The UK tops the league of a prestigious EU research funding scheme
UK-based researchers can benefit from Horizon Europe funding, including all ERC schemes, since the country’s association two years ago. It has historically been among the top performers in these prestigious and competitive grants. This is the second year in a row that the UK is the top beneficiary of the Advanced Grant competition. Last year, fifty-six (20%) out of the total of 281 projects which were funded were UK based. This funding scheme gives senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. Each grant brings up to €2.5 million.
The next funding round for Advanced Grants is now open for applications, with the deadline set for 27 August 2026.
The new grantees’ work will cover a wide range of subjects. One grantee from the University of Oxford is exploring the brain mechanisms behind stuttering. Kate Watkins and her team will investigate why stuttering starts, why it stops, and why it sometimes stays. They will further explore innovative therapies to reduce stuttering.
The project will investigate the neural patterns of persistence and recovery in children and test a novel brain stimulation therapy to improve speech fluency. It will also define the neurophysiological mechanisms responsible for speech timing and auditory motor integration in adults – that is how what we hear impacts our movements.
It is the first project to link data from children and adults, and multimodal brain scans with behaviour, by using methods rarely combined. The findings will connect to broader principles of speech motor control and timing, with implications for other related disorders like aphasia and Parkinson’s.
Beyond its academic contributions, the project also carries societal benefits by increasing public awareness of this enigmatic condition and better supporting individuals who stutter.
Stuttering affects up to 8% of children, of whom one in five continue to stutter into adulthood.
Despite decades of research, the neural mechanisms behind this condition, which can affect people for life, remains poorly understood, and effective support for adults is limited.
Background
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It supports researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Maria Leptin has been the President of the ERC since November 2021. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, which is under the responsibility of Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.
On top of its standard grants, the ERC offers additional funding to help new grantees establish their laboratories or research team. This funding was doubled a year ago from up to €1 million to up to €2 million for researchers who relocate from overseas to EU member states or countries associated with Horizon Europe, including the United Kingdom. The increased funding aims to further help top scientists from around the world by easing their transition and establishment in Europe.
Horizon Europe is the biggest international research and innovation programme in the world with more than £82 billion (€95.5 billion) of funding available over seven years (2021 to 2027) from the EU budget, to which all associated countries are adding further contributions. It is open to the world, which means that participants can participate in most calls, regardless of where they are based. Researchers from associated countries have even greater access. They can lead projects and receive direct funding from the programme. The programme supports major research and innovation projects and international partnerships helping to tackle global challenges.
Questions & Answers can be found here, as well as in this FAQ
Joint statement by the European Commission and the UK Government on the UK's association to Horizon Europe
UK association to Horizon Europe