ERC Starting Grants 2025-26

Introduction to the scheme

The 2025 European Research Council Starting Grant Call is open on the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal with a funder deadline of 14^th October 2025. ERC Starting Grants are “are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme”.  Funding of up to EUR 1.5m is available for a period of up to 5 years.

Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of their research proposal. The PI should have already shown evidence of the potential for research independence, for example by having produced at least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor. Research funded by the ERC is expected to lead to advances at the frontiers of knowledge and to set a clear and inspirational target for frontier research across Europe.

The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality, who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country. PIs may be of any age and nationality, and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. 

The ERC Starting Grant is open to researchers who have between 2 and 7 years of experience since the successful defence of their first PhD degree.  For the 2025 round, eligibility dates (excluding extensions for particular documented circumstances) are: researchers that have defended their PhD > 2 and <= 7 years ago on 1^st January 2026. If in doubt about eligibility, further information is available on p18 of the ERC Work Programme, or please do contact research@anthro.ox.ac.uk to discuss. If the PhD certificate does not show the PhD defence date, applicants will need to provide a written confirmation from the awarding institution stating the said date.

Looking ahead, the ERC will widen the eligibility windows for Starting and Consolidator Grants from 2027 to better reflect varied academic careers.

SAME Expressions of Interest

SAME holds an internal competition to decide which application(s) will be put forward to this scheme. If you intend to apply, please send the following materials to research@anthro.ox.ac.uk by 12 noon on Thursday 21^st August 2025:

• An outline of your proposed project (no more than 3 pages A4, Arial font size 11), briefly covering the following headings:

- Proposal Abstract (no more than 2000 characters)

- Research Context

- Objectives and Methodology

- Timetable

- Dissemination and Impact

• Summary CV (no more than 2 pages A4, Arial font size 11) demonstrating eligibility for the scheme by providing PhD defence date and any relevant career breaks.
• As part of your covering email, please indicate which primary ERC evaluation panel you intend to apply to, and a secondary panel if appropriate. For the full list of panels and keywords, please see Annex 1 of the ERC Work Programme 2026: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2026/wp_horizon-erc-2026_en.pdf

Please indicate in the subject line your name, and "ERC-STG 2025". Please note that there will be additional internal deadlines for any candidate invited to submit a full application.

Information about the scheme is available on the ERC website.

Please direct any queries about the Expression of Interest or the funding scheme to the SAME Research Support Team at research@anthro.ox.ac.uk.