Four researchers at the University of Cambridge have won advanced grants from the European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s premier research funding body.
One hundred and eighty-five senior scientists from across Europe were awarded grants in today’s announcement, representing a total of €450 million in research funding. The UK has the second-most of any ERC participating country. The grants are awarded through open competition and the sole criterion for selection is scientific excellence.
Professors Mete Atatüre and Jeremy Baumberg (Cavendish Laboratory), Professor Judith Driscoll (Dept of Materials Science and Metallurgy) and Professor John Robb (Dept of Archaeology) at the University were awarded the ERC grants.
Professor Baumberg’s PICOFORCE project traps light down to the size of individual atoms which will allow him to invent new ways of tugging them, levitating them, and putting them together. The work explores how molecules and metals interact, crucial for sustainably creating energy, storing it, and developing electronics that can switch with thousands of times less power need than currently.
Professor Atatüre’s project, PEDESTAL, investigates diamond as a material platform for quantum networks. What gives gems their colour also turns out to be interesting candidates for quantum computing and communication technologies. By developing large-scale diamond-semiconductor hybrid quantum devices, the project aims to demonstrate high-rate and high-fidelity remote entanglement generation, a building block for a quantum internet.
Professor Driscoll was also awarded ERC funding for her work on nanostructured electronic materials. She is also spearheading joint work of her team, as well as those of Baumberg and Atatüre, on low-energy IT devices.
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