Funder: European Research Council
Due Dates: August 27, 2026 (2026 deadline, 17:00 Brussels time) | May 27, 2027 (2027 opening) | August 26, 2027 (2027 deadline)
Funding Amounts: Up to €2.5 million for five years, plus up to €1 million additional funding (€2 million for eligible relocating investigators)
Summary: Supports established research leaders pursuing ambitious, ground-breaking frontier research in any field.
Key Information: Principal Investigators must commit at least 30% of working time to the project and 50% in the EU or an Associated Country.
Description
The European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant provides long-term support for investigator-driven frontier research under Horizon Europe. It targets active, established research leaders with significant research achievements and proposals demonstrating originality and ambition. The programme operates bottom-up, without predetermined thematic priorities, across life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and social sciences and humanities.
Projects are led by a single Principal Investigator, working independently or heading a national or international team. The ERC welcomes interdisciplinary research, emerging fields, unconventional approaches and scientific inventions. Scientific excellence is the sole evaluation criterion, assessed jointly through the proposed research and the investigator’s intellectual capacity, creativity and expertise. Funding supports independently led research rather than consortia or a prescribed research agenda.
