Success rates of submitted proposals

The application procedure consisted of two stages: stage I “pre-proposal selection” and stage II “full proposal selection”, for details see Implementation of the call. The success rate of full proposals was 35% (19% of all pre-proposals, see table below).

Stage I:
Pre-proposal		Stage II:
Full proposals		Funded projects
No. of eligible proposals814315
Principal investigators involved36721475
Overall funding requested83.5 m€49.1 m€16.8 m€
Proposal success rate19%35%

Country of origin and success in the pre-and full proposal stage

The number of successful principal investigators per country is shown in figure 1a (pre-proposals; stage I) and in figure 1b (full proposals; stage II).

Fig. 1a. Principal investigators per country in stage I, pre-proposal submission. © ERA-NET NEURON
Fig. 1a. Principal investigators per country in stage I, pre-proposal submission. © ERA-NET NEURON

NEURON aims to increase the number of research groups from countries that are to date not well integrated in the funding scheme, so called ‘underrepresented’ countries. NEURON developed a Widening Concept comprising different measures to facilitate the integration of ‘underrepresented’ countries. As part of this, consortia that were invited to submit a full proposal were given the opportunity to add new groups from ‘underrepresented’ countries. Thus, a total of six new research groups was added between the pre- and full proposal stage.

Fig. 1b. Principal Investigators per country in stage II, full proposal submissions. © ERA-NET NEURON
Fig. 1b. Principal Investigators per country in stage II, full proposal submissions. © ERA-NET NEURON

Gender distribution

The percentage of female researchers at the different stages of the call is shown in figure 2.

Fig. 2. Percentage of male and female Principal Investigators (PI); © ERA-NET NEURON
Fig. 2. Percentage of male and female Principal Investigators (PI); © ERA-NET NEURON

The number of coordinators of funded proposals (15 in total) per country is shown in figure 3. 33% of the funded coordinators are female.

Fig. 3. Number of male and female coordinators and their distribution over the participating countries; © ERA-NET NEURON
Fig. 3. Number of male and female coordinators and their distribution over the participating countries; © ERA-NET NEURON

Involvement of early career researchers (ECRs)

The involvement of early career researchers (ECRs) as consortium partners was highly encouraged and was part of the evaluation criteria.

Early career researchers (ECRS): 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD or medical specialization diploma at the date of the launch of this call and a scientific track record showing great promise. Allowed extensions 18 months maternity leave, duration of paternity leave, duration of long-term illness or national service, duration of clinical training with a maximum of 4 years).

The percentage of ECRs as Consortium Coordinators at the different stages of the call is shown in figure 4. Four of the 15 funded consortia are coordinated by ECRs (26.7 %).

Fig. 4. Percentage of early career researchers as consortium coordinators; © ERA-NET NEURON
Fig. 4. Percentage of early career researchers as consortium coordinators; © ERA-NET NEURON

The percentage of ECRs as Principal Investigators (PI) at the different stages of the call is shown in figure 5.

Fig. 5. Percentage of early career researchers as Principal Investigators (PI); © ERA-NET NEURON
Fig. 5. Percentage of early career researchers as Principal Investigators (PI); © ERA-NET NEURON