Archive for panel

ERC Starting Grants 2025

Posted in Kids, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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.)

2024 ERC Starting Grants announced

Posted in Kids, pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 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.)