ERC awards grants solely on the basis of scientific excellence through open competition. The scheme is open to top researchers of any nationality or age who wish to conduct research in the EU Member States or associated countries.
Starting Grants
The Starting Grants scheme aims to enable researchers at start of their career to establish new research teams and bring new ideas to research field.
This scheme provides support to up-and-coming researchers who have been awarded their PhD between 2 and 7 years after their PhD.
Applicants may be at the stage of creating their research team, and may submit proposal individually. Duration of projects is up to 5 years, and the maximum grant funding is up to € 1.5 million (in some circumstances up to € 2 million).
Consolidator Grants
The Consolidator Grants scheme intends to help more experienced researchers in consolidating their own independent research team.
This scheme supports researchers who have been awarded a PhD between 7 and 12 years after their PhD, and have a promising scientific track record.
Duration of projects is up to 5 years, and the maximum grant funding is up to € 2 million (in some circumstances up to € 2.75 million).
Advanced Grants
The Advanced Grants scheme is designed to support excellent established research leaders to carry on ground-breaking, high-risk research.
Applicants must be scientifically independent and have an excellent track record of research achievements for at least the last 10 years. The projects should be highly ambitious, pioneering and unconventional in their approach.
Duration of projects is up to 5 years, and the maximum grant funding is up to € 2.5 million (in some circumstances up to € 3.5 million).
Proof of Concept
The Proof of Concept scheme aims to help existing ERC grant holders (ERC Starting, Consolidator or Advanced Grants), or those whose ERC grants have recently finished. Applicants can apply for additional funding to set up the innovation potential of ideas from their ERC-projects.
Duration of project is up to 18 months, and the maximum grant funding is up € 150 000.
Synergy Grants
The Synergy Grants scheme was designed to support small groups of two to four Principal Investigators (PIs) and their teams from the same or similar disciplines to jointly address frontier research issues. There are no specific eligibility requirements concerning PIs, but only exceptional proposals are likely to be supported.
Duration of project is up to 6 years, and the maximum grant funding up to € 15 million (pro rata for projects of shorter duration).
Resources
Funding and Tender opportunities - the Commission's portal