ERC Starting Grants have just been awarded to six researchers with Polish affiliations. Five of them are NCN grantees.
The ERC Starting Grants is one of the most prestigious grant programmes designed to support early-career researchers with 2-7 years of post-PhD experience, outstanding academic track record and ideas for their own ambitious research projects. This year, the European Research Council received nearly 4,000 proposals from researchers across the continent, totalling EUR 761 million. This time, the maximum grant is EUR 1.5 million.
NCN Grantees With ERC Funding
In this edition of ERC Starting Grants, six winning applicants are affiliated with Polish research institutions, including Dr Mykhailo Batiuk (Łukasiewicz – PORT Polish Centre for Technology Development), Dr Damian Dąbrowski (Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences), Dr inż. Wojciech Krauze (Warsaw University of Technology), Dr Dominik Paprotny (University of Szczecin), Dr Rene Poncelet (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences) and Dr hab. inż. Anna Siekierka, University of Wrocław Professor (University of Wrocław). Prof. Anna Siekierka and Dr inż. Wojciech Krauze are former NCN grant winners, whilst proposals submitted by Dr Damian Dąbrowski, Dr Dominik Paprotny and Dr Rene Poncelet were recommended for funding under the calls launched last year.
Congratulations to all of them!
Dealing With Used batteries
Dr hab. inż. Anna Siekierka is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry, Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He focuses her scientific work on electromembrane processes used for selective separation of metal ions and energy recovery. She currently heads is a SONATA project and is a former PRELUDIUM grant winner. The ERC grant will enable her and her team to work on the ReHeal4waste project aimed to handle battery waste. A specially designed membrane will be constructed to separate valuable raw materials from the solution derived from used batteries so that they can be reused.
Improved Holographic Tomography
Dr inż. Wojciech Krauze is a member of the BioPhase Imaging Team at the Faculty of Mechatronics, Warsaw University of Technology. His research interests include quantitative phase imaging algorithms, tomographic reconstruction methods, and inverse problems. From the beginning of his research career he has been involved in optical tomography, also under an NCN-funded PRELUDIUM project. He will lead the awarded Re.HOG project aimed to enable holographic tomography to work effectively in reflection mode to allow researchers to obtain the same detailed information as in classical holographic tomography, but without the need to isolate patient samples.
Geometric Measure Theory/h3>
Dr Damian Dąbrowski from the Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences will focus on geometric measure theory (GMT), an area of analysis seeking to solve geometric problems using the tools of measure theory. The ERC grant was awarded for his QPROJECT aimed to prove quantitative projection results, with special focus on Vitushkin's conjecture from 1967, conjecture of Besicovitch about the radial projections of purely uncertifiable sets and visibility conjecture from fractal geometry, which is closely related to quantifying Marstrand’s classical slicing theorem. In May, Dr Dąbrowski joined the ranks of SONATA 20 grantees.
Community’s Responses to Flooding
Dr Dominik Paprotny works at the University of Szczecin and his scientific interests focus on the risk of fooding, socio-hydrology, risk management and climate changes. As part of the ERC grant, he will develop a dynamic model of community’s response to flooding. Using scenario-based projections of climate and socio-economic changes, he aims to estimate potential flood damages by 2100. In February, he received SONATA BIS 14 grant.
Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider
Dr Rene Poncelet works at the Department of Theoretical Particle Physics of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences. As part of the ERC grant, he will carry out experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. The STAPLE project aims at creating a new, highly precise computer simulation of particle collisions. This tool will be an extremely important element of research, offering opportunities for groundbreaking discoveries and, consequently, a more complete understanding of the universe around us. Dr Poncelet has recently been awarded SONATA 20 funding.