Grant Winners

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.