In 2017 the European Research Council will mark its 10th anniversary, an important milestone in making Europe a global centre of excellence in research.

Since 2012 CIC biomaGUNE has received €4.9 million from the European Research Council in the 4 funding modalities: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Proof of Concept. 

ERC Starting Grants targets promising researchers who have the proven potential of becoming independent research leaders, the ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to back up researchers who want to establish their research teams and continue developing a successful career in Europe and the ERC Advanced Grants are designed to allow outstanding research leaders of any nationality and any age to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk projects in Europe. Finally, the ERC Proof of Concept Grants are designed to support ERC grantees with the commercial or societal application of the results of their funded research.

Plasmaquo project (Luis Liz-Marzán): Advanced Grant endowed with €1.5 million for CIC biomaGUNE. The project aims at developing nanostructured materials based on nanoparticles to be used for the detection of the communication of bacteria between themselves and with other cellular colonies.
 

ProNano project (Aitziber L. Cortajarena): Consolidator Grant endowed with €1.7 million. The project aims at developing functional nanostructures based on proteins.
 

Jelly project (Ralf Richter): Starting Grant endowed with €1.5 million. The project aims at assessing and understanding the relation between the organizational and dynamic features of biomolecular hydrogels that are of prime importance in a wide range of physiological and pathological processes including inflammation, fertilization and osteoarthritis.

Readcell project (Luis Liz-Marzán): Proof of Concept Grant endowed with €0.15 million. The idea proposed in this project for Proof of Concept aims at turning the cell harvest step into an automated, non-invasive and efficient step in the cell culture process.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the European Research Council (ERC), CIC biomaGUNE ERC grantees have participated on several events organized across the country, such as the ones organized by Ikerbasque (the Basque Foundation for Science) or the monographic weekend about the ERC, which will take place at the National Museum of Science and Technology (MUNCYT) on the 25th and 26th of March.