A budget of €1.9 billion will be made available by the European Research Council (ERC) in 2021 to allow some 1,000 top researchers to pursue frontier research. As in previous years, most of the funding (66%) is earmarked for early- to mid-career scientists and scholars. The funding will also support jobs for an estimated 6,860 postdoctoral researchers, PhD students and other research staff employed in ERC-funded teams.
Established by the ERC Scientific Council, the 2021 work programme was adopted on 22 February by the European Commission and is the first approved under the 2021-2027 European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe.
The 2021 work programme introduces some novelties, such as interviews now being part of the evaluation process also for Advanced Grant applicants and two new evaluation panels. Due to the transition from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe, the call calendar is shifted compared to the calendars of previous years, and the Synergy and Proof of Concept calls will not open under this year’s work programme.
Watch this short video to learn more about the new ERC work programme:
Calls calendar and submission deadlines
Synergy Grants will not be available under this work programme. Nonetheless, the ERC Scientific Council is expecting to be able to open the first Synergy Grant call of Horizon Europe in summer 2021, with funding to be provided under the next work programme.
Similarly, the Proof of Concept Grants are not available under this work programme, but a call is expected to open in the second half of this year under the next work programme.
Interviews for Advanced Grant applicants
Bringing the Advanced Grants evaluation process in line with that of the Starting and Consolidator Grants, researchers whose proposals reach the second step of the Advanced Grant evaluation will now be invited to present their proposal to the evaluation panel in an interview.
ERC panel structure redefined
Two entirely new evaluation panels have been added to the ERC Panel Structure: SH7 - Human Mobility Environment and Space, and PE11 – Materials Engineering. The introduction of these two new panels is part of a broader review of the panel structure by the ERC Scientific Council, redefining the contours of all panels, enriching their descriptors and taking into account the balance between panels in terms of the number of proposals assessed in each call.
You can consult the panel structure for ERC calls 2021 and 2022.
Open science
As required by the new Horizon Europe regulation, researchers who benefit from ERC funding under the Horizon Europe programme will now be required to submit a data management plan within the first six months of their project implementation.
Read the ERC 2021 Work Programme
About the ERC
The European Research Council, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe. To date, the ERC has funded over 9,500 top researchers at various stages of their careers, and over 70,000 postdocs, PD students and other staff working in their research teams. The ERC strives to attract top researchers from anywhere in the world to come to Europe.
The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. The ERC President is Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel.