Diversity in ERC populations: applicants, grantees and reviewers

The European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premiere funding agency for frontier research, views equality of opportunities as an essential priority and a vital mission to ensure credibility in the review process. The ERC monitors closely various demographic data yearly on every call and has taken actions to tackle imbalances and potential implicit and explicit biases.

This presentation is focused on demographic data for the three main funding schemes: Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant and Advanced Grant. Attention is directed mainly to gender and geographic distribution. The demographics presented here consider various stakeholders, such as reviewers, applicants and grantees.

After more than 10 years of existence, ERC data provides an insight on demographical evolution. In the first framework programme (FP7, 2007-2013), 25% of applicants were women. In the last years (Horizon 2020, 2014-2019), this percentage increased by 4%, with 29% of women applied for ERC grants. In the same periods of time, the share of women as grantees has also increased from 20% to 29%. In the last years, men and women enjoy equal success rates. This presentation also sheds light on the population diversity of ERC reviewers, both panel members and external reviewers.

The ERC knows that work to ensure equality of opportunities is never finished. This presentation analyses critically the institutional efforts and considers possible steps to consolidate the accomplished results.