European Research Council

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers 4 core grant schemes: [Starting Grants](https://erc.europa.eu/funding/starting-grants), [Consolidator Grants](https://erc.europa.eu/funding/consolidator-grants), [Advanced Grants](https://erc.europa.eu/funding/advanced-grants) and [Synergy Grants](https://erc.europa.eu/funding/synergy-grants). With its additional [Proof of Concept Grant](https://erc.europa.eu/funding/proof-concept) scheme, the ERC helps grantees to explore the innovation potential of their ideas or research results. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the [Scientific Council](https://erc.europa.eu/about-erc/erc-president-and-scientific-council). Since 1 November 2021, [Maria Leptin](https://erc.europa.eu/erc_member/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, under the responsibility of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, [Iliana Ivanova](https://commissioners.ec.europa.eu/iliana-ivanova_en). **Our mission ** The ERC's mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, based on scientific excellence.