According to an expert, the European Research Council (ERC) is biased in its assessment process. Meanwhile, interest in Europe as a research location is unusually high.
In particular, he recently detected a noticeable bias against Israeli researchers in the awarding of Starting Grants from the European Research Council to scientists in the early stages of their careers. Professor Hanoch Ben-Yami points this out in an open letter to ERC President Professor Maria Leptin, which was reported by the Tagesspiegel newspaper on 5 February. Ben-Yami himself is part of the ERC’s review panel and is also a member of the Network of Jewish University Teachers.
In his letter, he notes that Israel had achieved above-average success rates in the competition for ERC grants for many years. For Starting Grants, for example, these had been around 26 per cent from 2019 to 2024. Last year, however, Israel achieved a rate of only nine per cent, with ten approvals out of 107 applications. ‘This is not a fluctuation, but indicates bias on the part of the reviewers,’ Ben-Yami says, assessing the abrupt deterioration. His suspicion is based on the current debate about the Gaza war and the associated critical positions towards Israel on the part of various EU institutions.
In his letter, Ben-Yami points out to Leptin that anti-Israeli bias raises not only moral but also purely practical questions. Israel is extremely innovative, particularly in the IT sector, and can ‘make a significant contribution to the EU’s defence and security needs.’ He is convinced that Leptin will ‘take this recent development within the ERC panel seriously and take swift and effective action against it.’
When asked by Forschung & Lehre, the Research Council itself admitted to a significant drop in the success rate of Israeli applications for the 2025 Starting Grants, but pointed out that it would be speculative to ‘name a definitive cause’. Possible reasons for this change had been discussed. Independent reviewers in the peer review process had acknowledged that application rates from Israel were ‘not as strong as in previous years,’ explained an ERC spokesperson. Possible bias could not be ruled out. The ERC President had recently reminded the panel members once again that ‘political bias must not influence the assessment.’
According to Ben-Yami, his suspicion of bias is particularly explosive, as the applications for the 2026 Starting Grants are being discussed by the ERC review panel this week. According to the official timeline, invitations to interviews will begin as early as March.
More national and international funding opportunities
Meanwhile, the European Commission announced last Friday that applications for ERC funding from outside Europe or from associated countries have almost quadrupled since the launch of the Choose Europe for Science programme. It also said that 101 national and regional funding programmes are now available under the programme. This means that the number of initiatives has almost doubled since the programme was launched in May 2025. Together, these initiatives would provide funding opportunities worth at least one billion euros, according to the European Commission.
High interest in Europe as a research location
The EU is currently funding Choose Europe for Science with almost 900 million euros, after it started last year with around 400 million euros. The programme appears to be a success: ‘We are seeing record levels of interest in research opportunities in Europe,’ commented Ekaterina Zakharieva, Commissioner for Start-ups, Research and Innovation, according to a statement on 30 January. This is due to the increased number of funding opportunities at both European and national level. Added to this is the prevailing respect for freedom of research and the high quality of life in Europe.
US researchers interested in moving to Europe
On 29 January, Sacheriewa highlighted the increased interest among researchers working in the US in a post on the platform X. Applications from this group for the ERC Advanced Grants, designed for scientists with at least ten years of outstanding scientific achievement, had increased by 400 per cent, almost fivefold.
In the case of applications for Consolidator Grants, an increase of 230 per cent was noted. This funding line is aimed at scientists who completed their doctorates between seven and twelve years ago.
Overall, the number of applications from researchers from non-European and non-associated countries for ERC Advanced Grants has quadrupled, according to the EU Commission: 168 applications were received instead of 45. For Starting Grants, the increase was over 50 per cent (246 instead of 159). There was a 130 per cent increase in applications from outside the EU and associated countries for Consolidator Grants (115 instead of 50). The number of applications for postdoctoral fellowships under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) also grew by 65 per cent.
Source: Forschung & Lehre (in German)