ERC ADVANCED GRANTS
ERC Advanced Grants support established research leaders with up to €2.5M for 5 years plus additional funding for major costs.
This call funds excellent Principal Investigators who are established leaders in their research fields. Grants can be up to €2.5 million for 5 years, with extra funding available for major equipment or start-up costs. Researchers from any field and nationality can apply if hosted in an EU or Associated Country institution.
Likely relevant for
- Established research leaders
- Principal Investigators with significant achievements
- Researchers seeking large-scale funding for frontier research
Project signals
What it funds
- Frontier research projects in any scientific field
- Interdisciplinary research proposals
- Research activities requiring major equipment, start-up costs, or access to large facilities
Expected outcomes
- Ground-breaking scientific results
- Advancement of knowledge in the Principal Investigator's field
- Strengthening of research leadership in Europe
Who can apply / participate
- Individual Principal Investigators
- Host institutions (universities, research organisations, enterprises)
- Single Principal Investigator with host institution
- Host institution must be established in EU Member State or Associated Country
- Principal Investigator can reside anywhere at application
- Research must be carried out in EU Member State or Associated Country
- Principal Investigator must have significant research achievements
- Minimum 50% working time in EU/Associated Country
- Minimum 30% working time on ERC project
- Host institution must legally exist in EU/Associated Country or be an eligible international organisation
- Specific restrictions on applications and resubmissions must be checked in ERC Work Programme
Must check before shortlisting
- Eligibility of Principal Investigator and host institution
- Compliance with time commitment requirements (50% in EU/AC, 30% on project)
- Restrictions on applications and resubmission rules
Money
Up to €2.5 million for 5 years, with additional funding up to €1 million (or €2 million for relocating PIs) for major costs. Lump sum grant covering actual project costs.
- Maximum base grant — 2,500,000EURFor up to 5 years, pro rata for shorter projects
- Additional funding — 1,000,000EURFor major equipment, start-up costs, etc., not pro rata
- Additional funding for relocating PIs — 2,000,000EURFor PIs relocating to EU or Associated Country
- Project duration — 5 yearsMaximum duration; shorter projects receive pro rata funding
Application notes
- Single-stage submission via Funding & Tenders Portal.
- Complete proposal includes administrative form, scientific proposal parts I and II, CV and track record, resources and time commitment, equipment table, host institution support letter, ethics issues table.
- Proposals must be submitted electronically by eligible Principal Investigator before deadline.
- Evaluation based solely on excellence criterion.
- Open access and FAIR data management required.
- Register and submit proposal via Funding & Tenders Portal.
- Select primary and optionally secondary evaluation panels.
- Prepare all required documents according to templates and page limits.
- Justify any request for additional funding.
- Ensure compliance with eligibility and admissibility conditions.
- Restrictions on applications and resubmissions apply; check ERC Work Programme.
- Principal Investigator must commit minimum 50% working time in EU/Associated Country and 30% on project.
- Additional funding requests not limited to specified cost categories despite guidance text.
- Beware of known submission system warnings for relocating Principal Investigators.
Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 7 Jul 2026, 12:18 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.
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Official source text
Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.
Topic description
Expected Outcome: Objectives and profile of the ERC Advanced Grant Principal Investigator The objective of the Advanced Grant is to support excellent Principal Investigators that are established research leaders. An ERC Advanced Grant Principal Investigator is expected to be an active researcher with a track record of significant research achievements. Size of ERC Advanced Grants Advanced Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 2 500 000 for a period of 5 years . The maximum amount of the grants is reduced pro rata temporis for projects of a shorter duration. Additional funding up to EUR 1 000 000 * can be requested to cover further eligible costs (e.g. start-up costs, major equipment, access to large facilities, major experimental and field work costs) when these are necessary to carry out the proposed work. The requests for additional funding must be duly justified in the proposal. Additional funding is not subject to pro rata temporis reduction for projects of shorter duration. * Except for Principal Investigators in Starting, Consolidator, or Advanced Grant re-locating to the EU or an Associated Country from elsewhere to take up their ERC grant. In this case, the maximum additional funding shall be EUR 2 000 000. The Advanced Grant is awarded as a single lump sum contribution for the entirety of the project (broken down by beneficiaries – where applicable) based on a realistic estimate of the actual cost of the project, and fully covering the work to be implemented in the proposed action. For further information, please see the ERC Work Programme 2026 .
Conditions and documents
General conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions:
The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in the ERC Work Programme 2026 under the heading 'Admissibility, Eligibility, Resubmission Restrictions' and in the ERC Rules of Submission and Evaluation under Horizon Europe. An overview is provided below:
Admissibility: A proposal must be complete (including all sections under 1.5 Proposal Submission and Description section), readable and accessible. It must be submitted electronically by a Principal Investigator fulfilling the eligibility criteria (section 1.4.2.2 Eligible Principal Investigator(s)) before the respective call deadline. Proposals that do not meet these criteria or do not include a statement of support may be declared inadmissible.
2. Eligibility
The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives and to the grant type set out in the call, as defined in the ERC Work Programme 2026 (section 1.1 Objectives of ERC Grant Schemes). If a proposal is considered not to relate to the objectives of the grant or call for proposals, it will be declared ineligible.
Eligible Principal Investigators: The ERC grant schemes are open to researchers of any age and nationality, residing anywhere in the world at the time of application, and wishing to carry out their research in one of the EU or Associated Country-based Host Institutions (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2026).
All Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Advanced Grant must spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country and a minimum of 30% of their working time on the ERC project.
Eligible Host Institution: Any type of legal entity, public or private, including a university, a research organisation or an undertaking can host a Principal Investigator and their team. The host institution (Applicant Legal Entity) must engage and host the Principal Investigator for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must be established either in an EU Member State or an Associated Country (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2026) as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an international European research organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), or any other entity created under EU law. International organisations with headquarters in an EU Member State or an Associated Country shall be deemed to be established in that Member State or Associated Country.
Eligible countries:
The conditions specific to the ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2026 under the heading 'Admissibility, eligibility and resubmission restrictions' and in Annex 3. An overview is provided below:
The ERC actions are open to researchers of any age and nationality, residing anywhere in the world at the time of application, and wishing to carry out their research in one of the EU Member State or Associated Country-based Host Institutions (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2026). Principal Investigators funded through the ERC frontier research grants shall spend a minimum percentage of their working time on the ERC project (30% for the Advanced Grant) and a minimum percentage of their working time in an EU Member State or an Associated Country (50%).
Eligible Scientific Field: Applications in any field of science are eligible for the ERC funding and the ERC welcomes research proposals of an interdisciplinary nature.
Restrictions on applications: Given the large number of applications received every year, and the need to uphold the quality and integrity of the evaluation process, restrictions apply. For further details please consult the ERC Work Programme 2026, heading 'Restrictions on applications’ and the corresponding Table 6 or the Frequently Asked Questions.
3. Proposal submission and description:
Proposals for Advanced Grant calls are submitted by the Principal Investigator, on behalf of the Host Institution (also referred to as the applicant legal entity); the responsibility for the research conducted as part of the project rests with the Principal Investigator.
The applicant shall choose a primary evaluation panel (as listed in Annex 1 in the ERC Work Programme 2026) and may also list a secondary evaluation panel. The applicant should indicate when they believe that the proposal is of a cross-panel or cross-domain nature.
Complete proposals must be submitted via the submission tool available through the Funding & Tenders Portal (to access the submission tool, you need to register first). More information can be found in the ERC Information for Applicants and in the ERC Work Programme 2026 under the heading ‘Proposal Submission and Description’.
Proposals that do not include some or all of the sections listed below may be declared inadmissible. A complete proposal consists of the following elements (with the following page limits):
· The Administrative form Part A (including the Ethics Issues Table and the Budget Section) is available in the submission tool below. The budget table and the justification of the Resources are part of this online form Part A (Section 3 - Budget). For more details, please refer to section 2.3 of the ERC Information for Applicants.
· Parts B (Part I of the Scientific Proposal, Curriculum Vitae and Track Record, Part II of the Scientific Proposal) and the Host Institution Support Letter templates are provided in the submission system as word-templates (they should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as PDF files).
· The Equipment Table template is provided in the submission system as an Excel template (it should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as an Excel file).
· Part I of the Scientific Proposal: up to 5 pages
· Part II of the Scientific Proposal: up to 7 pages
· Curriculum Vitae and Track Record: up to 4 pages
· Resources and Time Commitment: up to 2 pages
· Equipment Table
· Host Institution Support Letter
· Ethics Issues Table
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
Financial capacity: Please refer to the ERC Rules of Submission and Evaluation under Horizon Europe, section 4, ‘Award Decision and Preparation of Grant Agreements’.
Operational capacity: As indicated in the ERC Work Programme 2026: Applicants whose proposals are recommended for funding are deemed to fulfil the operational capacity requirements provided for in Article 201(3) of the EU Financial Regulation.
Exclusion: Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2026, section ‘Prior Information of Candidates, Tenderers, Grant Applicants, and Remunerated Experts: registration of information in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES)’: Applicants that are subject to the administrative sanction of exclusion or are in one of the exclusion situations set out by the EU Financial Regulation are banned from receiving EU grants and CANNOT participate.
5. Evaluation:
The conditions specific to ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2026 under the heading 'Evaluation criterion, elements and procedure’ and in the ERC Rules of Submission and Evaluation under Horizon Europe, section 3.6 The evaluation of ERC grants. An overview is provided below:
Evaluation criteria
For all the main grants, excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. The panels will primarily evaluate: the ground-breaking nature and ambition of the research project and, at the same time, the intellectual capacity and creativity of the Principal Investigator, with a focus on the extent to which the PI has the required scientific expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project. The detailed evaluation elements applying to the excellence of the research project and the Principal Investigator are set out in the ERC Work Programme 2026.
Evaluation procedure
The proposal is evaluated in two steps with interviews taking place at Step 2. The evaluation is carried out by peer review panels as listed in Annex 1 of the ERC Work Programme 2026. The panels may be assisted by independent external experts working remotely.
Evaluation Outcome
At the end of Step 1 of the evaluation, each proposal receives one of the following scores:
· A invited: the proposal is of excellent quality and ranked sufficiently high to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation;
· A not invited: the proposal is of excellent quality but not ranked sufficiently high to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation;
· B: the proposal is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation;
· C: the proposal is not of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation.
At the end of Step 2 of the evaluation, the proposal receives one of the following scores:
· A: the proposal fully meets the excellence criterion and is recommended for funding should sufficient funds be available;
· B: the proposal meets some but not all elements of the excellence criterion and will not be funded.
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement:
Please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2026 under the heading 'Table 1: Provisional Details on the Main Calls for Proposals under Work Programme 2026’.
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants:
During the grant preparation stage, the consortium will be asked to prepare the grant agreement, together with the EU project officer. This grant agreement will set out the framework for the grant and its terms and conditions, particularly concerning deliverables, reporting and payments. The applicable model with the complete text of the provisions is available on the topic page, together with the other call documentation.
Please refer to the Multi & Mono Grant Agreement for Lump Sum Grants and Annex 5 of the MGA used for ERC actions under Horizon Europe (HE General MGA).
7. Open Science:
Under Horizon Europe, all beneficiaries (including those of ERC grants) must ensure immediate open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to their results as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. Open access must be provided with full re-use rights. Beneficiaries must ensure that they or the authors retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with their open access requirements. Publishing costs can be considered as eligible costs provided that the publishing venue (e.g., journal, book) is fully open access.
In addition, beneficiaries of ERC grants funded under this Work Programme will be covered by the provisions on research data management as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. In particular, whenever a project generates research data, beneficiaries are required to manage it in line with the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability as described by the ‘FAIR principles’ initiative, and establish a data management plan within the first six months of project implementation. Open access to research data should be ensured under the principle 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary'. These provisions are designed to facilitate access, re-use and preservation of the research data generated during the ERC funded research work.
Specific conditions
Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grant 2026 call
ERC Guide for Peer Reviewers (Advanced Grant 2026 call)
ERC Historical Data on Personnel Costs for Lump Sum Evaluations
Application and evaluation forms and model grant agreement (MGA):
Application form templates — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE ERC ADG)
Model Grant Agreements (MGA)
Additional documents:
Support information
Call documents: ERC Work Programme 2026 Standard application form (HE ERC ADG) Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grant 2026 call ERC Guide for Peer Reviewers (Advanced Grant 2026 call) ERC Historical Data on Personnel Costs for Lump Sum Evaluations ERC Rules of Submission and Evaluation under Horizon Europe Multi & Mono Grant Agreement for Lump Sum Grants HE General MGA Additional documents: EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509 Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement List of Participating Countries in Horizon Europe Support ERC 2026 Advanced Grant Applicants' Mailbox - for queries related to the call. Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant. Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management. Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular. ERC National Contact Points (NCPs) – get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’). IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc. European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues. The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.
Raw budget overview
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