ERC Proof of Concept Grants
Pays existing ERC grant holders a EUR 150,000 lump sum to explore the commercial or social innovation potential of their ERC-funded research.
ERC Proof of Concept Grants is a European Research Council (ERC) grant that pays existing ERC grant holders a EUR 150,000 lump sum to explore the commercial or social innovation potential of their ERC-funded research — bridging an already-funded ERC discovery toward a commercial or social application, such as testing feasibility, validating a prototype, or preparing IP and a business case. The awa…
This call is open only to Principal Investigators whose ERC main frontier research grant is currently ongoing, or ended on or after 1 January 2025, and it funds work that draws substantially on that ERC-funded research. It is not a general research grant — it is meant to bridge an already-funded ERC discovery toward a commercial or social application, such as testing feasibility, validating a prototype, or preparing IP and a business case.
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