Researcher receives Cyprus’ first ERC Advanced Grant under Horizon Europe
11 April 2024
Researcher receives Cyprus’ first ERC Advanced Grant under Horizon Europe
Cyprus has officially received its first ERC Advanced Grant after 11 years. The Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) would like to congratulate Dr Triantafyllos Stylianopoulos, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering of the University of Cyprus and Head of the Cancer Biophysics Laboratory, for this important achievement under the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant 2023.
ERC is the leading European funding agency for the support of ground-breaking frontier research, having supported more than 13.000 excellent researchers since 2007, at all career stages and in all scientific fields. ERC grants are among the most competitive in Europe and are considered a proof of scientific excellence globally. This is even more so for ERC Advanced Grants, which aim to fund the research of established scientists, leaders in their scientific fields, with important research achievements. The funding can reach €2.5m for up to 5 years, with the possibility for additional funding amounting to €1m, in special cases.
A total of 1,829 proposals were submitted under the call for the ERC Advanced Grant 2023, with the ERC awarding €652m to 255 researchers across Europe. The success rate stood at 13.9%, while the full list of funded projects is available in the following link.
It should be noted that this is the sixth ERC grant for Dr Stylianopoulos, who is the only researcher in Cyprus and among the very few in Europe, to have won all three main grants of the ERC: namely, the Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants. He has also been awarded three ERC Proof of Concept Grants. This new €2.5m ERC project secured by Dr Stylianopoulos is entitled “Overcoming Mechanically-Induced Resistance to Chemo-Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer” (“MechanoResistance”) and aims to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer. As part of the project, new biomarkers and therapeutic targets will be explored, to overcome the resistance of this fatal type of cancer to chemotherapy.
The total number of ERC grants for Cyprus under Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programme (FP) for Research and Innovation 2021-2027, is 11 and 33 in total since the 7th Framework Programme.
RIF continues to support researchers who are interested in submitting a proposal to the ERC with a Host Institution in Cyprus, by providing active support through specialized services, available free of charge. Among other things, the Foundation offers advice and proposal screening services, while it can help applicants to prepare for the interview stage through mock interviews.
For more information, interested parties can contact the National Contact Point of Cyprus for ERC Ms Katerina Karakasidou (email: [email protected], tel. 22205036).