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ERC Grants

All researchers and projects that have received the prestigious grants for frontier science from the European Research Council (ERC).

Forsker med hjelm, forsker i bibliotek, hender som teller og ERC-logo
Photo:
Sindre Skrede, Eivind Senneset x 2, ERC.

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The European Research Council (ERC) is a part of the EU's research programme Horizon Europe. The ERC promotes high-quality research by funding the best researchers and the best ideas in Europe. The topics are proposed by the researchers themselves and selected through strong competition.
ERC funding is considered one of the most prestigious awards a researcher can receive.

Ongoing ERC funded research at UiB

Synergy Grant

Andrea Bender,
Department of Psychosocial Science

QUANTA (2021-2027)
The Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification
QUANTA investigates when, why, and how humans developed number systems,and why those vary so massively across cultures.

Advanced Grants

Jill Walker Rettberg, 
Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies

AI STORIES (2024-2029)
This project explores how narrative archetypes shape AI outputs.

Rolv Skjærven, 
Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care

HealthierWomen (2019-2025)
A woman's reproductive experience: Long-term implications for chronic disease and death
The purpose of the new research project is to investigate how pregnancy complications affect women's future health. Read more here.

Consolidator Grants

Bettina Husebø,
Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care/ Centre for Elderly and Nursing Home Medicine

5-D (2024-2028)
Decoding Death and Dying in people with Dementia by Digital thanotyping.
This project is investigating how sensing technology can be used to recognize symptoms among people with dementia at the end of life. 

Kjetil Våge, 
Geophysical Institute/
Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research

ROVER (2024-2028)
Resilient northern overturning in a warming climate
In this project we investigate how the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation responds to reduced sea-ice extent in a warming climate. 

Cristian Gebhardt, 
Geophysical Institute/
Bergen Offshore Wind Centre
 		DATA-DRIVEN OFFSHORE (2023 - 2028)
Data-Driven Approaches in Computational Mechanics for the Aerohydroelastic Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbines
 
Karl Magnus Laundal,
Department of Physics and Technology/
Birkeland Centre for Space Science		Dynamit (2023-2027)
Dynamic Magnetosphere Ionosphere Thermosphere coupling
The project will investigate how Earth's atmosphere is dynamically coupled to space. 

Hallvard Moe,
Department of Information and Media Studies

PREPARE (2023-2027)
Distributed and prepared. A new theory of citizens’ public connection networks in the age of datafication. 
Pawel Burkhardt, 
Michael Sars Centre		ORIGINEURO (2023-2027)
Tracking the deep evolutionary origins of neurons.
The project will investigate the special nervous system of ctenophores (comb jellies) with a focus on their anatomy, development and function and could challenge the standard view that neural networks always consist of individual neurons.

Inga Berre,
Department of Mathematics

MaPSI (2021-2026)
Mathematical and Numerical Modelling of Process-Structure Interaction in Fractured Geothermal Systems

The project will develop new mathematical models and numerical methods, and use these in the simulation of processes in geothermal systems that has not been possible to quantify previously.

Ragnhild Muriaas, 
Department of Government

SUCCESS (2021-2026)
Gender-Gap in Political Endurance: a novel political inclusion theory
Professor Ragnhild Muriaas at the Department of Comparative Politics will shed light on what makes women leave politics faster than men, and what makes them stay. With the project, she will launch a completely new way of understanding gender balance in politics. Read more here.

Nele Meckler, 
Department of Earth Sciences

FluidMICS (2021-2026)
Fluid Inclusion Microthermometry in Speleothems
Nele Meckler and her colleagues will reconstruct past climate, by studying stalagmites in tropical caves, where tiny drops of ancient water are preserved in the rocks and can tell them about climate at the time when the water dripped from the cave ceiling.

Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, 
Department of Government

INCLUDE (2021-2026)
Openings to the Inclusion of Muslim Minorities in Today’s Democracies
Professor Elisabeth Ivarsflaten receives the ERC Consolidator Grant for the project "INCLUDE". The project addresses one of the most fundamental challenges of our time; how to live peacefully together as diverse societies.  

Saket Saurabh, 
Department of informatics

LOPRE (2019-2025)
Lossy preprocessing
Saket Saurabh aims to revolutionise how we handle, utilise and compress Big Data.

Starting Grants

Yan Li, 
Department of Mathematics

OCEANCOUPLING (2024-2029)
This project takes on the quest to understand how extreme ocean surface waves affect us. Such waves pose a threat to ships and infrastructure, becoming increasingly frequent and extreme due to climate changes.

Aaron Spitzer, 
Department of Comparative Politics		CONFRONT (2024-2029)
Contested frontiers: Rights clashes and the (re)constitution of settler-state peripheries
This project studies how liberal-democratic settlers/states deploy rights-claims to domesticate borderland jurisdictions, and how Indigenous peoples deploy countervailing rights-claims to resist such domestication

Marry-Anne Karlsen,
Department of Social Anthropology

ASYKNOW (2023-2028)
Contested Knowledges in and through Asylum Litigation
ASYKNOW investigates how expert knowledge is mobilized, contested, and constituted in and through asylum appeal processes
Justas Zalieckas, 
Department of Physics and Technology		SmartGROW (2023-2027)
Fractals and metamaterials support 3D diamond growth for industrial coatings
Vadim Kimmelman, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic StudiesNonmanual (2023-2027)
The project “Fundamentals of formal properties of nonmanuals: A quantitative approach” (NONMANUAL) will study facial expressions and body and head movements in five different sign languages, using large datasets, Computer Vision and advanced statistical analysis.
Carlo Koos,
Department of Government		WarEffects (2022-2026)
The Micro-Level Effects of Civil Wars on Multiple Dimensions of Women’s Empowerment
The project investigates if, how and under which conditions violence in Civil Wars affects women's empowerment and gender relations.
Adriana Bunea, 
Department of Comparative Politics

CONSULTATIONEFFECTS (2019-2025)
Effects of stakeholder consultations on the inputs, processes and outcomes of executive policymaking
The project aims to investigate stakeholder consultations as institutions of political participation and representation, and to systematically study their effects on executive policymaking in the EU.

Iain G. Johnston, 
Department of Mathematics

EvoConBiO (2019-2025)
Uncovering and engineering the principles governing evolution and cellular control of bioenergetic organelles 
EvoConBiO will investigate a hypothesised universal tension between robustness and control that shapes how organelle genomes have evolved, how they are controlled and protected by modern-day cells, and how scientists may intervene to improve bioenergetic performance in important crop and biofuel species. 

Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, 
Department of Clinical Science

BRuSH (2019-2024)
Oral Bacteria as determinants for respiratory health
BRuSH will examine of bacteria in the oral cavity can have an influence on the health of our respiratory system.  

 

Some researchers have not started their ERC project yet, and are therefore not added to the list.
Researchers who have received an ERC award but are carrying out or have carried out their ERC projects at other institutions are not added to the list.

 

ERC News

Latest awards

Eystein Jansen ERC Vice President 

UiB's climate scientist Eystein Jansen is the first ever Norwegian scientist to be elected Vice President of the ERC.
Read the interview

Climate change in the Arctic

What will be the consequences of ice on Greenland and in the Arctic melting at an alarming pace? This was one of the questions Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu, Eystein Jansen and colleagues wanted to answer in the largest ever ERC project in the Nordic countries; the Synergy Grant Ice2Ice project.
Read the story

ERC grantee number 10 000

Inga Berre was celebrated as ERC recipient number 10,000 by the European Commission in 2021.
Full story

ERC grants

Prestigious research funding with applicants from all over the world. Awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). 

ERC Synergy Grant

Awarded to ambitious projects in a group of 2-4 outstanding researchers.
Up to €10 million over 6 years.

ERC Advanced Grant

Awarded to established world-class researchers.
Up to €2.5 million over 5 years.

ERC Consolidator Grant

Awarded to established researchers 7-12 years after their PhD.
Up to €2 million over 5 years.

ERC Starting Grant

Awarded to researchers 2-7 years after their PhD.
Up to €1.5 million over 5 years.

ERC Proof of Concept Grant

Innovation funding for ERC grantees.

ERC website

Inga Berre intervjues i en nettsending
Professor Inga Berre was celebrated as ERC grantee number 10 000 in 2021.
Photo:
Skjermdump
Logo
In 2020, UiB ran the campaign "Friends of the ERC", urging the EU to increase funding for the ERC in the next long-term budget. The campaign gained support from 24,000 researchers plus stakeholders and politicians from Europe and beyond.
Photo:
UiB
ERC logo og EU-flagg
These projects have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research and innovation programmes. Photo: EU
Photo:
EU
More ERC stories 
ERC-tildeling

Top European grants to the University of Bergen

Associate Professor Marc Vaudel and Professor Linda Gröning at the University of Bergen have each been awarded a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.

Gruppebilde med de fire forskerne

Nordic research team receives €13 million to explore medieval book culture 

Åslaug Ommundsen from the University of Bergen, along with three Nordic research partners, has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant to investigate how books and literary networks shaped Northern Europe between 1000 and 1500 CE.   

Yan Li at the tip of Nordnes, Bergen.

Wave Researcher Awarded ERC Starting Grant

Yan Li receives prestigious research support for the quest to understand how extreme ocean surface waves affect us. Such waves pose a threat to ships and infrastructure, becoming increasingly frequent and extreme due to climate changes.

Jill Walker Rettberg

ERC wants to see what shapes the stories AI tells us

Professor Jill Walker Rettberg receives an ERC Advanced Grant to see how narrative archetypes influence the future of artificial intelligence.

Portrett av Eystein Jansen

Eystein Jansen elected Vice President of the ERC

Climate scientist Eystein Jansen has been elected Vice President of the European Research Council (ERC). He is the first Norwegian researcher to join the leadership of the elite division for European research.

Portretter av Valen og Husebø

ERC grants to Husebø and Valen

Bettina Husebø and Eivind Valen have received funding for ground-breaking research projects through the European Research Council (ERC). In total, UiB has been awarded six ERC Consolidator Grants in 2023.

Marry-Anne Karlsen and Justas Zalieckas at the University of Bergen.

ERC Starting Grant to research on migration and diamond coating

Pioneering research ideas on migration and diamond coating have given Marry-Anne Karlsen and Justas Zalieckas at the University of Bergen a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Portretter av Moe, Burkhardt, Kimmelman og Koos

Four researchers win ERC funding for frontier science

Hallvard Moe, Pawel Burkhardt, Vadim Kimmelman, and Carlo Koos have received UiB's first ERC grants from Horizon Europe.

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ERC funding for Sars Centre research on deviations from the Neuron Doctrine

Pawel Burkhardt is awarded with an ERC Consolidator Grant for his exciting project ORIGINEURO

Vadim Kimmelman

Prestigious grant for sign language researcher

Linguistics professor Vadim Kimmelman receives high-level funding from the EU. Now he will be able to build a research team and explore different properties in five different sign languages.

Ice2Ice

A jigsaw puzzle of climate change in the Arctic

What will be the consequences of ice on Greenland and in the Arctic melting at an alarming pace? This was one of the questions Professor Kerim Hestnes Nisancioglu and colleagues wanted to find answers to in the largest ever ERC project in the Nordic countries; the Synergy Grant Ice2Ice project.

Illustrasjonsfoto av Inga Berre

Inga Berre is ERC recipient number 10,000

As grantee number 10,000 to receive funding from the European Research Council (ERC), Inga Berre will use applied mathematics in order to understand what happens underground when heat is extracted from the Earth's interior.

ERC Consolidator Grant-mottakere

Four UiB researchers receive top European grants

Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, Nele Meckler, Ragnhild Muriaas, and Inga Berre have been awarded the prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant.

Counting on fingers

Count – and I know who you are

Humans are the only species that uses symbols to express quantities, and researchers now want to find out why number systems vary so much between cultures.

John Birks, Portrait

Did our ancestors change the climate?

John Birks is Principal Investigator in the project HOPE, which aims to discover the impact prehistoric people had on the biosphere. The project is made possible by the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant.

Portretter av Laundal, Gebhardt, Våge og Puy

Four researchers awarded ERC Consolidator Grants

Karl Magnus Laundal, Cristian Gebhardt, Kjetil Våge, and Arnald Puy have received funding to conduct groundbreaking research through the European Research Council (ERC).

20.03.2025