ERC Synergy Grants

Topic updates

18 November 2025
EVALUATION results

ERC-2025-SyG (Published: 11 July 2024 - Deadline: 6 November 2024)

Available budget: 500 000 000 €

The ERCEA, assisted by independent experts, has completed the evaluation of proposals submitted to the above call. The names of the experts that evaluated Horizon Europe proposals are published, collectively for each part of Horizon Europe and once per year, on the FUNDING & TENDERS PORTAL

The results of the evaluation are as follows:

Number of proposals submitted: 712

Number of inadmissible proposals: 4

Number of ineligible proposals: 3

Number of withdrawn proposals: 4

Number of above-threshold proposals [1]: 66

Total budget requested for above-threshold proposals [1]: 684 202 084 €

We informed the applicants about the evaluation results for their proposals on 20 October 2025.

[1] The number of proposals that can finally be funded depends on the available budget and the completion of the formal procedures needed to conclude grant agreements.

The first grant agreements are expected to be signed in November 2025.

Information on the selected projects will be published on CORDIS.

13 November 2024

The ERC-2025-SyG was closed on 6 November 2024. A total of 712 proposals were submitted in response of the ERC 2025 Synergy Grant Call (ERC-2025-SyG).

 ERC SYNERGY GRANTS

TOPIC ID: ERC-2025-SyG

Type of grant: Call for proposals

General information

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)

Call: Call for proposals for ERC Synergy Grant (ERC-2025-SyG)

Type of action: HORIZON-ERC-SYG HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants

Type of MGA: HORIZON Action Grant Budget-Based [HORIZON-AG]

Status: Open for submission

Deadline model: single-stage

Opening Date: 11 July 2024

Deadline dates: 06 November 2024 17:00 (Brussels time)

Topic description

Objective:

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. 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 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.

Size of ERC Synergy Grants

Synergy Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 10 000 000 for a period of 6 years. The maximum award is reduced pro rata temporis for projects of a shorter duration. This does not apply to ongoing projects.

An additional up to EUR 4 000 000 in total can be requested in the proposal to cover (a) eligible ‘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. As any additional funding is to cover major one-off costs it 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 and, as necessary, their teams.

Each of the Principal Investigators must present in the proposal a Curriculum Vitae and a Track Record as appropriate to their career stage.

For further information, please see the ERC Work Programme 2025.

1. Admissibility and Eligibility Conditions:The conditions specific to ERC grants are described in theERC Work Programme 2025under the heading'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in theERC Rules of Submission and evaluation under Horizon Europe-An overview is provided below:

Admissible and eligible proposals:All proposals must be complete and submitted by eligible Principal Investigators before the relevant call deadline. A complete proposal needs to include all parts or sections (further details below under 'Proposals page limits and layout' and in theERC Work Programme 2025section 'Proposal submission and description'. Incomplete proposals may be declared inadmissible. The content of the proposal must relate to the objectives and to the grant type set out in the call, as defined in theERC Work Programme 2025.If a proposal is considered not to relate to the objectives of the grant and/or call for proposals, it will be declared ineligible.

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. Each PI has to present their profile, consisting of a CV and track record, using a single template available for all career stages. The PIs are requested to use the template in part B1 available for download from the submission system.

Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Synergy grant shall spend a minimum of 30% of their working time on the ERC project andaminimum of 50% of their working time in the European Union orAssociated Country, except for a Principal Investigator hosted or engaged by an Institution outside the European Union orAssociated Country (see Annex 3 of theERC Work Programme 2025).

The ERC expects the composition of a Synergy Grant Group to remain unchanged throughout the lifetime of the grant. 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. For further details please consult the section 'Restrictions on submissions of proposals' of theERC Work Programme 2025or theFrequently Asked Questions(ERC - FAQs).

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 orAssociated 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 from participation or covered by restrictive measures set out in Annex 3 to theERC Work Programme 2025.

Proposal page limits and layout

For each call, anInformation for Applicantsis published on the ERC website and on theEU Funding & Tenders Portal; itdescribes in detail how the electronic forms should be completed.

A complete proposal is composed of:

a) Administrative proposal forms(including Ethics Review Table): available on this page below and online via the submission tool -EU Funding & Tenders Portal- registration to theEU Funding & Tenders Portalis required first.

b) Research Proposal (Parts B1 and B2), available in the submission tool below, should be uploaded in the submission tool as PDF files.

Proposal Part B1

-Extended Synopsis: max. 5 pages (references do not count towards the page limit)

- Curriculum Vitae and Track Record: up to 4 pages for each Principal Investigator

Proposal Part B2

-Scientific Proposal: max. 15 pages (References and Resources and Time commitment section do not count towardsthe page limit).

-The Resources and Time commitment section: it includes a separate Budget table annex listing the costs for each PI and their teams.The Budget table annex template is available in the submission system. In part B2 the required resources have to be detailed foreach PI. This section is not limited to 2 pages and will not counttowardsthepage limit.

-Appendix – Funding ID: no page limits

c) Host institution(s) binding statement(s) of support templateis/are available in the submission tool and should be uploaded in the submission tool as PDF files.

In the case of Synergy Grants, where the different Principal Investigators may be hosted by more than one host institution,each of the host institutionsshall offer their support to the Principal Investigator(s) hosted by them for the duration of the grant. The host institutions must engage the Principal Investigators for at least the duration of the grant. Each host institution letter has to be uploaded at the time of submission.

d) Ethics review self-assessment(if applicable) and supporting documentation.The Ethics Issues Table can be found in the administrative form in addition to this, where relevant, an ethics self-assessment, as a separate annex, needs to be attached to the proposal.

Complete proposals must be submitted via the submission tool available through theEC Funding & Tenders Portal. Further detailed guidance in the'IT HOW TO' wiki site.

2. Eligible countries:describedin theERC Work Programme 2025under the heading 'Admissibility and eligibility criteria' and in Annex 3. An overview is provided below:

The Host Institution that engages and hosts a Principal Investigator must be established in an EU Member State orAssociated Country, although the team members of any Principal Investigator, as well as one of the Principal Investigators in a Synergy Grant Group may be based outside of the EU or an Associated Country(see section 'Eligible host institution').

Principal Investigatorsmay reside in any country in the world at the time of the application. ERC Principal Investigators do not have to be based full-time in Europe but if selected for funding, shall spend a minimum percentage of their working time in the European Union or Associated Countries, with theexception of the Principal Investigator – if the case – hosted or engaged by an institution outside the EU orAssociated Countries. Further information in the ‘Admissibility and eligibility criteria’ section of theERC Work Programme 2025.

3. Financial capacity and security:

Financial capacity:Please refer to theERC Rules of Submission and evaluation under Horizon Europe section 4, Award Decision and Preparation of Grant Agreements.

Security:Please refer to theERC Work Programme 2025, Annex 4.

4. Evaluation:

The conditions specificfor ERC are described in theERC Work Programme 2025under the heading 'Evaluation criterion and procedure' and in theERC Rules of Submission and evaluation under Horizon Europe. An overview is provided below:

Evaluation procedure

A single submission of the full proposal will be followed by a three-step evaluation, including interviews of all the Principal Investigators. The evaluation will be conducted by means of a structure of dedicated panels. The panels may be assisted by independent external experts working remotely.The composition of the panels at each step is not predefined but will be decided dynamically in relation to the proposals received.

The applicant Corresponding Principal Investigator can request on behalf of the groupduring the electronic proposal submission that up to four specific persons should not act as an evaluator in the evaluation of their proposal.

At step 1: One panel is formed with approximately 90 panel members, including 5 chairs, who will assessthe extended synopsisof the scientific proposal (only Part B1 - and not the full scientific proposal) and the Principal Investigators’ CVs and Track Records.

Proposals will be retained for step 2 based on the outcome of the evaluation at step 1 and a budgetary cut-off level of up to seven times the panel's indicative budget.

At step 2: Panel members from step 1 will be divided in five to seven panels of comparable sizes. They will assessthe complete version of the retained proposals (Parts B1 andB2).

Proposals will be retained for step 3 based on the outcome of the evaluation at step 2 and a budgetary cut-off level of up to three times the panel's indicative budget.

At step 3:The interview panels (that may be reconfigured to ensure the best expertise for the proposals) willassessthe complete version of the most competitive of the retained proposals (Parts B1 andB2) andall their Principal Investigators may be invited for an interview to present their project to a panel.

Evaluation criteria

For all ERC frontier research grants,scientific excellence is the sole criterion of evaluation. The panels will primarily evaluate:

-the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of the research project.

At the same time, the panels will evaluate:

-the intellectual capacity, creativity, and commitment of the Principal Investigators, with a focus on the extent to which the Principal Investigators have the required scientific expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project.

The peer reviewers will need to see that the collaborative working arrangements between the Principal Investigators described as part of the research methodology, can ensure scientific excellence. The detailed evaluation elements applying to the excellence of the research project and the group of Principal Investigators are set out in theERC Work Programme 2025.

Start submission

To access the Electronic Submission Service, please click on the submission-button next to the type of action and the type of model grant agreement that corresponds to your proposal. You will then be asked to confirm your choice, as it cannot be changed in the submission system. Upon confirmation, you will be linked to the correct entry point.

To access existing draft proposals for this topic, please login to the Funding & Tenders Portal and select the My Proposals page of the My Area section.

Get support

ERC SynergyGrant Applicants' Mailbox- for queries related to the call.

ERC 2025 Synergy Grant Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)- ERC Website.

ERC National Contat Points (NCP)- Contact your ERC NCP for further assistance in your national language(s).

Online Manualis your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.

Horizon Europe Programme Guidecontains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.

Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ– find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.

Research Enquiry Service– ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.

National Contact Points (NCPs)– get guidance, practical information and assistance on participation in Horizon Europe. There are also NCPs in many non-EU and non-associated countries (‘third-countries’).

IT Helpdesk–contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.

European IPR Helpdeskassists you on intellectual property issues.

CEN-CENELEC Research HelpdeskandETSI Research Helpdesk–the European Standards Organisationsadvise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.

The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment– consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.

Partner Search Serviceshelp you find a partner organisation for your proposal.