Early-career researchers win major European grants

Nine Cambridge researchers have risen to the top of over 4,000 proposals to secure prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants, the most achieved by any UK institution.

sunset _Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge

The awards enable researchers to build their own teams and conduct world-leading research across all disciplines. In total, the grants will create more than 2,000 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other staff at host institutions.

Cambridge’s recipients work in a range of faculties and departments including physics, mathematics, plant sciences, music and history. They are among 397 laureates who will be leading projects at universities and research centres in 22 EU and associated countries. This year, the UK has received grants for 46 projects, Germany 72, France 53, and the Netherlands 44.

Cambridge’s grant recipients for 2021 are:

Giuliana Di Martino for Plasmon-Enhanced FerroElectric Discovery

Sebastian Eves-van den Akker for Effector biogenesis: an unexplored, and yet critically important, part of plant-nematode interactions

Jake Harris for TransPlant Memory: Synthetic Priming of Transcriptional Memory

Ailsa Keating for SingSymp Singularities and symplectic mapping class groups

Peter McMurray for Ottoman Auralities and the Eastern Mediterranean: Sound, Media and Power, 1789-1922

Teresa Rayon for Molecular and metabolic pathways controlling developmental timing

Caroline Rusterholz for Race and Sexual and Reproductive Health Charities in postwar Britain (1950s-2020s)

Robert-Jan Slager for Multi-gap topological physics: from a new geometric perspective to materials

Alice Thorneywork for The noise is the signal: exploring physico-chemical fluctuations with multiscale experimental models 

These are the first ERC starting grants to be awarded under the EU’s new R&I programme, Horizon Europe. On average, the grants are worth €1.5 million.

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Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge



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