The ERC Proposal Development Timeline

Planning a proposal writing timeline that would end up with a competitive application by the deadline is a challenging task. Often, researchers start late, leaving technical aspects (like budget and ethics) to the last minute, also making any unexpected delays critical. This intensifies in highly competitive proposals like the ERC, where for example a misleadingly simple 5-page document can take months to draft, requiring much more time than initially planned. In this article, we share our tried and tested ERC timeline to help applicants avoid these issues (or at least minimise them as much as possible). This timeline is simplified, straightforward, and includes references to the unique ERC elements to be addressed at each stage of the process.