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European Research Council

@erc_research

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🌍 Europe's leading funding agency for basic research
🧪 Exploring the frontiers of science
🚀 Pushing the boundaries of knowledge

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Maria Leptin, the President of the European Research Council, has spoken out about proposed cuts to the next EU research budget 👇⁣
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"The cuts proposed by the Irish EU Presidency for the budget of the next Horizon Europe programme, from €175b to €158 b, send the wrong signal precisely when Europe must strengthen its research base.⁣
European leaders face difficult budgetary choices. But it’s vital to recall that to compete in emerging technologies, strengthen our economic and technological resilience, and generate world-leading research, Europe must invest in frontier science. It’s not too late to change course!" by @erc_research

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19 hours ago

🏳️‍🌈 On National Coming Out Day, we celebrate LGBTQIA+ ERC grantees and their frontier research!⁣
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🌱 Fabrice Roux from Université Paris-Saclay is an ecological genomicist and openly LGBTQIA+ scientist. He investigates how pathogens interact inside plants and shape plant health.⁣
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He also knows why visibility matters:⁣
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💬 'Young scientists need to see that there is more than one way to belong in science.'⁣
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♿ Katta Spiel, an intersex, non-binary researcher in human-computer interaction at TU Wien, explores how accessibility can be improved and why disabled people’s lived experiences should shape the technologies designed for them.⁣
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Their stories remind us that science is not just about discoveries. It is also about whose experiences count and who can imagine a future in research.⁣
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✨ Coming soon: a third story featuring Francesco Gianoli from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid!⁣
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🔗 Read their stories on the ERC website.⁣
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#NationalComingOutDay #Pride #LGBTQIA⁣
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@eu_science @universite_paris_saclay @uammadrid @tu_wien⁣
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⁣ by @erc_research

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5 days ago

For five years, ERC grantee Michele Ducceschi and his team dived into the world of frontier research, discovering the unknown.⁣
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The idea behind their ERC Starting Grant was to take historical instruments that can no longer be played and bring their voices back through physics. The project blended music, acoustics, advanced numerical simulation and sound synthesis.⁣
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Four years later, at the end of the project, Prof. Ducceschi stresses that, alongside the papers, plug-ins, models and lectures they developed, the most valuable thing the project gave them was “room to move”. “Room to be wrong on the way to being right.”⁣
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Check out the project: @nemus_project⁣
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@unibo⁣ by @erc_research

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3 days ago

A planet born from the ashes of its own star? 🌌⁣
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Astronomers, including ERC grantee Boris Gänsicke, have identified the first candidate for a second-generation planet around a white dwarf — a world that appears to have formed from material expelled by the star as it died.⁣
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The clue lies in the white dwarf’s atmosphere, which contains unusually high levels of heavy elements such as zinc, copper and niobium. These elements are created inside dying stars, suggesting that the planet may have formed from the star’s own remains.⁣
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Data from NASA’s TESS satellite provide further evidence, revealing a faint signal repeating every 4.4 days, consistent with a Jupiter-sized gas giant orbiting very close to the white dwarf. Its outer atmosphere may be boiling away, with material falling onto the dead star.⁣
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If confirmed, this would open a new way of searching for other “reborn” worlds.⁣
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And it raises a fascinating question: Could our own Solar System host a second-generation planet formed from the ashes of our Sun?⁣
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🔗 Read the full story on the ERC's website⁣
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@uniofwarwick⁣
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© Snehalata Sahu from the University of Warwick, artist's impression: The accretion of material from an evaporating second-generation giant planet accreting on a white dwarf star by @erc_research

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9 days ago

This week, science became a target for Russia when it attacked the National Academy of Science of Ukraine in Kyiv. ⁣
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"I strongly condemn Russia's violent attack on the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv. Our thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones. We stand strong with our colleagues in Ukraine," said ERC President Maria Leptin.⁣
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@euinua @eu_science⁣
⁣ by @erc_research

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16 days ago

ERC grantee Peter Hegemann shares Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 🏅 ⁣
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Together with Karl Deisseroth and Georg Nagel, he received the Nobel Prize “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics”.⁣
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Professor Hegemann, from Humboldt University of Berlin, shares the prize for research that laid the foundations of optogenetics, a technology that allows scientists to control the activity of cells with light.⁣
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Today's award follows that of fifteen other ERC grantees who have received Nobel Prizes. The European Research Council has supported Professor Hegemann's frontier research through two major grants - an individual Advanced Grant, as well as a Synergy Grant together with two other researchers. ⁣
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Congratulations! 🙌⁣
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europeancommission @eu_science @eukommission @humboldt.uni by @erc_research

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11 days ago

🎉 #EUResearchersNight is upcoming! 🎉⁣
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If you are in Lisbon, Madrid, Nicosia or Dublin, or in many other locations across Europe, come and visit EU-funded researchers who will explain their research to you! Meet some of them in this post.⁣
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Science shows, experiments, games & quizzes and exhibitions are waiting for you! 🧬 🔬 🌊⁣
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Whether you’re coming with your family, friends – or exploring on your own – there’s something to discover.⁣
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And the best part? All activities are free and open to the public.⁣
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Join the celebration of research!⁣
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🔗 Explore the full programme via the link in our bio!⁣
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@euscience by @erc_research

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22 days ago

Meet Kristin Tessmar-Raible, Ambassador for the ERC from Austria 🇦🇹⁣
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Based at the University of Vienna, her research investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying biological rhythms.⁣
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@univienna @awiexpedition @uni_oldenburg by @erc_research

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18 days ago

Meet the eight winners of the 2026 ERC Public Engagement with Research Awards 🏆 ⁣
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Their projects offer very different examples of what public engagement can look like: citizen science on forests, women’s health, theatre exploring AI in healthcare, dialogue with communities in rural Kenya, research on ticklishness and work that has brought evidence into public and policy debates.⁣
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What they have in common is that engagement is not simply about explaining research. People are invited to participate, ask questions, share their experiences and, in some cases, contribute directly to the research itself.⁣
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The eight winners were selected by an independent jury from 110 applications across 26 countries. Each laureate receives a €10,000 prize.⁣
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Congratulations to Elaine Chew, Katalin Csilléry, Konstantina Kilteni, Prabha Kotiswaran, Sarah Lebeer, Karim Lekadir, Valeria Pulignano and Roanne van Voorst!⁣
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To learn more about their research, check our bio!⁣ by @erc_research

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a month ago

Physicist and engineer Charles Roques-Carmes decided to #ChooseEurope, returning from the USA to pursue his research at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.⁣
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With €2.5 million in ERC Starting Grant funding, he aims to improve X-ray technology by developing a new kind of X-ray detector that can extract significantly more information from every X-ray it receives.⁣
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In the recent Starting Grants 2026 competition, 21 researchers who applied from the USA and Canada were selected for funding.⁣
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Want to know more — including how to apply for an ERC grant yourself? Check out our website for more information (link in bio)!⁣
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@istaresearch by @erc_research

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25 days ago

🔬 Science is for everyone! 🧬 On 25 September, the European Researchers’ Night brings researchers and the public together across Europe and beyond for an evening of discovery, curiosity and hands-on science.⁣
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Science shows, experiments, games & quizzes and exhibitions are waiting for you! 🧬 ✨ 🧪 🎲 🔎⁣
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And the best part? All activities are free and open to the public.⁣
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Whether you’re coming with your family, friends – or exploring on your own – there’s something to discover.⁣
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👩‍🔬 Are you a researcher? You can also get involved! Check the events near you and contact the organisers to find out how you can participate.⁣
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And if you are an ERC grantee who wants to participate, drop us a message. We'd love to hear from you!⁣
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🔗 Explore the full programme via the link in our bio.

@eu_science by @erc_research

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a month ago

🛡️ What does the Viking legacy look like today?⁣
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Vikings may have lived more than 1,000 years ago, but their legacy is still very much alive – in our culture, identities and even politics.⁣
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Based at @universitycollegecork, ERC grantee Tom Birkett and his team have launched a project exploring how ideas and narratives about the Vikings have evolved across Europe over the past 200 years.⁣
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And they need your help. 👇⁣
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Through the iViking app, people across Europe can document traces of Viking and Norse influences in everyday life – from art and literature to tourism, sport, advertising and popular culture.⁣
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By bringing these contributions together, the project aims to create the first comprehensive map of Europe’s Viking legacy and investigate why the idea of the “Viking” remains such an enduring and adaptable phenomenon.⁣
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So, what traces of the Vikings can you spot around you? 📍⁣
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Visit the project's Instagram page to find out more about how to download the app: @norsemap⁣
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📸 Clare Keogh⁣
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@euireland @einar_selvik⁣ by @erc_research

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