Advanced Grants

Top research leaders selected by the European Research Council in its second competition for "Advanced Grants"

In its second competition for established top researchers ("Advanced Grants"), the European Research Council (ERC) has selected 236 research leaders to perform their pioneering research throughout Europe. Under the EU's 7th Research Framework Programme, the ERC supports projects aiming at making important discoveries in any domain, from economics to nanotechnology, from psychology to climate change. Each of the "Advanced Grants" amounts to up to € 3.5 million and the estimated total call budget is € 515 million.

ERC President Prof. Fotis Kafatos said: " The ERC Scientific Council and I are very pleased with the result, and with the quality of the proposals and of the peer review. With the successful conclusion of this fourth ERC call - which is the second Advanced Grant competition - the ERC is now well established as a European funding organisation supporting excellent, bottom-up frontier research. Our working methods are refined and improved based on past experience, and the ERC has already enabled many hundreds of first class researchers to pursue their ground-breaking and creative ideas in Europe.”

The successful researchers are of 26 nationalities and will be working in universities or other research institutions in 18 different countries. Four researchers currently based outside Europe are moving to an EU member state or associated country to take up their ERC grant. The average age of these research leaders is 53 years. Around 15% are women, which is a slight increase from the last call (12%). The number of women applicants, on the other hand, was 14% in this call.

The distribution of proposals per domain is the following: 44% in Physical Sciences and Engineering, 38% in Life Sciences and 18% in Social Sciences and Humanities. "The investment and trust in top talent is pivotal for Europe's research base, in time of economic downturn more than ever, as it will have a positive impact on the economy, but also on Europe as a whole." Prof. Kafatos added.

• Source: Basque Center for Applied Mathematics

• Date: 2010/01/15