FIS 3 — Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (Round 3)
Supports individual researchers in Italy through frontier basic research awards across major scientific domains.
⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.
The Fondo Italiano per la Scienza (FIS) is Italy's national analog to the European Research Council, established under Decree Sostegni bis (art. 61, D.L. 73/2021) and structured into ERC-mirrored career-stage tracks: Starting Grant for emerging researchers (50% of budget), Consolidator Grant for mid-career researchers (20%), and Advanced Grant for established researchers (30%). FIS 3, the third round, was issued under Decree D.D. n. 1802 del 21 November 2024 with a total allocation of €475 million — the largest FIS round to date. Project duration runs up to five years per award. The FIS 2 Starting Grant base award was €163,930; FIS 3 award ceilings per track are defined in the bando PDF, with the median derived from the FIS 2 Starting Grant floor.
Only individual Principal Investigators affiliated with Italian universities or public research bodies may apply — no consortium is required and for-profit entities are excluded. All three ERC macrosectors are eligible: PE (Physical Sciences and Engineering, panels PE1–PE10), LS (Life Sciences, LS1–LS9), and SH (Social Sciences and Humanities, SH1–SH8). Applications are submitted in English via fis-submission.mur.gov.it using CINECA procedures, with the bando text in Italian. The FIS 3 submission window ran from noon on 27 November 2024 to noon on 27 January 2025 (extended from the original close date under D.D. 63 del 23-01-2025); ranking-list decrees and waiting-list advancements (scorrimento delle graduatorie) for project IDs in the FIS-2024-NNNNN series continue through 2025–2026.
FIS 3 is now closed. The Piano Triennale della Ricerca (D.M. 150/2026) anticipates the next call — provisionally named FIS 4 or the FPR Starting Grant — around 2027. Researchers targeting FIS should use the interval between rounds to build a competitive research profile, document ERC-panel alignment, and prepare English-language scientific narratives, as the evaluation mirrors ERC selection criteria closely.
Frontier fundamental research across all disciplines — Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE), Life Sciences (LS), and Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) — awarded to individual PIs at Italian universities and research bodies.
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