European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants
The European Research Council (ERC) supports frontier research in any field. It is open to investigators worldwide, as long as the host institution (HI) of the principal investigator that receives ERC funding is established in a Member State or a country associated to Horizon Europe. The ERC has four major grant programmes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants, and Synergy Grants. The ERC Starting Grant programme supports early-career scientists developing a wide range of innovative projects.
Under the 2024 work programme, a call for proposals is ongoing (submission closed).
European Research Centre (ERC) Starting Grant
European Research Centre (ERC)
The ERC is a programme under Horizon Europe.
The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than EUR 16 billion. For 2024, the estimated budget for ERC Starting Grant is EUR 601 million for approximately 387 grants.
Up to EUR 1,5 million for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). An additional amount of EUR 1 million can be made available to cover costs for researchers moving from a third country.
ERC grants 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.
Applicants are required to carry out their research in a host institution (HI) based in the following geographical areas:
- European Union Member States
- Countries associated to Horizon Europe
- Other third countries (Synergy Grants only)
In a Starting Grant, researchers are required to have 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD (extensions are possible under certain circumstances) as well as scientific track record and an excellent research proposal.
Applications can be made in any field of research.
- Researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD (extensions are possible under certain circumstances ), as well as scientific track record skilfulness and an excellent research proposal
- Members need to have an EU nationality, however, in the wider group there may be non-EU members
- Applications may be made in any field of research. The ERC’s grants operate on a ‘bottom-up’ basis without any predetermined priorities
Depending on the specific project (up to five years)
Please refer to the ‘Status’ section.
Any
Under Horizon Europe, beneficiaries of ERC grants must ensure open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to their results as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. Beneficiaries must ensure that they or the authors retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with their open access requirements.
Open
- Opening of the call: 11 July 2023
- Deadline for application: 24 October 2023
- Planned dates to inform applicants:
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- Step 1: 10 May 2024
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- Step 2: 23 August 2024 – Indicative date for signature of grant agreements or award of prizes:
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- 21 December 2024
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