The EACR-Mark Foundation-Pezcoller Foundation Rising Star Award is open to EACR members with an unfunded Score ‘A’ cancer-related project from the 2026 ERC Starting Grant calls. Established in 2023, this prestigious award aims to support pioneering projects with the potential to transform the cancer research field. The awardee will receive funding of up to €100,000 to begin their project. Institutional overheads of 10% will be added to this amount. The award is intended to bridge the period before re-submission to the ERC. Following acceptance, the awardee will be invited to give a talk at the EACR Congress in Bilbao, Spain, 14-17 June 2027. They will also be invited to give a lecture at the Pezcoller Foundation in Trento, Italy, at a date to be agreed.
Applicants must be current EACR members. If you want to apply for this award but are not yet an EACR member, you can sign up to become a member now.
Applicants must have an unfunded Score ‘A’ cancer-related project from the 2026 ERC Starting Grant calls. The ERC defines Score ‘A’ as “Fully meets the ERC excellence criterion and is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available”.
Application deadline: Wednesday 14 October 2026 at 23:59 CEST
Visit the EACR website for application instructions, contact details, and additional information about the award.
2026 Daniel Kirschenbaum (University Hospital Zurich and the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ): click here to learn more
2025 Marta Kovatcheva (AIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, Italy): click here to learn more
2024 Stamatis Papathanasiou (IMB, Mainz, Germany): click here to learn more
2023 Isidro Cortés-Ciriano (EMBL-EBI, UK): click here to learn more
