Large European research grant for ISS scholar

Jun Borras, Professor of Agrarian Studies, will receive a prestigious European research grant. The ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros will allow him to conduct his research during the next five years.

Borras is a full professor at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and researches land politics. He hopes to use the European research grant to widen his research into the influence of land politics on food, labour, climate policy, citizenship and geopolitics in Ethiopia, Colombia and Myanmar.

The Netherlands is doing well in the race for European research funds. No fewer than 23 top scholars of Dutch research institutes have won an ‘advanced grant’ from the European Research Council. The only countries to gain more grants are the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

Borras is the only EUR scholar who was awarded a grant during this round. A total of 2052 research proposals were entered. Only 10.8 percent of these were awarded a grant.