European Research Council conference: Strengthening Europe's Science Base

Programme

12:30-13:00 Welcome Coffee

13:00-13:30 Welcome and introduction

• Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President
• Prof. Eva Kondorosi, ERC Vice-President and Chair of  the ERC Scientific Council Working Group on Widening European Participation

13:30-14:00  Keynote Speech

Prof. Mart Saarma, Director of  the Centre of Excellence in Molecular and Integrated Neuroscience at the Institute of Biotechnology in University of Helsinki and former ERC Vice-President

14:00-14:15  ERC Grant Testimony

Prof. Tambet Teesalu, Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Institute of Biomedicine and Translational Medicine, University of Tartu, Estonia

14:15-14:30  ERC Success Story: Proof-of-Concept

Prof. Valeria Nicolosi, Nanomaterials and Advanced Microscopy School of Chemistry, CRANN & AMBER, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

14:30-14:45 Promoting and spreading excellence

Dr Ronald de Bruin, Director of the COST Association

14:45-15:00 Coffee Break

15:00-15:45   Panel discussion organised in collaboration with Science Europe: The complementary roles of the ERC and national research funding

Ten years after the establishment of the ERC, what lessons have we learnt on its complementarity with national research funding? The panel will reflect on the impact the ERC has had on national research systems, on national research funding landscapes and on science.

Questions to be addressed:

• What impact has the creation of a European Research Council had on science, on research organisations, on policy makers and research funders?   
• How has the functioning of national funders, at strategic and operational level, changed after the establishment of the ERC?
• What is the national experience with incentives and schemes for ERC grantees, and with other ERC-based schemes? Is their role positive or negative?
• Where have national practices been adopted by the ERC and vice versa?
• How have the application strategies of national research communities changed since the creation of the ERC?

Moderator: Prof. Michael Matlosz, President of Science Europe  

Panellists:

Prof. Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre (NCN), Poland

Prof. Matthias Kleiner, President of the Leibniz Association, Germany (TBC)

Prof. Eva Kondorosi, Vice-President of the ERC Scientific Council

Andres Koppel, Director General, Estonian Research Council, Estonia

Followed by a discussion with participants

15:45-16:45 Panel Discussion organised in collaboration with Science Europe: Peer review in the 21st  century

The panel will brainstorm on wheter funder-managed peer review processes can be modernised. What innovative solutions can be introduced, using modern IT tools or novel behavioural insights?

Questions to be addressed:

• How to deal with overburdened systems and experts?

• What innovative solutions exist to manage the supply and demand of reviewers?

• Addressing bias in peer review panels: can double-blind reviews or open peer review help?

Moderator: Dr Véronique Halloin, Secretary-General of the Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS), Wallonia, Belgium

Panellists:

Dr Anne-Marie Coriat, Head of Research Careers, Wellcome Trust, UK

Prof. Stan Gielen, President of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), The Netherlands

Prof. József Györkös, Director of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), Slovenia

Dr Angela Liberatore, Head of Social Sciences and Humanities Unit, European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA

Prof. Sven Stafström, Director General of the Swedish Research Council, Sweden

Followed by a discussion with participants

16:45-17:00  Concluding remarks

Prof. Jean Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President

17:00 Reception