ERC walks back stricter resubmission rules for 2027

The European Research Council (ERC) Scientific Council decided on April 29 to reverse changes it had made to its resubmission rules earlier this month, following a backlash from researchers. 

The 2027 eligibility rules will now remain the same as in previous years for the ERC’s Starting, Consolidator and Advanced grants for single principal investigators and their teams. 

For Synergy grants, which fund teams of scientists, some of the new restrictions will remain. In 2027, applicants who received a C score at step one of the 2025 or 2026 competition or a B score at step one in the 2026 competition for any ERC grant will not be eligible. 

“The clear request from the community has been for the ERC to reconsider how we manage the growing demand with an unchanged total budget,” the Scientific Council said in a statement. “In the 2027 Work Programme, we have thus decided not to change the re-submission restrictions.”

The Council had adopted stricter rules in mid-April to ease the burden on evaluators, who have been under huge strain following year-on-year growth of more than 30% in proposal numbers for many calls.

The ERC reported that the number of proposals some panels of evaluators had to assess had grown from 50-150 in previous years to more than 250. 

But while researchers acknowledged the problem, they did not like the Scientific Council’s solution. The stricter rules retroactively banned researchers who had applied in 2024 and 2025 from reapplying in 2027, effectively banning them from bidding for ERC support for several years. 

Last week, more than 1,000 scientists signed a letter asking the Council to reverse the changes and proposing alternative solutions, mainly moving to a two-step ERC applications process with shorter step one proposals. 

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The initiators of the group letter welcomed the Council’s decision to reverse the changes. “We are all very happy, but we still believe science budgets need to increase in the future so that Europe stays competitive,” said Sarah-Maria Fendt, professor at KU Leuven and former ERC grantee.

But the conversation is not over, she added. The Council’s message to the community on the decision said that the reverted rules will only apply in 2027, with the 2028 resubmission policy to be determined in the future. “Thus, I hope for 2028 a sustainable solution is found, together with the community,” Fendt said. 

The Scientific Council, meanwhile, has promised to review the alternative approaches to the ERC’s oversubscription problem suggested by scientists. 

“We will carefully review the suggestions and continue to consider how we can work together to ensure a viable ERC into the future,” the Council said. “This may include different measures, such as changes to the rules for re-submission,” it added, indicating that this approach has not yet been ruled out.

Find the ERC statement here.