ERC Science Journalism Initiative

Objective :

The ERC wishes to support an organisation or a consortium of organisations to set up a funding scheme that would facilitate 3-5-month stays of journalists at research institutions. The purpose is to give the journalists opportunities to learn and work on in-depth reporting projects by immersing themselves in the research environment and interacting with scientists and scholars. Such opportunities – organised for example in collaboration with ERC host institutions and in ERC grantees’ teams and labs – should facilitate better understanding of frontier research, while respecting journalistic independence.The holder of this coordination and support action grant would be expected to, among others:

1. design the support programme that addresses the aforementioned goals, advances the set objective and respects the principle of editorial independence of journalists,
2. set up a high-level media advisory committee to ensure the credibility and independence of the programme vis-a-vis journalists’ community,
3. prepare conditions to carry out the actions, especially establish relations with ERC grantees and host institutions’ press offices to make sure the fellowships and placements are well organised and useful both to the journalists and to researchers,
4. launch calls for applications or proposals for fellowships or placements potentially using the Financial support to third parties (FSTP),
5. evaluate the proposals based on the criteria of excellence and impact, ensuring balance in terms of topics covered by the participating journalists, geographical distribution of host institutions, and gender of the participants,
6. provide funding to journalists or researchers,
7. organise meetings, networking opportunities for the participating journalists and researchers,
8. monitor the implementation of the programme, and report to the ERC on the performance of the programme.

This ERC call allows for financial support to third parties (FSTP). Those applicants that foresee implementation of actions by providing FSTP must clearly describe the objectives of the action and the expected results, as well as meet the specific conditions on the use of FSTP as set out in the Model Grant Agreement (see Article 6.2.D.1 and Article 9 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement), and describe among others the conditions for submission, evaluation and selection of proposals of third parties.

The maximum duration of the project will be 48 months. One proposal will be selected.

General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in the ERC Work Programme 2023

The proposals must be focused on requirements specified under the ERC Work Programme 2023 and this call for proposals. This action is open to legal entities established in a Member State or an Associated Country as a legal entity created under national law, international European research organisations (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), or an entity created under EU law. Please also refer to Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2023– Countries Associated to Horizon Europe and Restrictions Applying to Some Legal Entities. All proposals must be readable, accessible, complete, and be submitted before the relevant deadline. A complete proposal entails all requested elements. An incomplete proposal may be declared inadmissible.

The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives of the grant or the respective call for proposals, as defined in the ERC Work Programme 2023 and/or the respective call for proposals. If the proposal is considered not to relate to the objectives of the grant, it will be declared ineligible.

Where there is a doubt on the admissibility or eligibility of the proposal, the evaluation may proceed pending a decision following an admissibility and eligibility review committee. If it becomes clear before, during, or after the evaluation phase, that one or more of the admissibility or eligibility criteria has not been met, the proposal will be declared inadmissible or ineligible and will be rejected.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Forms available in the Submission System

1. The Administrative form Part A (including the Ethics Issues Table and the Budget Section) is available in the submission tool below. The budget table and the justification of the Resources are part of this online form Part A (Section 3 - Budget). It includes a column for Financial Support to third parties (FSTP), if applicable.

2. Part B and Annex templates are provided in the submission system as word-templates. Part B should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as a PDF file. I f applicants want to use the Financial Support to third parties (FSTP) mechanism, they should also complete the Annex, upload and submit it via the submission tool as a PDF file.

Complete proposals must be submitted via the submission tool available through the Funding & Tenders Portal (to access the submission tool, you need to register first).

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2023

3 . Other eligibility conditions: described in the ERC Work Programme 2023

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion:

Financial capacity: Please refer to article 198(2) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2018/1046 (the 'Financial Regulation'), “ The applicant shall have stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain his or her activity throughout the period for which the grant is awarded and to participate in its funding (‘financial capacity’)”.

Operational capacity : Please refer to article 198(3) of the Financial Regulation, “ The applicant shall have the professional competencies and qualifications required to complete the proposed action or work programme unless specifically provided otherwise in the basic act (‘operational capacity’ ).

Exclusion: Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2023 , Page 75 : Applicants that are subject to the administrative sanctions of exclusion or are in one of the exclusion situations set out by the Financial Regulation are banned from receiving EU grants and can NOT participate.

5. Evaluation and award: described in the ERC Work Programme 2023

Evaluation Criteria Proposals will be evaluated based on the criterion of excellence, impact as well as quality and efficiency of the implementation.

1. Excellence related to the objectives of the grant:

a. Are the objectives of the proposed project consistent with the requirements specified in the ERC Work Programme 2023 and/or call for proposals? b. Do they, where appropriate, correspond to, or go beyond, best current practice?

2. Impact:

a. Will the project have a substantial impact in the context of the ERC objectives?

3. Quality and efficiency of the implementation:

a. Is the proposed methodology and work plan effective in reaching the goals of the project? b. Do they ensure the highest quality and/or utility of results?

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in the ERC Work Programme 2023

Each evaluation criterion will be marked on a scale of 0 to 5 and an overall quality threshold of 80% will be used to establish the retained list of proposals, which will be ranked in order of priority for funding. (Applicants whose proposal is marked above the 80% quality threshold are deemed to fulfil the operational capacity requirements of article 198(3) of the Financial Regulation.)

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in the ERC Work Programme 2023

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions:

described in the ERC Work Programme 2023

This ERC call allows for financial support to third parties (FSTP). Those applicants that foresee implementation of actions by providing FSTP must clearly describe the objectives of the action and the expected results, as well as meet the specific conditions on the use of FSTP as set out in the Model Grant Agreement (see Article 6.2.D.1 and Article 9 of the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement), and describe among others the conditions for submission, evaluation and selection of proposals of third parties.

The maximum duration of the project will be 48 months. One proposal will be selected.

Documents

Call documents:

Standard application form (HE CSA) — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System Standard evaluation form (HE CSA) — will be used with the necessary adaptations HE General MGA v1.0 — Model Grant Agreement

Additional documents:

ERC Work Programme 2023 HE Programme Guide EU Financial Regulation Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement