This was revealed by the latest data released by the European Research Council (ERC) to announce the results of the assignment of its Consolidator Grants, the 655 million euro grants reserved for researchers with at least 7 years of experience after the doctorate
(photo: Bermix Studio / Unsplash) The European Research Council (ERC) has announced the results for the awarding of its Consolidator Grants, the 655 million euro grants reserved for researchers who have at least 7 years of experience after doctorate. According to the data, out of 327 winners the Italians are 47, thus placing our country in first place in the statistics on the 39 participating nationalities. This is followed by Germany and France which, however, manage to keep researchers within their national borders much better than Italy: out of the total of Italian winners, only 17 choose the peninsula as the site of their research. The other 30 work abroad.Italy therefore ranks ninth for the attractiveness of its research institutes. This year, therefore, the Consolidator Grants will be distributed only among 14 host Italian entities. Among them stand out the Italian Institute of Technology (Iit) of Genoa and the Bocconi University of Milan, which each won two scholarships, ie a loan of 2 million euros for the next 5 years.
Iit and Bocconi research projects
With this year's new results, the Iit has reached 48 funding since 2009 (out of 38 researchers, of which only 15 women) . Barbara Mazzolai and Andrea Toma are the latest winners. Their goal is the protection of the environment and the fight against climate change: Mazzolai (former coordinator of the project that created the first plantoid in the world, a robot inspired by the roots of plants, and guest at the Wired Next Fest 2019) is willing to implement the Wood Wide Web, a communication and recovery network for the nutrients present in the roots of trees and plants; Toma instead aims to develop a new technology capable of exploiting photocatalysis to generate renewable energy starting from the splitting of water.As for Bocconi, with this year's awards the Milanese university arrives to 39 scholarships since 2007. The winners are Alessia Melegaro and Francesco Decarolis: the former is involved in a research project on the relationship between human behavior, adherence to vaccines and the spread of viruses; the second studies the competitive aspects of digital platforms.