HOLMES is an ERC project started in 2014 that will perform a model independent measurement of the neutrino mass with a sensitivity of the order of 1 eV. In order to reach its goal sensitivity, HOLMES will use 1000 low temperature microcalorimeters, each implanted with an activity of 300 Bq of 163Ho, performing thus a calorimetric measurement. This contribution presents the recent results achieved that lay the grounds for the low-activity phase of the HOLMES experiment, that will lead to its first limit on the neutrino mass.