Among a batch of 291 European-wide people chosen by Horizon 2020 for project grants, six Irish-based researchers secured a total of €9m between them, bringing Ireland’s total funding ever closer to €100m.
Three men and three women – two from Trinity, and one each from UCD, NUI Galway, DIT and UCC – make it 58 Irish researchers in total who will be receiving €97m worth of EU H2020 funding.
Called ‘starting grants’, they’re given out to support the building of research teams from the earliest of stages, pushing boundaries “at the frontiers of knowledge”.
The grantees between them will recruit over 30 postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and research assistants to work on the research projects with them over the next five years.
“We need to keep our most talented researchers in Europe while attracting the new and diverse perspectives of top researchers from elsewhere in the world,” says Carlos Moedas, European commissioner for research, science and innovation.
“These grants ensure many of the world’s most exciting ideas are developed right here: giving researchers and scientists the freedom and security to pursue their careers and ambitions on our continent.”
The six lucky recipients, on which there is more detail here, are:
- Porscha Fermanis, UCD, awarded €1.5 million for her project, “Realigning British Romanticism: White Settler and Indigenous Writing in the British-Controlled Southern Hemisphere, 1783-1870” (Social Sciences and Humanities)
- Aidan McDonald, Trinity, awarded €1.5 million for his project, “Late First-Row Transition Metal-Oxo Complexes for C–H Bond Activation” (Physical and Engineering Sciences)
- Lydia Lynch, Harvard/Trinity, awarded just over €1.8 million for her project, “Targeting iNKT cell and adipocyte crosstalk for control of metabolism and body weight” (Life Sciences)
- Gary Donohoe, NUI Galway, awarded approx. €1.5 million for his project, “Immune Response and Social Cognition in Schizophrenia” (Social Sciences and Humanities)
- Mary Rogan, DIT, awarded €1.5 million for her project, “Prisons: the Rule of Law, Accountability and Rights” (Social Sciences and Humanities)
- James Kapalo, UCC, awarded approx. €1 million for his project, “Creative Agency and Religious Minorities: ‘hidden galleries’ in the secret police archives in 20th Century Central and Eastern Europe” (Social Sciences and Humanities).
Horizon image via Shutterstock
