This workshop conveys to participants information that is beyond the ERC guide for applicants. During the workshop, we accelerate past the “ERC Basics” to the counterintuitive, elusive and conceptual parts of the ERC grant. Having worked with thousands of ERC applicants, we know how to decipher the counterintuitive “excellence” essence (the sole criterion within the ERC work program), as well as additional “unwritten” rules for ERC success. This workshop is fit for first-time ERC applicants with a basic understanding of the ERC funding scheme or researchers that are re-submitting, as well as for Research Funding Advisors.