Info session: ERC grants for excellent frontier research

Note: You can view the event recording embedded below and access the speaker presentation in the Attachments section at the bottom of this page.

Join EURAXESS North America and MSKCC for a webinar on the bottom-up grants available from the European Research Council, the premier European funding organization for excellent frontier research. The ERC supports investigator-driven frontier research across all fields. It awards research grants to scientists and scholars from all over the world, both early-career and senior researchers, carrying out their ambitious research projects in all scientific disciplines in Europe.

Hear directly from Per Magnus Kommandantvold, a Norwegian National Contact Point (NCP) for ERC, who will present an overview of the ERC grants and tips for preparing your proposal, as well as address your queries during a Q&A session. Familiarize yourself with the basics and check out the ERC Classes video playlist beforehand as well as last year's webinar on ERC grants.

This free webinar is directed at postdoctoral researchers and established researchers (PhD plus two years' experience) of all disciplines and all nationalities, as well as university staff promoting funding opportunities for their researchers. It will take place in English on Zoom on Tuesday, May 6th, 2025 at 12:00 PM Eastern / 9:00 AM Pacific / 6:00 PM CEST (convert to your local time zone here) and last approximtaely two hours.

Register now

Still not sure if you should consider these grants? Hear why directly from the ERC President, Prof. Maria Leptin, with whom we spoke during her visit to Washington, DC:

Additional resources

• ERC grants 2025 call dates

• List of ERC grants and current open calls

Dr. Martin Penny is the Head of Communication Unit at the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA), Europe’s leading funder of frontier research. From 2020 to 2024, he was Head of Unit for International Cooperation in the European Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I). Prior to his he was Head of the ERCEA Units for Physical Sciences and Engineering, and for the Unit coordinating the management of calls for proposals and project follow-up. Between 2005 and 2014, Martin held a series of posts in DG R&I in international relations and program design, including as the Director-General’s political assistant. Previously, Martin worked for the UK Research Councils, including five years as the Director of the Research Councils' Brussels Office. Martin has a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry (Bristol University), an MSc in science communication and science and society (Open University) and held postdoctoral research positions in biological and medicinal chemistry in universities in the US, UK, and Belgium. He has also worked as a freelance trainer for academic staff across the world, providing training and guidance on communication, negotiation, leadership, and team-working skills.

Per Magnus Kommandantvold is a special adviser at the Research Council of Norway, in the Division for Internationalization and the Research System. Since 2000, he has been a National Contact Point and program committee expert for the MSCA, and since 2007 for the European Research Council. He has also earlier been NCP for Research Infrastructures and Regions of Knowledge and contact for the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Dr. Alex Radzisheuskaya is a Group Leader in the Division of Cancer Biology at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, UK. She started at the ICR in November 2021. The major focus of Alex’s laboratory is to understand how post-translational modifications on histone proteins regulate genome organization and stability and how they contribute to the development of cancer. She began her ERC Starting Grant in 2023.

Dr. Cassandra Koh is a vector biologist at Institut Pasteur in France. Beginning in 2019 she conducted her postdoctoral work at Institut Pasteur studying mosquito viromes and their impact on arboviral disease ecology and transmission. She began her ERC Starting Grant in March 2025 as a Research Assistant Professor equivalent.

Dr. Stefanie K. Wculek is a Junior Group Leader at IRB (Institute for Research in Biomedicine) Barcelona in Spain. In February 2023, Stefanie joined the IRB Barcelona “Aging and Metabolism” research program to head the Innate Immune Biology laboratory. Currently, her team studies the biology and immunometabolism of dendritic cells, macrophages and neutrophils in aging, cancer and obesity to uncover novel therapeutic opportunities. She was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in September 2023.

Dr. Thalyana Stathis is the Associate Director of the Office of Career and Professional Development at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She serves as the career advisor for all graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior research scientists in all of MSKCC’s biomedical research laboratories. She works one-on-one with trainees and directs programming to support them with their career planning, networking, and job search. Thalyana also leads workshops and seminars to help trainees strengthen their CVs and develop key professional skills, including skills in grantsmanship, presenting, and teaching and mentoring.