The European Research Council (ERC) supports ground-breaking projects and researchers at progressive stages of development.
The ERC Starting Grant (€1.5 million) is allocated for five years to promising researchers starting their own independent research team or programme. For mid-career researchers, there is the ERC Consolidator Grant (€2 million, over five years). The ERC Advanced Grant (€2.5 million) is a five-year grant allocated to researchers whose ground-breaking work opens up new directions in their field.
Synergy Grant Support (€10 million for 6 years) is 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.
The ERC Proof of Concept funding is made available only to those who already have an ERC award to establish proof of concept of an idea that was generated in the course of their ERC-funded projects.
Deadlines and Regulations
According to the ERC Work Programme 2021 and 2022 - Horizon Europe, the types of grants will be funded as follows:
2021 |
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| | Starting Grants | Consolidator Grants | Advanced Grants |
| Call opens | 25/02/2021 | 11/03/2021 | 20/05/2021 |
| Call closes | 08/04/2021 | 20/04/2021 | 31/08/2021 |
|
Budget Million € (estimated number of grants) |
619 (413) |
633 (317) |
626 (250) |
| Planned dates to inform applicants of the final results | 20/12/2021 | 28/03/2022 | 13/05/2022 |
The Synergy Grants and ERC Proof of Concept Grants will not have calls in 2021. However, these grants are expected to be launched later in 2021 under the next ERC Work Programme.
2022 |
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| | Starting Grants | Consolidator Grants | Advanced Grants | Synergy Grants | Proof of Concept 1 | Proof of Concept 2 |
| Call opens | 23/09/2021 | 19/10/2021 | 20/01/2022 | 15/07/2021 | 15/07/2021 | 16/11/2021 |
| Call closes | 13/01/2022 | 17/03/2022 | 28/04/2022 | 10/11/2021 | 14/10/2021 |
15/02/2022 19/05/2022 29/09/2022 |
|
Budget Million € (estimated number of grants) |
749 (502) |
776 (388) |
555 (223) |
297 (33) |
25 (167) |
25 (167) |
| Planned dates to inform applicants of the final results |
22/07/2022 09/12/2022 |
02/09/2022 01/02/2023 |
19/12/2022 03/04/2023 |
12/05/2022 05/09/2022 08/11/2022 |
21/01/2022 |
23/05/2022 29/08/2022 17/01/2023 |
All information related to ERC grants is available here: https://erc.europa.eu/
In the following list of links you will find important information and documents about the upcoming ERC competitions:
- ERC Work Programmes for 2022
- ERC Work Programmes 2021
- Structure of the evaluation panels for the ERC Calls 2021 and 2022
Official Guide for 2021/2022 Applicants
Sample Letter of Support from the Host Institution
Official templates for ERC 2021-2022 proposals (editable)
Are you interested in applying to the ERC with the University of Coimbra?
Check the support we have available for you within the initiative ERC@UC.
At the UC we have a plan of funding, technical support, and writing training for our ERC research applicants, as well as specialized support in the process of preparing the application. Check our resourceshere.
More information
iii@uc.pt or +351 239 247 800.