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Young researchers in Europe face a big challenge: achieving independence. It's an uphill struggle for them to make the transition from working under a supervisor to becoming an autonomous investigator in their own right. Sometimes they choose to leave Europe in search for places more open to young, promising scientists. It results in an outflow of talent and new ideas, which undermines the emergence of the next generation of research leaders in Europe. ERC Starting Grants are made to prevent it and to open for the best young researchers a fast track to independence and support to build their own research teams.ERC Starting Grants aim to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe. The scheme targets promising researchers who have the proven potential of becoming independent research leaders. It will support the creation of excellent new research teams.ERC Starting Grants in briefFor researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD (or equivalent degree) and scientific track record showing great promiseAn excellent research proposalResearch must be conducted in a public or private research organisation (known as a Host Institution/HI) located in one of the EU Member State or Associated Countries Funding per grant: up to € 1.5 millionDuration: up to 5 yearsSole evaluation criterion: scientific excellence of researcher and research proposalCalls for proposals: published once a yearFor questionsApplicants are invited to contact their National Contact Point or send their queries to the Enquiry Service.Plus d'infos 