Projects funded by the European Research Council continue to yield new knowledge, with 81.4% of projects claimed to have led to major scientific advances or to scientific breakthroughs, according to the latest assessment.
Evaluating 225 randomly selected projects completed between mid-2017 and mid-2018, independent experts found 17.9% had produced scientific breakthroughs and another 63.5% major scientific advances. A mere 0.9% made no appreciable scientific contribution.
The result exceeds the successes of previous evaluations, dating back to 2015, in which 71.4% to 79.9% of the projects were found to have had significant scientific value.
The ERC supports high-risk projects aiming to push the frontiers of knowledge. With the launch of Horizon Europe, the EU’s fundamental research agency this year started a new €16 billion seven-year mandate, hoping to fund more projects than before.
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