European Research Council Funds Materials Research
2026/06/25
TU Darmstadt has once again performed very well in the international competition for research funding: three researchers have been awarded Proof of Concept Grants by the European Research Council (ERC). The selected projects, which focus on electron microscopy, biomedical research and security in the exchange of chip designs, will each receive 150,000 euros over a period of 18 months. The aim of the funding is to translate research findings into practical applications.
From research to application
Proof of Concept Grants are intended to ensure the continuity of high-calibre research. No funding is provided for new projects; instead, the funding is aimed exclusively at researchers who already have an ERC Grant and want to use research findings from their current or completed project pre-commercially. The aim of a Proof of Concept Project should be to assess the market potential of such an idea. Therefore, the ERC does not use these grants to fund research activities, but instead funds measures for further development with regard to the application maturity, commercialisation or marketing of the idea. In the most recent funding round, 182 grants were awarded out of 554 applications submitted. Germany received 31 of these highly sought-after grants, four of which went to the Technical University of Munich and three each to the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Project “CALIBRATE”, Professor Leopoldo Molina-Luna
“CALIBRATE” (Chip-based Accurate eLectron Intensity Beam Readout for Advanced TEM Experiments) is developing a new calibration standard for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), one of the most important tools in modern materials research. To ensure that measurement results are reliable and comparable, the intensity of the electron beam at sample position must be known accurately. However, no universally applicable standard currently exists for this purpose. Professor Leopoldo Molina-Luna, a member of the Matter and Materials (M+M) research field of TU Darmstadt, aims to develop such a standard as part of the “CALIBRATE” project. To this end, microscopically small Faraday cups are being integrated onto MEMS chips already used in modern transmission electron microscopes, enabling direct and precise measurement if the electron beam at the sample site. “CALIBRATE” builds on the experience gained from the “STARE” and “BED-TEM” Proof of Concept (PoC) Projects and is already Molina-Luna’s fifth ERC-funded project. The project involves close scientific collaboration with RMU’s partner, Goethe University Frankfurt.
