Four ERC Starting Grants for University of Groningen researchers

A festive lunch was organized on 27 January 2010 by rector Prof. Frans Zwarts in honour of the three ERC Starting Grant laureates of the University of Groningen in 2009 who were known at that moment: Prof. Dr. Amina Helmi (Astronomy, Kapteyn Institute) , Prof. Dr. Andreas Herrmann (Polymer Chemistry and Bio-engineering, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials) and Dr. Andrey Baryshev (Astronomy, Kapteyn Institute and SRON).

"It shows that we have top talent and we are proud of you", said Prof. Zwarts, who congratulated the laureates with their grant achievement. The prestigious grant (up to 2 M Euro) is awarded to excellent and creative researchers, who carry out pioneering and groundbreaking research. The grant enables researchers to be independent by having their own research team (2-10 years after receiving their PhD with possible extension). Drs. Neeltje Miedema, EU Consultant of the Transfer & Liaison Groep, and Dr. Margot Edens, Career Consultant of the Career Development and Training Department, who provided the ERC advice and training, were present as well.

Jack-in-the-box

In February 2010, more good news came as a Jack-in-the-box from Assistant Professor Gerrit Jan Poelarends, Department of Pharmaceutical Biology. He applied in the Life Sciences domain with the title: "Bridging Between Organocatalysis and Bio-catalysis: The Powerful Enamine Mechanism of Organocatalysts Engineered into the Tautomerase Superfamily Scaffold". Mr. Poelarends received the good news from the European Research Council that he had been awarded a grant as well. This meant a lot for the University of Groningen, who is leading the rankings by receiving 4 out of a total of 17 grants awarded nationally (23.6 %) in this series.

More information

• more information about the ERC Starting Grant
• Contact person University of Groningen: Neeltje Miedema