20 Apr 2026
Open letter by ERC President Leptin explains stricter ERC application rules
On 16 April 2026, the ERC publicised new stricter application measures. On the same day, ERC President Maria Leptin addressed an open letter to ERC panel members, grantees and other stakeholders to explain these stricter measures, which include longer restrictions for unsuccessful applicants from the previous rounds, as the ERC Scientific Council's response to the sharp increase in applications, which is placing growing pressure on peer reviewers and the ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA).
President Leptin points out that the ERC relies on 91 peer review panels to evaluate the research proposals, each meeting twice a year in Brussels, first for shortlisting applications that will be evaluated in depth, then interviewing applicants and decide on the final ranking of the proposals. In the past, each panel had to handle between 50 and 150 proposals. However, recently the number of applications has been rising dramatically. Some panels now have more than 250 applications to assess, with the ERC expecting this upward trend to persist. The ERC President points out that there is an upper limit to increasing the number of panel members and to the number or proposals that can reasonably be discussed in the panel sessions time frame.
The Scientific Council and the scientific officers of the ERC Executive Agency have been working together over the past year on mitigating the workload of panel members and streamlining the evaluation procedure, but even with these measures in place, the burden on the reviewers remains high. The ERC has therefore decided to reduce the number of applications, as the only way to mitigate this situation. Soft measures, such as advising applicants to reflect carefully on the maturity of their scientific proposal, have only had limited effect, therefore more direct measures will now be taken to restrict the possibilities for unsuccessful applicants to resubmit their proposals, by extending existing resubmission restrictions by one year each.
These changes will affect applicants for the 2027 calls who were unsuccessful in previous calls. However, President Leptin points out that first-time applicants who are applying for the 2027 calls should be aware that the Scientific Council may need to impose similar restrictions for the 2028 and 2029 calls, and the unsuccessful 2027 applicants would then be excluded from those. The President therefore advises potential applicants that in some cases, it may be wiser to postpone an application to allow the proposal to mature further and improve its chances of being selected for funding.