Prof. Krzysztof Fic from the Poznań University of Technology, member of the NCN Council, has just won a Proof of Concept grant, awarded by the European Research Council. This is the 80th ERC grant for a researcher based in Poland.
Dr hab. inż Krzysztof Fic is a professor at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the
Prof. Krzysztof Fic at the NCN Days 2022 in Białystok
Poznań University of Technology. His research centres on electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems.
In 2017, he was the first Polish researcher affiliated with a technology university to win an ERC Starting Grant; his project was to develop a new type of high-power electrochemical capacitor, new concepts of electrolytes and a new operando technique for capacitor characterisation. The research project ended in 2023.
In the one that has now won the ERC PoC grant, Prof. Krzysztof Fic will work to convince the energy storage market of the attractiveness of this electrochemical capacitor with high specific power, energy and cycle durability. He will conduct his research with scientists from other European countries and Japan.
The Proof of Concept call is open to researchers who have previously completed an ERC grant and wish to commercialise its research results.
Prof. Krzysztof Fic has been a member of the NCN Council since 2020 and heads its international cooperation committee.
You can read more about his research in an article published online by “Forum Akademickie”: “It is basic research that serves as the flywheel of innovation”.
The European Research Council has thus far awarded a total of 80 grants to researchers working in Poland. The ERC funds projects under the following grant calls: Starting Grant (for entry-level researchers), Consolidator Grant (for researchers 7-12 years after their PhD), Advanced Grant (for advanced researchers), as well as ERC Synergy and Proof of Concept. The majority of ERC grant winners working at Polish institutions have worked on NCN grants.
The following researchers won ERC grants in 2023:
- Starting Grant: Maciej Trusiak and Łukasz Sterczewski
- Consolidator Grant: Ewa Szczurek, Szymon Toruńczyk, Paweł Caputa and Magdalena Wojcieszak. Click to read an interview with Prof. Ewa Szczurek about her research and her grants
- Proof of Concept: Katarzyna Marciniak and Piotr Sankowski