Introduction

The European Research Council (ERC) provides attractive, long-term funding to support excellent investigators and their research teams to pursue ground-breaking, high-gain/ high-risk research. Research funded by the ERC is expected to lead to advances at the frontiers of knowledge and to set a clear and inspirational target for frontier research across Europe. Scientific excellence is the sole criterion on the basis of which ERC frontier research grants are awarded. Being 'investigatordriven', or 'bottom-up', in nature, the ERC approach allows researchers to identify new opportunities and directions in any field of research.

The ERC puts particular emphasis on the frontiers of science, scholarship and engineering. In particular, it encourages proposals of an interdisciplinary nature which cross the boundaries between different fields of research, pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research or proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and scientific inventions.

Objectives of the call

Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. Applicant Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal.

Eligible applicants

The call is open to individual researchers (Principal Investigators - PI) of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any Member State or Associated Country. Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application.

The applicant must be an active researcher and have a track record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years. They must demonstrate a record of achievements appropriate to the field and at least matching one or more of the following benchmarks:

- 10 publications as senior author (or in those fields where alphabetic order of authorship is the norm, joint author) in major international peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journals, and/or in the leading international peer-reviewed journals and peer-reviewed conferences proceedings of their respective field;

- 3 major research monographs, of which at least one is translated into another language. Other alternative benchmarks might be considered (individually or in combination) as indicative of an exceptional record and recognition in the last 10 years (check call text for details).

PI funded through the Advanced Grants is expected to spend a minimum 30% of his total working time on the ERC project and a minimum of 50% of his total working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country.

Eligible countries

Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams. The host institution must engage the Principal Investigator for at least the duration of the project.

Topics of the research

The proposals must address one of these three research domains:

• Physical Sciences & Engineering (Panels: PE1 – PE10),

• Life Sciences (Panels: LS1 – LS9),

• Social Sciences & Humanities (Panels: SH1 – SH6).

Funding and project duration

Up to a maximum of 2,5 Million euro for a period of 5 years. An additional 1 million euro can be requested in the proposal to cover: (a) eligible "start-up" costs for Principal Investigators moving to the EU or an Associated Country from elsewhere as a consequence of receiving the ERC grant, and/or (b) the purchase of major equipment and/or (c) access to large facilities.

More information: http://erc.europa.eu/advanced-grants

In case of interest, please contact with FSJD Research's Department no later than May 2015.