In specific circumstances indicated in the ERC Work Programme 2022, the applicant Principal Investigator (PI) may present their achievements over a period longer than the past ten years. Those circumstances should be factual and clearly reported under the header ‘Career breaks’ in the CV section of Part B1 for the ERC-2022-AdG call. The following circumstances can lead to the extension of the track record beyond 10 years: maternity leave (18 months or, if longer, the amount of leave actually taken until the call deadline, for each child born before or during the last ten years), paternity leave (the actual amount of leave taken until the call deadline for each child born before or during the last ten years), long-term illness, clinical qualification or national service (actual amount of leave taken until the call deadline, during the last ten years).
Frequently asked questions
To be eligible for calls with deadlines in 2022, legal entities from an EU Member State (MS) or Associated Country (AC) must have a gender equality plan (GEP) or an equivalent strategic document in place. This information will not be provided to the evaluators and it will not be evaluated.
In the Part A online submission form, there is a ‘yes/no’ tick box question that the Host Institution (HI) contact person must fill in. Only public bodies, higher education institutions (including private research organisations and private higher education institutions) must answer this question. This answer will not affect the evaluation of the project. In case the proposal is selected for funding, the HI must have a GEP or an equivalent strategic document in place for the duration of the project. The GEP or equivalent must fulfil the mandatory requirements listed in Annex 5 of the ERC Work Programme 2022 and will be necessary before the signature of the grant agreement.
Under call ERC-2022-AdG, only Section 3 - Budget of the administrative form (Part A) containing the budget table, description of resources and time commitment (extracted from section 5 of Part A) will be available to the experts evaluating the proposal. The evaluators will have no access to the rest of the administrative form.
No, a PhD is not required to submit a proposal to the ERC Advanced Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-AdG) call. As specified in the ERC Work Programme 2022, excellence is the sole criterion for the evaluation of a proposal. A competitive Principal Investigator (PI) is expected to have outstanding research results within the last ten years. For more information, please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2022, or the Information for Applicants relevant for the call.
Yes, this is possible as long as the Principal Investigator (PI), at the time of submission, is supported by one organisation acting as Host Institution (applicant legal entity) based in an EU Member State or an Associated Country, committing itself, through the Host Institution support letter, to host and engage the Principal Investigator for the whole duration of the action as well as to ensure that the project will be performed under the guidance of the Principal Investigator who is expected to devote 30% of their working time to the ERC funded project. Specific circumstances, where the minimum time requirement of the call (30%) results from the sum of more than one employment contract of the PI with different organisations, may be accommodated in case the proposal is selected for funding. Other organisation(s) hosting team members should be referred to as (an) additional partner(s) in the proposal and their details should be given in the administrative proposal submission form in the Funding & Tenders Portal.
Yes, a Principal Investigator (PI) engaged in the US or in any third country can apply for an ERC Advanced Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-AdG) call, as long as they will be engaged and hosted by a Host Institution based in an EU Member State or an Associated Country for the whole duration of the grant (see the ERC Work Programme 2022 for the eligibility conditions). Principal Investigators funded through the ERC Advanced Grants call have to spend a minimum of 50% of their total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country and a minimum of 30% of their total working time on the ERC project (see the ERC Work Programme 2022 for the Advanced Grant Profile).
No, according to the conditions applied to the ERC frontier research Grants 2022, researchers serving as Panel Chairs or Panel Members for the ERC-2022-AdG, or who served for the ERC-2020-AdG call, cannot apply to the ERC-2022-AdG call (see the ERC Work Programme 2022).
A Principal Investigator (PI) can apply for an ERC Advanced Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-AdG) call even if they do not yet have ten years of research experience. However, applicants for the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant are expected to be active and established research leaders and have a track record of recent outstanding research achievements which must be presented in the application. For more information on the expected profile of the Advanced Grant applicant, please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2022 or the Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grant 2022 call.
Applicant PIs returning to active research following a period in another profession or sabbatical leave, can apply to the ERC Advanced Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-AdG) call. They should clearly describe their unconventional careers, professional gaps and any career break in the CV section of Part B1 of their ERC proposal. The reviewers are asked to take such circumstances into consideration. Principal Investigators applying to the ERC Advanced Grant 2022 (ERC-2022-AdG) call are expected to be active researchers and to have a track record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years which must be presented in the application. A competitive Advanced Grant Principal Investigator must have already shown a record which identifies them as an exceptional leader in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions and should be able to demonstrate their established role in the chosen field by meeting at least one of the benchmarks listed in the ERC Work Programme 2022 or the Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grant 2022 call, in the last ten years or longer period in case of career breaks.
Yes, under call ERC-2022-AdG, team members can be hosted by other research organisation(s). The research organisation(s) should be referred to as (an) additional partner(s) in the research proposal and their details should be given in the administrative proposal submission form (Part A) in the Funding & Tenders Portal.