European Research Council and the Horizons for Social Sciences and Humanities

Workshop organized by the Technology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts of and with the Office of the ERC Vice-President Pavel Exner

14 November 2014, , Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Hybernská 3, Prague 1, room H303

European Research Council has promoted frontier research in all areas of science, including social sciences and humanities, throughout Europe over the last seven years. Its goal is to identify outstanding individual researchers and projects on the basis of scientific excellence only, by means of competitive evaluation by top-level peer-review panels. ERC strives for optimal participation in the ERC funding calls, without any geographic restrictions, by creating conditions allowing to maximize prospects for funding of out-of-the-box thinking and potential for successful frontier research wherever on the globe it thrives.

So far only two Czech nationals gained these prestigious grants in the field of social sciences and humanities. Another project is of multidisciplinary nature crossing the fields of Paleoecology, History and Vegetation ecology. Two of the grantees will take part in the meeting and share their experience by describing their way to the scientific excellence. There are many questions to be asked which may inspire promising young researchers. In particular, why do they think they succeeded? What was their scientific career? How did they elaborate the proposal? Did they consult their peers on the scientific content and the NCP on procedural issues when drafting their proposals?

PROGRAM

8:45-9:15 Registration 9:15-9:30 Welcome address Pavel Exner, ERC Vice-President 9:30-10:15 Social Sciences and Humanities and the ERC Núria Sebastián Gallés, ERC Vice-President, SSH Domain Coordinator 10:15-10:35 ERC grants: The rules, the evaluation procedure and support to the applicants Petra Perutková, NCP, Technology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences 10:35-10:55 Coffee Break 10:55-12:15 Scientific Presentations - Experience of ERC grant holders Moderator: Mirjam Fried, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University Tomáš Sobotka, Austrian Academy of Science, ERC Grantee – project EURREP (Fertility, reproduction and population change in 21st century Europe) Péter Szabó, The Institute of Botany of the CAS, ERC Grantee – multidisciplinary project LONGWOOD (Longterm woodland dynamics in Central Europe: from estimations to a realistic model) at the interface of Paleoecology, History and Vegetation ecology 12:15-13:30 PANEL DISCUSSION Striving towards Excellence in Social Sciences and Humanities – Czech views Do we in the field of social sciences and humanities have chance to succeed in the ERC competition? Can excellence be found in the Czech Republic? What were the right conditions to support excellence in social sciences and humanities in the Czech Republic? Should we have a strategy? Moderator: Pavel Exner, ERC Vice-President Panelists: Mirjam Fried, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University Núria Sebastián Gallés, ERC Vice-President Michal Kejak, CERGE-EI, Economics Institute of the CAS Tomáš Sobotka, Austrian Academy of Sciences Péter Szabó, The Institute of Botany of the CAS

The meeting will be held in English.Translations will not be provided.

Registration is required via the following link: http://geform.tc.cz/ercssh/