Two Slovenian researchers get prestigious ECR grants
Ljubljana, 4 September - Two Slovenian researchers are among the 408 recipients of the latest round of starting grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) to early-stage researchers. The funding is designed to help individual scientists build their own teams and conduct pioneering research.
Ljubljana
Jožef Stefan Institute researcher Matjaž Humar.
Photo: Nebojša Tejić/STA
Nejc Hodnik from the Chemistry Institute has received EUR 1.5 million for a five-year project called 123STABLE, which focuses on the development of very stable nanostructure electrocatalysts.
The aim of the project is to improve the stability of electrocatalysts, which is seen as very important as society rapidly transitions to electricity as the main source of energy and storage grows in importance.
Matjaž Human from the Jožef Stefan Institute will get EUR 1.5 million for a five-year physics project on cell lasers that will explore whether it is possible to successfully integrate lasers into living cells.
If they succeed, this would significantly improve the study of complex processes in living cells compared to existing methods.
The ERC publishes three calls for applications every year for researchers at various career stages. Since these grants started in 2007, ten Slovenian researchers have received them so far.