Last verified: 16 August 2026, against the ERC Work Programme 2027 (adopted by the European Commission on 20 July 2026) and the current pages of erc.europa.eu. Deadlines and eligibility figures below are call-specific to the 2027 competitions and do not apply retroactively to calls already closed.
The ERC Starting Grant and Consolidator Grant are the European Research Council’s two flagship early-to-mid-career awards, and for the 2027 Work Programme they sit closer together than they ever have. The Commission widened both eligibility windows rather than tightening them, and the result is a real overlap: researchers 5 to 10 years past their PhD defence are now eligible for either scheme, but a 2027 rule limits every applicant to one ERC proposal under evaluation at a time and one submission for the whole Work Programme. Picking the wrong scheme is no longer a minor miscalculation — it is the only shot available for the year.
What changed for the 2027 Work Programme
Historically, ERC Starting Grant eligibility ran roughly 2 to 7 years post-PhD, and Consolidator Grant eligibility ran roughly 7 to 12 years post-PhD — two windows that abutted but did not overlap. Under the 2027 Work Programme, both windows widened and now overlap for five full years:
- Starting Grant (StG): PhD defended no more than 10 years before 1 January 2027, with no minimum — in practice, a PhD defended between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2026.
- Consolidator Grant (CoG): PhD defended between 5 and 15 years before 1 January 2027 — in practice, a PhD defended between roughly 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2021.
The ERC’s stated rationale is that a fixed short window no longer reflects how research careers actually run — career breaks, clinical training, part-time appointments, and moves between sectors all push the point of genuine scientific independence further from the PhD-defence date than the old windows assumed. The overlap band — roughly 5 to 10 years post-PhD — is the direct, intended consequence of that widening, not an oversight.
Deadlines at a glance
| Scheme | 2027 call opens | Submission deadline | PhD-defence eligibility window (relative to 1 Jan 2027) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERC Starting Grant | 22 July 2026 | 14 October 2026 | 0–10 years before |
| ERC Consolidator Grant | Announced on the Funding & Tenders Portal ahead of opening | 12 January 2027 | 5–15 years before |
Deadlines are set by the European Commission at 17:00 Brussels time on the stated date via the Funding & Tenders Portal; treat the portal’s own call page as the authoritative source for the exact time and any last-minute technical extension, since those are not published in advance.
ERC Starting Grant vs. Consolidator Grant, compared
| Dimension | Starting Grant | Consolidator Grant |
|---|---|---|
| PhD-defence window (2027 call) | 0–10 years before 1 Jan 2027 | 5–15 years before 1 Jan 2027 |
| 2027 deadline | 14 October 2026 | 12 January 2027 |
| Base funding | Up to €1.5 million | Up to €2 million |
| Additional funding | Up to €1 million for justified eligible costs; up to €2 million for PIs relocating to the EU/associated country from a non-associated third country | Same structure — up to €1 million justified costs, up to €2 million for third-country relocation |
| Duration | 5 years (pro-rata for shorter projects) | 5 years (pro-rata for shorter projects) |
| Cost coverage | Up to 100% of eligible direct costs, plus 25% of direct costs toward indirect costs | Same reimbursement structure |
| Career expectation the panel evaluates against | An applicant establishing their own independent research programme for the first time | An applicant already leading, or clearly on the verge of leading, an established independent research group with a growing track record |
| Host institution | Public or private research organisation in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe associated country | Same requirement |
| Evaluation structure | Two-step, panel-based, Step 2 interview | Same two-step structure |
| Lifetime limit | At most one Starting Grant per career | At most one Consolidator Grant per career; cannot re-apply for a scheme already held |
Eligible for both? How to choose
Being inside the 5–10-year overlap band means you clear the eligibility bar for either scheme — it does not mean the two panels evaluate you the same way, and the one-proposal-per-Work-Programme rule means you commit to one for the entire 2027 cycle. Weigh these factors before deciding:
- Actual independence, not just years since PhD. Starting Grant panels expect an applicant who is establishing their first independent line of research; Consolidator Grant panels expect to see a research group already assembled, with its own emerging track record, prior funding secured, and students or postdocs supervised. Two applicants at the same number of years post-PhD can look very different against these expectations.
- Budget fit. If the proposed project genuinely needs the Consolidator Grant’s higher €2 million base ceiling rather than the Starting Grant’s €1.5 million, that is a real signal, not just a preference — reviewers will ask whether the requested budget matches the scale of the science and the team.
- Competitive positioning. An applicant near the bottom of the Consolidator window (5–7 years post-PhD) with a strong, already-established group may be more competitive there than in a Starting Grant pool that increasingly includes very early-career applicants under the new 0-year floor. Conversely, an applicant near the top of the Starting window (8–10 years post-PhD) who has not yet built an independent group may be a weaker fit for Consolidator’s track-record expectations despite being eligible.
- You cannot hedge. Because only one proposal per Work Programme is permitted, applying to the “safer” of the two schemes and treating the other as a fallback is not an available strategy for 2027 — a rejected or ineligible proposal does not free up a second attempt at the other scheme within the same Work Programme, except in the narrow case where the first proposal was found ineligible rather than scientifically rejected.
- Talk to your research office before the call opens. Because the choice is now genuinely live for a wider band of applicants, and because it is final for the cycle, this is exactly the kind of decision worth an internal pre-submission review rather than a solo call close to the deadline.
Host institution requirement
Both schemes require the funded research to take place at a public or private research organisation established in an EU Member State or a country associated to Horizon Europe. The principal investigator does not need to already be employed at the host institution at the time of application, but if the proposal is selected for funding, the institution must commit to hosting the project and to giving the PI the independence to lead the research and manage the grant funding directly — the ERC evaluates the PI’s scientific independence as part of the proposal, not just their institutional affiliation.
The two-step evaluation process
Both Starting and Consolidator Grants are assessed through the same two-step structure:
- Step 1: Panel members and remote reviewers assess an extended synopsis of the proposal together with the applicant’s CV and track record. Proposals are scored and ranked; only those meeting the panel’s quality threshold advance.
- Step 2: Panel members and external referees assess the complete scientific proposal. This is the stage at which applicants for Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, and ERC Plus Grants are interviewed by the panel — the interview is a formal part of the evaluation, not a courtesy call, and is where many applicants’ final ranking is decided.
The sole evaluation criterion at both steps is scientific excellence, assessed for the proposed research and for the applicant as an individual researcher.
ERC panels
Proposals are assigned to one of the ERC’s subject-matter panels, evaluated by a panel chair and typically 10 to 16 panel members appointed by the ERC Scientific Council, supported by external referees for specialist expertise where needed. The panels are organised into three broad scientific domains: Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE), Life Sciences (LS), and Social Sciences and Humanities (SH), with a total of 28 panels spanning those three domains for Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants. Applicants choose the panel that best matches their proposal at submission; the panel assignment determines which reviewers and which competitive pool the proposal is evaluated against, so getting it right matters as much as the eligibility window does.
Grant value and duration, in practice
Both schemes fund up to five years of research, reimbursed at up to 100% of eligible direct costs plus a 25% contribution toward indirect costs — the standard Horizon Europe funding rate for ERC frontier-research grants. The additional funding component (up to €1 million for both schemes, up to €2 million where the PI is relocating from outside the EU/associated countries) is meant for costs that could not be reasonably foreseen at the time of the original proposal, such as major equipment, access to large-scale research facilities, or other costs directly linked to the project’s needs — it is requested separately, not assumed as part of the base grant.
Eligibility window extensions
The PhD-defence windows above are calculated from documented, individual circumstances, not just the raw calendar gap. Both schemes allow the eligibility window to be extended in duly documented cases, including:
- Maternity, paternity, or parental leave
- Long-term illness
- National or military service
- Clinical training
- Natural disasters
- Recognised refugee or asylum status
- Gender-based violence
These extensions push the eligibility window further back, effectively giving the applicant credit for time genuinely unavailable for research. Applicants relying on an extension should document it carefully and consult the current Work Programme text and their national contact point (NCP) or research office — the exact documentation standard is set out in the call conditions, not summarised in full here.
Resubmission restrictions after a low grade
The ERC restricts resubmission for applicants who scored poorly at Step 1 in recent Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, or ERC Plus Grant calls: a low (“C”) Step 1 grade bars resubmission to the corresponding scheme for a set number of subsequent calls, and a borderline (“B”) Step 1 grade bars resubmission to the immediately following call. This restriction is scheme-specific and grade-specific, and the exact list of prior calls it currently reaches back to is set out in the Work Programme 2027 itself — applicants who received a Step 1 grade in a recent cycle should check their eligibility to resubmit directly against the current Work Programme or with their research office before assuming either way.
Frequently asked questions
When is the ERC Starting Grant 2027 deadline?
14 October 2026. The call opened 22 July 2026.
When is the ERC Consolidator Grant 2027 deadline?
12 January 2027.
What is the ERC Starting Grant eligibility window for 2027?
A PhD defended no more than 10 years before 1 January 2027, with no minimum — effectively a PhD defence date between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2026.
What is the ERC Consolidator Grant eligibility window for 2027?
A PhD defended between 5 and 15 years before 1 January 2027.
Can I apply to both the Starting Grant and the Consolidator Grant in 2027?
No. The 2027 Work Programme limits every applicant to one ERC proposal under evaluation at a time and one submission for the entire Work Programme. If you are eligible for both schemes, you must choose one before submitting.
What are ERC panels?
The subject-matter evaluation panels the ERC uses to assess proposals — 28 panels in total across three domains (Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities), each staffed by a chair and typically 10 to 16 members plus external referees.
Can the PhD-defence eligibility window be extended?
Yes, in duly documented cases including parental leave, long-term illness, national or military service, clinical training, natural disasters, asylum status, and gender-based violence.
How many ERC Starting or Consolidator Grants can I hold in my career?
At most one of each — a researcher who has already held a Starting Grant cannot apply for another Starting Grant, and the same applies to the Consolidator Grant.
Related CASRAI coverage
For the full set of 2027 Work Programme changes beyond eligibility — including the one-proposal limit and the Synergy Grant’s move to February — see CASRAI’s ERC Work Programme 2027 news coverage. For the 2026 restructuring of the Scientific Proposal into Part I and Part II, still in effect for 2027, see ERC 2026 Proposal Restructuring: Part I vs. Part II Explained. For how ERC funding compares to UK research-council funding, see UKRI vs. ERC funding, and for a national-scheme comparison at the same career stage, see DFG Emmy Noether Programme vs. ERC Starting Grant. For data management plan requirements once an ERC grant is awarded, see ERC Data Management Plans Under Horizon Europe. For the wider Horizon Europe programme ERC sits within, see Horizon Europe and EU Research Funding overview. See also the dictionary entries for the European Research Council (ERC) and the ERC Proof of Concept Grant, available to existing ERC grantees.
