The 67th plenary meeting of the governing body of the European Research Council (ERC), the Scientific Council, will take place in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, on October 15-17, 2018. Τhe Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas is the host of this meeting, which is the second to take place in Greece. ERC President Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon has visited Greece and FORTH in September 2017, for a series of meetings with ERC Grantees.

The ERC was set up by the EU in 2007 to fund excellent scientists and their most creative ideas. With a budget of over €13 billion for the period 2014 – 2020, ERC supports cutting-edge research, solely on the basis of scientific excellence, in all areas of research and technology. Since 2007, ERC has funded over 8,500 research projects, 49 of which in Greece, and 16 hosted at FORTH (around €27 million total budget). Today, ERC is a key component of Horizon 2020, the EU’s programme for Research and Innovation.