ICIQ’s ERC session shares programme updates and insights for grant success

On 9 January 2025, ICIQ hosted a session, bringing together leading scientists, project management professionals and experts from various research institutions from the area of Tarragona. The event, titled “ERC Grants: Catalyzing Research Excellence and Innovation”, focused on the latest advancements and research supported by the European Research Council (ERC), offering attendees a platform to engage in dialogue with current ERC grantees while fostering learning and networking.

The session opened with a welcome from Emilio Palomares, Director of ICIQ, who introduced the significance of the event and emphasised the importance of the role of the ERC in supporting transformative research across Europe, specifically mentioning the impact this funding has had, and continues to have, on ICIQ.

Following this introduction, Josefina Enfedaque, Head of the Call and Projects Follow-up Coordination Unit at the European Research Council, presented a detailed overview of the ERC programme highlighting its structure, evaluation process and principles as well as sharing the latest updates. Researchers in the audience gained valuable insights into opportunities available and tips to secure ERC funding.

After a networking coffee break, the session resumed with a series of short presentations by ERC grantees from different centres and disciplines:

– José A. Berrocal from ICIQ kicked off the presentations, discussing his ERC Starting Grant project, ReHuse, which proposes a radically new approach that focuses on the application of mechanical force to induce changes in bulk materials properties isothermally and reversibly.

– Marcos Garcia Suero from ICIQ, presented two of his ERC-funded projects. The first, CARBYNE, an ERC Consolidator Grant, explores new carbon reactivity rules for molecular editing. The second, Cyclo-warhead, an ERC Proof of Concept grant, investigates novel chemical warheads for covalent drug discovery.

– Jordi Rosell from the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES) shared his ERC Advanced Grant project, SCAVANGERS. Rosell’s research explores the impact of carnivores on prehistoric campsites, aiming to gain insights into the patterns of human settlement in the different periods.

– Marta Sales-Pardo from the Universitat Rovira i Virgil (URV) introduced her ERC-Synergy Grant project, CircuitEvolution. Sales-Prado, alongside research teams from the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and Rockefeller University (United States), are studying how neural circuits vary across different fly species and understand how they influence the insects’ behaviour.

From left to right: session’s speakers Jordi Rosell, Marta Sales-Prado, Josefina Enfedaque, José A. Berrocal and Marcos Garcia Suero.

The event concluded with a roundtable discussion, where the invited speakers summarised their experience applying for an ERC grant, offering practical advice to potential applicants in the audience, emphasising the importance of innovative ideas, strategic planning and collaboration.

This action is part of the project STREAM-ICIQ: Streamlining research management at ICIQ (GPE2024-001431-P), funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

(Esta actividad es parte de la actuación GPE2024-001431-P, financiado por MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033