The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the call for proposals for ERC Starting Grants (ERC StG). These grants support researchers 2–7 years after PhD who are starting their own independent research team or programme. The deadline is 15. 10. 2024.

On 12. 9. 2024, the ERC Executive Agency organise a webinar on currently announced ERC calls.
Event page and link to watch (registration probably won’t be required).

Preparation of a high-quality ERC application requires a lot of time, therefore, those who plan to apply in this call must be already working on their application – and be already in touch with the Project Management Department. If you are considering applying to this call and have not yet contacted us, please contact the Project Management Department (Ludmila Součková, ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz) IMMEDIATELY, or consider postponing your project submission until the next call.

Please, contact us also if you plan or consider applying for an ERC grant in a longer time frame (e.g. in 1–2 years), so that you can take advantage of the support offered to ERC applicants.
About ERC on Faculty of Science website – including information about support for (potential) applicants.

Internal guidelines for the Faculty of Science

ATTENTION: According to Rector’s Directive n. 9/2023, at least 1 month before the relevant deadline, i.e. by 15. 9. 2024:

  1. An agreement must be reached between the applicant, the relevant department and the faculty management on the conditions under which the project will be carried out if successful in the ERC competition. This agreement must be approved by the Dean Advisory Board (Kolegium děkana).
  2. A preliminary version of the full proposal must be sent to the University’s rectorate via the project department of the faculty. It is expected that it will be a draft version and that the applicant will further improve the proposal during the last month before the deadline – however, it must be obvious even from the draft that the proposal will be of high quality.

Without fulfilling these conditions, the rectorate will not issue the “Commitment of the Host Institution” which is a mandatory attachment of the application.

Researchers who plan to submit a project proposal to the current call are asked to:

  1. By 19. 8. 2024 send (at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz) their current draft of the Part B1 – based on this draft, the Dean Advisory Board will review and confirm that they support the submission of this particular project proposal.
  2. Ensure, that by 5. 9. 2024 the head of the department and the vice-dean of the section, where the project is to be carried out, confirm by e-mail (at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz) that they agree with the submission of the particular proposal.
  3. By 12. 9. 2024 send (at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz) the preliminary version of the full proposal to be sent to the rectorate.
  4. Fill in the proposal submitted by the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal:
    Your organisation: UNIVERZITA KARLOVA, PIC: 999923434, Short name: CU.
    Main Host Institution Contact: Tomáš Palatý, tomas.palaty@natur.cuni.cz.
    First name: Tomáš; Last name: Palatý; E-Mail: tomas.palaty@natur.cuni.cz;
    Position in org.: Horizon Europe officer; Department: Project Management Department;
    Street: Albertov 6; Town: Prague 2; Postcode: 128 00;
    Country: Czechia; Phone: +420 221951119
    Contact Person: Ludmila Součková, ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz
    Contact Person: Martina Holíková, martina.holikova@natur.cuni.cz
    Contact Person: Adéla Jiroudková, adela.jiroudkova@ruk.cuni.cz
    Contact Person: Veronika Syrovátková, veronika.syrovatkova@ruk.cuni.cz

The final proposals are to be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal by the researchers themselves.

If you have any questions during the project preparation, please, don’t hesitate to contact us (at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz and tomas.palaty@natur.cuni.cz).

Research funded by the ERC is expected to lead to advances at the frontiers of knowledge and to set a clear and inspirational target for frontier research across Europe. The grants support excellent Principal investigators (PIs) and their research teams. The PI must demonstrate ground-breaking nature of the proposal, it must not be a mere continuation of previous achievements. The proposal must have the potential to significantly influence the relevant research field, push its boundaries or open new research perspectives. The ERC research grants operate on a “bottom-up” basis without predetermined priorities. An ERC grant gives the PI long-term funding with high flexibility.

ERC StG may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 1 500 000 for a period of 5 years and additional contribution up to EUR 1 000 000 can be requested as “additional funding” e.g., for purchase of major equipment or extensive fieldwork).

The PI applying for ERC StG shall have been awarded their first PhD at least 2 and up to 7 years prior to 1 January 2025 to be eligible (obtained the PhD from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2022 – inclusive). The eligibility period can be can be extended e.g. in cases of parenthood, long-term illness, disability, inability to work due to major disasters or inability to work to seeking asylum.

A competitive ERC StG applicant should have already shown the potential for research independence and evidence of maturity, for example by having produced at least one important publication in a major international scientific journal as main author or without participation of their PhD supervisor.

The ERC grants are one of the most prestigious grants in Europe. The success rate in ERC StG call 2023 was ca. 14.8% (source).

Restriction of resubmissions
PI whose proposal is evaluated as category C may not apply for an ERC grant in the 2 following years. PI whose proposal is evaluated as category B in the Step 1 of the evaluation may not apply for an ERC grant in the 1 following year.

 

Changes in 2025 and changes still in force from 2024

  • Curriculum Vitae and Track Record are joint into a single section up to 4 pages in length.
  • The PI should present in the CV and Track record section a list of up to 10 research outputs, e.g.: publications, articles deposited in a publicly available preprint server, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, data sets, software, patents, licenses, standards, start-up businesses… (Before 2024, it was up to 5 selected publications.)
  • Strong emphasis is put on the PIs providing factual explanation of the significance of the selected outputs, how it impacted their research field, and how it demonstrates their capacity to successfully carry out the proposed project. (Conversely, quantitative indicators, like number of publications or citations, shouldn’t play a significant role in the evaluation.)
    See also Evaluation of research proposals: the why and what of the ERC's recent changes (source).
  • The “Funding ID” section (overview of grants the PI is currently holding or applying for) in newly part of the “Scientific Proposal” (Part B2), and therefore, will be visible for the evaluators only in Step 2 of the evaluation.
  • Small changes of the evaluation elements (questions the evaluators are asked) took place, e.g. in case of the Research Project, it is evaluated whether the proposed research does “address important scientific challenges” (formerly, it was just “address important challenges”).
  • A maximum of 44 proposals per ERC evaluation panel will be retained for the Step 2 of the evaluation. It is possible for a proposal to be evaluated as category A in the Step 1 of the evaluation and not be retained for the Step 2 – in this case, the PI will be able to resubmit the proposal the following year.
  • The eligibility period can be can be newly extended also in cases of documented reduced amount of working time due to disability, and documented inability to work due to major disasters.
  • A separate form “Template for requesting eligibility extension” is included in the templates to be used by researchers who request extension of their eligibility period. It serves as a cover page to be combined with all documents supporting the request and uploaded as a single annex annex of the application.
  • There has been a slight revision of the structure of the evaluation panels, their description and keywords, namely for:
    PE6: Computer Science and Informatics;
    LS3: Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration;
    LS5: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System;
    SH3: The Social World and Its Interactions;
    SH4: The Human Mind and Its Complexity;
    SH5 Texts and Concepts.
    See the ERC Work Programme 2025, Annex 1 (from p. 65).

 

News published by Ludmila Součková on 11. 7. 2024.
Updated 12. 7. 2024 (link to webinar on 12. 9. 2024 added).

Not the information you sought? Found a mistake? Please, let us know.

 

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