The University of Trento will receive another grant from the European Research Council. Giulia Giordano, a researcher at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Trento and visiting professor at the Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), obtained a grant with the INSPIRE project, "Integrated Structural and Probabilistic Approaches for Biological and Epidemiological Systems", which aims to investigate and control the complexity of natural dynamics. The news arrived yesterday from Brussels. The European Research Council received almost 3,000 applications and awarded funding to 408 of them, that is a meagre 14%. The Inspire project, moreover, is one of 6 out of 408 winning projects, that the ERC has singled out among the "highlighted projects".
"The challenges we are facing call for a deeper understanding of the secret mechanisms of nature. To contrast epidemics, fight antibiotic resistance, devise new therapies and biotechnologies, we must understand complex behaviours that natural systems are able to preserve with astounding robustness", explains Giulia Giordano. "In the project I will build a new mathematical theory and new algorithms to analyse and control complex, uncertain dynamical systems in biology and epidemiology. Which system features can enable or prevent a property? Which key parameters must be finely tuned to enforce it? The methodologies that I will develop to answer these questions, tailored to the peculiarities of natural systems, will offer a deeper understanding of natural mechanisms and will help to identify therapeutic targets to treat diseases, to design biological systems with the desired behaviour, to predict and control the spread of epidemics".
Participation in international funding programs is one of the strengths of the research policy of UniTrento, which supports scientists in all phases of the complex procedures for accessing and managing funds. As of today, the University of Trento has obtained 38 grants since the European Research Council started to award funding. Grants are awarded based on a competitive selection process, in which the only selection criterion is the scientific excellence of the project and of the researcher presenting it. Giulia Giordano was awarded a Starting Grant, the category of grants for talented scholars at the beginning of their academic career.
ERC projects at UniTrento from 2007 to date
Set up in 2007 by the EU, the European Research Council is the first European funding organisation for frontier research. Every year, it selects and provides funding to the very best researchers of any nationality and age, to run five-year projects based in Europe. Since 2007, UniTrento has received Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy funding for 31 ERC projects. UniTrento also participates in 7 Proof of Concept projects, a funding scheme that is made available to researchers who already have an ERC award to obtain further financial support to facilitate the transition from research to the market.
For further information:
https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/starting-grants-2022-highlighted-...
https://www.unitn.it/ricerca/95497/progetti-erc-a-unitrento