Research Ireland has welcomed the announcement that two University of Galway researchers have this week received prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept (PoC) awards.
Professors Ted Vaughan (Professor of Biomedical Engineering) and Martin O’Halloran (Professor of Medical Electronics) will use the funding to further their research from concepts towards application-ready solutions with real-world impact.
Commenting on the news, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO of Research Ireland, said, “These researchers exemplify the curiosity, ambition and excellence that drive Ireland’s global reputation for world-class innovation.”
“Their success demonstrates how frontier research can move boldly toward real-world impact. The achievements being celebrated today began as ideas; the breakthroughs of tomorrow come from the courage to pursue them.”
This latest accolade for Prof. O’Halloran brings his total ERC awards to eight, making him the most awarded Ireland-based ERC awardee.
Prof. O’Halloran, who is also Co-Director at CÚRAM Research Ireland’s Research Centre for medical devices, and Executive Director of the BioInnovate programme.
Prof. O’Halloran outlined how this grant will advance his work. “Painful bladder syndrome is a chronic, underdiagnosed condition marked by persistent bladder pain, urgency, and frequency, with profound impacts on quality of life, mental health, and economic productivity.”
“This proposal introduces Uro-Lieve, a minimally invasive, biodegradable capsaicin hydrogel designed to selectively silence pain fibres while avoiding the severe burning of current treatments. It highlights a major unmet clinical need and the broader structural neglect of women’s pain in research and healthcare.”
Prof. Vaughan, who is also Director of the Institute for Health Discovery and Innovation and a Principal Investigator at CÚRAM, secured his PoC funding to develop next-generation design technology that will make additive manufacturing more sustainable and capable of delivering more efficient, optimised components for industry.
Working alongside his colleague, Dr Mahtab Vafaeefar, Prof. Vaughan will advance an innovative software platform that enables engineers to design lighter, stronger and more efficient components optimised for 3D printing.
“Too often, we simply ‘print’ conventional designs rather than truly exploiting the capabilities of additive manufacturing.”
“Our goal is to provide intuitive tools that automatically generate high-performance, production-ready designs that are truly functionally-tailored to each application, reducing costs, saving material, and accelerating innovation.”
The software platform builds on biomimetic principles developed during Prof. Vaughan’s ERC Starting Grant, drawing inspiration from how nature designs complex structures.
These principles are translated into industry-ready design tools capable of delivering lightweight, efficient and high-performance components across a broad range of engineering applications.
In this round of PoC awards, 136 grantees each receive €150,000, supporting them in exploring how their scientific results can move towards practical application or early commercial use.
With these awards, the total number of Proof of Concept Grants under the ERC 2025 work programme reached 300, representing an overall budget of €45 million. The scheme is funded under Horizon Europe, the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation.
President of the European Research Council, Prof. Maria Leptin, added, “The ERC does not ask its researchers to start with ready-made solutions or immediate applications.”
“Instead, ERC grantees explore the frontiers of knowledge, guided by their curiosity and scientific ambition. With these Proof of Concept Grants, many ERC grantees will explore the commercialisation or societal potential of their curiosity.”
“And they will lay the foundation for future technological innovations and societal technologies that drive progress in Europe.”
