In our capacity as UK National Contact Points for the European Research Council (ERC), UKRO has been receiving queries from potential applicants to the 2023 Starting Grant call which has its deadline at 4pm UK time on Tuesday 25 October. We have been giving some key advice on some frequently asked questions:
New PhD eligibility date for 2023 Starting and Consolidator Grant calls
As reported in advance of the 2023 Work Programme’s publications, there has been a change to the date used by the ERC to calculate the researcher age of applicants that determines eligibility. The new definition is “the certified date of the successful defence (and not the award) of their PhD degree” (ERC Work Programme 2023). This may change which ERC scheme an applicant is eligible to apply for and in some cases may require additional supporting documents uploaded with the application. The guidance on what is expected by the ERC in supporting documents to demonstrate eligibility can be found in section 2.4 of the information for applicants.
It is not possible to verify whether supporting documents would be accepted with certainty ahead of the proposal’s submission. Only the ERC’s eligibility committee can decide that post submission. UKRO understands that for PhD degrees awarded by a UK institution, a successful defence is likely to be taken as the date that all corrections (whether major or minor) are accepted after a VIVA. Such dates should be explicitly included in a supporting document, therefore if it is not included in existing certification additional documents such as transcripts may need to be added, or official letters from awarding institutions may need to be requested.
Reapplying to the 2023 Starting or Consolidator Calls following unsuccessful applications to the 2022 calls
As NCPs we have been encouraging 2022 call applicants to consider reapplication to the following ERC call year. Circumstances will vary so applicants should make their own judgment but in general terms UKRO understands there is a tendency for reapplicants to have higher success rates in ERC calls.
This advice best applies to 2022 applicants who pass to Step 2 of the evaluation process but ultimately are not retained for funding: that is to say applicants who proposal reached the threshold for funding (grade A) but whose ranking placed them in the reserve list or the not retained list. Any applicants not passed to Step two of the evaluation process would have a one or two year resubmission restriction as set out in the ERC Work Programme.
Considerations for reapplicants:
- If a 2022 application is eventually invited for funding from the reserve list, a subsequent 2023 application can be withdrawn at any time.
- The ERC puts no constraints on reapplying with identical proposal texts. Again applicants should judge what is best in their case, it may be that valuable modifications or improvements can be made to the resubmitted proposal.
- ERC panellists are not given notification that a proposal is a resubmission and they only have access to the proposals allocated to them in that particular call.
Background on UK participation
The UK is a candidate Associated Country to Horizon Europe, which means that UK applicants are still eligible to apply as Principal Investigators with UK based Host Institutions to the Horizon Europe ERC calls. The European Commission states in their Q&A document that UK entities are eligible to apply and are treated as if the UK is an Associated Country throughout the process, from admissibility and eligibility to evaluation, up until the preparation of grant agreements.
Further information on the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe can be found on our factsheet on “UK Participation in EU Programmes for Research, Innovation and Higher Education“.