Under the Horizon Europe Programme, the European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 397 Starting Grants to early-career researchers around Europe. An average of €1.5 million will be granted to each young researcher to launch their projects, raising the total investment to €619 million.

The selected proposals, covering all areas of research, were allocated in three major panels: Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences and Social Sciences and Humanities. The candidates will carry out their projects at European universities, associated universities and research centres, mostly in Germany (72 projects), France (53), the UK (46) and the Netherlands (44). Switzerland is considered a non-associated third country, but as the negotiations between the EU and Switzerland were not closed before the closing of this call, the proposals from Swiss host institutions selected for funding will remain eligible if the host institution is replaced with an alternative institution form an eligible country by the time of signing the grant agreement. Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, stated that this was a big opportunity for researchers who had left the European Union to research overseas, to come back to do science in Europe, making sure Europe remains a worldwide scientific powerhouse.

Chemistry projects fall within the Physical Sciences and Engineering panel, including different topics, from Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences to Synthetic Chemistry and Materials or Products and Processes Engineering, among others. One of the outstanding selected projects includes the research project from Dr Sarah Guerin, focusing on the development of biomolecular crystals as a new type of organic, low-cost, high-performance piezoelectric sensors leading to the phasing-out of inorganic device components – with dramatically reduced environmental impact.

The full list of available projects is available here.

More information on the grants can be found here.