The Starting Grant supports excellent Principal Investigators starting or having recently started their own independent research team or programme. A Starting Grant Principal Investigator should have already shown evidence of the potential for research independence, for example, by having produced at least one important publication as its main author or a publication without the participation of their PhD supervisor. A researcher may be the Principal Investigator of only one ERC Starting Grant in their career.

Streptococcus pneumoniae remains a major cause of respiratory infections, and its epidemiology continues to evolve due to serotype replacement, possible re-emergence of serotypes not controlled by indirect protection, and population aging. Suboptimal IPD surveillance in Italy likely underestimates disease burden yet reported incidence nearly doubled between 2022 and 2024. This initiative addresses a clear diagnostic performance gap by supporting quality improvement initiatives designed to optimize and standardize microbiological diagnostic pathways for pneumococcal disease. Consistent with Quality Improvement principles, projects should focus on implementation of evidence-based practices, optimization of diagnostic processes, improvement of data quality and completeness, and enhancement of collaboration between clinicians and laboratories in routine care settings.

This competitive program seeks to generate real-world evidence on the functional and non-respiratory burden of RSV infection in hospitalised adults in Italy. Independent research projects will focus on characterising functional decline, loss of independence, and healthcare dependency following RSV-related hospitalisation in older adults and patients with pre-existing vulnerability, using routinely collected hospital data. Findings are intended to support a more comprehensive understanding of RSV's impact beyond the acute respiratory event, informing improved risk stratification of vulnerable patients, targeted prevention strategies, and post-discharge care pathways for adult populations at increased risk of functional decline.

The MSCA Doctoral Networks aim to train creative, entrepreneurial, innovative and resilient doctoral candidates, able to face current and future challenges and to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit. The MSCA Doctoral Networks will raise the attractiveness and excellence of doctoral training in Europe. They will equip researchers with the right combination of research-related and transferable competences and provide them with enhanced career perspectives in both the academic and non-academic sectors through international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary mobility combined with an innovation-oriented mind-set.

Strategic projects for capitalisation are to take up existing Interreg transnational and cross-border outputs and results, to meet existing and new needs and strengthen their territorial and policy impact in wider areas, also beyond border regions. They must go beyond a mere pooling or duplication of what already exists. Instead, they should further develop, improve, or adapt existing outputs and results by drawing on the experience of more projects. As a minimum requirement, projects must explicitly take up existing outputs and results from: At least two Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE projects funded under the first and second calls of the 2021–2027 programme, and at least two Interreg cross-border cooperation projects (funded in the 2021-2027 period or, if relevant, in the 2014-2020 period), addressing internal central European borders.