Romanian researcher wins EUR 1.5 mln grant from the EU

Romanian Dr. Alexandru Tomescu, computational sciences researcher at the University of Helsinki, received a grant of EUR 1.5 million from the European Research Council (ERC). His project, "Safe and complex algorithms for bioinformatics (SAFEBIO),” will make significant contributions to the analysis of DNA sequencing data, a technology that can be used in medical diagnostics.

Alexandru Tomescu is one of the 408 early-career researchers that have been awarded European Research Council grants in this year’s first completed ERC call for proposals.The grants, worth in total EUR 621 million, are part of the EU Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020. These starting grants will help the selected scientists build their own research teams, creating an estimated 2,500 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other staff at the host institutions, according to a press release from the ERC.

The research activities targeted by these grants cover a diverse range of topics, including studying how forest foods could provide a solution to world hunger; assessing the intensity, frequency, and distribution of extreme sea levels in Europe; investigating how tech companies sell their products and seek consumers’ trust, or unraveling the survival skills of single cell organisms.

The ERC grants are awarded to early-career researchers of any nationality with two to seven years of experience since completion of the PhD (or equivalent degree) and a scientific track record showing great promise. Calls for proposals are published once a year for each scheme.

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)