New Perspectives for Excellent ERC Proposals

Through RISE Europe, the FWF, funded by the Fonds Zukunft Österreich, is offering researchers a new opportunity for proposals submitted to the European Research Council (ERC): If a project is not funded by the ERC due to limited budget resources, FWF funding will be available to carry out the research in Austria through the RISE Europe program.

October 7, 2026

Grafik eines gelb hervorgehobenen Sterns inmitten hellblauer Sterne auf hellblauem Hintergrund — Promoting academic excellence and retaining talent: RISE Europe will allow researchers to carry out ERC Starting Grant projects rated as excellent but rejected due to budget constraints in Austria. © Unsplash

RISE Europe stands for “Researcher Independence & Scientific Excellence” and helps established researchers achieve scientific independence and further develop their research on their own: Researchers who submitted an ERC Starting Grant application and, despite receiving excellent reviews, was not awarded funding due to budget constraints can now submit the project to the FWF at the national level. This helps keep valuable research potential in Austria, and the scientific community benefits from innovative ideas that would otherwise have been lost.

Due to the programs’ comparable career level (R3), the RISE submission criteria are based on the FWF’s ASTRA program. The ERC’s evaluation serves as the basis for the FWF Scientific Board’s funding decision; no new review process will be initiated by the FWF. The maximum funding period is five years, with up to one million euros available per project.

This program will be available for a limited time only and is intended exclusively for researchers whose projects were rejected with a rating of “A – approved but not funded” in the 2026 ERC Starting Grant Call. Submissions will be accepted from October 15 through November 19, 2026. The FWF Scientific Board will make the funding decisions in March 2027.

Austria as an attractive research location

RISE Europe is a good addition to the FWF’s existing career support programs and offers a fast funding opportunity for rejected ERC proposals. The aim of the program is to encourage outstanding researchers to pursue academic careers in Austria and to retain them here. In addition, principal investigators should be given the opportunity to further advance their academic careers and qualify for leadership positions in academia, particularly professorships.