ERC slashes budgets for two main grant schemes

Funder says move will rebalance success rates and respond to lack of UK contribution

The European Research Council has slashed the budgets for its grants for early career and intermediate researchers, cutting them by 20 per cent on the previous year.

The ERC, which is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, said the move was partly to even out success rates across its main single-researcher grants, and partly due to the loss of a budget contribution from the UK, which has been frozen out of Horizon Europe.