The European Research Council sustains excellence research, enhancing dynamism and creativity of European frontier research by supporting high-risk projects led by Principal Investigators with internationally relevant curricula.
ERC strongly encourages multi- or interdisciplinary proposals that cross the boundaries between different fields of research, pioneering proposals addressing emerging areas of research or introducing innovative and unconventional approaches and scientific inventions.
ERC General principles
• any scientific fields is eligible, freely chosen by the Principal Investigator according to the bottom-up approach;
• proposals are submitted by the Principal Investigator in conjunction with the host institution, normally the sole legal entity participating in the project;
• the host institution, responsible for the implementation of the project, must be a legal entity located in an EU Member State or Associated Country;
• normally, the Principal Investigator will be employed by the host institution for at least the duration of the project;
• scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion, applied in conjunction to the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of the scientific project and the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the Principal Investigator;
• the EC financial contribution will take the form of the reimbursement of up to 100% of the total eligible and approved direct costs and a flat rate of 25% for indirect costs calculated on the total eligible direct costs [excluding the direct costs for subcontracting, financial support to third parties and any unit costs or lump sums which include indirect costs].
ERC Main frontier research grants
• Starting grants [StG]: support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme, with 2-7 years of experience after their PhD;
• Consolidator grants [CoG]: support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme, with 7-12 years of experience after their PhD;
• Advanced grants [AdG]: support for excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements in the last 10 years;
• Synergy grants [SyG]: support for a small group of two to four Principal Investigators to jointly address ambitious research problems that could not be addressed by the individual Principal Investigators and their teams working alone.