The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the call for proposals for ERC Synergy Grants (ERC SyG). These grants support multidisciplinary projects of 2–4 Principal Investigators (PIs) and their research teams. The projects must demonstrate the synergies and added value of the collaboration that can lead to breakthroughs that would not be achievable by the individual PIs working alone. Deadline is 6. 11. 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.

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 6. 10. 2024:

  • An agreement must be reached between the applicant (the PI from Charles University), 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).
  • Basic data on the project and a preliminary version of those parts of the application for which the PI from Charles University is responsible 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 applicants 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 16. 9. 2024 send (at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz) key information about the project (preliminary acronym and title, draft abstract, names and host institutions of the other PIs), current version of the CV and Track record of the PI from Charles University, and in ideal case also torso of the Extended Synopsis. Based on these materials, the Dean Advisory Board will review and confirm that they support the submission of this particular project proposal.
  2. Ensure, that by 26. 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 3. 10. 2024 send (at ludmila.souckova@natur.cuni.cz) to be forwarded to the rectorate the current preliminary version of Parts B1 and B2 – or those chunks of these parts that are being prepared by the PI from Charles University (whichever is more convenient for the PI).
  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 PIs must demonstrate ground-breaking nature of the proposal, it must not be a mere continuation of previous achievements. Proposals 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 PIs long-term funding with high flexibility.

ERC SyG emphasise cross-fertilisation of scientific fields including unconventional approaches and investigations at the interface between established disciplines. The funded research should have the potential of becoming a benchmark on a global scale. The projects shouldn’t be “just” typical collaborative projects or networks. The project is proposed by a small group of 2–4 PIs. The PIs don’t have to be from different countries, nor even from different institutions, but they must work in different research fields. Each of these PIs must have a track record of research achievements that would be at least competitive when applying for ERC Starting, Consolidator or Advanced grant depending on the PI’s career stage.

One of the PIs may be based in a country that is NOT an EU country or a country associated to Horizon Europe – the Host institution(s) of the remaining PIs including the Corresponding Principal Investigator must be established in EU or Horizon Europe associated country or countries.

ERC SyG may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 10 000 000 for a period of 6 years and additional contribution up to EUR 4 000 000 can be requested as “additional funding” e.g., for purchase of major equipment or extensive fieldwork).

The ERC grants are one of the most prestigious grants in Europe. The success rate in ERC SyG call 2023 was ca. 9.4 % (source).

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 for each PI.
  • Each PI should present in the CV and Track record section a list of up to 10 research outputsg.: publications, articles deposited in a publicly available preprint server, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, data sets, software, patents, licenses, standards, start-up businesses… with emphasis on more recent achievements. (Before 2024, it was up to 5 or up to 10 selected publications depending on the career stage of the PI.)
  • 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 PIs are 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”).
  • An excel table newly included in the templates should be used to describe the resources needed for each PI including time commitment and, if applicable, justification of the requested “additional funding”.

 

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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