The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the first results of its new funding initiative, the Proof of Concept. These 'top up' grants, worth up to €150,000 each, are designed to help ERC-funded blue sky research maximise value. In total, 30 top researchers, already holding ERC grants across Europe, will be given this additional support to bridge the gap between their research and the earliest stage of a marketable innovation. The funding can cover activities related to for instance intellectual property rights, technical validation, market research or investigation of commercial and business opportunities.
The projects, selected through peer review evaluation, treat topics ranging from health to telecommunication: research on needle-free injections of vaccines, safer mobile communications, responses to consumers' concerns on health and food safety, as well as devices controlling e.g. wheel chairs manoeuvred with the nose simply by sniffing. With a very limited part of the whole ERC budget, the initiative could unleash considerable innovation potential.
The European Research Council launched the new funding initiative, the “Proof of Concept”, in March 2011, to contribute to stimulating innovation. The total funding of the first ERC Proof of Concept call is €10 million and is foreseen to continue in 2012. The call is open to all Principal Investigators benefitting from an ongoing ERC grant or a grant that ended less than twelve months before the publication date of the call. The funding is for up to one year per grant.
The ERC, which is the newest, pioneering component of the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme, has a total budget of €7.5 billion from 2007 to 2013. It is led by the ERC Scientific Council, composed of 22 top scientists and scholars.
Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, said: "In this time of economic crisis, investing in excellence and innovation in Europe is vital. This targeted backing can help high potential ERC projects capture the maximum value from frontier research. We need to stimulate innovation and bring more ideas to market." ERC President Professor Helga Nowotny commented: "The "proof-of-concept" scheme has been set up to provide a bridge for ideas emerging from frontier research that might be attractive for markets. Innovation takes place in companies. We offer to ERC grantees the possibility to probe and proof the innovative potential of their ideas and we trust that many of them will find their way to be transformed into productive outcomes."
The success rate is around 40%. A total of 78 proposals were submitted in June to the first deadline of this call. The second deadline is on 8 November 2011.
Full list of all selected Principal Investigators by country of host institution
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
