The Department has issued the SEED “Supporting ERC Early Development” call, with the aim of collecting and selecting applications to support learning pathways that can increase the likelihood of success in the ERC Starting Grant calls for the 2026/2027 period. The activities will be funded through the FOE CAPITALE NATURALE project and will include a period of in-person training delivered by a team of experts, which will also include CNR personnel seconded to European institutions.

Applications must be submitted in English by 6:00 PM on September 26, 2025.

The activities will have a duration of two years and a maximum funding of 40,000.00 € for each pathway.

Initially, applications were to be submitted in English by 6:00 PM on May 24, 2025. Subsequently, the European Research Council announced that, starting from the 2027 ERC Starting Grant call (to be published around July 2026), it will be possible to apply immediately after defending one?s PhD, and up to 10 years afterward. For this reason, the call has been reopened to extend the opportunity to participate to those who now fall within these new conditions.

The call and subsequent documents are available on the CNR URP webpage.