This measure provides financial support to encourage the participation of Luxembourg actors in calls for project proposals launched by the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC distributes funding to research projects purely on the basis of scientific merit and excellence. The National Research Fund (FNR) offers financial support to finalists of the ERC Grant competitions which have been positively evaluated but whose proposals cannot be funded by the ERC due to budgetary limitations.

The FNR programme covers 2 ERC grants:

• The ERC Starting Grants, which target young researchers who wish to create and/or form research teams
• The ERC Advanced Grants, which target experienced researchers who wish to pursue frontier research

The measure is open for public research organisations. To obtain FNR funding, a research organisation should submit a joint proposal along with an ERC finalist. The proposal should be submitted to the FNR within 6 months of receiving the ERC funding decision.