Portugal Adds a New Project Funded by the European Research Council

Portugal has secured a new project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of the 2026 Starting Grant Call. Nikita Melnikov, from NOVA SBE, with the project CRACKDOWNS —“Labor Mobility, Development, and Discrimination in Post-Gang El Salvador,”received funding to continue the research he has been conducting in the fields of political economy and development economics.

Starting Grants are designed to support early-career researchers in developing their scientific independence and establishing their research teams, typically awarding up to 1.5 million euros over a five-year period. In the 2026 call, the ERC awarded a total of 705 million euros to 421 researchers.
The call for proposals saw a record number of applications, with a 22% increase compared to the previous call, resulting in an overall success rate of 8.8%. In Portugal, the number of proposals submitted increased by 10% compared to the previous call. The overall growth in this call was particularly evident among researchers based outside Europe—likely influenced by the ongoing “Choose Europe for Science” initiative—who accounted for 5% of this edition’s total successful applicants, implying the transfer of their scientific activities to institutions in the European Union or countries associated with Horizon Europe.

With this project now selected, Portugal has secured a total of 29 Starting Grants awarded to researchers at national host institutions under Horizon Europe (2021–present): 10 in the Life Sciences, 10 in the Social Sciences and Humanities, and 9 in the Exact Sciences and Engineering.

It should be noted that the ERC recently approved its Work Program for 2027, which introduces several changes, including to the eligibility windows forthe Calls , Starting Grant, and Consolidator Grant.

The FCT coordinates Portugal’s representation and participation in the European Research Council and provides various tools designed to support the different stages of Portugal’s participation in the ERC’ Calls , including the ERC-PT Pre-Assessment, the ERC-PT A-Projects, and the ERC-PT Careers.