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 Consolidator Grant call which has its deadline at 16:00 UK time on Thursday 2 February. 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 their 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.
For PhD degrees awarded by a UK institution, UKRO understands that a successful defence is likely to be taken as the date that all corrections (whether major or minor) are accepted after a viva. These dates must be explicitly written on a supporting document.
If this information is not included in any certification the applicant possesses, they may have to request additional documents such as transcripts or official letters from the awarding institutions.
It is not possible for the ERC NCP to verify whether supporting documents would definitely be accepted ahead of the proposal’s submission. Only the ERCâs eligibility committee can decide that post-submission.
Reapplying to 2023 Starting or Consolidator calls following unsuccessful applications to the 2022 calls
As NCPs we have been encouraging 2022 call applicants to consider reapplying to the following year’s ERC call. Circumstances will vary so applicants should judge for themselves but UKRO understands from ERC statistics that individuals who reapply have higher average success rates in ERC calls.
This advice best suits 2022 applicants who passed to Step 2 of the evaluation process but have not received their results or have found out they were unsuccessful with that submission. Any applicants who pass to Step 2 of the evaluation process would not have a one or two-year resubmission restriction.
Considerations for individuals who decide to reapply:
- 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. 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 any indication that a proposal is a resubmission and they only have access to the proposals allocated to them in the particular call they are working on.
Background on UK participation
The UK is a candidate Associated Country to Horizon Europe, thus 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.