Are you a gifted scientist in the early stage of your career who has already produced outstanding supervised work? Do you want to consolidate your independence by establishing a research team and continuing to develop a successful career in Europe? Are you an established, leading principal investigator seeking long-term funding to pursue a ground-breaking, ambitious project? Perhaps you are a researcher aiming to tackle a research problem so ambitious that it requires collaboration beyond your team? Or maybe you have already received an ERC grant for your frontier research project and now want to explore its commercial or societal potential?
If so, you might be eligible for a European Research Council (ERC) Grant, which can fund your work for the next 5 to 6 years with up to 10 million euros! This funding is among the EU’s most prestigious, providing researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs.
As a team experienced in writing successful proposals for European Grants like Horizon, Erasmus +, and SESAR, we have firsthand knowledge of what it takes to craft a winning ERC grant application. We have created this guide to assist researchers in determining the most suitable ERC grant scheme for their research projects, identifying upcoming funding opportunities and open calls, and providing detailed guidance on the application process.
What are European Research Council (ERC) Grants?
The European Research Council (ERC) is the top European funding agency for outstanding frontier research which was established by the European Union in 2007. If you are a creative researcher of any age or country and in any field of research, you are eligible to apply for funding to work on projects across Europe. The ERC’s budget for 2021–2027 exceeds €16 billion under the Horizon Europe programme.
The main four grant programs offered by the ERC and who are they for:
- Starting Grants: For researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD with a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.
- Consolidator Grants: For researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.
- Advanced Grants: For established researchers with a track record of significant research achievements. 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.
- Synergy Grants: For groups of 2 to 4 researchers tackling complex research questions collaboratively.
The evaluation process of your application depends on the type of Grant you have applied for. For Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants, a single submission of the proposal is followed by a two-step evaluation. For Synergy Grants, a single submission of the proposal will be followed by a three-step evaluation, including interviews. More information on each eligibility criteria is listed further down in the article.
What’s new in the 2026 ERC Grant?
The ERC “Super Grant” Instrument Coming Soon!
The ERC Scientific Council is preparing to introduce a new funding instrument that will provide larger and longer-term grants. These future “super grants” follow the same principles of other ERC grants: open to researchers of any nationality, awarded based on scientific excellence. Operational details are currently under development and will be included in an amended version of the ERC Work Programme 2026, expected by the end of 2025.
Doubling of Relocation Support
If you have already received an ERC grant for your research project and now want to explore the commercial or societal potential of your work, you can explore the supplementary Proof of Concept Grant. Grants from the ERC are awarded ‘bottom-up’ with no set priority. Also, you should know that the Starting Grants are aimed at supporting individual researchers and not groups of scientists, you can always employ researchers of any nationality as team members once you get the funding. It is also possible to have one or more team members located in a non-European country. As mentioned above, starting Grants can be up to 1.5 million euro for a period of 5 years. (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). As of 2025, researchers moving from non-European countries to the EU or an associated country are eligible for up to €2 million in additional funding, double the previous fund, 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.
The Work Programme (WP) 2026 is the following:
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Starting Grant Call | Consolidator Call | Advanced Grant Call | Synergy Grant Call |
| Identifier | ERC-2026-StG | ERC-2026-CoG | ERC-2026-AdG | ERC-2026-SyG |
| Opening Date | 9 July 2025 | 25 September 2025 | 28 May 2026 | 10 July 2025 |
| Deadline | 14 October 2025 | 13 January 2026 | 27 August 2026 | 5 November 2025 |
| Budget (€, m) | 705 | 673 | 747 | 500 |
| Estimated number of grants | 450 | 328 | 294 | 49 |
| Date to inform applicants (step 1) | 28 April 2026 | 17 July 2026 | 29 January 2027 | 13 April 2026 |
| Date to inform applicants (step 2) | 25 August 2026 | 11 December 2026 | 11 June 2027 | 14 August 2026 |
| Date to inform applicants (step 3) | – | – | – | 27 October 2026 |
| Grant agreement signature date | 22 December 2026 | 12 April 2027 | 16 November 2027 | 24 March 2027 |
Evaluation Process Adjustments
There are 2 steps of the evaluation process:
Step one focuses on only Part I of the Scientific Proposal, along with the applicant’s CV and Track Record, will be assessed. Feasibility details are no longer required at this stage. Thus, Part I of the Scientific Proposal should no longer include details on the feasibility of the scientific approach but present a convincing overall research strategy.
Step two focuses on the both parts of the Scientific Proposal, CV, Track Record, Resources, and Time Commitment will be evaluated. Feasibility and implementation details should be covered in Part II of the Scientific Proposal.
Eligibility Extensions
Applicants who have been victims of gender-based violence or any other kind of violence will be able to obtain an extension of the period following their PhD that allows them to apply for Starting and Consolidator Grants. In addition, an explicit reference to parental leave will be added to the grounds for extension of the eligibility period alongside maternity and paternity leave.
Resubmission Restrictions
Applicants who received a ‘B’ score in Step 1 of the Synergy Grant 2025 call are not eligible to apply for the Synergy Grant call of 2026.
Applicants who already hold an ongoing ERC grant and wish to apply for a new grant in 2026 must ensure that their current project is scheduled to end within two years of the 2026 call deadline. In exceptional cases, extensions granted to the current project after the call deadline will not affect the eligibility of the new application.
Looking Ahead: Changes in the 2027 Work Programme
Widened Eligibility Periods
In recognition of the variety and diversity of present-day academic career trajectories, the Scientific Council has decided to widen the eligibility period for both its Starting and Consolidator Grant schemes. From 2027 on, researchers will be eligible to apply for a Starting Grant immediately after successfully defending their PhD, and at any time within the following ten-year period.
All current policies for the extension of the eligibility periods will remain in force. However, researchers will be awarded no more than one Starting Grant and one Consolidator Grant during their career.
Do you want to find the right Call of Horizon programme to apply for an ERC Grant?
It is crucial to make clear that requests for ERC grants can only be made in response to a Call for proposals within the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON). Every year, the ERC issues Calls for projects in all areas of science. The research proposal, the supplemental materials, and the administrative forms are required to be included in an ERC grant application for it to be considered complete. The proposal must be finished and submitted by the deadline. You can find these Calls in the Official Journal of the European Union and on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal under different areas for each type of Grant: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, Synergy, and Proof of Concept. Under the direction of Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth, the total ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 exceeds 16 billion euro.
Which are the current and upcoming Calls for ERC Grants?
Some Calls through which you can make your application for an ERC Grant are already open and can be found here, while some others are upcoming.
For 2025 Calls & Grants:
- The ERC Starting Grant Call 2025 opened on 10 July 2024 with a deadline of 15 October 2024.
- The ERC Consolidator Grant Call 2025 is opened in September 2024 with a deadline in January 2025.
- The ERC Synergy Grant Call 2025 opened on 11 July 2024 with a deadline on 6 November 2024.
Advanced Grant 2025 opened in May 2025 with a deadline on 28th August 2025.
Upcoming 2026 Calls & Grants
The following dates are provisional. The official release of the timeline of the ERC Work Programme 2026 is expected in July 2025.
- ERC Starting Grant Call 2026 is expected to open in July 2025 with the deadline set for October 2025.
- ERC Consolidator Grant Call 2026 is expected to open in September 2025 with the deadline set for January 2026.
- ERC Synergy Grant Call 2026 is expected to open in July 2025 with the deadline set for November 2025.
- Advanced Grant 2026 is expected to open in May 2026 with the deadline set for August 2026.
Find all Open Calls, current and upcoming on the ERC website here.
Which ERC domains were popular in 2023?
Take a look at the statistics of each ERC Grant in 2023 to understand better the trend and also the landscape.
ERC Starting Grant
The ERC Starting Grants for 2024 opened in July 2023 and received 3,474 applications until the closing date of November 2023, which marked an increase of 29% compared to the previous call in 2022. The highest number of applications was submitted in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (1,466 – 42%) followed by Social Science and Humanities (1,029 – 30%), and Life Sciences (976 – 28%). Women submitted nearly 40% of proposals, the same percentage as in the previous call and one percentage point less than in the 2022 Starting Grants competition. You can find this Work Programme analytically here.
The projects selected for funding were announced in September 2024: €780 million was awarded to the 494 grants, with a success rate of approximately 14.2%. 209 grants awarded in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering. 146 grants awarded in the domain of Life Sciences. 139 grants awarded in Social Sciences and Humanities.
ERC Consolidator Grant
The ERC Consolidator Grants for 2024 opened in September 2023 and received 2,313 applications across the three scientific domains. The highest number of applications was submitted in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (933 – 40.3%), followed by Social Sciences and Humanities (730 – 31.6%) and Life Sciences (650 – 28.1%). Women submitted 38.9% of all proposals, slightly increasing from previous calls.
The selected projects were announced in April 2024: the highest selected domain is Physical Sciences and Engineering (129 – 39.3%), followed by Social Sciences and Humanities (105 – 32%) and Life Sciences (94 – 28.7%). A total budget of €678 million was awarded to 328 successful applicants. You can find this Work Programme analytically here.
ERC Advanced Grant
The ERC Advanced Grants for 2024 opened on 29 May 2024 and received 2,534 applications by the closing date of 29 August 2024, marking a slight increase compared to the 2023 call. The largest share of applications came from the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (1,068 – 42.1%), followed by Social Sciences and Humanities (736 – 29%) and Life Sciences (730 – 28.8%). Women researchers submitted 23.3% of the proposals.
The total budget marked for this call is €703 million for an estimated 285 Advanced Grant. More details can be found here.
ERC Synergy Grant
The ERC Synergy Grants for 2024 opened in July 2023 and received 548 applications. The results were announced in November 2024: 57 grants were awarded to a total of 201 researchers, with an overall budget of €571 million. This year’s round recorded the highest ever participation of women in funded Synergy projects, with around 32% female researchers.
The most successful host countries were Germany (34 researchers), the United Kingdom (18), and France (13), followed by the United States (12), Spain (11), and the Netherlands (10). You can access the full data here and see the list of winners here.
Need support with your ERC grant application?
Whether you’re applying for the first time or planning to scale up your ERC-funded research, our team can help you craft a competitive proposal. Get in touch for expert guidance and hands-on support: info@futureneeds.eu.
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About the authors
Anna Palaiologk, the founder of Future Needs, is a Research & Innovation Consultant with 18 years of experience in proposal writing and project management. She has worked as a project Coordinator and Work Package leader in 30+ EU projects and has authored 50+ successful proposals. Her research background is in economics, business development and policy-making. Email Anna at anna@futureneeds.eu.
Chariton Palaiologk, the Head of the EU Project Management Team, is currently leading the project management of 10+ EU-funded projects. He has a background in data analysis and resource optimisation, having worked at the Greek Foundation for Research and Technology. Email Chariton at chariton@futureneeds.eu.
