The project will analyze the ERC practices and processes in the contect of gender mainstreaming especially during submission of proposals and in peer review processes. The main objective of this project is to identify and analyze gender biases related to different stages of the application and evaluation process within the ERC. Avoiding gender biases is essential to guarantee excellence and gender fairness. Therefore we will review official ERC documents, analyze the selection procedures and practices for reviewers and to study the mechanisms and practices related to peer review processes. For this purpose it is necessary to apply a set of different qualitative and quantitative methods and to assemble a research consortium which comprises the specific competences and resources needed. The results will be delivered and presented in form which allows to feed them into the strategic orientations of the Scientific Council and to apply them to the ERC´s operations.In this project, we investigate the extent and sources of gender bias in grant reviewing schemes, using ERC Starting Grants and Advanced Grants as case studies. The project focuses on the three main aspects of the schemes: the formal requirements and procedures, the composition of the reviewers and panels, and the process of application and evaluation. More specifically the following questions are answered: (i) Does the application process lead to gendered self-selection? (ii) Where in the selection process are (potentially) gender-biased decisions made? (iii) Are the decision criteria gender-biased, and/or are they deployed in a gender-biased manner? (iv) To what extent is this due to the (gender or topical biased) composition of the panels and/or reviewers?