Grant winners

European Research Council

The ERC has announced the winners of its first tranche of "advanced grants" in physical sciences and engineering. The awards were made to 105 researchers and the 19 British winners are published below. The grants allow exceptional established research leaders in any field of science, engineering and scholarship to pursue frontier research of their choice. Winners of advanced grants in social sciences and humanities will be announced later this month while winners for life sciences and interdisciplinary research will be published in October. The awards are worth up to EUR2.5 million (£2 million) over five years, but can rise to EUR3.5 million in exceptional circumstances. The call has a total budget of EUR517 million.

Award winner: Stephen Alec Billings

Institution: University of Sheffield

Nonlinear system identification and analysis in the time, frequency and spatio-temporal domains

Award winner: Anthony Kevin Cheetham

Institution: University of Cambridge

New directions in hybrid inorganic-organic framework materials

Award winner: Alexander Giles Davies

Institution: University of Leeds

New opportunities in terahertz engineering and science

Award winner: Savas Dimopoulos

Institution: University of Oxford

Physics beyond the standard model at the Large Hadron Collider and with atom interferometers

Award winner: Daniel Frenkel

Institution: University of Cambridge

Numerical design of self-assembly of complex colloidal structures

Award winner: William Gaver

Institution: Goldsmiths, University of London

Third-wave HCI: methods, domains and concepts

Award winner: Kevin Peter Homewood

Institution: University of Surrey

Silicon integrated lasers and optical amplifiers

Award winner: Sergei Kazarian

Institution: Imperial College London

Enhancing microfabricated devices with chemical imaging

Award winner: Michael Kramer

Institution: University of Manchester

Large European array for pulsars

Award winner: David Alan Leigh

Institution: University of Edinburgh

Synthetic molecules that walk down tracks: the first small-molecule linear motors

Award winner: Colin Robert McInnes

Institution: University of Strathclyde

Visionary space systems: orbital dynamics at extremes of spacecraft length-scale

Award winner: Ian Robinson

Institution: University College London

Exploration of strains in synthetic nanocrystals

Award winner: Matthew Rosseinsky

Institution: University of Liverpool

Resilient large unit cell inorganic materials

Award winner: Steve J. Rowland

Institution: University of Plymouth

Overlooked, unresolved toxic organic pollutants: resolution, identification, measurement and toxicity

Award winner: Martin Schroder

Institution: University of Nottingham

Chemistry of co-ordination space: extraction, storage, activation and catalysis

Award winner: Robert Stephen John Sparks

Institution: University of Bristol

Dynamics of volcanoes and their impact on environment and society

Award winner: Andrew Stuart

Institution: University of Warwick

Problems at the applied mathematics-statistics interface

Award winner: Thomas Welton

Institution: Imperial College London

Mixing ionic liquids

Award winner: Andrew Zisserman

Institution: University of Oxford

Visual recognition

National Institute for Health Research

Three new NIHR biomedical research units have been announced. They are part of a £10 million drive to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as heart disease, asthma and obesity. Each research unit will receive £3.4 million over the next four years.

Award winner: Barts & The London NHS Trust

Partner institution: Queen Mary, University of London

Cardiovascular disease

Award winner: Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Partner institution: University of Nottingham

Gastrointestinal (including liver) disease

Award winner: Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust

Partner institution: University of Liverpool

Gastrointestinal disease.