Brussels, 09/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 9 September, the European Commission announced that the European Research Council (ERC) will support some 480 young researchers over the coming five years with grants worth up to €2 million each, a total of €670 million. This is the fourth “ERC Starting Grant” and is allocated to top talent to carry out their pioneering research in any domain throughout Europe. The most popular research area is physical sciences and engineering (46%), followed by life sciences (35%) and human and social sciences (19%). This programme's popularity is reflected in the 42% increase in the number of applications published by the ERC in the 2010 and 2011 editions (1,207 more applications than last year). Professor Helga Nowotny, the president of the ERC, stated: “Until now, the ERC has supported more than 2,200 researchers and their revolutionary work in Europe. Many of these projects are beginning to bear fruit.” Every year the programme attracts increasing numbers of researchers from the EU but also from European countries associated with the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7). This helps promote the staff retention of scientists employed in European research centres and also attracts young talent from the US (for this new project, 17 researchers come from North America). The president of the ECR openly stated that the objective of their forthcoming efforts would focus on attracting even more talent from abroad to make Europe one of the most fertile research areas in the world. (J.K./transl.fl)