Many years of research are behind the breakthrough Johanna Olweus and her team at the University of Oslo have achieved in their cancer research. Now they have achieved what few other Norwegian researchers have managed, a Proof of Concept grant from the European Research Council.
Commercialisation funds for blood cancer research
"It is great to have received these funds from the European Research Council. It is in competition with some of the best researchers in Europe," says Professor at the Cancer Clinic at UiO and OUS, Johanna Olweus.
Johanna and her team have received the commercialisation funds for the project "Targeting Acute Leukemia with TdT-TCR-T-cell therapy". In it, they are researching a possible treatment for blood cancer in patients who cannot be cured with current treatment alternatives. The project received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council in 2019.
Proof of concept assignments
The purpose of the ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) programme is to facilitate commercial exploitation and/or societal innovation of research results that have already been funded by the European Research Council.
The PoC funding is around NOK 1.7 million, which is less than ordinary ERC allocations. but because it is based on previous European Research Council allocations, there is a lot of prestige in the allocations.
With the PoC award, the European Research Council wants to maximize the value of the research they fund. The aim is to enable ERC-funded projects to move forward on the path from ground-breaking research to innovation. The funds finance further work or activities that were not planned as part of the original ERC project.