14/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - €647 million from the EU to 277 senior research leaders. On Thursday 14 April, the European Research Council (ERC) announced the awarding of its prestigious Advanced Grants to 277 senior researchers. The funding, worth in total €647 million, is awarded under the 'excellent science' pillar of Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme. These grants will be awarded to both European and non-European researchers, as long as the latter carry out their research in Europe. There are therefore 29 different nationalities of researchers in 21 different countries. The biggest beneficiary is the British (47), alongside the Germans (47), followed by the Italians (26), the French (25) and the Dutch (20). The demand for these grants was far greater (1953 requests) and only 14% of them were successful. (JK)