Introduction

The European Research Council (ERC) is a component of the research programme "Horizon2020"that provides attractive, long-term funding to support excellent investigators and their researchteams 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 seta clear and inspirational target for frontier research across Europe. Scientific excellence is the solecriterion 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 opportunitiesand directions in any field of research.The ERC puts particular emphasis on the frontiers of science, scholarship and engineering. Inparticular, it encourages proposals of an interdisciplinary nature which cross the boundariesbetween different fields of research, pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields ofresearch or proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and scientific inventions.

Objectives of the call

Starting Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at whichthey are starting their own independent research team or programme.

Eligible applicants

a) Researchers

The call is open to individual researchers (Principal Investigators) of any nationality who intend toconduct their research activity in any Member State or Associated Country. Principal Investigatorsmay be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of theapplication. The Principal Investigators shall: have been awarded his PhD at least 2 and up to 7 years prior tothe 1st January 2017; have produced at least one important publication without the participation oftheir PhD supervisor; demonstrate a promising track record of early achievements appropriate totheir research field and career stage, including significant publications (as main author) in majorinternational peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journals, or in the leading international peerreviewedjournals of their respective field; demonstrate a record of invited presentations in wellestablishedinternational conferences, granted patents, awards, prizes etc.Principal Investigators shall spend a minimum of 50% of their total working time in an EU MemberState or Associated Country and a minimum of 50% of their total working time on the ERC project.

b) Hosting institutions

Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations andundertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams. The host institution must engage thePrincipal Investigator for at least the duration of the project.It must either be established in an EU Member State or Associated Country as a legal entity createdunder national law, or it may be an International European Interest Organisation, the EuropeanCommission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) or any other entity created under EU law.

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): inside these panels are included all the health sciences, such asgenetics, genomics, neurosciences and neural disorders, physiology, pathophysiology, immunitiesand infections, diagnostic tools, diagnostic tools and therapies, bio-technology, molecular andstructural biology;- Social Sciences & Humanities (Panels: SH1 – SH6).

Funding and project duration

Up to a maximum of 1,5 Million Euro for a period of 5 years. However, up to an additional 500 000euro can be requested to cover (a) eligible "start-up" costs for Principal Investigators moving to theEU 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. Reimbursement rate: 100%of the project costs.

More information athttp://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/erc-2017-stg.html

IN case of interest please contact the Resaerch Support Office (Leonor Norton- lnorton@fsjd.org; recerca@fsjd.org)