The ERC has announced its Work Programme for 2023 with a total budget of around €2.2 billion for grants. This amount will support more than a thousand top researchers across Europe. Established by the ERC Scientific Council, the Work Programme for the coming year has been adopted by the European Commission.

While the plan contains all the well-known grant schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants, there are also new elements:

  • The budget for the Proof of Concept grant scheme will increase from €25 million to €30 million
  • Two additional grounds for extension of the eligibility windows for the candidates for Starting and Consolidator Grants will be introduced for researchers seeking asylum or being a victim of a natural disaster
  • A special grant is foreseen to support ERC Science Journalism Initiative that will entail a support for journalists wishing to spend time at research institutions to better understand frontier research

How and when to apply for ERC grants

The Work Programme published today includes a tentative calendar of grant competitions. The call for Starting Grants is planned to open on 12 July 2022. The Synergy Grant call is set to follow one day later on 13 July 2022.

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Read the Work Programme 2023

About the ERC

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council, and the ERC President is currently Professor Maria Leptin. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel.

Source: European Research Council I News (https://bit.ly/3oebB09)