Spain among the largest recipients of grants to support research excellence

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded its Consolidation Grants to 328 researchers from across Europe. These grants, totalling €678 million, aim to support outstanding scientists and academics in setting up their independent research teams and developing their most promising scientific ideas. The funding is provided through the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.

Spain is the fourth country in terms of the number of beneficiaries (24) of this nationality, behind Germany, France and Italy. It is also the fifth country in terms of the number of people carrying out research in the country (21), behind Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The grants will support scientific projects spanning all research disciplines, from engineering through the humanities to the life sciences. For example, researchers will try to better understand what influences people’s reactions to immigrants, use AI to improve fire-fighting strategies, or analyse how voters of a losing party can come to accept defeat in a democratic election.

A Spanish project: The importance of losers’ consent for the survival of democracy

Newly funded research led by Ignacio Jurado will examine the consequences for democracies when this consent collapses. It will provide a new and comprehensive conceptualisation of consent that encompasses three dimensions: acceptance of electoral outcomes, recognition of the legitimate authority of the winners, and willingness to be governed by them. Particular attention will be paid to the role of elite narratives and policy proposals in enhancing or eroding the consent of those who lose. The team will use a range of methods: focus groups, cross-country surveys, longitudinal analyses and survey experiments in twenty established democracies.

The project will explore for the first time the impact of consent breakdown on voting, contentious political behaviour and social cooperation. It will provide new insights into the dynamics of loser consent and its importance for democratic resilience and stability.

– Project: Motivations, causes and consequences of loser consent and its degradation in established democracies (CONSENT)

– Researcher: Ignacio Jurado, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain

– ERC/ERC funding: almost EUR 2 million over five years

Facts and figures

The winners of this grant competition will carry out their projects in universities and research centres in 25 EU Member States and other countries associated with Horizon Europe. The largest number of grants will go to Germany (67 projects), France (38), the UK (38) and the Netherlands (37). Among the winners of this call are nationals from 43 countries, in particular Germans (60 researchers), French (34) and Italians (29). The fellowships are likely to create around 2 750 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other staff at the host institutions.

About the ERC/ERC

The ERC/ERC, established by the European Union in 2007, is Europe’s leading funding body for frontier research excellence. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age to carry out projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four main grant programmes: Starting Grants, Consolidation Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof-of-Concept Grant scheme, the ERC/ERC helps beneficiaries bridge the gap between their pioneering research and the early stages of commercialisation. The ERC/ERC is governed by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. From November 2021, Maria Leptin is the Chair of the ERC/ERC. The overall budget of the ERC/ERC from 2021 to 2027 amounts to more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme. Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Emerging Enterprises, Research and Innovation, has been responsible for this programme since 1 December 2024.

 

More information: European Research Council.