Choose Europe for Science: ERC welcomes new budget for 'super grants'

The Scientific Council of the European Research Council welcomes the offer of substantial additional budget from the European Commission for the development of a new ERC funding instrument offering larger, longer-term grants. These 'super grants' were announced this morning by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her speech at the Sorbonne, where, together with President Emmanuel Macron, she spoke at the "Choose Europe for Science" conference. The operational details of the new funding instrument are being developed by the Scientific Council and will be announced in due course. The grants will follow the same principles as other ERC grants, i.e. projects will be selected on the basis of scientific excellence only, and will be for all areas of research and open to individual researchers of any nationality, working at or ready to move to a host institution in an EU Member State or a country associated to the EU R&I framework programme Horizon Europe. In addition, last month, the ERC Scientific Council decided to double the additional funding available for grantees relocating to Europe. Researchers based in the USA or elsewhere in the world who wish to move to Europe could, since the establishment of the ERC in 2007, apply for up to €1 million beyond the usual maximum grant amount to set up a laboratory or research team. As of May, the ERC plans to increase this to up to an additional €2 million, as referred to by President von der Leyen in her speech today....