2000th ERC Proof of Concept Grant Awarded

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the award of 100 new Proof of Concept Grants, in the first round of the 2024 competition. This latest batch of grants includes the 2000th project to receive Proof of Concept funding since the scheme was introduced in 2011. Astrophysicist Nanda Rea, based at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) in Spain, will manage this milestone project.

The grants - each worth €150 000 - help researchers to bridge the gap between the discoveries stemming from their frontier research and the practical application of the findings, including early phases of their commercialisation.

The Proof of Concept grant scheme is open only to researchers who currently hold or have previously been awarded, ERC frontier research grants. These top-up grants help to explore the commercial or societal potential of the findings researchers made through their ERC projects. The objective is to enable ERC-funded ideas to progress on the path from gound-breaking research towards innovation.

In this round, the largest share of the Proof of Concepts projects went to researchers who will base their projects in the UK (15 projects), the Netherlands (14), Italy (12), France, Germany and Spain (10 each), Israel (7), Belgium (5), Austria, Denmark and Sweden (3 each), Finland and Ireland (2 each) and finally Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Türkiye (1 each).

For more information:

ERC Press Release - 2000th ERC Proof of Concept Grant awarded