As of 2025, the EU has fully activated the transitional arrangement: researchers in CH can participate in the ERC Starting Grant (StG) 2026 call. Their proposals are evaluated by the ERC Executive Agency. At the approval, should the association agreement not be in place, SERI will fund the projects.
ERC StG supports talented early-career scientists who have already produced excellent supervised work. Applicants should have already shown evidence of potential for research independence (e.g. one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor).
Applicants must have successfully defended their PhD thesis between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2023 included (ref. PhD defence/viva date). Both applicants with and without professorial position are eligible.
External candidates & internal ones without a professorial position must send eligibility form, CV + publication list, motivation letter & letter/s of support from USI professor/s to Servizio Ricerca by 7 May 2025 to obtain the institutional support. The internal procedure lasts approx. 2 months.
ERC funds frontier research in any discipline. It welcomes proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research, or introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and scientific inventions. Applicants must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their proposal.
Up to € 1.5 million for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). Budget covers personnel and project-related costs plus overheads.
Proposals are evaluated by selected international peer reviewers and by discipline-specific panels in a two-step evaluation procedure. Selected applicants are invited for an online interview in front of the panel (taking place in early summer 2026).
Proposals are evaluated on the basis of excellence as the sole criterion that will be applied to both the evaluation of the project and the PI. Reviewers evaluate the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of the project, as well as the intellectual capacity, creativity, and commitment.
Have a look at projects approved at the last call. The ERC database allows you to filter by discipline and grants you access to the abstracts.
