Objectives

The ERC Starting Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal.

Profile of the ERC Starting Grant Principal Investigator

The Principal Investigators shall have successfully defended their first PhD at least 2 and up to 7 years prior to 1 January 2025.

Cut-off dates: Successful defence of PhD between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2022 (inclusive).

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 main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor.

Criteria

Applications can be made in any field of research.
The ERC's grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities.

Funding

• Up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration).
• 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.


Deadline: 15 October 2024 - 17:00 Brussels time