The results of the 2025 European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept (PoC) Grant call (first deadline date 13 March 2025) were published. Principal Investigators (PIs) with a main ERC Grant that is ongoing or ended after 1 January 2024 are eligible to participate in an ERC 2025 PoC Grant. The ERC PoC Grants aim at facilitating exploration of the commercial and social innovation potential of ERC funded research and are therefore available only to PIs whose proposals draw substantially on their ERC funded research.

For this call in total 150 ERC PoC Grants were awarded to PIs working in 21 different countries across Europe. In the ERCEA news article more background on the evaluation results and the full list of winning projects are available. Among the 150 selected researchers are at least six based at Flemish host institutions. The projects of several PIs are presented in the news articles of Universiteit Gent and VIB.

Koen BINNEMANS, KU Leuven, “ADONIS - Advanced conversion of sulphate salts in circular hydrometallurgy” which builds on research funded by the 2022 Advanced Grant CIRMET and is the fourth ERC grant awarded to him (2 Advanced Grants and 2 Proof of Concept Grants).

Filip DU PREZ, Universiteit Gent, “BIGTOP - Breakthrough industry grade tagging of plastic products” which builds on research funded by the 2020 Advanced Grant CiMaC.

Anna KACZMAREK, Universiteit Gent, “HEAT-CAMERA - Hybrid Encapsulated Advanced Thermometers for CAncer Mapping and thERApy” which builds on research funded by the 2020 Starting Grant NORTH and is the third ERC grant awarded to her (1 Starting Grant and 2 Proof of Concept Grants).  

Francisco MOLINA LOPEZ, KU Leuven, “SUSTEG - Sustainable Thermoelectric Generators for Low-Power Applications” which builds on research funded by the 2020 Starting Grant 3DALIGN.

Valeria PULIGNANO, KU Leuven, “ReSTLess - Macro-Social Turn in Labour Market Inequality: An Open Database and A Toolkit of Unpaid Labour” which builds on research funded by the 2018 Advanced Grant REsPecTMe.

Jan STEYAERT, Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie, “PAMinMICE - Positive allosteric modulators of the PD-1•PD-L1 interaction as a new mode of therapeutic intervention for autoimmune diseases: preclinical proof of concept in humanized mice” which builds on research funded by the 2023 Advanced Grant Allosteris.