Horizon Europe - European Innovation Council

Through the European Research Council (ERC), the EU has been funding basic and frontier research in Europe since 2007. ERC funding is directed at individual researchers and is completely open to all topics. The only evaluation criterion is scientific excellence.

Object of Funding

The grants are divided into different funding lines, which are aimed at researchers at different career stages:

"Starting Grants (StG)" for researchers two to seven years after PhD defense,
"Consolidator Grants (CoG)" for researchers seven to twelve years after PhD defense,
"Advanced Grants (AdG)"for established researchers with an excellent ten year research track-record,
"Synergy Grants (SyG)"support teams of two to four promising researchers.

The supplementary funding line "Proof of Concept (PoC)" enables ideas from ERC projects that are currently still running or that were completed no more than twelve months ago to be turned into social or economic innovations.

Terms of Funding

Starting Grants:

for PostDocs two to seven years after PhD defense.
five years duration
max. 1,500,000 EUR (incl. 25 % overhead)
Top-up up to max. one million Euros possible

Consolidator Grants:

for PostDocs seven to twelve years after PhD defense.
five years duration
max. 2,000,000 EUR (incl. 25 % overhead)
Top-up up to max. 1,000,000 EUR possible

Advanced Grants:

for established researchers with excellent track record of the last ten years.
five years duration
max. 2,500,000 EUR (incl. 25 % overhead)
Top-up up to max. 1,000,000 EUR possible
as of 2024 the Advanced Grant will be awarded as a single Lump Sum

Synergy Grants:

Teams of two to four excellent researchers
six years duration
max. 10,000,000 EUR (incl. 25 % overhead)
Top-up up to max. 4,000,000 EUR possible

Proof of Concept Grants:

for ERC grantees of ongoing or recently completed projects.
18 months duration
150,000 EUR Lump Sum Funding

Applicants

Eligible applicants are researchers of all nationalities who fulfill the basic requirements of the individual funding lines (especially PhD defense date) and wish to carry out their project at a host institution in an EU Member State or a country associated to the EU.

Application Deadlines

As a rule, calls are issued annually. The preliminary submission deadlines for the ERC Call 2024 are as follows: