Ali Hassanali of ICTP’s Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics unit has received the ERC Consolidator Grant, while Joan Elias Miró, a physicist in the High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics unit, got the ERC Starting Grant of €2m and €1.5m, respectively.
Two ICTP scientists have won prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants that will provide substantial support for their frontier research.
Ali Hassanali, of ICTP’s Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics section, has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for mid-career scientists, while Joan Elias Miró, a physicist in the High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics section, has received an ERC Starting Grant for early career scientists.
Grants for outstanding researchers
Both types of grants are given to outstanding researchers whose scientific track records show great promise.
The funding–up to €2 million per Consolidator Grant and €1.5 million for Starter Grants, plus in some cases additional money for start-up costs–is provided for up to five years and mostly covers the employment of researchers and other staff to consolidate the grantees’ teams.
ERC grants highly competitive
ERC grants are highly competitive: only 12% of grant proposals are approved.
“I congratulate Ali and Joan on their success in securing these competitive grants,” said ICTP Director Atish Dabholkar, adding, “It is a very well-deserved recognition from the European Research Council of their scientific accomplishments, and will surely encourage them towards greater heights in their research. ICTP is proud of these achievements and the high scientific profile of these young faculty members continuing in the fine traditions of the Centre.”
Grant awarded to another ICTP researcher
In January, an ERC Starting Grant was awarded to ICTP researcher Jean Barbier of the Centre’s Quantitative Life Sciences section, to fund a multidisciplinary project that will tackle questions concerning machine learning and neural networks using high-dimensional statistics.
The European Research Council, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premiere European funding organisation for excellent research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe.
It offers four core grant schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants.
This report was culled from ICTP.
