ERC Proof of concept 2025 (Round 1): 150 winners; Luxembourg 1^st country in winners/inhabitants

The ERC announces the 150 winners of the first wave of ERC Proof of Concept (POC) 2025 on 14/07/2025.

Germany hosted the largest number of grants (27), followed by Spain with 20 and the UK with 17. France and the Netherlands both host 12 winners.

The winners included 29 German researchers, 20 Spaniards and 17 Italians, as well as researchers of 29 other nationalities.

The institution with the most prize-winners is the French National Centre for Scientific Research (six). It is followed by the Technical University of Munich (Germany) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), each with four prize-winners.

The competition attracted 480 proposals, over 31% of which were selected for funding, with 150 projects receiving a total of €22.5 M. The grants are worth €150k each. They will "help researchers to bridge the gap between the discoveries of their cutting-edge research and the practical application of their results, including the early stages of commercialisation".

In terms of the number of prize-winners per country's population, Luxembourg comes out on top, with 29 prize-winners…