Important Information on the Upcoming ERC Calls: What’s New?

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced that it will split its starting grant funding programme into two separate calls. Consolidator grants will provide up to €2 million for researchers with seven to 12 years experience after their PhD, while the starting grants will now be reserved for scientists with two to seven years post-doc experience.

Please note that at this stage the information below is indicative only. This is expected to be formally confirmed on 9 July 2012, when the European Commission is likely to adopt the ERC’s next work programme. Only the information that will be published on the Participant Portal should be considered official.

The main changes include:

  • The introduction of the “ERC Consolidator grant“: The previous ERC Starting grant scheme will be divided into two separate calls:
    – Starting grant (StG): for researchers with from 2 up to 7 years post-PhD experience
    – Consolidator grant (CoG): for researchers with from 7 up to 12 years post-PhD experience
    A Consolidator grant is worth up to €2 million (under certain circumstances up to €2.75 million).
  • One single deadline for each call, and not different deadlines for the three domains as in the past.
  • The publication of the next Advanced grant (AdG) call will be on 10 July (not in the autumn as previously), with the deadline for applications in the autumn (not in spring as in the past).
  • In sum, the planned publication dates and deadlines for all upcoming calls are as follows:
Publication date Deadline
Starting Grant (ERC-2013-StG) 10 July 2012 17 October 2012
Advanced Grant (ERC-2013-AdG) 10 July 2012 22 November 2012
Synergy Grant (ERC-2013-SyG) 10 October 2012 10 January 2013
Consolidator Grant (ERC-2013-CoG) 7 November 2012 21 February 2013
For ERC grantees only (top-up grant):
Proof of concept (ERC-2013-PoC)
10 January 2013  24 April and 3 October 2013

For further information: Please stay tuned on the ERC homepage and on the Participant Portal.