Fifty-seven mostly international research groups were awarded a total of €571 million in Synergy Grants by the European Research Council (ERC) last Tuesday. The grants are intended to foster collaboration between outstanding researchers from different disciplines, enabling them to combine their expertise to address some of the most complex scientific problems together.
The Dutch winners are engaged in various research projects, including those addressing cutting-edge light-based chips, the role of certain bacteria in immune systems and understanding everyday hearing.
24 countries
A total of 201 researchers from twenty-four countries were selected. Germany, with thirty-four projects, is hosting by far the highest number of projects. The United Kingdom is hosting eighteen projects. They are followed by France, Spain and the Netherlands, who are hosting thirteen, twelve and ten projects, respectively.
Two researchers from Eindhoven and Twente are collaborating in one of the projects selected for funding. The University of Amsterdam and Leiden University both appear twice in the list of selected host institutions. Funding has also been awarded to Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the University of Groningen, Maastricht University, Radboud University in Nijmegen and Sanquin, which provides blood services in the Netherlands.
The United States is the frontrunner among non-European countries, with US research institutes participating in twelve projects. A total of twenty-two projects involve teams including a researcher based outside Europe.
Women
Applicants submitted 548 proposals in this call, meaning that roughly one in ten eventually made it through the selection process. The ERC reports that a notably high proportion of the researchers who are part of the winning projects are women: nearly 32 percent. This compares with a figure of around 20 percent in the past two years. Six research teams are composed entirely of female researchers.
