The ECRP Programme is a scheme organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF) to support multinational collaborative research projects involving researchers in at least three participating countries.
Full details of the ECRP2010 call are now on the European Science Foundation website.
For an explanation of the terms used in this document please refer to the (ECRP VI) Applications Guide prepared by ESF and downloadable from their website.
The submission deadline is Wednesday 10 March (16:00 UK time). Late applications will not be accepted.
The UK Country Contribution to ECRP proposals must be submitted to the ESRC through the Research Council's Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) process. If the amount requested for the UK Country Contribution ranges between £15,000 and £99,999 (at 100 per cent fEC), the proposal must be submitted under the 'Small Grants' call. If the amount requested ranges between £100,000 to £1.5m (at 100 per cent fEC), the proposal must be submitted under the 'Standard Grants' call. Detailed guidance is provided below and in the ECRP 2010 Je-S Guidance Notes (PDF).
This call is now live on the Je-S system.
The procedure for submitting to ESF remains the same as in previous years.
Intending applicants must read carefully the call information on the ESF website, as well as the ESRC-specific information below.
Features of ECRP10
The ECRP has the following features:
- A Common Application Form providing an overview of the collaborative proposal (Collaborative Research Project) and information about each Country Contribution (formerly, Individual Project) within the collaboration. This will be sent for external peer review.
- Common peer review, to assess the Collaborative Research Project as a whole and the merit of each Country Contribution within it. A single list of peer reviewers for each Collaborative Research Project will be agreed by the relevant participating agencies. Project Leaders (PLs; formerly Collaboration Leads) will be given an opportunity to respond to reviewers' comments. ESF will manage the peer review paperwork.
- An ECRP Review Panel, set up by ESF, on the basis of recommendations by the relevant participating agencies. The Review Panel for 2009-2011 will comprise a core group of experts representing a wide range of disciplines. Additional members will be added on an ad hoc basis to ensure the necessary disciplinary expertise in any given competition. The Review Panel will make recommendations for funding to the relevant funding agencies.
- Funding decisions made individually by the relevant funding agencies, on the basis of common inputs (the Common Application Form, a common set of peer reviewer comments and the recommendations of the ECRP Review Panel), along with any additional details required by the individual funding agencies.
Please note that each Collaborative Research Project still requires positive decisions from at least three funding agencies before the collaboration can proceed.
ESRC additional requirements
The ECRP2010 Common Application Form gives only basic information about applicants and budgets. To assist in its decision making, ESRC requires additional information from UK applicants to ECRP2010. The most convenient way to provide this additional information is to use the standard Je-S electronic application form.
Therefore, the UK Principal Investigator (PI; formerly lead applicant) to an ECRP2010 proposal needs to present information about the UK Country Contribution in two parallel formats:
- Complete Section 3 of the Common Application Form (downloadable from the ESF website); obtain appropriate clearance within the UK Principal Investigator’s institution; and send it as a Word email attachment to the Project Leader, who will integrate it into the Common Form for submission direct to ESF; and also:
- Complete the standard ESRC grant application form (Je-S) and submit this, through the usual institutional approval and electronic despatch procedures, to ESRC by the same deadline of Wednesday 10 March 2009. Late applications will not be accepted. Please note the detailed advice below to ensure that your application is properly identified as relating to an ECRP2010 proposal. Please see the ECRP 2010 Je-S Guidance Notes (PDF).
The standard ESRC eligibility and funding rules apply to UK participants in ECRP2010. The ESRC website contains other advice on preparing a good application which you may want to read. However, please also heed the advice below to ensure that your participation in ECRP2010 has the best chance of success.
Specific advice for UK partners in ECRP 2010
Find your collaborating partners early. ECRP 2010 applications which show solid evidence of a well integrated partnership will have a stronger chance of success. Partners must be based in at least three different participating countries. UK co-applicants from the same or different UK institutions can take part, but they must all be included in the same Section 3 of the Common Form, with one of the UK partners being the UK Principal Investigator (PI).
Allow enough time to prepare and process both tracks of the application. Your Section 3 of the Common Form should reach the Project Leader (PL) in plenty of time to enable its incorporation into the Common Form submission to ESF - we advise allowing at least one week before the 10 March deadline, but the Project Leader may well ask partners for more time than this. Both the Section 3 of the Common Form and the standard ESRC grant form must go through the UK Principal Investigator's standard approval processes. Make sure you are aware of, and allow for, the time required for these stages.
To identify the Je-S form as relating to the ECRP 2010 Common Form submission, the UK Principal Investigator must begin the "Title" field with "ECRP2010: collaboration led by [name of Project Leader]." Do this even if you are the Project Leader.
Complete all the sections of the Je-S form as for a normal submission to ESRC, except that the Case for Support for the UK partner project will be presented in the Common Application Form. Please note the ECRP2010 word count restriction - 1500-2500 words max. for each partner project (in addition to the 2500 words of Common Text which the Project Leader will supply in consultation with the partners).
You must not attempt to provide more text than this. Do not copy the Case for Support to the Je-S form. Instead, in the "Mandatory case for support" attachment, simply provide the statement "This proposal relates to the ECRP2010 collaborative project led by [name of Project Leader]." This will enable your ESRC form to pass its pre-submission 'health check', and help us to match it up with the correct Common Form.
How will ESRC process ECRP 2010 cases?
ESRC will register incoming Je-S applications identified as ECRP 2010 cases, and match them up with the appropriate Common Form submission to ESF. Ineligible cases will be weeded out. A case will be ineligible if, for example, one of the parallel submissions (the Common Form to ESF; the Je-S submission to ESRC) is not received by the given deadline of 1600hrs CET (Strasbourg time) for applications submitted to ESF - 1600hrs GMT (UK time) on 10 March 2010. Please note that Strasbourg time (CET) is one hour ahead of UK time (GMT).
The relevant ESRC case officer will select several peer reviewer names, together with any referees nominated by the applicant. Other funding agencies relating to the proposal will also select referee names. These will form a long list from which a common set of peer reviewers will be selected. Project Leaders will be given an opportunity to respond to reviewers' comments. ESF will manage the peer review paperwork.
On receipt of the common peer review information and the recommendations of the ECRP Review Panel, ESRC will:
- reject those cases where reviewer grades for the Collaborative Research Project as a whole average below alpha-minus and the Preview Panel has recommended against funding;
- reject those cases where the UK Country Contribution is identified by reviewers as weak, even if the average grade for the Collaborative Research Project as a whole is alpha-minus or higher;
- process the remaining cases as normal through the Board Assessor and full Grants Board decision stages, after merging the ESRC Je-S submission with the relevant Common Application. ESRC decisions on cases that pass the Board Assessor threshold are expected to be made at the Panel meeting in November.
- For proposals where the UK Country Contribution is approved for funding by the Grants Board, the ESRC will send to the UK Principal Investigator a conditional acceptance letter, pending funding decisions from other relevant funding agencies.
- Where decisions by other funding agencies after October 2010 make it impossible for the Collaborative Research Project to gather 3 positive decisions, the ESRC will notify the applicants that the proposal has been rejected due to lack of funds.
Can a failed ECRP2009 case be resurrected as a standalone ESRC proposal?
In principle the usual ESRC policy on resubmissions will apply to failed ECRP2009 cases. Please see FAQ #7. Please keep in mind that since ECRP cases are presented as close collaborations with European partners, substantial reworking may be needed to reshape the UK Country Contribution into a standalone ESRC submission.
Enquiries about ESRC's participation in ECRP09 can be emailed to international@esrc.ac.uk