Awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant to the PRONTO project for sustainable diagnostic devices

The PRONTO project, self-PowerRed cONductimeter for digitalization of rapid molecular diagnostics, by Neus Sabaté, ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies) professor at the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC), has been selected by the European Research Council (ERC) to receive Proof of Concept Grant funding.

Sabaté, in collaboration with Susana Liébana, a researcher at the IMB-CNM, proposes a novel low cost, sustainable and self-powered readout system for nucleic acid detection based on conductimetry. The key component consists on a paper-based and single use self-powered conductimetric sensor.

"The sensing approach is unique and minimalistic and it will enable the deployment of highly sensitive and digital tests for infectious diseases at affordable prices and in a sustainable manner at a global scale", adds Sabaté, creator of the first single use paper-based biodegradable paper batteries.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced 90 new Proof of Concept Grants, concluding the final round of the 2022 competition. This brings the total number of grantees who received this innovation top-up funding, in two separate calls under the ERC last year’s work programme, up to 366.

This marks the third Proof-of-Concept grant awarded to Neus Sabaté, who received one last year for the development of a low-cost, sustainable, self-powered glucose detection system that allows blood glucose, FAIRGLUCOSE; and another one in 2019, POWER-PATCH. She received a Consolidator Grant from the ERC in 2015 for the project Supercell, Single use paper fuel cells, and she is also one of the founders of the spin-off Fuelium.

In the current call, CSIC researcher Víctor Vilarrasa -at IMEDEA-UIB-CSIC- also received funding from ERC to develop A method to store CO2 in volcanic areas.