The European Research Council has awarded €705 million in Starting Grants to 421 early-career researchers to run projects across Europe.
The funding supports researchers at the stage of establishing their own teams and independent research programmes, according to the European Research Council (ERC), the European Commission informed in a statement on Thursday.
Twenty-one successful applicants currently based outside Europe will relocate to EU countries and Horizon Europe associated countries to carry out their projects, up from 11 last year.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s main research and innovation funding programme.
European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva said she was “particularly pleased” that 21 researchers based in the United States and Canada plan to move to Europe.
This year’s call attracted 4,807 proposals, a record total and a 22% rise from 3,928 applications last year. Only 8.8% of proposals were funded.
Where the grants will be hosted
The projects span life sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities, according to the ERC.
Host institutions are based in 25 EU member states and associated countries, with the highest number of grants in Germany (89), followed by France (38), Switzerland (36) and the Netherlands (33), it said.
The winners include 84 German, 50 Italian, 30 French and 24 Spanish researchers, alongside researchers from 48 other nationalities.
The grants are expected to create more than 3,000 jobs within the new grantees’ teams.
Researchers moving to Europe under the EU’s Choose Europe initiative can request up to an extra €2 million to set up laboratories or research teams.
