The ERC Starting Grants 2021 call closed for applications on 12 April 2021.
These are the preliminary data on submitted proposals.
This year the ERC received 4,056 applications. This is a 24% increase compared to the previous Starting Grants call.
The highest number of applications was submitted in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (1,754 - 43.2%), followed by Social Science and Humanities (1,185 - 29.2%), and Life Sciences (1,117 - 27.5%).
Nearly 40% of proposals were submitted by women, compared to 38% in the Starting Grants call 2020.
In the ERC Work Programme the ERC Scientific Council has earmarked €619 million for an estimated 413 Starting Grants in 2021. The ERC is now starting evaluation of the proposals. The projects selected for funding are planned to be announced at the end of 2021.