The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the selection of 308 researchers out of 2,130 candidates for this year’s Consolidator Grants. These grants, worth a total of €627 million, are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe program and will support scientists and scholars at a crucial stage in their careers.
Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth, congratulated the winners and expressed her delight at the increase in female representation among the recipients. She emphasized the importance of inclusivity and diversity in the scientific community.
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President of the European Research Council, Prof. Maria Leptin, praised the Consolidator Grant winners as some of the best in European research. She expressed disappointment that budget constraints prevented the support of approximately 100 deserving projects. Prof. Leptin called for increased investment in research and innovation to ensure that no brilliant ideas go unfunded and no promising careers are left unfulfilled.
The grants will fund scientific projects in various disciplines, including engineering, life sciences, humanities, and more. Examples of the projects include studying disinformation on small social networking platforms, investigating changes in the immune system as people age, improving the efficiency of artificial intelligence through insights into how the brain learns, and examining the use of mercenaries in armed conflicts.
In terms of gender representation, women secured 39% of the grants, the highest ever share for Consolidator Grants. The grants will be carried out at universities and research centers in 22 EU Member States and other associated countries. Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Spain are the top countries receiving the highest numbers of grants.
These grants will also create approximately 1,800 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and other staff at the host institutions.
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It is important to note that the statistics and list of successful candidates are provisional. The European Commission and the UK Government have reached an agreement on the association of the UK to Horizon Europe, which will formalize from January 2024. However, UK entities applying for funding from the 2023 Work Programme will not be eligible to receive EU funding unless they transfer their proposal to an eligible host institution.
The ERC, established by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organization for frontier research. It offers various grant schemes and aims to bridge the gap between pioneering research and its commercialization. The ERC is led by the Scientific Council and has a budget of over €16 billion for the period of 2021-2027 under the responsibility of European Commissioner Iliana Ivanova.
