Login

ERC Preparatory Seminars

The Starting (StG), Consolidator (CoG) and Advanced Grant (AdG) programmes of the European Research Council are among the most prestigious funding calls in Europe. Open to individual applicants from all scientific disciplines, they provide generous support for grantees to perform ground-breaking research for up to five years. 

Through two distinctively focused and complementary webinars we help potential candidates understand what the ERC is looking for, both in terms of research and in terms of investigator profile, and how to prepare a competitive proposal: 

Call in-depth analysis
  • This seminar provides applicants with an overview of the ERC calls´ unique aim and scope. The features of the calls are reviewed in depth, including the one-step submission and two-step evaluation, application content, specific evaluation criterion, evaluator profiles, etc. After the seminar, participants will be able to determine if their project idea aligns with the focus of the ERC calls, how to evaluate themselves as competitive candidates, what evaluation criterion they will be judged against, how to choose the right evaluation panel, etc.

Proposal best practices
  • In this seminar, we share our experience and best practices from having worked on more than one hundred ERC applications to date, guiding applicants on how to prepare a competitive scientific proposal. Ample suggestions are made in terms of structure, headings, content and focus. After the seminar, participants will have a good idea of how to organise the proposal in an optimal way, how to focus B1 and B2, how to avoid typical mistakes that applicants conduct, etc.

Seminar content

Call in-depth analysis
  • 2024 Work Programme updates
  • What is/is not an ERC project
  • Competitive PI traits
  • Application content
  • One-step submission vs.
    Two-step evaluation process
  • Deciphering the formal
    evaluation criterion
  • Choosing the right panel/
    keywords
  • Reviewer profiles
  • etc.
Best practices
  • Distinct focus of B1 and B2
  • “Layers” for logical proposal
    structure
  • Suggested headings and
    content focus/distribution
  • Creating solid objectives
  • Breaking the project into logical
    units
  • Role of preliminary results
  • Risk assessment
  • Presenting CV and track-record
  • etc.

Available seminar options

‏‏‎ERC single-PI Grants (StG/CoG/AdG): Pre-recorded videos for individual participants

- Call in-depth analysis
- Proposal Best practices

‏‏‎ERC single-PI Grants (StG/CoG/AdG): Live seminar for your institute - onsite or online!

- Call in-depth analysis 
- Proposal Best practices. 

For whom?

  • For any researcher considering to apply for the upcoming ERC calls. 
  • The seminars are open to participants from all scientific disciplines.
  • Program managers and research support staff are welcome to register. However, the content is focused to provide most value for applying researchers.

What does it include?

  • Pre-recorded sessions: Access to a 1.5-hour pre-recorded webinar for personal use until submission deadline. The Q&A session is in this case organized separately. 
  • Live sessions: Each seminar is 2 hour long, including a 30 min Q&A session, held by Stewe Bekk and Malte Beringer.
  • A handout comprising important call documentation and resources, including seminar slides.
  • Audience size for our live events is limited to 25 participants to facilitate an informal atmosphere and participation of applicants during the Q&A session.

Team

Stewe Bekk, Msc

Stewe is a grant advisor with 12 years of experience in handling and soliciting research projects at three top research institutes in Barcelona; IDIBAPS, ICN2 and ICFO. For eight years he was the coordinator of the Pre-award unit at The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), one of the most successful Spanish research institutes in the H2020 Framework Programme. In this role he oversaw the review of more than 1,000 scientific proposals targeting a range of local, national, European, and other international competitive research funding calls. Stewe specifically helped prepare and review over 60 ERC proposals during his time at ICFO - of which 50% were granted - one of the highest success rates in Europe for an institute of similar size. Thanks to his experience and track-record, Stewe has a comprehensive overview of the ERC programmes´ aim, focus, function and evaluation criteria. He now runs his own consultancy, which focuses on in-depth grant preparation services primarily for the ERC calls and to the physical sciences and engineering communities. 

Stewe@bekkrs.com

Malte Beringer, PhD

Malte is a grant advisor, scientific editor and founder of Sciencepoint, a consultancy providing tailored grant preparation services to the biomedical community. Malte holds a PhD in Biochemistry and has more than 15 years of professional experience in the molecular life sciences. During his successful career as a researcher in top-class laboratories at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany), The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia (USA) and at the CRG, Barcelona (Spain), he gained extensive hands-on experience in scientific writing and grant writing. As a grant consultant, he applies this expertise to support individual scientists and institutions prepare competitive grant proposals. Since 2018, he has been focusing on the most prestigious of all European funding schemes, the European Research Council (ERC), while also supporting collaborative proposals within the H2020/HEurope and national funding programmes. Among his clients are world renowned scientists working at Max-Planck Institute (Germany), CNIO (Spain), HiTS (Germany), IMDEA Nanociencia (Spain), The Arctic University/EMBL Nordic Partnership (Norway) among others, and he has consulted clients from Belgium, Germany, Norway, Spain, UK and the US. 

Malte@sciencepoint.eu