Specificities of the new 2024 ERC grant Work programme

On 10 July, the ERC (European Research Council) issued a new Work Programme for 2024. The plan includes new elements in the evaluation of research proposals, candidates' CVs and in the evaluation process. It also introduces lump sum funding in Advanced Grants and makes some changes to the structure of evaluation panels.

Most of the information about the changes has already been shared with the scientific community in advance so that the candidates could prepare, but here is a detailed summary of the specific changes, including a more detailed description of the lump sum tool.

Main changes introduced in the 2024 Work programme: 

• Research assessment: Scientific excellence remains the sole criterion of evaluation for frontier research grants, but the Work Programme introduces changes to the structure of the Curriculum Vitae and Track Record, as well as to the evaluation procedure, where greater emphasis is placed on the quality of the project.

• Lump sums: Advanced Grants will be implemented as a pilot call using a lump sum contribution, while Starting, Consolidator, and Synergy Grants will continue to be offered under the actual cost model.
  See Q&A on lump sums
   
• Proof of Concept Grants: As of 2024, applications for these grants will be evaluated and selected in two instead of three rounds, based on two specific cut-off dates. 
   
• Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants: a maximum of 44 proposals per panel will be assessed at step 2 of the evaluation. Moreover, a distinction in the scoring at step 1 will be made between proposals obtaining a score of A and invited to step 2 of the evaluation, and proposals obtaining a score of A but not ranked sufficiently high to be invited to step 2. The latter proposals won't be subject to resubmission restrictions.  
   
• A new evaluation panel (SH8) has been created in the Social Sciences and Humanities "Studies of Cultures and Arts Social anthropology, studies of cultures, studies of arts" domain to restore the balance between the coverage of social sciences and humanities. In addition, some descriptors (LS3 - "Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration", LS5 - "Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System") have been changed to make the disciplinary coverage clearer to the applicants.
   
• Public Engagement with Research Award: the ERC grantees with ongoing or recently completed projects will be able to enter the contest for the Public Engagement with Research Award (up to 6 prizes of 10 000 EUR)

The entire Press Release is here.

Photo: ERC