The winners of the competition were selected after presenting outstanding and groundbreaking research proposals and demonstrating real potential for managing an independent career in the field of research down the road
Five researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem won research grants for 5 years as part of the first competition of its kind in the European Union for independent beginning researchers who stood out in their achievements. The amount of grants awarded to researchers amounts to 6,380,000 euros.
The winners of the competition were selected after they presented outstanding and groundbreaking research proposals and demonstrated real potential for managing an independent career in the field of research later on. "In light of the fact that the competition was particularly difficult, this is an extraordinary achievement for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem" said Hillel Berkoviar, the vice president for research and development at the university and added "the Hebrew University was one of the few institutions that had such a high number of winners".
Research grants are given to researchers by the European Research Council (ERC) - a new research support body established as part of the European Union's seventh framework program for research and development. Its purpose is to enable young researchers to carry out specific research projects.
Among the 9,600 candidates, about 200 outstanding scientists who completed their doctoral thesis between two and nine years ago were selected. The winners represent over 30 nationalities, from 170 academic institutions in 21 different countries. Israel was ranked seventh among the 21 countries whose representatives won the grant.
The research grants distributed by the European Union to outstanding researchers are intended to help researchers from the various fields of science advance their research careers and establish themselves as independent and leading researchers in their field. The average age of the researchers who won the research grant is , 26% of the researchers are women.
The five winners from the Hebrew University are:
- Dr. Siegel Ben-Yehuda, Faculty of Medicine, for "Molecular characterization of dormant bacterial spores".
- Dr. Yitzhak Glander, from the Institute of Mathematics, for "Bundle Theory and Geometry".
- Dr. Adi Mizrahi, Institute of Life Sciences, for "Optical imaging for the study of long-term physiological changes in the activity of nerve cells in the mammalian brain".
- Prof. Ram Sri, Rakh Institute of Physics, for "Creation and evolution of planets in our solar system and around other stars".
- Dr. Assaf Friedler, Institute of Chemistry, for "a new method for developing drugs that work by changing protein structures: applications for cancer and AIDS".
One response
What amounts?? Good luck in the implementation in the real world (don't forget the commercial and corrupt one)!
It's a shame that he didn't detail how much money was distributed in total for all the studies so that we can better appreciate the Israeli achievement!