How drug-resistant bacteria can be made sensitive to antibiotics again? Is your home really such a safe investment? Can there be a more efficient way to study the most abundant element on Earth – oxygen? These are just some examples of the challenges at the frontiers of knowledge that the new grantees of the European Research Council (ERC) are going to take on.
The ERC announced the awarding of Consolidator Grants that go to 329 top researchers across Europe. The funding, part of the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, is worth in total €630 million and will give them a chance to have far-reaching impact on science and beyond.
The ERC has evaluated 2,538 research proposals this time, out of which 13% will be funded.
The president of the ERC, Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, commented: "On behalf of the Scientific Council, I'd like to congratulate the new ERC grant winners. I also express my gratitude to the over 3,000 top scientists and scholars for their painstaking work, evaluating and identifying the most ambitious proposals submitted to the ERC. The funding will encourage these mid-career scientists to explore further the unknown and develop their most daring ideas at their own initiative. By leaving them freedom, the ERC is enabling breakthroughs. This conditions the capacity of Europe to respond to a number of challenges and to improve the lives of its citizens if the appropriate policies are adopted."
The grantees will carry out their projects at universities and research centres in 22 different countries across Europe, with as leading locations the United Kingdom (60 grants), Germany (56), France (38) and the Netherlands (25).
In this competition, researchers of 39 nationalities received funding, among them are notably Germans (55 grants), Italians (33), French (32) and Britons (31). The research projects proposed by the new grantees cover a wide range of topics in physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, as well as social sciences and humanities.
The ERC has evaluated 2,538 research proposals this time, out of which 13% will be funded. Thirty-two percent of grants were awarded to female applicants. The grants will create an estimated 2,000 jobs for postdocs, PhD students and other staff working in the grantees' research teams.