EU celebrates 10,000 grantees of the European Research Council
Today, the EU celebrates a new milestone in the area of research and innovation: the 10,000th researcher that has been awarded a grant from the European Research Council (ERC), namely Professor Inga Berre from the University of Bergen, Norway. During an online ceremony, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, and Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, together with other European leaders, expressed their strong support for frontier research and the European Research Council. Commissioner Gabriel said: “Congratulations to Professor Inga Berre – she is the 10,000th researcher awarded an ERC grant! Today we celebrate all 10,000 ERC grantees. These bright minds from Europe and beyond are pushing the boundaries of our knowledge. The pandemic has reminded us that long-term investments in fundamental research have proven crucial in moments of crisis. The many years of research behind mRNA technology allowed the development of new vaccines in record time. It is precisely because we cannot anticipate all the challenges we may face tomorrow that we must continue to invest in frontier research. We do so through the European Research Council, a widely recognised success story for Europe, fourteen years after its launch.” With an ERC Consolidator Grant, Professor Inga Berre will be able to advance her cutting-edge research in geothermal energy, contributing to the path towards clean and sustainable energy for future generations. Selected based on excellence, the project will ultimately also contribute to the European Green Deal that supports the EU aim of becoming climate neutral by 2050 and a just and inclusive transition. More information is available in this ERC press release. The video message of President von der Leyen is available here and the recording of the ceremony is here.
