Research and Advanced Education
European Research Council – For those who are thirsty for the world
There is a European company that invests in human excellence.
Created in 2007 by the European Union, the ERC (European Research Council) manages funds for people who want to explore the world and break new ground, creating solutions for the advancement of Science.
It is a company made by scientists and for scientists. Scientists who are launching their projects (2 to 7 years), well-established scientists (7 to 12 years) or advanced scientists (more than 10 years and involved in synergy projects), all have access to a five-year funding.
With more than 6,000 projects approved, the ERC intends to invest 13 billion euros by 2020. Its aim is to ensure the continuity of studies and people in Europe, promoting and developing human and technical resources and generating the necessary autonomy to enable research to progress.
In its first decade, the ERC allocated to Portugal more than 140 million euros, divided into 82 grants.
According to statistical data from the newspaper Expresso, the University of Lisbon was the Portuguese institution that received the highest number of grants, a total of 38, in the amount of € 38 million. The iMM alone received 12 grants, corresponding to € 16 million.
In 2017, Portugal received € 16 million. Of the 8 scientists who were chosen, 5 are women. One of them is Luisa Figueiredo (insert link to her news from last month), researcher at the iMM. Portugal is also among the top five in the ranking of European countries with the most awards in the field of Life Sciences. Of the 10 award-winning women with research works in the field of Immunity and Infection, 3 are Portuguese.
The European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, expressed his pride in a press release: "I am very pleased to learn about the latest achievements of the Portuguese researchers in terms of the grants awarded by the ERC." He highlighted the importance of women for the country's statistics: "I am even more pleased to realize that five of these researchers are women, examples of scientific quality in Portugal".
Currently, there are 329 scientists across Europe who rely on the € 630 million of the Horizon 2020 programme. Of the 2,583 proposals received by the ERC last year, only 13% were successful. Of that total, 32% of researchers are women.
In Portugal, the number of grants awarded grew 20% in 2017 alone, a growth above the European average.
Within the scope of the Horizon 2020 programme, the ERC is assessing all the applications to the next New Investigator Grant.
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