Funding call

ERC Starting Grant: eligibility, funding and how to apply

The European Research Council's flagship grant for early-career researchers building their first independent team.

Updated Jun 20, 2026

At a glance

Status
Annual call · check the F&T Portal
Funder
European Research Council (ERC), Horizon Europe
Stage
Early-career, independent research leader
Window
2–7 years post-PhD (2026 calls); 0–10 years from 2027 calls
Funding
Up to €1.5M over 5 years (+ up to €1M extra costs; up to €2M for relocation to the EU/AC)
Host
Any legal entity in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country
Structure
Single Principal Investigator (not a consortium)

The ERC Starting Grant is the European Research Council's flagship award for early-career researchers ready to build their first independent team. It is prestigious, generous, and competitive. This guide covers eligibility, funding, host requirements, the proposal structure, and the rule changes coming in 2027. Call-specific figures refer to the 2026 call; always confirm details on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

Looking for the funding call that fits you?

Compass gathers the funding calls in your field and shows which ones fit your profile and which are open right now. Discovery is free.

Explore Compass

What the ERC Starting Grant is

The ERC funds frontier research on a bottom-up basis (no predefined topics) across all fields. A Starting Grant supports a single Principal Investigator to establish or consolidate their own independent research group. Crucially, it is not a consortium: the evaluation assesses whether the idea and the intellectual leadership are genuinely yours.

Eligibility: the 2–7 year window

For the 2026 calls, you are eligible if your PhD was awarded 2 to 7 years before 1 January of the call year: for 2026, a thesis defence between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023. The reference point (since 2023) is the certified date of your successful PhD defence, not the formal award date, to keep competition fair across countries.

The window can be extended for documented career breaks: parental leave, long-term illness, national service, clinical training, disasters, and similar.

Changing in 2027. From the 2027 calls, the Starting Grant window widens to 0–10 years post-PhD (and Consolidator to 5–15 years). The ERC has also announced that researchers may hold no more than one Starting and one Consolidator Grant in their career.

Funding

  • Up to €1.5 million over 5 years.
  • + up to €1 million for major costs: equipment, access to large facilities, fieldwork, and (new) personnel, now merged into one flexible category.
  • + up to €2 million for Principal Investigators relocating from a non-associated third country to the EU/AC.
  • Overheads: a flat 25% of eligible direct costs, included in the ceiling.

Host institution requirements

The project must be hosted by any legal entity in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, which employs the PI. You may be of any nationality, and you need not be employed by the host at submission, but the host must offer conditions for you to lead independently and manage the funding.

The two-part proposal

The 2026 structure tightened page limits and split the science into two parts:

  • Part I (max 5 pages), the vision: state of the art, the central question, objectives and strategy. Its job is to convince the panel the idea is original and important.
  • Part II (max 7 pages), the implementation: methodology, work plan, risk management and mitigation, and budget justification.

Evaluation runs in two steps, so Part I has to carry the idea on its own before Part II is read in detail.

Evidence of independence

ERC expects potential for research independence appropriate to your stage: typically at least one significant publication without your PhD supervisor as co-author. The publication record is not a formal eligibility criterion; it is a benchmark evaluators use to gauge your promise. Peers assess your track record relative to your career stage, so career breaks and field norms are taken into account.

How to apply

Applications respond to the annual call published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal. A single PI submits on behalf of the host institution, with the administrative forms, the two-part proposal and supplementary documents, by the call deadline. Success rates sit around the low teens, so the idea and the evidence of independence have to be exceptional. Confirm the current call's dates and rules on the Portal before you start.

Draft this with Reservoir

Keep your research career in Reservoir and project it into the CV and track record of any application, while you focus on the ground-breaking idea that ERC funds.

Start drafting
Was this useful?

Frequently asked questions

Am I eligible for an ERC Starting Grant?

For the 2026 calls, you are eligible if your PhD was awarded 2 to 7 years before 1 January of the call year: for the 2026 call, a thesis defence between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023. From the 2027 calls this window widens to 0–10 years post-PhD. The reference point is the certified date of your successful PhD defence, and the window can be extended for documented career breaks.

How much funding is it and for how long?

Up to €1.5 million over 5 years. An additional €1 million can be requested for major costs (equipment, access to large facilities, fieldwork, and now personnel), and up to €2 million extra is available for Principal Investigators relocating from a non-associated third country to the EU or an Associated Country. Overheads are a flat 25% of direct costs, included in the ceiling.

Do I need a host institution in Europe?

Yes. The project must be carried out at a host institution established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, and the host employs the PI. You can be of any nationality, and you do not need to be employed by the host at the time of submission, but the host must offer conditions for you to lead the research independently.

How long should the proposal be?

The 2026 structure splits the scientific proposal into Part I (max 5 pages), the vision, state of the art, objectives and strategy that sell the idea, and Part II (max 7 pages), the detailed methodology, work plan, risk management and budget. Evaluation is in two steps; Part II is read at Step 2.

What evidence of independence do I need?

ERC looks for potential for research independence appropriate to your career stage: typically at least one significant publication without your PhD supervisor as co-author. The publication record itself is not a formal eligibility criterion; it's a benchmark evaluators use to judge your track record and promise.

Related