European Research Council - Starting Grant 2020 Call

*Please note the application process is now closed. We will advertise when we are accepting applications for this scheme again*

European Research Council  - Starting Grants 

The 2022 ERC  Starting Grant Call is open on the Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal with a funder deadline of 13 January 2022.

The European Research Council  Starting  Grants are part of the main ERC frontier research grants 2022 funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The European Research Council aims to "provide 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".

Starting Grants will support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. Applicants must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of their scientific proposal.  The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality, within 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD, who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU 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. 

OSGA holds an internal competition to decide which application(s) will be put forward under the scheme. Those who are interested to apply for this scheme should note that following the OSGA internal application procedure:

  • By 29 November 2021, please express interest by sending to research@area.ox.ac.uk  and in CC francesca.tucci@area.ox.ac.uk, by sending an abstract of the research proposal and your CV.  Please indicate in the subject line your name and "ERC -STG 2022". The OSGA Research Committee will short-list candidates based on their expression of interest and CV. 
  •  By 6 December 2021, the shortlisted candidates will be invited to send the first draft of their application (Part B) via email to research@area.ox.ac.uk  and in CC francesca.tucci@area.ox.ac.uk. 
  • By 15 December 2021, the selected proposals will be invited to send the final draft of the application to research@area.ox.ac.uk  and in CC francesca.tucci@area.ox.ac.uk. Please, DO NOT submit it via the Funding & Tender Opportunities portal, but send a pdf file of your application downloaded from the portal.  

Formal institutional approval is required both from the Head of the host department and the University’s Research Services Office - RSs, therefore OSGA will formally ask by 04/01/2022 the RSS for the approval, and inform the applicant when the submission to the funder will be authorized.  

Information about the scheme are available on the ERC website on and on the same page is available the ECR Work Programme 2022 

 Requests for further information are welcome at research@area.ox.ac.uk cc francesca.tucci@area.ox.ac.uk. 

European Research Council - Starting Grant 2020 Call

The European Research Council has officially published the ERC Work Programme 2020.

The Starting Grant 2020 Call, with a deadline of 16th October 2019, will open soon for submission (Expected date was 17/07/2019 but it is still listed as forthcoming), but the Information for Applicants , document and other supporting information can already be accessed on the call page (EC Funding & Tenders Portal link).

The Oxford School of Global and Area Studies will select and support to the funder excellent experienced investigators to pursue ground-breaking, high-gain/high-risk research, which comply with ERC Starting Grant eligibility rules. Those who are interested to apply for this scheme should note the following OSGA internal application procedure:

  • By noon 30th August 2019, send us your expression of interest that should consist of the following: Extended Synopsis (5 pages), Curriculum Vitae (2 pages) and Track Record (2 pages) prepared according to the funder guidelines;

The internal panel will provide information about the selected proposal within 10 working days and further details about the application process.

  • By noon 20th September 2019, the selected candidates will be invited to submit the complete proposal (including Part A, B and B2 prepared according to the funder guidelines) to the OSGA Research Committee;

  • By noon 1st October 2019, the proposals selected for the OSGA’s support must be completed (but not submitted via the EC  Funding & Tenders Portal). The proposal will be reviewed the University of Oxford Research Services that will provide the Organisational Approval before the submission of  application to funder by 16 October 2019.

Note: As Brexit has been delayed to end October, UK institutions are eligible to apply to host 2020 ERC Starting Grant applications. Should the UK leave the EU with a deal on or before 31 October the Withdrawal agreement will come into force and UK participation in Horizon 2020 (including ERC) will continue to the end of the work programme – with successful projects funded from the EC to their end dates. If we leave without a deal the UK Government underwrite guarantee will fund successful projects where these are submitted before the date of Brexit (Source: Gateway to Europe University of Oxford).

Requests for further information are welcome. Please, contact Francesca Tucci – OSGA’s Research Development Officer (research@area.ox.ac.uk).