408 researchers have won this year’s European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants. The funding worth in total €636 million and part of the Horizon Europe programme will help excellent young scientists, with two to seven years’ experience after PhD, to launch their own projects, form their teams and pursue their most promising ideas.
Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “We are proud to empower younger researchers to follow their curiosity. These new ERC laureates bring a remarkable wealth of scientific ideas, they will further our knowledge and some already have practical applications in sight. I wish them all the best of luck with their explorations.”
The grants will be invested in scientific projects spanning all disciplines of research from engineering to life sciences to humanities. For example, a cryptography engineer in Paris will be looking for better ways to secure digital resources; a professor in vaccinology in Netherlands will be developing effective vaccines for parasitic diseases like malaria; and a legal scholar in Czechia will study the role of courts in the international refugee law.
The laureates of this grant competition proposed to carry out their projects at universities and research centres in 26 countries across Europe. The grants will create more than 2,000 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and other staff at the host institutions.
