ERC Starting Grant

iStock-1189301937

Are you a talented early-career scientist who has already produced excellent supervised work, is ready to work independently and shows potential to be a research leader? The ERC Starting Grant could be for you.

 

Yellow question mark on a background of black signs, FAQ Concept

Who can apply?

Researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal can apply.

Extensions of eligibility 

Extensions of eligibility are possible in several cases. In the case of maternity, paternity, long term illness, national service, clinical training, or due to a natural disaster or seeking asylum. (see also the latest ERC Work Programme)

PhD defence date

Applicants to the 2023 Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls should note that there has been a change in the reference date towards the calculation of the eligibility period, namely the reference date is the certified date of the successful defence (and not award) of the PhD.

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 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

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 centres 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 Programme Horizon Europe. The UK will therefore have the same rights and obligations as other countries associated to the Programme. Read more.

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 should 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 e-mail 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.

How does the evaluation process work?

Proposals are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers who evaluate proposals 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 chairman and 10-16 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 specialised 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.

 

Concept image of a calendar with red push pins

Starting Grants may be awarded up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 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.

 

"We help organizations prepare and manage all the process to secure public and private funding, with a special focus on grant writing and innovation project management".

Our Privacy Policy

This privacy policy will explain how Global Institute of Advisors LLC (GIA) uses the personal data we collect from you when you use our website.

Topics:

  • What data do we collect?
  • How do we collect your data?
  • How will we use your data?
  • How do we store your data?
  • Marketing
  • What are your data protection rights?
  • What are cookies?
  • How do we use cookies?
  • What types of cookies do we use?
  • How to manage your cookies
  • Privacy policies of other websites
  • Changes to our privacy policy
  • How to contact us
  • How to contact the appropriate authorities

What data do we collect?

GIA collects the following data:

  • Personal identification information (Name, email address, and phone number).
  • Messages sent through the contact form and comments on our posts.

How do we collect your data?

You directly provide GIA with most of the data we collect. We collect data and process data when you:

  • Register online.
  • Voluntarily complete a customer survey or provide feedback on any of our posts or via email.
  • Use or view our website via your browser’s cookies.
  • Complete a contact form request.

GIA may also receive your data indirectly from the following sources:

  • No other means.

How will we use your data?

GIA collects your data so that we can:

  • Process your order and manage your account.
  • Email you with special offers on other products and services we think you might like.
  • Use anonymized data for customer profiling activities.

We will never share your data with any other companies.

How do we store your data?

GIA securely stores your data on the premises of our cloud database provider in Frankfurt and our own servers in Bulgaria and Lithuania.

GIA will keep your messages and personal details for ten years. Once this time period has expired, we will delete your data by removing the corresponding records in our databases.

Marketing

GIA would like to send you information about our products and services that we think you might like. If you have agreed to receive marketing, you may always opt-out at a later date.

You have the right at any time to stop GIA from contacting you for marketing purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please contact us to let us know.

What are your data protection rights?

GIA would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You can request GIA for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that GIA corrects any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request GIA to complete the information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that GIA erases your personal data under certain conditions.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that GIA restricts the processing of your personal data under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to GIA’s processing of your personal data under certain conditions.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that GIA transfers the data that we have collected to another organization or directly to you under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using our contact form.

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behavior information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology.

How do we use cookies?

GIA uses cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our website, including:

  • Keeping you signed in
  • Understanding how you use our website

What types of cookies do we use?

There are several different types of cookies. However, our website uses the following:

  • Functionality – Our Company uses these cookies so that we recognize you on our website and remember your previously selected preferences. These could include what language you prefer and the location you are in. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies is used.
  • Advertising – Our Company uses these cookies to collect information about your visit to our website, the content you viewed, the links you followed and information about your browser, device, and your IP address.

How to manage cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may fail to function.

Privacy policies of other websites

The GIA website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

Changes to our privacy policy

GIA keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on January 1st, 2023.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about GIA’s privacy policy or the data we hold on you, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us using our contact form.

How to contact the appropriate authority

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that GIA has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office that corresponds to your jurisdiction.