ERC Synergy 2025: one third of selected projects involve France

“How can we solve the most complex scientific enigmas? By joining forces.” That is the message from the European Research Council as it unveils the 66 research teams, bringing together 239 scientists, chosen for funding. At stake is a total of €684 million in “Synergy Grants”, awarded to “tackle some of the most challenging scientific questions across a broad range of disciplines”. Established by the European Union in 2007, the ERC is Europe’s leading funding body for frontier research.

More than 700 proposals from 26 countries

ERC Synergy Grants are designed to foster high-level collaboration between researchers in Europe and beyond — including the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa and Singapore — enabling them to combine expertise, knowledge and resources “to push the boundaries of scientific discovery”. The funding is provided under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.

A total of 712 proposals from 26 countries were submitted this year. As the ERC notes, only around one in ten proposals secured funding, with successful projects receiving an average of €10.3 million each. The selected initiatives will be hosted by 26 universities and research centres across Europe and further afield. Twenty-eight projects involve researchers based in Germany, 24 in the United Kingdom, and 21 each in France and the United States.

Running for six years, the grants are awarded to collaborative groups of between two and four principal investigators from EU Member States or associated countries, enabling them to “address some of the world’s most formidable research challenges across multiple scientific disciplines”.

All fields of research represented

For France, 21 funded projects have been selected, 13 of which involve researchers affiliated with the CNRS or joint research units with other national institutes and universities.

The projects cover multiple research fields including artificial intelligence, computer science, energy, medicine and health, communications, sustainable development and space science, linking researchers from French, European and international research institutions.

They include:

• GEMPROMISE, using generative AI to accelerate the discovery of new materials;
• Planetary Eel, exploring innovative approaches to the relationship between humans and the eel — a critically endangered species that may offer insights into challenges threatening planetary habitability;
• UniCIPS, seeking a universal law describing the “behaviour of interacting particle systems out of equilibrium”;
• UltiMatePV, aiming to rethink the “modern solar cell” and develop a new generation of resource-efficient photovoltaic technologies;
• WePhICom, “reimagining wireless communications” to improve energy efficiency in data transmission;
• CenAGE, investigating ageing factors in chronic diseases;
• HARVEST, examining how iron released by submarine volcanoes stimulates phytoplankton growth;
• snoOPERA, uncovering “the hidden functions of snoRNPs in ribosome” assembly to better understand the growth of living organisms;
• HERON, bringing together pioneers in cosmic radio-detection to “identify ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos”;
• 3Stops2Go, focusing on human genetic diseases to unravel underlying mechanisms and develop therapeutic alternatives;
• PathCorg, studying “cortical development and neuronal migration disorders”;
• VePaSS, dedicated to “verifying probabilistic security systems”;
• CoEvolve, investigating the origins of life and the “interaction between the biosphere and geosphere”.

Natural sciences and humanities

Other projects selected for EU funding involve research centres and universities beyond the CNRS network, spanning medicine, space, climate science and the humanities.

Among them:

• CLIMPEAT, examining the impact of climate change on peatlands, led in part by the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives and École polytechnique;
• Cosmomag, probing the Universe’s first microseconds using cosmological magnetic fields at Université Paris Cité;
• ECCE, expanding research into the causes of colorectal cancer with the involvement of the International Agency for Research on Cancer;
• FireSpace, enhancing fire safety in spacecraft cabins, led by Sorbonne Université and the Académie Spatiale d’Île-de-France;
• MINerVA, “investigating the neurovascular interface in peripheral nerves, involving INSERM”;
• MULTIPROBE, improving diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal tumours with participation from the Université de Limoges;
• NP-QED, testing the most fundamental “predictions of quantum electrodynamics, in partnership with the CEA”;
• TASTADE, a humanities project exploring the transatlantic slave trade and Europe’s development, involving Université Côte d’Azur.

A global collaboration

Highlighting the diversity of topics and teams, Europe’s Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation concluded that “frontier research in Europe has never been so international”.

Such global collaboration, she added, “strengthens European science, grants researchers access to world-class expertise and infrastructure, and draws leading scientists from around the globe closer to Europe”.