The ERC funds ground-breaking basic research projects across all fields of science to support European leadership in world-class research. Support is given to outstanding Principal Investigators (PI) based on the scientific excellence of their project proposal.

Your project idea must have all of the following characteristics:

  • Scientific excellence
  • Ground-breaking; Address important challenges in the field(s)
  • Ambition; Go substantially beyond the current state of the art
  • Feasibility; Propose research methodology comprehensive and appropriate for to the project
  • High-risk; Identify the risks and the mitigation plan measures.

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ERC Starting Grants provide support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. ERC Starting Grants fund projects up to 1.500.000 EUR for a period of 5 years. 

In order to be eligible, PIs must:

  • have their first PhD awarded at least 2 and up to 7 years prior to the call deadline. Extensions are possible under certain circumstances — see the latest ERC Work Programme

  • dedicate a minimum of ≥50% of total work time, ≥ 50% in Europe to the project.

  • demonstrate transition to independence:
    ≥1 important publication without PhD supervisor and up to 5 publications in major international peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals

  • present a track record of achievements appropriate to field and career stage: publications, invited presentations, awards, prizes, patents, grants.

 

Useful links:

- Call 2022

- Proposal template (2022)

- Information for applicants

- Timeframe of ERC-StG evaluation

- Guide for peer reviewers (2022)

ERC Consolidator Grants provide support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. ERC Consolidator Grants fund projects up to 2.000.000 EUR for a period of 5 years. 

In order to be eligible, PIs must:

  • have their first PhD awarded at least 7 and up to 12 years prior to the call deadline. Extensions are possible under certain circumstances — see the latest ERC Work Programme

  • dedicate a minimum of ≥40% of total work time, ≥ 50% in Europe to the project

  • demonstrate establishing independence:
    several important publications without supervisor and up to 10 publications in major international peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journals and/or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals.

  • Track record of achievements appropriate to field and career stage: Publications, invited presentations, awards, prizes, patents, grants.

 

Useful links:

- Call 2022

- Proposal template (2022)

- Information for applicants

- Timeframe of ERC-CoG evaluation

- Guide for peer reviewers (2022)

ERC Advanced Grants provide support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. ERC Advanced Grants fund projects up to 2.500.000 EUR for a period of 5 years. 

In order to be eligible, PIs must:

  • dedicate a minimum of ≥30% of total work time, ≥ 50% in Europe to the project

  • A competitive Advanced Grant PI must have already shown a record which identifies them as an exceptional leader in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions. 

  • Track record of achievements in the past 10 years appropriate to their research field and at least matching one or more of the following benchmarks, for instance: up to 10 significant publications as main author in leading international peer-reviewed journals of their respective field, or major international peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journals; 3 major research monographs (for research fields where monographs is the norm). They may also demonstrate a record of invited presentations in well established international conferences, organization of international conferences, granted patents, leading research expeditions, awards, prizes, academy memberships etc.

 

Useful links:

- Call 2022

- Proposal template (2021)

- Information for applicants (2021)

- Timeframe of ERC-AdG evaluation

- Guide for peer reviewers (2021)

ERC Synergy Grants are aimed at groups of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) – of which one will be designated as the corresponding PI (cPI) – working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. Synergy projects should enable substantial advances at the frontiers of knowledge, stemming, for example, from the cross-fertilisation of scientific fields, from new productive lines of enquiry, or new methods and techniques, including unconventional approaches and investigations at the interface between established disciplines. The transformative research funded by Synergy Grants should have the potential of becoming a benchmark on a global scale. 

No specific eligibility criteria regarding the academic training are foreseen for ERC Synergy Grants. PIs must present an early achievement track-record or a ten-year track-record, whichever is most appropriate at their stage (see the profiles of the Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grant PIs).

Proposals will be evaluated on the sole criterion of scientific excellence which, in the case the ERC Synergy Grants, takes on the additional meaning of outstanding intrinsic synergetic effect. Principal Investigators must also demonstrate that their group can successfully bring together the scientific elements necessary to address the scope and complexity of the proposed research question.