Europe recognizes Catalan research excellence
11 of the 20 grants awarded in Spain went to researchers at centers in Catalonia
The first call under the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator program has awarded 11 grants to researchers in Catalonia out of the 20 received in Spain. The results were announced this month, once again demonstrating the research of excellence being carried out in Catalan universities and centers.
Consolidator is a new type of ERC grant, in addition to their previous Starting, Advanced, Proof of Concept and Synergy grants. The Consolidator grant recognizes young researchers with a track record showing great promise but who need a push to move from working under a supervisor to being independent researchers in their own right.
Of the 11 people who have received the Consolidator grant in Catalonia, 6 are from the life sciences, 2 from the physical sciences and 3 from the social sciences. The full list of grant recipients is available here.
| Life sciences: | |
| Patrick Aloy – Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) |
 | Ben Lehner – Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) ICREA Professor, Eppendorf Young Investigator Award Individual robustness in development and cancer |
| Laura Soucek – Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) Miguel Servet research grant Myc inhibition and validation as a cancer treatment |
 | Xavier Trepat – Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) ICREA Professor Multiscale regulation of epithelial tension |
 | Marco Dentz - Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA) Ramón i Cajal Researcher Mixtures in heterogeneous media through scales of space and time |
 | Iñaki Ruiz - Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) ICREA Professor Unraveling the unicellular prehistory of metazoans with functional analyses and single-cell genomics |
Physical sciences: | |
| Antonio Acín – Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) ICREA Professor, ERC Starting Grant Quantum Information Theory research |
 | Daniel Maspoch – Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN) ICREA Professor Multifunctional micro- and nanostructures assembled from nanoscale metal-organic frameworks and inorganic nanoparticles |
Social sciences:
- Alexander Fidora – Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
- Alberto Miguel – Center for Research in International Economics (CREi)
- Bàrbara Rossi – Pompeu Fabra University (UPF)