Research in Portugal receives four more Starting Grants from the European Research Council

The European Research Council (ERC) announced today, September 5, the 400 projects selected in Call Grants 2023 Call , including four projects by researchers working in Portugal. Funding for these four projects ranges from €1.5 million to €2.5 million, totaling €7.7 million. Three projects led by Portuguese researchers conducting their research abroad Call also funded in this Call .

The four winners conducting research in Portugal are:

• Carlos Minutti, from the Champalimaud Foundation, with the project“Conventional Dendritic Cells – Ecology, Diversity, and Function,”which aims to uncover the functional and developmental heterogeneity of cells associated with the onset of immune responses to pathogens and tumors;
• Inês Pereira, from the University of Coimbra, with the project“FINGERprinting cold subduction and Plate Tectonics using key minerals,” on the evolution of plate tectonics and attempting to answer the question of when they first appeared on Earth;
• Giulia Ghedini, with the project “Mapping metabolic responses to understand coexistence and community functioning,” aiming to assess how metabolic responses to competitors affect coexistence and community dynamics in marine phytoplankton;
• Ilana Gabanyi, leading the project “Trafficking mechanisms and physiological factors mediating a direct gut microbiota-brain neuron interaction”, with the aim of deciphering the direct communication of signals from the gut microbiota to neurons, both from the Gulbenkian Institute of Science;

Three projects led by Portuguese researchers were also selected for funding, totaling €4.5 million:

• Fernando Santos, from the University of Amsterdam, who studied at the Instituto Superior Técnico, with the project“Responsible Link-Recommendations in Dynamic Environments,”which seeks to identify the long-term effect of link recommendation systems on social networks and design new algorithms that modify these systems for better results in terms of social benefit;
• Diana Pinheiro, from the Institute of Molecular Pathology Research in Vienna, who completed her doctorate at ICBAS (University of Porto), is leading the project“Coupling morphogen dynamics with mechanics in the control of form and pattern,”which aims to study the biophysical mechanisms associated with embryo formation and development.
• Ana Gomes, who trained at iMM and the University of Lisbon and currently works at the University of Montpellier and CNRS, will lead the project“Cell cycle progression in malaria parasites.”This is yet another ERC-funded project in this area, linked to SNCT institutions, which aims to understand how the cell division cycle is coordinated and controlled in Plasmodium, the agent that causes malaria.

With these results, research carried out at SNCT institutions has reached a total of around €78 million raised in European Research Calls since the start of Horizon Europe (2021-2027), the European framework program for research and innovation funding.

Photo credits: European Academy