ERC visits Australia and New Zealand
As a part of its ‘ERC goes Global’ awareness-raising campaign, the European Research Council (ERC) is starting a visit to Australia and New Zealand aiming to strengthen relations and informing top researchers about its substantial funding for talent from anywhere in the world.
Since 2007, 21 Australian researchers and six New Zealand researchers have been awarded ERC grants. The organisation hopes to increase this number through the awareness-raising campaign.
ERC grants are both substantial and highly flexible, and allow grant holders to spend half of their research time outside the EU and its FP7 associated countries. This provides the possibility for grant holders to maintain an affiliation with their country of origin, if they so wish.
ERC Secretary General Professor Donald Dingwell, who leads the delegation, commented: “The European Research Council is very pleased to visit Australia and New Zealand. We are keen to meet our counterparts here and to let top talent know about the attractive funding that the ERC offers. It is our hope that researchers here will respond to this great opportunity for us all.”
Dingwell will be accompanied by one Australian ERC grantee, Dr Gemma Solomon, who was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2010 in the field of physical engineering and carries out her research in the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
The ERC funds leading researchers from anywhere in the world, and their innovative ideas across all disciplines, with up to €3.5m per grant. Since the ERC’s launch in 2007, it has awarded €6.3bn to over 3,800 scientists – both early-career and senior-performing frontier research in Europe.
