ERC: Five Advanced Grants for Helmholtz
The Helmholtz Association was again successful in the European Research Council (ERC)'s 2017 call for proposals: Recently, scientists have been able to secure five Advanced Grants. By the end of 2017, the Helmholtz Association had already moved up to ninth place among the most successful organizations in Europe at the ERC.
"ERC funding has long been an important indicator of outstanding performance by researchers. I am delighted that five of our scientists were able to prove themselves in this competition of ideas and congratulate them warmly on their success," says Helmholtz President Otmar D. Wiestler. "The fact that Helmholtz is now also in ninth place in the Europe-wide ERC ranking reflects a step in the right direction."
The ERC awards Advanced Grants to excellent established scientists. Norbert Hübner and Gary Lewin from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Frank Stefani from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Markus Zweckstetter from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Martin Schultz from Forschungszentrum Jülich were successful in the current call for proposals. The funding awarded is to up to 3.5 million euros for a period of up to five years.
According to the newly published ERC annual report, the Helmholtz Association had already moved up to ninth place among the most successful organizations by December 2017. The statistics count all grants per top institution acquired since the ERC was established in 2007.
In addition to the recently announced Advanced Grants, Helmholtz secured 14 other grants in the 2017 round of calls for proposals:
Ten Starting Grants (three awards for FZ Jülich, two for KIT, and one each for DKFZ, GEOMAR, GFZ, HMGU, and HZDR) and four Consolidator Grants (two awards for KIT and one each for AWI and DKFZ) were awarded to scientists at Helmholtz Centers. In the last round of calls, Helmholtz managed to secure a total of 19 grants.
The ERC Starting Grants are aimed at young scientists who received their doctorates two to seven years ago and provide funding of up to two million euros. Consolidator Grants support scientists who already have seven to twelve years of research experience after completing their doctorate. They are expected to build on this experience, further consolidating the development of their ideas. In this funding line, researchers receive up to 2.75 million euros for their projects.
Center abbreviations:
AWI: Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
DKFZ: German Cancer Research Center
DZNE: German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
FZ Jülich: Forschungszentrum Jülich
GEOMAR: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
GFZ: Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
HMGU: Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health
HZDR: Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
KIT: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
MDC: Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine
Further information:
www.helmholtz.de/erc
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