Academics to get €10M in grants for commercialisation

The European Research Council (ERC) is moving higher up the R&D feeding chain with a new grant scheme to help researchers it has funded previously translate their research to market. The first call for these proof of concept grants opens tomorrow (29 March).

Scientists already holding ERC grants will be eligible for further funding of up to €150,000 to bridge the gap between their work and “the earliest stage of a marketable innovation.” The call is open to all principle investigators with a current grant, or one that ended less than 12 months ago. There is €10 million available under the first call, which will run into 2012.

The ERC hopes that targeting money in this way will enable the maximum value to be captured from the research it funds, by helping good ideas to get to market. Helga Nowotny, ERC President said the frontier research it backs, “always yields some unexpected results.” While these may be basic scientific findings, it also includes new technologies, “whose full potential still needs to be further explored,” Nowotny said.

The initiative has the backing of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner, who said ERC funded research sometimes yields spin-offs with immediate commercial potential. “Proof of concept funding will help get them safely across the valley of death into which good ideas often plunge due to lack of capital to bring them to market,” said Geoghegan-Quinn.

The proof of concept grants will run for one year and are intended to pay for activities such as technical validation, market research, clarifying intellectual property rights and strategy, or investigating commercial and business opportunities. The end result is expected to be a package of research that is attractive to venture capital investors or industrial partners.

Strengthening the innovation chain

This puts an entirely different complexion on winning an ERC grant. Apart from a pledge to fund excellent basic research, to date the ERC has put the focus on helping young grant holders to build their careers as scientists, and not on creating a cadre of scientist entrepreneurs. The ERC says it continues to “fine tune” its approach, with the aim of strengthening every link in the innovation chain, from “blue sky” to new product.

But while the ERC’s stated objectives include helping to nurture science-based industry and create a greater impetus for the establishment of research-based spin-offs, paying for proof of concept work does take it beyond the kind of activity that is usually funded by research councils. Where proof of concept funds do exist they are usually run at arms length by the technology commercialisation arms of research councils or their counterparts in universities, or else by regional development agencies and research charities.