Three DTU researchers have received the prestigious ERC Starting Grants from the European Research Council for independent basic research.
Three researchers from DTU have received one of the European Research Council’s coveted grants for independent basic research of EUR 1.5 million or just over DKK 11 million. All in all, eight Danish researchers have been awarded grants totalling DKK 90 million for new and groundbreaking research.
The recipients from Technical University of Denmark are Irina Borodina from DTU Biosustain, Søren Hauberg from DTU Compute, and Peter Christian Kjærgaard Vesborg from DTU Physics.
The grants from the European Research Council (ERC) are Starting Grants of up to EUR 1.5 million each. The grants are awarded to talented young researchers from all over the world, and competition is fierce. Inventiveness, risk-willingness, and groundbreaking research ideas are key to receiving funding, and only the most talented researchers are awarded the prestigious grants.
With the grants, the researchers can build their own research teams and—together with a team of postdocs and PhD students—go on to create groundbreaking research results.
Irina Borodina has been awarded a grant for a research project entitled ‘YEAST-TRANS: Deciphering the transport mechanisms of small xenobiotic molecules in synthetic yeast cell factories’.
Søren Hauberg receives the grant for the research project ‘NoTape: Measuring with no tape PE6’.
Peter Christian Kjærgaard Vesborg receives the grant for the research project ‘ATOMICAR: ATOMic Insight Cavity Array Reactor’.
In this round, the ERC is awarding grants totalling EUR 605 million to 406 researchers from all over the world with the UK, Germany, and France being the preferred countries.
With the grants, Europe can attract and retain brilliant minds from around the world, as it is a condition that the researchers—irrespective of nationality—carry out their projects in an EU country.