European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants 2005 views

European Research Council (ERC) is offering Starting Grants to researchers of all nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD, a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.

Requirements:

• Applications can be made in any field of research.
• The ERC’s grants operate on a ‘bottom-up’ basis without predetermined priorities.
• Research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation (known as a Host Institution/HI). It could be the HI where the applicant already works, or any other HI located in one of the EU Member States or Associated Countries
• Applications for an ERC grant must be submitted by a single Principal Investigator (PI) in conjunction with and on behalf of their Host Institution, called the applicant legal entity.
• Grants are awarded to the Host Institution with the explicit commitment that this institution offers appropriate conditions for the Principal Investigator independently to direct the research and manage its funding for the duration of the project.
• Any type of legal entity, including universities, research centres and undertakings can host the PI and his/her team. Legally the host institution must be based in one of the EU Member States, or one of the associated countries.
• The PI does not necessarily need to be working at the host institution at the time when the proposal is submitted. However, a mutual agreement and the host institution’s commitment on how the relationship will be established are necessary, should the proposal be successful.
• ERC grants support projects carried out by an individual researcher who can employ researchers of any nationality as team members. It is also possible to have one or more team members located in a non-European country.

Grants value: up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years. (pro rata for projects of shorter duration).

How to apply:

• ERC grant applications can only be submitted in response to a Call for Proposals.
• The ERC has yearly calls for proposals covering all scientific fields.
• For an ERC grant application to be complete, it needs to include the administrative forms, the research proposal and the supplementary documents. The completed proposal should be submitted by the specified closing date.