European research Council Grants
The European Research Council (ERC) supports cross-disciplinary research projects, ground-breaking ideas in emerging fields of research, and innovative and unconventional approaches. The ERC supports individual outstanding researchers from any country and of any age.
Prof. Dr. Anja-Verena Mudring - ERC-Starting-Grant and "Proof of Concept"
At the end of 2011, Professor Anja-Verena Mudring of the faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry was the only German researcher to receive one of 30 EU-wide technology sponsorships within the new ERC “Proof of Concept” funding programme. For her “BrightEMIL” project, she will receive the maximum grant of 150,000 euros for the duration of one year.
The goal of the research is to make the research results from her ERC-Starting-Grant “EMIL – Exceptional materials from ionic liquids” marketable. The current project specifically aims to force the development of more environmentally friendly technologies, such as more efficient solar cells and light sources such as LEDs.
Mudring, born 1971, studied chemistry in Bonn and earned her doctoral degree in 2001. Since October 2006 she has been Professor for Inorganic Solid State Chemistry and Materials Science at RUB.
Juniorprofessor Lars Leichert – ERC Starting Grant
In November 2011, Bochum scientist junior professor Lars Leichert of the Medical Proteome Centre received a European Research Council “Starting Grant” worth 1.5 million euros for his proposed research project.
The aim of the project is to decode the previously unknown role of genes found by researchers in a glass of seawater. Leichert’s team is testing, for example, whether the proteins from the seawater could be relevant for industry – for instance for the manufacture of bio-fuels or detergents.
Following appointments in Greifswald and the US state of Michigan, Leichert came to RUB, where, he has been Juniorprofessor at the Medical Proteome Centre, leading the Redox Proteomics working group.
Professor Evgeny Epelbaum - ERC Starting Grant
Equally delighted to receive an ERC Starting Grant was Professor Evgeny Epelbaum of the Institute of Theoretical Physics II within the faculty of Physics and Astronomy in 2010. The prize, worth 1.16 million euros, provides funding over the next five years for research as part of the extensive project on quantum chromodynamics.
The project, called “Nuclear Physics from Quantum Chromodynamics”, conducts theoretical investigations into the properties of strongly interacting matter. The combination of modern analytical methods is the unique feature of this research project.
Evgeny Epelbaum has been Professor of Hadron and Particle Physics at the RUB faculty of Physics and Astronomy since 2010.
Emeritus Professor Gerhard Endreß - Partner, ERC Advanced Grant
Since 2010, the European Research Council has been funding the research project “Greek into Arabic – Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges” with an ERC Advanced Grant.
The holder of the ERC grant and leading the project is Dr Cristina D’Ancona of the University of Pisa, Italy. Professor Gerhard Endreß of the Seminar for Oriental and Islamic Studies was happy to come on board as partner from RUB, where he leads a project-related working group. The focus of the group’s work is the project “Glossarium Græco-Arabicum”.
