Applying for EU Funding

The Pre-Award team support all University of Glasgow academic researchers interested in applying for funding under the Horizon Europe programme (successor to Horizon 2020), whether a PI intends to lead their own project or participate in applications led by other institutions.  

The UK confirmed association to Horizon Europe from 2024 onwards on 7th September 2023.  Read our news article from Professor Chris Pearce to find out what that means for UoG applicants.

UK organisations can participate in Horizon Europe calls in the same way as organisations based in the EU and are eligible to participate and receive funding in all parts of Horizon Europe, including the European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

We strongly encourage researchers to engage with Horizon Europe and encourage you to get in touch with the team as early as possible to maximise the support available to you.

Access the 'Funding & Tenders Portal' where you can search for EU funding opportunities.  You must register to submit an application.

For the latest information on EU funding programmes, explore the links below :

ERC Work Programme 2025

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

How can we support you?

  • Signposting academic staff to available funding opportunities via a range of engagement channels.  Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest news or start searching for funding opportunities here.
  • One to one meetings to discuss proposal ideas and provision of tailored support throughout the application process, including costing and proposal guidance.
  • Hosting workshops & information sessions tailored to suit the needs of each funding call, some in collaboration with our external partners.
  • Providing examples of sucessful applications (where permitted).
  • Facilitating mock interviews for successful applicants.

Visit our Resources area and explore our range of tools, events and services to support your EU funding journey.

Current & Forthcoming Call Deadlines

Funding calls for Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Research Council Work Programme (ERC) are limited to one call per year, per scheme.  The latest opportunities are listed below.  There are many other EU funding opportunities throughout the year and we would encourage you to search here.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA 2024) 

OpeningSchemeDeadline

OPEN

(23rd Apr)

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01-0

11th September 2024

OPEN

(29th May)

MSCA Doctoral Networks 2024

HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01-01

27th November 2024

European Research Council Work Programme (ERC 2024/ERC 2025)

Opening

Scheme

Deadline

OPEN

(29th May)

ERC Advanced Grants

ERC-2024-AdG

29th August 2024

OPEN

ERC Proof of Concept

ERC-2024-PoC

17th September 2024

OPEN

(11th July)

ERC Starting Grants

ERC-2025-SG

15th October 2024

OPEN

(11th July)

ERC Synergy Grants

ERC-2025-SyG

6th November 2024 

OPEN

ERC Consolidator Grants

ERC-CoG-2025

14th January 2025

 

Internal Funding Opportunities

In December 2023, Rachel Sandison (Deputy Vice Chancellor - External Engagement and Vice Principal - External Relations) announced the launch of internal funding to support Glasgow colleagues to collaborate with the University's international partners.  

The Horizon Network Seed Fund will provide seed funding which covers staff mobility and hosting costs for the development of research projects that will include European network partners (the Guild and CIVIS) and will lead to a Horizon Europe grant application.

The call is now closed.

Find out more about other internal funding opportunities here.

EU Funding Schemes

Explore the brief overview sections for each funding programme to find out what's on offer and if you're eligible to apply.

European Research Council - ERC Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, Synergy and Proof of Concept

The ERC work programme provides long-term funding for Principal Investigators and their research teams to pursue ground-breaking and ambitious research.  Eligibility for each scheme is dependent on career stage.

If you’re interested in applying for ERC grant with submission deadline in 2025, please contact Research Support Office EU Pre-Award Team: RSO-EUfunding@glasgow.ac.uk

ERC Starting Grant (StG) Are you a talented early-career scientist who has already produced excellent supervised work, is ready to work independently and shows potential to be a research leader? The ERC Starting Grant could be for you. 

  • Bottom-up call (any field of research)
  • € 1.5 million 
  • up to 5 years in duration
  • min 50% FTE
  • Applicants must hold a PhD between 2 – 7 years
  • Annual deadline typically in October
  • budget covers 100% of all direct costs plus 25% indirects (overheads).

ERC Consolidator Grant (CoG) Are you a scientist who wants to consolidate your independence by establishing a research team and continuing to develop a success career? The ERC Consolidator Grant could be for you. You can also apply if you have recently created an independent, excellent research team and want to strengthen it. 

  • Bottom-up call (any field of research)
  • € 2 million
  • up to 5 years in duration
  • min 40% FTE
  • Applicants must hold a PhD between 7 and 12 years.
  • Annual deadline typically in January
  • budget covers 100% of all direct costs plus 25% indirects (overheads).

ERC Advanced Grant (AdG) Are you an established, leading principal investigator who wants long-term funding to pursue a ground-breaking, ambitious project? The ERC Advanced Grant could be for you.

  • Bottom-up call (any field of research)
  • € 2.5 million
  • up to 5 years in duration
  • min 30% FTE
  • no PhD required
  • Annual deadline typically in August
  • budget covers 100% of all direct cots plus 25% indirects (overheads).

ERC Synergy Grant (SyG) - Are you a researcher that wants to address a research problem so ambitious, that can not be dealt with you and your team alone? The Synergy Grants could be for you!

  • Bottom-up call (any field of research)
  • € 10 million
  • up to 6 years in duration with 2, 3 or 4 PI’s
  • PI group can be a mix of different career stages
  • no PhD required
  • Annual deadline typically in November
  • budget covers 100% of all direct costs plus 25% indirects (overheads).

ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) The ERC also offer complimentary funding for researchers who previously received funding for any of the main grant schemes and now wish to explore commercial or societal potential, on a a lump sum basis of €150,000 for a period of 18 months.

 

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) - Fellowships & Doctoral Networks

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme provides funding to support doctoral and postdoctoral training via the following funding schemes :

Key Facts

  • There is only one call per scheme each calendar year.
  • The programme is open to the world & the 'bottom-up' model means researchers can submit proposals from any discipline.
  • Mobility is a key element of the programme, supporting researchers to acquire cross-country knowledge, across different sectors and disciplines.
  • Researchers are offered excellent working & employment conditions.
  • The EU offer a 'Partner Search' tool to help you find potential partners (you must be a registered ECAS user).

Visit our Resources area for a range of tools to support your application or get in touch with EU Pre-Award Team RSO-EUfunding@glasgow.ac.uk to discuss your eligibility & proposal ideas.

The Project Management Office (PMO) have extensive experience supporting large multi-partner doctoral networks.  Get in touch with Project Manager Katie Wright to discuss your proposal development and post-award support needs.

 

EU Funding - Collaborative Grants

Please provide the coordinator with the university PIC code (999974165) and advise them to add Joe Galloway (rso-ecas@glasgow.ac.uk) as the main university contact.

Thanks to the confirmation of the UK’s association to Horizon Europe for all 2024 calls until the end of the programme, we encourage PIs to continue nurturing existing European networks and partnerships, and to continue engaging in new ones:

  • for 2023 calls, the UK bids as an associated country and receives UK Guarantee funding if successful;
  • for 2024-2027 calls, the UK is an associated country, receiving funding directly from the EU if successful.

The UK is eligible for apply for all Horizon Europe grants until the end of the programme in 2027.

Horizon Europe collaborative projects are organised in six ‘Clusters’:

The Project Management Office (PMO) have extensive experience supporting large multi-partner collaborative projects.  Get in touch with Project Manager Katie Wright to discuss your proposal development and post-award support needs.

 

COST Actions - research networks

COST funds interdisciplinary research networks called COST Actions. These Actions bring together researchers, innovators and other professionals including industry specialists, who are based in Europe and beyond, to collaborate on research topics for a period of 4 years.

The Open Call 2025 is open - deadline is 21 October 2025 at 12:00 (noon) CEST

Costing approval is not required as no budget forecast is requested when submitting a proposal however please contact our EU Pre-Award Team RSO-EUfunding@glasgow.ac.uk to discuss Peer Review of your application. The amounts are variable from a grant period to another and depends, among others, on the size of the network and overall budget available to COST. 

COST Info Day Recording and Slides

The funding a COST Action receives covers the expenses of networking activities rather than research. As such is used to organise and fund:

  • Events organised by COST Action Management Committees (MC) in any COST Member State joining the network e.g. MC meetings, working group meetings, workshops and conferences.
  • Short-term Scientific Missions to visit an institution or laboratory in any country in the world
  • Training Schools offer intensive training on an Action topic at the premises of one of the Action participants
  • Conference grants aimed at Action participants and in particular at young researchers from Inclusiveness Target Countries. They help individuals attend beneficial international conferences that are not organised by COST Actions
  • Communication activities to share outcomes with researchers, policymakers, the private sector and civic society such as NGOs.
  • Virtual networking tools to respond to the rising need of digital tools in the context of the pandemic and to ensure continuity of COST Actions’ work activities (Virtual Networking Support (VNS) Grant and Virtual Mobility (VM) Grants).

COST activities shall be effective and impactful, which requires COST to strive for excellence, focusing on progressing the state-of-the-art and development of breakthroughs. On a matter of principle, topics of the COST activities shall be defined following a bottom-up approach.

COST Action proposals must represent a Network of Proposers from at least 7 different COST Full or Cooperating Members among which at least 50% shall be from COST Inclusiveness Target Countries.

COST Actions are:

  • Pan-European: the COST inter-governmental framework spans over 41 Full Members, one Cooperating Member, and one Partner Member;
  • Bottom-up: in terms of S&T fields and topics, COST welcomes any novel, original and innovative idea;
  • Open: in terms of participation, COST Actions can grow in size;
  • Unique: as a platform to coordinate national research funding and resources within a welldefined framework;
  • Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinary: bridging different research communities, disciplines, fields and methodologies;
  • Output and Impact-Oriented: COST Actions are monitored against their expected output and impact.

COST 2024 Open Call attracted record number of submissions

Open Call oc-2024-1 initial analysis

On 24 October 2024 Open Call (oc-2024-1) for new COST Action proposals was closed. Interim analysis shows:

  • Highest number of proposals ever submitted to a COST Open Call: a 62% increase when compare to oc-2023-1.
  • Over 35,000 main and secondary proposers involved.
  • 41 COST Member Countries submitted to this collection as a main proposer. Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany have the highest number of main proposers.
  • Strong gender balance: largest ever number of women main proposers.
  • Very interdisciplinary with 53% of proposals having two or more main fields of science.