The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the awarding of its 2017 Starting Grants to 406 early-career researchers throughout Europe. The funding is worth €605M (approx. AUD $901M) in total and up to €1.5M (approx. AUD $2.2M) per grant. The ERC received 3,085 proposals in this call of which around 13% were funded. The share of women amongst the new grantees is the largest ever in an ERC competition and there was also more diversity in terms of nationalities. ERC grants are awarded to researchers of any nationality based in, or willing to move to, Europe.
The grantees will be hosted in 23 countries across Europe, with the UK (79), Germany (67) and France (53) as top locations.
The funded research covers all disciplines. The new grantees will work on a wide range of topics; from health research on chronic infections or asthma, to disaster management, network security, and climate change.