Access ERC Starting Grants

Access ERC Starting Grants

Supports France researchers with structured pathways in social science researchers moving toward ERC readiness, from planning to deployment.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

Access ERC Starting Grants 2026 is an ANR call that finances a 24-month postdoctoral contract in Social Sciences and Humanities, with the explicit objective of preparing the researcher to submit an application to the ERC Starting Grants 2028 call in October 2027. The call is restricted to the eight ERC SH panels; disciplines outside those panels are ineligible. ANR provides up to EUR 185,000 per award, excluding environmental costs, covering the researcher's salary and environment costs over the two-year contract period. The contract start date must fall between 1 July 2026 and 31 August 2028; a start in mid-2026 gives the candidate eight to ten months of funded contract time after the October 2027 ERC submission to prepare for the evaluation interview.

To be eligible, applicants must hold a PhD in Social Sciences and Humanities obtained between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2025 inclusive — the window that keeps the candidate within ERC Starting Grants eligibility across the full postdoc. Applicants must have accumulated at least one year of mobility, either abroad or in France, during or after their thesis. They must secure a written commitment from a French research and knowledge-dissemination organisation to serve as host and as the Host Institution for the future ERC application; the unit director and mentor co-sign the letter, but neither may be the thesis supervisor. The single grant beneficiary is the French host institution, which pays salary and environment costs. Forfaitisation applies, so no cost-justification documents need to be returned to ANR. Strong oral and written English is required. The application deadline was 24 February 2026 at 13:00 CET.

Results are notified approximately four months after the deadline. Awardees attend a kick-off meeting with ERC National Contact Points who provide guidance on preparing the ERC Starting Grants proposal. The binding commitment to submit the ERC 2028 application is a formal condition of the grant, making strategic alignment between the postdoc research plan and a competitive ERC narrative the central success factor.