Three ERC grants for researchers in Utrecht

The ERC grants have been awarded to Joris Eggenhuisen and Frank Biermann, both from the Faculty of Geosciences, and to Frank van Tubergen, from NIDI-KNAW. He is a professor by special appointment at the Faculty of Social Sciences. 

Eggenhuisen’s research lays the scientific foundation for policies to manage and protect deep-sea ecosystems, while Biermann is investigating an alternative to international multilateral agreements, exploring agreements among smaller coalitions of like-minded countries. As for Van Tubergen, he is researching social cohesion amongst young people with and without a migrant background.

The European Research Council has invested 840 million euros in this round. That's over 100 million more than last year. A record number of grants have been awarded in this round. Nevertheless, the success rate remained relatively low due to the rising number of applications. This year, 3,329 proposals were submitted, over thirty per cent more than last year. Of these, 319 were successful. The success rate, therefore, stands at 9.6 per cent. Last year, it was 11 per cent, and the year before that, nearly 14 per cent.

Competition
According to the ERC, the rising number of applications is causing problems, as there are not enough reviewers to assess the proposals thoroughly. To ease the workload, the council proposed earlier this year to limit the number of applications by introducing stricter rules, but the plan was met with such criticism that it was scrapped.

This time, the United Kingdom received by far the most grants (62), followed by Germany, with 46, and Switzerland, with 32. The Netherlands is in sixth place, with 22 grants. This is slightly worse than last year, when the country ranked fourth with 24 grants.

United States
In total, thirteen leading researchers currently based outside Europe have received a grant: nine from the United States, two from Australia and two from Canada. They may use this funding to set up a laboratory or research team at a European research institution.

Seven of them are using the additional funding the ERC has made available to scientists from outside Europe. This was done to attract more top international talent. The budget was increased when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, launched an attack on academic freedom in the US.

Women
In total, 81 women and 237 men received an advanced grant. This means that only 25 percent of the contemplated scientists are women. One of the winners was non-binary. The ERC also awards "starting grants" of up to 1.5 million euros and "consolidator grants" of up to 2 million euros. The proportion of female grant recipients tends to be slightly higher in these categories.