Minister Polaschek congratulates scientists on 17 ERC Starting Grants

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the results of the 2022 Starting Grant call.

This year, 17 scientists prevailed among almost 3,000 competitors in a rigorous selection process, raising more than 28.3 million euros in funding for Austria as a research location. ERC Starting Grants offer young scientists who are still largely at the beginning of their careers the opportunity to work on a topic of their choice in order to establish themselves as excellent researchers in independent projects. They are provided with a budget of up to 1.5 million euros for a period of five years for this purpose.

With no less than seven Starting Grants, a particularly large number of projects in the field of physics and engineering sciences were funded this year. Six other scientists focus on social science topics, while four applicants come from the field of life sciences. This year four grants go to the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), with two of the projects run by ÖAW companies: one at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) and one at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA). The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and the University of Vienna receive three grants each. Two grants were awarded to Graz University of Technology, and another grant each to the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the University of Linz, the University of Salzburg, the University of Leoben, and the Medical University of Graz.