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 2022 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 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 of the EU or Associated Countries. Other 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. In addition, their presence must be well justified in the proposal. More information about the ERC-2022-SyG call is available in the ERC Work Programme 2022.
Frequently asked questions
As a Research and Innovation Action, the interdisciplinary topic SC1-DTH-03-2018 should include testing and validation on a small-scale prototype. As it is clearly stated in the topic text, the validation should take place in real settings (at workplaces and at home as required).
It should, however, also allow for appropriate user involvement, even if the number of users may be small, in order to base the project's proof of concept on real user needs and to ensure end-user acceptance.
In addition, proposals may contain closely connected but limited demonstration or pilot activities.
Regarding the validation of effectiveness and usefulness of the solution, the proposal should include key performance indicators and appropriate metrics to measure the progress towards the expected impact, if successful.
In Horizon Europe, all interactions with ERCEA will take place online via the Funding & Tenders Portal (F&T Portal), under "My Area" (after EU Login). The handling of documents will be fully electronic as there is no need any more to exchange any paper document. The grants for the successful proposals submitted to the ERC 2023 calls (ERC-2023-STG, ERC-2023-COG, ERC-2023-ADG, ERC-2023-SYG, ERC-2023-PoC) will be prepared and then signed electronically. Requests of amendments will be prepared, submitted and either accepted or rejected electronically. All reports will have to be submitted for review via the F&T Portal. According to the various phases of the project lifecycle, the correct actors (HIs and/or PIs) will be informed via email that certain tasks must be performed in the F&T Portal. In case of the Synergy grants, the corresponding HI and PI are the main contacts with the Agency. Notwithstanding the above and in an effort to keep on offering a high level service, we strongly encourage both the HIs and the PIs to contact the respective Agency staff for discussion in an informal way about any changes in their respective action. This is of utmost importance in order to avoid cancellation of documents or requests that are incomplete or incorrect. The name and surname of the ERC officer responsible for the PI's grant can be found in the F&T Portal. The officer can be easily contacted via the messaging tool embedded in the F&T Portal, allowing the PI (corresponding PI for the Synergy grants) to communicate directly with the officer without having to use emails. Furthermore, the ERCEA has set up a helpdesk to provide Principal Investigators with assistance and guidance throughout the lifetime of the project. The helpdesk can be contacted by email at ERC-C2-PI-HELPDESK@ec.europa.eu.
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The European Research Council (ERC) Grant agreement provides guidance for grant holders on how to acknowledge ERC funding.In any communication activity, the European Union emblem/flag and ERC logo should be displayed and EU/ERC funding acknowledged. For projects funded by Horizon 2020: Three different model statements to acknowledge ERC funding and support are provided in the Model Grant Agreement. In particular, for scientific publications and dissemination activities, including open access, Article 29.4 provides the following text:"This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° xxxx/".For more information please see Articles 27.3, 28.2, 29.4, 38.1.2 of the ERC Model Grant Agreement for Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants (Multi- and Mono-Beneficiary) and for Proof-of-concept (Multi- and Mono-Beneficiary). For projects funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7): Two model statements to acknowledge ERC funding and support are provided in the Model Grant Agreement. In particular, a model statement to acknowledge ERC funding in scientific publication and dissemination activities (including open access) is provided in Article II.30: "The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC gran agreement n° xxxx". For more information, please see Articles II.3.1.e) and II.3.bis).1.e) respectively, II.12, II.28, II.30 of the General conditions to the ERC Grant Agreement (Single and Multi-Beneficiary) and Articles II.12, II.28 and II.30 of the General Conditions to the ERC CSA Grant Agreement.
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For ERC calls under Horizon Europe, the information requested in Part A on the career stage of the PI will not be provided to the reviewers of your proposal and will not be part of the evaluation. This data is gathered for statistical purposes and used to evaluate the Horizon Europe Programme as a whole.
During each step of the ERC Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) evaluation, the two main elements of the proposal (Principal Investigator [PI] 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 B1, 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 calls 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 Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) call, 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. In case the PI decides to put any names in the proposal, they should be aware of the obligation to obtain a written consent of all participants on their 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 before the submission of the proposal. Further explanations can be found in the documents Information for Applicants to the Starting and Consolidator Grant calls 2023 and ERC Rules of submission and evaluation under Horizon Europe.
For the ERC Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) 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 ERC Work Programme 2023 (section 'Evaluation procedure and criteria').
For the ERC Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) call, the budget table and the justification of the resources will not count towards the page limit of Part B2. They form a 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 2023 document for further information.
For the ERC Starting Grant 2023 (ERC-2023-STG) 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.