- The European Research Council (ERC) announced on 27 January 2026 the outcomes of the second 2025 round of its Proof of Concept Grants. In this second PoC Grant 2025 round, 136 grantees will each receive €150 000, supporting them in exploring how their scientific results can move towards practical application or early commercial use. With these awards, the total number of Proof of Concept Grants, under the ERC 2025 Work Programme reached 300, representing an overall budget of €45 million. The scheme is funded under Horizon Europe, the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation.
The list of researchers whose proposal received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant, on this second round, includes the Greek researcher Mrs Themis Alissafi (Assistant Professor at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). During the first round of PoC 2025 results, two more Greek researchers had also been selected for funding.
You may find more info on the call’s results and the full list of second round winners here.
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.
The call for the ERC Proof of Concept Grant 2026 is now open for applications, with the first cut-off date set for 17 March 2026.
