Portugal secures two more ERC Consolidator Grants

On December 9, theEuropean Research Council (ERC ) announced the 349 projects selected for the ERC Consolidator Grant 2025, Call funding researchers who are in the process of consolidating their research teams. The list includes projects by two researchers working in Portugal, which have been awarded €4.1 million in funding.

With this latest result, research carried out at institutions belonging to the National Science and Technology System (SNCT) has reached the milestone of €144 million raised in Calls since the start of Horizon Europe, the European framework program for research and innovation funding for the period 2021-2027. This amount is close to the €150 million raised during the entire previous framework program, Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), with two years of Calls still to go.

The winners of the Consolidator Grant 2025 to conduct research in Portugal are:

• Juan Álvaro Gallego, who will receive €2.1 million in funding for the SELECT project : “Sensorimotor Learning and Control Across Timescales, ” to be developed at the Champalimaud Foundation’s new Center for Regenerative Neurotechnology.
• Ricardo Araújo, professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and researcher at the Center for Natural Resources and Environment (CERENA), will receive €2 million to develop the DEDALUS project “The Labyrinth of Warm-Bloodedness: a journey into the origins of dinosaur-bird endothermy via semicircular canal biomechanics."

Ricardo Araújo is supported by the FCT's ERC-Portugal Program, specifically by the ERC-PT program, which aims to fund applications with A ratings that were not selected for funding by the ERC. For more information about this program, please visit the FCT website.

The FCT has been developing a set of innovative programs covering all stages of national participation Calls , from the preparation of applications to the stabilization of permanent positions for researchers conducting research abroad (ERC-PT – Attract) and researchers conducting research in Portugal (ERC-PT – Retain). The ERC-Portugal Program includes the following core programs: Pre-Assessment, to support the national scientific community in preparing proposals; ERC A-Projects, to fund top-ranked national applications not selected for funding by the ERC; and ERC-PT , to attract and retain researchers with ERC projects.