Maximising excellence in research upskilling NCPs and raising the quality of their support to ERC applicants

mERCury will help to 1)facilitate the transnational co-operation and capacity building among ERC National Contact Points (NCPs) to achieve a consistent and harmonized level of support 2)strengthen national and local support to potential ERC applicants, in particular to those from countries with weak participation 3)identify and sharing good NCP practices and raising the general standard of support to ERC applicants 4)enhance the competence of ERC NCPs, including helping less experienced NCPs rapidly acquire the know-how accumulated by NCPs in other countries 5)reach a higher quality and quantity of applications especially from Horizon Europe Widening countries by coaching potential ERC applicants. Our project aims at reaching 3 Specific Objectives (SO): SO1: Improve, professionalise and harmonise services of ERC NCPs. SO2: To Increase capacities of less experienced and Widening countries NCPs, facilitate their work and reduce the gap increasing the participation of applicants from those countries and in any country with weaker participation. SO3: strengthen national and local support to potential ERC applicants, in particular to those from countries with weak participation in the ERC programme. We will reach our SOs thanks to 4 Work Packages that include twinnings, meet&exchange workshops, online working groups, train the trainer events, training sessions and workshops for applicants. These activities will focus on issues specific to the ERC programme and to the ERC NCP work. These activities will be shaped and their topic identified by the same ERC NCPs through a benchmarking questionnaire which will deliver NCPs knowledge, capacity building and upskilling needs. 23 beneficiaries –12 from Widening countries- from all levels of ERC experience will be part of the consortium.