€25m of funding won by IC
Researches have all the benjamins, as Puff Daddy/Diddy/whatever he calls himself nowadays may say
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded over €25m to Imperial College in the latest funding round. These grants are for 11 projects, and these include two prestigious synergy grants that promote partnerships in academic research.
The Synergy grant scheme was piloted this year, it allocates up to €15m over six years for projects that aim to enhance collaborations between researchers that can produce results that would not be possible to produce working alone. Consequently, the collaborations enhance the complementary skills, knowledge and resources available to researchers.
The ERC received over 700 applications for Synergy grants, but only 11 projects were funded across the EU. The first Synergy project at Imperial is the “Intelligent implantable modulator of Vagus nerve function for treatment of obesity” (i2MOVE). This received a grant of over €7m and was awarded to Professor Christopher Toumazou and Professor Sir Stephen Bloom, from the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Medicine respectively. This team will create a device that mimics the response of the vagus nerve after eating, suppressing the appetite of a patient; achieved by combining their expertise in bioengineering and endocrinology. The second project grant was awarded to Professor Daniel Rueckert, from the Department of Computing, in partnership with colleagues at Kings College and Oxford. The project is entitled “The Developing Human Connectome Project” (dHCP), which aims to provide an insight into neuropsychiatry conditions such as autism; achieved by using MRI to track brain connectivity in foetuses and newborn children. The project has received a grant of over €14m, of which €3.250m will go to Professor Rueckert.
Although the synergy grants are the most high profile, the College has also received another €15m in grants by the ERC in Starting and Advanced Grants. Dr Michelle Moram (Department of Materials), Dr Aimee Morgans (Department of Aeronautics), Dr Toby Gee (Department of Mathematics), Dr Tom Bell (Division of Ecology and Evolution), and Dr Irene Miguel-Aliaga and Dr Rill Bartke (Institute of Clinical Science) were all awarded Starting Grants of over €1m for research projects spanning the next five. Additionally, Professor Ed Hinds (Department of Physics), Christos Vasillicos (Department of Aeronautics) and Peter Kohl (National Heart and Lung Institute) were all awarded grants of over €2m each from the ERC’s Advanced Grants fund.
Professor Donal Bradley, Pro-Rector for Research at Imperial College London, said: “This latest outstanding success in securing multiple awards from the ERC’s highly competitive funding schemes provides further recognition of the strength of research being undertaken across the College. Our involvement in two of the first round of ERC Synergy projects is a testament to the multi-disciplinary research ethos that pervades the College and, in both cases, also emphasises the College’s focus on the translation of research into practical solutions that address some of society’s most pressing issues.”
