The European Research Council (ERC), under Horizon Europe, supports excellent frontier research through highly competitive grants. The new ERC Plus Grant is aimed at outstanding researchers from Europe and worldwide who have bold, transformative ideas that go beyond the scope of regular ERC grants. It is open to any research field, with no predefined thematic priorities, and is designed for projects that could transform a field or open new research avenues. Projects must run for 4 to 7 years and are evaluated in two steps, including interviews at Step 2. The objective is to fund exceptional Principal Investigators with a strong vision for major scientific challenges.

• Open to researchers of any age, nationality and career stage, residing anywhere in the world at the time of application.
• Applicants must have an outstanding record of scientific achievement at the forefront of their field; intellectual leadership will be assessed according to career stage.
• Applications may be submitted in any field of research, as ERC grants are bottom-up and have no predefined priorities.
• The proposal must be submitted by a single Principal Investigator on behalf of a Host Institution.
• The Host Institution must be a public or private research organisation located in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
• The PI does not need to be employed by the Host Institution at submission, but a mutual commitment is required if the proposal is funded.
• The PI must dedicate at least 30% of their working time to the project and spend at least 50% of their working time in the EU or an Associated Country.
• A researcher may hold only one ERC Plus Grant in their lifetime.
• ERC resubmission restrictions apply under the ERC Work Programme 2026.

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