Six outstanding researchers with six excellent research proposals have been funded under the ERC 2025 Consolidator Call.
The Consolidator call is tailored to support promising scientists ready to move from early-career success to becoming established leaders in their field through the realisation of highly ambitious research ideas, which tackle and expand the forefront of discovery and science.
With funding of around €2 million over five years for each ambitious ERC Consolidator research project, the latest success brings Ireland’s cumulative ERC funding under the Horizon Europe Framework (2021-2027) to just over the €200 million mark, when all projected grant agreements are signed. This milestone represents a significant marker with more than two years of ERC work programmes yet to be completed under Horizon Europe. For context, Ireland-based researchers successfully competed for €180 million in ERC funding over the entirety of the previous framework, H2020 (2014-2020).
The 2025 Consolidator Call attracted 3,121 applications, representing a striking 35% year-on-year increase since the last. Among those successful, two Trinity College Dublin (TCD) researchers have been granted funding to further knowledge in the field of Law, while another TCD researcher was granted funding to support research in Medical Gerontology. Researchers based in University College Cork (UCC), the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) and University College Dublin (UCD) were awarded for ambitious ideas in their respective fields of History, Cancer Research and Psychology.
This follows the latest news that four Ireland-based researchers (UCD (2), DCU, TCD) were part of successful ERC 2025 Synergy 2025 Grant consortia, being awarded an indicative €10 million in funding to pursue truly transformative, collaborative research. With only one in 10 proposals selected for funding, this also was the first time that four Ireland-based researchers have been awarded through a single ERC Synergy call.
Professor in Law, Prof Mary Rogan (TCD) was awarded Consolidator funding for the project ‘DOLI: Dignity and the Deprivation of Liberty’ which will explore how dignity is experienced by people living in prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and care homes for older people in three European countries (Ireland, Norway and Romania). The DOLI project will support the expression of people’s own lived experience when their liberty is taken away, combining insights and tools from law and human rights, social sciences, philosophy, theology, and health sciences perspectives. Prof Rogan is already an ERC awardee, having been awarded Starting and Proof of Concept grants under the 2015 and 2022 calls. Professor Rogan has also received funding from the European Commission and former Irish Research Council (IRC) for cross-jurisdictional projects on imprisonment, and pre-trial detention, and for work on law and social change.
Dr Mark Ward, Assistant Professor at The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, School of Medicine (TCD) will undertake the ERC-funded project entitled ‘GLOmol:a global study of the macro- and individual-level causes and consequences of loneliness’. By bringing data together from over 30 countries and a quarter of a million individuals, GLOMol will explore the reasons for international differences in loneliness. Dr Ward is also a Principal Investigator of a study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which examines the association between social disconnection and passive suicide ideation and his research has also been supported by the Irish Cancer society and the Health Research Board, among others.
Associate Professor in Law at TCD, Dr Brian Barry’s project will apply ERC funding to realise ‘JUDGEASSIST: A framework for principled AI-assisted judicial decision-making‘. JUDGEASSIST will examine the use of AI for assisting judicial decision-making, providing a robust, multidisciplinary response to the challenges and opportunities that arise. Combining law, psychology and computer science, the project will examine how trust, fairness and procedural justice can be maintained as judges adopt emerging AI tools in their work. His research has attracted large-scale funding and has been cited by leading courts such as the Irish Supreme Court and the Australian Federal Court.
Dr Eugene Costello, School of History and Radical Humanities Laboratory UCC, was awarded to lead on ‘DeepCattle: The Deep History of Commercial Cattle Farming in Europe’. The project breaks new ground in global environmental history by tracing the early foundations of Europe’s commercial meat and dairy industries, examining how ‘peripheral’ rural regions fed the growth of Europe’s cities. By uncovering the pre-industrial roots of commercial cattle farming, this mutli-dimensional research will explore an industry that reshaped Europe’s landscapes and evolved into a major force in the global food economy. A former MSCA Fellow, Dr Costello research activities have also been funded through the former IRC Doctoral Scholarship and New Foundations Programmes, as well as a variety of prestigious national and international awards.
Dr Caroline Curtin from RCSI’s Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Research Group was successful in being awarded Consolidator ERC funding to develop a novel technology that will revolutionise the treatment of primary bone cancers. The five-year ‘PANACEA- Primary bone cancer scaffolds as controlled release non-viral gene delivery platforms’ project will combine treatment of the cancer and promotion of bone repair using a graphene oxide-based biomaterial scaffold, which has potential to revolutionise bone cancer treatment. Dr Curtin’s research and research team has been supported by, the Irish Cancer Society, the Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland, and legacy IRC and SFI funding, amongst others.
Dr Laura K. Taylor, Associate Professor at UCD’s School of Psychology and Principal Investigator of the Helping Kids! Lab is receiving the Consolidator ERC award to lead on the ‘GENERATION EU: The development of European identity and implications for social cohesion and peace’ project, exploring why young people align with regional identities such as ‘European’, and the impact that this can have on society. GENERATION EU takes an intergroup developmental approach to study risk and resilience processes for children, families and communities in settings of protracted conflict. Dr Taylor has also been funded under the legacy IRC Laureate scheme, which was designed specifically to prepare researchers for success at the ERC by helping them build the experience and independence needed to compete on an ERC stage, in addition to several national and international funding streams.
Recently announced Ireland-based ERC Synergy awardees, Professors Anding Zhu and Bogdan Staszewski (both UCD), along with partners in TU Delft and Fraunhofer IAF, received almost €10 million in funding as part of the international ‘DISRUPT: Digital RF Power – Time-Domain-RF-Power Signal Generation’ project team. Through this potentially transformative funding pot, the team will endeavour to develop a fully digital RF power architecture with a view to cutting the energy consumption of next-generation wireless networks – such as 5G and 6G – by as much a remarkable 50 percent. Prof Zhu is Full Professor in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UCD and a Research Ireland CONNECT PI; his research has been supported through a variety of international and national streams including the Research Ireland Investigator Programme and SFI-NSFC partnership. Prof Staszewski is also a Full Professor in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UCD, a Research Ireland CONNECT PI and two-time Research Ireland Research Professor and former ERC Starting Grant awardee (2012).
Professors Shane O’Mara (TCD) and Yvonne Daly (DCU) secured over €10.4 million in prestigious ERC Synergy funding, along with international partners from De Montfort University and Tilburg University as art of the JUSTICE project team. Entitled ‘JUSTICE: Joining Unique Strategies Together for Interrogative Coercion Elimination’, the project will bring together experts from law, psychology, neuroscience, and data science to find out why coercive practices take hold and how to replace them with humane, effective interviewing. JUSTICE aims to protect rights, get reliable information, and strengthen public trust. Corresponding Principal Investigator, Prof O’Mara is a Professor of Experimental Brain Research at TCD and has received funding through a number of Research Ireland’s legacy programmes including the Investigator, Research Infrastructure, SFI-HRB-Wellcome Trust Partnership and Strategic Partnership programmes. Prof Yvonne Daly is a Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence at DCU and already has significant experience in executing EU-funded projects including as Vice-Chair of a COST action, PI on the EU-funded project – EmpRiSe and led the Irish project team on the EU-funded SUPRALAT project.
Warmest congratulations to all the awardees, their host institutions and the dedicated research office teams whose expertise and guidance are invaluable in preparing competitive ERC applications. These achievements reflect not only individual brilliance but also the strength of the supporting networks that underpin the research ecosystem.
Researchers aiming to join this prestigious ERC laureate grouping are reminded of the Enterprise Ireland ERC Preparation Support Grant, which provides critical financial assistance for those planning to apply for future ERC calls. This resource is designed to help applicants strengthen proposals and maximise their chances of success. For further information on upcoming calls, please refer to the latest ERC Work Programme and keep up-to-date with ERC and events on the ERC Website.