Proof of Concept grant

The European Research Council, in its efforts to help ERC grant-holders to bridge the gap between their research and the earliest stage of a marketable innovation, created the Proof of Concept (PoC) funding scheme for researchers who have already been awarded an ERC grant. Not only does this program help ERC grantees to explore the innovation potential of their research and/or commercialize the results of their ERC-funded projects, the program complements the efforts of ICFO’s Knowledge and Technology Transfer Unit (KTT) that proactively searches for ways to translate newly generated knowledge into new technologies.

In the results for the 2016 PoC call announced yesterday, ICREA Professor at ICFO Niek van Hulst has been awarded funding for the IBIS (In-line Balanced Interferometry Scattering) project. Prof van Hulst, leader of the Molecular Nanophotonics research group at ICFO, is the recipient of two consecutive Advanced Grants from the ERC. Notably, this PoC award is the seventh successful PoC application for ICFO in six years.

The main goal of IBIS is to develop an ultrasensitive, compact and low cost platform for the label free quantitative detection of single proteins and the characterisation of nanometric vesicles for cancer detection and the monitoring of disease progression and treatment efficiency.

Congratulations Niek!