EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL
Starting Grant Competition
Almost €580 million (£491 million) has been awarded by the ERC in its third Starting Grant Competition. The awards of up to €2 million each are provided to early career researchers to aid their studies. Listed below (and online) are the UK-based winners in the physical sciences and engineering.
• Award winner: Darren Bradshaw
• Institution: University of Liverpool
Biomineral-inspired growth and processing of metal-organic frameworks
• Award winner: Siwan Manon Davies
• Institution: Swansea University
Tephra constraints on rapid climatic events
• Award winner: Lorna Dougan
• Institution: University of Leeds
Extreme biophysics: single-molecule characterisation of extremophilic protein folding
• Award winner: Caterina Ducati
• Institution: University of Cambridge
Solar cells at the nanoscale: imaging active photoelectrodes in the transmission electron microscope
• Award winner: Joanna Dunkley
• Institution: University of Oxford
Fundamental physics from the cosmic microwave background
• Award winner: Matthew Gaunt
• Institution: University of Cambridge
A new blueprint for chemical synthesis via metal-catalysed C-H bond functionalisation
• Award winner: Gianluca Gregori
• Institution: University of Oxford
Laboratory simulation of cosmological magnetic fields
• Award winner: Albert Guillen Fabregas
• Institution: University of Cambridge
Finite-length information theory
• Award winner: Christiane Helling
• Institution: University of St Andrews
Charge separation, lightning and radio emission in low-mass objects
• Award winner: Stefan Hollands
• Institution: Cardiff University
Quantum fields and curvature - novel constructive approach via operator product expansion
• Award winner: Veerle Ann Ida Huvenne
• Institution: Natural Environment Research Council
Complex deep-sea environments: mapping habitat heterogeneity as proxy for biodiversity
• Award winner: Dragan Jovcic
• Institution: University of Aberdeen
Modelling platforms for high-power resonant DC hub and power networks with multiple converter systems
• Award winner: Matthew Pudan Juniper
• Institution: University of Cambridge
Advanced Lagrangian optimisation, receptivity and sensitivity analysis applied to industrial situations
• Award winner: Peter Knippertz
• Institution: University of Leeds
Desert storms: towards an improved representation of meteorological processes in models of mineral dust emission
• Award winner: Krzysztof Koziol
• Institution: University of Cambridge
High performance and ultralight carbon nanotube wires for power transmission
• Award winner: Daniela Kuehn
• Institution: University of Birmingham
Quasi-randomness in graphs and hypergraphs
• Award winner: Hon Wai Lam
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
Enantioselective transition-metal catalysis for efficient chemical synthesis
• Award winner: Valerio Lucarini
• Institution: University of Reading
Thermodynamics of the climate system
• Award winner: Ivan Markovsky
• Institution: University of Southampton
Structured low-rank approximation: theory, algorithms and applications
• Award winner: Jonathan Nitschke
• Institution: University of Cambridge
Directed evolution of function within chemical systems: adaptive capsules and polymers
• Award winner: Peder Norberg
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
Deciphering the evolution of galaxies and the assembly of structure: probing the growth of non-linear structure in the Dark Universe with statistical analyses of galaxy surveys
• Award winner: Martin James Paterson
• Institution: Heriot-Watt University
Photoinduced chemistry: development and application of computational methods for new understanding
• Award winner: Alexandra Porter
• Institution: Imperial College London
Targeting potential of carbon nanotubes at the blood-brain barrier
• Award winner: Ferdinando Rodriguez Y Baena
• Institution: Imperial College London
STING - a soft tissue intervention and neurosurgical probe
• Award winner: Chrystèle Sanloup
• Institution: University of Edinburgh
Magmas at depth: an experimental study at extreme conditions
• Award winner: Martin Derwyn Smith
• Institution: University of Oxford
Emulating nature through asymmetric catalysis
• Award winner: Helen Marie Talbot
• Institution: University of Newcastle
Quantifying aerobic methane oxidation in the ocean: calibration and palaeo-application of a novel proxy
• Award winner: Rein V. Ulijn
• Institution: University of Strathclyde
Enzyme-driven molecular nanosystems
• Award winner: Kylie Alison Vincent
• Institution: University of Oxford
Understanding and exploiting biological catalysts for energy cycling: development of infrared spectroelectrochemistry for studying intermediates in metalloenzyme catalysis
IN DETAIL
• Award winner: Stephanie Perichon Lacour
• Institution: University of Cambridge
Stretchable electronic skins
By exploring stretchable electronic circuitry, this project will seek to advance the technology that can be used to control distributed transducers over large and uneven 3D structures. Research will consider developing advanced materials for ultra-compliant applications using micro and nanotechnology, fabricating soft but mechanically structured transducer circuits, creating new characterisation tools for stretchable circuitry, while investigating how to produce conformable, biocompatible and bioelectronic interfaces. It is hoped that the research will lead to novel handheld devices, cheap and disposable skin-healing monitors and alternatives for patients in need of prostheses.