European Research Council (ERC)

The European Research Council, via their frontier research grants, provides attractive and flexible funding to enable talented and creative individual researchers, with an emphasis on early stage researchers, and their teams to pursue the most promising avenues at the frontier of science, on the basis of EU-wide competition based solely on the criterion of excellence Importantly, applications can be made in any field of research and operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities.

Contact Petter Zahl Marki for more information about the ERC and UiA’s support services for ERC applicants

Research funded by the European Research Council (ERC) is expected to lead to advances at the frontiers of knowledge and to set a clear and inspirational target for frontier research across Europe.

UiA views the ERC as a strategic priority and wants to support excellent researchers in their endeavour to prepare and submit high-quality and competitive ERC proposals.

What help can you get?

Leading up to the late 2025/early 2026 call deadlines, the Division of Research and Innovation together with external consultant Kveloce, will offer several levels of support to prospective ERC applicants including:

• ERC Concept Development. For researchers aiming to apply for any of the upcoming deadlines in late 2025/early 2026. Briefly, this activity focuses on analysing both the candidate's characteristics and their project concept, with the goal of assessing the chances of success and thus providing valuable information for the decision-making process regarding the participation in the various calls of the ERC programme. The process will require the review of the most up-to-date CV of the researcher and an initial draft (Extended Synopsis B1) of the proposal, following the format requested by the ERC programme. All the information will be provided in an online feedback interview. The interview will be recorded and made available to the researcher for later consultation. If you are interested in this service, please contact Petter Zahl Marki in good time before a given review deadline.
• ERC Proposal Review. We offer a two-phase comprehensive review of full proposal drafts, including the fundamental aspects, such as scientific excellence, the researcher's scientific trajectory, methodology and research approach, impact, research consolidation (for ERC CoG and AdG), and synergies and complementarity (for the ERC SyG). Both Parts B1 and B2 will be thoroughly reviewed and followed up with online feedback interviews. 
• ERC Interview Training. PI's who have succesfully passed the first (second for Synergy Grants) stage of evaluation and have been invited to the ERC interview in brussels can continue receiving support in preparation for this immensely important interview.
• PES Support – UiA researchers preparing an ERC grant application will be eligible to receive up to 50 000 NOK in Project Establishment Support (PES).

Upcoming call deadlines:

Who can apply for an ERC grant?

Starting Grants

Researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.

Consolidator Grants

Researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.

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. The PIs 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.

Synergy Grants

A group of two to maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) – of which one will be designated as the corresponding PI (cPI) – working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. No specific eligibility criteria regarding the academic training are foreseen for ERC Synergy Grants. PIs must present an early achievement track-record or a ten-year track-record, whichever is most appropriate.

How much funding can you get?

Starting Grants may be awarded up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years; Consolidator Grants may be awarded up to € 2 million for a period of 5 years; Advanced Grants may be awarded up to € 2.5 million for a period of 5 years, and Synergy Grants can be up to a maximum of € 10 million for a period of 6 years. (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). However, an additional € 1 million (€ 4 million for Synergy grants) 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.

How are proposals evaluated?

For Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants

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. The panels may be assisted by independent external experts working remotely.

At step 1, the extended synopsis and the Principal Investigator's track record and CV will be assessed. Proposals will be retained for step 2 based on the outcome of the evaluation at step 1 and a budgetary cut-off level of up to three times the panel's indicative budget.

At step 2 the research proposal will be assessed.

Principal Investigators whose proposals are retained for step 2 of the evaluation will be invited for an interview to present their proposal to the evaluation panel meeting.

Evaluation criteria

For all of the main 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.

Evaluation outcome

For Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants

At each evaluation step, each proposal will be evaluated and marked for each of the two main elements of the proposal: the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of the research project; and the intellectual capacity, creativity and commitment of the Principal Investigator.

At the end of each evaluation step, the proposals will be ranked by the panels on the basis of the panels' overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses taking into account the marks they have received.

At the end of step 1 of the evaluation the proposal will receive one of the following scores:

1. is of sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation;
2. is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to step 2 of the evaluation;
3. is not of sufficient quality to pass to step 2 of the evaluation.

At the end of step 2 of the evaluation the proposal will receive one of the following scores:

1. fully meets the ERC's excellence criterion and is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available;
2. meets some but not all elements of the ERC's excellence criterion and will not be funded.

Applicants may also be subject to restrictions on submitting proposals to future ERC calls based on the outcome of the evaluation. For example, if score B is awarded in step 1, the PI may not submit a proposal to any call in the following year. If score C is awarded in step 1, the PI may not submit a proposal to any call in the following two years.

Contact Petter Zahl Marki for more information about the ERC and UiA’s support services for ERC applicants