The European Research Council (ERC), part of the European Commission, has announced the recipients of the 2025 ERC Proof of Concept Grant. Among them are two projects developed by researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València: José Capmany and Ramón Martínez Máñez.
The projects TRANSBIT, directed by José Capmany, and OncoFlag, led by Ramón Martínez Máñez, are part of an exclusive group of research teams that already hold an ERC Grant and now receive this additional financial boost to help bring some of their current research results closer to real-world application.
José Capmany, professor at the UPV and researcher at the Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (ITEAM) within the PRL group, leads the TRANSBIT project, which aims to revolutionize photonic chips and the way computing and optics are integrated. “No one in the world has proposed a similar approach. We’ve used the principles of optics to develop a compatible computing system. This approach carries risks, but we are very confident because the results so far are very promising,” said José Capmany, pleased to receive this prestigious grant but “even more so for what it represents—developing technology, building a team, and then being able to transfer it and create new companies and enterprises.”
ERC (European Research Council) Grants are among the most prestigious tools to promote excellence in research in Europe, accessible only to leading researchers in their fields.