The Oeiras – ERC Frontier Research Incentive Awards are pioneer in Portugal and are intended to fund the projects of scientists from institutions located in the Municipality of Oeiras who have submitted applications for individual grants from the European Research Council (ERC), and that although being selected for the second phase of the ERC evaluation, were unable to secure funding due to budgetary constraints.
The ERC finances the most innovative and cutting edge research projects in any area of knowledge, conducted by leading researchers or with enormous research potential. They are the most prestigious and competitive individual grants in Europe and worldwide.
Since 2007, more than 9000 projects have been funded by the ERC, out of more than 65000 applications. The average success rate is around 13%, leaving many excellent projects unfunded.
To counter this trend, and to attract and retain talent in the Municipality of Oeiras, Oeiras City Council will support ERC candidates who, despite having obtained an excellent evaluation result, were not funded. The incentive should be used to develop preliminary data and other research activities to improve the proposal in order to resubmit it to the ERC within 3 years.
The awards, open to researchers from all areas of knowledge, will grant up to 240 k euros per two-year project, corresponding to a maximum of 120 k euros per year.
To apply, it is necessary that, within 10 working days, after publication of the results of the last individual ERC grant call in a calendar year, the host institutions located in the Oeiras municipality contact the Monitoring Committee established for this purpose and submit a list of researchers eligible for the awards, namely those who reached phase 2 (A or B score) but have not been funded.
More information on these awards can be obtained via the email: collaborative@igc.gulbenkian.pt.
Information on how to apply for the ERC can be obtained here.
For getting support to apply for the ERC you can contact the National Contact Points from the Portugal in Europe Research and Innovation Network.
