Fifty UK-based researchers to receive €75 million in ERC Starting Grants
With 50 young researchers receiving €75 million for five years, the UK is once again one of the top beneficiaries of the ERC’s Starting Grant, with a 56% increase compared to 2023 figures.
Antoni Wrobel, a biochemist at the University of Oxford, will delve into how viruses change to infect cells. Their research will shed light on the emergence of pandemic viruses such as Covid-19 and pandemic influenza A viruses and will improve the ability to monitor and prepare for emerging pathogens.
Other EU-funded projects based in the UK will cover topics as diverse as sublinear quantum computation, marine transmissible cancers, sustainable food production, legal foundations for a climate-friendly financial system, racism, the link between stereotypes and social inequalities, and many others.
ERC President Maria Leptin warmly welcomed UK researchers back to the ERC.
Starting Grants amount to €1.5 million per grant for a period of five years. Additional funds can be made available to cover costs related to moving from a country outside the EU or associated countries, the purchase of major equipment, access to large facilities or major experimental and fieldwork-related costs.
Earlier this summer, the ERC announced its Proof of Concept beneficiaries. The UK was the top beneficiary in the 2024 inaugural round of the European Research Council (ERC) competitions for Proof of Concept grants.
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It supports researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Since November 2021, Maria Leptin is the President of the ERC. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme.
Horizon Europe is the biggest international research and innovation programme in the world with more than £82 billion (€95.5 billion) of funding available over seven years (2021 to 2027) from the EU budget, to which all associated countries are adding further contributions.
Questions & Answers on the UK’s association to Horizon Europe can be found here, as well as in this FAQ
Joint statement by the European Commission and the UK Government on the UK's association to Horizon Europe and Copernicus
UK association to Horizon Europe
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