ERC Consolidator Grants 2021: Direct Funding can be provided by the Swiss Government for awardees with a Swiss Host Institution.
On 17 March 2022, the European Research Council (ERC) published the results of the ERC Consolidator Grants Call 2021 under Horizon Europe. Overall, the ERC awarded 313 researchers out of 2’652 proposals; it was again a very competitive selection process with a success rate of around 12%.
The results were published after the 15th anniversary of the ERC, which was recently celebrated in an event under the French Presidency of the Council of the EU. During this event, it was highlighted how ERC grants have contributed in the last years to strengthen Europe as a research location and guarantee science’s responsiveness to societal challenges (see SwissCore article). Prof. Maria Leptin, the President of the ERC, said: ”Even in times of crisis and conflict and suffering, it is our duty to keep science on track and give our brightest minds free reign to explore their ideas. We do not know today how their work might revolutionise tomorrow – we do know that they will open up new horizons, satisfy our curiosity and most likely help us prepare for unpredictable future challenges.”
The released statistics on the 2021 ERC Consolidator Grants indicate that awardees will conduct their research projects at Host Institutions across 24 EU Member States and Associated Countries, with Germany (61 grants), the UK (41 grants), France (29 grants) and the Netherlands (27 grants) being the top locations in the call. Researchers with a Swiss Host Institution were also very successful with 24 grants, representing the fifth location. Out of these 24 grant winners, 13 are from Physical Sciences and Engineering, 9 from Life Sciences, and 2 from Social Sciences and Humanities. According to the published list of Principal Investigators, the EPFL is the leading institution (6 grants), followed by the ETHZ (4 grants), the University of Basel, the University of Geneva and the University of Zurich (all with 3 grants), the University of Bern and the University of Lausanne (both with 2 grants), and the Paul Scherrer Institute (1 grant). Two additional grants go to CERN, also based in Switzerland.
Currently, Switzerland is considered as a non-associated third country in Horizon Europe; thus, researchers from Switzerland are no longer eligible for participation in mono-beneficiary instruments, including the individual grants of the ERC. Nevertheless, as in the case of the ERC Starting Grants 2021, special rules also apply for the ERC Consolidator Grants 2021 because both calls were closed when Switzerland was still considered a candidate country for association and due to the portability of grants (see SwissCore article). The awardees of the ERC Consolidator Grants 2021 with a Swiss Host Institution have to choose between the following two options: They can either stay at the Swiss institution and receive funding through the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, or pursue the grant at an institution in an EU Member State or a country associated to Horizon Europe, receiving the ERC Consolidator Grant 2021.
The Swiss government remains committed to its goal of a full association to Horizon Europe and related programmes and initiatives for the period 2021-2027 as soon as possible.