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ERC Proof of Concept 2026 : CNRS awardees in the first round

Corporate

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the results of the first round of the “ERC Proof of Concept Grant” call for 2026. Among the 182 selected projects and the 18 French recipients, the CNRS is the host institution for 6 of them.

The ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) is a supplementary funding program designed to support the early stages of research results in order to explore their potential for commercial and social innovation. It is addressed exclusively to scientists who are current or former recipients of an ERC Grant. This call is open to principal investigators leading an ERC Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, or Synergy project, provided that the project is currently underway or was completed less than one year ago. Funding for this first round of grants in 2026 totals 27.3 million euros, with each recipient receiving a grant of 150,000 euros for a period of up to 18 months.

The call for proposals attracted 554 applications, a 15% increase compared to the first round last year. For this first call of the year, the CNRS submitted 21 applications, one of the highest numbers of submissions for this period since the launch of Horizon Europe. 
Among the six selected projects, two different research disciplines are represented among the recipients: 4 in physics and 2 in engineering.

Recipients from the first 2026 round for which the CNRS is the host institution:

  • Hugo Defienne, Associate Research Professor at the Paris Institute of Nanosciences (CNRS/Sorbonne University) for the CORAMI project "Quantum-inspired Correlation-Based Adaptive Optics for Microscopy" 
  • Ivan Favero, Research Professor at the Laboratory of Materials and Quantum Phenomena (CNRS/Université Paris Cité) for the ERCLAPHO project "ERror-free CLAdded PHOtonic circuits"
  • Julie Grollier, Research Professor at the Albert Fert Laboratory (CNRS/THALES) for the RF-ImagingNet project "RF-ImagingNet : Spintronic RF Neural Front-Ends for Embedded Microwave Sensing"
  • Sandro Heuke, Associate Research Professor at the Fresnel Institute (Aix-Marseille University/Centrale Méditerranée/CNRS) for the Ampli-sCISsoRS project "Ampli-sCiSsoRS : amplified backscattering coherent Stokes Raman scattering for real-time cancer diagnostics"
  • Mathieu Mivelle, Associate Research Professor at the Paris Institute of Nanosciences (CNRS/Sorbonne University) for the MAGMA project "Extreme Microwave Field Enhancement at the Nanoscale"
  • Baptiste Sirjean, Research Professor at the Reactions and Process Engineering Laboratory (CNRS/University of Lorraine) for the LAOS project "Light-Activated Oxygen Scavenging in Jet Fuels"