Grant for recruiting researchers with ERC grants

The 2021 call for Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) invited researchers working in Switzerland to apply for a grant. 28 of these researchers were also awarded grants. However, these researchers now need to find new host universities within the EU to enable them to keep their ERC grants. This is because an agreement between the EU and Switzerland on the Horizon Europe framework programme could not be negotiated.

The Swiss Government has offered the researchers replacement funding if they remain in Switzerland; an offer that most of the researchers have accepted. For those who have not yet decided, a move to a Swedish higher education institution (HEI) may be an alternative, on condition that there is mutual interest in doing so.

The grant that the Swedish Research Council is now inviting applications for is aimed ultimately to make it easier for these researchers to keep their grants and to carry out their ERC-funded research projects. This also creates an opportunity for Swedish HEIs to recruit a prominent junior European researcher. The grant is intended to cover the expenditure relating to such recruitment.

Conditions for the grant

Applicants for the grant shall be Swedish HEIs who have recruited researchers who have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant 2021 (starting in 2022), and who would have located their research in Switzerland.

A precondition for being awarded the grant is that the HEI can show that it has carried out a recruitment process for such a named researcher, and that the researcher establishes their research at and is employed by the HEI.

Please send an application to the Swedish Research Council once the employment has been decided. The recruitment must be confirmed to us no later than 31 March.

All HEIs recruiting one of the researchers in question will receive the grant.

The grant period is 12 months, and the grant amount is 1 million SEK. The grant may be used to fund costs relating to the researcher’s relocation to Sweden, such as removal costs, rent of housing during a short period, travel, and some research expenses caused by the removal. Costs for accompanying family members may also be included. The grant must not be used for the researcher’s salary, general research expenses or scholarships.

Information about the researchers awarded ERC Starting Grants is available on ERC’s website External link.

Contact person for questions and further information about the application procedure: Anethe.Mansen@vr.se