ERC Momentum Continues: 

New Awards, Upcoming National Events 

Since our last ERC update in October, European Research Council (ERC) results announced have reinforced a clear message: ambitious, investigator-led ideas across Ireland’s research system continue to secure major international recognition and investment. In this update, we share the latest Consolidator, Synergy and Proof of Concept outcomes and look ahead to two key occasions for the ERC community this spring and summer with ERCEA grant-management workshops at University College Dublin (UCD) on 27–28 April, followed by a momentous visit in late June from ERC President Prof Maria Leptin and the Scientific Council.

Most notably, cumulative ERC support under Horizon Europe is on track to pass the €200m milestone once the remaining grant agreements are finalised, an important marker as further ERC Work Programme calls open under the current framework. The latest awards also reflect the breadth of excellence across disciplines, spanning the humanities and social sciences, health and life sciences, engineering and digital technologies.

Consolidator Grants (2025 call): 

Six researchers based in Ireland have been awarded ERC Consolidator Grants. Worth around €2 million over five years, these awards help outstanding mid-career investigators build teams, accelerate early momentum and establish research leadership through ambitious programmes at the frontier of discovery. The six awardees and their projects are:

  - Prof Mary Rogan (Trinity College Dublin (TCD))  – DOLI: Dignity and the Deprivation of Liberty,                        examining how dignity is experienced in settings such as prisons, psychiatric hospitals and care                 homes, drawing on perspectives from law and human rights alongside complementary disciplinary           insights.

  - Dr Mark Ward (TCD) – GLOmol: a global study of the macro- and individual-level causes and                             consequences of loneliness, bringing together data from more than 30 countries to understand why             experiences of loneliness vary internationally and what those differences mean.

  -  Dr Brian Barry (TCD) – JUDGEASSIST: A framework for principled AI-assisted judicial decision-making,                exploring how emerging AI tools might be adopted in ways that protect trust, fairness and                            procedural justice.

   - Dr Eugene Costello (University College Cork (UCC)) – DeepCattle: The Deep History of Commercial Cattle           Farming in Europe, tracing the historical foundations of commercial meat and dairy systems and the           ways they reshaped landscapes and economies over time.

   - Dr Caroline Curtin (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)) – PANACEA: Primary bone cancer                   scaffolds as controlled release non-viral gene delivery platforms, developing biomaterial scaffold                     technologies that aim to combine anti-cancer treatment with support for bone repair.

   - Dr Laura K. Taylor (UCD) – GENERATION EU: The development of European identity and implications for           social cohesion and peace, investigating how young people form and navigate shared identities and             what that can mean for social cohesion and peace.

Synergy Grants (2025 call): 

Ireland-based researchers were also part of successful ERC Synergy consortia - highly competitive awards designed to enable genuinely transformative, collaborative research, typically with indicative funding of around €10 million per consortium. The latest results included four Ireland-based awardees across two Synergy projects, making this Ireland’s most successful year to date in ERC Synergy competitions:

   - Prof Anding Zhu (UCD) and Prof Bogdan Staszewski (UCD), as part of DISRUPT: Digital RF Power –              Time-Domain-RF-Power Signal Generation, aiming to develop fully digital RF power architectures with            the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption in next-generation wireless networks.

   - Prof Shane O’Mara (TCD) and Prof Yvonne Daly (Dublin City University (DCU)), as part of JUSTICE:            Joining Unique Strategies Together for Interrogative Coercion Elimination, bringing together expertise              across disciplines to better understand why coercive practices take hold and how humane, effective          alternatives can be embedded in practice.

Proof of Concept (PoC): 

In January, two University of Galway researchers were announced as ERC Proof of Concept grant recipients, which help teams advance outputs arising from earlier ERC-funded projects and explore routes to application and impact. 

Prof Ted Vaughan is developing a software platform to support more sustainable, optimised additive manufacturing, helping engineers design lighter and stronger components better suited to 3D printing. Prof Martin O’Halloran is progressing a minimally invasive, biodegradable therapeutic concept to improve care pathways for chronic bladder pain. This PoC award remarkably represents Prof O’ Halloran’s eighth ERC award, equalling the national record set by Prof Valeria Nicolosi (TCD) last year. Together, these awards underline how curiosity-driven research can be accelerated towards solutions with real-world value. 

Warm congratulations to all awardees and their host institutions. We also recognise the mentors and collaborators who help shape proposals, many of whom are current or former ERC laureates and bring invaluable perspective on ambition, positioning and panel fit. We especially want to acknowledge research office colleagues across the system who advise on eligibility and strategy, coordinate internal reviews, sharpen narratives, manage budgets and compliance and keep the process moving; their expertise and persistence underpin our national ERC success.

Upcoming ERC engagement and events

Later this month, Research Ireland will welcome ERC awardees and research support colleagues to UCD for two days of European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA) workshops on ERC grant management (27–28 April). Eight specialist representatives from the ERCEA will travel from Brussels to lead interactive sessions combining presentations and case studies, with content relevant to both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects. The programme is designed to support open dialogue and peer-to-peer exchange between ERC-funded researchers, research office personnel and ERCEA representatives, with a networking reception at the end of day one.

It is a rare opportunity to bring the national ERC community together in one room, and we hope the workshops both strengthen existing relationships and spark new, lasting connections.

Just ahead of Ireland’s EU Presidency, in late June (23-26 June), we will also be honoured to welcome the ERC President, Prof Maria Leptin, and the Scientific Council to Ireland. Planning is under way for a series of events across Dublin and Belfast as part of this special visit, a decade after their last.

A key theme for the June programme and one of wide-spread, ongoing discussion across Europe, will be the importance of a European Research Council that remains autonomous and properly funded, because its independence is what ensures that excellence alone, not short-term political or economic priorities, drives funding decisions. That autonomy underpins Europe’s capacity to support genuinely transformative, high-risk, high-gain research, strengthening long-term competitiveness, innovation and societal resilience.

Planning to apply? 

If you’re targeting an upcoming ERC call, we encourage you to apply for Enterprise Ireland’s ERC Preparation Support at least six months ahead of the deadline. That lead-in time gives you the best chance to refine your positioning, develop and draft the proposal, and benefit from internal review and revision.

As ERC National Delegate and National Contact Points based in Research Ireland, we wish every prospective applicant the very best of luck and we look forward to continuing to work with the community as new calls open and new results land. Do please get in touch early if you would like a sounding board or guidance on next steps: [email protected] or Patrick Lansley ([email protected]).