Every year, The European Research Council (ERC) awards funding to talented young researchers who will perform an exceptional research project.
The seven UiO researchers are investigating topics such as climate and environment, atmospheric research, aquaculture, wage inequality and human rights advocacy.
"ERC exclusively grants funding for world-class, outstanding research that pushes the boundaries of existing knowledge. These are examples of the independent research we must protect; it is vital for Norway, Europe, and the world when facing new and increasingly complex challenges," says Svein St?len, Rector of the University of Oslo.
Norway's and UiO's Results in ERC Starting Grants 2024
- ERC Starting Grants are awarded to promising researchers who completed their PhD between two and seven years ago.
- The European Research Council (ERC) grants the funds, consisting of up to 1.5 million euros for research projects lasting up to five years.
- UiO submitted a total of 31 applications for this year's ERC Starting Grants.
- Norway was awarded 14 ERC Starting Grants for 2024, of which UiO received seven.
- UiO's allocation rate stands at 22.6%, compared to 14.2% for the whole of Europe.
- In total, UiO's awards in Horizon Europe amount to around 150 million euros, with ERC grants comprising approximately 86.5 million euros.
The following received funding
- Ines Alisa Wagner, ARENA Centre for European Studies: Egalitarian but not Equal: Sectoral Wage Formation and Gendered Wage Differentials
- Nina Reiners, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights: Private Law Firms as Transnational Advocates
- Sara Asu Schroer, Faculty of Humanities: Living with Drought: Human-Environment Relationships in Drying European Landscapes
- ?gnes Király, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Exploring the impact of anisotropic viscosity on the interplay between ice and mantle dynamics
- Casey Wall, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Aerosols, Convection, Clouds, and Climate Sensitivity: understanding the processes and climate impacts of the interactions between aerosol pollution and tropical convective clouds
- Duncan Watts, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Cosmic Inflation and Structure Formation Through Global Analysis
- Julien Resseguier, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences: Deciphering the newly discovered branchial cavity immune surveillance system to protect fish against infectious diseases in aquaculture
What are they researching?
Salary and gender
“I honestly could not believe it, but I am so grateful to be able to do research on gendered wage inequality over the next 5 years. “The ERC grant means that I can facilitate an international debate around the social construction of wage formation and its gendered consequences in Europe,” says Ina Alisa Wagner from the ARENA Centre for European Studies.
Women earn less than men in countries like Norway, Sweden, and Germany, despite having robust systems for collective bargaining. Wagner aims to investigate wage formation across industries and sectors, why the labour market remains gender-segregated, and the persistent undervaluation of feminized work.
Read more: Prestigious EU grant to ARENA
Big law firms and human rights advocacy
Nina Reiners is at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights will investigate the effects of big law firms’ pro bono work on international advocacy for human rights.
“In the context of populism and authoritarianism and shrinking civic space, the future of the field of international advocacy for human rights will likely depend on actors with access to restrictive contexts and the resources to navigate legal and political challenges. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to analyzing how big law firms affect traditional human rights advocacy today – and how they might continue to do so in the future,” says Reiners.
Read more: Nina Reiners awarded ERC Starting Grant 2024 for research on Big Law Pro Bono
How droughts affect us
We can expect increasingly severe droughts in Europe. How does drought affect a region, and what does it mean for the area? These are the questions Sara Asu Schroer will ethnographically explore through three case studies in Spain, Germany, and Norway.
“It is a great privilege to receive an ERC Starting Grant, and it gives me the opportunity to conduct important environmental research,” says Schroer.
Read more: Receives EU funds to research how droughts affect us
From Fish Immune Systems to Glacier Dynamics
Four projects are housed within the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Researchers will explore the fish immune system, glacier dynamics, aerosol pollution, and fundamental questions about the universe.
Julien Resseguier from the Department of Biosciences will take a closer look at a newly discovered organ may be important for understanding disease in fish.
"The ERC project will build on the existing project which focuses on the newly discovered organ in fish. In the long term, we may gain new knowledge beneficial for sustainability in the aquaculture industry and contribute to better animal health and welfare," says Resseguier.
?gnes Király, a researcher at the Department of Geosciences, has received her grant for a project that will perform data calculations to investigate how anisotropic viscosity affects the dynamics of glaciers and ice caps. The result could be useful tools for better predicting how quickly ice melts and how fast sea levels rise.
Read more: Prestisjetung EU-st?tte til fire unge MN-forskere (Norwegian only)