The European Commission announced today that 76 top researchers will receive grants worth together €11.4 million. Each researcher is awarded €150,000 to explore business opportunities, prepare patent applications or verify the practical viability of their scientific findings.
This third round of funding by the European Research Council (ERC) for Proof of Concept grants pushes the total number of projects for 2019 to 200 with an overall budget of €30 million. Overall last year 498 proposals were evaluated, with an average success rate of 40%.
The grants are part of EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. Besides EU Member States, legal entities in 16 associated countries are eligible for funding.
The awarded researchers are working in 22 countries: Austria 2, Belgium 8, Switzerland 13, Czechia 1, Germany 15, Denmark 3, Greece 2, Spain 16, Finland 8, France 18, Hungary 2, Ireland 6, Israel 10, Italy 20, Luxembourg 1, Netherlands 24, Portugal 4, Romania 2, Sweden 1, Slovenia 1, Turkey 1, UK 34.
The European Research Council was set up by the European Union in 2007 and is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent frontier research.
The Brussels Times
