The main objective of the European Research Council (ERC) is to promote high-quality research in Europe by funding long-term projects through competitive calls.

The programme promotes high-risk, high-benefit innovations in any field of research, with scientific excellence being the sole criterion for evaluation. In this way, ERC-funded research is expected to generate significant advances at the frontiers of knowledge.

The ERC launches calls on an annual basis. There are three individual funding schemes (Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants), a group grant scheme (Synergy Grant) and a scheme (Proof of Concept) to explore the commercial or societal potential of results obtained in the framework of an ERC project.

Starting Grants are designed to support excellent researchers who have held a doctoral degree for between 2 and 7 years, who are starting their own independent line of research and wish to form their own team.

Consolidator Grants are designed to support excellent researchers who have held a doctoral degree for between 7 and 12 years and who are consolidating their own team and independent line of research.

Advanced Grants (AdG) are designed to support excellent senior researchers with at least 10 years of postdoctoral experience, who submit innovative, ambitious and cutting-edge proposals.

Synergy Grants are offered to support a small group, consisting of a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 4 principal investigators, to work together on research projects and join forces to solve problems.

It provides support to projects already funded by the ERC, with the objective of bringing the results of previously funded research closer to the market (aiming at commercial exploitation) or to society. PIs who are or have been beneficiaries of an ERC StG, CoG, AdG or SyG up to one year before the date of publication of the ERC PoC call are eligible to apply for this call.