European Research Council

The ERC’s mission is to support investigator-driven frontier research through ground-breaking projects of the highest quality. ERC projects are characterized by their scientific excellence and can be applied for regardless of research field. ERC-funded research does not have to solve predetermined problems..

ERC grants can be applied for throughout the research career, by creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. As investigator-driven research projects, ERC projects are led by a single researcher (except for Synergy Grants).

The ERC offers 4 core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to explore the innovation potential of their ideas or research results.

Read about ‘Identification of potential candidates for ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants’ here.

ERC Starting Grant

Eligibility:	Researchers from any research field and of any nationality PhD age: 0 and <_ 10 years Scientific track record showing great promise (At least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor) With an excellent research proposal.
Grant size:	€ 1.5 million for a period of 5 years.
Next deadline:	October 2025 (expected).
Detailed information:	See the ERC Starting Grant webpage
RSO support:	For support or questions regarding an application, please contact one of our Research Funding Advisors or send a mail to our mailbox.
	Sign up for RSO support
	The Research Support Office will designate a research funding advisor to each applicant. The advisor will contact the applicant to offer the applicant the following support: Start-up meeting Application feedback on parts B1 and B2 Bibliometric analysis Formalities; Part A, budget and Host Letter. Mock interviews for applicants who are invited to ERC StG interviews.

ERC Consolidator Grant

Eligibility:	Researchers from any research field and of any nationality. PhD age: >-5 and <_15 years Scientific track record showing great promise (has already shown evidence of research independence and is at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme) With an excellent research proposal
Grant size:	Up to € 2 million for a period of 5 years.
Next deadline:	January 2026 (expected)
Detailed information:	See the ERC Consolidator Grant webpage See the ERC project database
RSO support:	For support or questions regarding an application, please contact one of our Research Funding Advisors or send a mail to our mailbox.
	Sign up for RSO support
	The Research Support Office will designate a research funding advisor to each applicant. The advisor will contact the applicant to offer the applicant the following support: Start-up meeting Application feedback on parts B1 and B2 Bibliometric analysis Formalities; Part A, budget and Host Letter. Mock interviews for applicants who are invited to ERC CoG interviews.

ERC Advanced Grant

ERC Proof of Concept Grant

Eligibility:	All principal investigators in one of the ERC frontier research main grants (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy) are eligible to participate and apply for an ERC Proof of Concept Grant. Principal Investigators in an ongoing main grant, or Principal Investigators in a main grant that has ended after 1 January 2023, are eligible to apply. The Principal Investigator must be able to demonstrate the relation between the idea to be taken to proof of concept and the ERC frontier research project (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy) in question.
Grant size:	€ 150.000 for a period of 18 months
Next deadline:	18 September 2025
Detailed information:	See ERC Proof of Concept Grant webpage See the ERC project database
RSO support:	For support og questions regarding an application, please contact onee og our Research Funding Advisors or send a mail to our mailbox.
	Sign up for RSO support

ERC Synergy Grant

Eligibility:	A group of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) working together. One will be designated as the corresponding PI (cPI). Synergy effect: bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems that could not be addressed by the individual PIs and their teams alone PIs must present an early achievement track-record or a ten-year track-record, whichever is most appropriate Proposals are evaluated on the sole criterion of scientific excellence which takes on the additional meaning of outstanding intrinsic synergetic effect.
Grant size:	Up to € 10 million for a period of 6 years.
Next deadline:	May 11. 2027.
Detailed information:	See the ERC Synergy Grant webpage See the ERC project database
RSO support:	For support or questions regarding an application, please contact one of our Research Funding Advisors or send a mail to our mailbox.
	Sign up for RSO support