ERC Advanced Grants (ERC-2026-ADG)

ERC Advanced Grants (ERC-2026-ADG) is sponsored by European Research Council (ERC) / Horizon Europe. Advanced Grants are awarded to excellent Principal Investigators who are established research leaders with a recognized track record of significant research achievements. The grants support groundbreaking, high-risk, high-gain research projects.

ERC Advanced Grant - Funding for Established Research Leaders Are you an established, leading principal investigator who wants long-term funding to pursue a ground-breaking, ambitious project? The ERC Advanced Grant could be for you. Applicants for the ERC Advanced Grants - called Principal Investigators (PI) - are expected to be active researchers who have a track-record of significant research achievements .

The Principal Investigators should be exceptional leaders in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions. No specific eligibility criteria with respect to the academic requirements are foreseen. What proposals are eligible?

Applications can be made in any field of research. The ERC's grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities. Research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation (known as a 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 . Applications for an ERC grant require a single Principal Investigator (PI) to submit the application 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. 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. Vacancies for team members interested in joining an ERC led research project, can be published on the Euraxess-Jobs portal. Initiatives, under the form of 'Implementing Arrangements', exist for ERC-funded teams in Europe to host non-European talented scientists.

Find out more about the agreements . UK’s participation in Horizon Europe Advanced Grants may be awarded up to € 2. 5 million for a period of 5 years .

(pro rata for projects of shorter duration). However, an additional € 1 million can be made available to cover eligible “start-up” costs for researchers moving from a third country to the EU or an associated country and/or the purchase of major equipment and/or access to large facilities and/or other major experimental and field work costs.

To further encourage the submission of excellent proposals by Principal Investigators currently based in non-associated third countries, the ERC has decided to double the amount of additional funding that can be awarded to Advanced Grant applicants moving to the EU or an associated country to take up their ERC grant. In this case, the maximum additional funding shall be € 2 million.

An ERC grant can cover up to 100% of the total eligible direct costs of the research plus a contribution of 25% of the total eligible costs towards indirect costs. Advanced Grants will be implemented as a pilot call using a lump sum contribution. See Q&A on lump sums .

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 this page, the EU Funding & Tenders Portal and in the Official Journal of the European Union. 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. 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. 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. How does the ethics review work?

In order to ensure that the excellent science we fund is in line with ethical principles and relevant Union, 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, each proposal that is selected for funding must undergo an ethics review.

This is a legal requirement under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme - Regulation 2021/695: Eligible actions and ethical principles (Article 18) and Ethics (Article 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: Performed internally by ERCEA staff To clear proposals without ethics issues or with simple ethics issues Panels of Independent ethics reviewers Identification of proposals with potentially Serious and/or Complex ethics issues The 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.

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. 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. Task 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 each call there are 28 panels, each covering a sub-section of one of three domains: 2.

Physical and Engineering Sciences (PE) 3. Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) Each ERC panel consists of a chairman and 10-16 members. The panel chair and the panel members are selected by the ERC Scientific Council on the basis of their scientific reputation.

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 published, however, after the evaluation process is concluded. See dynamic platform for ERC funded projects and evaluated proposals is a user-friendly interface with powerful filter options. You can effortlessly filter by funding scheme, country, year, panel, and more.

Plus, export results and graphs to further analyze and showcase your findings. Searching for data on ERC funded projects and proposals? You can use two different platforms for views and analysis of ERC funded projects and evaluated proposals.

This dashboard allows you to: Filter by multiple criteria: Refine your search by funding scheme, country, year, panel, and more Export data: Export results and graphs data for further analysis and presentation Discover how to use the ERC dashboard with the quick start guide ERC Research Information System (ERIS) ERIS provides advanced features to analyze research data: Rich filters: Apply filters on any available data field for more precise searches Text mining: Use text mining capabilities to uncover patterns and insights Dynamic visualizations: Access a variety of visual tools, including interactive word clouds and clustering tools Project outputs & bibliometrics: Search and view comprehensive data on project outputs and bibliometrics Export data: Export results and graphs data for further analysis and presentation Interested to learn more?

Watch our instructional videos describing the full ERC grant application and evaluation process, step by step. How to get started with your ERC grant? Thinking about applying for an ERC grant?

In this video, Line Volkers, shares key advice on how to get started, from what makes an ERC grant unique to the essential steps in the application process. Whether you're just exploring or already preparing your proposal, this video will help you understand what to expect and how to prepare effectively. How can you write your ERC proposal?

Learn how to write the scientific and administrative parts of your ERC application, what questions to ask yourself, and how to avoid common pitfalls. With practical tips from Daniele Mammoli, Scientific Officer at the ERC Executive Agency. How is your ERC proposal evaluated?

In this video, Lucía Rubio Fernández walks you through the entire ERC evaluation process — from panel selection to interviews. Learn who reviews your proposal, how decisions are made, and how to best prepare each part to increase your chances of success. How can you prepare effectively for your ERC interview?

Nervous about your ERC interview? You're not alone but you're in the right place. In this video, Odeta Limaj, walks you through the full ERC interview process and shares tips to help you feel confident and prepared.

Why care about ethics in your ERC proposal? In this video, Alejandro, Ethics Officer at the ERC Executive Agency, guides you through what ethics really means in the context of your application. From identifying potential ethical issues to understanding the review process, you'll get clear, practical advice to help you build a strong, ethically sound proposal.

Publication date: 28 May 2026 Timeframe Advanced Grant 2026 ERC Work Programme 2026 | 2027 Info for applicants AdG 2026 Gender Equality Plans guidance ERC personnel costs data for lump sum evaluations Watch the webinar on lump sums Slides of the ERC Advanced Grants 2024 Applicants’ Webinar For questions contact your National Contact Point or the ERCEA See all evaluation panels List of all selected researchers Lists of selected researchers by domain: Physical Sciences and Engineering Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Grants 2025: Examples of projects ERC Advanced Grants: Nearly €840 million to support Europe’s leading researchers Applications for ERC Advanced Grants 2025: Facts and figures Webinar on ERC Work Programme 2026 - Part 1