Image: Grace Gay for Research Professional
Proportion of women applying for senior grants rises two percentage points between 2021 and 2022
Nearly one in four applicants to the 2022 round of the European Research Council’s grant scheme for senior researchers was a woman, representing an increase on the previous year.
Advanced Grants, offering up to €3.5 million over five years to established researchers, are highly prestigious. While men still win a much greater share of Advanced Grants than women, the proportion of female winners has steadily been growing in line with the share of applications from women, reaching 25 per cent in 2021.
On 5 May, the ERC announced that women submitted 23 per cent of proposals to the 2022 Advanced Grant round, which closed on 28 April—up from 20.8 per cent in 2021.
Overall, the number of proposals in 2022 fell 5 per cent on 2021, from 1,735 to 1,647. With €555m set aside by the ERC for an estimated 223 Advanced Grants in 2022, winners will be announced in April next year.