ERC grants

The European Research Council funds one researcher's own frontier science, judged on excellence and nothing else. There is no consortium, no impact section, no requirement that anything be useful. The principal investigator's idea and track record are the whole assessment.

The main schemes track career stage. A Starting Grant is for researchers roughly two to seven years past their PhD and runs to about €1.5 million over five years. A Consolidator, for seven to twelve years past, runs to about €2 million. An Advanced Grant, for established leaders, runs to about €2.5 million. Synergy funds two to four principal investigators working on a problem none could tackle alone, at up to about €10 million.

Proof of Concept is the odd one out: a small grant of around €150,000, available only to existing or recent ERC grant holders, for exploring the commercial or societal potential of something the main grant produced.

The grant belongs to the researcher, not the institution, and it moves with them. The host institution must be in a Member State or Associated Country and must guarantee the principal investigator's independence and time, a commitment letter that some institutions sign more easily than others.

Eligibility windows are measured from the date of the PhD, with extensions for parental leave, national service and documented illness. Those extensions are the difference between eligible and not, they are applied for at submission, and they are checked. Missing a window by a month is a rejection with no discretion attached.