Frequently asked questions

Under the ERC Work Programme 2023, in the context of a POC project, the situation for additional participants/beneficiaries from non-associated third countries is different for PoC compared to ERC main grants.

In contrast with the main ERC grants, there is no provision allowing for this possibility for PoC projects under the ERC Work Programme 2023. The applicable provision for PoC calls is Article 23.2.(b) of the Regulation establishing the Horizon Europe programme applies, i.e.:

“Legal entities established in a non-associated third country shall bear the cost of their participation. However, a legal entity established in (…) non-associated third countries, shall be eligible for funding in an action if: (…) the Commission or the relevant funding body considers that the participation of the legal entity concerned is essential for implementing the action.”

Therefore, in accordance with this provision, for POC projects, the participation with EU funding of entities established in non-associated third countries is limited to entities whose participation is deemed essential.Applicants to the 2023 ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) call can therefore still include a beneficiary/participant from a non-associated third country, but EU funding may only be granted to this beneficiary/participant if their participation is deemed essential for implementing the action.

Yes, under the ERC Work Programme 2023, ERC PoC grants can be transferred to a new beneficiary, as described in Article 41 of HE Lump sum Model Grant Agreement.

Yes, Synergy Grant (SYG) Principal Investigators are eligible to apply to the ERC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, only with the written consent of all Principal Investigators in the same Synergy Grant project (see ERC Work Programme 2023). Please note that the ERCEA may request the applicant PI at any time during the evaluation, to provide proof of the written consent obtained prior to the call submission deadline.

If the proposal is retained for EU funding, all applicants will be requested to sign a declaration of honour (see in the online e-submission form, Part A, under Section 1 - General Information: specific declaration (mandatory field)), as regards the consent obtained from participants and researchers. You can refer also to our Information for Applicants guidance.

Yes, under the ERC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, submitting an application with a spin-off company as Host Institution (HI) is feasible, as long as it complies with the eligibility criteria for an eligible HI defined in the ERC Work Programme 2023. The HI of the ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) proposal does not have to be the same as the HI of the main frontier research Grant.

Under the ERC Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) Grant call, given the shorter length (in comparison to ERC main Frontier Research Grants), the project report is required only once, at the end of the project, and will combine the technical and financial aspects in one single document. Article 21 of the Multi & Mono Model Grant Agreement for Lump Sum Grants defines the reporting requirements. The ERC PoC report must be prepared and submitted online via the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Yes, under the ERC Work Programme 2023, the financial contribution will be awarded as a lump sum of EUR 150 000 for a period of 18 months. The ERC expects that normally ERC-2023-PoC projects should be completed within 12 months. However, to allow for those projects that require more preparation time, grant agreements will be signed for 18 months. Given this initial flexibility, extensions of the duration of proof of concept projects may be granted only exceptionally. More information can be found in the Multi & Mono Model Grant Agreement for Lump Sum Grants.

For ERC Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) Lump Sum actions, beneficiaries do not need to keep records on their actual costs for the purpose of triggering the payment of the lump sum. They only need to keep appropriate and sufficient evidence (documentation, records) that the action tasks (as described in Annex 1) were properly carried out. For more information, please refer to the Multi & Mono Model Grant Agreement for Lump Sum Grants.

The Principal Investigator (PI) should be engaged by the Host Institution of the ERC PoC Grant during its entire duration. There is no minimum commitment percentage of the working time required from the PI applying for the ERC-2023-PoC call. However, in the grant agreement, PIs must enter a minimum of their working time, as they are responsible for managing the ERC PoC project. It is essential that the cumulative percentage commitment that the PI spends on the ERC PoC action and on the main ERC StG/CoG/AdG/SyG Grant (if still ongoing) does not exceed 100%. For more information please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2023.

For the ERC Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, although it is not mandatory to provide the names of individual team members or their CVs, the PoC plan needs to include justification that the persons working on the tasks are well qualified for the purpose. The description of the team needs to be filled in the Part B form – section 1b.iii. Plan of the proof of concept – Description of the Action – Description of the team. More information on the submission and evaluation procedures can be found in the ERC Work Programme 2023, in the section relevant to the call, as well as in the Information for Applicants to the Proof of Concept Grant 2023 Call.

The Proof of Concept grant is evaluated based on the sole criterion of excellence, which comprises three evaluation elements. Reviewers will evaluate independently each eligible proposal submitted under the ERC PoC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, and mark it as "very good", "good" or "fail" for each of the three evaluation elements. The applicants are provided with feedback on the outcome of the evaluation through an information letter and an evaluation report. The evaluation report indicates whether the proposal is retained for funding or not, and provides an overall "pass" or "fail" status for each of the three evaluation elements, the ranking range of the proposal in the final ranked list of all evaluated proposals and the written assessment of the evaluation elements by each external independent expert. More information on the evaluation procedure can be found in the ERC Work Programme 2023, in the section relevant to the call.

No, time sheets are not needed for the contractual obligations of an ERC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) project. For more information, please refer to the Multi & Mono Model Grant Agreement for Lump Sum Grants.

There are no shares or quotas by domain or discipline for the ERC Proof of Concept) 2023 call. No domain or field is excluded and the possibility for innovation arising from the social sciences and humanities to apply for a PoC funding is fully recognised. As stated in the ERC Work Programme 2023: “Research proposals within the scope of Annex I to the Euratom Treaty, namely those directed towards nuclear energy applications, shall be submitted to relevant calls under the Euratom Research & Training Programme.”

According to the ERC Work Programme 2023, applications to the ERC-2023-PoC can be submitted at any time from the opening date of the call until its final deadline and will be evaluated and selected in three rounds, based on three specific cut-off dates. A Principal Investigator may submit only one eligible application per call. If further submissions are made at different cut-off dates of the ERC-2023-PoC call, only the first admissible and eligible proposal will be considered (inadmissible, ineligible or withdrawn applications do not count against this limit).

Under the ERC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, a maximum of three Proof of Concept Grants may be awarded per main grant project, except for Synergy Grant, in which case a maximum of six Proof of Concept Grants may be awarded per ERC funded project. PoC projects can run in parallel, provided they comply with the eligibility conditions set out in the Work Programme under which they have been awarded. More information on the submission and evaluation procedures can be found in the ERC Work Programme 2023, in the section relevant to the call, as well as in the guide Information for Applicants to the Proof of Concept Grant 2023 call.

Yes, an applicant can submit to the ERC-2023-PoC call and at the same time to one of the four main ERC frontier research call (since the restrictions stated in the ERC Work Programme 2023 do not apply to PoC Grants). Nevertheless, a researcher can apply for a PoC grant ONLY if he/she is already the grantee in one ERC main frontier research grant. For more information, please refer to the eligibility criteria for PoC in the ERC Work Programme 2023.

Principal Investigators (PIs) with different profiles can apply to the ERC-2023-PoC call at any career stage. For ERC Proof of Concept grants, excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. It will be applied in conjunction to the evaluation of both: the breakthrough innovation potential, approach and methodology of the project; and the strategic lead and project management of the Principal Investigator. PIs must demonstrate in their PoC Part B proposal, their ability to conduct the management of the project, the consolidation of information and data needed to take strategic decisions and implement the proposed plan, including risks and contingency measures. The PIs should describe their role in the PoC project, including how they will take the strategic lead of it. They should explain any experience or achievements in leading similar innovative projects (if applicable) and how this enables them to lead their PoC project to completion. If the PIs do not have any experience with similar projects, they should explain how they are fit to lead their proof of concept project (e.g. evidence of creativity, independent thinking, and taking strategic decisions). More information on the submission and evaluation procedures can be found in the ERC Work Programme 2023, in the section relevant to the call, as well as in the Information for Applicants to the Proof of Concept Grant 2023 Call, and Part B of the proposal template.

Yes. Unlike the main Frontier Research (StG, CoG, AdG, SyG) grant calls, there are no eligibility conditions to apply for a PoC linked to the results of proposals submitted to a previous PoC call. Therefore, the PI who applied to the call ERC-2022-PoC1 and/or ERC-2022-POC2 calls, and whose proposal was not selected for funding may apply to ERC-2023-PoC, provided they fulfil eligibility conditions as stipulated in the ERC Work Programme 2023.

Yes, under ERC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, all Synergy Grant Principal Investigators (PI) from an ERC Synergy (SyG) funded project are eligible to apply to an ERC PoC proposal as Principal Investigator (PI), but only with the written consent of all Principal Investigators in the same Synergy Grant project. Principal Investigators may submit only one proposal under the Work Programme 2023 Proof of Concept call. If further submissions are made at different cut-off dates, only the first admissible and eligible proposal will be considered. A maximum of six Proof of Concept Grants may be awarded per ERC SyG funded project. More information on the submission and evaluation procedures can be found in the ERC Work Programme 2023, in the section relevant to the call, as well as in the Information for Applicants to the Proof of Concept Grant 2023 Call.

For the ERC 2023 Proof of Concept (ERC-2023-PoC) call, applicants submit the whole proposal that is evaluated in a single step by the independent external experts. The experts will review the Part B proposal and annexes with letters of support or intent. They will also have access to a simplified budget report based on the budget figures entered in Part A. For more information on the evaluation process, please refer to ERC Work Programme 2023.

According to the conditions of the ERC Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) 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 Principal Investigator (PI) may indicate a secondary relevant evaluation 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 applicant 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 2023.

For the ERC Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) 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 also indicate a secondary evaluation 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 2023. The primary panel structure is also indicated in Annex 1 to the ERC Work Programme 2023.

All Work Programmes evaluate the quality of open science practices under the “excellence” and “quality and efficiency of the implementation” award criteria, except the European Research Council (ERC) which does not explicitly include open science in the evaluation.

Note that the open science obligations set by the Model Grant Agreement (Article 17) do however also apply to the ERC grants, with the exception of the following which do not apply under the ERC Work Programmes 2021-2023:

• the obligation to give access to data or other results if needed to validate the conclusions of a publication. Such obligation applies to all other Programmes provided that the beneficiaries' legitimate interests or constraints are safeguarded.
• the additional provision on access in cases of public emergency. Such a provision states that in cases of public emergency, if requested by the granting authority, immediate open access to all research outputs must be provided under open licenses or, if exceptions apply, access under fair and reasonable conditions to legal entities that need the research outputs to address the public emergency.

There is a strict prohibition of double funding from the EU budget and any given action may receive only ONE grant from the EU budget. Cost items may under NO circumstances be declared to two different EU actions. However, there is an exception for this under EU Synergies actions.

Additionally, we discourage the use of EU Synergies actions under ESF-2022-SOC-INNOV as they are not IT supported for this action.

There is no requirement to use 'green open access' rather than 'gold open access'. If an ERC funded researcher opts for 'gold open access' although 'green open access' would be possible within the maximum acceptable delay of six months, costs related to APCs are still eligible, provided that they have been incurred during the lifetime of the project and that they are in line with the general rules for eligibility of direct costs as described in the Grant Agreement (see Article II.14.1.d of the General Conditions of the ERC Grant Agreement, Single and Multi-Beneficiary). If 'gold open access' is chosen, the publication must still be deposited in a repository for scientific publications and open access must be provided immediately to that deposited version (no embargo period).

Yes, every Principal Investigator (PI) involved in a Synergy Grant (SyG) proposal must be engaged and hosted by a Host Institution. In general, the Host Institutions should be established in one of the EU Member States or Associated Countries for at least the full duration of the project. In the ERC-2023-SyG call, with the exception of the corresponding Host Institution, it is possible to have one PI applying with a Host Institution outside the EU or Associated Countries. The Principal Investigators (PIs) must also spend 50% of their time in Europe, except the PI who will be hosted in an institution outside the EU or Associated Countries. Other institutions outside European Union or Associated Countries may be involved as additional beneficiaries to the grant and may even receive funding, provided that their participation is deemed essential for carrying out the action and that they are not covered by Council sanctions as set in Annex 3 to the ERC Work Programme 2023. In addition, their presence must be well justified in the proposal. More information about the ERC-2023-SyG call is available in the ERC Work Programme 2023.

The ERC Synergy Grant (SyG) funding scheme imposes few eligibility constraints on applicants. There are no constraints regarding academic degrees, thus a PhD degree is not formally required. However, please be aware that this is an extremely competitive call. Although the Synergy group is evaluated as a whole, each applicant Principal Investigator ideally should be competitive at a level corresponding to their career stage in an individual ERC grant. More information about the ERC-2023-SyG call and eligibility requirements is available in the ERC Work Programme 2023 and Information for Applicants to the Synergy Grant 2023 Call.

When applying to the ERC Advanced Grant (AdG) 2019 call, it is recommended that the researcher provides evidence of recent achievements of intellectual productivity and creativity. If a researcher returned to their original or new project(s) following a sabbatical leave, the reviewers are asked to take such circumstances into consideration.

For maternity, the track record considered can be extended by 18 months for each child born before or during the last ten years.

For paternity, the track record considered can be extended by the actual amount of paternity leave taken for each child born before or during the last ten years.

For long-term illness, clinical qualification or national service the track record considered can be extended by the amount of leave taken for each incident which occurred during the last ten years.

For more information, please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2019 or the Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grants 2019 call.

The Principal Investigators (PIs) with different profiles can apply to the ERC-2019-SYG call as long as they have competitive track records appropriate to their career stage. PIs must then present, as part of the proposal, either an early achievement track-record or a 10-year track-record, whichever is most appropriate for their career stage (cf. Starting, Consolidator, Advanced Grant profiles in the ERC Work Programme 2019).

For an ERC Synergy (SyG) grant, a minimum two and maximum four Principal Investigators (PIs) can apply.

More information about the ERC-2019-SYG Grant Call is available in the ERC Work Programme 2019.

Yes, any Principal Investigator (PI) involved in a Synergy Grant (SyG) proposal must be engaged and hosted by a Host Institution. In general, the Host Institutions should be established in one of the EU Member States or H2020 Associated Countries (AC) for at least the full duration of the project. In the 2019 SyG call, with the exception of the corresponding Host Institution, it is possible to have one PI applying with a Host Institution outside of the EU or H2020 Associated Countries.

The Principal Investigators (PIs) must also spend 50% of their time in Europe, except the PI who will be hosted be an institution outside of the EU or AC.

Institutions outside Europe may be involved, as additional beneficiaries to the grant, and may even receive funding provided that their participation is deemed essential for carrying out the action, but only as additional partners under the heading of one of the European based PIs. In addition, their presence must be well justified in the proposal.

More information about the ERC-2019-SYG Grant Call is available in the ERC Work Programme 2019.

The ERC Synergy Grant (SyG) funding scheme imposes very little eligibility constraints on applicants. A PhD degree is not formally required. However, please be aware that this is an extremely competitive call.

More information about the ERC-2019-SYG Grant Call and eligibility requirements is available in the ERC Work Programme 2019 and Information for Applicants to the Synergy Grant 2019 Call.

According to the conditions of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2019 call, the applicant must choose a primary evaluation panel and may also indicate a secondary evaluation panel. He/she should indicate when he/she believes that his/her proposal is of a cross-panel or cross-domain nature.

In most cases the proposal will be evaluated by the primary panel indicated by the applicant. However, if the scope of a proposal does not correspond to the expertise of the primary panel, the proposal can be reallocated to another panel, if the panel chairs of the original and the new panel unanimously agree to do so.

For more information on the ERC-2019-CoG call, please refer to the ERC Work Programme 2019.

For the ERC Consolidator Grant 2019, Step 1 of the peer review evaluation process is based only on the extended synopsis, the Principal Investigator's CV and the track record (Part B1 only), and peer reviewers do not have access to the full scientific proposal. At Step 2, the peer reviewers base their assessment on the complete versions of the retained proposals - Part B1 and Part B2 (the scientific proposal). 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 ERC Work Programme 2019 (section 'Evaluation procedure and criteria').

For the ERC Consolidator Grant 2019, the applicant must choose a primary evaluation panel and may also indicate a secondary evaluation panel. He/she should indicate when he/she believes that his/her proposal is of a cross-panel or cross-domain nature.

Further explanations can be found in the Information for the applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2019 Calls. The primary panel structure and description is also described in Annex 1 of the ERC Work Programme 2019.

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 of the team that will carry out the proposed activities.

Further explanations can be found in the Information for the applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2019 Calls.

During each step of the ERC Consolidator Grant 2019 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 marks they have received and on the panels' overall appreciation of each proposal's strengths and weaknesses.

At the end of Step 1 of the evaluation, on the basis of the assessment of Part B1 of the proposal, applicants will be informed that their proposal:

1. is of sufficient quality to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation;
2. is of high quality but not sufficient to pass to Step 2 of the evaluation; or
3. 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 proposal, applicants will be informed that their proposal either:

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

More information on the results of the peer review evaluation can be found at section 3.7 of the ERC Rules for Submission and Evaluation.

Applicants may also be subject to restrictions on submitting proposals to future ERC calls based on the outcome of the evaluation. Applicants will need to check the restrictions in place for each call (for 2019 calls, see restrictions on submission of proposals under 'Eligibility criteria' of the ERC Work Programme 2019).

In addition, once the evaluation of their proposal has been completed, applicants will receive an evaluation report which will include the ranking range of their proposal out of the proposals evaluated by the panel, the panel comment explaining the panel decision as well as the individual comments given by each reviewer (for more details, see Information for applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant 2019 Calls).

More information on the evaluation procedure can also be found in the ERC Work Programme 2019 section relevant to the call.

The limit of 15 pages applicable to the ‘Scientific Proposal’ as per the ERC Work Programme 2020 will apply to Part B2 and the descriptive part of the resources (Section C. Resources).The text box for Section C. Resources has a maximum length of 8000 characters (including spaces). Please note that 4000 characters, font size 11, single line spacing, correspond to one A4 text page.Therefore if Section C. Resources was 8000 characters equal to 2 pages, the remaining page limit for Part B2 would be 13 pages.The budget table itself does not count towards the page limit.

According to the conditions of the ERC 2020 Consolidator Grant (ERC-2020-COG) call, the budget section contains the table of the proposal budget including the total estimated project costs and the requested EU contribution for the project. The budget table will provide automatically one budget line per beneficiary. The budget is subdivided in personnel costs, travel, equipment, consumables, publications (including any costs related to Open Access), other additional direct costs, internally invoiced goods and services, costs of in kind contributions not used on the beneficiary’s premises, and any envisaged subcontracting costs. The costs should be given in whole Euros (not kilo Euros). Please carefully check all values of the budget table. Please note that while the total estimated eligible costs in the budget table are calculated automatically, the requested EU contribution has to be filled manually.

We recommend applicants to describe and justify the requested resources heading by heading using the terminology of the budget table. If additional funding is requested for the project, describe and justify the request clearly under a separate dedicated heading. Bear in mind that unjustified budgets will be reduced.

More explanation can be found in the guidelines of the Information for Applicants document to the Starting and Consolidator 2020 Grants (pages 19-20).

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 budget section contains the proposal budget including the ‘total eligible project costs’ and the ‘Requested EU contribution’ for the project. The budget is subdivided in personnel costs, travel and subsistence, equipment, consumables, publications (including any costs related to Open Access), other additional direct costs, internally invoiced goods and services, and any envisaged subcontracting costs. The budget table will provide automatically one budget line per beneficiary. Applicants should indicate the costs for each cost category as accurately as possible using only Euro integers.

In case the ‘total eligible costs’ differ from the ‘requested EU contribution’, specify in the Resources section what exactly is funded from other sources.

Applicants should carefully check all the values of the budget table. The ‘Total eligible costs’ of the project will be automatically calculated based on the figures inserted in the individual columns. The ‘Requested EU contribution’ has to be filled in manually. Please make sure to update the ‘Requested EU contribution’ if updates are made in any of the cost categories.

In the Section C. Resources, the applicant should state and fully justify the amount of funding considered necessary to fulfil the objectives for the duration of the project. The project cost estimation should be as accurate as possible. The evaluation panels assess the estimated costs carefully; unjustified budgets will be consequently reduced.

Applicants should:

• Take into account the dedicated working time to run the project when estimating personnel costs. They should describe the size and nature of the team, indicating, where appropriate, the key team members and their roles. The participation of team members engaged by other host institutions should be justified and in relation to the additional financial cost this may impose.
• Include a short technical description of any requested equipment, why they need it and how much they plan to use it for the project.
• Include a realistic estimation of the costs for Open Access to project outputs. Costs for providing immediate Open Access to publications (article processing charges/book processing charges) are eligible if they are incurred during the lifetime of the project.
• Specify the cost items covered by 'Other personnel costs' category as well as ‘Other additional direct costs' category if applicable.
• As regards ‘Internally invoiced goods and services’, costs for host institution invoices and invoices for other entities should be included under this heading e.g. access to large facilities, access to other services that are charged as unit costs.
• Specify the requested amount for additional funding if applicable (all items MUST be included in the overall budget table under the relevant individual columns) and they should justify the request.
• Specify if they will use third parties giving in-kind contributions to the action (if applicable).

More explanation can be found in the ERC Information for Applicants.

The ERC Synergy Grant (SyG) funding scheme imposes few eligibility constraints on applicants. There are no constraints regarding academic degrees, thus a PhD degree is not formally required. However, please be aware that this is an extremely competitive call. Although the Synergy group is evaluated as a whole, each applicant Principal Investigator ideally should be competitive at a level corresponding to their career stage in an individual grant. More information about the ERC-2022-SyG call and eligibility requirements is available in the ERC Work Programme 2022 and Information for Applicants to the Synergy Grant 2022 Call.