ERC applicants ‘focus too much on EU impacts’

Image: Craig Nicholson for Research Professional News

Earma 2022: Researchers “simply do not understand” what European Research Council is for, consultant says

Applicants for European Research Council grants do not have a good enough grasp of what the funder is meant to do, and they focus too much on the impact their project will have on the EU rather than globally, according to a research consultant.

“Many applicants simply do not understand what the ERC is and how to present a project to it,” Yoram Bar-Zeev, managing director at consultancy Enspire Science, said at the annual conference of the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators.

Bar-Zeev (pictured) set out his experience of ERC applications at the opening day of the Earma conference in Oslo on 5 May. He said most applicants “struggle” with how to pitch the ambition of their proposals to the funder, which is intended to support research that is not a safe bet, but rather would pay off in a big way if it goes as planned.

“High risk is the most important and most elusive factor of the ERC. Most applicants do not like it because they are not used to presenting projects in this way and it is perceived as counter-intuitive as it is different to pretty much all other grants,” said Bar-Zeev.

When presenting the impact that their project could have, most applicants focus on EU impacts, but the ERC is looking for a global scale, stressed Bar-Zeev.

The nature of the application process poses other challenges for researchers, he added.

“It is an unstructured application which means when you go to write the proposal itself, you pretty much do not get any instructions, you get a wide canvas, and this is something that results in disorientation with most applicants that we know—it is highly problematic.”