134 projects will receive support of EUR 150,000 each, the European Research Council announced Thursday in the final round of the 2024 ‘Proof of Concept’ grant competition.
The ERC awards bring the total number of grants awarded under the 2024 work programme to 245 worth EUR 36.75 million. The aim of each grant is to help ERC grantees bridge the gap between the results of their pioneering research and the early phases of its commercialisation. The grant scheme is part of the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe.
The EU’s Research Commissionerr Ekaterina Zaharieva congratulated the grant winners: “Europe’s global standing depends on us championing scientific excellence and building a thriving community of researchers, innovators, and industry leaders. The ERC’s Proof of Concept grants play an important role in these efforts. They enable promising research results to evolve into tangible innovations that drive industrial progress and benefit society.”
President of the European Research Council Professor Maria Leptin said the grants would help more ERC grantees to move their research results towards the market and was useful support on their path towards commercialisation and scale-up: “It shines a light on something that is often forgotten or not fully understood – basic science is the fundament for much of the innovations we benefit from today. Therefore, with increased global competition, it’s imperative for Europe to up its game and raise investment in curiosity-driven top research to boost our competitiveness.”
The ERC’s 2024 work programme included two rounds of the Proof of Concept (PoC) call. In total, over the two rounds, 698 proposals were evaluated, and 245 projects were selected for funding.
Projects will for example combat food fraud, repurpose existing medicines to fight cancer, and better visualise blood microcirculation, to improve the treatment of many life-threatening conditions.
List of 134 winners in this second 2024 PoC round
The 134 new grantees of this second round work in 20 different countries across Europe . The highest number of grants will be hosted in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands (15 each), followed by Spain and the UK (14 each), Israel (12), Belgium (11), France (10), Denmark (6), Austria (5), Sweden (4), Ireland (3), Finland and Norway (2), Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Poland, Portugal, Turkey (1 each).
To be eligible for the Proof of Concept grant scheme, researchers need to already have been awarded an ERC frontier research grant. The PoC funding is used to develop findings they have made during former or current research projects. The main goal is to explore the commercial and social innovation potential of ERC-funded research. As with other ERC grants, the funding supports research projects in all scientific disciplines, from physical science and engineering to life sciences, and social sciences to humanities.
