Five of our researchers have won prestigious and competitive European research grants, totalling more than 鈧12 million.
The funding awards mark the biggest success we have had in winning the European Research Council鈥檚 (ERC) Advanced Grants.
It is also the second time that Professor Malcolm Levitt and Professor Lajos Hanzo have won ERC Advanced Grants – a superb achievement given that only 29 other UK researchers have accomplished this in the last 10 years.
The grants have been awarded as follows:
- , Electronics and Computer Science – awarded 鈧2.49 million for his QuantCom project to contribute to the conception of the wireless Quantum Internet, or Qinternet, conceived for seamless high-speed connectivity across the globe at uncompromised security.
- , Optoelectronics Research Centre – awarded 鈧2.5 million for his project entitled ENIGMA (ENgIneerinG MAterial properties with advanced laser direct writing) to examine the interaction between intense ultra-short light pulses and matter at, or below, the wavelength scale, reaching states of matter found only deep in the cores of the Earth and other planets.
- Professor Malcolm Levitt, Chemistry – awarded 鈧2.76 million for his FunMagResBeacons (Functionalised Magnetic Resonance Beacons for Enhanced Spectroscopy and Imaging) project, to develop agents that may be used together with magnetic resonance (MRI) and other forms of spectroscopy to map out specific chemical and physical conditions deep inside an object, ultimately leading to potential applications such as cancer detection and diagnosis.
- , Optoelectronics Research Centre – awarded 鈧2.57 million for his FLEET (FLying ElectromagnEtic Toroids) project to study the generation, detection and interaction with matter of Flying Toroids, a type of light pulses never experimentally studied before.
- Professor Tony Brown, Geography and Environment – awarded 鈧2.66 million for a project entitled TerrACE, looking into the long-term creation, maintenance and use of ancient agricultural terraces.
University President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Christopher Snowden said:
鈥淚 am absolutely delighted and congratulate聽Nikolay, Lajos, Peter, Tony and Malcolm on their success with these prestigious awards. The ERC represents an important source of research funding and these successes reflect the very high quality of research at our University.鈥
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