Skip to main content
EURAXESS
NEWS29 May 2019News

European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants - long-term funding for frontier research in Europe

erc

ERC Advanced Grants are long-term funding to pursue a ground-breaking, high-risk project in Europe.

They support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. This action is open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any Member State or Associated Country.

The ERC's frontier research grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities.

Eligibility

Researchers of any nationality, any age. Applicants - called Principal Investigators (PIs) - are expected to be active researchers who have a track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years.

The Principal Investigators should be exceptional leaders in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions.

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

Funding

Up to € 2.5 million per grant.

Researchers from LAC : note that an additional € 1 million can be made available to cover eligible “start-up” costs for researchers moving from Latin America and the Caribbean (or any other third country) to the EU or an associated country and/or the purchase of major equipment and/or access to large facilities.

Duration

Up to 5 years.

Sole evaluation criterion: scientific excellence of researcher and research proposal.

Deadline: 29 August 2019.

For more details on Advanced grants, see ERC website and call details.

Important notice: Time to spend on the project

Researchers applying for ERC-funding must be strongly committed to the project and spend a significant amount of time on it. However, it is not obligatory to spend 100% of your time in Europe whilst carrying out the ERC-funded research.

For Advanced Grants, the Principal Investigator should devote at least 30% of her/his working time to the ERC project and spend at least 50% of her/his total working time in a EU Member State or Associated Country.

About the ERC

Set up in 2007 by the EU, the European Research Council is the first pan-European funding organization for frontier research. It aims to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe by encouraging competition for funding between the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age. The ERC also strives to attract top researchers from anywhere in the world to come to Europe. It funds young, early-career top researchers ('ERC Starting grants'), already independent excellent scientists ('ERC Consolidator Grants'), and senior research leaders ('ERC Advanced Grants'). 

With its Synergy Grants, the ERC also supports groups of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems.

For more info in Portuguese, click here. For more info in Spanish, click here.

Interviews with Brazilian and other Latin American ERC awardees.

Jobs in ERC teams

Please, note that ERC grants support projects carried out by an individual researcher ('Principal Investigator') 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.

Read our interviews with:

Vacancies for team members interested in joining an ERC led research project, can be published on the Euraxess-Jobs portal.

Short-term postdoctoral visits (Brazil)

In the framework of the European Commission (EC) - Confap implementing Arrangement (2016) and the Administrative Arrangement between the DG RTD of the EC - CNPq-FINEP-CONAP (2018), Brazilian active researchers in a wide range of scientific fields have the possibility to carry out research visits and temporarily join ERC teams in Europe to conduct frontier research activities. . 

Calls are at least annuals. More on Confap website.

Exemple of a Brazilian researcher who spent one month in an ERC funded team in Germany:

 

Additionnal resources:

ERC Excellence European research council Long-term Experienced researchers