We undertook an online panel survey of researchers who were awarded grants in 2007 under the ERC’s Starting Independent Researcher Grant scheme.
We also included a control group was drawn from applicants to the same scheme in 2007 that passed a ‘quality threshold’ (taken to be Stage 1 of the application process) but were not finally selected to receive grants. This survey enabled us to register, attribute and understand the ‘baseline’ information about researchers in receipt of ERC Starting Grants and researchers without the ERC grants (our ‘control’ group) along with their position within research organisations and epistemic networks (later comparison between these two groups using a repeat measurement, would allow proper attribution of impact but is not part of the EURECIA project).
Our survey questionnaire explored dimensions such as researchers’ competencies and skills (e.g. novelty and risk-taking attributes, intellectual field mobility, geographical mobility, and novel measures of atypical approaches and attitudes to research content and activity), their resources and standing within their organisational and knowledge community careers, and their research environment (local and national). Separately we also developed and piloted an additional survey tool to map the position of the researchers within a reputational network for their field.
Dr Duncan Thomas led this work, in close collaboration with Dr Maria Nedeva and Dr Yanuar Nugroho. The work was also informed by the methodology and conceptualisation work and was particularly closely interrelated with the case studies of starting and advanced researchers.
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