Success rates for top European research grants are falling – some by as much as one percentage point – as a surge in applications far outstrips available funds. Data collected Nature show that researchers, especially those at the beginning of their academic careers, face increasingly stiff competition to pursue a research career (see Funding competition).
Last month the European Commission said that European Union Research and Innovation Framework This year, the program received the highest number of funding proposals in its four-decade history.
The number of applications for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA) in 2025 exceeded 17,000, an increase of almost 65% from 2024. The MSCA program has a proposed budget of €404.3 million ($471 million) to fund around 1,650 projects, and the success rate (proportion of awards issued) is expected to fall below this mark. 10% compared to almost 17% last year.
The European Research Council (ERC), Europe's leading funding agency for basic research, reported a similar surge in applications to its schemes. For start-up grants, open to early-career researchers with two to seven years of post-doctoral experience, the ERC received 13% more proposals compared to 2024. Only 12% will be funded, compared to 14% last year.
The number of applications for ERC grants, which fund established researchers, also increased by 31% and 82% compared to 2024 and 2023, respectively. However, only about 276 projects (8%) will be funded, down from 11% last year.
“We are extremely pleased that there is such a high demand for ERC grants. This shows that people have ideas for basic science, for cutting-edge science, that there is a need for it, there is a desire,” says Maria Leptina, President of ERC. “The downside is that we don't have more money. So the success rate will go down and there will be disappointment in society,” she adds.
The European life sciences organization EMBO received a “record number” of applications for postdoctoral fellowships this year, says Karin Doomstray, program director.
As a result, many researchers are struggling to stay in an increasingly competitive academic system. “You can work as hard as you want, but at the end of the day it's all about the numbers. It's all about luck,” says Christina Carlisi, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London who has been applying for grants this year and is feeling the strain. “A lot of it is out of your control. And I think sometimes that's hard to deal with in terms of staying motivated.”
Declining success rates
National funding bodies across Europe are experiencing a similar increase in applications. The German Research Foundation (DFG), the country's largest independent research funder, said Nature that applications for early career grants were up 20% between January and August compared to the same period in 2024.
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Another major funder in Germany, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, has received at least 20% more doctoral applications this year than in the same period last year. The largest share of this increase comes from applications from India and China, a fund representative said Natureand the number of applications from the US also increased, although to a lesser extent.
Grant applications received by the UK's main research funder, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), have almost doubled since 2017-18, according to a report published this year. But over the same period, success rates have almost halved, from 36% in 2017-18 to 19% in 2024-25. lowest figure in a decade. Data provided Nature Medical Research Council UKRI shows two of its grant schemes have seen their highest number of applications since 2020 this year.
This was reported by the Swedish Research Council. Nature that there had also been a significant increase in the number of applications over the past three years, but the Research Council of Norway said it had not noticed any major changes.
European competition
Researchers and officials say it is too early to say what is driving the surge in applications. Reduced budgets for science and political instability encouraging American researchers to seek work in Europe. Scientists in the United States can apply for EU grants as long as they conduct research at European institutions. European scientists who have made their careers in the United States may also be looking for opportunities to return home.
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