European Research Council to fund three more projects led by Portuguese researchers

The European Research Council (ERC) announced today, April 11, the projects selected for the Call ERC Advanced Grant 2023, which aims to fund scientific projects in all scientific fields and led by researchers with recognized experience in their fields. 255 projects were selected, totaling 652 million euros.

The INELASTIC project - "Linking the scales towards non-conventional polymer composite structures", led by Pedro Camanho (LAETA/INEGI/U.Porto), has received ERC funding of 3.5 million euros. This research project in the field of mechanical engineering aims, among other things, to impact the decarbonization of the aerospace sector by creating knowledge that will lead to the discovery of new non-conventional composite materials.

With this result, research carried out in institutions of the National Science and Technology System (SNCT) has reached the mark of 88.5 million euros and 57 projects coordinated at the ERC's Calls since the start of Horizon Europe (2021), the framework program for European funding of research and innovation for the period 2021-2027.

Of the 255 projects selected for the Call ERC Advanced Grant 2023, two projects from the scientific diaspora also stand out:

• Nuno Maulide, University of Vienna, with the project C-HANCE - "Carbon-Hydrogen bond activation via a new charge control approach", which aims to revolutionize the way organic chemists look at the C-H bond, omnipresent in the fields of biology and chemistry, with a widespread impact on the transformation of compounds and their synthesis methods;
• Paula Mendes, University of Birmingham, with the project GLYCANREAD - "New frontiers in glycan recognition and detection", which has the ability to cross several areas such as biotechnology, chemistry and materials to obtain new biosensors, with an impact on diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

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