EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL : EXPERIENCED RESEARCHERS WILL ALSO BE TARGETED BY ERC IN 2007.

The European Research Council will publish its second ever call for proposals during 2007, according to its recently published work programme.

This second call will concern the ERC Advanced Grant scheme, which has yet to be launched and which will be targeted at researchers who have already established themselves as independent research team leaders. This is in contrast with the ERC's other programme, called Starting Independent Researcher Grants', which is targeted at researchers at an earlier stage of their career and which was the subject of the ERC's first call for proposals published on 22 December.

The work programme, which was drawn up by the ERC's Scientific Council, explains that from 2008 onwards both schemes will be the subject of annual calls. Together they will form the core of the ERC's operations during the lifetime of the 7th Framework Research Programme (2007-13).

Details of the amount of funding that will be handed out by the ERC to researchers during 2007 are only given for the ERC Starting Grant programme, to which 289.5 million has been allocated. This budget is divided up, indicatively, between the three main scientific domains, with 45% going to physical sciences and engineering, 40% going to life sciences, and the remaining15% directed at social sciences and humanities. Individual grants will be between 100,000 and 400,000 per year for a period of up to five years.

Applications for ERC Starting Grants, following the publishing of the calls for proposals in December, are to be received by 25 April. The work programme, also published on 22...