The ERC Starting Grants (€1.5 million, 5-year period) provide early-career researchers with the opportunity to initiate their own projects and build a research team. In this round, 3928 proposals were submitted of which 478 were granted. This translates to a total amount of €761 million. According to the ERC (European Research Council), this impulse results in approximately 3000 new (temporary) jobs in the teams of the grantees. With the ERC Starting Grant, KNCV-members Michael Lerch and Loredana Protesescu and NVBMB-members Alexander Belyy and Hanneke Vlaming are now all set to turn their ideas into practice.  

Alexander Belyy, University of Groningen 

ACTIN in ACTION 

Cryo-EM for elucidating the structure of so-called effectors; proteins that are deployed by pathogenic bacteria (such as Shigella and Listeria) to hijack the actin-machinery of the host cells and use it to promote their own spread through the body.  

Michael Lerch, University of Groningen 

TactoChem 

Development of chemical mechanosensors, for integration in robotic materials, that respond to physical contact by initiating and propagating chemical signalling cascades, which create a (synthetic) sense of touch and grasp reflexes. 

Loredana Protesescu, University of Groningen 

BORNANO 

Design and development of colloïdal metal boride nanocrystals in thin films that can serve as strong, protective and sustainable coatings for motors, turbines and aerospace applications that need to withstand extreme heat and radiation.  

Hanneke Vlaming, Utrecht University  

STOP-OR-GO 

Using large-scale CRISPR experiment to reveal which signals ensure that transcription of genes is not halted, but rather kept going and which proteins are responsible for transmitting and propagating these ‘go signals’.  

The ERC site offers a complete overview of all the granted proposals.