ERC Starting Grants

Swiss-based researchers can apply to the ERC Starting Grant call 2025.

The ERC Starting Grants are aimed at talented early-career scientists who have already produced excellent supervised work, who are ready to work independently and show potential to be research leaders. A Starting Grant Principal Investigator should have already shown evidence of the potential for research independence, for example by having produced at least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor.

The ERC Starting Grant allows outstanding researchers, who have contributed to impactful research in their field to lead an independent research project in any discipline and direct a team of researchers in Switzerland.

The College of Humanities (CDH) supports projects in areas related to the interdisciplinary field of digital humanities (bringing research in the social sciences and humanities together with cutting-edge empirical methods from computer science, data science, and engineering), and with potential connections to other EPFL schools/colleges.

The Call at a glance:

  • Eligibility:
    At the call deadline (15.10.2024), researchers must have successfully defended their PhD, the eligibility window is > 2 and ≤ 7 years prior to January 1, 2025 → defence of PhD between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2022.
  • Funding and duration:
    Max. Eur 1.5 Mio for a max. of 5 years (comprising applicant’s salary, if applicable)
  • Title conferred:
    At EPFL, postdoc applicants who are awarded with an ERC Starting Grant will receive the title of “Research and Teaching Associate”.

> Application Toolkit

Important dates:

  • Call opening: 10 July 2024
  • EPFL Information Session: 21 August 2024 – register now!
  • CDH internal pre-application deadline: 9 September 2024
  • SNSF deadline: 15 October 2024 at 17:00 (Swiss local time)

Pre-application process at the CDH

Candidates interested in applying with the CDH as host must follow an internal pre-application process, comprising:

  1. Carefully read the Call guidelines and then the EPFL application toolkit.

  2. Contact the CDH expressing interest there by requesting eligibility verification and preliminary support (contact: [email protected]).

  3. Once the eligibility and preliminary support have been confirmed, send a pre-application dossier including:
    – Motivation letter addressed to CDH Director, Prof. Frederic Kaplan
    – Short CV (max 3 pages)
    – Publication list
    – Research plan (max 3 pages)
    – Budget estimation

> The pre-application dossier must be sent to [email protected] by Monday, 9 September, 2024.

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