I will present the mission of the ERC and its funding opportunities for investigator-driven frontier research, across all fields of research. ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or moving to work in Europe or an associated country. Scientific excellence is the sole criterion on the basis of which ERC frontier research grants are awarded. This presentation will give an overview of the available ERC funding schemes in Horizon Europe (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced Grants) and will describe the evaluation process of proposals, by peer review panels. This presentation will be followed by the presentation of a successful ERC Starting grantee, Prof. Shahar Maoz, who will talk about his ERC experience.