ERC Synergy Grant 2022: 15 French projects selected

About 360 offers were sent to the European scientific jury as part of this first ERC Synergy Grant call for grants. The funding, reaching 295 million euros, will to teams of two to four pioneer researchers whose mission will be to “bring together complementary skills, knowledge and resources in an ambitious project”.

15 projects and 22 researchers for France

As the European Research Council (ERC) indicates, the 29 laureate projects commit a total of 105 main researchers who will lead their research in universities and research centres implemented in 19 countries in Europe and beyond. Just behind Germany (with 23 project leaders on 14 projects), France has 22 project leaders on 15 projects.

These 15 French projects, which are in relation with all scientific fields and often interdisciplinary, are led by one or several researchers working for an entity, whether a major research institution or university hub:

• Ten researchers are from the CNRS (French national centre for scientific research) for 8 projects;
• Two are from INSERM (French Institute of health and medical research);
• Two are from Institut Pasteur;
• Two are from EPHE (professional school of higher studies);
• One researcher is from Centrale Nantes, one from the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), one from the University of Toulouse-III Paul Sabatier, one from Ecole polytechnique, one from the University of Paris-Dauphine, and one from IFP Energies nouvelles.

10 million Euros over six years, and jobs afterwards

Projects awarded with a Synergy Grant 2022 will receive a subsidy up to 10 million Euros for a duration up to six years. Horizon Europe, the French site of the European research and innovation programme, explains that this funding will help team “jointly develop ambitious research, at the fringe of knowledge, about issues that can’t be solved individually”.

These grants are designed to help groups including two to four scientists from member countries or partner countries, to “dive in some of the most challenging scientific issues in the world, covering all scientific fields”. The European Research Council thinks that these subsidies will contribute to “creating some 1,000 jobs for postdoc scholarship holders, doctoral students, and other staff members of the recipients’ research teams”.

It is useful to not that the call for projects ERC Synergy Grant 2023 is open since July 2022, and the deadline to submit projects for this call is set on November 8.

To know more

- Results on the ECR website 

- The Horizon Europe website 

- The list of selected projects 

- Press release from the CNRS 

- The ERC Synergy Grant 2023 call for projects

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