ERA Research Managers

ERA Research Managers HORIZON-WIDERA is a Horizon Europe Coordination and Support Action funding mono‑beneficiary research organisations in Widening countries to recruit an internationally experienced ERA Research Manager and build a permanent research management team through institutional reforms; actions are expected to last five years with a requirement to appoint a permanent research management leader by month 36. Indicative EU contributions are €1.5 million to €2.5 million per grant from an overall envelope of €65 million for this topic cluster, covering eligible costs such as salaries for new research management staff, recruitment, travel, equipment and administrative expenses. Applicants must be a single legal entity established in an eligible Widening country and submit a single-stage proposal by 14 September 2027 (17:00 Brussels time), including a Europass CV for the proposed ERA Research Manager and signed commitment letters (manager: minimum 50% FTE commitment; head of institution: institutional support).

What it funds

Grants to establish or upgrade institutional research management capacities at universities, research organisations or research infrastructures in Widening countries by attracting an experienced ERA Research Manager and building a lasting, high-quality research management team. Eligible costs include salaries of newly recruited research management staff, recruitment, travel, equipment, and administrative expenses related to the ERA Research Manager and the team.

Who can apply

Mono-beneficiary applications only. The coordinator must be a legal entity established in a Widening country (as defined by Horizon Europe). The research institution is the sole applicant; the ERA Research Manager may be from any country but must not already have a contractual relationship with the coordinator. Proposals must include a Europass CV of the proposed ERA Research Manager and signed commitment letters from the ERA Research Manager (min. 50% FTE until permanent leader appointed) and the head of the coordinating institution.

Proposals must present an implementation strategy to establish or upgrade institutional research management, show sustainability beyond Horizon Europe funding, ensure open and merit-based recruitment of the research management team (no more than 50% of new recruits may have prior institutional links), and set out proposed structural reforms aligned with ERA priorities (open science, ethics, gender equality). The grant may cover employment contracts, salaries (gross amounts to be detailed), travel and daily allowances, equipment and administrative expenses.

Apply and find full topic conditions, templates and submission forms on the Funding & Tenders Portal: ERA Research Managers topic page.

Footnotes

1. 1Indicative grant amounts are provided in the Work Programme budget overview and the topic page of the Funding & Tenders Portal.

Call identity and deadlines

Administrative data

Who can apply and eligibility

Only one legal entity may submit an application (mono-beneficiary). Participation as coordinators is limited to legal entities established in Widening countries as defined in the Horizon Europe regulation. Only one proposal per legal entity can be submitted. The ERA Research Manager may be from any country but must not already have a contractual relationship with the applicant institution. Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal using the Part A and Part B forms in the Submission System. Paper submissions are not possible.

Eligible Applicant Types

Eligible applicants are legal research-performing institutions established in Widening countries. The opportunity targets research organisations such as universities, public research organisations, research infrastructures and similar bodies. Affiliated entities and associated partners may be involved but the application is mono-beneficiary and only the coordinating legal entity signs the grant. The ERA Research Manager may be an individual recruited from any country but must not have an existing contractual relationship with the coordinator.

Funding Type and Financial Details

Consortium Requirement

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility)

Target Sector

The topic targets research management capacity across all research sectors. It is cross-sectoral and relevant to higher education, research infrastructures, public research organisations and sectors benefiting from improved research management, such as health, energy, environment, digital/ICT and others. Primary thematic area: research and innovation governance and institutional capacity building for R&I.

Mentioned Countries

Project Stage and Expected Maturity

Application Type and Submission

Nature of Support

Application Stages and Evaluation Process

Success rates and Seals of Excellence

Co-funding Requirement

Application templates and required structure

Applicants must use the Submission System Part A administrative forms and the Part B technical description template for HE CSA actions. The CSA Part B template structure includes sections for Excellence, Impact and Quality and efficiency of implementation. Page limits for CSAs are 30 pages for full applications unless specified otherwise. Proposals must include mandatory annexes such as the ERA Research Manager Europass CV and institutional self-assessment of research management capacities.

Detailed applicant requirements and project content that must be in the proposal

Budget and eligible costs — practical details

The grant may cover the salaries of newly recruited research management team members, recruitment costs, travel and equipment, and administrative expenses related to the ERA Research Manager and research team. Recruitment costs may be accounted under other goods, works and services. Applicants must follow Horizon Europe budget rules and include detailed budget information in Part A budget tables. The proposal must detail team composition, levels, salaries and recruitment timelines and demonstrate that the permanent leader of the research management group will be appointed on a permanent basis within the first three years through an open recruitment process monitored by the Commission.

Evaluation criteria and thresholds

Legal and financial checks

After selection, legal entity validation, financial capacity checks (when applicable), exclusion checks, ethics and security checks will be carried out during grant preparation. The coordinator must provide required documentation in the Participant Register and during grant preparation. Financial capacity checks may be requested for the coordinator if the requested grant amount equals or exceeds €500,000, with exceptions for public bodies and international organisations.

Key practical rules and obligations

Comprehensive summary and guidance

Footnotes

1. 1Full call documentation, templates and detailed topic conditions are available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal topic page: ERA Research Managers HORIZON-WIDERA Funding & Tenders Portal.

Funding opportunity summary

ERA Research Managers is a forthcoming Horizon Europe Coordination and Support Action under the ERA Chairs and Research Managers programme, within the Widening participation and spreading excellence destination. It supports research organisations in Widening countries to attract an experienced research manager, establish or strengthen a permanent research management team, and introduce institutional reforms that improve research funding performance, governance, research support and knowledge valorisation 1.

The action is intended for institutions that can demonstrate a clear institutional need, provide senior-level support for the manager, recruit additional research management staff, and sustain the resulting team beyond Horizon Europe funding.

Key opportunity details

The deadline is strict. Proposals must be submitted electronically through the Funding and Tenders Portal before the stated deadline, and paper submissions are not accepted.

Purpose and policy rationale

The opportunity addresses weaknesses in institutional research management that can limit access to competitive funding, reduce the impact of research results, and delay organisational reform. The intended approach is to place an experienced research manager in a position of authority within a Widening-country institution and empower that person to build a capable research management function.

The action is aligned with the Widening destination objective of improving access to excellence, reducing disparities between research and innovation systems, strengthening institutional capacity, and increasing participation and leadership in European research programmes.

Expected system-level outcomes include increased mobility of research management talent towards Widening countries, institutional reform, stronger research management human capital, improved communication of research and innovation results, and enhanced competitiveness and economic growth.

Expected organisation-level outcomes include stronger research management capacity, greater attractiveness to international research managers and researchers, establishment of a lasting high-performing team, improved success in competitive funding, greater institutional visibility, and better implementation of ethics, open science, research data and gender equality practices.

Who can apply

The applicant must be a single legal entity established in a Widening country as defined under Horizon Europe. The proposal must therefore be submitted by a mono-beneficiary rather than by a consortium.

Potential applicants include universities, public or private research organisations, research institutes and research infrastructures, provided that they are legal entities established in an eligible Widening country and have the authority and institutional capacity to implement the action.

Only one proposal may be submitted per legal entity because the ERA Research Manager and the resulting team are expected to operate at institutional or institute level.

The future ERA Research Manager may come from any country, but must not already have a contractual relationship with the applicant institution at the time of the proposal. The manager must have advanced or expert-level research management experience and international experience relevant to the proposed role.

Although the action is mono-beneficiary, the applicant may work with external experts, service providers, associated partners or other supporting organisations where permitted by the grant rules. Such involvement does not change the requirement that the applicant is a single legal entity.

Core eligibility conditions

The proposal must include a signed letter from the prospective ERA Research Manager confirming commitment of at least 50 percent full-time equivalent until at least the appointment of a permanent research management leader, which must occur within the first 36 months. The letter must also address the manager’s willingness to undertake the required tasks and accept the proposed contractual arrangements, salary and on-site presence.

The proposal must include a signed letter from the head of the coordinating institution confirming institutional commitment and adequate support for the manager. The support should cover institutional and structural reforms, administrative improvement, research collaboration, resource allocation and related duties.

The applicant must demonstrate the financial and operational capacity required to implement a five-year action. Public bodies may benefit from specific exemptions from parts of the financial and operational capacity assessment under the general Horizon Europe rules, but the institution must still demonstrate credible implementation capacity.

The applicant must not be in an exclusion situation, including bankruptcy, serious tax or social security arrears, fraud, corruption, grave professional misconduct, significant failure to perform previous EU contracts or grants, or misrepresentation of information.

The applicant must register in the Participant Register and obtain or validate a Participant Identification Code before grant signature. A validated code is generally not required at the moment of submission, but legal entity validation is required during grant preparation.

The proposal must comply with applicable Horizon Europe rules on ethics, research integrity, data protection, security, gender equality, open science, dissemination and exploitation.

Role and conditions for the ERA Research Manager

The ERA Research Manager should hold an institutional position that enables effective resource allocation, supervision of staff, participation in funding applications and leadership of research management reforms. Teaching duties may be included where they support the institution’s objectives, but the management role must remain credible and adequately resourced.

The manager may relocate permanently or temporarily to the applicant institution. Secondments, sabbaticals and part-time arrangements are possible, provided that the minimum 50 percent FTE commitment and on-site presence requirements are met.

The proposal must specify the manager’s contractual form, gross salary, travel and daily allowances, other benefits, percentage of time, on-site schedule, reporting arrangements and the full timeline of the appointment. If employment is proposed, the main employment conditions must be clearly described.

The manager is expected to establish or expand a research management team that is fully integrated into the institution. The team should improve grant acquisition, proposal development, financial and regulatory compliance, research governance, knowledge transfer, intellectual property management, open science, research data management, ethics and communication of research results.

A permanent research management leader must be appointed within the first three years through an open recruitment process monitored by the European Commission. The ERA Research Manager may apply for this position. The proposal must explain the transition between the ERA Research Manager and the permanent leader, including division of responsibilities and the manager’s role during the remaining project period if another person is appointed.

Team recruitment and sustainability

Recruitment of the research management team must be led by an international panel chaired by the ERA Research Manager and must follow an open, transparent and merit-based process.

No more than 50 percent of newly recruited team members may have had prior contractual links with the applicant institution. This condition is designed to ensure genuine additional capacity and international renewal rather than relabelling an existing team.

The proposal must provide the planned team composition, research management levels, role profiles, salaries, recruitment timetable, reporting lines and expected contribution of each position. It must also explain how the team will be retained and financed after the end of Horizon Europe funding.

The applicant should provide a credible institutional sustainability commitment, including permanent staffing plans, integration into the organisational structure, long-term salary financing, career pathways, management responsibilities and continued access to facilities and information systems.

Required proposal content

The proposal should include the following elements:

Eligible costs and funding model

The grant is intended to cover the costs necessary to create and operate the research management capacity. The topic specifically identifies salaries of newly recruited research management team members, recruitment costs, travel, equipment and administrative expenses relating to the ERA Research Manager and the team.

Recruitment-related expenditure may be treated under the category of other goods, works and services where permitted by the applicable grant rules. The proposal should explain the procurement or recruitment approach, cost assumptions and compliance with transparency and value-for-money requirements.

The available contribution is expected to be between €1.5 million and €2.5 million per project. The applicant should request an amount proportionate to its institutional needs, team size, salary levels, travel requirements, equipment, training and implementation plan. A request at the upper end of the range will require a correspondingly stronger scale of ambition and institutional sustainability.

The topic is identified as a budget-based Horizon Europe Action Grant rather than a lump-sum grant. The final funding rules, eligible cost categories, reporting provisions, pre-financing arrangements and reimbursement conditions will be governed by the applicable Model Grant Agreement and the final call documentation.

For Coordination and Support Actions, Horizon Europe normally applies a 100 percent funding rate for eligible direct costs, with indirect costs calculated according to the applicable grant rules. The final call documents and Model Grant Agreement should be checked before finalising the budget because the topic page does not state a separate topic-specific funding rate.

Indicative budget structure

Evaluation and award considerations

Proposals will be evaluated under the Horizon Europe award criteria for Coordination and Support Actions: excellence, impact, and quality and efficiency of implementation.

Excellence will depend on the clarity and relevance of the objectives, the quality of the proposed coordination and support measures, the credibility of the institutional capacity-building methodology and the fit between the proposed manager, team and institutional needs.

Impact assessment will consider the credibility of the pathways to the expected outcomes, the scale and significance of the expected institutional improvements, the sustainability of the research management team, the potential to improve competitive funding performance and the quality of dissemination, exploitation and communication measures.

Implementation assessment will consider the work plan, milestones, deliverables, staffing, resources, risk management, recruitment timetable, governance arrangements and the applicant’s operational capacity to deliver the five-year action.

Where proposals are otherwise tied, geographical diversity among Widening-country coordinators will be considered first, followed by the remaining ex-aequo rules in the Horizon Europe General Annexes. A Seal of Excellence may be awarded to proposals that exceed the applicable thresholds but cannot be funded because of insufficient available budget.

The proposal should be written as an institutional transformation plan rather than as a request for an individual salary. Evaluators will expect a direct connection between the institution’s diagnosed weaknesses, the manager’s authority and expertise, the team structure, the reform actions, the measurable outcomes and the post-grant sustainability model.

Recommended impact indicators

Key risks and mitigation measures

Applicant preparation timetable

Overall assessment

This is a high-value institutional capacity-building opportunity suited to a university, research organisation or research infrastructure in a Widening country that is ready to make research management a strategic institutional function. The strongest applicants will already have a credible research base but will be able to demonstrate that weak or fragmented research management is limiting funding success, institutional performance, international visibility or research impact.

The opportunity is not primarily designed to fund an isolated expert appointment. Its central requirement is the creation of a durable, high-performing research management team led initially by an internationally experienced manager and transferred to permanent institutional leadership within the first three years. Applicants should therefore treat the grant as a five-year organisational reform programme with a substantial staffing and sustainability commitment.

The main strategic risks are failure to secure senior institutional authority, inadequate post-grant financing, weak evidence of baseline needs, unrealistic staffing plans and insufficiently detailed contractual arrangements. These risks should be addressed before submission through formal institutional decisions, documented financial commitments and a quantified implementation plan.

Official source and guidance

The authoritative opportunity page is the European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal topic page: ERA Research Managers topic page. Applicants should also consult the final Horizon Europe Work Programme, the applicable General Annexes, the Horizon Europe Programme Guide, the Online Manual and the applicable Model Grant Agreement before submission.

The Funding and Tenders Portal is the official entry point for finding calls, preparing applications and submitting proposals under EU funding programmes.1

Footnotes

1. 1Official topic source: ERA Research Managers, European Commission Funding and Tenders Portal. General portal information: EU Funding and Tenders Portal.