Irish Success in ERC Starting Grants

On the 4th of September, the European Research Council announced the latest recipients of Starting Grant awards. We’re delighted that among the awards were seven researchers from Irish universities, with a combined value of over €10.8 million across four institutions. 

The funded projects span a range of disciplines (and inter-disciplines) and will study a diverse range of areas, from using ancient and modern genomes to tell the story of three medieval Irish communities, to understanding how pain affects people from varied backgrounds differently, to developing insights into the evolution of memory. 

ERC grants are one of the most prestigious individual awards in Europe, and indeed worldwide, and are highly sought after by researchers across the globe, offering the opportunity to undertake world class fundamental, curiosity driven research that can push forward the boundaries of their disciplines, and giving a great boost to recipients in their research careers. In total 3,928 proposals submitted, with 478 grants awarded, making for a success rate of just over 12%, reinforcing the superb achievement of the researchers. 

As well as the applicants themselves, we pay credit to many who provided support, from research office staff, critical friends and colleagues, and those unconnected to the applicants who helped with mock interviews for the benefit of their disciplines. 

The full list of projects: 

Dr Graham Benham – University College Dublin

SurFSUP: Surfing on Free Surfaces by Undulating Propulsion

Dr Lara Cassidy – Trinity College Dublin

LIFETIMES: A Thousand Years of Transformation: Building a genomic bridge between population and life history at the edge of medieval Europe.

Dr Kevin Daly – University College Dublin

HERDPATH: The genomic consequences of domestication for ruminant pathogen evolution and herd diversity across ten millennia

Dr Paul Maher – University of Limerick

IDENTITY-ERROR: Identity-Error: How Social Self-Evidencing Exposes Vulnerability to Falsehoods and Conspiracy Beliefs

Dr Gillian Murphy – University College Cork

FRAME Functional, Reliable and Adaptive Memory Errors

Dr Mary O’Keeffe – University College Dublin

PainSupportLink: New frontiers in chronic pain management: A personalised support package targeting the mechanistic links between social disadvantage and pain sensitisation

Dr Lucia Tiscornia – University College Dublin

CRIMLATAM: Criminal Governance in Unexpected Contexts: the Role of the Welfare State in Latin America

Congratulations to all the awardees. We look forward to following the projects over the next five years. 

Patrick Lansley is the National Contact Point for ERC (SH) and Horizon Europe Cluster 2. His role is supported by Taidghe Éireann / Research Ireland and jointly operated with the Irish Universities Association.