Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
Horizon Europe is the European Union (EU) funding programme for the period 2021 – 2027, which targets the sectors of research and innovation. The programme’s budget is around € 95.5 billion, of which € 5.4 billion is from NextGenerationEU to stimulate recovery and strengthen the EU’s resilience in the future, and € 4.5 billion is additional aid.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The aim is to provide support for a small group of two to four Principal Investigators to jointly address ambitious research problems that could not be addressed by the individual Principal Investigators and their teams working alone.
Detailed Call Description
Synergy projects should enable substantial advances at the frontiers of knowledge, stemming, for example, from the cross-fertilization of scientific fields, from new productive lines of enquiry, or new methods and techniques, including unconventional approaches and investigations at the interface between established disciplines. The transformative research funded by Synergy Grants should have the potential of becoming a benchmark on a global scale.
Principal Investigators of any career stage are welcome and must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal. Principal Investigators must also demonstrate that their group can successfully bring together the scientific elements necessary to address the scope and complexity of the proposed research question.
One of the Principal Investigators must be designated as the Corresponding Principal Investigator. At any one time, one Principal Investigator per Synergy Grant Group except the Corresponding one can be hosted or engaged by an institution outside of the EU or Associated Countries.
Synergy Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of €10 000 000 for a period of 6 years. The maximum amount of grants is reduced pro rata temporis for projects of a shorter duration.
However, up to an additional €4 000 000 in total can be requested in the proposal to cover (a) ‘start-up’ costs for Principal Investigators moving to the EU or an Associated Country from elsewhere as a consequence of receiving the ERC grant and/or (b) the purchase of major equipment and/or (c) access to large facilities and/or (d) other major experimental and field work costs, excluding personnel costs. Additional funding is not subject to pro rata temporis reduction for projects of shorter duration. All funding requested is assessed during evaluation.
Profile of the ERC Synergy Grant Principal Investigators: The ‘Synergy Grant Group’ applying for the ERC Synergy Grant must be made up of a minimum of two and a maximum of four Principal Investigators with competitive track records as appropriate to their career stage and, as necessary, their teams.
For further information, please see the ERC Work Programme 2024.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
Funding rate 100% / 25% for indirect costs.
Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Synergy grant shall spend a minimum of 30% of their working time on the ERC project and a minimum of 50% of their working time in the European Union or Associated Country except for a Principal Investigator hosted or engaged by an Institution outside the European Union or Associated Country.
Thematic Categories
- Education and training
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Educational Institutions
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Eligible Principal Investigators: Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. A Synergy Grant Group must be composed of a minimum of two and a maximum of four innovative and active Principal Investigators and, as necessary, their teams.
No specific eligibility criteria regarding the academic training are required for PIs applying for ERC Synergy Grants.
If a Principal Investigator leaves a Synergy Grant Group, the grant may be continued only exceptionally, contingent on scientific evaluation and provided that all eligibility criteria will continue to be met.
Restrictions on submission of proposals: The restrictions on submissions are related to the outcome of the evaluation in previous calls and are designed to maintain the quality and integrity of ERC’s evaluation process.
Eligible host institution: The host institution(s) (Applicant Legal Entity/ies) – up to four host institutions – must engage and host the Principal Investigators for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must either be established in the European Union or Associated Country, as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an international European research organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), or any other entity created under EU law.
Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams.
One of these host institutions, with the exception the corresponding host institution, at any one time, may be a legal entity established outside the European Union or Associated Countries or an international organisation.
Where they bring scientific added value to the project, additional team members may also be hosted by additional legal entities which will be eligible for funding, and which may be legal entities established anywhere, including outside the European Union or Associated Countries, or international organisations.
Legal entities established outside the European Union or Associated Countries are eligible for funding when they are one of the host institutions in a Synergy Grant at any one time, or they host additional team members bringing scientific added value to the project, or their participation is deemed essential for carrying out the action, provided that they are not excluded form participation or covered by restrictive measures.
Further details at the ERC Work Programme 2024
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Research and Innovation Foundation
29a Andrea Michalakopoulou, 1075 Nicosia,
P.B. 23422, 1683 Nicosia
Telephone: +357 22205000
Fax: +357 22205001
Email: support@research.org.cy
Website: https://www.research.org.cy/en/
Contact Persons:
Dr Kalypso Sepou
Head of European Programmes Department
Telephone: +357 22 205 066
Email: kalypso@research.org.cy
Dr Ioannis Theodorou
Scientific Officer
Email: itheodorou@research.org.cy
Katerina Karakasidou
Scientific Officer
Email: kkarakasidou@research.org.cy
EU Contact Point
Synergy Grants: erc-syg-applicants@ec.europa.eu