France's Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) has opened its main annual research funding call, the agency's principal competitive instrument for financing investigator-driven projects across the French research system.

The call, publicized through the grants listing service fundsforNGOs, targets public research organizations and universities. For R&D managers in France, the ANR generic call is the backbone of competitive project funding: it sets the annual rhythm for grant submissions, staffing plans and consortium formation across most disciplines.

What does the call fund?

ANR's generic call for proposals covers a broad disciplinary span, from life sciences and physics to engineering, environmental science and the social sciences. The instrument funds research teams rather than individual fellowships, and applicants typically build multi-partner consortia that include public laboratories and, in some thematic work programmes, private-sector partners.

The call operates through themed work programmes, each with its own evaluation panel and budget envelope. Applicants submit under a specific theme, and peer review panels rank proposals before ANR's governing board confirms funding decisions.

How should research managers respond?

For laboratory directors and grant offices, the practical steps are:

• Verify the eligibility rules for the relevant work programme before drafting
• Check co-funding and partner requirements specific to the chosen theme
• Confirm submission deadlines through ANR's official call documents, which carry the binding dates
• Review evaluation criteria published with each theme, as they differ by panel

Details in third-party listings can lag behind the official record. ANR publishes the authoritative call text, deadlines and budget figures on its own site, and applicants should treat that text as the sole basis for submission planning.

The funding agency has not disclosed the total budget or success-rate expectations in the material now circulating, so portfolio planning should wait for the official call documents.

Applicants who move early on consortium building and budget justification will face the tightest submission timeline; ANR's generic call remains the single largest recurring opportunity for French public research teams seeking competitive project grants.