Funding Researchers

This year the theme for the conference is Global Outreach: Enabling Cultures and Diversity in Research Management and Administration. This theme reflects the growing need and ambition to reach out and get connected and work together globally. Cooperating not only in the field of scientific research & innovation and higher education but also in the field of research management and administration.

Surveys such as the 2010 Eurobarometer show that people around Europe are worried about what they eat and where it comes from. But what causes this? And does it affect behaviour? An EU-funded project studied consumer choices about shopping, cooking and eating – offering a more accurate picture of what shapes their decisions. The results could lead to better-informed policies on health, sustainability and business.

In 2015, the ERC celebrates its 5000th grant, which is presented in this folder alongside other ongoing and finished projects funded by the ERC in life sciences; physical sciences and engineering; and social sciences and humanities.

Eight years after its launch, the European Research Council (ERC) is celebrating a significant milestone: the funding of its 5,000th researcher. To mark this occasion, a debate in the European Parliament and a symbolic awarding of the grant taking place on 16th of June in Brussels.

Faster, greener and more sustainable: our world is thirsty for innovative processes that meet these demanding criteria. While natural resources can offer part of the solution, the biggest challenge lies in cleaning-up chemical synthesis. Prof. Georgios Vasilikogiannakis and his team have been looking for answers.

Most of our actions can have an impact on the environment, be it minor, long-lasting or simply irreversible. But how can this effect be measured, avoided, predicted? What are the specificities of long-term risks and how can collective decisions be taken effectively to tackle those threats?

The Sun provides a steady source of power that could make solar energy a sustainable alternative to conventional sources of energy, provided that technological advances can actually reduce energy production costs. Prof. Michael Grätzel modified the composition of dye-sensitized solar cells to significantly increase their efficiency, including for indoor use. His result laid the ground for paradigm shifts that could revolutionise solar cells technology.

Adolescence is marked by significant physical, cognitive and socio-emotional changes. Despite these well-known developments, the neural mechanisms supporting this phase of growth in the life of human beings remain unknown. Prof. Eveline Crone has carried out for the first time a longitudinal study to investigate the brain processes underlying the behaviour of teenagers.

Cellular regeneration allows wound healing in humans but in other vertebrates such as salamanders, it goes a step further: they can regenerate their limbs in their full complexity of bones, nerves, muscle and skin and can do it over and over again. Prof. Elly Tanaka studies these amazing capacities and, mirroring the process, has successfully grown a piece of mouse spinal cord in vitro.

With transport demand increasing rapidly, an EU-funded network investigated how to ease the strain on Europe’s ageing roads, railways and bridges, while training a new generation of researchers at the same time. The team used the latest technologies to improve maintenance techniques and design methods.

More than 40 young physicists have been given a flying start to their careers by an EU-funded programme of training and exchange visits between 12 European research centres.

End of 2014 the first Horizon 2020 projects were signed. Since then almost four thousand more have been added.

As announced by President Juncker on 13 May 2015, the European Commission intends to set up a new Scientific Advice Mechanism ("SAM"). The mechanism will support the Commission with high-quality, timely and independent scientific advice for its policy-making activities.

Through better understanding exactly how our brains deal with memory, EU-funded research has taken scientists one step closer to effectively diagnosing and treating degenerative brain diseases.

Ageing is a complex process. It happens in every part of the body, not just specific cell or tissue types. Even psychological factors and stress can play a role. The EU-funded project NINA took a multidisciplinary approach to improving our understanding of how age-related changes interact, ultimately helping us age more healthily.

Developing numerical models for analysing the stability, efficiency and feasibility of floating wind turbines, the future of offshore wind power generation, was the remit of the EU-funded ICFLOAT project. Its innovative techniques are already being used to analyse other types of wind energy devices.

Prof. Michael Schneider is a leading authority in the field of cardiac molecular biology. In 2008, he obtained an ERC grant to identify the mechanisms governing self-renewal of cardiac progenitor cells, a population of stem cells located in the heart itself that might be exploited to play a key role in regenerating this vulnerable organ in heart disease.

The first Horizon 2020 FET Open grant agreement has been signed, following the first cut-off of the call for proposals opened in 2014. The ULTRAQCL project proposes a new technology for ultrafast and intense light pulse generation and is the first of many more to come.

You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, nor is it something you could hear, taste or smell. Dark matter is all around us, and its mass produces measurable gravitational effects. Other than that, it interacts with the visible universe even less than previously thought, according to the results of recent EU-funded research.

How can we guarantee the integrity of existing buildings while continuing to develop urban spaces? Professor Debra Laefer's ERC-funded project tackles fundamental problems at the interface between new engineering undertakings and building conservation. The research team will draw on a largely unmined data source to create a system to predict the degree of damage likely to be sustained by buildings as a result of tunnelling.