ERC Advanced Grant 2026

Call deadline: 27 August, 2026

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: 30 June, 2026

ERC Advanced Grant supports for 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.

The ERC grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities and fund ground-breaking, ambitious long-term projects.

Eligibility

• Researchers of any nationality.
• Active and established research leader with a track record of significant research achievements.
• Exceptional leaders in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions.
• No specific eligibility criteria with respect to the academic requirements are foreseen.

Funding and duration
Up to € 2.5 million for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration) with an extra €1M possible for start-up costs, major equipment, or facilities (€2M for researchers moving to EU). Budget covers 100% of the direct costs plus a contribution of 25% towards indirect costs.

Success rate

Advanced Grants have a success rate of approximately 11%.

Deadline for internal applicants with a professorial position
Internal applicants with a professorial position are invited to send the expression of interest to Research Service by 30 June, 2026 including provisional abstract and title of the proposal.

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.

More information
ERC Advanced grant website

Contact
Sara Caspani, Research service