The ERC is the main funding scheme for frontier basic research grants, provide attractive, long-term funding to support excellent investigators (Principal Investigators) and their research teams to pursue ground-breaking and ambitious research. Research funded by the ERC is expected to lead to advances at the frontiers of knowledge and to set a clear and inspirational target for frontier research across Europe. The ERC also awards complementary funding for the Principal Investigators funded by its main grants, in order to fulfil its mission of supporting new ways of working in the scientific world, and raising the profile of frontier research in Europe, as well as the visibility of ERC programmes to researchers across Europe and internationally.
Excellence is the sole criterion on the basis of which ERC frontier research grants are awarded.
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ERC main frontier research grants include the following:
Starting Grant
Support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. They must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal and should have already shown evidence of their potential for research independence, for example, by having produced at least one important publication as the main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor.
Eligible Principal Investigator: Principal Investigator(s) who have successfully defended their first Ph.D. between ≥ 2 and ≤ 7 years prior to 1 January 2025.
Project duration: Up to 5 years
Funding: Up to EUR 1,500,000 (additional funding up to EUR 1,000,000).
Principal Investigators’ minimum working time on the ERC project: 50%.
Consolidator Grant
Support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. They must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal and should have already shown evidence of research independence.
Eligible Principal Investigator: Principal Investigator(s) who have successfully defended their first Ph.D. between ≥ 7 and ≤ 12 years prior to 1 January 2025.
Project duration: Up to 5 years
Funding: Up to EUR 2,000,000 (additional funding up to EUR 1,000,000).
Principal Investigators’ minimum working time on the ERC project: 40%.
Advanced Grant
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. They must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal and are expected to be active researchers and to have a track record of significant research achievements.
Project duration: Up to 5 years
Funding: Up to EUR 2,500,000 (additional funding up to EUR 1,000,000).
Principal Investigators’ minimum working time on the ERC project: 30%.
Synergy Grant
Support for a small group of 2-4 Principal Investigators to jointly address ambitious research problems that could not be addressed by the individual Principal Investigators and their teams working alone.
Synergy Grant groups are expected to demonstrate that they can successfully bring together those elements – such as skills, knowledge, experience, expertise, disciplines, methods, approaches, teams, access to infrastructures – necessary to address the scope and complexity of the proposed research question. Applicants are expected to describe the contribution of each PI, their team and the resources to achieve the objectives proposed.
The transformative research funded by Synergy Grants should have the potential of becoming a benchmark on a global scale.
Principal Investigators at any career stage are welcome and must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal.
The Principal Investigators in the group must have competitive track records as appropriate to their career stage.
Project duration: Up to 6 years
Funding: Up to EUR 10,000,000 (additional funding up to EUR 4,000,000).
Principal Investigators’ minimum working time on the ERC project: 30% for each Principal Investigator.
Proof of Concept Grant
Frontier research often generates radically new ideas that drive innovation and business inventiveness and tackle societal challenges. The ERC Proof of Concept Grants aim at facilitating exploration of the commercial and social innovation potential of ERC funded research and are therefore available only to Principal Investigators whose proposals draw substantially on their ERC funded research.
Eligible Principal Investigator: Principal Investigators in an ongoing ERC main grant, or Principal Investigators in an ERC main grant that ended after 1 January 2024.
Project duration: 18 months
Funding: EUR 150,000 as a lump sum
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