Horizon Europe Advanced Grants (HORIZON-ERC-2025-ADG)

Eligibility

Admissibility and Eligibility Conditions:

The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in the ERC Work Programme 2025 under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in the ERC Rules of Submission. An overview is provided below:

Admissible and eligible proposals: All proposals must be complete, readable and accessible. They must be submitted by eligible Principal Investigators before the relevant call deadline. A complete proposal needs to include all parts or sections (see 'Proposal submission and description' below). Proposals which do not meet these criteria may be declared inadmissible. The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives and to the grant type set out in the call, as defined in the ERC Work Programme 2025. If a proposal is considered not to relate to the objectives of the grant and/or call for proposals, it will be declared ineligible.

Applications where the Principal Investigator proposes to commit less time in the EU or an Associated Country, or to the project than the minimum percentages set out in the section 'Minimum time commitment' of the Work Programme will be declared ineligible. If it becomes clear before, during or after the peer review evaluation phase that one or more of the admissibility or eligibility criteria have not been met, the proposal will be declared inadmissible or ineligible and it will be rejected. Where there is a doubt on the admissibility or eligibility of a proposal, the peer review evaluation may proceed pending a decision following an admissibility and eligibility review committee.

Eligible Principal Investigators: 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 (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2025). Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. 

All Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Advanced Grant must spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country and a minimum of 30% of their working time on the ERC project.

Eligible Host Institution: The Host Institution (Applicant Legal Entity) must engage and host the Principal Investigator for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must either be established in an EU Member State or Associated Country (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2025) as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an international European research organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) or any other entity created under EU law. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country will be deemed to be established in that Member State or Associated Country. Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams.

Restrictions on submission of proposals: The restrictions for submission related to the outcome of the evaluation in previous calls are designed to allow unsuccessful Principal Investigators the time necessary to develop a stronger proposal. For further details please consult the ERC Work Programme 2025, heading 'Restrictions on submission of proposals' or the Frequently Asked Questions.

Eligible Countries: The conditions specific to the ERC are described in the ERC Work Programme 2025 under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in Annex 3. 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 (see Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme 2025). Principal Investigators may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. Principal Investigators funded through the ERC Advanced Grants shall spend a minimum percentage of their working time on the ERC project (30%) and a minimum percentage of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country (50%).

Summary

Objectives

ERC Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their research proposal.

Size of ERC Advanced Grants

Advanced Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 2 500 000 for a period of 5 years (the maximum amount of the grants is reduced pro rata tempris for projects of a shorter duration).

However, up to an additional EUR 1 000 000 can be requested in the proposal to cover (a) 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, and/or (b) the purchase of major equipment, and/or (c) access to large facilities, and/or (d) other major experimental and field work costs. As any additional funding is to cover major one-off costs it is not subject to pro-rata tempris reduction for projects of shorter duration. All funding requested is assessed during evaluation.

To further encourage the submission of excellent proposals by Principal Investigators currently based in non-associated third countries, the ERC has decided to double the amount of additional funding that can be awarded to Advanced Grant applicants moving to the EU or an associated country to take up their ERC grant. In this case, the maximum additional funding shall be EUR 2 000 000.

The Advanced Grant will be awarded as a single lump sum contribution for the entirety of the project. The lump sum will cover the beneficiaries' estimated costs for the project.

Proposal submission and description:

• The Administrative form Part A (including the Ethics Issues Table, the Security Issues Table and the Budget Section) is available in the submission tool below. The budget table and the description of resources are part of this online form Part A (Section 3 - Budget). For more details, please refer to section 2.2 of the ERC Information for Applicants to the Advanced Grant 2025 call.
• Part B1, Part B2 and the Host Institution Binding Statement of Support templates are provided in the submission system as Word templates (they should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as PDF files).
• The Equipment table template is provided in the submission system as an Excel template (it should be completed, uploaded and submitted via the submission tool as an Excel file).

A complete proposal consists of the following elements (with the following page limits): 

1. Extended Synopsis: 5 pages (Part B1)
2. Curriculum Vitae and Track Record: 4 pages max. (Part B1)
3. Scientific Proposal: 14 pages (Part B2)
4. Budget (Part A, Section 3) and Time Commitment (Part A, Section 5)
5. Equipment table
6. Host Institution Binding Statement of Support
7. Ethics Issues Table (Part A, Section 4)
8. Security Issues Table (Part A, Section 4)

 Complete proposals must be submitted via the submission tool available through the Funding & Tenders Portal (to access the submission tool, you need to register first). 

Overhead

25%

Application deadlines

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Open Science:

Open science is a general principle of the Horizon Europe programme, and a core principle of the ERC. The ERC is committed to the principle of open access to the published output of research, including, in particular, peer-reviewed articles and monographs. It also supports the basic principle of open access to research data and data-related products such as computer code, algorithms, software, workflows, protocols, electronic notebooks, or any other forms of research output. The ERC considers that providing free online access to all these materials can be the most effective way of ensuring that the results of the research it funds can be accessed, read, and used as the basis for further advancement.

Under Horizon Europe, beneficiaries of ERC grants must ensure immediate open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to their results as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. Open access has to be provided with full re-use rights. Beneficiaries must ensure that they or the authors retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with their open access requirements. Publishing costs can be considered as eligible costs provided that the publishing venue (e.g., journal, book) is fully open access.

In addition, beneficiaries of ERC grants funded under this Work Programme will be covered by the provisions on research data management as set out in the Model Grant Agreement used for ERC actions. In particular, whenever a project generates research data, beneficiaries are required to manage it in line with the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability as described by the FAIR principles initiative, and establish a data management plan within the first six months of project implementation. Open access to research data should be ensured under the principle 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary'. These provisions are designed to facilitate access, re-use and preservation of the research data generated during the ERC funded research work.