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Main features of 2024 Work Programme Research assessment: Scientific excellence remains the sole criterion of evaluation for frontier research grants, but the Work Programme introduces changes to the structure of the Curriculum Vitae and Track Record, as well as to the evaluation procedure, where greater emphasis is placed on the quality of the project. Lump sums: Advanced Grants will be implemented as a pilot call using a lump sum contribution, while Starting, Consolidator, and Synergy Grants will continue to be offered under the actual cost model. See Q&A on lump sums Proof of Concept Grants: As of 2024, applications for these grants will be evaluated and selected in two instead of three rounds, based on two specific cut-off dates. Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grants: a maximum of 44 proposals per panel will be assessed at step 2 of the evaluation. Moreover, a distinction in the scoring at step 1 will be made between proposals obtaining a score of A and invited to step 2 of the evaluation, and proposals obtaining a score of A but not ranked sufficiently high to be invited to step 2. The latter proposals won't be subject to resubmission restrictions. A new evaluation panel (SH8) has been created in the Social Sciences and Humanities domain to restore the balance between the coverage of social sciences and humanities. In addition, some descriptors (LS3, LS5) have been changed to make the disciplinary coverage clearer to the applicants. Public Engagement with Research Award: the ERC grantees with ongoing or recently completed projects will be able to enter the contest for the Public Engagement with Research Award.

The ERC Advanced Grants 2023 call closed for applications on 23 May 2023. These are the preliminary data on the submitted proposals: The ERC received 1,829 proposals. This marks an increase of 11% compared to the 2022 call, when 1,647 applications were submitted. The highest number of applications was submitted in the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering (792), followed by Social Science and Humanities (528), and Life Sciences (509). Women submitted 24.6% of the proposals. This is a slightly higher percentage than for the 2022 call, when 23% of the proposals were submitted by women. In the Work Programme 2023, the ERC Scientific Council has earmarked €597 million for an estimated 246 Advanced Grants in 2023. These amounts are still subject to change. The ERC is now starting the evaluation of the proposals. The selected projects are planned to be announced at the beginning of spring 2024. ERC Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent scientists and scholars in any field at the career stage when they are already established research leaders, with a recognised track record of research achievements.