ERC Advanced Grant "Energion "

Energion : Energy production and storage using biological ion transport system

The "Energion" ERC Advanced Grant project aims redefining the concept of biological engineering by conducting fundamental research in assembling smart nanostructured systems of artificial cells using combinations of proteins, biomolecules and lipids with synthetic materials. The project is led at Université Grenoble Alpes by Donald Martin, professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and the LMGP laboratory (UMR 5628, UGA|Grenoble INP-UGA|CNRS).

VISION: To create a 'green' energy storage system that integrates a biological voltage source with a biological supercapacitor to achieve large energy and power capacities in a ligth-weigth sustainable packaging

An example of such a smart nanostructured system is a “green” energy storage system that is inspired from biology. In this example, the smart nanostructured system stores energy that is converted to steady-state electrical current, but without needing to be electrically recharged. The first laboratory measurements show the system provides an energy density of more than 7 kiloJoules/litre, which is already equivalent to the energy of an alkaline AAA battery but with the advantages of being smaller, lighter in weight, and not constructed from rare earth metals. The Energion research program will have major impacts on the fields of technologies for health and medicine, and for medical devices.

In its Work Programme the ERC describes that the Advanced Grant is awarded to an excellent Principal Investigator at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements. The Principal Investigator must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of their research proposal. An ERC Advanced Grant is awarded using excellence as the sole criterion of evaluation.  The evaluation process considers (i) the ground-breaking nature, ambition, and feasibility of the research project; and (ii) the intellectual capacity, creativity, and commitment of the Principal Investigator, with a focus on the extent to which the Principal Investigator has the required scientific expertise and capacity to successfully execute the project.


Short CV for Donald Martin, who is a Professor, classe exceptionnelle, in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University Grenoble Alpes (UGA). His career started in Australia, after he received his B.Optometry degree, a Masters degree in biomedical engineering and a PhD in biophysics of the eye and contact lenses, all from the University of New South Wales. In Australia, he was awarded the inaugural postdoctoral fellowship from the Medical Foundation at the University of Sydney for research in electrophysiology of secretory epithelia, then moved to St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney to work on electrophysiology of cardiac tissue. He moved to Grenoble in 2009 when he was awarded a Chaire d’Excellence in nanobiotechnologies by the RTRA Fondation Nanosciences. In 2012 he founded, and was the head of, the research team SyNaBi at the laboratory TIMC (UMR 5525) at UGA.  In 2025 he moved his research affiliation to the laboratory LMGP (UMR 5628) at UGA, where he is conducting his ERC Advanced Grant project. He has authored more than 130 publications, 17 patents, and is a co-founder in several startup companies in Australia and France, including 3 French startups that are commercialising medical diagnostic and therapeutic devices.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5913-2372