European Research Council launches Advanced Grants

ERC Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal.

Funding Information

• Advanced Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 2,500,000 for a period of 5 years (the maximum amount of the grants is reduced pro rata temporis for projects of a shorter duration).
• However, up to an additional EUR 1,000,000 can be requested in the proposal to cover eligible “start-up” costs for Principal Investigators moving to the EU or an Associated Country from elsewhere as a consequence of receiving the ERC grant, and/or the purchase of major equipment, and/or access to large facilities, and/or other major experimental and field work costs.

Eligible Projects

• 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 require a single Principal Investigator (PI) to submit the application on behalf of their host institution.
  • The host institution must offer suitable conditions for the PI to independently lead the research and manage funding. The PI can be hosted by any legal entity in an EU Member State or associated country.
  • The PI does not need to be employed by the host institution at the time of proposal submission, but a mutual agreement and commitment are necessary if the proposal is 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.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants for the ERC Advanced Grants – called Principal Investigators (PI) – are expected to be active researchers who have a track-record of significant research achievements.
• The Principal Investigators should be exceptional leaders in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions. No specific eligibility criteria with respect to the academic requirements are foreseen.

For more information, visit ERC.