Monday, 17 November 2025 INTERNAL CALL FOR SUPPORT FOR APPLICATIONS TO THE ERC STARTING GRANT
The subject of the call is to provide support to researchers at UP IAM and UP FAMNIT in preparing and submitting applications to the ERC Starting Grant call. The purpose of the call is to promote the development of early-career researchers and to strengthen scientific excellence and the relevance of research results of younger researchers (realisation of research visits, participation in international conferences, organisation of scientific events, publication of scientific articles, etc.).
1. Eligibility criteria
Eligible applicants are early-career researchers employed at UP IAM or UP FAMNIT who meet the conditions listed below.
On the date of publication of the call, the candidate must meet the following conditions:
- They obtained a PhD between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2025. If the candidate has taken parental leave, one year is added for each child, and the period after the PhD defence is extended accordingly.
- In the last five years prior to the closing date of this call, they have published at least five scientific works in journals indexed in SSCI or SCI with IF>0.
- They have submitted an ERC Starting Grant application in 2025 or will submit such an application in 2026.
2. Contents of the application
An application is considered complete if it contains the following completed forms:
- Description of the research project and CV (Appendix 1) – submitted in PDF format. Candidates who submitted an ERC Starting Grant application in 2025 shall submit that application instead of Appendix 1.
- A statement by the candidate that they will submit an ERC Starting Grant application in 2026 for which UP FAMNIT or UP IAM will be the host institution (Appendix 2), or confirmation of submission of an ERC Starting Grant application in 2025.
Applications must be submitted electronically.
3. Funding volume
The funding volume will be determined based on an internal assessment of the quality of the application and the references of the candidate. Projects will be classified into three categories:
- Category A – excellent potential: applications demonstrating outstanding research potential. Awarded co-funding: EUR 5,000.
- Category B – very good potential: applications of high research quality but with certain shortcomings. Awarded co-funding: EUR 2,000.
- Category C – limited potential: applications with a lower level of research preparation and more shortcomings. No co-funding is awarded.
4. Eligible costs
Eligible costs and expenditures are those incurred until 31 December 2026.
The following costs and expenditures are eligible:
- material costs (e.g. purchase of literature, costs of scientific publications, purchase of material for laboratory research, registration fees for trainings or invited lectures at national or international scientific conferences or meetings, coverage of other costs related to the candidate’s stay abroad);
- purchase of research equipment.
5. Application procedure and deadline
Eligible applicants shall send the application with completed forms (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 in PDF format, or confirmation of submission of an ERC Starting Grant application in 2025 together with the submitted application) to razpisi.famnitiam@upr.si, with the subject “APPLICANT’S SURNAME – APPLICATION FOR SUPPORT FOR ERC STARTING GRANT APPLICATION”.
Applications received by email to the indicated address by 15 January 2026, 15:00, will be considered.
6. Notification of the selection
The selection of candidates will be decided by the Director of UP IAM and the Dean of UP FAMNIT, based on the proposal of an internal evaluation committee. Applicants will be informed of the results of the call at their institutional email address no later than 30 days from the date of application review.
Internal call can be found HERE
Statement > HERE
Project description and curriculum vitae (CV) > HERE
