The European Research Council has named 182 researchers who will share €27.3 million in its first round of Proof of Concept Grants, funding early work to turn existing ERC-backed findings into potential products or services.
Each project will receive €150,000 under the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme, with eligibility limited to researchers who currently hold, or have previously held, an ERC frontier research grant, the organisation reported on Tuesday.
The funding is designed as a “top-up” to test the commercial or societal potential of results already generated in ERC projects.
Most of the newly funded projects are in physical sciences and engineering (62%), followed by life sciences (28%) and social sciences and humanities (9%).
Examples highlighted include 3D-printed bio-inspired electronics made from soft materials, a tool intended to help map language areas in the brain to support epilepsy surgery, and a breast cancer vaccine concept that targets tumour markers shared by many patients.
The work will be carried out at universities and research centres across 21 EU member states and associated countries, with the highest number of grants based in Germany (31) and the Netherlands (27), followed by Italy and France with 18 each.
Competition and next round
A total of 554 proposals were submitted in this round, up 15% compared with last year’s first round, with roughly one in three applicants receiving funding, according to new figures from the ERC.
Its 2026 work programme includes two rounds of Proof of Concept Grants with a total budget of €60 million, and results from the second round are due to be announced later this year.
“Many of today’s innovations begin with a researcher asking a fundamental question,” Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said in a statement.
