We learnt on 28 February 2022 that the European Research Council turned 15 years old! Happy birthday!

The ERC was created by the EU in February 2007. It has come a long way since then, with over 10,000 bright minds supported across Europe. What has the ERC achieved so far?

On the occasion of this anniversary and under the auspices of the French Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) hold an event on Monday 28 February 2022, 15 years after the ERC’s inaugural event was held in Berlin.

The ERC also issued this short video, where you can find some of the ERC highlights of this 15 years:

• More than 10,000 researchers
• 74 distinguished researchers have been in the ERC scientific council
• Grantees from more than 85 countries
• More than 850 institutions involved
• More than 75,000 people in ERC research teams
• Over 200,000 scientific publications
• 9 ERC grantees have won a Nobel prize
• Over 2,200 patents and other IPR
• Over 400 start-ups founded by ERC grantees

ERC at ICMAB

ICMAB is within the top Catalan and Spanish institutions in the number of ERC. In 2022, 11 ICMAB researchers had been granted with fifteen (15) projects of the European Research Council (ERC):

• 1 Advanced Grant on superconducting materials preparation (ULTRASUPERTAPE), which led to 1 Proof of Concept to scale up the process (IMPACT).
• 6 Consolidators Grant on organic materials for solar cells and thermoelectrics (FOREMAT), on carbon-based materials for cancer therapy (NEST), on graphene-based electronic materials (Tmol4TRANS), on modeling of flexoelectricity (MULTIFLEXO), and on ferrites for 5G (FeMiT) and molecular materials for energy storage (PHOTHERM). The FOREMAT project led to 1 Proof of Concept to develop thermoelectric sensors (ORGEVINE). 
• 4 Starting Grants, on molecular electronic devices (e-GAMES), photonic nanostructures for light management (ENLIGHTMENT), calcium and magnesium-based batteries (CAMBAT) and spintronics (MAGNEPIC). The e-GAMES project led to 1 Proof of Concept to develop the processing of the materials (LAB-TECH), and the ENLIGHTMENT led to 1 Proof of Concept to create cellulose-based photonics (CELLO). 
• 4 Proof of Concept, in the topics mentioned above: IMPACT, ORGEVINE, LAB-TECH and CELLO. 

Advanced Grants:

• ULTRASUPERTAPE: Ultrafast growth of ultrahigh performance superconducting tapes, 2015-2022, by Teresa Puig (SUMAN group)

Consolidator Grants:

• FOREMAT: Finding a needle in a haystack: efficient identification of high performing organic energy materials, 2015-2022, by Mariano Campoy-Quiles (NANOPTO group)
• NEST: Nanoengineering of Radioactive Seeds for Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis, 2017-2022, by Gerard Tobias (SSC group)
• Tmol4TRANS: Efficient electronic transport at room temperature by T-shaped molecules in graphene based chemically modified three-terminal nanodevices, 2017-2023, by Núria Aliaga (FunNanoSurf group)
• MULTIFLEXO: Hierarchical multiscale modeling of flexoelectricity and related materials properties from first principles, 2017-2023, by Massimiliano Stengel (LEEM group)
• FeMiT: Ferrites-by-design for Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Technologies, 2019-2024, by Martí Gich (NN group)
• PHOTHERM: Photo Thermal Management Materials, 2022-2026, by Kasper Moth-Poulsen (SusMoSys group)

Starting Grants:

• e-GAMES: Surface self-assembled molecular electronic devices: logic gates, memories and sensors, 2012-2018, by Marta Mas-Torrent (eMolMat group)
• ENLIGHTMENT: Photonic electrodes for enhanced light management in Optoelectronic devices, 2015-2021 by Agustín Mihi (NANOPTO group)
• CAMBAT: Calcium and Magnesium metal anode based batteries, 2017-2022, by Alexandre Ponrouch (SSC group)
• MAGNEPIC: Magnetic Insulators: An Enabling Platform for Innovative Spintronic Concepts, 2021-2026, by Can Onur Avci (MULFOX group)

Proof of Concept:

• LAB-TECH: Large Area Organic Devices with Bar-Assisted Meniscus Shearing Technology, 2014-2016, by Marta Mas-Torrent (eMolMat group)
• IMPACT: Industrially manufacturing process for a high temperature superconducting coated conductor technology, 2019-2020, by Teresa Puig (SUMAN group) 
• ORGEVINE: ORganic thermoelectric GEnerators to power precision VIticulture sensor Networks, 2021-2022, by Mariano Campoy-Quiles (NANOPTO group)
• CELLO: Cellulose Based Photonic Materials, 2022-2023, by Agustín Mihi (NANOPTO group) 

To know more:

• ICMAB is the 10^th Catalan Institution with more ERC Grants (ICMAB, 17 Dec 2020)
• The ICMAB in the Top 10 of the ERC research grants in Catalunya (ICMAB, 21 Jan 2019)
• The ICMAB was present at the 10th anniversary of the ERC celebrated at the UAB-CEI Sphere (ICMAB, 3 April 2017)