Brussels, 11/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 10 September, the European Research Council (ERC) announced the selection of 536 early-career top researchers for funding totalling almost €800 million. The grants are worth up to €2 million in total per grant, “so investing in world-class frontier research and in the next generation of scientists is one of Europe's top priorities” explained Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, in charge of research, innovation and science.
The popularity of ERC among European researchers and scientists who want to work in Europe continues to grow unabated. This is borne out by the increase in the number of candidates applying for “Starting Grants” (a 16% increase on last year's applications). The Starting Grant budget increased from €670 million in 2011 to almost €800 million and the European Commission does not intend to stop there. The Commission has proposed boosting the ERC budget to over €13 billion in the new framework programme "Horizon 2020" (2014-2020).
The researchers selected for the 2012 ECR grants consist of 41 different nationalities from 21 countries in Europe. 44% of selected proposals were in the area of “Physical Science and Engineering”, 37% in “Life Sciences”, and 19% in “Social Sciences and Humanities”. (JK/trans.fl)