Other beneficiaries are based in 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 Turkey (1 each).

The grants – each worth €150 000 – help researchers bridge the gap between the discovery phase and the practical application of their findings, including early phases of commercialisation.

The Proof of Concept grant scheme is only open 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 scale-up from ground-breaking research towards innovation.

The ERC’s 2024 work programme included two calls for proposals for Proof of Concept Grants with a total budget of €30 million. The funding is part of the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe, to which the UK associated on 1 January 2024.

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It supports researchers of any nationality and age to run projects so long as they are based in 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 Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova.

Horizon Europe is the biggest international research and innovation programme in the world with more than £82 billion (€95.5 billion) of funding available over seven years (2021 to 2027) from the EU budget, to which all associated countries are adding further contributions. It is open to the world, which means that participants can participate in most calls, regardless of where they are based. Researchers from associated countries have even greater access. They can lead projects and receive direct funding from the programme. The programme supports major research and innovation projects and international partnerships helping to tackle global challenges.

Questions & Answers can be found here, as well as in this FAQ

Joint statement by the European Commission and the UK Government on the UK's association to Horizon Europe and Copernicus

UK association to Horizon Europe

UK national contact points for Horizon Europe

EU-funded projects in the UK