The European Research Council and the European research funding landscape

The European Research Council (ERC), which was introduced in the Seventh Framework Programme, implements radically new principles in the Framework Programme. This paper develops a methodological framework for measuring the effects of the ERC on the European research funding landscape and presents empirical findings. It maps three analytically separate but closely related dimensions: the research policy, institutional, and organisational dimensions, all of which are pertinent to a study of the effects of the ERC. The paper notes that the ERC has prompted a number of significant changes in EU research funding policy. At the institutional level, the ERC has rapidly gained legitimacy and status in the context of European research policy and its scientific and scholarly constituencies, both of which are important prerequisites for its influence on a broader scale. At the organisational level, its effects are fewer and are partially overshadowed by developments in the European Research Area.