You can develop your career through public funding linked to ERC projects, even if you do not receive an ERC Grant.
There are 4 routes for this:
- Jobs in ERC teams: Recipients of ERC grants can use their funding to recruit other researchers and team members for their project. On average, each team has 4-5 members. Since its inception, ERC funding has helped create jobs for thousands of researchers.
- Visiting Research Fellowships: A number of European countries fund research visits to established ERC projects in order to develop researchers’ potential before they apply for their first ERC grant.
- International Arrangement funding: International agreements with funding agencies and science ministries in China, South Africa, the United States and some other countries support early-career researchers to temporarily join ERC teams in Europe.
- Mentoring Initiative : the mentoring initiative will boost existing support programmes for ERC applicants by helping to identify international experts to provide coaching and advice.
Jobs in ERC teams
Who can apply?
Conditions vary according to the position offered.
How to apply?
Look for jobs on the EURAXESS portal, using the European Research Council (ERC) filter. Jobs in ERC-funded projects might also be published without the ERC tag and can be advertised on other websites and in journals.
If you find a job that interests you, apply to the Principal Investigator (PI) at the institution hosting the project — the Host Institution — using the contact details in the job advertisement.
If you need to relocate to another country to pursue your research career, your local or regional EURAXESS centre can also provide advice on matters such as visa formalities, work permits, accommodation and social security for countries in Europe.
ERC for Ukraine. The ERC has appealed to its grantees to provide temporary employment to refugee researchers and support staff, such as technician and lab managers, from Ukraine. Check the ERC for Ukraine job offers.
Visiting Research Fellowships
Visiting Research Fellowship placements are available via national or regional funding agencies. Funding covers all costs of the research visit including salary, travel and reasonable subsistence costs. However, you must apply for an ERC grant after the visit within a time specified in your funding agreement.
Who can apply?
Conditions vary according to each national or regional funding agency’s requirements and the positions available in ERC research teams.
Currently the following Visiting Research Fellowship programmes are in place:
- Bucharest (Romania), Politehnica University of Bucharest (UPB) More Information
- Croatia, with the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) More information
- Estonia, with the Estonia Research Council (ETag) More information
- Flanders (Belgium), with the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) More information
- Hungary, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)
- Italy, National Research Council (CNR) More information & University of Venice-Ca’ Foscari More information
- Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (MoESTD) More information
- Slovak Republic, with the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) & Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice (UPJS). More information
- Slovenia, with the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) More information
National and/or regional authorities who want to set up a programme can consult the guidelines. New programmes are added to this scheme after endorsement by the ERC Scientific Council.
How to apply?
Placements in ERC-funded projects are available following ERC calls for Principal Investigators (PIs) to express an interest in hosting visiting research fellows. The ERC then sends each funding agency a list of interested PIs or teams, with a description of their projects.
- Find out whether you are eligible for one of the national funding programmes.
- Apply directly to a funding agency for a programme for which you are eligible.
- If you are accepted, the agency will tell you which placements are available.
- You can then contact the PI offering a placement to express an interest in working in the research team.
- When you and the PI have agreed on the details, the Host Institution will send a ‘letter of intent’ or ‘support letter’ on behalf of the PI to your funding agency to apply for funding
- Your funding agency can then fund you to work on the project.
Send any general questions about the implementation of these programmes to erc-visiting-fellowship-programmes@ec.europa.eu. Send specific questions about how to apply or your application to your local funding agency.
The first call to PIs for expressions of interest was launched on 1 September 2016. Further calls are expected to take place every year in June.
International Arrangement funding
International Arrangement funding is available via national funding agencies. These can be national funding bodies or science ministries.
Who can apply?
You can be of any age and work in any discipline as long as you are an early-career scientists supported by non-European funding agencies.
Conditions vary according to funding agency’s requirements and the positions available in ERC research teams.
Currently the following Implementing Arrangements are in place:
- Argentina
Signed in March 2015 with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation
Read more: agreement ES|EN, press highlight
For the interested CONICET-funded scientists, see more here
- Australia
Signed in February 2019 with the Australian Research Council (ARC)
Read more: agreement, press release
Signed in October 2018 with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Read more: agreement, press release
- Brazil
Signed in October 2016 with the Brazilian National Council of the State funding agencies (CONFAP)
Read more: agreement EN, press highlight, leaflet
- Canada
Signed in October 2016 with the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat
Read more: agreement, press highlight EN|FR
- China
Signed in June 2015 with the National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC)
Read more: agreement ZH|EN, press highlight
For interested NSFC-funded scientists, see more here
- India
Signed in October 2020 with the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)
Read more: agreement, press highlight
Signed in October 2017 with the Scientific Engineering Research Board (SERB)
Read more: agreement, press highlight
- Japan
Signed in November 2020 with the Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) of Japan
Read more: agreement EN, press release
Signed in October 2018 with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)
Read more: agreement, press release
Signed in May 2015 with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Read more: agreement EN, press release
For the interested JSPS-fellows, see more here
- Korea
Signed in November 2013 with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning
Read more: agreement, press highlight
- Mexico
Signed in November 2015 with the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt)
Read more: agreement ES|EN, press highlight
- Singapore
Signed in October 2019 with the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF)
Read more: agreement, press release
- South Africa
Signed in October 2015 with the National Research Foundation (NRF)
Read more: agreement EN
-
Thailand
Signed in September 2022 with the Programme Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B)
Read more: agreement, press highlight - United States
Signed in July 2012 with the National Science Foundation (NSF),and renewed in October 2019
Read more: agreement, press release
Further arrangements of this kind will be added in the future.
How to apply?
Positions in ERC-funded projects are available following ERC calls for Principal Investigators (PIs) to express an interest in hosting early-career scientists supported by non-European funding agencies. The ERC then sends each funding agency a listing of interested PIs or teams, with a description of their projects.
- Find out whether you are eligible for funding under one of the International Arrangements.
- Apply directly to the relevant funding agency.
- If you are accepted, it will tell you which opportunities are available.
- You can then contact the PI offering a position to express an interest in working in the research team.
- When you and the PI have agreed on the details, the Host Institution will send a ‘letter of intent’ or ‘support letter’ on behalf of the PI to your funding agency to apply for funding
- Your funding agency can then fund you to work on the project.
Send any general questions about the implementation of these programmes to ERC-IMPLEMENTING-ARRANGEMENTS@ec.europa.eu. Send specific questions about how to apply or your application to your local funding agency.
Each funding agency follows its own criteria and procedure for selecting scientists for funding under their Implementing Arrangement. The ERC does not intervene in this selection.
Calls normally take place in October each year. Main grants (Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants and Advanced Grants) and Synergy Grants that have at least 18 months until the end of the project are eligible.
ERC Mentoring Initiative
ERC Mentoring Initiative is available via local offices in the EU Member States and Associated Countries whose mentoring requests were accepted by the ERC.
Who can apply?
The ERC Mentoring Initiative targets local offices in the EU Member States and Associated Countries that organise, region/nation-wide, hands-on sessions for pre-selected Principal Investigators (PIs) preparing an ERC research proposal.
ERC support will consist of identifying ERC grantees and former panel members who could serve as external mentors to help the pre-selected PIs to strengthen the quality of their application, enabling them to get expert scientific feedback on their proposal (or mock interviews) before submission. National/regional offices are envisaged to participate.
The programme is not intended to serve individual research organisations.
Conditions for PIs preparing an ERC research proposal vary according to each national/regional office’s requirements and the potential mentors identified by ERC.
Currently, the following ERC Mentoring Initiatives are in place:
- Cyprus - Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF)
- Czech Republic - Czech National Expert Group (NEG) for the ERC
- Estonia - Estonian Research Council (ETAg)
- Hungary - Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA)
- Italy - National Research Council (CNR)
- Malta - Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST)
- Poland - National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), National Science Centre (NCN) and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP)
- Slovakia - Horizon National Office - Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CVTI SR)
- Turkey - Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK)
Further initiatives of this kind will be added in the future.
How to apply?
National/regional offices
National and/or regional offices who want to benefit from this initiative can consult the guidelines.
The local offices in charge of the national/regional support programme should coordinate their participation in the ERC Mentoring Initiative with the National Contact Points; National Contact Points will serve as the primary contact to the ERC concerning the local offices.
The proposal of maximum two pages should include:
- General information on the office and on the type of support provided to potential ERC applicants;
- Motivation for participating in the ERC Mentoring Initiative.
The deadline for the first round of expression of interest for national/regional offices to participate in the initiative was 23 April 2021. A new call for expression of interest will be announced here in the future. Interested national and/or regional offices will submit proposals to participate in the ERC Mentoring Initiative to their National Contact Point.
National Contact Points should submit proposal on behalf of national/regional offices to the mailbox: ERC-MENTORING-INITIATIVE@ec.europa.eu. Send any general questions about the implementation of these programmes to ERC-MENTORING-INITIATIVE@ec.europa.eu.
PIs preparing an ERC proposal can send specific questions about how to get mentoring for their ERC application to their national/regional office.