The ERC Consolidator Grant by the numbers, 2024-2027 (EU)

Published 27 October 2026 · data read 28 October 2026 · 11 sources · 13 min read

The ERC Consolidator Grant's success rate fell from 14.2% in 2024 to 11.2% in 2025 [2][3] — applications rose 35% in that one year, from 2,313 to 3,121, while the budget rose only 7%, from EUR 678 million to EUR 728 million [2][3]. More money, and a materially smaller chance.

The 2026 call then did something the Starting Grant has not done in four years: applications fell, by 2%, to 3,060 [4]. Results are not yet published.

For 2027 the Scientific Council broadened the eligibility window — it describes the change as applying to "the 2027 Starting and Consolidator Grant calls", "allowing more researchers to apply" [5]. The change is 7–12 years since the PhD to 5–15: the ERC Work Programme 2026 sets the Consolidator eligibility period at "> 7 and ≤ 12 years" and the Work Programme 2027 at "> 5 and ≤ 15 years", each in its own Table 4 [7][8].

⚠️ Both figures are the eligibility PERIOD, measured to a cut-off date rather than to the day you apply. For the 2026 call the cut-off is 1 January 2026, so the window is PhD defences between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2018; for 2027 the cut-off is 1 January 2027 and the span is 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2021 [7][8]. The year range is a summary of those dates, not a second rule — and the dates are what an application is judged against.

The money is the largest of the three career-stage schemes: EUR 2 million over five years, with up to EUR 1 million more for costs the work genuinely requires [1].

The rule most often got wrong is which date starts the clock. Since 2023 it is the certified date of your successful PhD defence, not the date the degree was awarded — the ERC changed it for "the Starting and Consolidator Grants" together, because the award date varies between countries and universities [1].

Applications, grants and the success rate

⚠️ The two success rates are DERIVED, and the ERC did not print either. It publishes the applications and the grants separately, so 328/2,313 and 349/3,121 are divisions done here — unlike the Starting Grant post, where the ERC prints the rate itself. ✅ What makes them trustworthy is that the application changes reconcile: the ERC's own "+35%" and "2% decrease" match the counts exactly [3][4].

The 2026 grants column is left blank rather than zero, because that competition is still being evaluated; the chart shows it as absent. The 2027 call has not closed — it opened 24 September 2026 and its deadline is 12 January 2027 [1] — so it has no row at all.

Where the grantees went

The ERC names only its leading host countries per call, so this is its own list rather than a full ranking.

⚠️ The chart shows the four countries the ERC names, not the top four of a ranking it publishes — the other 21 countries' counts are not given, so a reader should not read the fourth bar as "fourth place". The 2025 grantees are hosted in 25 countries [3].

⚠️ And the UK overtaking Germany is the ERC's own figure, not a trend this post establishes. Two calls is two points; the ERC's named set changes between them (France and Spain swap in and out), so the lists are not strictly comparable either.

The three domains

2024 and 2025: applications, grants and the derived success rate

Source: the per-call statistics PDFs, page 2, Submitted and selected Proposals by Domain [9][10]. The success rates in this table are divisions done here, with numerator and denominator both taken from the same PDF.

⚠️ The ERC publishes two slightly different application counts per call, and only one of them can be used for a rate. The facts-and-figures news page reports a preliminary count taken days after the deadline — 1,268 / 1,033 / 820 for 2025, and 933 / 730 / 650 for 2024 — while the statistics PDF reports the figures after eligibility review: 1,261 / 1,037 / 823 and 928 / 733 / 652. Both sets total 3,121 and 2,313, so the difference is in how the domains divide, not in the overall size. Every rate above uses the PDF on both sides of the division; mixing the two would make a denominator that never produced those grants.

⚠️ The three domains are within 0.3 points of each other in both calls, so the fall from 14.2% to 11.2% is a property of the whole call rather than of any one domain.

2026: applications only

Source: the 2026 applications release [4]. ⚠️ This is the preliminary count, on the same footing as the figures the statistics PDF later revises — so it is shown as applications only, with no rate, because the 2026 grants are not published.

No 2026 per-domain success rate is given, because the 2026 grants are not published.

Women

⚠️ Applicants and grantees are different populations and the ERC publishes them separately, so they are two columns here rather than one trend. The applicant share is 38.9% in 2024 and 38% in both 2025 and 2026 — the ERC calls 2026 "the same share as in 2025" [4] — and for 2025 the grantee share is also 38%, which the ERC describes as "stable over the past few years" [3].

⚠️ 2024's 38.9% is stated by the ERC on two pages: the 2024 applications release says "Women submitted 38.9% of the proposals" [6], and the 2025 release gives 38% as a "slightly lower share compared to the 38.9% in the 2024 Consolidator Grant call" [11]. The decimal matters — it is what makes 2025 a fall rather than a flat line.

⚠️ That the two coincide at 38% in 2025 is a fact about that call, not a rule. On the Starting Grant the grantee share runs several points above the applicant share, so the two columns are not interchangeable here either.

The money, and what it covers

Source: the Consolidator Grant page, How much? [1].

⚠️ No relocation top-up is stated on the Consolidator page, where the Starting Grant page states up to EUR 2 million more for a principal investigator relocating from a non-associated third country. Absence on the page is not a statement that none exists — the ERC Work Programme is where such provisions are set — so nothing is claimed either way.

The 2027 call

Open 24 September 2026, deadline 12 January 2027 [1]. The 2026 call was planned at EUR 673 million for an estimated 328 grants [4]; the 2024 call was planned at EUR 584 million for an estimated 291 [6] and awarded EUR 678 million to 328 [2].

⚠️ A planned budget and an awarded one are different figures and the 2024 pair shows the gap: EUR 584m planned against EUR 678m awarded. The table above quotes awarded amounts for decided calls and the planned amount for 2026, and says which is which.

Questions

Earlier in this series: the Starting Grant is the scheme for the stage before this one — EUR 1.5 million, a 2027 window of 0–10 years since the PhD, and the ERC prints its success rate rather than leaving it to be derived. See The ERC Starting Grant by the numbers.

How to read this: every figure is quoted from the source linked beside it and is never recomputed; where a number is derived here, the cell says so. Totals that are this post's own arithmetic are marked as such.