ERC Synergy Grant 2027

Call deadline: 05 November, 2026 (TBC)

USI deadline for external candidates and internal candidates w/o a professorial position: 30 April, 2026

USI deadline for internal candidates w a professorial position: 1 September, 2026

ERC Synergy Grants (SyG) fund frontier, interdisciplinary research by supporting teams of 2 to 4 Principal Investigators (PIs) who jointly address ambitious research problems that cannot be tackled individually. Projects must demonstrate the added value of the synergistic collaboration.

Eligibility

• A group of 2- 4 PIs, each bringing complementary skills.
• Each PI must have a competitive track record relative to their career stage.
• The team of PIs can involve 1 or more researchers based in CH.
• No specific eligibility criteria with respect to the academic requirements are foreseen.

Funding and duration

Up to € 10M for a period of 6 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration) with extra €4M possible for start-up costs, major equipment or facilities. Budget covers 100% of the project costs including 25% OHs. Funding is awarded as real costs.

Success rate

Synergy Grants have a success rate of around 9.6%.

Internal deadline & procedure for external candidates and internal candidates w/o a professorial position
External candidates, and internal candidates without a professorial position, must send: filled eligibility form, a complete CV + publication list, a cover motivation letter, letter/s of support from USI professor/s and composition of the team of PIs (name & host institutions), to Research Service ([email protected]) by the 30th of April. The internal assessment procedure lasts around 2 months in total.

USI deadline for internal candidates w a professorial position

Internal and external applicants, who want to apply with USI as their host, must notify their expression of interest to Research Service by 1 September, 2026 including:

• CV;
• composition of the team of PIs (name & host institutions);
• provisional abstract and title of the project.

More information
ERC Synergy grant website

Contact
Sara Caspani