The European Research Council (ERC) encourages innovative basic and frontier research in all fields of science. Both the project and the potential principal investigator (PI) are evaluated exclusively on the basis of their scientific excellence. The ERC grants have no thematic restrictions. They are open to researchers of all nationalities and on all career levels. Successful ERC projects are often multidisciplinary and apply innovative methods in order to explore novel scientific fields. The ERC encompasses four different funding programmes: Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant, Advanced Grant, Synergy Grant.

Over the past ten years, the ERC Grants have become an international benchmark for excellent research. In particular, the Starting and Consolidator Grants represent significant academic milestones in the careers of young researchers. Being awarded an Advanced Grant is globally considered as recognition of superlative scientific work. At the same time, institutions benefit from the prestige that ERC grants bestow upon them and – since the grants are portable – compete to host successful ERC grantees.

Are you a potential ERC grantee or are there potential ERC candidates at your institute? The Leibniz Association EU Office would be happy to help you with your application! We offer individual support for proposal preparation as well as strategic consulting services for our institutes.

How to get your ERC grant – a short video introduction

Laura is a researcher of the Leibniz Association. She won the ERC starting grant with a ground-breaking research idea. In this video she shares a few tips as to how to apply.