
Since the European Research Council (ERC) launched in 2007, many innovative and ambitious projects by EMBL scientists have been awarded financial support by the ERC. The ERC promotes frontier research by outstanding scientists and selects projects based solely on scientific excellence.
During their time at EMBL, the following scientists have been awarded funding across the three ERC core grant schemes: starting, consolidator and advanced grants.
Inspired by the ERC’s tenth anniversary in 2017, we asked some of EMBL’s ERC grantees to look ahead another ten years and share their vision for their field of research.
Advanced Grants

Detlev Arendt
NeuralCellTypeEvo | 2018 – 2023
Cellular innovation driving nervous system evolution
BrainEvoDevo | 2012 – 2017
A neuron type atlas of the annelid brain: development and evolution of chemosensory-motor circuits

Peer Bork
MicrobioS | 2016 – 2021
Exploring the human gut microbiome at strain resolution
Cancerbiome | 2011 – 2016
Characterisation of the cancer-associated microbiome

Stephen Cusack
vRNA | 2013 – 2018
Two facets of viral RNA: mechanistic studies of transcription and replication by influenza-like viral polymerases and detection by the innate immune system

Jan Ellenberg
COREMA | 2017 – 2021
Cell division and the origin of embryonic aneuploidy in preimplantation mouse development

Eileen Furlong
CisRegVar | 2013 – 2018
Cis-regulatory variation: Using natural genetic variation to dissect cis-regulatory control of embryonic development
DeCRyPT| 2019 – 2024
Deciphering Cis-Regulatory Principles of Transcriptional regulation: Combining large-scale genetics and genomics to dissect functional principles of genome regulation during embryonic development

Cornelius Gross
COREFEAR | 2014 – 2019
Functional wiring of the core neural network of innate fear

Edith Heard
XPRESS | 2019 – 2020
Exploring mechanisms of gene repression and escape during X-chromosome inactivation

Matthias Hentze
REM Networks | 2012 – 2017
Exploring the interface between cell metabolism and gene regulation: from mRNA interactomes to ‘REM Networks’

Takashi Hiiragi
SelforganisingEmbryo | 2017 – 2022
Self-organisation across the scales in early mammalian development

Christoph Müller
POL1PIC | 2014 – 2019
Dynamic architecture of the RNA polymerase I transcription initiation machinery

Lars Steinmetz
COMPLEX_TRAITS | 2012 – 2017
High-throughput dissection of the genetics underlying complex traits
SystGeneEdit | 2017 – 2022
Dissecting quantitative traits and their underlying genetic interactions via systematic genome editing
Consolidator Grants

Theodore Alexandrov
METACELL | 2018 – 2023
Metabolism of a cell pictured by single-cell approach

Martin Beck
ComplexAssembly | 2018 – 2023
The birth of protein complexes

John Briggs
MembraneFusion | 2015 – 2020
Structure and mechanism of viral and cellular membrane fusion machineries

Christian Häring
CondStruct | 2016 – 2021
Structural basis for the coordination of chromosome architecture by condensin complexes

Jan Korbel
MOSAIC | 2019 – 2024

Edward Lemke
SMPFv2.0 | 2015 – 2020
Next generation single molecule protein fluorescence

Jonas Ries
CellStructure | 2017 – 2022
Structural cell biology in situ using superresolution microscopy

Sarah Teichmann
ThDEFINE | 2016 – 2020
Re(defining) CD4+ T cell identities one cell at a time

Nassos Typas
uCARE | 2019 – 2024
Understanding & circumventing antibiotic resistance
Starting Grants

Alexander Aulehla
Oscillations | 2015 – 2020
Oscillatory signaling dynamics – a quantitative approach to reveal their origin and function in development

Martin Beck
NPC Atlas | 2013 – 2018
Atlas of cell-type specific nuclear pore complex structures

Pedro Beltrao
PhosFunc | 2015 – 2020
Dissecting the functional importance of eukaryotic protein phosphorylation

Markus Heisler
MHDVPatterning | 2011 – 2015
The establishment and function of dorsiventral boundaries in plant organs


Jan Korbel
ChromothriPSiS | 2014 – 2019
Dissecting the molecular mechanism of catastrophic DNA rearrangement in cancer

Julia Mahamid
3DCellPhase | 2018 – 2023
In situ structural analysis of molecular crowding and phase separation

Dónal O'Carroll
ncRNA | 2013 – 2017
Non-coding RNA pathways and the mammalian male germline

Francesca Peri
FPMicroglia | 2010 – 2014
Towards a dynamic quantitative understanding of neuronal microglial interactions

Ramesh Pillai
pisilence | 2011 – 2016
Small RNA-guided complex machinery for epigenetic silencing

Christiane Schaffitzel
ComplexNMD | 2012 – 2017
NMD complexes: eukaryotic mRNA quality control

Rocio Sotillo
MadCIN | 2012 – 2017
Defining the impact of chromosome instability in tumour initiation, maintenance and relapse
Synergy Grants

Ewan Birney
IndiGene | 2019 – 2024

Wolfgang Huber
DECODE | 2019 – 2025

Oliver Stegle
DECODE | 2019 – 2025