The new academic year is off to a brilliant start for four Lund University researchers who have received European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant. Out of the 400 selected, the lucky ones from Lund University are Filip Lenrick, Milda Pucetaite, Colin Olito and Daria Davitti.
The ERC Starting Grant is made for researchers who still are in an early part of their career, and the only criteria is scientific excellence.
This year, almost 2,700 researchers applied for this grant. At the finishing line, following a thorough examination of the projects and interviews, 400 researchers will share the final amount. But the grant’s low success rate (15 percent) hasn’t dampened their ambitions.
Daria Davitti is now the first recipient of the scholarship at a Swedish law school.
”My project examines the financial instruments used to fund humanitarian aid in refugee situations,” she explains in an email. ”What’s essential is that we have time and funding to go into greater depth, to write up and disseminate the results properly”, she adds.
Filip Lenrick and Milda Pucetaite are researchers in the Department of Biology at Lund University. As well as being symbolic, this grant will support their projects.
”I’ll be able to explore the potential of the various ideas in depth, and experiment on a larger scale that will show if these ideas can be implemented in an industrial setting. The money will also allow me to employ two PhD students”, Filip Lenrick writes in an email.
For Milda Pucetaite, it will enable her to bring together a team and ”a new line of research”.
Through the prestige of ERC, the researchers are ensuring that the project attracts sufficient attention.
For Daria Davitti, as for others, the ERC Starting Grant carries a tremendous deal.
”I am aware of this privilege. With this awareness also comes a deep sense of responsibility.”
