ERC Consolidator Grant (CoG)
For talented mid-career researchers with an innovative project idea
The information on this page relates to the last ERC CoG call, which is now closed. You can use the information here to familiarize yourself with this funding scheme but you should be aware that details may change for the next call. Please also consult the ERC website.
NEXT CALL DEADLINE: 13 January 2026 (tentative)
The Grants Office and Euresearch assume no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information here.
Last update: 4.7.2025
| Eligibility | 7-12 years post PhD (9-14 years post MD) Extensions possible under certain circumstances |
|---|---|
| Budget | Salary for PI and/or team members + project costs Max. EUR 2 million (+ EUR 1 million for special costs) |
| Duration | Max. 5 years |
| Time commitment | Min. 40% |
| Calls | Yearly, with resubmission restrictions |
Eligibility
The CoG eligibility window is 7-12 years post PhD or 9-14 years post MD. Please consult the self-assessment guide from Euresearch to assess your eligibility and also your potential as a CoG applicant.
NOTE: You upload a copy of your PhD certificate with your proposal. If the date of your PhD defence/viva is not listed on your certificate, you also need to upload a document from the awarding institution that certifies this date. If you did not have a defence/viva, you should upload written confirmation from the awarding institution stating this and indicating the date when your PhD was approved.
Extended eligibility conditions
The eligibility window can be extended under the following circumstances:
- Maternity
Extension of 18 months per child born before or after the PhD, or by the documented amount of maternity leave if longer than 18 months. - Paternity or parental leave
Extension by the documented amount of paternity or parental leave per child born before or after the PhD. - Long-term illness / disability / national service
Extension by the documented amount of leave and/or degree of disability. - Clinical training
Extension by the documented amount of clinical training after the PhD or MD, up to a max. of 4 years. - Major disasters
Extension by the documented duration of a PI's inability to work resulting from a major disaster. - Seeking asylum
Extension by the documented duration of a PI's inability to work due to seeking asylum. - Gender-based violence or any other form of violence
Extension by the documented duration of a PI's inability to work due to being a victim of violence.
Changed eligibility conditions from 2027
From 2027 on, researchers will be eligible to apply for a StG immediately after defending their PhD, and at any time within the following 10-year period. CoG applicants will be eligible to apply 5-15 years after defending their PhD. All extensions of the eligibility periods (see above) will remain in force. However, researchers will be awarded no more than one StG and one CoG during their career.
Admin forms
University of Bern registration details
PIC number: 999976493
Legal Name: Universitaet Bern
Organisation Short Name: UBERN
Address: Hochschulstrasse 6, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
LEAR: Maddalena Tognola
All the required registration information for the University of Bern appears automatically once you have entered the PIC number. Please use the instructions below to fill in the online forms.
Please note that the University of Bern has a Gender Equality Plan. This is one of the questions asked in the forms.
Use these instructions to add your Grants Advisor at the Grants Office as the "Main Host Institution Contact" in the step "Participants".
(Please download this file. The online version does not always correctly display the comments that have been added by the Grants Office.)
NOTE: The instructions are for the ERC Advanced Grant but the information is the same. Please ignore anything that does not apply to the CoG, such as the budget table. Please see our separate CoG budget instructions.
Budget
Please use the budget tool provided for University of Bern applicants. It includes the standard salaries of the University of Bern and the exchange rate approved by the University.
Please consult the instructions on the key budget issues, which explain what to include in the budget and budget justification sections in the online forms.
NOTE: Once your budget is final, please send it to your Grants Advisor so that they can check if all the necessary items are included.
Overhead (indirect costs)
The overhead is 25% of the direct costs. In general, one half of the overhead goes to the University of Bern and one half goes to the project. Please read the directives on overhead contributions of the University Board of Directors in order to familiarize yourself with the exact rules.
UniBE Core Facilities
If you are budgeting the services of UniBE Core Facilities, please contact the facility before submission for their upcoming rates. These may be different from the current rates publicized on their website.
External team members
It is normally expected that team members work at the same institution as the PI. However, where they bring added scientific value to the project, team members may be hosted by external institutions. If you are planning to include an external team member in your project, please contact the Grants Office for support.
Host letter
The compulsory letter, "Commitment of the Host Institution", that needs to be uploaded with your proposal is prepared by the Grants Office.
In order to prepare the letter, the head of your institute/department must first confirm in writing that you and your project will be hosted if you are successful. If you are the head of the institute/department, please have the letter signed by the dean of the faculty.
You must use the Grants Office template. Please note: This letter is for internal purposes only and should not be uploaded!
Email a scanned copy of the signed letter to the Grants Office along with the project title, acronym, and your full name as it appears in your passport. We will then prepare the official letter and send it to you by email.
Open science
For resources, guidance and advice on open access publications and research data, your contact is the University of Bern’s Open Science Team. They have a dedicated data management webpage and offer workshops on how to prepare data management plans. If a data management plan is required for your project, you can download a template from the EU portal (see under reference documents).
Open access requirements
You must ensure immediate gold or green open access to your publications (journal articles, books, etc.). Embargoes are not accepted. Only publication fees in fully open access venues can be charged to the project. That means that if you publish open access in a so-called “hybrid” journal, which publishes a mix of open and closed articles, the costs cannot be charged to the project.
Research data requirements
You must manage your research data in line with the “FAIR” data principles, i.e., findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable. In particular, researchers must:
- develop and continuously update a Data Management Plan during the whole project life cycle
- share research data as openly as possible and as closed as necessary. This means that research data must be made publicly available in a research data repository unless there are ethical or legal restrictions (e.g., data protection, confidentiality agreements, patenting). If such restrictions apply, they must be clearly described and justified.
It is not possible to opt out of these obligations.
Guides & tips
Use of artificial intelligence (AI)
If you use AI to prepare your proposal, be aware that the ERC has a robust system for proposal review that is able to detect text similarities. Please refer to the Uni Bern compliance page with information on plagiarism and artificial intelligence.
Writing guides and tips
Please use the documents below to help you when writing your proposal.
The ERC has some very useful instructional videos (under "Interested to learn more?" towards the bottom of their page), especially the following two:
Starting your ERC application
Writing your ERC application
Tips and instructions for each part of the proposal.
Grants Office tips and essential elements for a convincing proposal.
Evaluation process
While writing your proposal, it is important to keep in mind how it will be evaluated. For example, note that reviewers will not all be experts in your field in the first step in the evaluation. See the Information for Applicants for more details.
Sample proposals
While the Grants Office cannot provide you with an example of a successful proposal, there are a couple of things you can do to obtain one: (NOTE: The proposal format will not be exactly the same from year to year.)
- Contact a successful applicant you know and/or someone at the University of Bern who has an ERC Consolidator or Starting Grant. A list of current projects can be found on the University's EU projects webpage.
- Do an internet search. There are many successful proposals available online, for example here.