Researchers in Germany win more ERC awards, but Spain’s grantees pursue follow-on funding more effectively
Photo credits: RobWilson / BigStock
European Research Council (ERC) grantees based in Spain are among the keenest to commercialise their inventions with the help of ERC’s proof of concept (PoC) grants.
The €150,000 lump sum PoC grants are available to all recent and ongoing ERC grant holders who want to bring their project findings closer to the market. They must build on one of ERC’s main grants for fundamental research projects: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy grants.
Counting PoC grants won by researchers in each country since Horizon Europe kicked off in 2021, Spain comes second with 105 wards, a close second to Germany, which holds 114 PoC grants.
Germany’s lead is not surprising. It’s the largest country in Europe, and by far the biggest beneficiary of the ERC’s main funding programmes, a prerequisite for access to PoC grants.
But while the ratio of…
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