About the funding schemes

The ERC programme includes the following funding schemes:

• STARTING GRANT

The scheme is designed to fund excellent PIs who are about to establish their own research team and/or to start their own independent research. The PI has been awarded his/her first PhD within a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 7 years prior the year of the call deadline. PIs should be able to demonstrate the potential to conduct independent research and evidence of maturity.

Starting Grants may be awarded up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years. 

• CONSOLIDATOR GRANT

The scheme is designed to fund excellent PIs, who are already conducting research and are consolidating their own research team and/or their own independent research. The PI has been awarded his/her first PhD within a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12 years prior to the year of the call deadline. PIs should be able to demonstrate research independence and strong evidence of maturity.

Consolidator Grants may be awarded up to € 2 million for a period of 5 years. 

• ADVANCED GRANT

The scheme is designed to fund excellent PIs, who are already established as research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. PIs should be able to demonstrate their consolidated research independence and a very strong evidence of maturity, through significant research achievements in the last 10 years. No specific eligibility criteria are foreseen.

Advanced Grants may be awarded up to € 2,5 million for a period of 5 years. 

• SYNERGY GRANT

The scheme is designed to support projects addressing a research problem so ambitious that it requires a team of 2-4 Principal Investigators (PIs) – of which one will be designated as the corresponding PI (cPI) – to address it. PIs have to work together and bring different skills and resources to tackle ambitious research problems. The criterion of evaluation takes on the additional meaning of outstanding intrinsic synergetic effect. No specific eligibility criteria regarding the academic training are foreseen.

Synergy Grants can be up to a maximum of € 10 million for a period of 6 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). 

• PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANT

The scheme is designed to foster the value of excellent research, supporting activities to explore the commercial or societal innovative potential of ideas derived from ERC projects.

The call is address to researchers who have already received an ERC grant (StG, CoG, AdV, SyG), and wish to establish proof of concept of an idea that was generated in the course of their ERC projects. PIs in one of the ERC frontier research main grants as well as PIs in an ongoing main grant that has ended less than 12 months before the year of the call deadline are eligible to participate and apply.

Proof of Concept Grants can be up to a maximum of € 150.000 for a period of 18 months.

  Who can apply

Principal Investigators (PIs) of any age and nationality who wish to carry out an innovative, ambitious and feasible research project. Eligibility conditions are defined in the Work Programme

  Choosing Padua as your Host Institution

Since the start of the ERC Funding Project in 2007, the University of Padua has obtained funding for about 50 research projects. Researchers from our University are represented and have been awarded funding in all three ERC domains. Among Italian universities, the University of Padua ranks first in terms of funding provided.

  Support services before the proposal swubmission

The ERC candidates, after approval of the hosting Department chosen, will benefit of the following services:

• proposal writing: support during each stage of the proposal preparation (part B1 and B2);
• review of draft proposal;
• budget definition and resources justification;
• training course and mock interview coaching carried out in collaboration with a qualified expert team (if your proposal is retained for step 2 of the evaluation process and you are invited to the interview).

You will be offered a tenure track position or permanent position at our University and a set of benefits determined by national regulations. The position offered to ERC awardees will be agreed with their Hosting Department. You will also be supported in the negotiation phase with ERCEA and in the management and reporting of the project, in cooperation with the Hosting Department.

Moreover, our University has launched a scouting initiative called "Talent@UniPD", with the aim to support excellent research to be conducted on its premises, attracting the most promising candidates, who intend to compete for the annual ERC calls Starting Grant and Consolidator Grant. Selected researchers will benefit from a variety of dedicated measures offered by the University  of Padua.

  Alternative fundings

If your ERC project has received an “A” score, but will not be funded due to the limited budget of ERC, our University offers the possibility to apply for an alternative funding under the Supporting TAlent in ReSearch@University of Padua - STARS Grants (Wild Cards category): https://www.unipd.it/en/stars