ERC Grant Writing
ERC Funding for Researchers– Key Facts
| Who can apply? | Researchers and Research teams |
| Purpose | Fundamental and Scientific Research |
| Grant amounts | €1million to €10million |
| Decision time | 12 – 20 weeks from submission |
| Application process | Individual Researcher or Research Teams. Online Portal. 2 main sections + appendices. |
| Funding Calls | There are 5 main funding programmes for researchers offered, with various deadlines throughout the year. |
What is ERC Funding?
The European Research Council (ERC) is a preeminent funding body established by the European Union to support and promote high-quality research in Europe. Its mission is to foster excellent, investigator-driven frontier research across various disciplines. By offering competitive grant funding, the ERC aims to ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of global scientific discovery. It encourages proposals that are pioneering in nature, often bridging multiple fields of study. Additionally, the ERC emphasizes the importance of basic research as a foundation for industry-driven research and acknowledges its role in nurturing outstanding talent for Europe’s future.
The main ERC funds for researchers are:
ERC Starting Grants: These grants are for researchers with 2-7 years of experience since the completion of their PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal. Find out more here.
ERC Consolidator Grants: These grants are for researchers with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal. Find out more here.
ERC Advanced Grants: These grants are for active researchers with a track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years. Find out more here.
ERC Proof of Concept: These grants are for researchers who have already received an ERC grant for their frontier research project and now want to explore the commercial or societal potential of it. Find out more here.
ERC Synergy Grants: These grants are for two to maximum four researchers working together and bringing different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. Find out more here.
Resources for ERC Grant Funding
The European Research Council has put together an excellent website dedicated to supporting researchers and research teams in understanding and applying for ERC grants. On the website, you will find:
- National Contact Points for every EU country and how to contact them if you are considering applying
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Documents and Publications
- Video Explainers
- Other funding options.
Our ERC Grant Writing Services
We have been reviewing, editing and improving ERC grant applications for researchers and research teams since 2009. If you have a draft application for any of the funds list above, we offer a full review service for your ERC grant, including a straight forward native English language edit service.
Our reviews are led by experienced grant writers for academic research projects.
Get in touch
We offer a few ways to proceed from here – Contact Us to:
- Setup an initial video call
- Review a project summary
- Review a pitch deck
- Review a past application
There are no fees involved at this stage – we just want to add some value by providing honest advice on your chances of success. After that and if you want to work with us, we can talk about how to work together in a way that suits you and your business.
R&D Funding Case Studies
Venturenomix brings 15 years of experience to the process of developing projects and applications for R&D grant funding.
The directors founded and built a market-leading UK-based R&D grant writing consultancy between 2009 and 2019 with specialist knowledge in Innovate UK EDGE grant funding. Since 2019, we have expanded our knowledge into European R&D grants under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes.
We have been actively involved in securing over £100m in R&D grant funding for startups, scaleups, established businesses, universities, cities, NGOs, NFPs and more! If you are seeking to bring innovative technologies to market, working on novel research or looking to deploy novel approaches in your city – it is worth exploring R&D Grant funding.
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