New report: Frontier science behind Europe’s next-generation advanced materials
A new report shows how ERC-funded frontier research underpins scientific excellence and drives technological innovation from lab to fab. Mapping 1,503 research projects from 29 countries, the report sheds light on funding trends, disciplinary and geographic patterns, as well as the mechanisms and conditions needed to translate frontier science into long-term social and economic value.
While the report is structured around solutions across critical societal domains and value chains – highlighting the importance of faster and more accessible industrial uptake – the ERC portfolio remains firmly anchored in fundamental research and scientific curiosity.
Nicola Spaldin, Vice-President of the ERC Scientific Council, said:
‘The European Research Council is proud to foster an environment that nurtures this spirit of intellectual adventure – one that supports not only applied research with immediate societal benefits, but also unrestricted, curiosity-driven frontier research whose technological impact may only become apparent in future generations.’
With advanced materials playing an increasingly decisive role in the context of transformational changes, Vice-President Nicola Spaldin added:
'The fundamental research undertaken today will provide the conceptual and material foundations needed to confront the societal challenges of tomorrow — and may ultimately lead to the discovery of the material that defines the next chapter of human civilisation.'
The new report also reveals that research distribution is concentrated in health (36.5%), advanced electronics (36.5%) and energy (19%). It spotlights ERC-funded projects within the EU policy landscape shaped by initiatives such as the Competitive Compass, European Green Deal and European Chips Acts. In terms of material classes, strong scientific activity has been identified in compound semiconductors, polymers, nanomaterials, perovskites, quantum materials and bio-integrated materials.
The report shows that publications linked to ERC-supported research in advanced materials are cited more than three times more often than the global disciplinary average. Nearly 90% of these papers appear in top-quartile journals – testifying to the excellence and high international visibility of the ERC portfolio across materials science, physics, chemistry, engineering and the life sciences. It also illustrates the strengths of the ERC’s curiosity-driven funding model.
This in-depth analysis of how ERC-funded discovery-led research in advanced materials underpins progress in health, electronics, energy, mobility and construction was initiated by the ERC Scientific Council ahead of the upcoming adoption of the EU Advanced Materials Act.
