ERC 2026 PERA

Yes, they can, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria. All Principal Investigators involved in an ERC frontier research project, whether it is ongoing or has concluded on or after 31 December 2023, are eligible to apply.

Yes, you are eligible to apply, provided that you meet the eligibility conditions set out in the Rules of Contest, i.e. you are or have been a Principal Investigator in an ERC frontier research project, that is either ongoing or has ended on or after 31/12/2023, subject to any restrictions provided in Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme. The eligibility of the applicant for this prize is not affected by the place of establishment of the Host Institution nor by the association or not of the Host Institution’s country of establishment to the Horizon Europe programme. Please note that if the PrincipaI Investigator chooses to apply using the Participant Identification Code (PIC) of their Host Institution, this must be the same Host Institution which was the beneficiary of the ERC funded project associated with the application for this prize.

Yes, provided that you meet the eligibility conditions set out in the Rules of Contest, i.e. you are or have been a Principal Investigator in an ERC frontier research project, that is either ongoing or has ended on or after 31/12/2021, subject to any restrictions provided in Annex 3 of the ERC Work Programme. The eligibility of the applicant for this prize is not affected by the place of establishment of the Host Institution nor by the association or not of the Host Institution’s country of establishment to the Horizon Europe programme. Please note that if the PrincipaI Investigator chooses to apply using the Participant Identification Code (PIC) of their Host Institution, this must be the same Host Institution which was the beneficiary of the ERC funded project associated with the application for this prize.

The Rules of Contest require that applications are submitted using the submission system. Applicants can submit any supporting documents and material solely through hyperlinks. In total, three hyperlinks serving as evidence of the public engagement activity can be included. Hyperlinks should not be used to describe how the award criteria are met. The fulfilment of the award criteria must be described in Part B of the application. Evaluators will be instructed to spend a limited time looking at hyperlinks. Evaluators will not consider as evidence any additional hyperlinks.

No, it is not possible to upload annexes for this call.

The application form is available in English.

An application can be submitted in any official language of the EU. However, for reasons of efficiency, the use of English or the provision of translations into English is strongly advised.

If needed, a machine translation into English can be processed free of charge via this web page.

If an application is submitted in another EU official language than English and retained for the jury selection, the ERCEA will provide the jury with a raw machine translation version of the application. Such a translated version will not be verified by the ERCEA.

For ongoing ERC frontier research projects, only activities sufficiently mature to demonstrate impact or those that are completed by the submission deadline can be included in the application. “Sufficiently mature” means that the Principal Investigator(s) (PIs) must have already engaged with the public and the impact of this engagement must be assessable.

Given the strict page limit and the guidelines which stipulate not altering instructions to ensure fair treatment of all applications, applicants must not amend the content of the template. This includes refraining from summarising, adding abbreviations, changing the structure, merging sections, or removing existing page breaks. Therefore, pages 1-2 and the 'History of changes' table must remain in the document and count towards the 12-page limit.

The 12-page is the upper limit for your application and not a target. Provided that your application complies with the parameters defined in the Rules of Contest (including font type and size, line spacing and margins), it can be shorter than 12 pages. The 12 pages of Part B must be calculated as including the formatting and sections of the template, such as the cover page and the important notice. The content of the template should not be deleted or altered. Applicants are strongly encouraged to avoid unnecessary verbosity and repetition. Applications that lack clarity, are poorly structured, or fail to address the award criteria questions may be penalised by the evaluation panel.

Yes, they can. One application may be submitted for each ERC-funded frontier research project that is either ongoing or has ended on or after 31 December 2023.

Yes, provided that the Principal Investigators meet the eligibility criteria: all Principal Investigators in an ERC frontier research project, that is either ongoing or has ended on or after 31/12/2021, are eligible to apply.

Since there is a strict page limit and guidelines not to delete instructions to ensure equal treatment of all applications, applicants must not alter the content (no summarising, adding abbreviations, changing the structure, merging sections, etc.) of the template.

This rules also applies to pages 1-2 and to the ‘History of changes’ table.

In case of ongoing ERC frontier research projects, only activities sufficiently mature to demonstrate impact or completed by the submission deadline can be included in the application. Sufficiently mature means that the PrincipaI Investigator(s) has/have already engaged with the public and the impact of this activity can be assessed.

The Rules of Contest require that applications are submitted using the submission system. Applicants can submit any supporting documents and material only through hyperlinks. In total, three hyperlinks serving as evidence of the public engagement activity can be included. Hyperlinks should not be used to describe how the award criteria are met. The fulfilment of the award criteria must be described in Part B of the application. Evaluators will be instructed to spend a limited time looking at hyperlinks. Evaluators will not consider as evidence any additional hyperlinks.

Yes. One application is allowed to be submitted per ERC funded frontier research project which is either ongoing or has ended on or after 31/12/2021.

No, it is not possible to upload annexes for this call.

There is only one topic for this call. All applications will be evaluated together, regardless of the type of public engagement with research activity.

The names of the winners will be announced in September-October 2026.

The ERC will inform the winners and all other applicants directly through their Funding and Tenders Portal account.

The ERC Public Engagement with Research Award is intended to recognise ERC Principal Investigators who actively engage with the public beyond their scientific field. The emphasis is on effectively communicating with a lay audience. Since the jury comprises communication experts, it is neither required nor appropriate to include a list of scientific publications in your application. However, you may refer to important publications if they are relevant to your engagement activities.

The names of the winners will be announced in autumn 2024.

The ERC will inform the winners and all other applicants directly through their Funding and Tenders Portal account.