An ERC Proposal Reading Days event is being held at the University of Málaga

On June 30, an ERC Reading Days event was held at the Ada Byron Building of the University of Málaga. During the session, Leticia Riaza and Julio Marchamalo, national contact points for the ERC at the European Office–FECYT, gave a detailed presentation on the grants offered by the European Research Council (ERC). These grants provide attractive long-term funding to support outstanding researchers and their teams in pursuing investigations that lead to significant advances at the frontiers of knowledge, with scientific excellence being the sole evaluation criterion. There are three types of individual grants (Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants), one grant scheme for groups (Synergy Grant), and one scheme (Proof of Concept) to explore the commercial or societal potential of results obtained from ERC-funded projects.

Following the information session, registered attendees had the opportunity to read successful proposals from Spanish researchers that have been funded by the ERC. These proposals were voluntarily shared by their authors to help other researchers in preparing their own applications. In many cases, readers also had access to the evaluation reports written by expert reviewers.

The ERC Proposal Reading Days initiative began in Spain in 2021, and this was the first time it was held at the University of Málaga. More than 30 participants attended the event from various parts of Andalusia, with over two-thirds coming from the University of Málaga itself. In addition to the European Office of FECYT, the event was co-organized by the José María Troya Linero Institute of Software Technology and Engineering (ITIS) of the University of Málaga and the University’s International Projects Office (OPI). The Deputy Vice-Rector for International Projects, Sonia Osorio, welcomed the attendees, and Professor Francisco Chicano also spoke on behalf of ITIS UMA.