ERC awards €680m ‘Advanced Grants’
The European Research Council (ERC) has announced a major round of funding to leading scientists in Europe.
The ERC will award grants worth €680m to 302 senior research leaders in 24 different countries across Europe. The funding is part of the ERC’s prestigious ‘Advanced Grants’ programme and researchers will receive up to €2.5m per project.
Commenting on the announcement, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, said: “The ERC continues to identify the very best researchers. ERC funding is leading to an increasing number of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries, as well as more publications in recognised scientific journals. Promoting frontier research at the highest level is vital for Europe’s competitiveness, and this is why we have proposed to increase the ERC budget as part of our Horizon 2020 programme.”
Projects set to receive funding include a French investigation into physical phenomena; a Latvian study into the advantages and limits of quantum devices; and an Italian assessment into how economic actors develop their views about their environment.
The ERC was setup in 2007 as part of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme and provides financial support to European-based research. It is intended that the ERC will continue as part of Horizon 2020, with a near doubling of the current budget to a total €13bn.
