Over €20 million to turn frontier science into practical solutions
Projects selected for funding
The new grantees’ work will cover a wide range of subjects. Examples include: using AI to better predict conflict escalation and risk; reducing the environmental footprint of paracetamol production; developing a tool to detect distortions in electricity markets caused by dominant energy firms; and creating a portable device to capture and detect PFAS (“forever” chemicals) in water — among many others.
See full list of winners
Facts and figures
The new grantees will be based at universities and research centres in 21 EU Member States and associated countries, notably Germany (27 grants), Spain (20 grants), UK (17 grants), France and the Netherlands (both 12 grants).
Among the winners are 29 researchers with German nationality, 20 Spanish, 17 Italian, - as well as researchers of 29 other nationalities.
This competition attracted 480 proposals, and in this round over 31 percent of proposals were selected for funding.
Next Proof of Concept Grant call
The ERC 2025 work programme includes two calls for proposals for Proof of Concept Grants with a total budget of €45 million.
The 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 ground-breaking research towards innovation.
Interested in applying for an ERC Proof of Concept? The next funding round is now open for applications, with the deadline set for 18 September 2025.
More about Proof of Concept Grants
New report reveals myriad uses of ERC Proof of Concept Grants
A new report reveals how the ERC Proof of Concept Grants are turning frontier research into real-world solutions. With just 1% of the ERC’s total budget - €259 million between 2014 and 2023 - some 1,700 PoC projects have delivered impressive results in innovation, commercialisation and cross-sector impact.
How ERC frontier research strengthens Europe’s competitiveness
Other data on how ERC-funded research results are moving closer to market
Report from Survey on the use of patents by ERC grantees
Examples of ERC-funded research contributing to the creation and support of successful companies
Applicants based in Switzerland
The statistics and list of successful candidates are provisional. The European Commission and the Swiss Government have successfully concluded negotiations on the association of Switzerland to Horizon Europe and the signature of the agreement is expected to take place in 2025. If the association agreement has not yet come into force by the date of the signature of the grant agreement, applicants with Swiss host institutions will not be eligible to receive funding. In that case, if the signature of the association agreement is not imminent, the applicants will be given the possibility to transfer their proposal to an eligible host institution in an EU Member State or in an associated country.
About the ERC
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Since November 2021, Maria Leptin is the President of the ERC. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva.
