ERC projects are evaluated by ERC panelists by considering two important criteria
Excellence of the research project (ground breaking, high risk-high gain but feasible)
The profile of the Principal Investigator (intellectual capacity, creativity and the compatibility of PI’s profile with the research project)
In this respect, it is advisable to explore the projects that are already funded by ERC in your research area. This way the profile and the project that are expected to receive an ERC grant in your research area will be more clear. This is important because in different research areas the expectations of excellence vary greatly. You can access the previously funded ERC projects from the official ERC website
here. Also European Commission has a database (
CORDIS) in which you can access not only the abstracts of the funded projects but also all outputs from these ERC projects.