ERC monitors the impact of the research funded by organising a qualitative evaluation of the research outcome of finalised projects annually. This study evaluated a total of 225 ERC projects, funded under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme (FP7), in 25 independent peer-review panels. The study found that 18% of projects analysed had resulted in a scientific breakthrough and 61.9% had made major scientific advances. 17.6% of projects had made an incremental scientific contribution, whilst 2.5% of the assessed projects provided no appreciable scientific contribution. Half of the projects already had an impact on the economy, society and policy-making, and around two thirds are expected to have such impact in the medium to long term.