Five researchers chosen
This year the European Research Council (ERC) has awarded ERC Advanced Grants to five researchers at ETH Zurich. Each researcher will receive between 3 and 4 million Swiss francs for his project. This means that around 16 million Swiss francs will make their way to the ETH Zurich in this round of awards.
Out of the 2,400 projects that were submitted for an ERC Advanced Grant this year, the European Research Council has selected 248. Over the next five years it will provide financial backing for them amounting to 800 million in Swiss francs. With the Advanced Grant, ERC only supports projects by established, top-flight researchers. It is, therefore, seen as a very special distinction.
Professor Roland Siegwart, ETH Vice President Research and Corporate Relations, is therefore pleased with the excellent performance of the ETH researchers: “At the present time at ETH Zurich we already have 41 ERC Advanced Grant projects which are up and running. Nonetheless, our researchers still succeed in submitting further projects of the highest possible standard.”
This year the winning ETH projects come from the areas Physics, Computational Science, Photonics and Materials Engineering. These are all areas in which ETH Zurich has been engaged for some considerable time now in extensive research. Thanks to the ERC Advanced Grants ground-breaking research projects like the development of a spacer or the coupling of quantum chips can be carried forward. Short descriptions of the five successful research projects can be accessed on ETH-News.