ERC grants for 2027 see €100m drop
The budgets for European Research Council grant schemes in 2027 have been tightened, with Starting Grants and Consolidator Grants in particular drawing on a smaller pot than in 2026.
The total estimated budget – which is subject to wider EU budget negotiations – is €2.81bn compared to €2.92bn in 2026. Some €594.1m will be assigned to Starting Grants, down from €705.1m last year – equating to an estimated 77 fewer awards. Consolidator Grants meanwhile see a reduction from €673m to €618.5m, meaning an estimated 32 fewer awards.
The money available for Advanced Grants will increase by around €50m – with an estimated 311 grants available, up from 294 in 2026 – while the Synergy Grant and ERC Plus Grant are frozen in cash terms with grant numbers largely unchanged.
The ERC work programme for 2027 is the final one within the current Horizon Europe framework. As part of the Choose Europe initiative to attract international talent, researchers based in non-associated third countries such as the USA will continue to be able to access additional funding for Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants to support relocation to the EU or an associated country.
Following the walking back of controversial measures to restrict applications from those who had previously been unsuccessful – which came in response to a “dramatic” increase in application levels – rules around resubmission are similar to previous years, though with some alterations. Principal investigators will only be able to have one proposal to an ERC main grant call under evaluation at any given time, and submit only one eligible proposal to a main grant call under the 2027 work programme.
As previously announced, the eligibility period for Starting Grants and Consolidator Grants has been loosened to take account of variation in researchers’ careers.
Starting Grants in 2027 will be open to those who defended their PhD in the previous decade – expanding on the previous time restrictions of between two and seven years since PhD defence. For Consolidator Grants, the eligibility window post-PhD has been widened to between five and 15 years, having previously been seven to 12 years.