The Administrator of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, José Neves Adelino, and the Mayor of Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, today signed a protocol for the creation of the “Oeiras – ERC Frontier Research Incentive Awards”, an incentive for scientific research. This initiative aims to support fundamental research, capture and retain talent in the municipality of Oeiras and increase the attractiveness of Portugal as a place to do science.
The “Oeiras – ERC Frontier Research Incentive Awards” Award is intended to finance high quality projects that have submitted applications for individual grants to the European Research Council (European Research Council – ERC), but that were unable to guarantee funds due to restrictions in the ERC budget.
The European Research Council (ERC) is the main funding body for research projects in Europe. These projects are driven by researchers from all areas (Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, Social and Human Sciences) and stand out for the most innovative and revolutionary ideas.
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© Fabrice Pinto, IGC 2020
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© Fabrice Pinto, IGC 2020
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© Fabrice Pinto, IGC 2020
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© Fabrice Pinto, IGC 2020
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Luis Valente (IGC), Mónica Bettencourt-Dias (IGC), Pedro Patacho (CMO), Isaltino Morais (CMO), José Neves Adelino (FCG) and Alexandra Leite (UFOPAC) © Fabrice Pinto, IGC 2020
Since 2007, more than 9,000 projects have been funded by the ERC, out of more than 65,000 applications. The average success rate is 13%, leaving many brilliant jobs out of funding.
To face this challenge, the Oeiras City Council is supporting the Gulbenkian Collaborative Center of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência financing ERC candidates. The incentive should be used to develop preliminary data and other research activities to improve the proposal in order to resubmit it within 3 years.
To apply, it is necessary that, within 10 working days, after the publication of the results of the last ERC individual scholarship contest (scheduled for December 2020), the host institutions in the territory of Oeiras should contact the Monitoring Committee established for the purpose and submit a list of researchers eligible for the award, particularly those proposals that have reached stage 2 but have not been funded.
More information about ERC Oeiras