ERC grants awarded to researchers of the University of Trento

The ERC grant is a prestigious European award attesting the high quality of research carried out by the proposer and the host institution. The applicants to an ERC grant undergo a very selective evaluation based on the sole criterion of scientific excellence.

The University of Trento has been awarded 9 ERC grants:

6 ERC Starting Grants  (1 in the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain and 5 in the Social Sciences and Humanities domain)

• David Paul Melcher (CIMeC – Centro Interdipartimentale Mente/Cervello) with the project "Construction of perceptual space-time" (CoPeST)

• Nathan Weisz (CIMeC – Centro Interdipartimentale Mente/Cervello) with the project “Brain-state dependent perception: finding the windows to consciousness” (Win2Con)

• Marco Baroni (CIMEC Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences) with the project “Compositional Operations in Semantic Space”  (COMPOSES)

• Michael Dumbser (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Laboratory of Applied Mathematics) with the project “Space-Time Methods for Multi-Fluid Problems on Unstructured Meshes” (STiMulUs)

• Stefani Scherer (Department of Sociology and Social Research) with the project “Families of Inequalities - Social and economic consequences of the changing workfamily” (FAMINE)
• Uri Hasson (CIMEC Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences) with the project “How the brain codes the past to predict the future” (NeuroInt) 

3 ERC Advanced Grants (1 in the Social Sciences and Humanities domain and 2 in the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain)

• Giorgio Vallortigara (CIMeC – Centro Interdipartimentale Mente/Cervello) with the project “Predisposed mechanisms for social orienting: A comparative neuro-cognitive approach” (PREMESOR)
• Sandro Stringari (Department of Physics) with the project “Quantum Gases Beyond Equilibrium” (QGBE)
• John Mylopoulos (Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science) with the project “Foundations for Software Evolution” (LUCRETIUS)

What is the ERC?

The ERC, European Research Council, is the European funding organization which supports investigator-driven frontier research. It was set up under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme – specific programme Ideas - with a budget of 7.5 bn Euros for 7 years (2007-2013).

Its main aim is to stimulate scientific excellence by supporting the very best, creative researchers undertaking pioneering high-risk/high-gain research. 

ERC grants are awarded through open competition to projects headed by starting and established researchers, irrespective of their origins, who are working or moving to work in Europe - the sole criterion for selection is scientific excellence. The aim is to recognise the best ideas, and retain and confer status and visibility to the best brains in Europe, while also attracting talent from abroad.