ERC in a nutshell

The European Research Council (ERC) supports ground-breaking projects and researchers at progressive stages of development.

The ERC Starting Grant (€1.5 million) is allocated for five years to promising researchers starting their own independent research team or programme. For mid-career researchers, there is the ERC Consolidator Grant (€2 million, over five years). The ERC Advanced Grant (€2.5 million) is a five-year grant allocated to researchers whose ground-breaking work opens up new directions in their field.

Synergy Grant Support (€10 million for 6 years) is for a small group of two to four Principal Investigators to jointly address ambitious research problems that could not be addressed by the individual Principal Investigators and their teams working alone.

The ERC Proof of Concept funding is made available only to those who already have an ERC award to establish proof of concept of an idea that was generated in the course of their ERC-funded projects.

Deadlines and Regulations

The ERC Work Programme 2026 indicates the following calendar:

2026
 Starting Grants Consolidator Grants Advanced Grants Synergy Grants Proof of Concept
Call opens 09/07/2025 25/09/2025 28/05/2026 10/07/2025 13/11/2025
Call ends 14/10/2025 13/01/2026 27/08/2026 05/11/2025 17/03/2026 | 17/09/2026

All information pertaining to the ERC grants is available here: https://erc.europa.eu/

Here is a list of links with important background information regarding the ERC calls:

Information for Applicants:

Host Institution support letter template

Research Proposal Templates 2025 and 2026 (official and editable)