‘I advise those thinking about how to valorise their results to consider the ERC Proof of Concept Grant’

The European Research Council (ERC) offers researchers different kinds of grants, such as the Starting Grant, the Consolidator Grant and the Proof of Concept Grant. The Starting and Consolidator Grants focus on what Reijnders calls ‘excellent research’. The Starting Grant is for talented scientists in the early stages of their careers who are ready to work independently and show potential to be research leaders. The Consolidator Grant is for scientists who want to consolidate their independence by putting together a research team or to strengthen an already existing research team.  

Stijn Reijnders is a Full Professor of "Cultural Heritage, in Particular in Relation to Tourism and Popular Culture" at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is the recipient of both an ERC Consolidator Grant and an ERC Proof of Concept Grant for his work on film tourism.

Reijnders has experience applying for different ERC grants. For example, he was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his ‘World of Imagination’ research project on film tourism. ‘Film tourism is the activity of people travelling to certain places which they associate with certain books or movies or TV series,’ Reijnders explains. ‘So in a sense, the topic concerns the collaboration or even the convergence between popular media, culture and tourism.’ Subsequently, he applied for and received an PoC Grant for his project ‘Setting the Scene’, which can be viewed as an extension of his previous research. So how exactly do these grants differ from each other? 

Focus on research 

The Consolidator Grant, according to Reijnders, is ‘a research grant that allows you to set up a large-scale research project. In my case, it was a comparative project analysing media tourism in five different countries around the world. So it was very much research focused: delivering papers for dissertations and edited volumes at large conferences for academics.’ 

One of the findings of his research is that while shooting a movie in a castle may attract tourists and give the local economy a boost in England, for example, that is not necessarily the case in other countries, such as Brazil, Jamaica, or South Korea (Reijnders refers to this as the Downton effect, referring to the popular series Downton Abbey). ‘There are a lot of issues and factors that you need to consider when developing film and tourism policies. Moreover, supporting the film industry to boost tourism does not always lead to a sustainable form of tourism. Increasingly, we have become aware of the need for a more refined and contextualised policy, which means you cannot have one policy for all locations around the world, but you really need to take into consideration local environmental or socio-economic conditions and based on that develop a policy.’  

Proof of Concept Grants focus on impact 

Which is exactly what Reijnders wants to do with his Setting the Scene project: set up a consultancy agency to help local governments create better film and tourism policies. A clear outcome of his Consolidator Grant-funded research was that there is an urgent need for more information about how media tourism works and what kind of policies you need to steer media tourism in a sustainable direction. This is what prompted Reijnders and his team to apply for the PoC Grant, even though these grants are rarely awarded to researchers working in the humanities. For example, of the 166 PoC laureates in 2021, only 11 % came from Social Science and Humanities disciplines (ERC Europe, retrieved: April 2022).  

Because the focus of Starting or Consolidator Grants is purely on research, whereas PoC Grants focus on impact, there is a difference in the application process. As a starting point, only laureates of a Starting or Consolidator Grant are eligible to apply for PoC Grants. Additionally, ‘the PoC specifically addresses the idea of how to make the transfer from fundamental research results to societal impact,’ Reijnders says. While most researchers are well-versed in writing research proposals, applicants must realise that the PoC application differs because it can require a more commercial dimension or involve policy advice for NGOs and local governments. 

‘You need to efficiently explain what the problem is, and then how you will solve that problem,’ Reijnders explains. ‘And you need to outline concrete steps. In our case, this meant asking ourselves the following questions: what kind of agency are we going to build? Have we considered all the legal and financial dimensions? How will we pay people working for our consultancy agency? And there are a lot of technical details to consider. So it is really not about research. It is about making a case for why your enterprise is necessary and how to build a bridge from your own research to a certain specific societal need.’ 

If at first you do not succeed, try again 

Reijnders’ advice to those who do not immediately receive a grant is to keep at it. In fact, he did not succeed the first few times. He and his team did not give up, applied again and received support from Adrian Sneeuw (Head of Grants Support) and Art Bos (Head of Business Development and Knowledge Transfer) from Erasmus Research Services (ERS). ‘Art his help was invaluable because he familiarised us with the jargon of setting up a consulting agency and identifying the markets it will address. This was all new to us. So I advise those already thinking about how to valorise their results and bring them to a larger audience to consider the ERC Proof of Concept Grant and contact ERS. The PoC can help you make the next step. In our case, it has given us 18 months to set up this professional consulting agency.’