03 Sep 2026
ERC announces winners of latest Starting Grant competition
The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the winners of its latest Starting Grant competition. The funding, worth €705 million in total, will go to 421 early-career researchers across Europe. Several European researchers who applied from outside the EU and Horizon Europe Associated Countries will now move to Europe to pursue their research. The grants will help researchers develop ambitious ideas, build their own teams and establish their independence at a pivotal stage in their careers.
The selected projects will cover a broad spectrum of research fields from life sciences and engineering to social sciences and humanities. A researcher moving from the US to Germany aims to understand how brains turn information from the world into actions. Another grantee in Poland will explore how inheritance laws can better reflect the realities of modern families, and a scientist in Spain will study how deadly fungi adapt, spread and resist antifungal drugs.
A record of 4,807 proposals were submitted to this competition, up 22% from 3,928 in last year’s call. Of these, only 8.8% could be funded. The increased demand was also reflected in the number of applications from researchers based outside Europe. In particular, 169 US-based researchers applied for this funding, compared to 116 in the previous call.
The new grantees will be based at universities and research centres in 25 EU Member States and associated countries, notably in Germany (89 grants), the UK (47), France (38), Switzerland (36), and the Netherlands (33). 18 grantees are based in Austria.
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