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ERC Blank-Page Builder

Build the scientific architecture before you open the ERC template. This worksheet follows the Arvacore blank-page method: it helps you structure your own scientific thinking, it does not generate a proposal for you.

Step 1: The important scientific problem

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The important scientific problem

What is the scientific problem that would still matter if your preferred method disappeared tomorrow?

Describe the field-level problem in 2 to 5 sentences. Avoid starting with a work package, instrument or specification.

Step 2: Why it matters

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Why it matters

What changes scientifically if this problem is resolved?

Focus on understanding, capability or research direction rather than publication count or generic societal claims.

Step 3: What is genuinely unknown

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What is genuinely unknown

What does the field know, assume and still not know?

Step 4: Central scientific question

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Central scientific question

Write the one question the five-year programme exists to answer.

Supporting questions can become objectives later. Keep one intellectual spine.

Step 5: Proposition or hypothesis

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Proposition or hypothesis

What do you think might be true, and can evidence prove you wrong?

Step 6: Discriminating evidence

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Discriminating evidence

What observation, experiment, calculation or theoretical result would distinguish between plausible explanations?

Step 7: Outcome space

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Outcome space

For each outcome: what would we learn, and what scientific direction follows?

Step 8: Field-level consequence

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Field-level consequence

If the programme succeeds at its highest level, what could the field be doing differently in 5 to 15 years?

This is an Arvacore stress test, not an official ERC criterion.

End of worksheet

Your concept sheet

Complete the fields above and a one-page structured summary appears here.

Use Arvacore AI stress-test prompts →

Why start before the template?

The official template tells you where information belongs. It does not decide what the scientific argument should be. A one-page architecture makes it easier to see whether the project contains a coherent question, a proposition that can be challenged, evidence that can discriminate between outcomes and a field-level reason to care.

After the worksheet

Want an independent scientific-strategy review?

If the one-page architecture is coherent but you want an external view on ambition, scientific risk, Part I structure or proposal logic, Arvacore can review the smallest useful unit before a full engagement.

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