Erc Starting Grants

1. Admissibility and Eligibility Conditions:  

The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in the ERC Work Programme 2022  under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in the ERC Rules of Submission. An overview is provided below:

Admissible and eligible proposals: All proposals must be complete, readable and accessible. They must be submitted by eligible Principal Investigators before the relevant call deadline. A complete proposal needs to include all parts or sections (see “Proposal submission and description” below). Proposals which do not meet these criteria may be declared inadmissible. 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 2022. A proposal will only be deemed ineligible on grounds of ‘scope’ in clear-cut cases.

Applications where the Principal Investigator proposes to commit less time in the EU or an Associated Country or to the project than the minimum percentages set out in the section "Minimum time commitment" of the Work Programme will be declared ineligible. If it becomes clear before, during or after the peer review evaluation phase, that one or more of the admissibility or eligibility criteria have not been met, the proposal will be declared inadmissible or ineligible and it will be rejected. Where there is a doubt on the admissibility or eligibility of a proposal, the peer review evaluation may proceed pending a decision following an admissibility and eligibility review committee.

Eligible Principal Investigator: The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country (see annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2022). Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. 

There are specific eligibility criteria for a Principal Investigator applying to the Starting Grants based on the date of award of their first PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree) as described in the ERC Work Programme 2022 (see also Annex 2 'PhD and Equivalent Doctoral Degrees' and specific provisions for holders of medical degrees).

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: The host institution (Applicant Legal Entity) must engage and host the Principal Investigator for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must either be established in an EU Member State or Associated Country (see annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2022) as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an International European research organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) or any other entity created under EU law. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or associated country will be deemed to be established in this Member State or associated country. Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams.

Restrictions on submission of proposals: The restrictions for submission related to the outcome of the evaluation in previous calls are designed to allow unsuccessful Principal Investigators the time necessary to develop a stronger proposal. For further details please consult the ERC Work Programme 2022, heading 'Restrictions on submission of proposals' or the Frequently Asked Questions.

Proposal submission and description:

• The Administrative online form Part A (including the Ethics Issues Table and the Budget Section) is available in the submission tool below. The budget table and the justification of the Resources are part of this online form Part A (Section 3 - Budget). For more details please refer to section 2.3 of the ERC Information for Applicants.
• Part B1, Part B2 and the Host Institution Binding Statement of Support templates are provided in the submission system as word-templates (they should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as PDF files).

A complete proposal consists of the following elements (with the following page limits): 

• Extended Synopsis: 5 pages
• Curriculum Vitae: 2 pages
• Track Record: 2 pages
• Scientific Proposal: 14 pages
• Resources and Time Commitment:2 pages
• Host Institution Binding Statement of Support
• Ethics Review Table
• PhD record and supporting documentation for eligibility checking.

Complete proposals must be submitted via the submission tool available through the Funding & Tenders Portal (to access the submission tool, you need to register first). 

 

 2. Eligible countries: The conditions specific to the ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2022 under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in Annex 3. An overview is provided below:

The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country (see annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2022). Principal Investigators may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. Principal Investigators funded through the ERC frontier research grants shall spend a minimum percentage of their working time on the ERC project and a minimum percentage of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country.

For details about the eligible host institution (Applicant Legal Entity) see section 1 above on 'Admissibility and Eligibility Conditions'. 

 

3. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion:

Financial capacity: Please refer to the  ERC Rules of Submission, section 4, Award Decision and Preparation of Grant Agreements.

Operational capacity: As indicated in the ERC Work Programme 2022, page 7, footnote 2: Applicants whose proposals are recommended for funding are deemed to fulfil the operational capacity requirements of Article 198(3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2018/1046  (the 'Financial Regulation').

Exclusion: Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2022, Page 75.

 

4. Evaluation:

The conditions specific to ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2022 under the heading 'Evaluation procedure and criteria' and in the ERC Rules of Submission. An overview is provided below:

Evaluation procedure

For the Starting grant call a single submission of the proposal will be followed by a two-step evaluation. The evaluation will be conducted by means of a structure of high level peer review panels as listed in Annex 1 of the ERC Work Programme 2022. The panels may be assisted by independent external experts working remotely.  

Evaluation criteria

For all ERC frontier research grants scientific excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. It will be applied in conjunction to the evaluation of both: the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of the research project; and the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the Principal Investigator. The detailed evaluation elements applying to the excellence of the research project and the Principal Investigator are set out in the ERC Work Programme 2022.

 

5. Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: 

Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2022 under the heading 'Indicative summary of calls from the 2022 budget'.

 

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants:

Please refer to the MGA used for ERC actions under Horizon Europe (HE General MGA).

 

7. Open Science:

Open science is a core principle of the ERC. The ERC is committed to the principle of open access to the published output of research, including in particular peer-reviewed articles and monographs. It also supports the basic principle of open access to research data and data related products such as computer code. The ERC considers that providing free online access to all these materials can be the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of the research it funds can be accessed, read and used as the basis for further research.

Under Horizon Europe, beneficiaries of ERC grants must ensure open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to their results as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. Beneficiaries must ensure that they or the authors retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with their open access requirements.

In addition, beneficiaries of ERC grants funded under this work programme will be covered by the provisions on research data management as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. In particular, whenever a project generates research data, beneficiaries are required to manage it in line with the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability as described by the FAIR principles initiative, and establish a data management plan within the first six months of project implementation. Open access to research data should be ensured under the principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’. These provisions are designed to facilitate access, re-use and preservation of the research data generated during the ERC funded research work.

 

Call Documents and Annexes

ERC Work Programme 2022

Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2022 Calls

Application form (HE ERC StG)

ERC Guide for Peer Reviewers (StG, CoG)

ERC Rules of Submission

MGA used for ERC actions under Horizon Europe (HE General MGA)

 

Additional documents:

EU Financial Regulation 2018/1046

Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment

Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual

Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions

Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

Association agreements to Horizon Europe

ERC 2022 Starting Grant Applicants' Mailbox - for queries related to the call.

Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.

Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.

Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.

IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.

Ethics – for compliance with ethical issues, see the Online Manual.

European IP Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues.

The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.