ERC grants: over 500 CNRS projects selected for funding!
Institutional matters
On Thursday 28 March 2019, the European Research Council (ERC) awarded Advanced Grants to 222 researchers to finance exploratory research projects lasting 5 years, with a maximum budget of €2.5 million each. With 15 funded grants, the CNRS is the European research organisation with the greatest number of projects. In all, it has received a total of 536 ERC funded grants, making it a unique case in Europe.
ERC Advanced Grants enable scientists who are nationally and internationally recognized in their field to carry out innovative, high-risk projects that break new ground in their discipline or in other fields.
With 15 projects selected for funding, the CNRS is the leading organisation in Europe, ahead of Oxford University (9 projects), the Max Planck Institute (8) and University College London (8). In all, 536 grants have been awarded to the CNRS since the ERC Advanced Grants programme was set up in 2007.
Of the 15 new CNRS projects, ten are in the physical sciences and engineering, while five are in the life sciences. They are all led by CNRS researchers:
- VIREVOL, led by Chantal Abergel, Laboratoire Information Génomique et Structurale (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université)
- RetroChrom, led by Monsef Benkirane, Institut de Génétique Humaine (CNRS/Université de Montpellier)
- DIATOMIC, led by Chris Bowler, Institut de Biologie, Ecole Normale Supérieure (CNRS/ENS Paris/Inserm)
- ChloroMito, led by Giovanni Finazzi, Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire Végétale (CNRS/Inra/CEA/Université Grenoble Alpes)
- EvolSexChrom, led by Tatiana Giraud, Laboratoire Ecologie, Systématique et Évolution (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud/Agroparistech)
- SHRED, led by Catherine Chauvel, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (CNRS/IPGP/IGN/Université Paris Diderot)
- REFINE, led by Hervé Claustre, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche (CNRS/Sorbonne Université)
- ANDLICA, led by Robin Kaiser, Institut de Physique de Nice (CNRS/Université Côte d'Azur)
- FRESCO, led by Manuel Bibes, Unité Mixte de Physique CNRS/Thales
- BALLISTOP, led by Hélène Bouchiat, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud)
- PyroSafe, led by Carole Rossi, Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systèmes, CNRS
- SCIROCCO, led by Thierry Poinsot, Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse (CNRS/Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier)
- SPIAKID, led by Piercarlo Bonifacio, Laboratoire Galaxies, Étoiles, Physique, Instrumentation (Observatoire de Paris/CNRS)
- Mars through time, led by François Forget, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (CNRS/ENS Paris/Ecole Polytechnique/Sorbonne Université)
- GREATDIGINTHESKY, led by Rodrigo Ibata, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg (CNRS/Université de Strasbourg)
France ranks third with 31 funded projects, behind the United Kingdom (47 projects) and Germany (32).
