Four Polish scientists receive prestigious research grants

Doctors Piotr Achinger, Michał Nemeth, Magdalena Winiarska and Tomasz Żuradzki are the Polish winners of prestigious Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC). The list of more than 400 winners was presented on Friday.

The European Research Council (ERC) has been awarding grants for breakthrough research in the European Union and associated countries since 2008. For this year's edition of the Starting Grants, 3,170 applications were submitted to the ERC, of which only about 13 percent received funding.

In this round of the Starting Grants, scientists received a total of over EUR 600 mln, with a maximum of EUR 1.5 mln to create research teams and carry out pioneering research. The ERC announced on its website on Friday that thanks to funds gained by the scientists, research will be carried out by institutions in 22 countries of the European Union. The highest number of grants were obtained by scientists from Germany (73), Italy (42), France (33) and the Netherlands (33).

The ERC allots funds for three main types of projects lasting up to 5 years. A Starting Grant (maximum EUR 1.5 mln) is intended for young, early-career top researchers (2-7 years after PhD), a Consolidator Grant (maximum EUR 2 mln) is addressed to researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD, while scientists with well-established achievements can compete for an Advanced Grant (maximum EUR 2.5 mln), which can be used to conduct their own research.