Past winners
ERC Proof of Concept, recent awardees
€150,000 lump sum for current and recent ERC grant holders to test whether an ERC result can leave the lab.
2347 funded projects indexed from OpenAlex and CORDIS
Awards per year
Top countries
- NL×20
- DE×20
- IT×14
- ES×11
- FR×9
Top institutions
2,347 awards recorded, 2014 to 2027, across 31 countries.
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS×84
- Weizmann Institute of Science×65
- Technion - Israel Institute of Technology×43
- The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge×42
- Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas×41
- Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia×34
- Tel Aviv University×33
- Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine×32
2027
Gene Regulatory Analysis for Stress in Plants
UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN · NL · €150,000
Global food security is increasingly threatened by climate change, population growth, and the rapid spread of plant diseases, which together cause substantial crop losses and economic damage worldwide. Developing crop varieties with improved disease resistance is therefore a major priority for sustainable agriculture. However, breeding for disease resistance remains challenging because the underlying regulatory mechanisms controlling plant immune responses are highly complex. The GRASP (Gene Reg
Standardized patient‑friendly computational language mapping to guide epilepsy surgery
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE · FR · €150,000
This Proof of Concept (PoC) translates key results from the ERC COG SPEEDY project into a bedside workflow for presurgical language mapping in drug resistant epilepsy. Electrical Stimulation Mapping (ESM) is the clinical gold standard to avoid resecting eloquent cortex, but it is time consuming, fatiguing, and often yields non-informative negative stimulations when language is not engaged. SPEEDY-Clinic combines a patient friendly, self paced bedside acquisition system for naturalistic listening
Functional cementitious materials for energy harvesting
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · NL · €150,000
FUN-CRETE aims to translate recent advances in auxetic cementitious cellular composites into a first application-oriented demonstration of infrastructure-integrated energy harvesting. The underlying ERC-funded research has established a new class of cementitious materials with exceptional deformability, damage resistance and recoverable “second-elasticity” behaviour enabled by architected auxetic geometries. This project builds directly on those results by exploring whether such controlled, reco
Conditioned CAR-T cells (cirCAR-T) for enhanced tumor immmunotherapy
UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE · CH · €150,000
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is a breakthrough immunotherapy for aggressive blood cancers. With >250 companies active in the field, >1,200 CAR- T variants in clinical development, and a market exceeding $5B, CAR-T therapies represent an expanding biomedical sector. However, despite response rates of up to 90%, long-term remissions remain limited (30–40%), and efficacy in solid tumors remains poor, highlighting a major unmet medical need. Improving CAR-T cell potency, persiste
Translation-Guided RNA engineering Platform for Cardiac disease
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN · DE · €150,000
Many inherited diseases arise not merely because a gene is mutated, but because cells no longer produce enough of the right protein. Because pathogenic variants are often highly diverse and spread across the gene, correcting each mutation individually is difficult to scale. TRANSLATE introduces a new therapeutic logic: precise translation engineering at the RNA level to reinstate physiological protein output without genomic modification in genetic dosage disorders. TRANSLATE builds on discoverie
Metabolic Hepatoprotection to Enable Curative Cancer Therapy in Patients with Vulnerable Livers
UNIVERSITAET BERN · CH · €150,000
SAFE-LIVER aims to establish proof-of-concept for a first-in-class metabolic hepatoprotectant that enables safe delivery of cancer therapies in patients with compromised liver function. Liver toxicity is a major barrier to curative cancer therapy. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy frequently cause hepatic injury that limits treatment intensity or excludes patients entirely. This problem is particularly severe in patients with pre-existing liver disease such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFL
Short Tandem Repeat Instability QuantIfier for Next-Generation sequencing
DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUR NEURODEGENERATIVE ERKRANKUNGEN EV · DE · €150,000
Over 50 severe genetic disorders are caused by short tandem repeat (STR) expansions. Emerging evidence indicates that increased STR instability plays a critical role in their pathogenesis. However, current analysis tools can only determine basic STR length but not instability, severely limiting both therapeutic development and clinical care. Our project aims to commercialize innovative software that enables targeted and genome-wide quantification of STR instability, addressing urgent needs in dr
Single-Atom Cartridges: From Powder to Product
POLITECNICO DI MILANO · IT · €150,000
SAC3 takes the world’s first structured single-atom catalyst (demonstrated within the ERC StG “SAC_2.0” using vat photopolymerization) and does what laboratory discoveries rarely achieve: turns it into a manufacturable technology. The goal is not to discover a better catalyst but to validate a manufacturing process for obtaining atomically precise catalytic cartridges ready for integration into industrial continuous-flow reactors. Conventional heterogeneous catalysts expose only 5-20% of their m
LIVEMAP: Live-cell mapping of drug–protein interactions across the human proteome
DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM HEIDELBERG · DE · €150,000
Drug discovery remains one of the most challenging endeavours in modern medicine. Despite decades of investment, approximately 90% of clinical drug candidates fail before reaching patients, with late-stage failures costing billions and delaying effective therapies. A key underlying reason is the inability to reliably determine the full range of proteins a drug engages in living cells, including both intended targets and unintended off-targets. Existing technologies either miss large portions of
Robust and Scalable Catalytic Ball Milling for Plastic Recycling (Scalable IMPACT)
UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · NL · €150,000
Polyolefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene make up more than 50% of global polymer production and are thus a major contributor to waste accumulation in the environment. Classical recycling via melting and reshaping usually leads to a lower quality product. Chemical recycling is proposed as solution, in which the chemical bonds of the polymer are broken to obtain chemical building blocks. It is most desired to produce monomers to make high quality polymers again. However, for polyolefins
DeepSonic: Deep sea soundscapes from machine learning
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON · UK · €150,000
Acoustic recordings of ocean noise offer vital insights into marine ecosystems, revealing the impacts of human activities such as noise pollution and climate change. Large baleen whales like blue and fin whales emit low-frequency calls that travel long distances and can be detected by ocean bottom seismometers (OBS)—instruments originally deployed for seismological research. This makes OBSs a cost-effective, passive tool for long-term marine mammal and ocean noise monitoring in deep and remote a
Sustainable and Ultra-PeRforming supercApacitors with 3D Laser-Induced Graphene (SUPRALIG)
POLITECNICO DI TORINO · IT · €150,000
Electrochemical energy storage devices such as supercapacitors and batteries rely on metallic current collectors that are costly, dense and environmentally intensive to manufacture. These limitations hinder the development of flexible, lightweight, and scalable energy storage technologies needed for emerging applications including wearable electronics, IoT devices, and distributed renewable energy systems. SUPRALIG proposes a disruptive alternative: the use of Laser-Induced Graphene (LIG) as a t
Targeting liquid organelles to develop new antiviral strategies against influenza A virus infections
UNIVERSIDADE CATOLICA PORTUGUESA · PT · €150,000
Rising antiviral resistance, vaccine hesitancy, and more frequent zoonotic spillovers, amplified by climate change and ecosystem disruption, demand for more and different antiviral solutions. Most licensed influenza antivirals act by inhibiting viral protein functions and can be undermined by resistance. LOFlu_TREAT develops an evolution-resilient approach against epidemic and pandemic influenza A virus (IAV) by modulating the material properties of virus-induced biomolecular condensates, membra
Scalable MXene-Based Thermal Shields for Next-Generation Radar and Aerospace Electronics
AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · ES · €150,000
THERMOBARRIER aims to develop an inorganic tunable thermal barrier based on metal transitional carbides, i.e. MXenes, designed to stabilize electronics that are sensitive to temperature variations. By material engineering of MXenes, we create films with record-low thermal conductivity, flexibility, stability in thermal cycles, and electromagnetic compatibility with the targeted electronics. Preliminary work within ERC THERMO2DEAL shows feasibility and scalability, protecting the IP of the therm
Lipopolysaccharide Lipid A Profiling to Guide Microbiome-Supported Immunotherapy in Melanoma
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI FEDERICO II · IT · €150,000
Understanding how gut microbiota shapes host physiology is central to biomedicine. Yet current microbiome studies largely infer function from genetic signatures rather than directly measuring biochemical outputs. This limitation becomes critical in interventional settings such as faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in oncology, where donor-to-recipient transfer can alter immune tone in ways not captured by taxonomy alone. Among key microbial immune modulators are lipopolysaccharides (LPS) fr
Engineering microglia to treat Alzheimer’s disease
VIB VZW · BE · €150,000
"Microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, are increasingly implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis by genetic studies and functional evidence showing defective recognition and clearance of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides. Inefficient microglial clearance of Aβ plaques leads to progressive accumulation, enhanced neuroinflammation, and neuronal loss. While current antibody therapies target Aβ, these interventions face significant safety concerns, limiting pharmacology. This ERC Pr
Biocompatible agents for preventive diagnostics in vascular disease
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · DE · €150,000
Perfusable vascularized microphysiological systems such as vasculature- and thrombosis-on-chip platforms are emerging as powerful tools to study cardiovascular disease and evaluate therapies. Monitoring biochemical processes such as platelet activation, thrombin generation, or endothelial signaling within these systems remains challenging. Current readout strategies rely mainly on continuous microscopy or integrated sensors, which are difficult to scale across extended vascular networks and inte
Utilising the principles of excluded volume effect to heal cutaneous pathologies using in vitro engineered cell-assembled living substitutes
PANEPISTIMIO IOANNINON · EL · €150,000
The ERC-2019-Co-ACHIEVE programme investigates the fundamentals of excluded volume effect, through the application of macromolecular crowding (MMC), in cell culture. Outcomes of the ERC-2019-Co-ACHIEVE programme demonstrate the potential of MMC in regenerative medicine, drug discovery and cellular agriculture. The ERC-2026-PoC-EVE_HEALS programme will utilise MMC to develop tissue engineered medicines for wound healing applications.
Automated Security Validation for Zero-Knowledge Systems
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN · AT · €150,000
Zero-knowledge (ZK) systems are foundational to modern privacy-preserving technologies, yet ensuring the correctness of their increasingly complex implementations remains a major bottleneck. The high stakes involved---for instance, the 745 million USD in digital assets managed by the Linea blockchain that relies on such infrastructure---highlight the critical need for a scalable and reliable solution. Currently, correctness relies heavily on costly and labor-intensive manual audits, which do not
Live-testing a light-speed gravity-based tsunami warning system
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT · FR · €150,000
Earthquakes caused nearly one million fatalities in the last 25 years and billions of euros of economic loss. Earthquake early warning systems exist in some countries at risk. They send alerts based on the rapid analysis of early seismic waves generated by the earthquake and therefore only provide a few seconds of warning before the strongest shakings. Moreover, for fundamental reasons, these systems systematically underestimate the magnitude of large events, which results in dramatic underestim
AD-LINK: Reversing Early Aβ-Driven Network Hyperexcitability
VIB VZW · BE · €150,000
Despite decades of research, there is currently no drug capable of preventing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and ~99% of the drug candidates ultimately fail in clinical trials. This high failure rate is largely due to the lack of reliable preclinical models that enable continuous, longitudinal testing of therapeutic interventions from the earliest, pre-symptomatic stages of the disease. AD‑LINK is a chronic neurotechnology platform designed to extract high‑resolution neurophysiological signatures of
Safeguard Repressor-Mediated Cell Fate Lock Gene Therapy for Glioblastoma
DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM HEIDELBERG · DE · €150,000
"Glioblastoma (GBM) remains the most lethal primary brain tumour, with a median survival of 15 months despite maximal treatment, unchanged in two decades. Over 95% of clinical trials have failed. The fundamental reason is cell fate plasticity: GBM cells switch between phenotypic states to evade any single therapy. No current approach addresses the regulatory machinery that permits this switching. SafeCure will translate two discoveries from ERC Starting Grant SafeFate into a first-in-class gen
Multi-model Approach for Runup and INundation Analysis
UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA · IT · €150,000
The MARINA project addresses the critical need for accurate, real-time coastal flood forecasting. Current operational tools rely either on computationally expensive process-based models or fast but inaccurate empirical formulations. MARINA bridges this gap by developing a scalable Decision Support System based on a probabilistic multi-model framework. Originating from the ERC Starting Grant WARMCOASTS, this technology utilizes a hybrid architecture where offline high-fidelity simulations are use
Next-Gen Immunomodulatory Nanoplatforms Targeting Regulatory T Cell Metabolism to combat cancer
IDRYMA IATROVIOLOGIKON EREUNON AKADEMIAS ATHINON · EL · €150,000
Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are vital for maintaining homeostasis and self-tolerance. This immunosuppressive nature is exploited by cancer for tumour growth. Consequently, Treg accumulation in tumors is associated with poor prognosis and is a fundamental impediment to the success of immunotherapy. Thus, Treg suppressive mechanisms emerge as appealing therapeutic targets. However, current approaches focus on their systemic elimination, failing to yield significant clinical outcomes and are accompa
Self-powered wireless sensor node through ultrahigh performance energy storage capacitors
SILICON AUSTRIA LABS GMBH · AT · €150,000
Wireless sensor nodes (WSN) are enablers for the Internet of Things (IoT), as they allow to collect distributed data about the environment, machine conditions, etc., even at remote locations. The key aspect for WSN is their energy-autonomy, namely perpetual operation without any external energy source. This is generally achieved by combining an energy harvesting module (e.g. solar cell) with a suitable energy storage module. Common energy storage devices for WSNs are batteries and supercapacitor
2026
Next-Generation X-Ray Laser Light Sources
HEINRICH-HEINE-UNIVERSITAET DUESSELDORF · DE · €150,000
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) are today’s by far most advanced technology for imaging of atomic structures and ultrafast dynamics, underpinning breakthroughs in life sciences, structural biology, materials, semiconductor and fusion science and technology. However, today’s XFELs rely on kilometre-scale underground electron accelerators housed in billion-euro facilities, restricting them to a handful of large giga-infrastructures worldwide. As a result, research teams that want to use XFELs n
A Flexible Publishing Platform for Knowledge Environments: Streamlining the Creation of Interactive and Layered Scholarship
THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM · IL · €150,000
This Proof of Concept will develop and validate a configurable platform that enables researchers to create and publish novel knowledge environments – navigable, evidence-linked digital publications that innovatively present the full relational architecture of complex scholarship. Researchers increasingly work with interconnected texts, images, objects, datasets, terminology, and layered interpretation, yet they still lack accessible technologies to publish this material while preserving its stru
Gut microbiota generate dinitrosyl iron complexes with cardiometabolic benefits
Andrei L. Kleschyov · Karolinska Institutet · SE
Gut bacteria affect host physiology, but the underlying mechanisms are not completely understood. We identify a pathway whereby gut microbes convert inorganic nitrate and non-heme iron into mobile bioactive dinitrosyl iron complexes (DNICs) that are distributed systemically and affect host metabolism. Electron paramagnetic resonance detected DNICs in tissues of conventional but not germ-free mice. Mouse and human feces and E. coli generated DNICs from nitrate and iron citrate, whereas a nitrate-
Real-Time Acoustic Biodiversity and Threat Monitoring in the Global South
JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO · FI · €150,000
Biodiversity loss is accelerating, yet managers of protected areas and other local stakeholders in the Global South lack timely, affordable tools to monitor ecological change and respond to threats. Current biodiversity monitoring technologies generate vast amounts of data but results often reach local stakeholders only after long delays, undermining their practical value. BioSounds aims to transform this situation by delivering an innovative proof of concept for a real-time acoustic monitoring
Lab-Protect: Translating phyllosphere-adapted microbial insights into a new class of lactobacilli-based biocontrol solutions
UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN · BE · €150,000
Transitioning to sustainable crop protection is a pillar of the European Green Deal, calling for a 50% reduction in chemical pesticide use by 2030. This requires reliable, field-robust biological alternatives. LAB-Protect builds on the ERC StG Lacto Be and aims to develop next-generation microbial biocontrol agents (MBCAs) based on plant-derived lactic acid bacteria (LAB), an underexploited yet highly promising class of beneficial microbes. One lead strain isolated from strawberry tissue shows e
Siderophore-mediated delivery of antibacterial antisense agents
STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT · NL · €150,000
Antibacterial resistance represents a major and growing threat to global public health, while the development of new antibiotics with novel mechanisms of action has largely stagnated. The SIDEROSENSE project addresses this challenge by advancing a fundamentally new antibacterial modality based on antisense technology. SIDEROSENSE enables selective intracellular delivery of antibacterial antisense oligonucleotides, overcoming a long-standing barrier to the clinical translation of antisense-based
Fully Automated Reprogramming-to-Organoid platform
FONDAZIONE PER LA RICERCA BIOMEDICA AVANZATA ETS · IT · €150,000
Patient-specific organoids derived from induced pluripotent stem cells are transforming disease modelling, drug discovery and precision medicine. However, their widespread adoption remains limited because organoid production is slow, expensive and highly dependent on manual expertise. Current workflows require multiple disconnected steps - cellular reprogramming, stem cell expansion and organoid differentiation - performed across different laboratories over several months, resulting in poor repr
Advancing the Technology of PRIME editing to broaden the scope of gene correction therapies
UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM UTRECHT · NL · €150,000
Genetic disorders cause substantial childhood morbidity and mortality. They affect more than 30 million individuals in Europe alone and are estimated to cost over $1 trillion each year. Therapeutic options remain limited. Prime editing is an emerging precise gene-editing approach that promises causal treatment of genetic disorders by correcting the disease-causing genetic variants. Whereas conventional gene therapies add or knock out a gene, prime editing can rewrite endogenous DNA with high pr
XENObiotic-based PREDiction platform of inter-individual differences in drug metabolism
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PARMA · IT · €150,000
Inter-individual variability in drug metabolism remains a major barrier to clinical practice and drug development, often leading to adverse reactions, therapeutic inefficacy, and costly trial failures. While genetics explain only part of this variability, the contribution of the gut microbiome remains largely underestimated. The ERC-StG PREDICT-CARE project has shown that dietary (poly)phenols, a large family of plant xenobiotics metabolised through pathways that partly overlap with those involv
iChatRD: A user-centred clinical decision support system for the diagnosis of rare and inherited metabolic diseases
UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY · IE · €150,000
Rare diseases, including inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs), affect ~5% of the global population, yet diagnosis often takes years, causing preventable morbidity. Many computational tools are either limited to structured phenotype inputs or operate as “black boxes” prone to errors. Within the ERC project, Avatar, we have developed ChatRD, an AI-assisted, fully transparent clinical decision support tool that suggests expert-level rare disease diagnoses from unstructured patient descriptions withi
Rare Earth Element Automated Chemistry for Targeted Optimized Recovery
UNIVERZITA PALACKEHO V OLOMOUCI · CZ · €150,000
Rare-earth elements (REEs) are indispensable for the energy transition, digital infrastructure, and strategic technologies, yet their sustainable separation remains a critical bottleneck. Industrial REE refining relies on a small set of legacy organic extractants developed decades ago, which show poor selectivity between chemically similar lanthanoids, require hundreds of extraction stages, generate large waste streams, and demand capital-intensive infrastructure. As a result, many European reso
Cryo-iLM: A High-NA Cryoimmersion Microscopy Platform for Nanometre Imaging
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT · DE · €150,000
Cryo-iLM aims to transfer key results from the ERC project MICROCRYO into a modular, portable cryo-immersion microscopy platform that can be adopted by the wider life-science community and integrated into existing cryo-EM laboratories. The core challenge addressed is that cryogenic fluorescence light microscopy (cryo-FLM) and cryo-correlative workflows remain limited by low numerical aperture (NA) optics and by practical barriers to combining high-performance cryogenic fluorescence imaging with
Synthetic Multi-timepoint AI-enhanced Breast MRI
STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM · NL · €150,000
Smart-MRI (Synthetic Multi-timepoint AI-enhanced Breast MRI) aims to eliminate the need for gadolinium-based contrast agents while preserving the diagnostic accuracy of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI). Smart-MRI consists of three key phases. The first phase focuses on AI model optimization and external validation. Our deep learning model is trained on a large dataset of paired contrast-enhanced and non-contrast breast MRI scans, designed to capture essential temporal and morphological fe
From Research Infrastructure to Radiology AI Platform
UNIVERSITATSKLINIKUM BONN · DE · €150,000
Radiology AI faces a dual infrastructure crisis: developing next-generation AI, particularly radiology foundation models, requires access to large-scale clinical imaging data that remains siloed across hospital systems. Evaluating the growing number of commercial AI products requires the same data access, yet hospitals cannot benchmark these tools on their own patients before procurement, cannot identify performance gaps, or systematically monitor performance after deployment. We developed and o
Continuous AMIde-band Ring-laser Array
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN · AT · €150,000
Widely tunable mid-infrared (mid-IR) lasers are key enabling components for chemical and bioanalytical spectroscopy. Broadband spectral access to the molecular fingerprint region is currently dominated by external-cavity quantum cascade lasers (EC-QCLs), which are bulky, expensive, and rely on mechanically tuned free-space cavities, making the laser the primary cost and architectural bottleneck in many mid-IR instruments. This ERC PoC introduces CAMIRA, a chip-integrated mid-IR source that repl
FLEX-CODESWITCH
THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · UK · €150,000
All current successful automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems (largely for English) are trained on hundreds of thousands of hours of training data, invariably based on individual languages. However, multilingual communities switch between two or more languages (code-switching): E What is my bank balance? Bengali/E amar bank balance kɔto? (my bank balance how much). Thus, for the recognition of speech involving code-switching, recognition rates are seriously impaired. Moreover, since code-swi
Oligonucleotide Backbone Modifications
UNIVERSITAT BASEL · CH · €150,000
Therapeutic oligonucleotides are rapidly emerging as novel modalities for the treatment of several previously unaddressable diseases. The development of oligonucleotide therapeutics has thereby been significantly driven by chemical modifications that enhance nuclease resistance, pharmacokinetic properties, and target engagement. Especially the modification of the phosphorus site at the internucleoside linkage, in particular by the replacement of an oxygen with sulfur in the form of phosphorothio
ERror-free CLAdded PHOtonic circuits
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · FR · €150,000
Today’s nanometer-scale imprecision in the fabrication of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) induce optical phase errors, with multiple negative consequences. Current error mitigation techniques negatively impact PICs energy budget, PICs complexity, PICs costs and more broadly PICs potential to scale-up. ERCLAPHO’s aim is to establish a new technique for permanently correcting these fabrication errors in cladded PICs, with the following assets: the technique is non-volatile, is specific, it imp
Benchmarking and commercialization route for In utero engineering of mouse models with Robotics
KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET · SE · €150,000
Breakthrough biology often requires transgenic mouse models: labor-heavy, expensive, slow, and reliant on large cohorts. This ERC Proof of Concept will translate our ERC-funded breakthroughs into a disseminatable semi-automated “click-to-inject” platform for reproducible and direct in utero genetic manipulation of mouse embryos - a transformative yet technically demanding procedure for rapid, versatile, and efficient generation of mouse models, currently limited to a handful of expert laboratori
HARNESSING HETEROTYPIC T CELL CLUSTERS TO BOOST TIL CANCER THERAPY
STICHTING HET NEDERLANDS KANKER INSTITUUT-ANTONI VAN LEEUWENHOEK ZIEKENHUIS · NL · €150,000
Despite major advances in cancer immunotherapy, most patients still lack durable benefit. Tumor-infiltrating T lymphocyte (TIL) therapy can induce deep cancer remissions, but potency varies and complete clinical responses are limited to 20%. Crucially, although truly tumor-reactive T cells are rare in cancers (<5%), current manufacturing protocols expand TILs in bulk, without inclusion of a selection or enrichment step. Together, these observations create both a dire clinical need and unique opp
uBeAt-powered closed-loop sTandardisaTion of beatIng heart-on-chip for reliable cardioTOxicity screening
POLITECNICO DI MILANO · IT · €150,000
Drug-induced cardiotoxicity remains a primary cause of late-stage clinical attrition. Current preclinical safety assessments are focused heavily on electrophysiology assays and animal models and shows limited predictivity for human outcomes, largely failing to detect critical cardiac liabilities. Heart-on-Chip models represent a transformative New Approach Methodology (NAM) to address this gap. However, their routine industrial adoption is severely hindered by biological variability and a lack
In vivo validation of a novel, high precision Positive Allosteric Modulation-based therapy for immune-inflammatory diseases
VIB VZW · BE · €150,000
Immune-inflammatory diseases arise when the balance between stimulatory and inhibitory checkpoint signals is disrupted, causing excessive immune responses and ultimately breaking immune tolerance and tissue homeostasis. Current therapies either broadly suppress the immune system or block stimulatory checkpoints, but none exploit the activity of inhibitory checkpoints as a mechanism built by nature to restore immune homeostasis. This leaves a clear therapeutic gap, and an opportunity to locally c
Leading small molecules for the selective protein clearance in ER disorders
FONDAZIONE TELETHON ETS · IT · €150,000
Many severe genetic and age-related diseases are driven by the accumulation of misfolded proteins within the endoplasmic reticulum, leading to chronic cellular stress, tissue damage and organ failure. Despite major advances in targeted protein degradation, no current technology can selectively eliminate toxic proteins residing inside this cellular compartment. As a result, patients affected by the so-called ER-storage diseases (e.g. collagenopathies, corneal dystrophies or serpinopathies) still
Seebeck-unlocked photoelectrochemical fuels
UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA · ES · €150,000
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) processes represent a promising pathway for sustainable solar-driven chemistry. However, a fundamental bottleneck in the field is the trade-off between current and voltage: while state-of-the-art wide-bandgap photoelectrodes offer high photovoltage, they are limited by low photocurrents. Conversely, innovative narrow-bandgap photoelectrodes excel in generating high photocurrents but fail to produce the necessary photovoltage to drive the electrolytic reaction effective
Multimaterial High-Entropy Anodes for Green Hydrogen
UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE · NL · €150,000
Affordable green hydrogen requires durable electrolyzer materials that avoid scarce precious metals such as iridium. HEA-H2 addresses this challenge by establishing a multilayer anode technology based on high-entropy oxide (HEO) materials, recently disclosed in a patent application. The invention integrates these new catalyst materials into engineered multilayer electrode architectures that substantially improve the oxygen evolution reaction, the main efficiency bottleneck in water electrolysi
Wearable Cardiac Biomarker Testing at the Point of Need
KOC UNIVERSITY · TR · €150,000
Every year, an estimated 2 million EU emergency ambulance transports for chest pain reach hospital without a single troponin measurement — the biomarker needed to confirm or rule out myocardial infarction (heart attack). After discharge, a substantial proportion of patients who develop post-infarction heart failure are rehospitalised within 30 days, with no tool to monitor troponin at home. This gap persists because troponin circulates at concentrations orders of magnitude lower than glucose, th
Functionalized Glass Membranes for Resource Recovery from Waste Streams
AALBORG UNIVERSITET · DK · €150,000
Desalination is an essential process for securing access to safe drinking water, but it produces large volumes of concentrated brine, which harms marine ecosystems and is costly to dispose of. Brine, however, also contains valuable elements, including EU designated Critical Raw Materials (CRMs). For example, magnesium, which is vital to pharmaceuticals, electronics, and transport, is routinely discarded. Recovering it offers environmental and economic gains and supports a circular economy, but n
From waste to wealth: implementing wastewater and sewage sludge elemental phytomining (eMINING)
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION ECOLOGICA Y APLICACIONES FORESTALES · ES · €150,000
Most wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) release significant amounts of heavy metals and nutrients into aquatic ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and increasing the cost of reusing effluent water. Other waste products, like sewage sludge (SS), are still largely incinerated or disposed of in landfills, generating CO2 emissions and risking heavy metal leaching into water systems. The EU's Directive EU 2024/3019 mandates the phased implementation of tertiary treatments, yet currently only 10-15%
Automated Sequence Discovery of Elite Responder Antibodies from REVAMP Sera
UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT · NL · €150,000
The most potent human antibodies – those secreted by plasma cells of elite responders – remain invisible to conventional single-cell BCR sequencing (scBCR-seq) and are therefore inaccessible for therapeutic discovery. Frontier research in REVAMP (ERC AdG 101141457) has pioneered a breakthrough protein-centric discovery platform, AbDirect, that directly sequences these genuine in vivo-matured antibodies from smallvolume biofluids. It captures the active molecules themselves, with preselection bef
Intrinsic Flame Instabilities for Engine Control: Translating Hydrogen Combustion Physics into Control Strategies
RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN · DE · €150,000
Hydrogen internal combustion engines offer carbon-free power for applications where electrification is difficult. Ultra-lean operation enables high efficiency and low nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, however, under these conditions, intrinsic flame instabilities (IFIs) caused by differential diffusion of hydrogen and heat, significantly influence burning rate, pollutant formation, and thermal efficiency. These effects have a huge impact but cannot be reliably predicted by current industrial work
A Domain-Adapted Multimodal AI Platform for Substellar Astronomy: Foundation Models, Vision- Language Spectral Analysis, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, and Automated Research Workflows
INSTITUTO DE ASTROFISICA DE CANARIAS · ES · €150,000
SubstellarLLM is the first domain-adapted multimodal AI platform designed to dramatically reduce the “Time-to-Science” for substellar astronomy—from months to minutes. It integrates a fine-tuned text foundation model, a Vision-Language Model (VLM) for automated classification of Euclid’s 2D spectral images and multi-band imaging, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), real-time public catalogue APIs (Gaia DR3, 2MASS, AllWISE, SIMBAD), and a suite of specialised tools including visual spectral cla
Enzymatic STEreospecific RNA phosphorothioate modification for next-generation therapeutics
WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE · IL · €150,000
RNA therapeutics have emerged as a powerful medical modality, from COVID-19 vaccines to treatments for rare genetic diseases and cancer. However, a fundamental bottleneck limits their potential: RNA instability. Most approved RNA drugs rely on phosphorothioate (PS) modifications for stability and delivery, but current chemical synthesis produces stereochemical mixtures reducing efficacy, increasing toxicity, and complicating regulatory approval. Moreover, chemical PS synthesis is restricted to s
SMART-SMAPs: a new paradigm of cell-free cytotoxic immunotherapy for resistant CLL
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SIENA · IT · €150,000
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most prevalent adult leukemia, with ~32,000 new cases annually in Europe and a disease burden that has more than doubled over the past three decades. Despite significant advances with BTK and BCL-2 inhibitors, CLL remains incurable. Acquired resistance driven by the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME) leads to inevitable relapse in most patients. This challenge is shared across B-cell neoplasias, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, diffuse large
Progressive lenses on the spot - reimagining the ophthalmic value chain
TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · IL · €150,000
In this PoC we propose to develop a Progressive Lens Generator – a device that will enable rapid, wasteless, and automated end-to-end fabrication of high-quality multifocal ophthalmic lenses, without relying on capital-intensive surfacing infrastructure or centralized manufacturing facilities. The device will be based on our ERC-funded technology, which allows the formation of high-quality optical elements. As part of the ERC, we have already demonstrated fabrication of single-vision lenses in u
Sustainable Marine Autonomous Real-Time Platform Technology
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT · FR · €150,000
Plankton drives the ocean’s biological carbon pump, regulating climate and sustaining marine ecosystems. Yet its dynamics remain largely unobserved because current technologies cannot deliver continuous, high-frequency (hour, day), vertically integrated measurements. This observational gap limits our ability to understand and predict ocean services such as climate regulation. The ERC HOPE project demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous offshore monitoring, deploying a prototype integrating 12
Closed-loop machine learning platform for the optimisation of battery materials
UNIVERSITE DU LUXEMBOURG · LU · €150,000
BATMAT will deliver a proof-of-concept, closed-loop machine-learning platform that makes high-fidelity, first-principles screening of battery materials practical for industrial decision cycles. Battery R&D is increasingly constrained by late discovery of instability, slow ion transport, or reactive interfaces, i.e. failure modes that often require expensive electronic-structure simulations under realistic conditions (defects, diffusion pathways, interphases). Building on algorithms and software
An LLM-Resilient Tool for Safe RTL Sharing
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT · DE · €150,000
Modern chips are no longer designed in isolation. Instead, they are assembled from numerous third-party intellectual property (IP) blocks that are exchanged and reused across complex global supply chains. While this modular ecosystem is convenient for development, it also exposes valuable design assets to reverse engineering and unauthorized reuse. These risks are rapidly increasing with the emergence of AI models for code understanding, such as large language models, which can infer the functio
From Discovery to Scale – Precision Membranes for Critical Ion Recovery
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · BE · €150,000
The rapid electrification of mobility and energy systems is driving an unprecedented demand for critical raw materials including lithium. Yet current lithium supply chains remain highly inefficient, resulting in significant loss of valuable metals and minerals to processing and waste streams, because of low efficiency of the existing separation technologies in handling complex, high-salinity streams. Membrane technology is emerging as a promising solution because of its versatility. However, con
Safer Therapeutics Through Early Toxicity Detection
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON · UK · €150,000
The development of safer and more effective medicines is constrained by the late detection of drug-induced toxicity, one of the principal causes of attrition during drug development and a major contributor to escalating costs. Existing screening strategies are primarily designed to identify target engagement, whereas toxic liabilities frequently become apparent only during advanced preclinical studies or clinical trials, resulting in costly failures and significant delays in bringing new therapi
Map for the Mediterranean: A Scalable Four-Dimensional Application to Manage Data on a Deep Environment
UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA · ES · €150,000
MAP FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN: A Scalable Four-Dimensional Application to Manage Data on a Deep Environment. The Mediterranean Sea is among the most complex regions globally, facing acute geopolitical and environmental tensions. The challenges it faces, and the opportunities it presents, extend beyond the surface into the deep waters, making traditional bidimensional mapping from above inadequate for analysis, teaching, and decision-making. Moreover, historical and scientific data on the Mediterrane
Stretchable Mechanosensors for Quantitative Musculoskeletal Monitoring and Rehabilitation
UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA · PT · €150,000
Musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide and represent a major burden for healthcare systems. Despite the increasing demand for rehabilitation, progress assessment in clinical practice remains largely qualitative and relies on subjective evaluation by therapists. Existing wearable technologies can measure electrical muscle activity or estimate joint motion indirectly, but they cannot directly capture the mechanical behavior of muscles and joints, which
Immuno-Modulatory Platform for Advanced CLL Therapy
STICHTING AMSTERDAM UMC · NL · €150,000
This project aims to advance a first-in-class/best-in-disease novel trispecific T cell engager, TRIDENT-19, with improved efficacy as compared to standard CD3-based bispecifics as it overcomes tumor-associated T cell dysfunction. Multispecific antibodies (MA) enable simultaneous engagement of immune effector cells and tumor cells. Crosstalk within the tumor microenvironment frequently impairs T cell function, leading to partial and short-lived responses to CD3-engaging multispecific antibodies i
Unlocking Immunotherapy Potential with CapCure: A Novel Chemical Antagonist of PSME4
WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE · IL · €150,000
Immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment, yet many patients fail to benefit because their tumors develop intrinsic mechanisms to block immune attack. Recent discoveries from our ERC-funded work revealed that the proteasome, a central protein degradation system, can be hijacked by tumors to suppress immune recognition and promote an immunosuppressive environment. This Proof of Concept project aims to translate these findings into a novel therapeutic approach. We will develop and validate s
Ultrafast Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors
DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · DK · €150,000
"In photonic quantum technologies, quantum information is encoded in single photons that can be entangled and used for quantum computing or transmitted through optical fibers for secure quantum communication. Unlocking their full potential requires high-speed operation. While single photons can now be generated at gigahertz rates, state-of-the-art single-photon detectors remain limited to the megahertz regime due to long recovery times inherent to conventional superconducting nanowires. This fun
From Nano to Micro – Enabling Quantitative Particle Analysis Across Scales
UNIVERSITAET GRAZ · AT · €150,000
Single particle ICP-MS (SP ICP-MS) has become a powerful method for the analysis of particulate matter. While it excels for the characterisation of nanoparticulate matter, its application in the micrometre range remains limited. This is anchored in a non-constant particle transport efficiency, which rapidly declines as sizes of particles increase. This analytical blind spot limits the integration of SP ICP-MS into regulatory frameworks as well as for single cell application in life sciences and
The Multi-Heart Plate: a human engineered mini-heart platform for functional cardiac disease modelling and drug testing
UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE · NL · €150,000
Cardiovascular diseases remain a leading cause of mortality worldwide, yet drug development is hampered by the lack of predictive human models that capture cardiac function. In particular, diastolic dysfunction and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction represent major unmet medical needs, partly because current preclinical models inadequately reproduce human cardiac physiology. This HEARTPUMP project aims to explore the innovation potential of the Multi-Heart Plate (MHP), a novel human
Universal Communication Data-Path Monitoring and Visualization for Sustainable AI and HPC
KOC UNIVERSITY · TR · €150,000
Many of today’s AI and HPC workloads rely on large GPU clusters, and their scalability depends strongly on GPU-to-GPU communication performance. Yet existing tracing tools provide only fragmented visibility into multi-GPU communication. They either capture only one layer of the software stack, expose aggregate network metrics, or remain tied to a single vendor. This makes it difficult to identify communication issues, verify system configurations, and improve performance at scale. This Proof of
Breaking sample size limitations for laser ablation through novel large cell technology
ALFRED-WEGENER-INSTITUT HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR POLAR- UND MEERESFORSCHUNG · DE · €150,000
Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), a key technology for micro-destructive sample analysis in industry and academia, is fundamentally limited by small sample chambers (typically 10 cm). This restriction forces the destructive cutting of valuable samples and significantly impedes high-throughput analysis. For decades, commercial manufacturers regarded this sample size limitation as a fundamental technological barrier: large sample volumes challenge fast aeroso
Compact ultra-high-Q optomechanical sensors
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · NL · €150,000
Recent advances in high-stress silicon nitride membranes have enabled some of the most sensitive room-temperature force and displacement measurements ever demonstrated. These ultrathin membranes combine exceptional mechanical performance with very low optical absorption, making them one of the strongest platforms for cavity optomechanics and precision sensing. However, despite their extraordinary capabilities, such systems have remained largely confined to specialist laboratories because they ty
Identifying physeal cell surface markers for paediatric growth modulation
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, DUBLIN · IE · €150,000
Disorders of skeletal growth in children represent a significant clinical challenge affecting stature, limb alignment and function. Longitudinal bone growth is driven by the physis (growth plate), a specialised cartilaginous tissue that integrates endocrine, metabolic and biomechanical signals to regulate bone elongation. Despite its central role in skeletal development, there is currently no strategy to selectively target the physis for therapeutic intervention. Existing treatments rely on syst
NeoVena: A Bioresorbable Polymeric Venous Valve
UNIVERSITAT ZURICH · CH · €150,000
Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI) is a highly prevalent and debilitating vascular disorder affecting more than 200 million people worldwide. CVI develops when venous valves in the legs fail, leading to reflux, venous hypertension, blood pooling, pain, edema, skin changes, and, in severe cases, non-healing ulcers. Current treatments such as compression stockings, venoplasty, or bypass surgery alleviate symptoms but do not restore valve function, and despite decades of research there is still no
Vision with Ionic Spatiotemporal Perovskite Arrays
STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN · NL · €150,000
The rapid growth of light detectors is generating vast amounts of data, challenging conventional computing with high energy consumption and latency. This project introduces a hardware platform for in-sensor spatiotemporal processing using arrays of perovskite optomorphic devices, which exploit light-sensitive ionic migration to encode temporal information directly in hardware. Each device acts as a slow, light-modulated capacitor, retaining traces of optical signals that allow reconstruction of
SUPERconducting circuits for QUantum SENSing of microwave radiations.
COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES · FR · €150,000
Detecting microwave signals with ultimate sensitivity is critical to dark matter research, atomic-scale magnetic resonance, and quantum computing. The most sensitive microwave detectors available today — superconducting Josephson amplifiers — are fundamentally limited by the standard quantum limit (SQL). Within my ERC Starting Grant INGENIOUS, I developed the Single Microwave Photon Detector (SMPD), a superconducting quantum device that counts individual microwave photons and surpasses the SQL b
Targeting Glutamine (Q) Metabolism in the Renal Ciliopathies
OSPEDALE SAN RAFFAELE SRL · IT · €150,000
Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is one of the most common monogenic disorders and a major genetic cause of kidney failure. The disease is characterised by progressive formation of fluid-filled cysts originating from renal tubular epithelial cells, ultimately leading to loss of kidney function and the need for dialysis or transplantation. Both autosomal dominant and recessive forms belong to the renal ciliopathies, a group of genetic disorders caused by dysfunction of the primary cilium, a cellul
Hydrogel-nanoparticle delivery platform for LOCALized CAR-M immunotherapy
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN · NL · €150,000
LOCAL-CAR is a Proof-of-Concept project aimed at validating a modular hydrogel-based platform for localized mRNA immunotherapy, targeting peritoneal tumor burden in ovarian and colorectal cancer models. Building on ERC-funded technologies – ABGel and aNP-mRNA – the project integrates these into a single ABGel-mRNA system for sustained intraperitoneal immunotherapy. The platform will generate HER2-CAR-expressing macrophages (CAR-M) directly within the peritoneal cavity, enabling local anti-HER2-t
Sat4Com - Small Satellite Formation Technologies for Commercialisation
ZENTRUM FUR TELEMATIK EV · DE · €150,000
The ERC Synergy Grant CloudCT addressed worldwide first time a self-organizing formation of ten cooperating small satellites (PI Schilling) to generate appropriate data for computed tomography methods (PI Schechner) to characterize composition of cloud interior, providing crucial inputs for improved climate predictions (PI Koren). The satellites are in final implementation stage for launch in 2027. Thus, it is appropriate timing to address in this PoC-proposal bridging to exploit broader commerc
From rat to human: Patient-specific rehabilitation for Achilles tendon regeneration
LUNDS UNIVERSITET · SE · €150,000
Fifteen million tendon and ligament injuries occur annually worldwide, with the Achilles tendon among the most frequently injured. Tendons are mechanosensitive tissues, and controlled mechanical loading can promote healing, whereas inappropriate loading may cause re-rupture or impaired regeneration. However, optimal loading magnitude and timing remain unclear, leading to impaired healing, prolonged sick-leave and reduced physical activity after injury. This project presents a tool to improve and
Pulsed Electron Microscopy for Active Metrology of Semiconductor Devices
TECHNION - ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · IL · €150,000
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a cornerstone of semiconductor metrology and inspection, yet it faces a fundamental limitation: it can only image static device structures. Modern semiconductor devices operate at multi-GHz frequencies, and their electrical functionality is typically characterized separately and late in the fabrication chain. This separation complicates the localization of dynamic failure modes and slows the feedback loop between device design and manufacturing. While attemp
Quantum-Coherent Optoelectronic Platform for Ultra-Early Detection of Oncometabolites
FUNDACIO INSTITUT CATALA D'INVESTIGACIO QUIMICA · ES · €150,000
Early cancer detection remains a critical unmet medical need, as most diagnostic technologies only identify tumours after macroscopic lesions have formed. Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1/2) produce the oncometabolite D-2-hydroxyglutarate (D-2HG), an early biochemical marker detectable in blood and urine. Current detection methods rely on chromatographic or enzymatic assays that require complex equipment, extensive sample preparation, and often struggle with sensitivity at very low co
DaCe GPT
EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH · CH · €150,000
Modern high-performance processors increasingly rely on parallelism and specialized memory hierarchies, but legacy codebases struggle to harness these advances. Optimizing such applications is essential for energy efficiency and performance but requires expertise in performance engineering. Domain scientists, faced with the growing demand for computational throughput, are forced to be low-level programming experts. Worse, performance tuning often leads to non-local changes across large codebases
Bioactive Peptide-based Hydrogels for Alveolar Bone Regeneration
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY · IL · €150,000
Tooth loss and the resulting alveolar bone resorption are highly prevalent conditions, particularly in aging populations and in patients suffering from inflammatory periodontal diseases. Dental implants are the preferred solution for replacing missing teeth; however, successful implantation requires sufficient alveolar bone volume. Bone resorption frequently leads to unfavorable conditions of the alveolar ridge, making socket preservation and bone augmentation procedures necessary to regenerate
Base editing against cancer – a gene correction strategy for rhabdoid tumours
PRINSES MAXIMA CENTRUM VOOR KINDERONCOLOGIE BV · NL · €150,000
Malignant rhabdoid tumours (MRTs) are among the most aggressive paediatric cancers, with overall survival rates below 30%. The genetic hallmark of MRTs is the biallelic inactivation of SMARCB1 (or, rarely, SMARCA4). This single-driver, loss-of-function alteration disrupts epigenetic regulation, leading to uncontrolled proliferation and impaired differentiation. Unlike many cancers with complex mutational landscapes, MRTs are largely epigenetically driven, which raises the possibility that restor
Inflaming the microenvironment of colorectal cancer to enable immunotherapy
CHEMOTHERAPEUTISCHES FORSCHUNGSINSTITUT GEORG-SPEYER-HAUS STIFTUNG · DE · €150,000
Microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer (MSS CRC) accounts for 85–90% of CRCs and remains largely resistant to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), one of the most transformative advances in oncology. Consequently, the majority of patients with advanced CRC cannot benefit from immunotherapy, representing a major unmet clinical need. INFLAME-TME proposes a novel strategy to overcome this limitation by converting immunologically “cold” MSS tumors into ICB-responsive lesions through targeted induction
Multispecific theranostic nano-engager platform
INSTITUT GUSTAVE ROUSSY · FR · €150,000
"This ERC Proof of Concept proposal develops ""Nano-BITE,"" a multifunctional nanoparticle platform addressing limitations of current cancer immunotherapy. Existing bispecific antibodies like blinatumomab suffer from rapid kidney clearance due to small molecular size, requiring continuous intravenous infusion for weeks and showing poor efficacy in solid tumors. The Nano-BITE platform uses PLGA nanoparticles as scaffolds incorporating four integrated features: modular E3/K3 peptide chemistry enab
Critical Material Extraction from Low Concentration Sources
FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JULICH GMBH · DE · €150,000
Modern secondary urban mining streams contain valuable critical metals at concentrations comparable to natural ores, yet these materials are rarely recovered. Photovoltaic (PV) waste illustrates this challenge: although each module contains several grams of silver, the metal is dispersed across large material masses and is typically not recovered by existing recycling processes. Current metallurgical approaches require large, centralized facilities and are poorly suited for heterogeneous, low-co
Glyco-guided effectors for selective labeling of galectins
MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · DE · €150,000
Galectins are a family of glycan binding proteins that play central roles in immunity, inflammation and cancer. They are widely recognized targets in basic research as well as in diagnostic and therapeutic development, making tools that selectively label galectins highly valuable. However, current commercial options either rely on recombinant galectins which are labelled ex situ and subsequently added into target cell lines or on antibody based assays that are excellent for in vitro quantificati
AeRoacoustics of Turbulent gust Insensitive Shape Tailored Airfoils: for the next generation of rotors
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT · NL · €150,000
Conventional rotors are intrinsically sensitive to turbulent inflow. This sensitivity translates directly into thrust oscillations, unsteady loading noise, loss of controllability and efficiency, and conservative certification margins. For the next-generation propulsion concepts, including open rotors, advanced turboprops and “low-altitude economy” vehicles, this sensitivity represents a recognised deployment and certification blocker. The ARTISTA project addresses this blocker, building on a f
MetaBoost: Metabolic Reprogramming for Neuronal Differentiation
UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA · PT · €150,000
"The transition from glycolytic to oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) metabolism is crucial for proper neuronal differentiation and maturation, a key process in generating functional neurons essential for advancing neuroscience research and therapeutic applications. However, commercially available media to generate neurons often overlook this key metabolic transition. MetaBoost aims to fill this gap by developing an innovative, easy-to-use, universally compatible media supplement that induces me
From Polymorphs of Racemic Compounds to Enantiopure Crystals
STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN · NL · €150,000
The molecular building blocks of life—such as sugars and amino acids—are of only one handedness. This broken molecular symmetry has important consequences for bioactive compounds: a molecule of one handedness can be an effective medicine while its mirror image is extremely toxic. Unfortunately, common chemical processes automatically yield both left- and right-handed molecules (i.e. enantiomers), and routes towards single handedness are often complicated, cumbersome, and costly. Therefore, there
Transformative Thin-Film Technologies: Harnessing Perovskite for Reliable and Sustainable Solar Energy – RISE
UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA · ES · €150,000
Halide perovskites have shown significant progress in the fabrication of solar cells and have leverage on light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, memristors, and energy devices. In halide perovskites, the defects stem from the imperfection of grains and lead to electrical losses, which can be suppressed by developing a microcrystal technology. To unlock the full potential of perovskites as a semiconductor pigment, we propose to scale up the microcrystal methodology, which we have developed in the
LOKI: Loiasis-associated chronic kidney disease – towards clinical recognition and policy action
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT · FR · €150,000
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is an urgent but underrecognized health challenge in Central Africa, where diagnostic capacity is limited and renal replacement therapy is rare. While established drivers such as HIV, hypertension, and diabetes are acknowledged, the contribution of neglected tropical diseases remains unexplored. Loiasis, caused by the filarial parasite Loa loa and endemic in forested rural zones where >30% of adults are infected, has long been considered benign. Yet decades of case r
Responsive VR for urban sustainability: Promoting inclusion through affect-aware and behaviour-sensitive immersion
TAMPEREEN KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR · FI · €150,000
VR-Sense is a proof-of-concept project that explores how virtual reality (VR) can be harnessed to promote sociopolitical aims. Urban planning is currentVR-Sense is a proof-of-concept project that explores how virtual reality (VR) can be harnessed to promote inclusive urban development and foster peaceful coexistence. Building on the ERC Starting Grant project EmergentCommunity, which combined experimental emotion research with qualitative studies on urban life, VR-Sense investigates how immersiv
Bright and Compact Tuneable Far-Ultraviolet Light Sources for Industrial Applications
HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY · UK · €150,000
This ERC Proof of Concept project aims to validate a novel Far-Ultraviolet (FUV) light source technology for industrial material processing, addressing a critical bottleneck in precision manufacturing. Current FUV lasers are limited by poor beam quality, low efficiency, or high cost. Our solution, based on Resonant Dispersive-Wave (RDW) emission in gas-filled hollow-core fibres (HCFs), overcomes these limitations by offering high brightness (M2≈1), high optical efficiency (up to 15%), continuous
Seeing from a subjective viewpoint: Wireless magnetic tracking of eye position during natural vision and sleep
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PARMA · IT · €150,000
Monitoring subjects' eye movement is crucial for neuroscientific research on perceptual, cognitive, and motor processes in health and disease, as well as sleep studies. In these fields, animal models - particularly non-human primates (NHPs) - remain essential. Traditional eye-tracking systems require a still head, conflicting with demand for ecologically relevant approaches to study spontaneous behavior driven by the spreading of wireless neural recording technologies. Yet a commercial device fo
Uro-Lieve: Slow-Release Capsaicin Hydrogel for Disease-Modifying Therapy of Painful Bladder Syndrome
UNIVERSITY OF GALWAY · IE · €150,000
Painful Bladder Syndrome/Interstitial Cystitis (IC/BPS) is a chronic, debilitating pelvic pain condition that affects millions of predominantly female patients and lacks an effective, long-lasting therapy. Existing treatments—including oral drugs, intravesical instillations, and neuromodulation—are largely palliative, short-lived, or poorly tolerated. A promising therapeutic approach based on selective desensitisation of bladder pain fibres has shown prolonged analgesic potential in clinical stu
Zero-power acoustic emission monitoring for wind turbine blades
STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN · NL · €150,000
Damage in composite wind turbine blades generates high-frequency acoustic emission (AE) signals as it forms—the earliest warning of incipient failure, often manifesting months before other signatures appear. Yet AE monitoring has seen limited adoption: current systems are expensive, power-hungry, fragile, and require dense sensor networks. I propose a zero-power, battery-free MEMS sensor that passively recognizes and remembers AE events using a mechanical neural network. Fabricated at ultra-low
DIfferential Operator for Non-ionizing Imaging of breast tumors with Speed-Of-Sound
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · FR · €150,000
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer and leading cause of cancer-related death in women in the EU. Although mammography is the gold standard for screening, it suffers from key limitations: it is ionizing, painful, and shows reduced sensitivity for dense breasts—a group already at higher risk. As a result, there is a critical need for a non-invasive, non-ionizing, and more effective imaging method to improve screening coverage and diagnostic accuracy. Ultrasound is a promising alternativ
An AI Agent to Support Environmental Intelligence by Interacting with Copernicus Earth Observation Data
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN · DE · €150,000
With the unprecedented advances in the satellite technology, recent years have led to a significant increase in the volume of Earth observation (EO) data archives. In particular, through the Copernicus programme, which is the European flagship satellite initiative in EO, Sentinel satellites acquire a volume of roughly 20TB satellite images per day and the total size of the Copernicus data archives is almost a volume of 40PB. Thus, there has been a growing need for accurate and scalable technique
A cardiac magnetic resonance solution to deliver a fast, fully automated, and comprehensive diagnostic assessment and interpretation of the patient’s cardiovascular health
UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX · FR · €150,000
HEARTERIX aims to evaluate the technical, clinical, and commercial feasibility of an innovative ERC-based technology that combines advanced image processing, artificial intelligence, and cutting-edge magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) solutions to automate and expedite the analysis and diagnosis of cardiac diseases. This technology has the potential to transform the clinical management of cardiac diseases by enhancing decision-support accuracy and improving efficiency through automatization. The g
Spatial Awareness Avionics Network for Drone Swarms Aerosense
UNIVERSIDAD DE GRANADA · ES · €150,000
The drone swarm revolution promises to transform industries from defense to disaster relief, yet a fundamental bottleneck prevents its realization. Current systems lack true distributed spatial awareness—the ability for each drone to understand not only its neighbor’s positions but the swarm’s overall distribution. Today’s swarms rely on either centralized coordination or generic protocols that saturate with few units, forcing a tradeoff: accept external dependencies like GPS, or endure non-scal
AI-Powered Clinical Decision Support System to Integrate Perinatal Mental Health into Routine Maternal Healthcare
UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA · ES · €150,000
Perinatal mental disorders, affecting one in five individuals from pregnancy to one year postpartum, are the most common complications of childbearing. Despite their significant impact on parents, children, and healthcare systems, preventive care remains limited due to an implementation gap. The ERC Starting Grant e-Perinatal developed and tested the ‘e-Perinatal App’, a mobile health intervention for women and partners, showing high acceptability and potential to prevent PMDs in routine care. B
AI-guided personalized T cell receptor transgenic T cell therapy against cancer
DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM HEIDELBERG · DE · €150,000
"Personalised T cell therapy has shown remarkable success in cancer therapy, however the antigens that T cells recognize to kill tumor cells are dependent on the individual tumor, T cell receptor (TCR) profile and antigen presentation machinery. AI-TreatCancer will leverage predicTCR, a proprietary AI-guided classifier that identifies tumor-killing TCRs from patient samples, decreasing the time to identify therapeutic TCRs from 3-4 months to under 2 weeks. In the ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2023-AD
Neuro-Symbolic Agentic AI Research Assistant
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER · DE · €150,000
This PoC transforms our Neuro-Symbolic Science Knowledge Graph research into a deployable Research AIssistant that fuses large language models with the Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG). The assistant delivers knowledge-augmented generation grounded in structured, citable research contributions, with mandatory citations, constraint checks for study and method semantics, and uncertainty signalling. Building on results from the ERC-funded ScienceGraph project—now embodied in the ORKG and ORKG-A
Mitochondrial complex I activity promotes antigen cross-presentation in dendritic cells
Sofía C. Khouili · Instituto de Salud Carlos III · ES
Mitochondrial metabolism modulates immune cell signaling, yet how individual electron transport chain complexes fine-tune dendritic cell (DC) function remains unclear. Here, we identify mitochondrial complex I (CI) as a critical metabolic checkpoint controlling antigen cross-presentation by DCs in mice. Deficiency of the CI subunit NDUFS4 in DCs led to the formation of a nonfunctional CI subcomplex, resulting in mildly impaired mitochondrial respiration without triggering a compensatory glycolyt
Polymeric ice nucleators as additives for novel freezing media to improve cryopreservation
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN · NL · €150,000
Although cryopreservation would allow for the long-term storage of sensitive materials and biological samples, it is not common practice because success rates vary greatly between different samples. Improving the success of cryopreservation techniques will make long-term storage more accessible across industries, clinics, and research institutes, enabling more effective use of patient-derived materials and “back-ups” of crucial cell lines. My ERC-consolidator grant project PROTECT focuses on the
Validating a versatile platform of novel standardized and biobankable preclinical mouse tumor models
DEUTSCHES KREBSFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM HEIDELBERG · DE · €150,000
Preclinical mouse tumor models are an indispensable experimental tool in cancer research. In turn, they also have limitations since most mouse tumor models do not adequately mimic the course of tumor development as it occurs in humans or the response to therapy. Moreover, there is no standardization of tumor models making it oftentimes difficult to compare the results of different studies. Lastly, animal welfare aspects casts increasing societal doubts about animal experimentation. We have withi
RNA splicing therapeutics for beta cell dysfunction and diabetes
UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA · ES · €150,000
Diabetes is a progressive metabolic disorder driven by beta cell dysfunction and failure, ultimately leading to chronic hyperglycemia and severe clinical complications. Current anti-diabetic treatments, including insulin secretagogues and incretin mimetics, primarily aim to control blood glucose levels without addressing the underlying molecular defects that drive beta cell decline, which in some cases even accelerate their exhaustion. Alternative splicing has recently emerged as a fundamental r
Scalable Brillouin spectrum engineering in thin film lithium niobate
UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE · NL · €150,000
The ERC Proof-of-Concept project, SABER, introduces a paradigm shift in integrated Brillouin photonics by transforming stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) from a fixed material property into a software-defined functionality. Co-integrating with high-speed, energy-efficient electro-optic modulators in the thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform, this project will significantly elevate the technology readiness level (TRL) of integrated Brillouin photonics from lab demonstration to system-level
Acoustic Ultrahigh-Q Resonators for Oscillators, Radar, and Applications
KOC UNIVERSITY · TR · €150,000
Modern communication, sensing, and navigation systems rely on high-performance resonators that define the stability and spectral purity of electronic signals. However, today’s compact acoustic resonators, widely used in wireless infrastructure and consumer electronics, suffer from fundamental limitations in energy loss, frequency stability, and environmental robustness. These constraints prevent their use in emerging technologies that require exceptionally stable and low-noise frequency referenc
VIBRA-Kids: Wearable VIBRation and Audio interface to boost motor and cognitive impairment in children with cerebral palsy
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO · IT · €150,000
Movements are essential for early development, allowing infants to link proprioceptive feedback with tactile, auditory, and visual inputs. This early multisensory association builds body awareness, spatial cognition, and social interaction. In cerebral palsy (CP), the most common congenital motor disability, affecting 2 to 3 children per 1,000 live births worldwide, this process is disrupted from birth. Without sufficient motor experience, children with CP lack the foundations for multisensory b
Reactor for Upscaling ZEolite Assembly Leveraged On Unique Stirrers
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN · BE · €150,000
Zeolites are microporous materials consisting of connected silica and alumina tetrahedra. They are key for the production of millions of tons of products as they are considered performance materials in catalysis and separation, guiding the transition to a circular carbon economy. Today, from myriads of possible compositions and combinations of tetrahedra, 270 different zeolite frameworks are documented, yet only about 15 of them are actually applied (or tried in applications) on an industrial (o
SoundHorse: Rhythmicity-based acoustic biomarkers for equine welfare
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA · IT · €150,000
Horses play essential roles in agriculture, sport, therapy, and recreation. The global equine industry is worth over $300 billion annually; just in the US, $1 billion are spent each year on managing lameness—a gait abnormality caused by locomotor disorders. Lameness is a leading cause of injury, premature death, and reduced performance in horses, raising serious animal welfare, economic, and societal concerns. Lameness has also extremely high prevalence, potentially affecting between 30% and 70%
A Wireless Peripheral-Cortical Interface for Real-Time Decoding of Motor Intent to Restore Assistive Control in Tetraplegia (AxonCtrl)
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE · UK · €150,000
Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in paralysis and the permanent loss of hand and arm function, severely limiting independence and quality of life. Existing assistive technologies, such as surface electromyography, nerve implants, or brain–computer interfaces, are either too inaccurate, too invasive, or too unstable for long-term clinical use. To address this, we have developed intramuscular microelectrode arrays (MEAs) that can be implanted percutaneously to record the discharges of spinal
Frankfurt Research Data Service
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN · DE · €150,000
In the digital economy, there is a significant imbalance in access to data. A few major US-based Tech companies, such as Google, Meta, and Amazon, collect large volumes of granular data about consumers, but do not provide much information about this data. Consequently, the European Union reacted. Particularly, the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) forces major Tech companies to provide European consumers access to their data, such as enabling them to export their information. This data covers,
Origami-Enabled Gripping for Industrial Automation
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO · IT · €150,000
FLEXGRIP builds on breakthroughs from the ERC-CoG-funded SFOAM project to introduce a new class of scalable robotic grippers inspired by origami design. Instead of relying on bulky sensors, complex control, or energy-intensive actuators, FLEXGRIP exploits folding kinematics and geometric nonlinearity to adapt seamlessly to objects of different shapes, sizes, and materials. The result is a lightweight, hybrid rigid-soft design that combines the strength and payload of rigid grippers with the deli
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