The European Research Council Split 705 Million Euros Between 421 Young Researchers, and Exactly One Works in Portugal

The European Research Council announced the results of its 2026 Starting Grant competition on Thursday: 705 million euros shared between 421 early-career researchers. One of them works in Portugal.

Nikita Melnikov, an assistant professor at the Nova School of Business and Economics, part of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, won funding for a project titled "Gang Crackdowns: Labour Mobility, Development, and Discrimination in Post-Gang El Salvador". It is the only proposal hosted in Portugal that the panels selected, out of 421 across the continent.

Where the money went

The ERC's own statistics put Portugal at the bottom of the table by host country, tied on a single grant with Slovenia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Greece and Turkey. Cyprus and Romania took two each. At the other end, Germany took 89 grants, the United Kingdom 47, France 38, Switzerland 36 and the Netherlands 33.

The competition was the most crowded on record. A total of 4,807 proposals were submitted, up 22 percent from 3,928 the year before, and only 8.8 percent could be funded. A Starting Grant is worth up to 1.5 million euros over a maximum of five years, with extra money available for major equipment, facility access or expensive fieldwork.

Some of the surge came from outside Europe. A total of 169 researchers based in the United States applied, against 116 in the previous round, and 21 of the winners are currently based outside Europe and will relocate, 20 of them from the United States. Last year that number was 11. Under the Choose Europe initiative, applicants moving to Europe can request up to 2 million euros to set up a new laboratory or team.

A pattern, not an accident

This is not a one-off result. In June, Portuguese science took roughly 10 million euros in ERC Advanced Grants, the scheme for established researchers, a similarly thin share of a much larger pot. Domestic funding is not the constraint: public research spending passed 1 billion euros for the first time this year, even as it slipped as a share of GDP.

What the Starting Grants measure is something narrower: the ability of an institution to host an ambitious researcher at the point where they set up their own team. Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland win repeatedly because their universities can guarantee lab space, salaries and independence to a scientist who has not yet proved themselves. That is a structural advantage, and it compounds, because each grant funds a team that then produces the next generation of applicants. The ERC estimates this round alone will create more than 2,700 jobs.

What this means for expats

• If you are an academic considering a move: a Portuguese host institution is not a barrier to the grant, as Melnikov's award shows, but the base rate is low. Ask directly about start-up packages and lab commitments before you commit to a host.
• If your children are choosing a university: ERC grant density is a rough proxy for research intensity in a department. It is worth checking alongside the rankings.
• If you follow the funding calendar: the 2027 Starting Grants call is already open, with a deadline of 14 October 2026.
• For the wider economy: frontier research funding is one of the few EU flows that follows institutions rather than national quotas, so Portugal's share is a measure of competitiveness rather than allocation.

The NOVA group has been visible internationally this year, including a plan to run joint nanotechnology programmes with a Macau university. Whether one grant in 421 reads as a foothold or a warning depends on what happens in the 2027 round, which closes in October.