New ERC funding instrument announced

For the 2026 Work Programme, the ERC has announced a new funding instrument: the "super grant." This new instrument is part of several changes to the ERC Work Programme 2026, which were announced by the ERC in June (see ERC announcement).

The ERC Scientific Council is currently developing the details of this new scheme, which are expected to be published only at the end of 2025 through an amendment to the 2026 Work Programme.

The grant is expected to have a duration of up to seven years. According to a statement by the ERC Scientific Council , the new grants aim to support particularly ambitious research projects over a longer period and with a correspondingly higher budget. The grants will follow the same principles as other ERC grants, i.e. projects will be selected on the basis of scientific excellence only, and will be for all areas of research and open to individual researchers of any nationality, working at or ready to move to a host institution in an EU Member State or a country associated to the EU R&I framework programme Horizon Europe.

The new funding instrument was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in May 2025 as part of the “Choose Europe for Science” initiative.