ERC: six frontier research schemes

The ERC funds research defined by the researcher. There are no thematic topics, no consortium and no requirement of practical application: you propose a scientific question and a panel judges whether it can move the frontier of knowledge. That makes the ERC the most prestigious and most competitive part of Horizon Europe – the 2025 calls funded roughly 10–12% of proposals.

Six schemes, not four

Until 2026 there were genuinely five (four main schemes plus Proof of Concept). Work Programme 2026 added a sixth, the ERC Plus Grant, under the Choose Europe initiative.

Starting Grant – up to €1.5m over 5 years, for researchers starting an independent career; the post-PhD window differs between the two work programmes now in force. At least 50% of working time on the project.

Consolidator Grant – up to €2m over 5 years, for those already running a group. At least 40% of time.

Advanced Grant – up to €2.5m over 5 years, for established leaders; no formal post-PhD window. At least 30% of time. Funded as a lump sum rather than on actual costs.

ERC Plus Grant – up to €7m over 4–7 years, for projects that cannot be done within a normal ERC grant. Open at any career stage, assessed against peers at the same stage. Requires a separate Statement of Vision (0.5–2 pages) and may be held once in a lifetime. The work programme warns about the odds: around 30 grants a year against roughly a thousand under the three main schemes.

Synergy Grant – up to €10m over 6 years for a team of 2–4 principal investigators whose combined expertise achieves what none could alone.

Proof of Concept – €150,000 over 18 months, open only to current and former ERC grant holders, to test the commercial or societal potential of results already obtained. The most accessible ERC scheme: about a third of proposals were funded in 2025.

One condition applies across all schemes: at least half the project working time must be spent in an EU member state or associated country.

The 2026 trap: two work programmes at once

As of July 2026 two ERC work programmes are in force: WP2026 (amended) and WP2027, adopted on 20 July 2026. The differences are substantive, not cosmetic – and this is exactly where applicants working from last year's guide go wrong.

The post-PhD window. Under WP2026 a Starting Grant required 2–7 years since the PhD and a Consolidator 7–12. WP2027 widens both sharply: Starting up to 10 years post-PhD (effectively no lower bound), Consolidator 5 to 15 years.

How many proposals. WP2026 allowed applying to several calls but evaluated only the first eligible proposal. WP2027 is stricter: one proposal under evaluation at a time, and only one eligible proposal per work programme. Anyone who applied to Advanced or ERC Plus 2026 may not apply to Synergy 2027.

Once per career. WP2027 introduces a limit that did not exist before: Starting once per career, Consolidator once per career, ERC Plus once in a lifetime.

Resubmission restrictions

A low Step 1 score blocks later calls. A C at Step 1 two calls ago, or a B or C last year, closes the main schemes for the following year. A research-integrity breach blocks everything.

Two details that rescue more situations than people expect: proposals ruled inadmissible or ineligible, and those withdrawn before the deadline, do not count against these restrictions; and a resubmitted proposal is assessed as new – the earlier score is not passed to reviewers.

Host institution and portability

The host must be established in an EU member state or associated country – a university, research organisation, company, or an international European research organisation. For Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Plus the host is the sole participant: no consortium is required or foreseen. Synergy allows up to four hosts, one of which (other than the corresponding host) may be outside the EU.

A legally binding Host Institution Support Letter must accompany the proposal; without it the proposal is inadmissible. A Gender Equality Plan is mandatory throughout the project for public bodies, research organisations and higher education establishments from the EU and associated countries.

An ERC grant belongs to the researcher, not the institution: portability allows moving it to another eligible host, including where the original host falls under restrictions or sanctions.

Extending the post-PhD window

Documented career breaks extend the window: maternity – 18 months per child (or the actual leave, if longer); paternity/parental leave – actual duration; long-term illness over 90 days, of the researcher or a close relative; national military service; disability; clinical training – up to 4 years; major disasters, explicitly including armed conflict – documented incapacity from 90 days; asylum procedures – from application to decision. Since 2026 the list also covers gender-based and other violence.

Events must fall between the PhD defence and the call deadline – except maternity and paternity, which count for children born before the defence too.

How proposals are assessed

28 panels across three domains: Physical Sciences & Engineering (11), Life Sciences (9), Social Sciences & Humanities (8). Choosing the panel is the applicant's responsibility.

There is a single criterion – excellence, in two elements: the research project (above all its ground-breaking nature and ambition) and the principal investigator.

The decisive asymmetry: at Step 1 the panel asks only about the importance of the questions and the ambition of the objectives. Methodology, work plan, timelines and resources are assessed only at Step 2. Feasibility is not considered at all in the first round.

Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Plus run two steps with an interview at Step 2 – note that the Advanced Grant now has one too. Synergy runs three steps with the interview at Step 3. Proof of Concept is single-step, assessed remotely, no interview.

The interview lasts about 30 minutes, the applicant remote and the panel at the ERC premises; questions may cover the budget. At Step 1 panel members see only Part I and the CV, and assess as generalists. At most 44 proposals per panel reach Step 2. Budget is distributed across panels in proportion to demand, keeping success rates comparable.

Proposal structure and page limits

From WP2026 the Extended Synopsis no longer exists – a guide that still mentions it is out of date. Current structure: Part I up to 5 pages; CV and track record up to 4 pages per PI; Part II up to 7 pages (10 for Synergy); Resources and Time Commitment up to 2 pages; plus a 0.5–2 page Statement of Vision for ERC Plus.

Formatting is strict: A4, font size no smaller than 11, single spacing, 2 cm side margins. References and Funding ID do not count. Limits are applied literally: reviewers are asked to read only what fits, and are under no obligation to read further or to follow links to external pages.

Ukraine and the ERC

Ukraine has been an associated country of Horizon Europe since 9 June 2022 and appears in the official list of participating countries without restrictions on the scope of participation, unlike several other associated countries. Ukrainian institutions may act as hosts.

Legal entities established in non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine are excluded from participation in any role; the work programme states explicitly that this exclusion does not extend to researchers of Ukrainian nationality residing there.

In the 2025 Starting Grant call, seven of the 478 grantees held Ukrainian nationality. How many ERC grants are hosted in Ukrainian institutions could not be established from official data: Ukraine does not appear in the published host-country breakdowns, and absence from a breakdown is not the same as zero.

There is no separate ERC scheme for Ukraine. "ERC for Ukraine" is not a call and not a budget line: it is a call on ERC grant holders to employ displaced Ukrainian researchers and support staff (over 700 vacancies collected in 2023) and the ERC Mentoring Initiative, run with the Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine and the NRFU. Do not confuse it with MSCA4Ukraine – that €25m programme belongs to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

What the ERC itself advises

All of the following comes from the official Information for Applicants, not from consultants.

Part I decides everything. The ERC asks applicants not to treat it as an abstract for Part II: the panel decides on an interview from Part I alone.

Write for generalists – Step 1 readers are not specialists in your topic.

Unjustified budgets will be reduced – the wording is literally that.

Up to 10 items in the track record, each with its significance and your role. Senior applicants are advised to show recent achievements rather than lifetime output.

No contact with reviewers, direct or indirect. Attempting to influence them counts as an integrity breach.

Language. Any official EU language is formally allowed, but non-English proposals receive only a raw machine translation that ERCEA does not check.