ERC Starting Grant

Finanziamenti per la ricerca

ERC Starting Grant

Dal 06.10.2024 al 15.10.2024

Are you a talented early-career scientist who has already produced excellent supervised work, is ready to work independently and shows potential to be a research leader? The ERC Starting Grant could be for you.

Who can apply?

Researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal can apply.

Extension of eligibility

PhD defence date

What proposals are eligible?

Criteria

Applications can be made in any field of research
The ERC's grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities.

Location

Research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation (known as a host institution/HI). It could be the HI where the applicant already works, or any other HI located in one of the EU Member States or associated countries.

Host Institution

Applications for an ERC grant require a single Principal Investigator (PI) to submit the application on behalf of their host institution.

The host institution must offer suitable conditions for the PI to independently lead the research and manage funding. The PI can be hosted by any legal entity in an EU Member State or associated country.

The PI does not need to be employed by the host institution at the time of proposal submission, but a mutual agreement and commitment are necessary if the proposal is successful.

Team

ERC grants support projects carried out by an individual researcher who can employ researchers of any nationality as team members. It is also possible to have one or more team members located in a non-European country.

Vacancies and agreements

UK’s participation in Horizon Europe

How much?

Starting Grants may be awarded up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years. (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). However, an additional € 1 million can be made available to cover eligible “start-up” costs for researchers moving from a third country to the EU or an associated country and/or the purchase of major equipment and/or access to large facilities and/or other major experimental and field work costs.

An ERC grant can cover up to 100% of the total eligible direct costs of the research plus a contribution of 25% of the total eligible costs towards indirect costs.

How to apply?

ERC grant applications can only be submitted in response to a Call for Proposals.

The ERC has yearly calls for proposals covering all scientific fields.

For an ERC grant application to be complete, it needs to include the administrative forms, the research proposal and the supplementary documents. The completed proposal should be submitted by the specified closing date.

Calls are published on this page, the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Step by step

How does the evaluation process work?

Proposals are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers who evaluate proposals on the basis of excellence as the sole criterion. It will be applied to the evaluation of both the research project and the Principal Investigator in conjunction.

Task and composition of the evaluation panels

Searching for data on ERC funded projects and proposals?

You can use two different platforms for views and analysis of ERC funded projects and evaluated proposals.

ERC dashboard

This dashboard allows you to:

Filter by multiple criteria: Refine your search by funding scheme, country, year, panel, and more
Export data: Export results and graphs for detailed analysis and presentation

Discover how to use the ERC dashboard with the quick start guide

ERC Research Information System (ERIS)

ERIS provides advanced features to analyze research data:

Rich filters: Apply filters on any available data field for more precise searches
Text mining: Use text mining capabilities to uncover patterns and insights
Dynamic visualizations: Access a variety of visual tools, including interactive word clouds and clustering tools
Project outputs & bibliometrics: Search and view comprehensive data on project outputs and bibliometrics
Export data: Export results and graphs data for further analysis and presentation

Interested to learn more?

Watch our instructional videos describing the full ERC grant application and evaluation process, step by step.

Please make sure to review the 2024 Work Programme, as there have been updates to the application process.

Open call

Call details: ERC-2025-StG

Deadline date:
15 October 2024 - 17.00 Brussels time

Timeframe Starting Grant 2025 evaluation

Key documents

ERC Work Programme 2025

Info for applicants StG 2025

Guide for peer reviewers

Gender Equality Plans guidance