There used to be a really cool project called Free seed ring earth, that distributed seeds for the cost of shipping, with seeds aquired through donations. Not sure if it’s still active, but I loved participating some 15-20 years ago.

Months is usually closer to the thuth, many institutions also have dedicated offices to help out with the process. This really has a huge impact on who gets the funding and reduces the chances of getting ERC grants on small institutions.