European Research Council (ERC)

About this programme

The European Research Council (ERC) awards grants, through a challenging European competition, for excellent scientific research across all fields, initiated/driven by investigators. It thus supports  ‘bottom-up’ research without predetermined priorities of a ground-breaking nature.

There are three types of grants which each support another phase in a researcher’s career, going from two years after the award of the PhD to an established research leader (Starting, Consolidator and Advanced grants). The Synergy grants address ambitious research problems with a group of two to four Principal Investigators (PIs) and their teams. The Proof of Concept grant is short-term complementary funding for recipients of the previous four main types of grants.

The 2025 work programme includes a call for each main frontier research grant, i.e. StartingConsolidatorAdvanced and Synergy Grant, plus a call for complementary funding for ERC Principal Investigators, i.e. the Proof of Concept Grant with two submission deadlines. The work programme contains also several other actions including public procurement, e.g. support to programme monitoring and evaluation, support to the Europe PMC initiative and assessment of the scientific impact of ERC-funded research.

The 2026 work programme includes a call for each main frontier research grant, i.e. StartingConsolidatorAdvanced and Synergy Grant, plus a call for complementary funding for ERC Principal Investigators, i.e. the Proof of Concept Grant with two submission deadlines and a prize contest for ERC Principal Investigators for the Public Engagement with Research award. The work programme contains also several other actions for call and programme monitoring and evaluation, support to the ERC Scientific Council, including public procurement e.g. for IT services related to ERC call management.

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Your NCP contact for this programme

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Margot Beereboom

margot.beereboom@fwo.be

+32 2 550 15 76

Your PC contact for this programme

Find the contact info on the site of WEWIS

The National Contact Points (NCPs) provide support, guidance, and practical information to potential applicants, helping them navigate funding opportunities and application processes.

The Programme Committee (PC) members represent their country in decision-making about the work programmes, evaluate implementation, and provide strategic input on priorities and calls.

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Work Programme & Calls

We offer a handy Excel file, weekly updated, containing an up-to-date overview of the Horizon Europe calls. call topics overview

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Testimonial

image of UNCHAIN - Revolutionising urban logistics & space management

UNCHAIN - Revolutionising urban logistics & space management

The UNCHAIN project, ‘urban logistics and planning: anticipating urban freight generation and demand including digitalisation of urban freight’ obtained funding from the Horizon Europe’s Mobility Cluster. The project focuses on breaking down data silos and promoting public-private data exchange across a unified European mobility data space, enabling more informed decisions and greater efficiency. The City of Mechelen is a partner in the project and takes on the role of ‘follower city’: it will work alongside the primary demonstration sites (in Madrid, Berlin and Florence) to maximize the geographical coverage and replicability of solutions across Europe. Mechelen aims to test 2 concrete solutions in the UNCHAIN project, with the aim to help addressing its current and future challenges in urban freight distribution.