ERC Proof of Concept Grants

What do they fund and who can apply?

ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) grants fund a maximum of EUR 150 000 for a period of 18 months. They are available only to those who already have an ERC award, with the aim of establishing proof of concept of an idea that was generated in the course of the applicant's ERC-funded project. The funding covers activities at the very early stage of turning research outputs into a commercial or socially valuable proposition, i.e. the initial steps of pre-competitive development:

• establishing viability, technical issues and overall direction
• clarifying IPR position and strategy
• providing feedback for budgeting and other forms of commercial discussion
• providing connections to later-stage funding
• covering initial expenses for establishing a company

In the 2022 ERC Work Programme, there are two ERC PoC calls. The first call (ERC-2022-PoC1) has now closed. The second call (ERC-2022-PoC2) opened on 16 November 2021 and will have three deadlines: 15 February 2022, 19 May 2022, 29 September 2022. The two calls have different eligibility conditions:

Principal Investigators in an ongoing ERC main grant are eligible to apply to both Proof of Concept calls.

Principal Investigators in a main ERC grant that has ended less than 12 months before 1 January 2021 are eligible to apply only to call ERC-2022-PoC1.

Principal Investigators in a main ERC grant that has ended less than 12 months before 1 January 2022 are eligible to apply to both calls ERC-2022-PoC1 and ERC-2022-PoC2.

For an overview of the ERC PoC scheme as well as tips on how to write your PoC proposal, check out this slide deck by the European Research Council UK National Contact Point. Be sure to also read the Information for Applicants to the Proof of Concept Grants, the official guide for this call.

How to apply

Host Support Letter

A Host Support Letter is required for ERC PoC applications. The Host Support Letter must be signed by an Authorised Representative; in most cases, this is the Head of Grants Office, Björn Kull. Fill in the Host Support Letter with your name, project acronym, and title. An Application Assurance Form (completed by the PI, Head of Department, and Head of Administration) is a prerequisite for obtaining the Host Support Letter. Send completed forms to Grants Office, and we will send you a scanned pdf of the signed Host Support Letter. You must submit this pdf together with your proposal.

Special conditions apply to PoC applications with KI as the Host Institution; please contact Grants Office and the KI legal department to discuss the conditions related to your application.

Creating your proposal in the Participant Portal

Go to the submission link and log in with your ECAS account login (ECAS = European Commission Authentication Service). Select the option 'External' and log in. If you do not already have an account, select 'External' and then 'Create an account', and follow the given instructions.

Once you have logged in and provided basic information, you will come to STEP 3 and start to create a draft proposal.

STEP 3 Enter the following information:

KI’s PIC (PIC = Participant Identification Code): 999978530
Registration data for the proposal, i.e. Acronym and Short Summary
Select an ERC Review Panel

The registration data can be updated/changed at a later stage.

STEP 4 Add Björn Kull as your Main Host Institution Contact and grantsoffice@ki.se as his contact address - DO NOT USE HIS OWN EMAIL ADDRESS! See the Participants and Contacts guidelines for further clarification

STEP 5 Edit the proposal. Click on 'edit forms' to enter the administrative part of the proposal, called Proposal Submission Forms. The administrative forms must be completed online. Some parts of the forms are prefilled based on your data entered at registration.

Download Part B templates (in left column). These forms can be filled in off-line and uploaded when complete.

If you have any questions regarding ERC PoC grants, please contact Tamsin Lindström.