The analysis shows uneven distributions of country participation measured by both proposals and projects.
Inequalities visible in areas such as GDP and GERD are reproduced in countries’ participation rates.
Comparing the distribution of proposals and projects across countries, the analysis shows that the distribution of projects is more uneven than that of proposals.
Noteworthy findings for individual countries:
Figures from ERC website. World Bank Open Data provides complementary country indicators such as population, GDP, and Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD). Country codes are provided by {countrycode
}.
Proposals correspond to evaluated grant applications and projects correspond to funded proposals.
The number of proposals by country ranges from only a few (e.g. in Moldova, Albania, Armenia, or Tunisia) to several thousands (e.g. in the UK, Germany, France, or Italy). Out of the 41 participating countries, 9 have not been awarded any project.
Overall, the UK has been the most active country. To date, it accounts for 17.2% of the proposals and 18.4% of the projects. Germany and France complete the podium.
On the whole, the distribution of the number of proposals by domain is comparable to that of all domains. The UK has been noticeably active in SH where it submitted more than double the number of proposals than the second most active country. In total, in SH, the UK submitted 21.9% of the proposals and was awarded 26.4% of the projects.
Comparison of the rankings by numbers of proposals and projects reveals consistent drops for Spain and Italy. By contrast, Germany, Israel, and Switzerland typically show better rankings for projects than for proposals.
The observed inequality in country participation is largely mirrored in countries’ GDP and GERD levels. That applies for both EU28 and non-EU28 participants.
The activity index of a country is the proportion of proposals of the country in a domain divided by the average proportion of proposals of other countries in that same domain.
The success index of a country is the success rate of the country in a domain divided by the average success rate of other countries in that same domain.
Comparison of the activity and success indexes of the 10 top participating countries among themselves provides a number of interesting individual observations:
Among the 10 top participating countries: