In the first call in 2007 299 Starting Grants have been funded; in the second call in 2009 244 grants were funded. For the third call, an increased budget of more than EUR 500 million was available. Thus, 427 projects could be funded in 2010. In 2011 480 projects could be funded with a budget of about EUR 670 million. In the current call for 2012 the budget amounts to about EUR 730 million, i.e. it is expected that there will be about 600 grants.