Researchers from Israel won research grants from the European Union

Yesterday the Technion and the Hebrew University published the names of their scientists who won individual research grants from the European Union * later we will update the details of researchers from other institutions who won grants

In the photo (standing from right to left): The Technion's Vice President for Research, Professor Moshe Isenberg, Dr. Shahar Mendelson, Dr. Yitzhak Kesselsi, the Technion's President, Professor Yitzhak Apluig, Dr. Aharon Blank, Dr. Elder Fischer. Sitting (from right to left): Dr. Kinneret Keren, Dr. Shai Shoham, Dr. Debi Lindel.

With the publication of the final results of the European research program for promising young scientists, the magnitude of the Technion's achievement becomes clear: it came second among European universities and first in Israel, when seven of its scientists received the major research grant - more than a million euros on average per researcher. Among the universities, Cambridge is in first place with nine winners.
The seven young scientists from the Technion are on the list of 300 promising scientists of the European Union. The Technion's vice president for research, Professor Moshe Isenberg, said: "The Technion had 49 candidates, nine of whom moved to the final stage, and seven of them won the high research grants, an excellent achievement for which the Technion can be blessed."
The head of the Liaison Office for the European Community, Mr. Alex Gordon of the Technion, said that there were a total of 9,300 applicants and 559 entered the competition for the final stage, of which 300 won.
The seven Technion scientists are: Dr. Aharon Blank from the Faculty of Chemistry, Dr. Debi Lindel from the Faculty of Biology, Dr. Shahar Mendelson from the Faculty of Mathematics, Dr. Alder Fischer from the Faculty of Computer Science, Dr. Yitzhak Kesselsi from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Kinneret Keren from the Faculty of Physics and Dr. Shai who is from the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. All have completed their PhDs within the last nine years.
This is the first program under which the European Union finances groundbreaking individual research. Until now the Union has usually funded a consortium of scientists, industries and other partners. The European Union decided to place Europe in a leading position in scientific research and very large sums are invested in encouraging scientific research and cooperation with industry. Israel has been a member of the European research program for a decade, and since January 1, 2007, Israel has been a member of the seventh research program, in the amount of fifty billion euros for a period of seven years.
The president of the Technion, Professor Yitzhak Apluig, congratulated the seven young scientists who won the grants. "You are proof of the high quality of young faculty members that the Technion recruits, despite its budgetary difficulties caused by the ongoing cuts in our budget," he said. "I have no doubt that if the government understood the national, and even existential, importance of supporting Israeli science and academia, more Israeli scientists would receive similar research grants. I again call on the government to discuss the conclusions of the Shohat Committee and adopt them, so that this important achievement will not be the swan song of Israeli science."
The president of the Technion added that Israeli science in general and Technion scientists in particular are still highly regarded in the scientific world and ten Nobel laureates will come to the Technion next month, for a special salute to Israeli science, ahead of the 60th Independence Day of the State of Israel. "We can maintain our respectable status in the scientific community," he said. "The government must give us the budgetary tools to do this."
Six researchers from the Hebrew University won research grants totaling 7.3 million euros from the European Union

Six researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were awarded research grants for 5 years as part of the European Union's first competition of its kind for independent beginning researchers who stood out in their achievements. The amount of grants awarded to Hebrew University researchers amounts to 7,378,400 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, vice president for research and development at the university and added "the Hebrew University was one of the few institutions with 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.

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 35, 26% of the researchers are women.

The six winners from the Hebrew University are:Prof. Yuval Shani from the Faculty of Law, Dr. Siegel Ben-Yehuda from the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Yitzhak Glander, from the Institute of Mathematics, for "Theory of Bunches and Geometry", Dr. Adi Mizrahi from the Institute of Life Sciences at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Prof. Ram Sri , from the Rakh Institute of Physics in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Dr. Assaf Friedler from the Institute of Chemistry in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.