Daniele Brida, from the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication of the University of Luxembourg, received one of the Consolidator Grant for his project “UpTEMPO: Ultrafast tunneling microscopy by optical field control of quantum currents”.
In order to prepare the second stage, where candidates are invited for an interview to present their projects, the University organised a mock interview panel in which the EU funding team of Luxinnovation participated. The objective was to simulate the interview as closely as possible, to ask questions and to give feedback on the presentation.
The project will run over 5 years with a budget of nearly 2 million euro. Daniele Brida is the 11th researcher from Luxembourg to have successfully received such a prestigious grant, putting Luxembourg among the top performing countries in the EU.
Boosting Europe exploratory research
On the occasion of the ERC results announcement, Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: “This EU grant provides a real boost to research and innovation in Europe because it gives top scientists the chance to take risks and pursue their best and maybe wildest ideas. I am pleased to see these ERC grants will support such a diverse group of people of forty nationalities working in over twenty countries and that the list of grantees also reflects that we have many excellent women scientists in Europe.”
The President of the ERC, Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, commented: “This ERC funding will allow ambitious scientists to establish or strengthen their teams in Europe and be truly creative in their research. Beyond a push to the grantees’ careers, this European support will offer an excellent working environment for younger researchers at doctoral and post-doctoral levels. We look forward to see many of these daring ideas come to fruition, to the benefit of Europe at large.”
The grantees will carry out their projects at universities and research centres in 21 different countries across Europe. The research projects proposed by the new grantees cover a wide range of topics in physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, as well as social sciences and humanities.
The ERC received 2,389 research proposals this time, out of which approximately 12% will be funded. 32% of grants were awarded to female applicants. This new round of grants should create around 1750 jobs for postdocs, PhD students and other staff working in the grantees’ research team.