ERC awards Advanced Grants to 190 researchers
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 190 senior researchers a prestigious Advanced Grant, the organisation announced today.
These grants are worth a total of €445m and are the first to be awarded under the ‘Excellent Science’ pillar of Horizon 2020.
Speaking about the funding, Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “Scientists benefitting from these ERC Advanced Grants work at the frontiers of human knowledge.
“They also often spark new discoveries and tackle the biggest challenges for society.”
ERC president Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon commented: “This year the competition has been particularly fierce and many more than the 190 laureates would have deserved support.
“The scientists responsible for the selection in the 25 peer review panels, covering all fields, were faced with a very difficult task of choosing proposals bold enough to provide radical new knowledge while having a good chance of being successful.”
The grantees will work on a diverse range of topics, including pioneering gene therapy for heart arrhythmias (Italy), water (Sweden) and biodiversity in tropical and temperate forests (Czech Republic).
ERC grants are awarded to researchers of any nationality based in, or willing to move to, Europe. In this competition, researchers of 23 different nationalities received the funding. British (38), German (33), Dutch (18), French (17) and Italian (16) researchers were awarded the highest number of grants.
The new ERC projects will be hosted in 17 countries across Europe, including the UK (45), Germany (29) and France (23).
The ERC Advanced Grant is awarded to well-established, scientifically independent researchers of any nationality or age who possess a recent track-record and profile which identifies them as leaders in their respective fields.
Each grant is worth up to €2.5m.
