Finland wins 18 ERC Starting Grants

The European Research Council (ERC) has granted 18 researchers working in Finnish organisations a five-year Starting Grant. The funding is intended for researchers at the beginning of their careers to launch their own projects, form their teams and pursue their most promising ideas.

In this round, the number of grantees based in Finland is higher than ever before. The total funding comes to almost 780 million euros, which amounts to 494 Starting Grants to early-career scientists and scholars across Europe.

Researchers based on Finland secured just under 29 million euros in total. Each grantee will bring around 1.5 million euros to their host organisation to fund the research of the research team.

A record-setting 149 researchers applied for funding from Finland. Their success rate was 12.1 per cent, which is also higher than ever before for Starting Grant applications under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe framework programmes.

Grantees from Finland

• Maxime Grandin (University of Helsinki): Lights in the night sky and ozone loss: Unravelling atmosphere forcing from space with radar, optics and novel citizen science
• Alexander Mühleip (University of Helsinki): Revival of the powerhouse: How mitochondrial remodelling controls the energy metabolism of the malaria parasite to enable survival in different hosts
• Eliisa Kekäläinen (University of Helsinki): Protecting the thymic epithelial cells and thymopoiesis during hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
• Nanna Myllys (University of Helsinki): Formation, clustering and atmospheric impact of clusterable organic compounds
• Kamil Mamak (University of Helsinki): Philosophical foundations of criminal law in the age of robots
• Mihail Nakonechnyi (University of Helsinki): Death, smoke and mirrors: Manipulation of health data in liberal and authoritarian custodial institutions
• Jonathan Valk (University of Helsinki): The Aramaization of the Middle East: Revisiting the fall and rise of written traditions
• Virve Marionneau (University of Helsinki): Data-driven market power in the production of addiction
• Daniela Alaattinoglu (University of Turku): From the margin to the centre: Rights development, transitional justice and indigeneity in the Nordics
• Sarah Malamut (University of Turku): Dwelling alone or together: An integrated framework of peer victimization, (co-)rumination and mental health
• Joni Teräväinen (University of Turku): Analytic number theory and higher order Fourier analysis
• Tiina Turunen (University of Turku): SHADES of bullying: Studying heterogeneity and adjustment in different environments
• Wenwen Fang (Aalto University): Unleashing cellulose potential: Laser-driven structural modulation
• Daniel Hauser (Aalto University): Modelling misspecification: Incorporated information processing biases into economic models
• Hang Zhang (Aalto University): Life-inspired physical feedback coupling in multidimensional hydrogels
• Kaisa Huhta (University of Eastern Finland): The coming of age of a new legal discipline: Developing the general doctrine of energy law
• Jenni Lehtimäki (Finnish Environment Institute): Multi-kingdom biodiversity in residential environments and immune-mediated diseases in children
• Mattia Thibault (Tampere University): A systematic exploration of interreal translations in the media multiverse

The Research Council of Finland supports researchers applying and planning to apply for ERC funding by organising Proposal Reading Days, during which researchers and research support staff can familiarise themselves with research plans that have received funding. In addition, there are open information sessions on ERC funding open to all researchers and interview training for ERC-shortlisted and invited applicants.

Established by the European Union in 2007, the European Research Council funds excellent research across Europe. The ERC offers four grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees explore the innovation potential of their ideas or research results. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the ERC Scientific Council.