On the 25 June edition, an editorial calling Europe to lead on free and open science, while boosting industrial consequences. (By the way, Japan just joined Horizon Europe! While the UK will rejoin Erasmus in 2027, under the headline “Brexit tore apart European science — now the research rifts are healing“, mentioning the financial and visa unsolved issues.) A news article continuing the investigation of how AI impacts or will impact mathematical research, with a FirstProof test evaluating AIs solving new, research-level, maths problems. (But missing Claude Mythos and Google’s Aletheia.) A “comment” from a Chinese academic that science needs humanities, at a time when universities in the UK are closing some humanities departments. And a discussion of the exceptional discovery of a whale necropolis, 7km deep, with fossil remains dating back to 5M years mixed with recent ones. Plus another exciting 10 page paper about genetic sleuthing on population changes at the collapse of the Roman empire, in the Danube-Isar and Rhein-Main areas of present-day Germany. (The attached picture representing posterior estimates of life expectancies of some individuals, obtained by MCMC.) In the Carreers section, a story from a geography researcher whose job offer was rescinded at the last moment, a scary thing that is alas not so rare.
Archive for Horizon Europe
Nature tidbits
Posted in Books, Statistics, University life with tags AI, Brexit, Britain, Danube, fossils, Genetics, Germany, Horizon Europe, humanities, Isar, Japan, LLMs, Main, MCMC, Nature, Rhein, Roman Empire, whales on August 29, 2026 by xi'anERC Starting Grants 2025
Posted in Kids, Travel, University life with tags #ERCSyG, applied mathematics, data science, ERC, ERC Starting Grant, EU grants, EU Horizon Europe programme, EU-Israel Association Agreement, Europe, European Commission, European Research Council, European Union, France, French politics, Horizon Europe, panel, Paris Sciences et Lettres, PE1, PSL, pure mathematics, Switzerland, UK, Università Bocconi, University of Warwick, Ursula von der Leyen on September 13, 2025 by xi'an
Last week, the ERC announced the winners of the Starting Grant campaign for 2025. Congrats to all recipients!
I am no longer a member of the PE1 (maths & data sciences) panel, hence did not contribute in the least to this selection. I noticed very few statistics and data science in the list (albeit obviously not hinting at any correlation with the previous sentence!), except for a project on computational stats. There is neither no one from my departments, even tough Warwick received one grant, nor from my research circles. The re-emergence of the UK as a strong proponent among the nations submitting projects is clear, while Italian candidates remain highly successful (incl. Bocconi!).
Since the EU States did not manage to unanimously agree on suspending the Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement last summer, despite Israel’s breach of human rights on the Gaza strip, there are also ten Israeli projects supported by EU on this round. (Unless the latest announcement of further sanctions by President Ursula von der Leyen suspending bilateral support to Israel does cover this financing.)
ERC postdoc position on scalable experimental design, in Oxford, UK
Posted in Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bayesian deep learning, Britain, data-driven algorithms, ERC, ERC Starting Grant, European Research Council, experimental design, Horizon Europe, LLM, machine learning, postdoctoral position, scalable MCMC, simulation-based inference, UK, UKRI, uncertainty quantification, University of Oxford on August 8, 2025 by xi'an
Congrats to Arnak Dalalyan for his ERC advanced grant!
Posted in Statistics, University life with tags CREST, ERC, ERC Advanced Grant, EU, Europe, European Research Council, generative AI, generative models, Horizon Europe, Statistics on July 17, 2025 by xi'an
2024 ERC Starting Grants announced
Posted in Kids, pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags applied mathematics, Belgium, Brussels, conflict of interest, data science, ERC, ERC Starting Grant, EU grants, EU Horizon Europe programme, Europe, European Commission, European Research Council, European Union, Horizon Europe, panel, Paris Sciences et Lettres, PE1, PSL, pure mathematics, scientific computing, Statistics, UK, University of Warwick on September 22, 2024 by xi'an
Today the European Research Council (ERC) has made public which Starting Grants proposals were selected this year, for a total amount of €780m. Congrats to all recipients!
These include 14 grants for the PE1 panel in which I sat earlier this year for the fourth and final time. (The PE1 panel stands within the Physical Sciences and Engineering domain and covers pure maths, applied maths, mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics, and statistics.) I have found the whole experience highly interesting, from getting a snapshot of on-going directions in the broad field (for topics I could understand) to interacting constructively with colleagues from different fields and cultures, to appreciating the clear protocols and instructions provided by the ERC and its highly efficient officers, if representing a significant time investment over these years.
This round of selections saw the return of UK applications, following the long-delayed agreement between the EU and the UK, with Warwick Thomas Berrett’s proposal among the winners. (Whose evaluation I obviously took no part whatsoever, following ERC rules governing conflicts of interest. Ditto for applications from PSL.)
