Press release
ERC Advanced Grants: 253 top researchers awarded over €624 million
26 April 2022
Cover image of ERC  Advanced Grants: 253 top researchers awarded over €624 million

The statistics of these call and lists of researchers selected for funding have been amended.
See updated results.

The European Research Council today announced the winners of its 2021 Advanced Grants competition. The funding, worth in total €624.6 million, will go to 253 leading researchers across Europe. Their work is set to provide new insights into many subjects, such as using mathematics to find better ways to use antibiotics and chemotherapy, how to protect the biodiversity of islands, exploring the Cosmic Dawn, and understanding how language sounds change over time. 

 

 

ERC Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent scientists and scholars in any field at the career stage when they are already established research leaders, with a recognised track record of research achievements. 

Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The ERC Advanced Grants support ground-breaking researchers throughout Europe. It gives our talents the possibility to realise their creative ideas. Their pioneering work contribute to solve the most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges.” 

President of the ERC Prof. Maria Leptin commented: “Congratulations to the new grant winners in the latest round of ERC Advanced Grants! By following their scientific curiosity, these senior researchers are pushing the frontiers of our knowledge in a wide range of fields. It’s essential to fund this type of cutting-edge research to keep Europe at the scientific forefront.” 

Researcher locations

 

The future grantees will carry out their projects at universities and research centres across 21 EU Member States and associated countries, with researchers based in Germany (61 grants), the UK (45)*, the Netherlands (27), and France (26) in the lead in absolute numbers.
 

Researcher nationalities and gender

 

ERC competitions are open to researchers of any nationality and, in this round, 28 different nationalities  won funding. 1 735 applicants submitted proposals, of which 20.8% were female researchers. The share of women among researchers awarded Advanced Grants has been steadily increasing from around 10% in 2014 to more than 25% in the latest competition.

 

Employment opportunities

 

Apart from strengthening Europe’s knowledge base, the new research projects will also lead to the creation of some 2 300 new jobs for post-doctoral fellows, PhD students and other research staff.

Figures and illustrations of successful proposals

Lists of researchers selected for funding

Researchers in the UK

 

The statistics and final list of successful candidates are provisional. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom provides for the possibility of associating the United Kingdom to the current EU research and innovation funding programme, known as Horizon Europe, subject to the adoption of a Protocol. As this Protocol has not been adopted so far, the UK is still considered to be “non-associated” to Horizon Europe. The successful proposals of applicants based in a country in the process of associating to Horizon Europe will be eligible for funding only if the relevant Horizon Europe association agreement applies by the time of the signature of the grant agreement. However, successful applicants from UK host institutions can still be funded provided they move to a host institution in an eligible country.

 

About the ERC

 

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Since 1 November 2021, Maria Leptin is the President of the ERC. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel.

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