ERC Advanced grants 2025

Three ICREA researchers have received the ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council.

Congratulations to Eduard Batlle (IRB BArcelona), Pilar Prieto (UPF) and Luis Serrano (CRG) for this great achievement!

Eduard Batlle

Pilar Prieto

Luis Serrano

The call is aimed at established researchers with outstanding scientific track records and funds pioneering research projects with the potential to generate transformative advances in their respective fields.

Researchers can receive up to two and a half million euros to develop their project over a period of five years. In this edition, the call will fund 319 projects across Europe with a total budget of €838 million. Of the 29 projects funded in Spain, 10% (3) are led by ICREA researchers:

Project Plastic_CRC, led by Eduard Batlle at Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB Barcelona). The team will investigate how to reduce the ability of metastatic colorectal cancer to evade treatments, tackle tumour resistance and improve the effectiveness of therapies.

PROSODY-SENSES, led by Pilar Prieto at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). The team will study how sensory channels coordinate to express prosody — the set of resources, such as intonation and rhythm, that we use to highlight and organise information when we communicate — in both spoken and signed languages, including those used by deaf and deafblind people.

Project SafeDelivery, led by Luis Serrano at the Centre de Regulació GEnòmica (CRG). The researchers will design drugs with the help of artificial intelligence and transform a lung bacterium into a “living pill”. This will deliver the medication inside the lung cancer, releasing the treatment into the diseased tissue and avoiding side effects in the rest of the body.

In 2025, the ERC Advanced Grant call saw an unprecedented level of participation, with 3,329 proposals submitted, a 31% increase on the previous edition. The success rate was 9.6%, confirming the high level of competition for these grants, which are considered among the most prestigious in the international scientific landscape. Projects led by ICREA researchers represent 1% of the almost 320 grants awarded.

ERC Advanced Grants website.