European Research Council
The European Research Council programme provides funding for excellent researchers and their teams to pursue disruptive advances in scientific knowledge in any field of research.
Scientific excellence is the sole criterion for evaluation.
ERC-funded research is expected to lead to disruptive advances at the frontiers of knowledge. Proposals submitted do not need to prioritise applied research: basic science is at the heart of the ERC.
The programme is open to independent researchers of any age, stage in their research career and nationality.
Applications to the ERC can only be submitted in response to a specific call. The programme establishes calls on an annual basis for each scheme.
The ERC is one of the world’s most prestigious funding programmes because of its philosophy of supporting individual creativity, scientific risk-taking and the freedom to address fundamental questions.
The European Office has been supporting researchers in submitting ERC proposals since the first calls of the programme.
Schemes
There are three individual grant schemes subject to different eligibility periods:
- Starting Grant: 2 to 7 years of research experience since thesis defence.
- Consolidator Grant: 7 to 12 years of research experience since the defence of the thesis.
- Advanced Grant: from 12 years of research experience since the defence of the thesis.
These eligibility periods may be extended in certain cases: maternity, paternity, long-term illness or clinical specialisation.
In addition, there is a consortium grant scheme, Synergy Grant, and a Proof of Concept scheme to explore the commercialisation or social innovation potential of the results obtained in ERC projects.
ERC-STG
1.5 million euros for a period of 5 years for excellent early-career researchers who have performed excellent supervised work. Research independence and the potential to lead research at the frontier of knowledge are valued.
The Starting Grant is open to researchers of any nationality with 2 to 7 years of experience since the completion of their PhD (extensions to this eligibility window may be obtained in certain cases).
ERC-COG
2 million euros for a period of 5 years for researchers who want to consolidate their independence by setting up a research team or strengthening their existing research team and thus continue to develop a successful career in Europe.
The Consolidator Grant is open to researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since the completion of their PhD (extensions to this eligibility window may be obtained in certain cases).
ERC-ADG
2.5 million euros for a period of 5 years for outstanding and established researchers seeking long-term funding to carry out a pioneering and high-risk project.
The Advanced Grants call is open to active researchers at the stage of their career where they are already established research leaders with a recognised record of research achievement (12 years of experience after completion of their PhD or more). They must be exceptional leaders in terms of the originality and significance of their research contributions.
ERC-SYG
10 million euros for a period of 6 years open to a group of two to four Principal Investigators (PIs), of which one will be designated as the Corresponding PI (CoIP), working together and bringing different skills and resources to address ambitious research problems, which could not be tackled by a single PI working alone.
PIs can be at any point in their research career and present a track record of achievements tailored to their professional stage, whichever is more appropriate to the development of the research career of each of the participating PIs in the Synergy group.
Proposals will be evaluated on the sole criterion of scientific excellence which, in the case of ERC Synergy Grants, takes on the additional significance of a notable intrinsic synergistic effect.
Getting ready for an ERC proposal
Given the uniqueness of ERC calls, we recommend that you take the time to familiarise yourself with the programme’s philosophy and background documentation.
¿My idea matches with ERC?
Developing a project idea that meets the ERC’s expectations is central to having a successful proposal.
We have developed a One Page Proposal template to guide you through the first steps of landing the project idea. Fill in the template by answering the different questions and send it to us so that we can help you assess the affinity of the idea with the call.
¿What projects has ERC funded?
Knowing which projects have been funded by ERC to date brings you closer to finding an appropriate proposal idea.
Through the ERC Dashboard you can filter funded projects by their characteristics: topic, key words, evaluation panel… This information can be valuable to design a novel project in your field or to make decisions on which evaluation panel to select.
¿Have you ever read a funded proposal?
The ERC proposal format is very open, which requires you to develop your own strategy for presenting the information.
Reading funded proposals can inspire you about the multiple ways in which an ERC project can be presented and identify the key information in each proposal. Some large ERCs share their funded proposals openly for the scientific community to access, but BEWARE! Each proposal is very different, so you need to tailor a personal, unique proposal to your own idea.
¿When should I start preparing my proposal?
Don’t let your proposal without its full potential due to lack of planning in the proposal writing phase.
We recommend you to dedicate 6 months to the preparation of a competitive proposal: from the idea to the final drafting. If you wish to properly plan the preparation of your proposal, schedule a Kick-off Meeting 6 months before the call deadline with the EO Promotion Area. This will give you access to an extended support service for the preparation of your proposal.
UCM protocol for the submission of ERC proposals
UCM, as an ERC Host Institution, has an internal protocol for obtaining the HI Support Letter. The protocol consists of two steps:
- A letter of administrative support from the department hosting the proposal.
- A budget validated by the EO Promotion Area.
Both steps are mandatory to obtain the HI Support Letter (required annex to submit an eligible proposal). To obtain the reference documents to comply with the protocol, click on the button and consult promocion.oeid@ucm.es.