European Research Council funding schemes
The objective is to provide sufficient support to the independent careers of excellent researchers,
whatever their nationality, located in or moving to the EU Member States and Associated Countries,
who are at the stage of establishing or consolidating their own independent research team or programme.
ERC Advanced Investigator Grants
The objective is to encourage and support excellent,
innovative investigator-initiated research projects by leading advanced investigators across the
EU Member States and Associated Countries. This funding stream complements the Starting Grant scheme
by targeting the population of researchers who have already established themselves as being
independent research leaders in their own right.
ERC Co-ordination and Support Actions (CSAs)
The ERC Co-ordination and Support Actions fund projects and initiatives for the monitoring,
assessment and evaluation of ERC Activities, for example projects, studies, expert groups, seminars,
data access and dissemination, information and communication activities on the ERC.
Please note that research, technological development or demonstration activities cannot be supported
under these CSAs.
The introduction to ERC
The European Research Council (ERC) is a European research funding body (set up in 2007),
which is funded by the European Commission as a part of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
for European Research & Technological Development (2007-13). The ERC is also known as the
"Ideas" Programme.
The ERC is a marked departure from what has previously happened in EU public research funding.
Now, research projects do not have to be collaborative - they do not have to be pan-European even.
There is no specification of research areas or themes.
There is no "juste retour" which sees member states get back a "fair proportion" of the monies
they put into the funding pot. The ERC has really simple guiding principles:
the types of projects it funds must be at the "frontiers" of knowledge. It is looking for "excellence".
The ERC is the first pan-European funding agency for investigator-driven frontier research.
Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting and encouraging the very best,
innovative and creative scientists, scholars and engineers and inspiring them to be adventurous,
take risks and pursue ‘cutting edge’ research.
The scientists are encouraged to go beyond established frontiers of knowledge and the
boundaries of disciplines. The ERC’s two funding streams aim to stimulate the work of the established
and next generation of independent top research leaders in Europe. Early stage researchers,
as well as fully established investigators, from across Europe compete for ERC grants
where scientific excellence as the sole criterion for funding.
The ERC also aims to raise the status and visibility of European frontier research.
The ERC has funding of €7.51 billion (2007-13). Please refer to
the ERC website for further information.
