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Third wave of ERC Proof of Concept 2023: winners hosted by CNRS

International

3 of the 10 French winners of the third wave of the European Research Council's (ERC) "Proof of Concept 2023" call for proposals are from CNRS, with the support of CNRS Innovation.

This year, the European Research Council (ERC) has selected 102 candidate projects submitted for the Horizon Europe framework programme's 'Proof of Concept' call. This includes 10 in France and 3 for which CNRS is the host organisation, with the support from the CNRS's national technology transfer subsidiary, CNRS Innovation.

Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “It takes courage and skill to take an idea from the lab into the world of business. The Proof of Concept grants announced today are designed to enable researchers to take this brave step and transform groundbreaking research into tangible innovations. I commend these researchers for driving excellence across the European Union and wish them all success in their new ventures".

This call is for scientists who were awarded an ERC Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy grant less than a year earlier and now wish to exploit the results of their research, develop their innovation potential and foster closer links with the market. These grants are worth a maximum of €150,000 over up to 18 months and are intended to support the commercial and societal potential of previous ERC grant-winning projects.

France ranks fifth in Europe for 2023 as a whole with 20 projects selected - behind Germany (40), Spain (30), the UK (26) and Italy (25). 45% of these 22 French projects involve the CNRS. 10 of the 28 projects submitted by the organisation were selected which represents a success rate of 36%.

List of the 3 grant-winners Proof of Concept hosted by the CNRS :

  • Alexandre AUBRY – MUSE – Institut Langevin (CNRS / ESPCI Paris – PSL) (CNRS Ingénierie)
  • Benjamin BAILLEUL – PALMADS – Biologie du chloroplaste et perception de la lumière chez les microalgues (CNRS / Sorbonne Université) (CNRS Biologie)
  • Guillaume HAIAT – AssesSkin – Modélisation et simulation multi-échelle (CNRS / Université Gustave-Eiffel / Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne) (CNRS Ingénierie)