BIO-ICT at European Research Council Event
BIO-ICT Director Igor Radusinović participated at the European Research Council (ERC) Funding Opportunities event: “Supporting excellent researchers all over Europe”, Western Balkans Regional Event jointly organised by the Ministry for Education, Science and Sport of Republic of Slovenia and ERC on 2 December 2016, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
During this event, Professor Radusinović presented BIO-ICT capacities and main scientific results to several participants from Europe and Western Balkans region. Special attention was given to the development of sensors for plant humidity measurement and new QoS network control based on Software Defined Networking. ERC representatives expressed their willingness to provide BIO-ICT with the support in various application procedures. Beneficial inputs, in terms of new research ideas, funding opportunities and submission procedures, were gained and they will be used for preparation of our future proposals. Experience from this event will be highly useful in order to encourage our research staff to continue the work on establishing BIO-ICT as a more effective actor within the European Research Area.
European Research Council has encouraged the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research, on the basis of scientific excellence. The ERC complements other funding activities in Europe such as those of the national research funding agencies, and is a flagship component of Horizon 2020. Being 'investigator-driven', or 'bottom-up', in nature, the ERC approach ensures that funds are channelled into new and promising areas of research with a greater degree of flexibility. ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or moving to work in Europe. The sole criterion for selection is scientific excellence. The aim here is to recognise the best ideas, and confer status and visibility on the best European researchers, while also attracting talent from abroad.
The ERC aims to substantially strengthen and shape the European research system. This is done through high quality peer review, the establishment of international benchmarks of success, and the provision of up-to-date information on who is succeeding and why. The ERC expects that its grants will help to bring about new and unpredictable scientific and technological discoveries - the kind that can form the basis of new industries, markets, and broader social innovations of the future. Also, the ERC aims to make the European research base more prepared to respond to the needs of a knowledge-based society and provide Europe with the capabilities in frontier research necessary to meet global challenges.
The event was addressing an issue of great concern to the ERC on the relative low number and low success rate of ERC applications from the WB region. The ERC analysis has shown that local, institutional support to the ERC applicants has to be an important factor in their final success. The event was convening representatives of national institutions that can play a role in supporting ERC applicants to bring them together with potential ERC candidates, the ERC Scientific Council members, and staff from the ERC Executive Agency, in order to discuss together the best possible ways of supporting outstanding scientist and help them successfully apply to the ERC. With the ERC widening European participation events the ERC Scientific Council is opening a forum of dialogue, exchange of experiences, networking, and learning about good practices among stakeholders relevant for successful application to the ERC.