The Starting Grant, Consolidator Grant, Advanced Grant and the relaunch of Synergy Grant are now available in the draft of the new Work Program of the European Research Council (ERC) for 2018.
According to the planned schedule, the The first calls to open will be Starting Grant and Synergy grant, which will be available starting August 3, with closing dates of October 17, 1017 for Starting Grant and November 14 for Synergy Grant.Synergy Grant is one of the new elements of the ERC program, through which It will subsidize groups of two to four scientists that can jointly address ambitious research problems. The work program also contains details on the profile and expected requirements of applicants for calls, information on the evaluation process and on the distribution of thematic panels.What is ERC? ERC promotes high-quality research in Europe through competitive funding and support for cross-border research driven by researchers from all fields based on scientific excellence. ERC allows researchers to identify new opportunities and directions in any field of research, ensuring that funds are allocated to new and promising areas of research and not to priorities established by politics.ERC grants are awarded through an open competition to projects led by researchers working in Europe. The objective of these grants is to recognize the best ideas, to confer status and visibility to the best research minds in Europe, while attracting talent from abroad. The European Council, therefore, hopes that its donations will help generate new and unpredictable scientific and technological discoveries, which may be established as the base of new industries, markets and wider social innovations in the future.Ultimately, ERC aims to make the European research base more prepared to respond to needs of a knowledge-based society, providing Europe with the research capacities necessary to deal with global challenges. Source: It's Horizon and ERC
