ERC Grants are awarded to a single researcher ('Principal Investigator') heading an individual research team to conduct a frontier research project on the condition that he/she is engaged by a legally established hosting organisation.
There are five types of ERC grant:
- ERC Starting Grants
- ERC Consolidator Grants
- ERC Advanced Grants
- ERC Proof of Concept
- ERC Synergy Grants ( only two calls were published in 2012 and 2013)
In order to be eligible for an ERC Advanced Grant the PI must be independent. For the ERC Starting Grant, the PI needs to be establishing independence (i.e. starting or leading their first research team) or, depending on the field, establishing their independent research programme.
Further information can be found here: