From war damage to heart repair: ERC grantees supported to turn their science into practice
Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said:
'The discoveries emerging from ERC-funded research are very often more than academic breakthroughs. They form the bedrock of future innovation ecosystems across Europe, inspiring new technologies, businesses and societal solutions. I am pleased that the EU is funding a record number of Proof of Concept Grants this year, and I congratulate all the grantees on their success.'
President of the European Research Council, Prof. Maria Leptin, said:
'The ERC does not ask its researchers to start with ready-made solutions or immediate applications. Instead, ERC grantees explore the frontiers of knowledge, guided by their curiosity and scientific ambition. With these Proof of concept grants, many ERC grantees will explore the commercialisation or societal potential of their curiosity. And they will lay the foundation for future technological innovations and societal technologies that drive progress in Europe.'
Challenges addressed by the new projects
In 2025, ERC Proof of Concept Grants supported a wide range of projects that show how frontier science can open new routes to innovation. They include using satellite images and artificial intelligence to assess damage caused by war, and developing new ultrasound techniques that allow doctors to see the smallest blood vessels in an entire human kidney in real time. Other projects explore affordable ways to protect buildings from earthquakes in vulnerable regions, regenerative treatments inspired by the unusual biology of the naked mole-rat to help repair damaged hearts, and new methods to reduce friction and wear in machines by creating protective carbon layers during normal use.
Read more about the examples of the funded Proof of Content projects.
Proof of Concept Grants 2025 in numbers
The ERC’s 2025 Work Programme included two rounds of the Proof of Concept call. In total, 879 proposals were evaluated. The 300 new grantees will work in 23 EU Member States and associated countries. The highest number of projects will be carried out in Germany (51 grants), Spain (42), Italy (33) and United Kingdom (31).
Proposals selected for funding in the second round of the 2025 Proof of Concept Grant call
Proposals selected for funding in the first round of the 2025 Proof of Concept Grant call
To be eligible for a Proof of Concept Grant, researchers must hold, or have recently completed, an ERC frontier research grant. The funding enables them to build on results from their ongoing or finished ERC projects and to explore how these findings could be developed further. The main aim is to assess the commercial and societal innovation potential of ERC-funded research. As with all ERC schemes, Proof of Concept Grants are open to projects in any field, spanning the physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, social sciences and the humanities.
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. A new ERC Plus Grants scheme is set to open for applications in spring 2026. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Maria Leptin has been the President of the ERC since November 2021. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, which is under the responsibility of Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.
