Eight new Studentships ERC Consolidator for researchers in Portugal

TheEuropean Research Council (ERC) has awarded eight Consolidator Grants to researchers conducting research at FCT Units. This was the result for Portugal in the 2017 edition of Call to these prestigious Studentships of the European Union, aimed at researchers who have between 7 and 12 years of post-doctoral experience. The eight Studentships correspond to a total of 16,208.28M€, which translates into a significant financial investment in Portuguese research.

The researchers and projects awarded with the aforementioned Studentships are:

Manuela Gomes, from 3Bs at the University of Minho, with the MagTendon project, focusing on magnetically assisted tissue engineering technologies for tendon regeneration;

Mariana Pinho, from the António Xavier Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB) at NOVA University of Lisbon, who applied for the ChronosAntibiotics project, which aims to understand the cell cycle of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and find tools to combat this resistance;

Luísa Figueiredo, from the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM), University of Lisbon, who intends to investigate with the FatTryp project the African trypanosomes and the implications of this parasite in the development of human trypanosomiasis;

Joseph Paton, researcher at the Champalimaud Foundation, who submitted the Dycocirc project, which aims to study the circuit of basal ganglia mechanisms underlying dynamic cognitive behavior;

Susana Lima, from the Champalimaud Foundation, will develop the YinYang project, in which she will investigate the relationship between circuits in the hypothalamus and defensive and reproductive behavior in females;

Michael Orger, from the Champalimaud Foundation, who in the Neurofish project will observe the brain circuits that control visual and motor behavior;

Luís Teixeira, from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), who intends to carry out the Wolbakian project, which involves the study of the functional genetics of the proliferation of the Wolbachia bacterium;

Ana Domingos, from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, who studies the sympathetic and immunological mechanisms in the origin of obesity in her project SympatimmunObesity. 

In this Call awarding of Consolidator Grants, the ERC distinguished 329 projects from among 2,538 applications received, which equaled a total of €600 million in funding for scientific research in Europe.

These Studentships ERC for Portuguese research are in addition to the results of this year's Call Starting Grants, Studentships for researchers with 2 to 7 years of post-doctoral experience, which were announced in September, with the awarding of another eight Studentships to researchers developing projects in Portugal. By the end of the year, the results of the ERC's Call of Advanced Grants, aimed at senior researchers, internationally established in their research area, will also be known.