Millions in EU Funding for Three Leading Researchers in Saxony

The European Research Council (ERC) supports the best of the best in Europe across all fields of science. The “Advanced Grants” program is specifically aimed at established top researchers with an outstanding track record who wish to break new, groundbreaking ground with their work. This grant is thus one of the most prestigious research awards in the European Union. The award comes with funding of up to 2.5 million euros per grant over a five-year period.

Among the recipients:

• Prof. Dr. Stephan Grill of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) is receiving the grant for his research as part of the ERC project “DNA Sequence-Dependent Structure Formation in the Cell Nucleus.” This project combines biology and physics as well as theory and experiment, and aims to develop a physical theory of genome organization across various scales. This will provide insights into how DNA sequences control structural formation processes in the cell nucleus, which has far-reaching implications for development and the onset of disease.
• The ToxSick project (From toxic mixtures to disease), led by the environmental toxicologist Prof. Beate Escher at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), is based on the hypothesis that it is not individual chemicals, but rather the mixture of many chemicals that accumulates in the human body over the course of a lifetime, that contributes to the development of lifestyle-related diseases. Beate Escher’s research team is focusing on complex mixtures of chemicals, such as those found in the human body, and their role in the development of six disease groups—cancer, reproductive and metabolic disorders, immune and cardiovascular diseases, and brain disorders.
• Through the SUPREME project (Supernova and r-process radionuclides engraved on million-years-old archives from Earth and the Moon), Prof. Dr. Anton Wallner and his team at the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are investigating how, in cosmic explosions, such as supernovae or neutron star mergers, and whether such events have had an impact on Earth’s climate and biosphere. Using a novel variant of accelerator mass spectrometry, researchers at the HZDR are detecting individual atoms in NASA lunar samples, deep-sea floor samples, and ice cores that originate from these interstellar events over the past 500 million years.

Background:

The European Research Council (ERC) is part of the “Scientific Excellence” priority area of the EU’s Horizon Europe Framework Program for Research and Innovation. Its goal is to support individual researchers with groundbreaking ideas. To this end, the ERC offers various funding lines for different career stages—from “Starting Grants” for early-career researchers to “Advanced Grants” for experienced scientific pioneers. In addition, the ERC supports outstanding early-career research groups and initiatives designed to transform ERC project ideas into innovations.