291 young researchers across Europe receive €429 million in grants
The European Research Council (ERC) announced in December the awarding of its Starting Grants to 291 early-career researchers. The funding, worth in total €429 million and up to €1.5 million per grant, will enable them to set up their own research teams and pursue ground-breaking ideas. The grants are awarded under the 'excellent science' pillar of Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation program.
ERC grants are awarded to researchers of any nationality based in, or willing to move to, Europe. In this competition, grantees of 38 nationalities received the funding. The new ERC projects will be hosted in 23 countries across Europe, with the United Kingdom (48), Germany (47), Netherlands (32) and France (29) as top locations. Among the 291 recipients are 50 German scientists of which 9 are women, Italian scientists come next with 31, then French and Dutch with 24 each. See more statistics of this competition: https://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/erc_2015_stg_statistics.pdf
The number of grantees based in countries covered by the ERC initiative to widen participation, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, increased compared with the past few years. Malta will host its first ERC grantee.
These grants will also enable the selected scientists to build their own research teams, engaging an estimated 1,000 postdocs and PhD students as ERC team members. The ERC thereby also contributes to supporting a new generation of top researchers in Europe.
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Funded by the Exzellenzinitiative des Bundes und der Länder
