The European Research Council was created in 2007 by the European Union under the Seventh EU Framework Programme for Scientific Research (2007-2013) and is currently one of the program's flagship programs of the European Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). It is the first European transnational organization that, through competitive funding, supports frontier research projects based on the scientific excellence of researchers and the innovative power of their idea, regardless of nationality, age or scientific discipline. Researchers participating in tenders are subjected to a very strict selection procedure where the only evaluation criterion is scientific excellence. Each year, the ERC provides substantial funding to young researchers in the early stage of their careers ("starting grants" or "consolidator grants") and scientists that are already established and recognized in their field ("advanced grants"), for a total of nearly 2 billion Euros per year. The total budget allocated to the ERC for the period 2014-2020 is 13.1 billion Euros. For an ERC funding grant, researchers need to participate in the tender published on the site and must carry out their research project in a university or under a public or private research centre in one of the 28 EU countries or in one of the 15 associated countries in the European research framework Programme.
