European Research Council

The European Commission funds excellent cutting-edge research through the European Research Council (ERC), which awards grants to researchers at various career stages and to European research consortia.

ERC Starting Grants

With the Starting Grant, the ERC funds innovative researchers at early career stages (2-7 years after PhD). As a rule, up to 1.5 million euros are available for this purpose. Funding period: 5 years

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Starting Grant 12/2025 - 11/2030

Neuro-cognitive processes underlying gaze control and perception across free-viewing eye movements (FREE-VIEW)

Principal investigator(s): Dr. Nina Maria Hanning

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Starting Grant 06/2016 - 05/2021

Focus Alternatives in the Human Mind: Retrieval, Representation, and Recall (FAHMRRR)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Katharina Spalek

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Starting Grant 04/2018 - 03/2023

Protest and Order. Democratic Theory, Contentious Politics, and the Changing Shape of Western Democracies (POWDER)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Christian Volk

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Starting Grant 02/2019 - 04/2021

Constraint, Adaptation, and Heterogeneity: Genomic and Single-Cell Approaches to Understanding the Evolution of Developmental Gene Regulatory Networks (evolSingleCellGRN)

Principal investigator(s): Dr. David Garfield

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Starting Grant 04/2018 - 07/2021

Layered Functional Materials – Beyond “Graphene” (BEGMAT)

Principal investigator(s): Dr. Michael J. Bojdys

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Starting Grant 12/2020 - 11/2025

Quantum Repeater Architectures Based on Quantum Memories and Photonic Encoding (QUREP)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Tim Schröder

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Starting Grant 09/2021 - 08/2026

Socialist Medicine: An Alternative Global Health History (SOCMED)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Dora Vargha

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Starting Grant 10/2022 - 02/2023

The Structure of Normativity (REASONS F1RST)

Principal investigator(s): Dr. Benjamin Kiesewetter

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Starting Grant 01/2024 - 12/2028

Neural and Serotonergic Mechanisms Underlying Time Valuation in Rats (TIMEVALUE)

Principal investigator(s): Dr. Torben Ott

ERC Consolidator Grants

With the Consolidator Grant (7 - 12 years after PhD), the ERC funds researchers who have already achieved their first excellent research results. The funding period is usually five years and the funding amount is up to 2 million euros.

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Consolidator Grant 10/2024 - 09/2029

TECHtonics: Power, Politics and Contestation in Global Technical Standard-Setting

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Sarah Eaton

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Consolidator Grant 04/2024 - 03/2029

Intimate Dispossession: The Afterlives of Plundered Jewish Personal Possessions in the Aftermath of the Holocaust (PLUNDERED LIVES)

Principal investigator(s): PD Dr. Magdalena Waligorska-Huhle

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Consolidator Grant 10/2022 - 09/2027

Tales of the Diasporic Ordinary. Aesthetics, Affects, Archives

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Elahe Haschemi Yekani

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 01/2022 - 12/2026

Urban vibrations: How physical waves come to matter in contemporary urbanism

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Ignacio Farías

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 01/2022 - 12/2027

Shifting to a Land Systems Paradigm in Conservation (SystemShift)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Tobias Kümmerle

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 06/2020 - 05/2025

Solvated Ions in Solid Electrodes: Alternative Routes Toward Rechargeable Batteries Based on Abundant Elements (SEED)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Philipp Adelhelm

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 01/2021 - 12/2025

How Visual Action Shapes Active Vision (VIS-A-VIS)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. phil. Martin Rolfs

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 01/2021 - 06/2026

A New Type of Spike: Homoclinic Spike Generation in Cells and Networks (ANewSpike)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Susanne Schreiber

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 10/2020 - 09/2026

Reconstructing the Coordinated Self-Assembly of a Bacterial Nanomachine (BacNanoMachine)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Marc Erhardt

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 09/2018 - 08/2023

Duality Symmetries, Higher Derivatives, and their Applications in Cosmology (Symmetries-Cosmology)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Olaf Hohm

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Consolidator Grant 09/2018 - 08/2023

New Transversality Techniques in Holomorphic Curve Theories (Transholomorphic)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Chris Wendl

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Consolidator Grant 12/2025 - 11/2030

Multidimensional Hyperentangled Photon Graph States: Creation, Validation and Application (HyperGraph)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Tim Schröder, Dr. Gregor Pieplow

ERC Advanced Grants

With the Advanced Grant, the ERC funds experienced top researchers with over 10 years of research experience. The funding period is five years and the funding amount is usually 2.5 million euros.

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Advanced Grant 10/2023 - 09/2028

High-Precision Gravitational Wave Physics from a Worldline Quantum Field theory (GraWFTy)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Jan Plefka

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Advanced Grant 10/2023 - 09/2028

Data Privacy in Digital Markets (PRIVDIMA)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Roland Strausz

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Advanced Grant 01/2023 - 12/2027

Dendro-somatic Coupling and global neuronal signaling (Cortical Coupling)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Matthew Larkum

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Advanced Grant 01/2022 - 09/2027

From Texts to Literature: Demotic Egyptian Papyri and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible (DEMBIB)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernd U. Schipper

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Advanced Grant 10/2021 - 09/2027

Tame geometry and transcendence in Hodge theory (TameHodge)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Bruno Klingler

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Advanced Grant 03/2020 - 12/2026

Syzygies, Moduli and Topological Invariants of Groups (SYZYGY)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Gavril Farkas

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Advanced Grant 06/2019 - 05/2025

Uncovering the Origins of Mass: Discovery of the di-Higgs Process and Constraints on the Higgs Self-Coupling (HiggsSelfCoupling)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Cigdem Issever

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Advanced Grant 10/2016 - 09/2021

Mechanism of Enzyme Rhodopsin Activation (MERA)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Peter Hegemann

Project
Horizon 2020: ERC Advanced Grant 01/2016 - 12/2020

Reactions That Translate mRNA Into Dug-Like Molecules (TRIGGDRUG)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Oliver Seitz

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Advanced Grant 03/2026 - 02/2031

Digging Deep into the Sequence Space of Electrochemical Debonding of Peptides to Impact Next Generation Polymer Adhesives (IDefix)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Hans Börner

Project
Horizon Europe: ERC Advanced Grant 02/2026 - 01/2031

Belonging for Single Migrant Men: A Cross-Country Comparative Perspective (MENBELONG)

Principal investigator(s): Prof. Dr. Gökce Yurdakul

ERC Synergy Grants

An ERC Synergy Grant supports interdisciplinary research teams that work together to drive forward particularly innovative projects. Funding amount: 10 million euros, funding period: six years.