The next ERC Starting Grant call is expected to have a deadline in mid-October 2027.
The call is due to be available on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal in July 2027, and details of the ERC Starting Grant scheme can be found here.
Eligibility
For this call, researchers will be eligible to apply for a Starting Grant immediately after successfully defending their PhD, and at any time within the following ten-year period. See: https://www.ukro.ac.uk/news/changes-to-the-2026-and-2027-erc-work-programmes/
Starting Grants support individual early-career researchers who are starting their own independent research programme, and who can demonstrate the graound-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of their research proposal. A competitive Starting Grant applicant should have already shown evidence of the potential for research independence, for example by having produced at least one important publication as main author, not linked to their supervised doctoral research.
Expression of Interest Process
Due to the level of interest from candidates wishing to submit a Starting Grant application through one of the Faculties or Departments in the Humanities Division, an initial selection stage is used.
Candidates selected for support in submitting a full application to the deadline in October will be provided with support by the Humanities Division Research Facilitation team.
In developing your expression of interest, you may wish to refer to the ERC Grant Budget Examples, in order to give you and idea of what the funding can cover.
Submitting an Expression of Interest
The deadline for expressions of interest will be end of February or early March 2027, and further details will appear here in November 2026.
The Expression of Interest will consist of:
1) A first draft of the B1 part of the application (5 pages), using the B1 Expression of Interest template.
2) A maximum 2-page CV (unless you are a permanent post-holder in the Faculty)
3) If you are not a permanent post-holder in the Faculty where you wish to be based: please provide a letter of support from a permanent post-holder in the Faculty, confirming that they support your application, and available to provide feedback on drafts over the Summer.
For any queries, please contact: research.support@humanities.ox.ac.uk
