European Research Council Grants for Top Researchers from Anywhere in the World

Collaborative event: EURAXESS Japan, Singapore and South Korea

The ERC is one of the most prominent European funding organisations for breakthrough research. It not only supports frontier research across all fields but also awards grants to scientists and scholars from all over the world.

This webinar should especially be useful for post-doctoral and established researchers (PhD + 2 years experience) of all disciplines and nationalities.

Familiarize yourself with the basics and check out the ERC Classes video playlist beforehand.

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ERC GRANTS

Are you a scientist who wants to consolidate your independence by establishing a research team and continuing to develop a success career in Europe? The ERC Consolidator Grant could be for you. You can also apply if you have recently created an independent, excellent research team and want to strengthen it.

Who can apply?

Researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD (extensions are possible under certain circumstances — see the latest ERC Work Program), a scientific track record showing great promise, and an excellent research proposal.

Prospective applicants to the 2023 Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls should note that the ERC is aiming to change the PhD reference date for the calculation of the eligibility period from the date of the actual award according to the national rules of the country where the degree was awarded to the date of the successful PhD defense.

Whenever the PhD certificate does not show the PhD defence date, applicants should provide a written confirmation from the awarding institution stating the said date. This change will bring both clarity to the prospective candidates and significant simplification to the eligibility process.

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 organization (known as a Host Institution, or 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 must be submitted by a single Principal Investigator (PI) in conjunction with and on behalf of their Host Institution, called the applicant legal entity.

Grants are awarded to the Host Institution with the explicit commitment that this institution offers appropriate conditions for the Principal Investigator independently to direct the research and manage its funding for the duration of the project.

Any type of legal entity, including universities, research centers and undertakings can host the PI and his/her team. Legally the Host Institution must be based in one of the EU Member States, or one of the Associated Countries.

The PI does not necessarily need to be working at the Host Institution at the time when the proposal is submitted. However, a mutual agreement and the Host Institution’s commitment on how the relationship will be established are necessary, should the proposal be 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 for team members interested in joining an ERC led research project, can be published on the EURAXESS Jobs portal.

Initiatives, under the form of "Implementing Arrangements" exist for ERC-funded teams in Europe to host non-European talented scientists. Find out more about the agreements.

UK’s participation in Horizon Europe

The UK is expected to become an associated country to the EU’s R&I Framework Program Horizon Europe. The UK will therefore have the same rights and obligations as other countries associated to the Program. Read more.

How much?

Consolidator Grants may be awarded up to €2 million for a period of five 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 needs to be submitted by the specified closing date.

Calls are published on this page, the European Commission’s Funding and Tenders Portal and in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Step-by-step

Before the call is published:

1. Find out which ERC grant and which call is suitable for you.
2. Identify the Host Institution and team members you would like to work with. (see also the online research partner search services)
3. Contact the National Contact Point (NCP) in your country for support.

Once the call is open:

1. Read the call documents carefully.
2. Contact the Host Institution and gather all the details you need for the application.
3. Start writing your proposal. Allow time for other people to review your draft. Your NCP, peers and other scientists can all give you helpful support and feedback.
4. Familiarise yourself with the EU submission service. This is the online system through which proposals must be submitted. 
5. Submit your proposal as early as possible. Deadlines cannot be changed under any circumstances. You can update your submitted proposal any time before the deadline by simply submitting a new version, which will overwrite the old one.
6. You will get an "acknowledgement of receipt" by email for each submission.

After the deadline:

1. The ERC will check whether your proposal meets the call’s eligibility criteria.
2. External experts will evaluate all the eligible proposals.
3. You will receive further information as your proposal progresses through the evaluation. For more information we invite you to consult the timeframe for the current call.

Evaluation process

Proposals are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers who assess them 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.

Peer reviewers are in charge of assessing and scoring the proposals. Those who pass the quality threshold are ranked. Depending on the call budget available, a budgetary cut-off applies to the ranking list and only the highest ranked proposals are offered an ERC grant until the call's budget has been used.

For each call there are 27 panels, each covering a sub-section of one of three domains:

• Social Sciences and Humanities (SH)
• Life Sciences (LS)
• Physical and Engineering Sciences (PE)

Each ERC panel consists of a chair and 10 to 16 members. The panel chair and the panel members are selected by the ERC Scientific Council on the basis of their scientific reputation.

In addition to the panel members (who act as “generalists”), the ERC evaluations rely on input from remote experts external to the panel, called referees. They are scientists and scholars who bring in the necessary specialized expertise.

Before the deadline of a call, the names of the panel chairs are published on the ERC website. Similarly, the names of panel members are published, however, after the evaluation process is concluded.

• Information for Applicants
• Timeframe Consolidator Grant 2023

READ MORE

ERC 2023 tentative call dates

WATCH THE RECORDED WEBINAR BELOW:

SPEAKERS

Keita ITO

Keita Ito received his doctorate in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. Currently, he is Vice Dean and full professor in the Dept. of Biomedical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where he leads the Orthopaedic Biomechanics group. This group combines numerical/experimental and engineering/biological methods to elucidate degenerative processes in bone, cartilage, disc and tendons/ligaments, as well as regenerative strategies thereof. He also is a professor in the Dept. of Orthopaedics at the University Medical Center Utrecht where he works on the mechanobiology of musculoskeletal regenerative medicine. He has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and is on the editorial board of Biomech Model Mechanobiol and is a deputy-editor of the Global Spine Journal. Recently, he was awarded an ERC-AdG to investigate the etiology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

Laura Pander

Laura Pander is coordinator for personal grants (like ERC, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, NWO Talent Scheme) in the Research Support Office of Eindhoven University of Technology since 2017. She is mainly involved in pre-award support of personal grants applicants but she and her colleagues also help out for grant agreement preparations and post-award support. Laura studied Religious Studies and Philosophy at Radboud University and the University of Edinburgh. She has worked at several Dutch universities as an EU project manager and grant advisor in both technical and SSH domains. It’s Laura’s drive to help researchers to grow in their personal research strategy and to stimulate them to reach their research ambitions.

Suzana GOTOVAC ATLAGIĆ

Suzana GOTOVAC ATLAGIĆ has graduated at the Faculty of Technology in her home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999, and since then, she completed her Master in humanities and environmental sciences and the PhD in science and technology in Switzerland and Japan. Her study periods included stays at Ochanomizu University, Neuchatel University and Chiba University. After working as teaching assistant and obtaining her PhD abroad, she returned home in 2007 and worked at the national Waste water laboratory for 8 years. From 2015 she is a teacher at the University of Banja Luka, Chemistry department, running national and international projects environmental nanotechnologies. Her team was awarded the “Best scientific team national award” for the last 4 years in a raw, due to number of extensive project activities, international exchange, publications and industrial collaboration. She is a strong advocate for repatriation of Bosnian scientists studying abroad, following with great attention Bosnian economic recovery and numerous foreign industrial investments in the country, actively running the national Association of Engineers of Technology as the president of its Assembly. She is the ERC NCP in her country.