EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL Advanced Grants

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 in the last 10 years. Applications can be made in any field of research.

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.

Research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation (known as a Host Institution/HI). It could be the HI where the applicant already works, or any other HI located in one of the EU Member States or Associated Countries.

Applications for an ERC grant require a single Principal Investigator (PI) to submit the application on behalf of their host institution.

The host institution must offer suitable conditions for the PI to independently lead the research and manage funding. The PI can be hosted by any legal entity in an EU Member State or associated country.

The PI does not need to be employed by the host institution at the time of proposal submission, but a mutual agreement and commitment are necessary if the proposal is successful.

ERC grants support projects carried out by an individual researcher who can employ researchers of any nationality as team members. It is also possible to have one or more team members located in a non-European country.

An additional € 1 million can be made available 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.

An ERC grant can cover up to 100% of the total eligible direct costs of the research plus a contribution of 25% of the total eligible costs towards indirect costs.