ERC Starting Grant Awarded to Prof Dmitri Efetov
Starting Grant funding helps young researchers build their own teams and conduct pioneering research
Four hundred and eight early-career researchers have been awarded European Research Council grants in this year’s first completed ERC call for proposals. The highly-coveted funding will help individual scientists and scholars to build their own teams and conduct pioneering research across all disciplines. The grants, worth in total €603 million, are part of the EU’ Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020.
ICFO Prof. Dmitri Efetov, leader of the Low-Dimensional Quantum Materials research group has been awarded a Starting Grant in this call to pursue the project “Understanding unconventional superconductivity in twisted flatlands (SuperTwist)”. This projects aims to uncover the nature of superconductivity in “magic” angle graphene, by experimentally revealing its defining aspect – the superconducting order parameter. While no experimental method alone can definitely define the order parameter and since key experimental techniques are unavailable for these truly nano-scale materials, Prof. Efetov will implement a radically new, multidisciplinary approach between material science and the development of disruptive measurement techniques.
The European Commission established the ERC in 2007 with the mission to encourage excellence in frontier research across Europe through competitive funding, supporting top researchers across all fields and of any nationality. Prof. Efetov’s grant is the eleventh Starting Grant to be awarded to an ICFO researcher to date, bringing ICFO’s ERC grant total to 36 (11 Staring Grants, 4 Consolidator grants, 10 Advanced Grants and 11 Proof of Concepts Grants).
Congratulations Dima!