But what do you want the money for . Certain grants are only able to support certain things equipment , infrastructure , staffing , students etc so until you know exactly what you ' re going to be using the money for it ' s impossible to target which grant you should actually be applying for . My point about the ERC starting grant is that to even think about applying you already need to have a specific research target in mind an ERC starting grant can award up to about 2 M euros , but the overwhelming majority of that would be expected to go on supporting postdocs andor PhD students over the 5 year project lifetime . There ' s also a decent sum for equipment , and for buying out your time . But you need to be coming forward as presenting an original research idea of your own , demonstrate that you are the only person capable of leading the project based on your track record , and that the host institution is capable of providig all of the infrastructure and support that the project will require . The project itself needs to be groundbreaking and new no good applying existing techniques to new areas for example . It really does sound like you need to sit and work out what you need the grant for and then go and speak to your research office .