Funding opportunities - Open call

The European Commission has adopted the European Research Council (ERC) Work Programme 2027, setting out the funding opportunities, grant budgets, competition timetable and application rules for the coming year.

Established by the ERC Scientific Council and formally adopted by the Commission, the Work Programme introduces several changes to the ERC's grant schemes and application procedures, which were announced earlier this year in order to give researchers time to prepare.

Key changes include expanded eligibility periods for Starting and Consolidator Grants, as well as limits on the number of proposals researchers can submit within a single work programme. These changes are intended to better reflect increasingly diverse research careers and to help ensure a fair and efficient evaluation process.

The first call under the new Work Programme will be the ERC Starting Grant 2027 call, opening on 22 July 2026. This will be followed by competitions for the Consolidator Grant, Synergy Grant, Advanced Grant and ERC Plus Grant.

The Carit Foundation, in line with the 2026 Forecast Programmatic Document and the 2024-2026 Multi-year Activity Program, has decided to publish this call for proposals in order to collect all requests for contributions related to the sectors of intervention described in paragraph 1.1 of this call, with the exception of those for which a specific call will be issued during the year, as listed below:

• Scientific and technological research
• Art, cultural activities, and heritage
• Public health, preventive and rehabilitative medicine
• Education, instruction, and training, including the purchase of
  editorial products for schools
• Volunteering, philanthropy, and charity
• Local development

The publication of the “General Contribution Requests” call is aimed at supporting third-party projects or initiatives in the selected fields intended to produce socially relevant results within a specified time frame as outlined in Art. 2, Title II, paragraph 5, of the Regulations for institutional activities.

Eligible applicants:

As established by the Foundation’s Statute, and in accordance with articles 9 and 10 of the institutional activity regulations, the eligible applicants are:
- Third Sector organizations (ETS)
- Private non-profit organizations
- Public entities
- Civilly recognized religious entities
which pursue objectives of social benefit and the promotion of the economic development of the territory, and which operate in the Foundation’s sectors of intervention, organized and formally established by a registered act for at least three years from the publication date of this call. For social enterprises established in any of the forms covered by Book V of the Civil Code, the Foundation reserves the right to determine, in relation to the various funding opportunities, any requirements that the statute must meet to be considered eligible, such as, for example, the total absence of direct or indirect subjective profit.

This cluster aims to strengthen European democratic values, including rule of law and fundamental rights, safeguarding our cultural heritage, and promoting socio-economic transformations that contribute to inclusion and growth.

The expected impacts of this cluster are contained in the "Horizon Europe strategic plan".

Areas of intervention:
democracy
cultural heritage
social and economic transformations
Policy information
Research area: Social Sciences and Humanities

Apply for funding
All funding information and details on how to apply are on the Funding and Tenders portal

Work programme
Funding opportunities under Horizon Europe are set out in multiannual work programmes, which cover the large majority of support available.