• European Research Council (ERC) Grants
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) Postgraduate Fellowships
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) Staff Exchanges
• Research Infrastructures 

• Health
• Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
• Civil Security for Society
• Digital, Industry and Space
• Climate, Energy and Mobility
• Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
• Joint Research Centre (JRC) 

• EIC Pathfinder Open
• EIC Pathfinder Challenges
• EIC Transition Open 

• Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence
• Reforming and Enhancing the European R&I System 

• Adaptation to Climate Change
• Cancer
• Restore our Ocean and Waters
• Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities
• A Soil Deal for Europe 

The 2025 ERC Advanced Grant call for proposals (ERC-2025-ADG) is now open.

Work programme:    ERC WORK PROGRAMME 2025

Call reference:          ERC-2025-AdG

Call Opening date:   22 May 2025

Call Deadline:            28 August 2025

Applicants can request up to €2.5 million for a period of up to 5 years.

You can access the application page through the Funding and Tenders Portal.

Researchers can also apply for additional funding to help PIs set up laboratories, buy major equipment or get access to large scientific facilities.

• Researchers already working in the EU or Horizon Europe Associated countries can apply for up to €1 million in start-up funding. See the ERC Work Programme 2025 (pages 18 & 21).
• New for 2025 - researchers moving to Europe from outside the EU or Horizon Europe Associated countries can now apply for up to €2 million in additional funding.

Next steps

• Find out if you are eligible to apply, read about Advance Grants and what the funding covers by visiting the ERC website.
• Read about the financial support available in the 2025 Work Programme to see if this is right for you.
• Read the ERC 2025 Advance Grants Information for Applicants document.
• Look at what the ERC has funded in the past and see if your project fits the scale and ambition of an ERC grant.
• Familiarise yourself with the panels so that you can pick the right one for you.
• Speak to your Research Support and Research Development contacts as early as possible.
• Apply on the Funding & Tenders Portal - if you do not already have an account you need to register on the portal.
• Register now for the upcoming ERC Advanced Grant webinar for UK applicants on 10 June.
• All applicants should use the University’s PIC – 999903840  (do not register a new PIC for the University) and complete and upload the attached host letter to their proposal submission.

Additional Resources/Events

• General info about ERC Advanced Grants
• University Advanced Grants Q&A Webinar

If you are seriously considering applying for an ERC Advanced Grant for this call the University is running a Q&A session on 19^th June between 11am and 1pm on Teams. The workshop will consist of a series of presentations from award holders across the University, showcasing their ERC AdG funded work.  This will be followed by an opportunity to ask questions about their experience of both applying for and holding one of these awards.

Many of the practical questions about this call will be covered in the UKRO/National Contact Point webinar on the 10th of June (ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar - registration required – see above).  We will be assuming that attendees have taken part in this UKRO/NCP event prior to the internal Q&A session as we will only be covering basic details of the scheme, the focus of this Teams session will be Q&A and for applicants to learn from successful award holders.

To register for the UoM event, please use this Eventbrite link.

NCP guide: Finding the right consortium partners for Horizon Europe projects

Louise Mothersole, UK National Contact Point for Cluster 5: Climate, Energy and Mobility, shares some tips on finding consortium partners.

In her own words, “being in the right consortium is almost as important as writing a good proposal. Your challenge is to find people who have a strong track record of past success and demonstrate to them that they need you in their team if they are going to continue to be successful.”

These steps can help applicants find the right partners:

• Treat joining a consortium as a project in its own right: make a plan of activities and tasks and allocate time and resources.
• Networking is by far the most useful way to find consortium partners: interact with others in your sector in such a way that they can see the value of your work and how it might help them with their work.
• Find potential partners that have a strong track record of previously successful proposals: they know how to write a winning proposal.
• Make the most of partner search websites: search the profiles of potential partners and upload your own too (see below).

Read the full article on Louise’s LinkedIn blog.

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Finding partners and collaborators for Horizon Europe

You can find partners for Horizon Europe in any way that you choose.

Using the partner search tool

This lists all organisations that have expressed an interest in collaborating on a Horizon Europe funding opportunity.

You can filter the list by:

• opportunity
• keyword
• topic
• host organisation details

Search for partners (European Commission).

To add yourself to the Commission’s partner search tool to allow other organisations to find you must be based at an organisation registered on the European Commission’s Participant Portal - the University is a registered organisation.

If a Horizon Europe funding opportunity is open to collaborations, the webpage will include a list of organisations that have expressed an interest in collaborating.

Search Horizon Europe funding opportunities (European Commission).

Upcoming Changes to the 2026 and 2027 ERC Work Programmes

With the launch of the competitions for grants under ERC Work Programme 2026 in July of this year, several changes to the submission of applications and the evaluation of proposals will apply. The main novelties for 2026, as well as the longer-term goal to extend the eligibility of applicants for Starting and Consolidator Grants from 2027 are summarised below.

ERC Work Programme 2026

Grant application

The overall structure of the application form for the ERC calls will remain the same; however, applicants will be asked to structure their project proposal as follows:

• Part I of the Scientific Proposal (formerly, the Extended Synopsis) should describe the overall idea of the proposed research project, including the current state of knowledge and how the research will contribute to the field, the scientific questions the project will attempt to answer, the objectives of the project, and the overall approach or research strategy to achieve those objectives. As in the past, the length of this section will be limited to five pages.
• Part II of the Scientific Proposal should describe the implementation in detail, including the research methodology, work plan, risk assessment and mitigating measures, justification for the requested budget and resources, and any further necessary background not included in Part I. The length of this section is now limited to seven pages for Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grant applications and ten pages for Synergy Grant applications. For Synergy Grant applications, this section should also explain the collaborative arrangements enabling the Synergy Grant group to carry out the project.

Evaluation

Part I of the Scientific Proposal along with the applicant’s CV and Track Record (i.e. Part B1 of the application form) will be assessed at Step 1, whereas both parts of the Scientific Proposal, the CV and Track Record, as well as the Resources and Time Commitment will be assessed at Step 2 of the evaluation. First and foremost, applicants will be assessed on the ambition of their idea in advancing present-day knowledge in the field based on Part I of the Scientific Proposal. Only those who have presented a convincing proposal at Step 1 will advance to the next stage of the evaluation, during which the methodology and implementation (including feasibility) of the proposed research and the resource allocation will be assessed jointly with the information already reviewed at Step 1.

Feasibility will no longer be assessed at Step 1; thus, Part I of the Scientific Proposal should no longer include details on the feasibility of the scientific approach but present a convincing overall research strategy. All aspects relating to feasibility should be covered in Part II of the Scientific Proposal.

Additional funding

As recently announced, researchers currently based outside Europe (please see here for an updated list of countries) and applying for a Starting, Consolidator or Advanced Grant will be able to request up to €2 million in additional funding to facilitate the relocation of their laboratory or team to the European Union or a country associated to the ERC part of the Horizon Europe programme. Applicants already based in an EU Member State or associated country will remain eligible for up to €1 million. The maximum amount of additional funding that can be requested by Synergy Grant applicants remains the same (up to €4 million).

As of 2026, the additional funding may also be used for personnel costs, and, as before, applicants are requested to define and justify the need for additional funding in their proposal. The decision to award the requested funding rests with the evaluation panel.

New funding instrument

The ERC Scientific Council is currently working on a new instrument to offer ambitious researchers substantial funding for up to seven years, as part of the Choose Europe for Science initiative announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. More details about the modalities will follow in due course. The new funding instrument will be included in an amended version of the ERC Work Programme 2026 that is expected to be adopted by the end of 2025.

Eligibility of applicants for Starting and Consolidator Grants

Applicants who have been victims of gender-based violence or any other kind of violence will be able to obtain an extension of the period following their PhD that allows them to apply for Starting and Consolidator Grants. In addition, an explicit reference to parental leave will be added to the grounds for extension of the eligibility period alongside maternity and paternity leave.

Resubmission restrictions

A resubmission restriction will apply to Synergy Grant applicants who have obtained a score of ‘B’ in Step 1 of the Synergy Grant 2025 call. These applicants are not eligible to apply to the Synergy Grant call of 2026.

Applicants who already hold an ongoing ERC grant and wish to apply for a new grant in 2026 must ensure that their current project is scheduled to end within two years of the 2026 call deadline. In exceptional cases, extensions granted to the current project after the call deadline will not affect the eligibility of the new application.

ERC Work Programme 2027

In recognition of the variety and diversity of present-day academic career trajectories, the Scientific Council has decided to widen the eligibility period for both its Starting and Consolidator Grant schemes. From 2027 on, researchers will be eligible to apply for a Starting Grant immediately after successfully defending their PhD, and at any time within the following ten-year period. Consolidator Grant applicants will be eligible to apply between five and fifteen years after defending their PhD. All current policies for the extension of the eligibility periods will remain in force. However, researchers will be awarded no more than one Starting Grant and one Consolidator Grant during their career.

ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar Recording Now Available. – UKRODeadline: 28 August 2025

The webinar provides information on the submission process, how proposals are evaluated and other elements you’ll need to consider when designing a project for your research excellence idea ahead of the EU Funding & Tenders Portal

Professor Rachel Gibson from the University of Manchester shared details of her journey towards getting an ERC Advanced grant.

This webinar provides participants with detailed, practical information about the ERC Advanced Grant scheme. Participants should gain a deeper understanding of the proposal format and the key issues they are required to address in planning, writing and costing a proposal. The evaluation procedure and how to approach writing an application will also be explained.

University of Manchester cross faculty webinar and Q&A session can be accessed here.

This session includes updates from current University ERC AdG award holders:

• Professor Rachel Gibson – Professor of Political Science, Director of CMIST.
• Professor Simone Turchetti - Professor of History of Science And Tech -  Division of Medical Education
• Professor David Leigh – Royal Society Research Professor & Sir Samuel Hall Professor of Chemistry - Department of Chemistry

MSCA Staff Exchanges – Webinar Recording Now Available – UKRO

Deadline: 8 October 2025

UKRO, in its capacity as UK National Contact Point for the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), has held an information webinar for organisations and individuals interested in applying to the call.

EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

NEBinar recording now available – UKRO webinar on the New European Bauhaus – UKRO

The webinar covers:

• The New European Bauhaus Facility 2025-2027
• NEB calls in 2025 under Horizon Europe – topic navigation
• Information on UK project case studies

This webinar provides participants with strategic information about the vision for the NEB Facility in the next three years, and practical information about the current 2025 calls opportunity including eligibility criteria and topics available.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the purpose NEB fulfils in policy and research terms, the types of proposals that may come forward, and the communities they may serve.

The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2025 NCP Handbook and the Submission Guide have been published on the NCP portal: Handbooks for MSCA 2025 | MSCA | Horizon Europe NCP Portal

This is part of the RADIANCE project which aims to to facilitate the transnational cooperation between National Contact Points of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) in order to achieve a consistent and harmonized level of NCP support for applicants.  These documents provide advice on the various aspects of the proposal development and submission process and would be very useful for prospective applicants.

The University MSCA PF internal guidelines are also available here.

Clarification on the changes to ERC Additional Funding

As recently announced, researchers currently based outside Europe (please see here for an updated list of countries) and applying for a Starting, Consolidator or Advanced Grant will be able to request up to €2 million in additional funding to facilitate the relocation of their laboratory or team to the European Union or a country associated to the ERC part of the Horizon Europe programme. Applicants already based in an EU Member State or associated country will remain eligible for up to €1 million. The maximum amount of additional funding that can be requested by Synergy Grant applicants remains the same (up to €4 million).

As of 2026, additional funding may also be used for personnel costs - this INCLUDES for the ERC-2025-AdG call - (see note 26 on p21 of the amended ERC Work Programme [ec.europa.eu]).   Applicants are requested to define and justify the need for additional funding in their proposal.  The decision to award the requested additional funding rests with the evaluation panel.   Additional personnel costs must be linked to the scope of the additional funding.

Note:  Additional funding attracts indirect costs at 25% in the usual way.

Additional costs can only be requested for very specific costs:

• eligible ‘start-up’ costs for Principal Investigators moving to the EU or an Associated Country from elsewhere as a consequence of receiving the ERC grant
• the purchase of major equipment
• access to large facilities
• other major experimental and field work costs

We are hoping the new Work Programme will be released in the next week or so, this will provide us with further information for future calls.

The ERC are hosting a Webinar on the new 2026 Work Programme [erc.europa.eu].