The ERC’s mission is to encourage the emergence and deployment of a new generation of Europe’s research leaders. Through five types of grants, the ERC funds so-called frontier research—ambitious, high-risk projects that move the boundaries of current knowledge and aim for groundbreaking discoveries across all scientific disciplines.

ERC grants fall under Pillar I of the Horizon Europe programme, which focuses on excellent science. As such, the ERC supports projects led by individual researchers—referred to as Principal Investigators (PIs)—and their teams. Grants are associated with PIs rather than with their institutions. However, a PI must be employed by or have a contractual relationship with a host institution.

Preparing an application

In an ideal scenario, the applicant starts to prepare a few years ahead of submitting an application. The only evaluation criterion of the ERC is research excellence - of the proposed project and of the PI. This means that any researcher interested in applying for an ERC grant can direct their efforts to building a competitive CV and track record years in advance. 

In general, we recommend starting the process of preparing an application no later than 6 months before the deadline. The applicant needs ample time to write a persuasive project proposal, polish their CV and track record, tighten the screws of their budget and, most importantly, to consult their application with a National Contact Point (NCP) at the Technology Center Prague.

Grant call deadlines in 2025

The ERC grant application is submitted through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. The call for a specific type of grant is usually announced aprox. 3 months before its deadline. After finding the call under which you want to apply, don’t forget to download forms for the specific year. The application forms might change from one call to another and submitting an incorrect set would render your application inadmissible.

Application Evaluation

After the deadline passes, an application goes through the following stages of evaluation:

1. Admissibility and eligibility check: 
   - the application contains all mandatory parts and is legible,
   - the host institution is an eligible legal entity,
   - the date of PhD defense falls within the period specified by the call (only for StG and CoG); the eligibility period can be extended due to maternity or parental leave, long term illness or other special circumstances;
2. 1st round of evaluation
3. 2nd round of evaluation
4. Panel Interview

Rewarding submitted and successful applications

On 4th April 2025, USB launched a new scheme in support of ERC grant applicants. The scheme rewards the faculty of an applicant on two levels: 1) when the application passes the admissibility and eligibility check; 2) when an application is successful and receives a grant.

The 1st level is open to all PIs that submitted their application after the above mentioned date. The 2nd level is meant for PIs whose application was selected and awarded a grant also after the above mentioned date.

More information on how to apply within the reward scheme will be added in the upcoming days.

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This section is under construction. In the meantime, check out the ERC website.

This section is under construction. However, you can check out the MSCA website.

This section is under construction. In the meantime, you can check out which research infrastructures is USB already involved in.

This section is under construction. However, you can check out the EIC website.

This section is under construction. However, you can check out the EIT website.