Grants

The grant aims to support EU entities in developing game-changing innovations with the potential to revolutionize access to space, improving the competitiveness of the European space industry. This includes supporting novel launch solutions, such as advanced propulsion systems, subsystems, and materials, targeting disruptive breakthroughs that transform the industry and unlock new growth opportunities. The focus is on delivering solutions with significant impact on EU access to space competitiveness and strategic autonomy, with target operational capacity by 2035.

The grant supports the establishment of a European Nuclear Skills Academy to unify and standardise curricula across all qualification levels in the nuclear sector, from vocational to academic. The project aims to address the skills shortage in the European nuclear ecosystem, launch targeted training for critical fields such as Small Modular Reactors and advanced reactors, and develop a framework for mutual recognition of skills between Member States. The Academy will bridge education, research, and industry, serve as an EU-wide initiative to promote mobility and talent retention, and inform future skills development strategies in the nuclear field.

This pilot project aims to help the European Union better understand and address the drivers of political polarisation, while safeguarding freedom of expression and supporting evidence-based public debate. Expected outcomes include a neutral, scientifically validated methodology for monitoring and analysing political discourse online, advanced AI-powered multilingual sentiment and network analysis tools, evidence-based mitigation strategies and policy recommendations, and cross-sector collaboration networks with technology experts, fact-checkers, researchers, media organisations, and civil society. The initiative features a pan-EU knowledge exchange conference and supports alignment with EU strategies such as the Democracy Shield.

The overall objective is to improve civil protection preparedness and response to all kinds of disasters inside the Member States/Participating States of the Mechanism by providing a testing environment and a learning opportunity for all actors involved in civil protection assistance interventions: a full-scale exercise. Exercise scenarios should build on risk assessments, such as extreme weather, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, industrial risk, critical infrastructure disruption, marine pollution, epidemic or health risk, CBRN, and multi-sectorial emergencies. Cross-cutting issues (gender, age, persons with disabilities, human rights, environmental sustainability, green economic practices, digitalisation, resilience in infrastructure, and protection of cultural heritage) are encouraged. Projects must design, plan, conduct, and self-evaluate one full-scale exercise with elements including scenario-based exercises, project management, activation of the Mechanism, deployment of teams, use of the CECIS system, coordination with national and EU agencies, evaluation, and dissemination of lessons learned. The Mechanism aims to strengthen cooperation between countries to improve the effectiveness of disaster prevention, preparedness, and response.

The ERC Proof of Concept Grants aim to facilitate the exploration of the commercial and social innovation potential of ERC-funded research. These grants are available only to Principal Investigators whose proposals build substantially on their ERC-funded research. The grant provides a lump sum to cover both direct and indirect eligible costs over a period of eighteen months.

This prize aims to reward Energy Communities with innovative governance structures and management of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET), to inspire and accelerate progress in other energy communities, promote effective business models, and contribute to the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. The prize showcases replicable best practices that address challenges and bottlenecks related to management, governance, and the integration of services, encouraging inclusive and innovative approaches to climate goals at the city and community level.

This grant aims to design and validate innovative business models for the integration of renewable hydrogen, produced via electrolysis, into industry. The focus is on overcoming economic, contractual, and financial bottlenecks that currently hinder large-scale adoption. The objective is to accelerate the financial maturity, investment-readiness, and replication of successful models for industrial hydrogen integration, supporting the decarbonisation of energy-intensive sectors, enhancing competitiveness, and attracting private investment throughout Europe.

The grant aims to support the development of novel technologies for high-efficiency hydrogen production from renewable gases and biogenic waste, ensuring sustainability, cost reduction, scalability, and integration of advanced reactor designs. The project fosters the adoption of innovative thermochemical or biological pathways, process intensification, and integration with other industries, targeting enhanced hydrogen yield and energy efficiency, advanced impurity management, and circular approaches. The expected outcomes include improved hydrogen yield, reduced costs (CAPEX and OPEX), increased use of renewable and waste sources, process electrification, minimized direct CO2 emissions, and expanded use of by-products for economic and environmental benefits.

The grant aims to foster the development, design, and demonstration of robust multi-fuel Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) powertrains tailored for maritime transport. This topic addresses the urgent need to decarbonise global shipping, reducing greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions by supporting innovative SOFC systems capable of operating efficiently with hydrogen and other alternative fuels under challenging marine conditions. Projects must demonstrate improved system durability, efficiency, and integration in maritime vessels, with the ultimate goal of enabling large-scale, reliable, and safe multi-MW SOFC installations to accelerate the green energy transition in waterborne transport and strengthen Europe's industry in low- and zero-emission maritime technologies.