystems and institutions, governance Legal theory, legal systems, constitutions, comparative law Global and transnational governance, international studies, human rights Communication networks, media, information society Social studies of science and technology, science, technology and innovation Policies

SH3 Environment, space and population: environmental studies, demography, social geography, urban and regional studies
SH3_1 SH3_2 SH3_3 SH3_4 SH3_5 SH3_6 Environment, resources and sustainability Environmental change and society Environmental regulations and climate negotiations Social and industrial ecology Population dynamics, health and society Families and households

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SH3_7 SH3_8 SH3_9 SH3_10 SH3_11 SH3_12

Migration Mobility, tourism, transportation and logistics Spatial development, land use, regional planning Urbanization, cities and rural areas Infrastructure, human and political geography, settlements Geo-information and spatial data analysis

SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity: cognition, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and education
SH4_1 SH4_2 SH4_3 SH4_4 Evolution of mind and cognitive functions, animal communication Human life-span development Neurops ychology and clinical ps ychology Cognitive and experimental psychology: perception, action, and higher cognitive processes SH4_5 Linguistics: formal, cognitive, functional and computational linguistics SH4_6 Linguistics: typological, historical and comparative linguistics SH4_7 Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics: acquisition and knowledge of language, language pathologies SH4_8 Use of language: pragmatics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, second language teaching and learning, lexicography, terminology SH4_9 Philosophy, history of philosophy SH4_10 Epistemology, logic, philosophy of science SH4_11 Ethics and morality, bioethics SH4_12 Education: systems and institutions, teaching and learning

SH5 Cultures and cultural production: literature, visual and performing arts, music, cultural and comparative studies
SH5_1 SH5_2 SH5_3 SH5_4 SH5_5 SH5_6 SH5_7 SH5_8 SH5_9 SH5_10 SH5_11 Classics, ancient Greek and Latin literature and art History of literature Literary theory and comparative literature, literar y styles Textual philology and palaeography Visual arts Performing arts Museums and exhibitions Music and musicology, history of music History of art and history of architecture Cultural studies, cultural diversity Cultural heritage, cultural memory

SH6 The study of the human past: archaeology, history and memory
SH6_1 SH6_2 SH6_3 SH6_4 SH6_5 SH6_6 Archaeology, archaeometry, landscape archaeology Prehistory and protohistory Ancient history Medieval history Early modern history Modern and contemporary history

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SH6_7 SH6_8 SH6_9 SH6_10 SH6_11 SH6_12

Colonial and post-colonial history, global and transnational history Social and economic history History of ideas, intellectual histor y, history of sciences and techniques Cultural history History of collective identities and memories, history of gender Historiography, theory and methods of history

Physical Sciences and Engineering
PE1 Mathematics: all areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
PE1_1 PE1_2 PE1_3 PE1_4 PE1_5 PE1_6 PE1_7 PE1_8 PE1_9 PE1_10 PE1_11 PE1_12 PE1_13 PE1_14 PE1_15 PE1_16 PE1_17 PE1_18 PE1_19 PE1_20 PE1_21 Logic and foundations Algebra Number theory Algebraic and complex geometry Geometry Topology Lie groups, Lie algebras Analysis Operator algebras and functional analysis ODE and dynamical systems Theoretical aspects of partial differential equations Mathematical physics Probability Statistics Discrete mathematics and combinatorics Mathematical aspects of computer science Numerical analysis Scientific computing and data processing Control theory and optimization Application of mathematics in sciences Application of mathematics in industry and society life

PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter: particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
PE2_1 PE2_2 PE2_3 PE2_4 PE2_5 PE2_6 PE2_7 PE2_8 PE2_9 PE2_10 PE2_11 PE2_12 Fundamental interactions and fields Particle physics Nuclear physics Nuclear astrophysics Gas and plasma physics Electromagnetism Atomic, molecular physics Ultra-cold atoms and molecules Optics, non-linear optics and nano-optics Quantum optics and quantum information Lasers, ultra-short lasers, and laser physics Acoustics

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PE2_13 PE2_14 PE2_15 PE2_16 PE2_17 PE2_18

Relativity Thermodynamics Non-linear physics General physics Metrology and measurement Statistical physics (gases)

PE3 Condensed matter physics: structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences
PE3_1 PE3_2 PE3_3 PE3_4 PE3_5 PE3_6 PE3_7 PE3_8 PE3_9 PE3_10 PE3_11 PE3_12 PE3_13 PE3_14 PE3_15 PE3_16 PE3_17 PE3_18 PE3_19 PE3_20 Structure of solids and liquids Mechanical and acoustical properties of condensed matter Thermal properties of condensed matter Transport properties of condensed matter, Electronic properties of materials and transport Lattice dynamics Semiconductors, material growth, physical properties Superconductivity Superfluids Spintronics Magnetism Electro-optics Nanophysics: nanoelectronics, nanophotonics, nanomagnetism Mesoscopic physics Molecular electronics Soft condensed matter (liquid crystals...) Fluid dynamics (physics) Statistical physics (condensed matter) Phase transitions, phase equilibria Biophysics

PE4 Physical and analytical chemical sciences: analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
PE4_1 PE4_2 PE4_3 PE4_4 PE4_5 PE4_6 PE4_7 PE4_8 PE4_9 PE4_10 PE4_11 PE4_12 PE4_13 PE4_14 Physical chemistry Spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques Molecular architecture and Structure Surface science and nanostructures Analytical chemistry Chemical physics Chemical instrumentation Electrochemistry, electrodialysis, microfluidics, sensors Method development in chemistry Heterogeneous catalysis Physical chemistry of biological systems Chemical reactions: mechanisms, dynamics, kinetics and catalytic reactions Theoretical and computational chemistry Radiation chemistry

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PE4_15 PE4_16 PE4_17 PE4_18

Nuclear chemistry Photochemistry Corrosion Characterization methods of materials

PE5 Synthetic chemistry and materials: materials synthesis, structureproperties relations, functional and advanced materials, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
PE5_1 PE5_2 PE5_3 PE5_4 PE5_5 PE5_6 PE5_7 PE5_8 PE5_9 PE5_10 PE5_11 PE5_12 PE5_13 PE5_14 PE5_15 PE5_16 PE5_17 PE5_18 PE5_19 PE5_20 Structural properties of materials Solid state materials Surface modification Thin films Ionic liquids New materials: oxides, alloys, composite, organic-inorganic hybrid, nanoparticles Biomaterials synthesis Intelligent materials - self assembled materials Environment chemistry Coordination chemistry Colloid chemistry Biological chemistry Chemistry of condensed matter Homogeneous catalysis Macromolecular chemistry Polymer chemistry Supramolecular chemistry Organic chemistry Molecular chemistry Combinatorial chemistry

PE6 Computer science and informatics: informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
PE6_1 PE6_2 PE6_3 PE6_4 PE6_5 PE6_6 PE6_7 PE6_8 PE6_9 PE6_10 PE6_11 Computer architecture, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing Computer systems, parallel/distributed systems, sensor networks, embedded systems, cyber-physical systems Software engineering, operating systems, computer languages Theoretical computer science, formal methods, and quantum computing Cryptology, security, privacy, quantum crypto Algorithms, distributed, parallel and network algorithms, algorithmic game theory Artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, multi agent systems Computer graphics, computer vision, multi media, computer games Human computer interaction and interface, visualization and natural language processing W eb and information systems, database systems, information retrieval and digital libraries Machine learning, statistical data processing and applications using signal processing (eg. speech, image, video)

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PE6_12 Scientific computing, simulation and modelling tools PE6_13 Bioinformatics, biocomputing, and DNA and molecular computation

PE7 Systems and communication engineering: electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
PE7_1 PE7_2 PE7_3 PE7_4 PE7_5 PE7_6 PE7_7 PE7_8 PE7_9 PE7_10 Control engineering Electrical and electronic engineering: semiconductors, components, s ystems Simulation engineering and modelling Systems engineering, sensorics, actorics, automation Micro- and nanoelectronics, optoelectronics Communication technology, high-frequenc y technology Signal processing Networks (communication networks, sensor networks, networks of robots.....) Man-machine-interfaces Robotics

PE8 Products and processes engineering: product design, process design and control, construction methods, civil engineering, energy systems, material engineering
PE8_1 PE8_2 PE8_3 PE8_4 PE8_5 PE8_6 PE8_7 PE8_8 PE8_9 PE8_10 PE8_11 PE8_12 PE8_13 PE8_14 PE8_15 Aerospace engineering Chemical engineering, technical chemistry Civil engineering, maritime/hydraulic engineering, geotechnics, waste treatment Computational engineering Fluid mechanics, hydraulic-, turbo-, and piston engines Energy s ystems (production, distribution, application) Micro(system) engineering, Mechanical and manufacturing engineering (shaping, mounting, joining, separation) Materials engineering (biomaterials, metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, ...) Production technology, process engineering Product design, ergonomics, man-machine interfaces Sustainable design (for recycling, for environment, eco-design) Lightweight construction, textile technology Industrial bioengineering Industrial biofuel production

PE9 Universe sciences: astro-physics/chemistry/biology; solar system; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy, planetary systems, cosmology, space science, instrumentation
PE9_1 PE9_2 PE9_3 PE9_4 PE9_5 PE9_6 PE9_7 PE9_8 Solar and interplanetary physics Planetary s ystems sciences Interstellar medium Formation of stars and planets Astrobiology Stars and stellar s ystems The Galaxy Formation and evolution of galaxies

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PE9_9 PE9_10 PE9_11 PE9_12 PE9_13 PE9_14 PE9_15 PE9_16 PE9_17 PE9_18

Clusters of galaxies and large scale structures High energy and particles astronom y ­ X-rays, cosmic rays, gamma rays, neutrinos Relativistic astrophysics Dark matter, dark energy Gravitational astronom y Cosmology Space Sciences Very large data bases: archiving, handling and analysis Instrumentation - telescopes, detectors and techniques Solar planetology

PE10 Earth system science: physical geography, geology, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
PE10_1 PE10_2 PE10_3 PE10_4 PE10_5 PE10_6 PE10_7 PE10_8 PE10_9 PE10_10 PE10_11 PE10_12 PE10_13 PE10_14 PE10_15 PE10_16 PE10_17 Atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric composition, air pollution Meteorology, atmospheric physics and dynamics Climatology and climate change Terrestrial ecology, land cover change, Geology, tectonics, volcanology Paleoclimatology, paleoecology Physics of earth's interior, seismology, volcanology Oceanography (physical, chemical, biological, geological) Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry Mineralogy, petrology, igneous petrology, metamorphic petrology Geochemistry, crystal chemistry, isotope geochemistry, thermodynamics, Sedimentology, soil science, palaeontology, earth evolution Physical geography Earth observations from space/remote sensing Geomagnetism, paleomagnetism Ozone, upper atmosphere, ionosphere Hydrology, water and soil pollution

Life Sciences
LS1 Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry: molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, biochemistry of signal transduction
LS1_1 LS1_2 LS1_3 LS1_4 LS1_5 LS1_6 LS1_7 LS1_8 Molecular biology and interactions General biochemistry and metabolism DNA synthesis, modification, repair, recombination and degradation RNA synthesis, processing, modification and degradation Protein s ynthesis, modification and turnover Biophysics Structural biology (crystallography, NMR, EM) Biochemistry of signal transduction

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LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology: genetics, population genetics, molecular genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, biostatistics, biological modelling and simulation, systems biology, genetic epidemiology
LS2_1 LS2_2 LS2_3 LS2_4 LS2_5 LS2_6 LS2_7 LS2_8 LS2_9 LS2_10 LS2_11 LS2_12 LS2_13 LS2_14 Genomics, comparative genomics, functional genomics Transcriptomics Proteomics Metabolomics Glycomics Molecular genetics, reverse genetics and RNAi Quantitative genetics Epigenetics and gene regulation Genetic epidemiology Bioinformatics Computational biology Biostatistics Systems biology Biological systems analysis, modelling and simulation

LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology: cell biology, cell physiology, signal transduction, organogenesis, developmental genetics, pattern formation in plants and animals
LS3_1 LS3_2 LS3_3 LS3_4 LS3_5 LS3_6 LS3_7 LS3_8 LS3_9 LS3_10 LS3_11 LS3_12 Morphology and functional imaging of cells Cell biology and molecular transport mechanisms Cell cycle and division Apoptosis Cell differentiation, physiology and dynamics Organelle biology Cell signalling and cellular interactions Signal transduction Development, developmental genetics, pattern formation and embryology in animals Development, developmental genetics, pattern formation and embryology in plants Cell genetics Stem cell biology

LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology: organ physiology, pathophysiology, endocrinology, metabolism, ageing, regeneration, tumorigenesis, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome
LS4_1 LS4_2 LS4_3 LS4_4 LS4_5 LS4_6 LS4_7 Organ physiology Comparative physiology Endocrinology Ageing Metabolism, biological basis of metabolism related disorders Cancer and its biological basis Cardiovascular diseases

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LS4_8

Non-communicable diseases (except for neural/ps ychiatric, immunity-related, metabolism-related disorders, cancer and cardiovascular diseases)

LS5 Neurosciences and neural disorders: neurobiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology, neuroimaging, systems neuroscience, neurological disorders, psychiatry
LS5_1 LS5_2 LS5_3 LS5_4 LS5_5 LS5_6 LS5_7 LS5_8 LS5_9 LS5_10 LS5_11 Neuroanatom y and neurophysiology Molecular and cellular neuroscience Neurochemistry and neuropharmacology Sensory systems (e.g. visual system, auditory system) Mechanisms of pain Developmental neurobiology Cognition (e.g. learning, memory, emotions, speech) Behavioral neuroscience (e.g. sleep, consciousness, handedness) Systems neuroscience Neuroimaging and computational neuroscience Neurological disorders (e.g. Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease) LS5_12 Psychiatric disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, autism, Tourette's syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)

LS6 Immunity and infection: immunobiology, aetiology of immune disorders, microbiology, virology, parasitology, global and other infectious diseases, population dynamics of infectious diseases, veterinary medicine
LS6_1 LS6_2 LS6_3 LS6_4 LS6_5 LS6_6 LS6_7 LS6_8 LS6_9 LS6_10 LS6_11 LS6_12 LS6_13 Innate immunity Adaptive immunity Phagocytosis and cellular immunity Immunosignalling Immunological memory and tolerance Immunogenetics Microbiology Virology Bacteriology Parasitology Prevention and treatment of infection by pathogens (e.g. vaccination, antibiotics, fungicide) Biological basis of immunity related disorders Veterinary medicine

LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health: aetiology, diagnosis and treatment of disease, public health, epidemiology, pharmacology, clinical medicine, regenerative medicine, medical ethics
LS7_1 LS7_2 LS7_3 Medical engineering and technology Diagnostic tools (e.g. genetic, imaging) Pharmacology, pharmacogenomics, drug discover y and design, drug therapy

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LS7_4 LS7_5 LS7_6 LS7_7 LS7_8 LS7_9 LS7_10 LS7_11 LS7_12 LS7_13

Analgesia Toxicology Gene therapy, stem cell therapy, regenerative medicine Surgery Radiation therapy Health services, health care research Public health and epidemiology Environment and health risks including radiation Occupational medicine Medical ethics

LS8 Evolutionary, population and environmental biology: evolution, ecology, animal behaviour, population biology, biodiversity, biogeography, marine biology, eco-toxicology, prokaryotic biology
LS8_1 LS8_2 LS8_3 LS8_4 LS8_5 LS8_6 LS8_7 LS8_8 LS8_9 LS8_10 LS8_11 Ecology (theoretical, community, population, microbial, evolutionar y ecology) Population biology, population dynamics, population genetics, plant-animal interactions Systems evolution, biological adaptation, phylogenetics, systematics Biodiversity, comparative biology Conservation biology, ecology, genetics Biogeography Animal behaviour (behavioural ecology, animal communication) Environmental and marine biology Environmental toxicology Prokaryotic biology Symbiosis

LS9 Applied life sciences and biotechnology: agricultural, animal, fishery, forestry and food sciences; biotechnology, chemical biology, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, industrial biosciences; environmental biotechnology and remediation
LS9_1 LS9_2 LS9_3 LS9_4 LS9_5 LS9_6 LS9_7 LS9_8 LS9_9 LS9_10 LS9_11 Genetic engineering, transgenic organisms, recombinant proteins, biosensors Synthetic biology and new bio-engineering concepts Agriculture related to animal husbandr y, dairying, livestock raising Aquaculture, fisheries Agriculture related to crop production, soil biology and cultivation, applied plant biology Food sciences Forestry, biomass production (e.g. for biofuels) Environmental biotechnology, bioremediation, biodegradation Biotechnology (non-medical), bioreactors, applied microbiology Biomimetics Biohazards, biological containment, biosafety, biosecurity

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ANNEX 2: ETHICAL ISSUES
Annex 2a: Specific Information on Ethical Issues
The objective of the ethics review is to ensure that the European Union does not support research which would be contrary to fundamental ethical principles (see Box 6) and to examine whether the research complies with the rules relating to research ethics set out in the Decisions on FP7 and the Ideas Specific Programme. All proposals retained for funding, regardless of the applicant having identified any ethical issues, will be reviewed concomitantly the peer review evaluation. The proposals identified as having ethical issues by the Corresponding PI or during the ethics process (see Annex 2b) will undergo an ethics review that can take up to several weeks to be completed, according to the complexity and sensitivity of the issues involved. Applicants need to be aware that no grant agreement can be signed by the ERCEA prior to a satisfactory conclusion of the ethics review. Proposals raising specific ethical issues such as research intervention on human beings62; research on human embryos and human embryonic stem cells and non-human primates are automatically submitted to a more in-depth ethics review.

62

Such as research and clinical trials, and research involving invasive techniques on persons (e.g. taking of tissue samples, examinations of the brain).

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Box 6:

Dealing with ethical issues

Fundamental ethical principles must be respected, including those reflected in the Charter* of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. These principles include the need to ensure the freedom of research and the need to protect the physical and moral integrity of individuals and the welfare of animals. Applicants should indicate whether the proposed research raises sensitive ethical questions such as research involving human beings, human biological samples, personal data, genetic information or animals**. According to Article 6 of the FP7 Decision and Article 3 of the Specific Programme 'Ideas', the following activities cannot be funded: - - - research activities aiming at human cloning for reproductive purposes; research activities intended to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable; research activities intended to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

As regards human embryonic stem cell research, the ERC is bound by the European Commission's commitment to follow the practice of the EU's Sixth Research Framework Programme (see OJ L 412 of 30.12.2006, p. 42) and exclude from financial support any research activities destroying human embryos, including for the procurement of stem cells. The exclusion of funding of this step of research will not prevent ERC funding of subsequent steps involving human embryonic stem cells. Applicants must ensure that the research proposed respects all national rules and procedures of the relevant country where the proposed research is conducted. Where necessary, approval must be sought from the relevant national or local ethics committee prior to the start of the project. The opinions of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE)*** are and will be taken into account. Furthermore, due account should be taken of the Protocol**** on the Protection and W elfare of Animals, to reduce the use of animals in research and testing (with a view to ultimately replacing animal use), to involve animals with the lowest degree of neurops ychological sensitivity, and to cause the least pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm. *see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/default_en.htm **a dedicated website that aims to provide helpful information on ethical issues is available at:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ethics_en.html

***see http://ec.europa.eu/bepa/european-group-ethics/docs/publications/opinion_22_final_follow_up_en.pdf ****see http://ec.europa.eu/food/animal/welfare/references_en.htm

Ethical Issues Table and description of ethical issues in the research proposal, part B1
The Ethical Issues Table (see Annex 2b) has to be completed even if there are no ethical issues in part B1 (simply confirming that none of the ethical issues apply to the proposal). If the answer to any of the questions of the Ethical Issues Table is "YES", the Corresponding PI must provide a brief description of the ethical issues involved and how it will be dealt with appropriately on the Ethical Issues Annex provided in EPSS (together with the part B1 template). In particular, it should outline the benefit and burden of such research, the effects it may have and how the ethical issues will be managed. The Corresponding PI may wish to include copies of any existing authorisation for the proposed work (these copies do not count towards the page limit).

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The following special issues, among others, should be taken into account: Informed consent: W hen describing issues relating to informed consent, it will be necessary to demonstrate an appropriate level of ethical sensitivity and to consider issues of insurance, incidental findings and the consequences of withdrawing from the study. Data protection issues: Avoid the unnecessary collection and use of personal data. Identify the source of the data, describing whether it is collected as part of the research or if previously collected data is being used. Consider issues of informed consent for any data being used. Describe how personal identification data is protected. Use of animals: Where animals are used in research the application of the 3Rs (Replace, Reduce, Refine) must be convincingly addressed. The number of animals used should be specified. Describe what happens to the animals after the research experiments. Human embryonic stem cells: Research proposals that will involve human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) will have to address all the following specific points: · the Corresponding PI as well as, where appropriate, the Corresponding Host Institution (the applicant legal entity) should demonstrate that the project fulfils important research aims to advance scientific knowledge in basic research or to increase medical knowledge for the development of diagnostic, preventive or therapeutic methods to be applied to humans. the necessity to use hESCs in order to achieve the scientific objectives set forth in the proposal. In particular, applicants must document that appropriate validated alternatives (in particular, stem cells from other sources or origins) are not suitable and/or available to achieve the expected goals of the proposal. This latter provision does not apply to research comparing hESCs with other human stem cells. the Corresponding PI as well as the Corresponding Host Institution (the applicant legal entity) should take into account the legislation, regulations, ethical rules and/or codes of conduct in place in the country(ies) where the research using hESC is to take place, including the procedures for obtaining informed consent; the Corresponding PI as well as the Corresponding Host Institution (the applicant legal entity) should ensure that for all hESC lines to be used in the project were derived from embryos of which the donor(s) express, written and informed consent was provided freely, in accordance with national legislation prior to the procurement of the cells. that result from medically-assisted in vitro fertilisation designed to induce pregnancy, and were no longer to be used for that purpose. of which the measures to protect personal data and privacy of donor(s), including genetic data, are in place during the procurement and for any use thereafter. Researchers must accordingly present all data in such a way as to ensure donor anonymity; of which the conditions of donation are adequate, and namely that no pressure was put on the donor(s) at any stage, that no financial inducement was offered to donation for research at any stage and that the infertility treatment and research activities were kept appropriately separate.

·

·

·

-

-

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Ethical considerations when research field work is performed in non-EU Countries
The proposed research is expected to be responsive to the needs of the country where research is carried out (e.g. the study must be of added value for the health and welfare of the intended participants, their community, and/or their country). Applicable legislation The Corresponding PI as well as the Corresponding Host Institution (the applicant legal entity) must abide by European standards of research ethics, as it is expressed in the applicable legislation/regulations of the host countries. They should also comply with internationally accepted guidance documents, such as the Declaration of Helsinki. Benefit sharing Research projects where possible, must seek to provide direct benefits to research participants and their community, and also for local researchers. The Corresponding PI should address whether and how the research might impact on the local population. Healthy volunteers As healthy volunteers can represent a particularly vulnerable population in emerging economy - and developing countries, specific attention should be paid to ensure that they are able to provide genuine informed consent, and to ensure their safety. Data protection Data protection and privacy must be ensured, in compliance with EU/national legislation. If cross-country transmission is anticipated, a formal legal agreement, such as a Material Transfer Agreement or a Memorandum of Understanding is recommended so as to safeguard the rights of developing countries, but also those of the stakeholders of the developed country. Animal welfare Research projects must comply with the applicable EU/national legislation governing animal experimentation. The proposed research should also contribute to the capacity building of the host country (e.g. in terms of training on animal experiments and/or facilities). Note: Only in exceptional cases additional information will be sought for clarification, which means that any ethics review will be performed solely on the basis of the information available in the proposal. To ensure compliance with ethical principles, the Commission Services will undertake ethics audit(s) of selected projects at its discretion. A dedicated website that aims to provide clear and helpful information on ethical issues is now available at: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ethics_en.html

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Annex 2b: Ethical Issues Table (template)
Areas Excluded From Funding Under FP7 (Art. 6) (i) Research activity aiming at human cloning for reproductive purposes;

(ii) Research activity intended to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (Research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads can be financed); (iii) Research activities intended to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

All FP7 funded research shall comply with the relevant national, EU and international ethicsrelated rules and professional codes of conduct. W here necessary, the beneficiary(ies) shall provide the responsible Commission services with a written confirmation that it has received (a) favourable opinion(s) of the relevant ethics committee(s) and, if applicable, the regulatory approval(s) of the competent national or local authority(ies) in the country in which the research is to be carried out, before beginning any Commission approved research requiring such opinions or approvals. The copy of the official approval from the relevant national or local ethics committees must also be provided to the responsible Commission services.

Research on Human Embryo/ Foetus
Does the Does the Does the Does the culture? proposed proposed proposed proposed research research research research involve human Embryos? involve human Foetal Tissues/ Cells? involve human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs)? on human Embryonic Stem Cells involve cells in

YES

Page

Does the proposed research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells involve the derivation of cells from Embryos? I CONFIRM THAT NONE OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL

Research on Humans
Does Does Does Does Does Does Does the the the the the the the proposed proposed proposed proposed proposed proposed proposed research research research research research research research involve involve involve involve involve involve involve children? patients? persons not able to give consent? adult healthy volunteers? Human genetic material? Human biological samples? Human data collection?

YES

Page

I CONFIRM THAT NONE OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL

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Privacy
Does the proposed research involve processing of genetic information or personal data (e.g. health, sexual lifestyle, ethnicity, political opinion, religious or philosophical conviction)? Does the proposed research involve tracking the location or observation of people? I CONFIRM THAT NONE OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL

YES

Page

Research on Animals

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YES

Page

Does the proposed research involve research on animals? Are those animals transgenic small laboratory animals? Are those animals transgenic farm animals? Are those animals non-human primates? Are those animals cloned farm animals? I CONFIRM THAT NONE OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL

Research Involving non-EU Countries (ICPC Countries64)

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YES

Page

Is the proposed research (or parts of it) going to take place in one or more of the ICPC Countries? Is any material used in the research (e.g. personal data, animal and/or human tissue samples, genetic material, live animals, etc) : a) Collected in any of the ICPC countries? b) Exported to any other country (including ICPC and EU Member States)? I CONFIRM THAT NONE OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL

Dual Use
Research having direct military use Research having the potential for terrorist abuse I CONFIRM THAT NONE OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL

YES

Page

If any of the above issues apply to your proposal, you are required to complete and upload the 'B1_Ethical Issues Annex' (template provided in EPSS). The Ethical Issues Annex (max 2 pages) must provide a brief explanation on the ethical issue involved and how it will be dealt with appropriately. Please specify as well any authorization or permission you already have for the proposed work and include copies (these copies do not count towards

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The type of animals involved in the research that fall under the scope of the Commission's Ethical Scrutiny procedures are defined in the Council Directive 86/609/EEC of 24 November 1986 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes Official Journal L 358 , 18/12/1986 p. 0001 - 0028 64 In accordance with Article 2.(12) of the Rules for Participation in FP7, `International Cooperation Partner Country (ICPC) means a third country which the Commission classifies as a low-income (L), lower-middle-income (LM) or upper-middle-income (UM) country, please refer for this purpose to the list in Annex 1 to the Cooperation Work Programme 2011, as published on CORDIS: ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/wp/cooperation/cooperation-general-annexes201101_en.pdf Countries associated to the Seventh EC Framework Programme do not qualify as ICP Countries and therefore do not appear in this list. 65 A guidance note on how to deal with ethical issues arising out of the involvement of non-EU countries is available at: ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp7/docs/developing-countries_en.pdf

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the 2-page-limit). The Ethical Issues Annex will allow a proper ethical screening if the proposal is chosen for possible funding. Without it, your application cannot be reviewed properly. Please upload this Ethical Issues Annex and any related documents in the 'Extra Annexes Upload' section included in the EPSS tab 'part B & annexes'. The pages of the Ethical Issues Table (included in part B1 and Ethical Issues Annex (separate document) will not count towards the maximum page limit for part B1.

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ANNEX 3: TEMPLATE OF BUDGET TABLE
In part B1 the (including the Corresponding summary table use of the following budget table is strongly recommended. The budget table declaration of the level of involvement) should be filled in for the Principal Investigator and each Principal Investigator. Please include a (using the same template) for the entire budget.

Note that the budgets are broken down in 4 financial reporting periods of 18 months each. Name of Corresponding Principal Investigator or Principal Investigator (1 table /PI).
Cost Category Months 1- 18 Months 19-36 Months 37-54 Months 55-72 Total (72)

Direct Costs:

Personnel: PI66 Senior Staff Post docs Students Other Total Personnel: Other Direct Costs: Equipment Consumables Travel Publications, etc Other Total Other Direct Costs: Total Direct Costs: Max 20% of Direct Costs (No overheads) (by year and total) (by year and total)

Indirect Costs (overheads): Subcontracting Costs: Total Costs of project: Requested Grant67:

For the above budget table, please indicate the % of working time the PI dedicates to the project over the period of the grant:

%

Please note that each PI is expected to devote at least 30% of their working time to the ERCfunded project and spend at least 50% of your total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country (see ERC W ork Programme 2012).

66

Please take into account the percentage of your dedicated working time (minimum 30%) to run the ERC funded activity when calculating the salary. 67 Please make sure that the sums by period and cost category match.

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ANNEX 4: COMMITMENT OF THE CORRESPONDING68 HOST INSTITUTION
(to be printed on the official letterhead of the corresponding host institution)

Commitment of the corresponding host institution69,

70, 71

The (Please enter name of the legal entity that is associated with the proposal and may host the corresponding principal investigator and the project in case the application is successful), which is the applicant legal entity, confirms its intention to sign a supplementary agreement with [Please enter name of the corresponding principal investigator and the principal investigator(s)72, 73] in which the obligations listed below will be addressed, should the proposal entitled (Please enter acronym) : (Please enter title of the proposal) be retained. The applicant legal entity confirms its association with and its support to the group's project which involves the following principal investigators: [Please enter the name of the corresponding principal investigator and the principal investigator(s)]. Performance obligations of the applicant legal entity that will become the principal beneficiary of the grant agreement, should the proposal be retained and the preparation of the grant agreement be successfully concluded: The applicant legal entity commits itself to engage the corresponding principal investigator for the duration of the grant and to: a) ensure that the work will be performed under the scientific guidance of the principal investigators who will be expected to devote at least 30% of their total working time to the ERC-funded project and spend at least 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country. b) carry out the work to be performed, as it will be identified in Annex I of the ERC Grant Agreement, taking into consideration the specific role of the corresponding principal investigator and the principal investigator(s). c) establish a supplementary agreement with the corresponding principal investigator and principal investigator(s)73 which specifies that the applicant legal entity shall:

68

Any reference to 'Corresponding Principal Investigator' or 'Corresponding PI' refers to the 'Lead Principal Investigator' as described in the ERC Work Programme 2012. Similarly, any reference to 'Corresponding Host Institution' or 'Corresponding HI' refers to the host institution of the 'Lead/Corresponding Principal Investigator'. 69 A scanned copy of the signed statement should be uploaded electronically on EPSS in PDF format. More information can be found in section 1.2.2.4 of this guide. 70 The statement of commitment of the host institution refers to most obligations of the host institution, which are stated in the ERC grant agreement (see article II.2 of the grant agreement). The ERC grant agreement is available on the ERC website at http://erc.europa.eu 71 This statement (on letterhead paper) shall be signed by the institution's legal representative and stating his/her name, function and stamp of the institution. 72 Please only insert the names of the PIs that will be engaged by the corresponding host institution. 73 In case of more than one beneficiary, the other additional beneficiary(ies) will be requested to sign a supplementary agreement with their respective PI(s) and undertake the same obligations with their respective PI(s).

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i)

support each principal investigator in the management of his/her team and provide reasonable administrative assistance to the principal investigators, in particular as regards: a. the timeliness and clarity of financial information, b. the general management and reporting of finances, c. the advice on internal applicant legal entity strategies and ERC Executive Agency or Commission policies, d. the organisation of project meetings as well as the general logistics of the project.

ii) provide research support to the principal investigators and their team members throughout the duration of the project in accordance with Annex I ERC Grant Agreement, in particular as regards infrastructure, equipment, products and other services as necessary for the conduct of the research; iii) ensure that the principal investigators and their team members enjoy, on a royaltyfree basis, access rights to the background and the foreground needed for their activities under the project as specified in Annex I ERC Grant Agreement; iv) guarantee adequate contractual conditions to the principal investigators73, in particular as regards: a. the provisions for annual, sickness and parental leave, b. occupational health and safety standards, c. the general social security scheme, such as pension rights. v) ensure the necessary scientific autonomy of each principal investigator, in particular as regards: a. the selection of other team members, hosted and engaged by the applicant legal entity or other legal entities, in line with profiles needed to conduct the research, including the appropriate advertisement; b. the control over the budget in terms of its use to achieve the scientific objectives74; c. the authority to deliver scientific reports to the ERC Executive Agency75; d. the authority to publish as senior authors and invite as co-authors only those who have contributed substantially to the reported work.

74

The reallocation of tasks and budget will be requested by the corresponding principal investigator in consultation with the group of PIs. 75 The scientific reports will be delivered to the ERCEA through the corresponding principal investigator.

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vi) inform

the

principal

investigators

of

any

circumstances

affecting

the

implementation of the project or leading potentially to a suspension or termination of the ERC Grant Agreement; vii) subject to the observance of applicable national law and to the agreement of the ERC Executive Agency, the transfer of the grant agreement as well as any prefinancing of the grant not covered by an accepted cost claim to a new legal entity, should a principal investigator request to transfer the entire project or part of it to this new legal entity. The applicant legal entity shall submit a substantiated request for amendment or notify the ERC Executive Agency in case of its objection to the transfer. For the institution (applicant legal entity)

Name, Function, + Signature of legal representative Stamp of institution (applicant legal entity) Date

IMPORTANT NOTE: All the above mentioned items are mandatory and shall be included in the commitment of the corresponding host institution.

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ANNEX 5: SECURITY ISSUES
Security-sensitive proposals are required to follow special procedures. ERC actions may be classified76 if they are considered as sensitive. These procedures are described in this guide. They will apply to all ERC actions if so specified in the relevant call, or when the subjects addressed are considered as sensitive. A security-sensitive proposal is a proposal for an action that may need to handle classified information. Proposals submitted to ERC calls must not contain any classified information. However, it is possible that the output of an action ('Foreground') needs to be classified, or that classified inputs ('Background') are required. In such cases, applicants have to declare their proposal as 'sensitive' and provide a Security Aspects Letter (SAL)77 and its annex Security Classification Guide (SCG)78 as part of their proposals. A 'security considerations' flag will be associated with a proposal: · · when the applicant declares a proposal as sensitive; if the expert evaluators or the ERCEA detect or suspect any of the following conditions: ü Classified information is, or may be, used as background information; ü Some foreground is planned to be classified.

The SCG will cover: · · The level of classification of background and foreground; Which participant will have access to what information.

In addition, the following documents are required as part of the proposal: · A copy of the Facility Security Clearances (FSC) (or the FSC requests). The validity of the FSC will be checked by the European Commission's Security Directorate through the appropriate formal channel with the National Security Authorities (NSAs) involved; Formal written authorization by the relevant security authorities to use the classified background.

·

In addition, a proposal may also be considered as sensitive, independently of any security classification, if it is planned to exchange material subject to transfer or export licensing. In that context, applicants must comply with national laws and EU regulation79. If export licences (or intra EU licences) are required for carrying the planned work, applicants must clarify the requirement to have such export or transfer licences and must provide a copy of export or transfer licences (or of the requests).

76

As defined in the Commission Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom of 29 November 2001amending its internal rules of procedure (OJ, L 317, 3.12.2001). 77 `Security Aspects Letter (SAL)': "a set of special contractual conditions, issued by the contracting authority, which forms an integral part of a classified contract involving access to or generation of EU classified information, and that identifies the security requirements or those elements of the classified contract requiring security protection", as defined in section 27 of Commission Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom. 78 As defined in section 27 of Commission Decision 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom. 79 Council Regulation (EC) No 428/2009 of 5 May 2009 setting up a Community regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering and transit of dual-use items (OJ L 134, 29.5.2009, p.1).

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Box 7: Scrutiny of security sensitive ERC actions
ERC grants addressing security-sensitive subjects must undergo a security scrutiny procedure. In order to ensure this, any successful ERC proposal will be scrutinised for security aspects prior to granting. A security 'sensitive' proposal is a proposal for an action that may need to handle classified information. Proposals submitted to ERC calls must not contain any classified information. However, it is possible that the output of an action ('Foreground') needs to be classified, or that classified inputs ('Background') are required. In addition, a proposal may also be considered as sensitive if it is planned to exchange material which is subject to transfer or export licensing. The first step of this scrutiny (security scrutiny clearance) will be carried out by ERCEA staff, who will identify all proposals that clearly have no associated security issues and which therefore should proceed with granting immediately. The remaining proposals (i.e. those that clearly are or that may be security-sensitive) will be scrutinised, according to legislation, by a 'Security Scrutiny Committee'. This committee consists of representatives of national security authorities, supported, if appropriate, by representatives of the relevant members of the Programme Committees. The scrutiny will be carried out by Committee members of the same countr y(ies) as that of the prospective grant beneficiaries (i.e. the host organisation and other organisations involved in the proposal). The outcome of the scrutiny process results in a recommendation of the committee: · · · That no EU classification is needed; That an EU classification at some level is needed (references); That the proposal is too sensitive to be financed.

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Annex 5a: Security Aspects Letter (template)
The following security requirements shall be complied with for handling and storage of the elements and parts of the grant agreement that are mentioned in the Security Classification Guide in Appendix to this SAL for the grant agreement. · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · The performance of the grant agreement will involve information classified 'EU restricted', 'EU confidential' or 'EU secret'. A Facility Security Clearance is [or is not] required. Persons who need to access EU classified information (EUCI) must have an EU personal security clearance and be briefed as to their responsibility for security. The beneficiaries concerned shall take all measures prescribed by the National Security Authority/Designated Security Authority (NSA/DSA) for safeguarding EUCI. The beneficiaries concerned shall appoint a Facility Security Officer (FSO). The beneficiaries concerned, through the FSO, shall maintain a continuing relationship with their NSA/DSA. The beneficiaries concerned shall maintain a record of their employees taking part in the project and who have been cleared for access to EUCI. EU classified information for the purpose of these instructions is to be understood as information classified and marked 'EU restricted', 'EU confidential' or 'EU secret' or its equivalent national classification. Information generated by the beneficiaries concerned will require EU classification and marking. The beneficiaries concerned must obtain the approval of the Contracting Authority before beginning negotiations with a view to subcontract. The Commission Security Directorate may - in co-ordination with the responsible NSA/DSA - conduct inspections at concerned beneficiaries' facilities to verify the implementation of the security requirements for the handling of EUCI. The beneficiaries concerned shall report all cases of unauthorised disclosure or loss of EUCI to the responsible NSA/DSA, the Commission Security Directorate and the Contracting Authority. All EUCI provided or generated under this grant agreement shall continue to be protected in the event of termination of the grant agreement. The beneficiaries concerned shall undertake not to use, other than for the specific purpose of the grant agreement No ... [to be completed]. Handling and storage instructions for information classified 'EU restricted', 'EU confidential' or 'EU secret'.

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Annex 5b: Security Classification Guide (template)
Annex to the Security Aspects Letter This template should be filled in for all sensitive projects and will be part of the grant agreement.
Handling of classified Background Subject Classification Beneficiaries involved in handling or level wanting to access Responsibility Date of handling or request of access number and name of the reports Classification level entities name only owner

Comments including purpose of the access and planned use

entities name only reader ... ... Production of classified Foreground Subject Classification Beneficiaries involved in production level or wanting to access Responsibility Date of production or request of access number and name of the deliverable proposed Classification level entities name only owner entities name only contributor entities name only reader ... ...

Comments including purpose of the access and planned use

Please see the Commission decision No 2001/844/EC, ECSC, Euratom of 29 November 2001 amending its internal rules of procedure (OJ, L 317, 3.12.2001).
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:2001D0844:20060805:EN:PDF

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