The ERC announces 57 new Synergy grant awards tackling major scientific challenges.
The awarded teams will receive a total of €571 million to address some of the most complex scientific problems, covering a wide range of disciplines.
The ERC Synergy Grants foster collaboration between outstanding researchers, enabling them to combine their expertise, knowledge and resources to push the boundaries of scientific discovery. This funding is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
Applicants submitted 548 proposals in this call. The 57 winning projects involve 201 researchers who will carry out their projects at 184 universities and research centres in 24 countries across Europe and beyond.
The UK is second on the table of countries hosting the award with 18 projects, after Germany (34 projects), and followed by France (13), the US (12), Spain (11) and Netherlands (10), among the countries hosting the highest number of projects.
Twenty-two of the groups include one researcher based outside Europe: in the US, Switzerland, Australia and – for the first time – the Republic of Korea. The international aspect of this grant scheme helps to open top European research to the best scientific talent globally, creating further synergies.
Nearly 32% of the researchers who are part of the winning projects are women, the highest proportion since the scheme began. This marks a notable increase compared to previous years, with 18.5% in 2023 and 22% in 2022. Additionally, six research teams are composed entirely of female researchers.
See the full list of winners.
About the ERC
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 four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Professor Maria Leptin has been the President of the ERC since November 2021. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova.