ERC awards three Dutch researchers with a Proof of Concept grant

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 50 top researchers, among whom are three Dutch researchers, with a Proof of Concept Grant. This funding of up to € 150,000 each, is designed to help researchers who already hold an ERC grant, to test the market potential of their frontier research. A total of 182 proposals were submitted to the first round of this call, which closed April 1. Researchers based in 12 EU and associated countries in the European Research Area will receive a grant.

The projects cover issues like developing therapies for children with congenital heart defects, monitoring water quality in real-time and improving the nutritional qualities of potatoes or making the best informed choices when buying a new house. Click here for all 50 selected researchers by country of host institution.

Upcoming deadline of the second and last round of 2014 is October 1. The call for 2015 will open November 7, 2014. The deadlines for this call are February 5, May 28 and October 1. The budget will be up to € 20 million.
 
The ERC supports frontier research, cross disciplinary proposals and pioneering ideas in new and emerging fields which introduce unconventional and innovative approaches. The ERC's mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields of research, on the basis of scientific excellence.