Advance Your Research Career with Europe

2 June 2016, Shanghai

Event Info Package

The EURAXESS event Advance Your Research Career with Europe, co-organised with Shanghai Jiao Tong

University, took place Thursday afternoon, 2nd June 2016. The experience-sharing workshop introduced

hands-on information by outstanding researchers who carry out their research between Europe and

China. They shared their tips on how to develop research careers with EU funding within the framework

of European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), two prestigious

funding instruments under Horizon 2020, the EU's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

To kick-off the event, Prof Li Weidong, Deputy Director for Research Management division at SJTU, and

Dr Laurent Bocherau, the S&T Counsellor at the EU delegation in Beijing, addressed the participants with

opening remarks, stressing the importance of EU-China research networks and abundance of

collaboration opportunities within and outside EU’s framework programme for research, Horizon 2020.

The workshop, moderated by Ms Andrea Střelcová, Country Representative of EURAXESS China, was

split into two main sessions; the first was dedicated to the grants from the European Research Council

(ERC) while the second focused on the fellowships available from Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Actions (MSCA).

In the report below you will find detailed information from our speakers who shared valuable

information about their achievements in applying for ERC and MSCA.

Part 1:

European Research Council

The ERC's mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding

and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, 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, the European Union's Research

Framework Programme for 2014 to 2020.

Investigator-driven, bottom-up in nature, the ERC approach allows excellent talents to identify new

opportunities and directions in any field of research – there are no priorities set by politicians. This

ensures that funds are channelled into new, promising areas of research with a greater degree of

flexibility.

The ERC grants are competitive, very prestigious grants available to people of all nationalities and all

disciplines. ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting,

consolidators and established senior researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or want

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 brains and talents from all over the world to

do their research in Europe.

You can read information about the grants in Chinese here on ERC website.

Testimonials from China-based ERC grant participants

Dr Manuel Pérez García – ERC Starting Grant Holder, Universidad Pablo

Olavide Seville

Dr Manuel Pérez García, a historian affiliated to Renmin University of China and Universidad Pablo

Olavide in Sevilla, holds a Starting Grant from ERC to carry out a project GECEM: Global Encounters

between China and Europe: Trade Networks, Consumption and Cultural Exchanges in Macau and

Marseille, 1680-1840. In his talk, Dr Pérez explained

how he prepared a winning ERC proposal while

based in China.

Dr Pérez started by emphasizing the impact of

EURAXESS on his work, and encouraged present

researchers interested in applying for an ERC grant

to utilize the network and information EURAXESS

makes available.

Dr Pérez introduced his background as a scholar and

professor of global history at Tsinghua University

and Renmin University of China – to demonstrate an international profile is essential part of preparing a

successful ERC application.

It’s important to use the ERC website, to which Dr Pérez referred to as the “Bible“, as he went into

explaining how to apply. As the ERC Starting Grant is designed to support excellent principle

investigators (PI) starting their independent research team or programme, the PIs need to demonstrate

the ground-breaking and ambitious nature as well as the feasibility of their scientific proposal. In other

words, a successful proposal has to be a project that promises addressing important challenges,

introduces a novel concept that spans across disciplines. The ERC funds high risk/high gain projects.

ERC Starting Grant is for PIs that received their PhD at least 2 years and up to 7 years prior to the year of

a call and show some evidence of research independence and maturity, for example by having

published at least 1 important publication without participation of their supervisor. This includes also

other evidence of an early achievement track record - awards, invitations to conferences, granted

patents and so on.

With regards to researchers based in China, Manuel pointed out that ERC Starting Grantees shall spend

at least minimum 50% of their total working time in an EU member state or Associated Country.1 At

least 50% of their total working time should be spent on the ERC project. He underlined that double

affiliation in China and in Europe is possible – spending 50% of his time in China strengthened his

application with his research project on China/Macau thanks to access to unique Chinese sources and

archives. Having strong ties to institutions in China can help the application if proven relevant to the

project.

The most important aspect of the application procedure is preparing the project well in advance.

Manuel explained that it might be necessary to spend at least 2 years to develop a new idea into a solid

proposal. It’s recommended to avoid hasty preparation, but at the same time not to be afraid of failure.

The ERC is not a project that can be prepared in 2 months, and copying from previous proposals is not

going to work.

1 For a complete list of Associated Countries as of April 2016 see

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/3cpart/h2020-hi-list-ac_en.pdf

Click here to see video of Manuel Pérez García’s testimonial!

As Dr Pérez explained, after passing the first proposal (Stage 1), selected researchers are invited to

Brussels for an interview (Stage 2) to defend their project in front of a panel of experts. Dr Pérez

succeeded and therefore became one of the 300 successful out of 3000 total applicants for the ERC

Starting Grant call in 2015-

Dr Pérez also introduced the ERC project that he got funding for. As Global History in China is a relatively

new field, he intends to use both Chinese and European sources to shed a new light on processes of

consumption and trade. He wants to achieve this through a case study of two port cities (Macau and

Marseille) and study the connections and differences of 2 localities of China and Europe through diverse

processes of consumption and trade in luxury goods (tea, porcelain, silk), and assess the reasons behind

acceptation (or rejection) of new goods in China and Europe.

Dr Pérez also stressed that to demonstrate your international profile is a must, therefore several

mobility experiences and international networks are helpful. Dr Pérez himself, after his relocation to

China in 2011, initiated the Global History Network2 which has grown successfully and now lists many

prestigious institutions from Italy, Spain, China, Mexico or the UK, working in the field of global history, -

this experience with developing an international network helped him in his application.

2 Thee GHN includes e.g. Renmin University, Tsinghua University, University of Oxford, London School of Economics, European

University Institute, see more at http://www.globalhistorynetwork.com/

Key points by Manuel Pérez García: ERC Starting Grants

For researchers at the start of their independent research career (2-7 years after PhD)

Competitive grant for groundbreaking research, high risk but high gain

No more than 50% of working time can be spent outside of Europe although connection to

China can be asset, and cross-affiliation is allowed

The ERC website is the applicant’s Bible

Do spend enough preparing your proposal = hastiness not recommended.

To find out more, read a “Meet the Researcher” interview with EURAXESS from

January 2016 here. Learn about Manuel Pérez García’s achievement as the first

China-based researcher to win an ERC grant.

Dr Eugene Ch’ng

ERC Advanced Grant Team Member, University of Nottingham Ningbo China

Dr Eugene Ch’ng is an associate professor in

computer science, based at Nottingham Ningbo

University China. He is a part of a research team of

ERC Advanced Grantee Prof Vincent Gaffney

(University of Bedford, UK) of a project called Europe

Lost Frontiers. In his talk Dr Ch’ng went into the

details how it is to participate on ERC projects from

China.

At the start of his talk Dr Ch’ng explained his position

in this project as a co-PI in charge of computer

simulation, and how the set-up is working for

Vincent Gaffney, the project’s principle investigator (PI).

He mentioned that a way to enter a project like this is finding a senior scientist to work with, somebody

to lead the project - the PI has to be strong and respected in his field.

Dr Ch’ng works as the director of Big Data and Visual Analytics lab and as an associate scientist at NVIDIA

Technological Centre at University of Nottingham Ningbo China. His work contributes to a pioneering

centre for archaeological computing work; everything from data analysing, scanning, to final

visualization. The team he works with on this ERC project has done similar archaeological computer

works in the past; for example a project that scanned the ancient geography in the wider area around

Stonehenge, England as well as discovering the world‘s oldest calendar. In addition to the research work,

they disseminate their research as widely in public as possible.

The ERC Advanced Grant of Prof Gaffney project is called the Europe’s Lost Frontiers’ and focuses on

three points: Exploring climate change, settlement and colonization of the inundated landscapes of the

North-Sea by using soil core sampling, seismic mapping and complex system modelling.

As for the application procedure, Dr Ch’ng underlined the importance of highlighting the most

important points immediately in the first overview of the project proposal (Stage 1 proposal) – how the

Click here to see video of Eugene Ch’ng’s testimonial!

project will be the first to use new technology to explore inundated land, and what methods they will

use to achieve that. The application stressed that the project can establish a new sub-discipline,

submerged landscape archaeology. The impact of the project would be global, as there are vast

landscapes all over the world that have been lost to climate change which forced humans to abandon

former settlements. The team he works on doesn’t only rely on the new technology but also creates

new models to track simulated movements of settlements and human activities.

The project profile is very important when it comes to achieving success in applying for an ERC grant.

Eugene‘s project has an interdisciplinary team, which is important to create new knowledge where their

expertise overlap. Another approach is to be multidisciplinary, where experts from different fields work

together but each of them mostly stays within his or her framework. The upside of going the

interdisciplinary route is that it makes the teams more able to deal with problems that highly complex

(not necessarily complicated).

What makes the ERC team work?

Strong leadership

The team needs confident members, who are experts in their own areas. But it is important to

not be selfish or defensive about your particular area

Mutual trust, respect and willingness to build the team and project rather than being

destructive.

Members have to be willing to come to terms with arrangement of budgeting.

Understanding each other‘s field specific language.

Love for the job.

A good starting point to an ERC application is a well-crafted story that introduces clearly what you are

doing. Bring forward state-of-the-art and the objectives of the project. Clearly formulate the research

questions – and make sure that you have at least some idea about how you will be answering them.

You have to prove the significance of the project: In what way is it ground breaking? Is it first of its kind?

Will it affect established theories? What form will your outcomes take? Map the potential impact, in

which disciplines, what kind of knowledge and methods will be created etc. You also have to convince

them why this is feasible and why the timing is right; why it is something that should be funded right

now?

Dr Ch’ng put a special focus on the pitch, how you should sell yourself. He mentioned that you have to

show motivation and enthusiasm in the tone of the proposal and consider what makes you stand out in

your research area.

It’s important to show you have a relevant track record

Good way is to keep a website and make sure to update it with your latest information

It is recommended to get your research into the public consciousness, not only the internet but

also TV, documentaries, interviews and so on. When putting up the proposal pitch you have to

make sure that you are very clear, since you only have 5 pages for the first (Stage 1) proposal

Start by writing for all audiences - then expand with details later

Keep in mind that the evaluators will be specialists, but not necessarily specialists in your area.

Clearly explain how the project will be managed and how it will be disseminated.

Keep on repeating yourself, all the key elements of your proposal should be repeated in all

parts of the grant proposal.

Make use of good relevant illustrations but don’t put in diagrams that no one will understand.

Before applying you should make sure to get an independent reviewer to go over it. If they

don’t understand it, nobody will. Iterate and polish!

As for team management, Dr Ch’ng stressed the following:

Make sure that your team is solid. The key to that is to work with like-minded people and get

long-term project partners.

Tasks and work should be assigned early and deadlines should be managed.

Make sure that the team members have clearly assigned roles and tasks so you can explain in

your proposal what each time member is doing and what credentials he/she has to take up the

role!

“We can all dream… but the EU doesn‘t fund dreams,” said Dr Ch’ng, who stressed that ERC likes

projects that are ambitious yet feasible. You need to explain clearly how this research will lead to new

developments and make sure you have the right publications, the most relevant and strongest one listed

in the proposal.

When it comes to budget consideration:

It is a good to start the calculations early. The whole estimation process will take time as it

relies on different actors providing different information. It‘s good to have something to

compare to early on. Some of the costs will be wrong but the budget can be finalised later in

the application.

You should ask for more money on grant submission day but you also have to know where you

can shave off money from in case of emergency

Talk to your institutions’ project grant administrators, some of them are excellent and can

provide a lot of help in the budgeting process.

Justify your costs; show clearly the links between the costs and the research methodology

Money is always an issue; there is always a risk of not getting the funding you need even

though the research is recognized as worthwhile.

Dr Ch’ng ended his ERC work with Prof Gaffney by pointing out that „the real problem actually starts

only when you get the grant, because delivery is harder than writing applications, and interdisciplinary

work is harder than multidisciplinary. If you are operating at this level, managing a bunch of egoists –

and if you have a good team they will be egoists – is a nightmare. You will spend time managing the

team. We just got the grant - I’ll tell you if it worked for our team in 5 years!”

His recommendation to early career researchers and PhD students is to associate yourself with the right

research group(s) early in your career. Invest yourself in good projects and stick with it. Continue

working for the group after your PhD.

Read a “Meet the Researcher” Interview with Eugene Ch’ng’s PI,

Professor Vincent Gaffney, ERC Advanced Grantee, here (originally

published in December 2015).

Key points from Dr Eugene Ch’ng: Member of an ERC Advanced Grant Team

Find a senior scientist and a team to associate yourself with early in career and stick with it.

When applying, highlight the most important points immediately in the proposal. Your proposal

should have a well-crafted story, clear objectives and research questions and ways to answer

them, prove of significance and potential impact, and that the project is ambitious but feasible.

Important to not be afraid to sell yourself. Reach out to the public!

Make sure your proposal is understandable to all audiences and reviewed by independent

colleague.

Work with like-minded people with clearly assigned roles.

Start budget considerations early, activate your institutions’ project grant administrators and

formulate an early draft. It can be finalized later.

Part 2:

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) – Individual Fellowships (IF)

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, named after the double Nobel Prize winning Polish-French

scientist famed for her work on radioactivity, support researchers at all stages of their careers,

irrespective of nationality.

Researchers working across all disciplines, from life-saving healthcare to 'blue-sky' science, are eligible

for funding. The MSCA also support industrial doctorates, combining academic research study with work

in companies, and other innovative training and exchange that enhances employability and career

development. In addition to generous research funding, scientists have the possibility to gain experience

abroad and in the private sector, and to complete their training with competences or disciplines useful

for their careers.

MSCA Individual Fellowships (IF) fund researchers with a PhD (or at least 4 years of full time research

experience) looking to enhance their career development and prospects by working abroad. There are

two types of Individual Fellowships:

1. European Fellowships (MSCA-IF-EF)

European Fellowships are held in the EU or Associated Countries and are open to researchers

either coming to Europe or moving within Europe.

2. Global Fellowships (MSCA-IF-GF)

Global Fellowships fund secondments in third countries outside Europe for researchers who are

nationals or long-term residents of the EU or Associated Countries. There is a mandatory one-

year return period to the European institution.

Testimonials from Chinese and China-based MSCA Fellows

Dr Ludovico Dreni – MSCA Global Fellow based in China

Dr Ludovico Dreni is a Marie Curie Global Fellow

working at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research,

Institute of for Plant Molecular and Cell Biology

(IBMCP), currently at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

In his talk Dr Dreni shared his experience of being a

European scientist preparing and getting a MSCA

Global Fellowship and moving to China. Global

Fellowship allows him to participate in a research

project at a Chinese host institution at no cost to the

host.

Dr Dreni stressed that the best starting point to

follow closely instructions on the website of the fellowship.

As Dr Dreni explained, the Individual Fellowship (IF) covers the salary and the mobility allowance of the

researcher but also the bench fee for the host institution. This makes it an attractive option for PIs who

want to invite researchers to their projects. The IF is open to researchers of any nationality but these

are mobility fellowships so they have to include some movement of a researcher. It‘s not possible to get

funded to do research within your own country. The main evaluation criteria are excellence; the

evaluators look at the background of the applicant, the quality of the host institution(s) and the quality

of the project proposals in terms of implementation and outreach.

Ludovico’s project proposal concerns plant developments and plant genetics and is titled „Carpel

evolution: A walk in the rice side“. The host institution for the outgoing phase is the Lab of Rice

Developmental Biology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University lead by Prof. Dabing Zhang. For the return

phase he will be hosted by the Lab of Evolution and Development of Carpels and Fruits, led by Dr.

Cristina Ferrándiz at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Valencia, Spain. He will also make

use of an extra secondment, to spend a month in a lab in Italy.

The timeline from application to starting the project took about 1 year; in Ludovico’s case the deadline

for submission was in September 2014 with the results in February 2015. The grant agreement was

finalized in late autumn 2015 and the project started in the beginning of 2016. It takes to finalize the

agreement can vary from project to project, depending on the circumstances at the host institutions.

Understandably, it takes time to coordinate the agreement between institutions in different countries.

Click here to see the testimonial on video

Read “Meet the Researcher” interview of Dr Ludovico Dreni with EURAXESS

here to learn more about Global Fellowships.

Key points from Dr Ludovico Dreni- MSCA Global Fellows

Allows European researchers (or long-term residents of EU member states or Associated

Countries) to undertake research projects in third country (e.g. China)

1-2 years outgoing phase in China, followed by 1 (last) year return phase in EU or associated

country

It is also possible to be seconded to another institution within the outgoing phase, for up to 6

months

Mobility schemes open to researchers of any nationality outside of own country.

Acceptance timeline up to 1 year, depends on how many institutions involved.

Dr Jin Bao –MSCA European Fellowship

The last testimonial was delivered in Chinese by Dr

Jin Bao, based at the University of Science and

Technology in Hefei as a researcher in neuroscience.

She introduced her experience as a Chinese national

who applied successfully for a Marie-Curie European

Fellowship to continue her research in Dr Alain

Marty’s lab in Paris after her PhD.

The talk was titled How to apply to Marie Curie

Individual Fellowship as a Chinese national. In the

talk Jin Bao went into some aspects of researchers’

early career developments, what it means to be a

European Marie Curie Fellow, some tips for how to apply and finally how it is to be a Chinese researcher

going to Europe.

Dr Jin Bao outlined several fundamental elements for researchers to be successful in their early careers:

The first thing to consider is picking the right team to be part of - put effort into mapping out

potential cooperation resources and evaluate the best people to work with

Make sure that to find people that can coach you so you can be constantly acquiring new skills

and learning new methods

Try to stay motivated and learn from examples to your mentors, about project application and

project management

The other side of the coin, but just as important, is to take it upon you to teach others and be

part of scientific outreach.

Always stay inspired and have a vision for your career development

As a researcher your vision of your career doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to your home

country, internationalize!

It is important to have a mentor that you can rely on, who understands what you are going

through and can you teach you and lead you.

When it comes to becoming a MSCA fellow, the first step would be finding and contacting your

preferred lab (or project) you want to be part of and the look for the appropriate financial support

based on that - the MSCA Individual Fellowship is an excellent choice for funding.

Dr Jin Bao shared many important tips on how write a good MSCA application:

Start with a good story that involves some meaningful work and a good idea.

Proceeding with creating a realistic work plan. It is useful to include some preliminary data about

your research.

Click here to see video [in Chinese]

Do not give up even if the first attempt is not successful; sometimes multiple trials are needed for

a successful MSCA application as Jin Bao learned from personal experience.

Go and explore Europe - seeing things away from your home country has its own value. The added

benefit of MSCA Individual Fellowship is to experience Europe’s multitude of different cultures and

people.

MSCA Individual Fellowship opens every year. The 2016 call for both

European and Global Fellowship will close on 10 September. Find out more

about application on EURAXESS. We also regularly publish calls directly from

organisations interested in hosting a fellow on our website.

Stay tuned to boost your research career with EURAXESS!

Key points – Chinese MSCA Fellow in Europe

Early career development tips: Learn from your team and directors, have a vision of where this

is leading you, look beyond your home for opportunities and seek mentors.

Find the lab or intuition you want to work for, then try to find appropriate financial support.

When applying, try to create a good story with meaningful work and good ideas, present

preliminary data about your research and remember you might have to try several times.

Exploring the world is extremely healthy for anybody - Europe has plenty of interesting places

and cultures to experience.