Frequently asked questions

According to the conditions of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) 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 keywords representing the research fields involved. The 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 applicants 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 to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022.

According to the ERC Work Programme 2022, 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 Consolidator 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 2022 and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022.

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 to the ERC-2022-COG call 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 2022, 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 to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022 (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 defence/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 2022 and its Annex 2.

Prospective applicants to the 2023 Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls should note that the ERC is aiming to change the PhD reference date for the calculation of the eligibility period from the date of the actual award according to the national rules of the country where the degree was awarded to the date of the successful PhD defence. Whenever the PhD certificate does not show the PhD defence date, applicants should provide a written confirmation from the awarding institution stating the said date. This change will bring both clarity to the prospective candidates and significant simplification to the eligibility process.

According to the conditions of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) call, only the eligible career breaks set in the ERC Work Programme 2022 can be considered for the extension of the eligibility window: 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. Information on the circumstances mentioned above and the supporting documents that need to be submitted together with the proposal can be found in the Information for applicants 2022 document.

During each step of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 evaluation, the two main elements of the proposal (Principal Investigator and research project) will be evaluated and rated. At the end of each evaluation step, the proposals will be ranked by the panels on the basis of the panels' overall appreciation of their strengths and weaknesses . At the end of Step 1 of the evaluation, on the basis of the assessment of Part B 1, the proposal will receive one of the following scores:

• A, is of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation;
• B, is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation; or
• C, is not of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation.

At the end of Step 2 of the evaluation, on the basis of the assessment of the full research proposal, applicants will be informed of one of the following scores for their proposal either:

• A, fully meets the ERC's excellence criterion and is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available; or
• B, meets some but not all elements of the ERC's excellence criterion and will not be funded.

Once the evaluation of their proposal has been completed, applicants to all grants will receive an evaluation report which will include the final panel score and ranking range, the panel comment and the assessment of the evaluation elements by each individual independent external expert.

More information on the results of the peer review evaluation can be found in the ERC Rules of submission and evaluation under Horizon Europe (section 3.8 'Feedback to applicants').

For the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) call, the applicant must choose and indicate the most relevant ERC Panel (‘primary evaluation panel’) for the evaluation of the proposed research and indicate one or more ERC keywords representing the research fields involved. Applicants may indicate a second relevant panel. They 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 to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022. The primary panel structure is also indicated in Annex 1 to the ERC Work Programme 2022.

For the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) call, 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 Information for Applicants document and ERC Work Programme 2022 (section 'Evaluation procedure and criteria').

No, according to the conditions of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) 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 2022, Annex 2 and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022.

According to the ERC Work Programme 2022, in order to be eligible to apply to the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) 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 2022 - and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022.

The budget table and the justification of the Resources will not count towards the page limit of Part B2 anymore. Since 2021 calls they form part of the section 'Resources and Time Commitment' with a page limit of 2 pages.

The budget table and description of resources are part of the online submission form Part A (Section 3 – Budget). The section C. resources has a maximum length of 8000 characters (including spaces) which corresponds approximately to 2 pages. Please refer to section 2.3 of the Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022 document for further instruction on how to draw up the budget.

The budget table and description of resources (as well as time commitment of the PI to the project) will be extracted from the online submission form Part A (Section 3 – Budget; section 5 - Other questions) and made available to the experts evaluating the proposal. Please see Annex 4.6 of the document Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022 for an example of the Proposal Budget Report. It shows how experts will see the information entered in relevant sections of Part A.

According to the conditions of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) 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 2022 – Annex 2 and section 4.3 of the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2022 Calls.

As indicated in the ERC Work Programme 2022, for the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) call, the eligibility periods can be extended in case of specific and properly documented circumstances. In case of maternity, the Principal Investigators (PIs) may request 18-months extension for each child born before or after the PhD award. If the applicant can document a longer maternity leave, the eligibility period will be extended by the documented amount of actual leave taken until the call deadline. The ERCEA is trying to follow the national rules in order to accommodate different couple/family scenarios. Hence, for the partner who was entitled to ‘maternity leave’ according to the national rules we would apply the same, provided that it is properly documented. If, in light of the above, the male applicant considers that he should be entitled to the extension based on maternity leave, he should make the case and together with his application submit all relevant supporting documentation, including also documents from the national Social Security scheme (see more details on the supporting documents in the Information for Applicants document).

According to the ERC Work Programme 2022: “A researcher participating as Principal Investigator in one of the main frontier research grant may not submit a proposal for a main ERC grant, unless the existing project ends no more than two years after the call deadline. [NB According to the duration of the project fixed in the previous grant agreement of the main frontier research grant].” Therefore, you will only be eligible for the ERC-2022-COG call if your current project finishes before 17 March 2024. Please note that in case at some point you request and are granted an extension to the current project, your application to the ERC-2022-COG call will become automatically ineligible if, with such extension, the project’s duration goes beyond the two years after the ERC-2022-COG call deadline.

Only the extension circumstances listed in the ERC Work Programme 2022 are eligible. For the ERC-2022-COG call, no specific extension due to COVID-19-related circumstances is listed among the eligible reasons for extension. However, even if COVID is not among the valid reasons for the eligibility extension, it might have led to a situation that could be the basis for granting such an extension (e.g. a documented (part-time) leave to take care of the children during the school closure, due to lock-down or a documented medical condition of the PI or a close family member due to COVID-19 together with the related leave taken).

Please note that in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the ERC Work Programme 2022, applicants may mention in their research proposal (Curriculum Vitae) any specific situation caused by the pandemic that had a negative impact on their CV or track record. The applicants will be able to declare any delays or gaps in scientific productivity related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Part B1 template, in an objective manner (see also an ERC announcement).

For the ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-COG) call, the budget table and description of resources are part of the online submission form Part A (Section 3 - Budget). The description and justification of the resources should be provided in the text box (Section C. Resources) under the budget table. The applicant should NOT include any description of resources or budget table in Part B2.

According to the conditions applied to the ERC 2018 frontier research Grants, there are three main restrictions to be considered for Principal Investigators (PIs) in this regard:

• A PI may submit proposals to different ERC frontier research Grant calls made under the same Work Programme, but only the first eligible proposal will be evaluated.
• A researcher may participate as PI or Co-Investigator in only one ERC frontier research project at any one time (NB: A new frontier research project can only start after the duration of the project fixed in a previous frontier research grant agreement has ended).
• A researcher participating as PI in an ERC frontier research project may not submit a proposal for another ERC frontier research grant, unless the existing project ends no more than two years after the call deadline (NB: This is according to the duration of the project fixed in the previous frontier research grant agreement).

These restrictions are specified in the ERC Work Programme 2018 and may be modified in future Work Programmes by the ERC Scientific Council in light of experience.

As a team member, it is possible to participate in more than one ERC Grant.

According to the conditions applied to the ERC frontier research Grants 2022, there are four main restrictions to be considered for Principal Investigators in this regard:

• A researcher may participate as Principal Investigator [Including all Principal Investigators supported under the Synergy Grant] in only one main frontier research grant at a time. A new main frontier research grant project can only start after the duration of the project fixed in a previous grant agreement for one of the main frontier research grant has ended.
• A researcher participating as Principal Investigator in one of the main frontier research grant may not submit another proposal for a main ERC grant, unless the existing project ends no more than two years after the call deadline. [NB According to the duration of the project fixed in a previous grant agreement of the main frontier research grant]
• A PI who is a serving Panel Member for a 2022 ERC call or who served as a Panel Member for a 2020 ERC call may not apply to a 2022 ERC call for the same type of grant. [NB: As an exception to this rule, Principal Investigators who are not serving as Synergy Grant 2022 panel members can apply to the 2022 Synergy Grant call even if they served as Panel Members for the 2019 or 2020 Synergy Grant calls. The members of the ERC panels alternate to allow panel members to apply to the ERC calls in alternate years]
• A Principal Investigator may submit proposals to different main frontier research grant calls published under the same Work Programme, but only the first eligible proposal will be evaluated.

These restrictions are specified in the ERC Work Programme 2022. The Scientific Council may decide in the light of experience that different or comparable restrictions will apply in subsequent years.

The CVs of individual team members should not be included. Although it is not mandatory to provide the names of individual team members, the proposal should describe the composition and nature of the team that will carry out the proposed activities. If the applicant decides to mention in the proposal the names of the team members, the applicant must obtain prior written consent by each mentioned team member. This consent should refer to the team member's participation and the content of the proposal, as well as of any researcher mentioned in the proposal as participating in the project, should the proposal be funded.

Further explanations can be found in the document Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant Calls 2022 and ERC Rules of submission and evaluation under Horizon Europe.