According to the conditions of the ERC Starting Grant 2021 call, the only eligible career breaks that can be considered for the extension of the eligibility window are: maternity or paternity leave (before or after PhD award), long-term illness (over ninety days for the Principal Investigator or a close family member) (after PhD award), clinical training (after award of first eligible degree and by up to 4 years max.), national service (after PhD award). All these circumstances need to be properly documented. Please find below examples of such documents:
For maternity: birth certificate(s) or passport(s) of the child(ren), family book or any other official document that links the mother and the child(ren). For extension requests above 18 months per child, an official signed document from the employer certifying start and end date(s) of the individual leave(s) must be submitted. Any document should mention the reason for the leave. If the leave was conducted as a part-time leave this should be stated. It is acceptable if the time off work happened over several periods.
For paternity leave taken: an official signed document from the employer certifying start and end date(s) of the individual leave(s); an official document proving the PI's right to social paternity benefits can also be accepted. Any document should mention the reason for the leave. If the leave was conducted as a part-time leave, this should be stated. It is acceptable if the time off work happened over several periods.
For clinical training: an official document signed by the employer (usually a hospital) certifying start and end date(s) of the individual training period(s). Any document should mention the type of training. If the training was conducted part-time, this should be stated. It is acceptable if the training happened over several periods and for different clinical specialties.
For long-term illness (over ninety days for the Principal Investigator or a close family member such as a child, spouse, parent or sibling):
- For the PI: an official, signed document from the employer certifying start and end date(s) of the individual leave(s) or a medical record that indicates work incapability with the start and end date(s) of the illness period(s). Any document should mention the reason for the leave. If the leave was conducted as a part-time leave, this should be stated. It is acceptable if the time off work happened over several periods, as long as the leaves were related to the same illness or condition.
- For taking care of close family members: an official signed document from the employer certifying start and end date(s) of the individual leave(s). Any document should mention the reason for the leave. If the leave was conducted as a part-time leave, this should be stated. It is acceptable if the time off work happened over several periods, as long as the leaves were related to the same illness or condition. Furthermore, the request should be supported by an official document explaining the long-term nature of the illness or condition of the applicant or the close family member (e.g. from a hospital, a doctor or an insurance company). The supporting documents should also prove the family relationship in case the extension request relates to caring for a seriously ill close family member.
For national service: a document signed by official authority with start and end date of the service.
For clinical training, an extension can be granted corresponding to the documented amount of clinical training received by the Principal Investigator (PI) after the award of the first eligible degree up to a maximum of 4 years (counting up until the call deadline). For applicants whose first eligible degree is a degree in medicine, clinical training can be accepted from the date of the completion of their medical degree. No extension will be accepted for serving as a house doctor or hospital doctor unless it is part of a clinical training programme. In case of part-time clinical training, the exact total training time will be accepted on a pro-rata basis to extend the eligibility window of the applicant.
Supporting documents: an official document signed by the employer (usually a hospital) certifying start and end date(s) of the individual training period(s). Any document should mention the type of training. If the training was conducted part-time, this should be stated. It is acceptable if the training happened over several periods and for different clinical specialties.
According to the ERC Work Programme 2021, the date of the first PhD considered for the calculation of the eligibility period shall be the date of the actual award according to the national rules in the country where the degree was awarded. This rule is explained further in Information for Applicants document to Starting and Consolidator Grant 2021 Calls (section 1.2 Admissibility and eligibility/Principal Investigator):
The reference date towards the calculation of the eligibility period should be the date of the actual award according to the national rules in the country where the degree was awarded (generally, the date of successful defense/viva). The issue date of the PhD certificate is not to be confused with the award date of the PhD.
In case of applicants having been awarded several PhDs, the reference date is the award date of the first PhD. In case of degrees in medicine considered equivalent to a PhD, the certified date of the medical degree completion plus two years is the time reference for calculation of the eligibility time-window. For more information, see section 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' of the ERC Work Programme 2021 and its Annex 2.
According to the ERC Work Programme 2021, in order to be eligible to apply to the ERC Starting Grant 2021 Call, a Principal Investigator must have been awarded a PhD or equivalent doctoral degree. It is recognised that there are some other doctoral titles that enjoy the same status and represent variants of the PhD in certain fields. All of them have similar content requirements. First professional degrees will not be considered in themselves as PhD-equivalent, even if recipients carry the title "Doctor". For more information, please consult Annex 2 ‘ERC policy on PhD and equivalent doctoral degrees’ in the ERC Work Programme 2021 - and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2021 Calls.
According to the ERC Work Programme 2021, for medical doctors (or applicants holding a degree in medicine), a first degree in medicine will not be accepted by itself as equivalent to a PhD award. To be considered an eligible Principal Investigator, applicants holding a degree in medicine need to provide the certificates of both the medical degree and a PhD or proof of an appointment that requires doctoral equivalency (e.g. post-doctoral fellowship, professorship appointment). Additionally, applicants must also provide information on their research experience (including peer reviewed publications) in order to further substantiate the equivalence of their overall training to a PhD. In these cases, the certified date of the medical degree completion plus two years is the reference date of the actual award used for the calculation of the eligibility time period established for Starting Grant in the section "Eligible Principal Investigator". For more information, see sections 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and Annex 2 ERC policy on PhD and equivalent doctoral degrees' of the ERC Work Programme 2021 and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2021 Calls.
According to the conditions of the ERC Starting Grant 2021 call, for applicants holding a degree in medicine who have been awarded both a degree in medicine and a PhD, the date used for the calculation of the eligibility period (i.e. medical degree plus two years or PhD award date) is the date of the earliest degree that makes the applicant eligible. For more information please consult the ERC policy on PhD and equivalent doctoral degrees in the ERC Work Programme 2021 – Annex 2 and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2021 Calls.
No, according to the conditions of the ERC Starting Grant 2021 call, the Principal Investigator must have been awarded a PhD or equivalent doctoral degree to be eligible. First-professional degrees will not be considered in themselves as PhD-equivalent, even if recipients carry the title "Doctor". For more information please consult the ERC policy on PhD and equivalent doctoral degrees in the ERC Work Programme 2021, Annex 2 and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2021 Calls.
According to the conditions applied to the ERC frontier research Grants 2021, there are four main restrictions to be considered for Principal Investigators in this regard:
These restrictions are specified in the ERC Work Programme 2021 and may be modified in future work programmes by the ERC Scientific Council in the light of experience. Please note however that it is possible to participate in more than one ERC grant as a team member.
According to the conditions of the ERC Starting Grant 2021 call, it is the applicant’s responsibility to choose and indicate the most relevant ERC Panel (‘primary evaluation panel’) for the evaluation of the proposed research and to indicate one or more ERC key words representing the research fields involved. The Principal Investigator (PI) may indicate a second relevant panel. The initial allocation of the proposal to a panel will be based on the preference expressed by the applicant. However, when necessary due to the expertise required for the evaluation, a proposal may be reallocated to a different panel with the agreement of both panel chairs concerned. The composition of the ERC evaluation panels are by nature multi-disciplinary. The primary allocated panel will determine if additional reviews by appropriate members of other panel(s) or additional remote experts are needed. The applicant should indicate when they believe that their proposal is of a cross-panel or cross-domain nature. Further explanations can be found in the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2021 Calls.
For the ERC Starting Grant 2021, Step 1 of the peer review evaluation process is based only on Part B1 (the extended synopsis, the Principal Investigator's CV and the track record) and peer reviewers do not have access to the full research proposal. At Step 2, the peer reviewers base their assessment on the complete versions of the retained proposals – Part B1, Part B2 and section 3 – Budget and time commitment from section 5 – Other questions (included in the online submission form). Please note that experts do not have access to any supporting documentation during the evaluation. For more information on the evaluation process, please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2021 (section 'Evaluation procedure and criteria').
