ERC Grants

The European Research Council (ERC) encourages high quality research in Europe through competitive funding. It was set up in 2007 under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7, 2007-2013). It aims to enhance the dynamic character, creativity and excellence of European research at the frontiers of knowledge.

Through a highly competitive review process the very best researchers are funded to perform their research in Europe. Since 2007, some 4,000 projects have been selected for funding from more than 40,000 applications.

The ERC’s main goals are to:

  • Support the best of the best in Europe across all fields of science, scholarship and engineering
  • Promote wholly investigator-driven, or 'bottom-up' frontier research
  • Encourage the work of the established and next generation of independent top research leaders in Europe
  • Reward innovative proposals by placing emphasis on the quality of the idea rather than the research area
  • Raise the status and visibility of European frontier research and the very best researchers of today and tomorrow


The main funding categories of the ERC are:

  • ERC Starting Grants (for young researchers with 2-5 years experience after PhD)
  • ERC Consolidator Grants (for researchers with 7-12 years experience after the PhD)
  • ERC Advanced Grants (for senior researchers)


„Deciphering River Flood Change” is an ERC Advanced Grant.

For more information please see the ERC website: http://erc.europa.eu