Third-party funding: The European Union supports young researchers with €628 million

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced that it will award a total of €628 million to 400 research projects by young scientists across Europe. The so-called ERC Start-up Grants, which are part of the EU program Horizon Europe, aim to help early-career researchers start their own projects and lead research groups.

Financial support will be invested in scientific projects covering various research disciplines, from medicine to computer science to the humanities and social sciences. The Egyptian Red Crescent cites a number of projects as examples, including Professor Dr. Catherine Girling, who in Germany will try to make virtual reality accessible to people with physical disabilities. doctor. Edgar Steenstra, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Münster, wants to use the funding to start a research project on the atmosphere of Venus at TU Delft. doctor. On the other hand, Lucy Van Dorp wants to conduct research on the parasites that cause malaria in the United Kingdom.

In a statement, the President of the Egyptian Red Crescent, Professor Maria Liptin, particularly praised “one of the highest percentages of female sponsors” in this tour, and added: “I hope this percentage will continue to rise.” According to the Egyptian Research Authority, about 43% of scholarships went to female researchers. The previous year, the percentage was 39 percent.

German researchers and institutions rank first

According to the ERC, the selected researchers will implement their projects at universities and research centers in 24 European countries, with most projects located in Germany (87), France (50), the Netherlands (44), and the United Kingdom (32). The researchers represent a total of 44 nationalities, including German (66), Italian (57), French (32) and Dutch (27) scientists. According to ERC, 14 Europeans currently living in the United States will implement their projects in Europe. Non-European researchers whose countries are linked to the European Horizon have also received funding, such as Professor Dr. Lior Zalmanson for his research project on workplace surveillance technologies at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

According to the ERC, a total of 2,696 applications were submitted in this round. The overall success rate was 14.8 percent. The financial assistance is expected to create more than 2,600 jobs for postdoctoral students, doctoral students and other employees.

However, the numbers are still provisional because due to Brexit, commitments to British researchers are not yet final. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement allows the UK to link to Horizon Europe, subject to the adoption of a separate protocol, the ERC said on its website. But this has not happened yet. If the protocol is not accepted by the time the funding is paid, researchers from the UK projects will have to move to a host institution in a European country, according to the ERC announcement.