This internal funding scheme aims to provide support mesures for Södertörn University's applicants to the ERC calls opening in 2027. You are invited to submit a project outline and a CV that will be evaluated by a panel with members from the university's grants office, the deputy vice-chancellor for research, and an external expert. The panel will closely follow the ERC's evaluation criteria  when ranking the submitted proposals. While the exact wording of the evaluation criteria will be published in the 2027 work programme this summer, you can consult the 2026 work programme for last year's evaluation criteria. The panel will subsequently determine if the best ranked proposal outlines are of sufficient quality to recieve support. The panel may also request complementary information from applicants if the submitted proposal outline provides insufficient grounds to make a well-informed decision.

Successful proposals will be considered for both individualized coaching and support from an experienced consultancy firm that will provide several waves of feedback on applicants' concept and proposal drafts, but particularly promising applicants may also be awarded four weeks of application writing time.

If writing time is awarded, its planning can be freely determined in consultation with the researcher's head of department, as long as it does not extend beyond the deadline of the ERC call. Successful grantees may be expected to commit part of their funded time to attend an internal grant writing workshop at a later stage where they will be requested to read and comment on other participants' drafts in addition to recieving feedback themselves. The applicant is required to submit the application by the deadline if the grant writing funding is accepted.

In addition to responding to the questions below, you are asked to upload: 

• A project outline: this document can be up to 3 pages (excluding references), Arial 11 pt font, 2.5 cm margins. Applicants can organize the text as they wish but need to ensure that the outline provides sufficient grounds for assessing the merits of the project. Make sure you clearly adress the ground-breaking and ambitious nature of the research and its potential scientific impact. If you have submitted the same project idea to the European Research Council in a previous year, you will need to specify how your project outline differs from your previous submission, and how your project addresses the comments from the reviewers. If you previously applied for the planning grant last year, you are also invited to provide information on the key changes you have made to your proposal since the previous submission. 
• A CV/Track Record: this document should be based on the following template and can be maximum 4 pages in length. Refer to the 2026 work program for more information about the contents of this document. Please note that Synergy applicants need to provide this document for all involved researchers (compiled and uploaded in a single file).  

Make sure to submit your application before August 16, 2025 at 23:59. 

In case you have any questions about this application, please contact grantsoffice@sh.se