The European Research Council (ERC) has reported that they received a total of 710 proposals in the first ERC Synergy Grant call.

The new ERC funding scheme was introduced on a pilot basis for exceptional proposals with the intention of  enabling  a small group of Principal Investigators and their teams to bring together complementary skills, knowledge, and resources in new ways, in order to jointly address research problems. The first ERC Synergy Grant call was published in October 2011 with a deadline for submissions on 25 January 2012.

Of the 710 proposals received only 10-15 will be funded after evaluation, with each project receiving between €10 million and €15m for research projects lasting up to six years. However, whilst the 2012 success rate for the Synergy Grants is expected to be around 2%, this should not necessarily deter you from submitting an application. European funding schemes are notorious for having extremely low success rates in the first round, and it is important to remember that only a very small proportion of the budget was allocated in this round.

There will be a second pilot Synergy Grants call in the 2013 ERC Work Programme. This next call is likely to open in autumn 2012 and close in early 2013.