If excellent researchers want to advance, it is crucial that they are able to consolidate their research group and thus strengthen their position in basic research. This is precisely where the Consolidator Grant comes in: around two million Swiss francs are available to all those researchers who are awarded such a coveted grant. Only, the four researchers from ETH Zurich who succeeded in the last call for proposals will not be able to take up the grants – as was the case previously with the Starting Grants (
media release of 10.01.22
), they would have to leave Switzerland to do so.
"We are again faced with the situation where the projects of ETH researchers are among the best in Europe, but the researchers still have to do without the prestigious grants," says Detlef Günther, Vice President for Research at ETH Zurich. This is particularly painful because ETH Zurich researchers were also very successful in this ERC round. Of the twelve projects submitted through ETH Zurich, 50 percent made it to the final round, and ultimately four were selected, a success rate of 33 percent. Another Consolidator Grant was acquired through the University of Basel by an ETH researcher with a dual professorship.
No longer possible in the future
And the situation is getting even worse, because in the future, researchers in Switzerland will be completely excluded from individual ERC funding. This affects the ERC Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Proof of Concept Grants and also the EIC Accelerator, which supports start-ups. "Now, in each case, at least three scientific partners from the EU or an associated country are required for submissions to Horizon Europe. Unfortunately nothing is possible alone," explains Detlef Günther.
