This webpage on the ERC Plus Grant call is provided for informational purposes only, pending the adoption of the updated Work Programme 2026 by the European Commission. The updated work programme, which will confirm the content of this webpage, is expected to be adopted in January 2026.
The new funding scheme, ERC Plus Grants, is planned to support outstanding researchers from Europe and anywhere in the world with bold ideas and a vision for transformative research that goes beyond the scope of existing ERC programmes. The funding for this new grant scheme was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her speech of 5 May 2025 on the ‘Choose Europe’ initiative.
The ERC Plus Grant supports outstanding principal investigators who address major scientific challenges. Applications for ERC Plus Grants should be for projects that could not be carried out with a regular ERC grant. Applicants should explain how the proposed project goes beyond the scope of a regular ERC project, for example because it aims to transform the field or open new avenues of research.
Applicants should be aware that every year, only some 30 ERC Plus Grants can be awarded across all fields and all career stages, compared to approximately 1 000 Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants. This level of competitiveness should be taken into account when considering whether to submit an application.
1. Who can apply?
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 Host Institutions based in the EU or associated country.
Scholars at all career stages can apply for an ERC Plus Grant if they have an outstanding record of scientific achievement at the forefront of their field. Their intellectual leadership will be evaluated in accordance with their career stage. A researcher will be allowed to hold only one ERC Plus Grant in their lifetime.
2. What proposals are eligible?
Criteria
Applications can be made in any field of research. The ERC's grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities. Given the large number of applications received every year, and the need to uphold the quality and integrity of the evaluation process at the ERC, restrictions apply also to the ERC Plus call under the ERC Work Programme 2026 .
Location
Research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation (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.
Host Institution
Applications for an ERC grant must be submitted by a single Principal Investigator (PI) on behalf of their Host Institution.
The Host Institution must offer suitable conditions for the PI to independently lead the research and manage funding. The PI can be hosted by any legal entity in an EU Member State or associated country.
The PI does not need to be employed by the Host Institution at the time of proposal submission, but a mutual agreement and commitment are necessary if the proposal is successful.
PI and team
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. The Principal Investigator of an ERC Plus Grant must commit to dedicate at least 30% of their working time to the project and spend minimum 50% of their working time in the EU or an associated country.
3. Grant size and duration
ERC Plus Grants are awarded for a minimum of four years (48 months) and up to seven years (84 months) with no reduction for projects that are shorter than seven years. The maximum grant size is €7 million with no possibility to request additional funding.
4. Cost coverage
ERC Plus Grants are awarded as a single lump-sum contribution for the entire project. See Q&A on lump sums. For lump sum grants, a single lump sum contribution will be awarded, broken down by beneficiaries where applicable. It will be based on a realistic estimate of the project’s actual costs and will fully cover the work to be carried out under the proposed action.
Applicants to the ERC Plus Grant call must prepare their budget by including only those costs that would be considered eligible under an actual cost grant, i.e. the project-eligible direct costs and a flat rate of 25% of the direct cost categories that qualify for the calculation of indirect costs under the rules of Horizon Europe.
5. How to apply?
ERC grant applications can only be submitted in response to a call for proposals.
The ERC has annual 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 needs to be submitted by the specified closing date.
Calls are published on EU Funding & Tenders Portal and in the Official Journal of the European Union.
- Step by step
Before the call is published:- Find out which ERC grant and which call is suitable for you.
- Identify the Host Institution and team members you would like to work with. (see also the online research partner search services)
- Contact the National Contact Point (NCP) in your country for support.
Once the call is open:
- Read the call documents carefully.
- Contact the Host Institution and gather all the details you need for the application.
- Start writing your proposal. Allow time for other people to review your draft. Your NCP, peers and other scientists can all give you helpful support and feedback.
- Familiarise yourself with the EU submission service. This is the online system through which proposals must be submitted.
- Submit your proposal as early as possible. Deadlines cannot be changed under any circumstances. You can update your submitted proposal any time before the deadline by simply submitting a new version, which will overwrite the old one.
- You will get an ‘acknowledgement of receipt’ by e-mail for each submission.
After the deadline:
- The ERC will check whether your proposal meets the call’s eligibility criteria.
- External experts will evaluate all the eligible proposals.
- You will receive further information as your proposal progresses through the evaluation. For more information we invite you to consult the timeframe for the current call.
- If your proposal is selected for funding it will undergo an ethics review. This is a straightforward process and only in certain complex cases you will be asked for additional information.
6. How does the ethics review work?
Each proposal that is selected for funding must undergo an ethics review to ensure that the ERC funded research is in line with ethical principles and relevant EU, national and international law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This is a legal requirement under the Horizon Europe programme (Articles 18 and 19). The basis for this ethics review is Part A (including the Ethics Issues Table – EIT – and the Ethics Self-Assessment – ESA) and Part B of the application. A well-detailed ESA is crucial to facilitate the process as it clarifies what issues are linked to the proposed research activities and how these will be dealt with.
- The ethics review comprises 3 stages
- Ethics pre-screening
Performed internally by ERCEA staff
To clear proposals without ethics issues or with simple ethics issues
Ethics screening
Panels of independent ethics reviewers
Identification of proposals with potentially serious and/or complex ethics issuesThe clearance of proposals with non-serious and/or complex ethics issues can include observations and references to documents to be kept on file and provided to ERCEA, upon request only.
After the screening panel, applicants might be contacted to provide additional information on the ethics handling of their proposals. This typically happens one week after the screening panel and applicants are given 3 weeks to reply.
- Ethics assessment
Panels of independent ethics reviewers
Discussion of the serious and/or complex ethics issues of the proposals
In case a follow-up of certain serious and/or complex ethics issues is needed during the project implementation, ethics deliverables might be formulated.
Please note that research proposals involving the use of hESCs will need to undergo all of the steps of the ethics review and also a specific EC approval following a consultation to the HE programme committee comitology procedure, as this is a legal requirement under HE framework programme.
- Ethics pre-screening
7. How does the evaluation process work?
Proposals are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers who assess them on the basis of excellence as the sole criterion. It will be applied to the evaluation of both the research project and the Principal Investigator in conjunction.
The panels will primarily evaluate:
the ground-breaking nature and ambition of the research project.
At the same time, the panels will evaluate:
the intellectual capacity and creativity of the Principal Investigator(s), with a focus on the extent to which the Principal Investigator(s) has the required scientific expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project.
For ERC Plus Grants, the past achievements of the applicants will be given more importance than for regular grants: the applicants are expected to be leaders in their field. Because ERC Plus Grants are open to applicants at all career stages, the evaluation panels will evaluate each applicant in accordance with their career stage.
ERC Plus Grant proposals will be evaluated in two steps with interviews taking place at Step 2. The evaluation is carried out by peer review panels. There will be no overlap between Step 1 and Step 2 panel members. The panels may be assisted by independent external experts working remotely.
At Step 1, the short form of the scientific proposal (Part 1), the Principal Investigator's CV and track record, and the Statement of Vision are assessed.
Based on the outcome of the assessment at Step 1, only proposals of the highest quality will be retained for Step 2 of the evaluation through a retained/not retained decision.
At Step 2, the complete research proposal is assessed, and the Principal Investigator presents their proposal at an interview to the ERC Plus Step 2 evaluation panel.
At the end of Step 2 of the evaluation, the proposal receives one of the following scores: A: (proposal fully meets the excellence criterion and is recommended for funding should sufficient funds be available), or B (proposal meets some but not all elements of the excellence criterion and will not be funded).
Proposals recommended for funding are funded by the ERC if sufficient funds are available. Proposals are funded in order of their rank in the ranking list.
All proposals recommended for funding are subject to an ethics review and, where appropriate, shall undergo a security appraisal.
- Tasks and composition of the evaluation panels
Peer reviewers are in charge of assessing and scoring the proposals. Those who pass the quality threshold are ranked. Depending on the call budget available, a budgetary cut-off applies to the ranking list and only the highest ranked proposals are offered an ERC grant until the call's budget has been used.For the ERC Plus call there are 28 panels acting in step 1, each covering a sub-section of one of three domains:
1. Life Sciences (LS)
2. Physical and Engineering Sciences (PE)
3. Social Sciences and Humanities (SH)
Each ERC panel consists of a panel chair and 12-18 members. The panel chair and the panel members are selected by the ERC Scientific Council on the basis of their scientific reputation.The step 2 of the ERC Plus evaluation will be conducted by a set of distinct panel members who will also run the step 2 interviews with the applicants promoted from the step 1 one evaluation.
In addition to the panel members (who act as “generalists”), the ERC evaluations rely on input from remote experts external to the panel, called referees. They are scientists and scholars who bring in the necessary specialised expertise.
Before the deadline of a call, the names of the panel chairs are published on the ERC website. Similarly, the names of panel members are also published. See dynamic platform for ERC funded projects and evaluated proposals is a user-friendly interface with powerful filter options.
You can filter by funding scheme, country, year, panel, and more. Plus, export results and graphs to further analyse and showcase your findings.
