ERC Starting Grant
European Commission · Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Posted 22 Jul 2026 · 14 days left
In plain terms
The European Research Council Starting Grant supports early-career researchers establishing independent research teams at institutions in EU or associated countries, with funding up to 2.5 million euros for five-year projects. Applicants must have completed a PhD between 2017 and 2026 and spend at least 50 percent of their time on the project, with applications in English due by 14 October 2026.
A generated summary of the donor's text; the original wording is below.
Summary
Scope:
Objectives
The Starting Grant supports excellent Principal Investigators starting or having recently started their own independent research team or programme. A Starting Grant Principal Investigator should have already shown evidence of the potential for research independence, for example, by having produced at least one important publication as its main author or a publication without the participation of their PhD supervisor. A researcher may be the Principal Investigator of only one ERC Starting Grant in their career.
Size of ERC Starting Grants
Starting Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 1 500 000 for a period of 60 months. The maximum amount of the grants is reduced pro rata temporis for proposals of shorter duration.
Additional funding up to EUR 1 000 000 *1 can be requested to cover further eligible costs for any cost category when these are necessary to carry out the proposed work. The request for additional funding must be duly justified in the proposal.
The maximum amount of the grant is reduced pro rata temporis for proposals of shorter duration. Additional funding is not subject to pro rata temporis reduction for projects of shorter duration.
Both the…
Excerpt from the donor's page. The full text, annexes and forms are on the original call.
Eligible regions
- eu_only
Who can apply
- academia_research
- private_company
- government
Eligibility and conditions
Show the eligibility text from the source
">General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions
The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in the ERC Work Programme 2027 under the heading 1.4 'Admissibility, Eligibility, Resubmission Restrictions' and in the ERC Rules of Submission. An overview is provided below:
Admissibility: A proposal must be complete (including all sections under 1.5 'Proposal Submission and Description' section), readable and, accessible. It must be submitted electronically by a Principal Investigator fulfilling the eligibility criteria (section 1.4.2.2 'Eligible Principal Investigator(s)') before the respective call deadline. The proposal must also satisfy the requirements set out in the documents referenced in the call for proposals.
The Host Institution must confirm its association with, and its support to, the project and the Principal Investigator through a binding statement of support (i.e. the Host Institution Support Letter[1]). This statement must be provided at the time of application.
[1] A template of the letter is annexed to the Information for Applicants document for the respective call: Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls, Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grant Call, Information for Applicants to the ERC Plus Call, Information for Applicants to the Synergy Grant Call.
2. Eligibility
The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives and to the grant type set out in the call, as defined in the ERC Work Programme 2027 (section 1.1 ‘Objectives of ERC Grant Schemes’). If a proposal is considered not to relate to the objectives of the grant or call for proposals, it will be declared ineligible.
Eligible Principal Investigators: The ERC grant schemes are open to researchers of any age and nationality, residing anywhere in the world at the time of application (except those subject to restrictions outlined in Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2027), and wishing to carry out their research in one of the EU or Associated Country-based Host Institutions.
Principal Investigators applying to the Starting Grant must meet specific eligibility criteria based on the time elapsed between the date of the successful defence of their first PhD degree or an equivalent doctoral degree and the cut-off date specified in the ERC Work Programme 2027. A Principal Investigator applying for an ERC Starting must hold a PhD or an equivalent doctoral degree (for more information, including specific provisions for holders of medical degrees, see Annex 2).
The Principal Investigators will be eligible for a Starting Grant if they have defended their PhD in the ten-year period preceding the 1st of January 2027. Cut-off dates: Successful defence of PhD between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2026 (inclusive).
All Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Starting Grant must spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country and a minimum of 50% of their working time on the ERC project.
Eligible Host Institution: Any type of legal entity, public or private, including a university, a research organisation or an undertaking can host a Principal Investigator and their team. To participate in ERC frontier research actions the Host Institution must be established either in an EU Member State or an Associated Country (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2027) as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an international European research organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), or any other entity created under EU law. International organisations with headquarters in an EU Member State or an Associated Country shall be deemed to be established in that Member State or Associated Country.
Eligible countries:
The conditions specific to the ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2027 under the heading 1.4 ‘Admissibility, Eligibility, Resubmission Restrictions' and in Annex 3. An overview is provided below:
ERC grant schemes are open to researchers of any age…