Super visit to the IIT with demos of their robotics with @erc.europa.eu funded projects by Antonio Bicchi, @awykowska.bsky.social and others. Maria Fossati’s artificial ‘soft hand’ is much better than my neuro-impaired natural one! @ercgrantees.bsky.social @axc.bsky.social @giorgiometta.bsky.social

Very promising news on the next seven-year EU budget, with a proposed substantial increase for Horizon Europe including the ERC. We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail. @Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...

The report identifies factors that limit innovation in Europe: fragmentation, both of markets and of regulatory frameworks, incl different national implementations of EU legislation, no true financial union, incompatible standards, insufficient R&D funding, risk-averse regulatory culture.

🥁 New article 📢: #Mechanobiology of #development during #Drosophila #gastrulation using #Brillouin microscopy, now in @natcomms.nature.com : rdcu.be/ev6ZX Collab. w/ @Prevedel_Lab @embl.org , Maria Leptin @marialep.bsky.social, @abhisha-thayambath.bsky.social, Julio Belmonte @ncstate.bsky.social

🇩🇰🇪🇺 During the Danish EU Presidency which officially opened today, the ERC will visit Copenhagen. A high-level event on EU competitiveness will be held on 7 October, with research leaders including a Nobel laureate and political figures. 👉 t.co/LuwuoNL5U3 @eu2025dk.bsky.social #FrontierResearch

ERC President Maria Leptin was awarded the De Sanctis Europa Award.🏅 Congratulations to the winners - all prominent European figures in the fields of art, humanities & science - including @president.europarl.europa.eu, ECB president.ecb.europa.eu , H.M. Queen Mother of the Belgians Paola.

Great Scientific Council meeting @durhamuniversity.bsky.social incl. roundtable with some of the UK research community, and Minister Vallance joining online. Inspiring research presentations from ERC grantees. Huge thanks to our hosts Durham Uni and Council member @harrietbulkeley.bsky.social !

So proud to be among this group of extremely eminent and fun people!

Estonian scientists are talented and ambitious. So inspiring to see that they strive for even greater success! Estonia hosts 20 ERC grantees. In Tallinn, we had great meetings with Prime Minister Kristen Michal, Ministers Kristina Kallas and Erkki Keldo, and the scientific community.

Congratulations! The new Advanced Grant winners are great news. But yet again, many scientists - around 260 - with ground-breaking ideas were rated as excellent, but remained unfunded due to a lack of funds at the ERC. Hope that more funding will be available in the future!

Pleasure to visit Vilnius! Good discussions with Prime Minister Paluckas and Vice Foreign Minister Mitkus, and uplifting to meet the scientific community including all 6 ERC grantees and the Research Council. Good progress in science in Lithuania over the last years! lrv.lt/en/news/prim...

"Continue doing your work, because remember ERC is all about beautiful beautiful science, having fun, and creating new knowledge to make the world a better place!" Inspirational words from archaeologist Ester Oras of the University of Tartu, during the ERC President's recent visit to 🇪🇪 Estonia.

The ERC welcomes the offer of substantial additional budget from @ec.europa.eu for the development of a new ERC funding instrument offering larger, longer-term grants, as announced by President Ursula Von der Leyen at the Sorbonne this morning. 👉 europa.eu/!NTYTTV

“Science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity, no political party.” EC President Ursula von der Leyen, announcing a €500M initiative to attract top global talent. In a fractured world, science remains a unifying force – rooted in diversity, driven by curiosity, and shared by all humanity.

🚀 We are proud to launch the new "Ambassadors for the ERC" initiative, together with @ercgrantees.bsky.social ! We aim to empower researchers across Europe to advocate for frontier research. Find out more 👉 bit.ly/44bQzp7 🌟 Excited to see what can be achieved! #Amb4ERC

"historians Robert Michael and Karin Doerr define Gleichschaltung as: "Consolidation. All of the German Volk's social, political, and cultural organizations to be controlled and run according to Nazi ideology and policy. All opposition to be eliminated."" From Wikipedia. Just saying...

Real pleasure to get together with leading figures from industry, science & politics for some deep thinking on how Europe can do better in research and innovation. Here a wrap-up of the outcomes plus inspiring speech by Nobel laureate Ben Feringa. @erc.europa.eu: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-GH...

A glimpse of today's ongoing discussions between leading figures from the worlds of industry, science & policy-making, on how to boost Europe’s competitiveness. An unusual constellation with different vantage points. Curious about the outcome? Watch live today 10/4 at 16:30 CEST! 👉 bit.ly/4iaE4gH

@portugalue.bsky.social hosted the launch of GIMM Institute in Brussels– a 🇪🇺reference in biomedical research. A timely debate on 🇪🇺 scientific future with Amb. Pedro Costa Pereira, Maria Manuel Mota GIMM CEO and Maria Leptin President of the European Research Council

The beauty of today in Dublin was above all the wealth of Irish research. Impressive session with @erc.europa.eu grantees - from ageing in bats and uneven wealth distribution undermining democracy, to using AI for analysing 17c population documents and and the evolutionary origin of feathers.

Back in Dublin - and what a warm welcome! Valuable in-depth conversation with @micheal-martin.bsky.social. Thanks Taoiseach for your support! Also much enjoyed meeting minister @LawlessJ. Glad to see we have shared priorities. And huge thanks to Luke O’Neill!

More good news: MEP Christian Ehler's ITRE report adopted by the European Parliament: strong support for an expanded and independent ERC. Happy with the proposal of €220 billion for the EU's next research framework programme! Thank you! Press briefing multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/webstream...

Today all 27 EU countries endorsed the Warsaw Declaration. Thank you for your solid support in calling for the independence of the European Research Council to be preserved and for the role of the ERC to be expanded. polish-presidency.consilium.europa.eu/media/r5fa13... 🇪🇺

It was researchers, predominantly working in public sector universities & laboratories, who developed many of the ideas & techniques that are now being used on a massive scale by the big tech companies. Maria Leptin's (@marialep.bsky.social) speech @europarl.europa.eu erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

Today I spoke to the committee for research etc (ITRE) of the European Parliament - a house that has given the ERC solid support over the years! I shared why it’s crucial also in times of crisis to keep funding fundamental research without any strings attached and why we need more budget for this.

How do researchers who are funded by the ERC lend their results some real-world impact? 📈 A new report reveals how a good number commercialise patents, driving innovation across Europe and beyond. 🔗 europa.eu/!x8XNNR 🇪🇺 #FrontierResearch #ResearchImpact #Innovation

« Défendre l’humanisme scientifique européen »: 2e chronique avec la présidente de @erc.europa.eu Maria Leptin où l'on aborde l’importance de la recherche en sciences humaines, et la nécessité de valoriser la quête de connaissance pour l’émerveillement qu’elle procure. www.lesoir.be/654173/artic...

Greta support from Jean Tirole for the value of fundamental research and the way it's funded by the @ercresearch.bsky.social : www.lepoint.fr/economie/jea...

hi all, long time no post, but now I'm finally on Bluesky! some random pix from the lats weeks (solar power station Sevilla, lemons from the garden, panel in Davos, great take-off in Zürich).