Ireland wins European research funding awards

The European Research Council has announced the winners of the latest Advanced Grant competition, with funding valued at €838m for over 300 researchers globally.

The European Research Council gives senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious projects with potential for major scientific breakthroughs.

319 leading researchers will receive a share of the funding, located at universities and research centres in 24 EU Member States.

Five researchers from Ireland are among the winners, working out of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.

One of the projects, InfantNeuroAI, led by Rhodri Cusack, explores the development of visual cognition in infants and machines.

Another project, Flourish, led by Richard Layte, covers the foundations of life course outcomes in relationships and social connection.

From UCD, Porsche Fermanis’ PanAsia project will look at anti-colonialism, pan-Asianism and periodical culture in Southeast Asia.

Rory Johnson’s Revolver project will explore directed evolution to understand and engineer bioactive long noncoding RNAs.

Anthony O’Mullane’s Almers project takes a look at adaptive liquid metal electrocatalytic reaction systems.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner for Start-ups, Research, and Innovation, congratulated the winners and welcomed researchers from outside Europe.

These projects embody the spirit of scientific exploration that drives progress.

The increase in applications from researchers based outside Europe shows that initiatives like Choose Europe are helping to reinforce Europe’s appeal to top scientific talent worldwide.

Maria Leptin, the President of the European Research Council, added that the new Advanced Grant projects demonstrate the creativity and ambition that frontier research requires.

The ERC’s role is to support researchers who are asking difficult scientific questions and want to venture into unexplored territory in pursuit of new knowledge.

The new grantees are of 33 different nationalities, which highlights Europe’s strength as a destination for outstanding scientific talent.

They will use the funding to support researchers working on a wide range of projects, from the development of new materials to the study of the human brain, as part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, which aims to support research and innovation in Europe.

Thirteen of the researchers are currently based outside of Europe, amounting to 4pc of all winners, and were selected from the US, Australia, and Canada.

These researchers will receive funding to pursue their projects, which are expected to result in major scientific breakthroughs.

It is expected to result in major scientific breakthroughs.

For more information on the European Research Council and its funding programmes, you can visit the official EU research website.

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