Starting grant ERC to Simona Colombelli, Luca Fortunato and Stefano Oscurato

There are3 starting grants awarded by theERC - European Research Council to the University of Naples Federico II out of the 494 funded by the European Commission. Of these, Italy, fifth in Europe, was awarded 41. Starting grants are 1.5 million euros in funding for young European researchers. The intervention, totaling nearly 780 million euros, supports cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields, from the life and physical sciences to the social sciences and humanities by subsidizing emerging scientific talent across Europe through the projects.

The Federico II winners are Drs. Simona Colombelli, Luca Fortunato and Stefano Oscurato.

Simona Colombelli received the starting grant for the project FORESEEING - FrOm RupturE procesS to Earthquake Early warning , which aims to mark a turning point in the understanding of earthquakes and the preventive measures to be taken to reduce their devastating effects.

Colombelli, a researcher at the Department of Physics "Ettore Pancini" at the University of Naples Federico II, is a leading figure in the field of seismology and the development of Early Warning systems for earthquakes. This ambitious project aims to answer one of the most intriguing and complex questions in modern seismology: how do earthquakes begin and what determines their ultimate size?

Luca Fortunato received funding for the project AMF - Advancing Membrane Filtration: Understanding Fouling Dynamics and Sustainable Cleaning Strategies.

Fortunato, a researcher and expert in environmental and chemical engineering, has extensive international experience in membrane technologies and processes for wastewater treatment, desalination and by-product valorization. He is distinguished by his innovative approach focused on reducing energy consumption and lowering environmental impact in water treatment and recovery systems. His research is geared toward promoting sustainable and technologically advanced solutions for environmental protection.

Stefano Luigi Oscurato received the Starting Grant for the HyperMaSH project, which aims to achieve a significant breakthrough in photonics by revolutionizing the production of devices that use light to collect, transmit and process information.

Oscurato, a researcher in Physics of Matter at the University Federico II, is an expert in Photonics and Digital Holography. HyperMaSH aims at the realization of highly advanced optical instruments, today the preserve of traditional lithography, by exploiting new special materials, containing azobenzene molecules (easily shaped using only light), which, thanks to special digital holography techniques, will make possible the sustainable production (less waste and reduction of steps) of innovative and ultra-thin optical devices.

Of the ERC funding awarded to Italy, Federico II, with three winning projects, is second along with Politecnico di Milano, Bocconi, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Sapienza di Roma and CNR; first is the University of Padua, which was awarded five grants.

There were 3,474 project proposals received by theEuropean Research Council for this call. Forty-four percent of the grants were awarded to female researchers, up from 43 percent awarded in 2023 and 39 percent in 2022. Since 2007, ERC calls have received about 62,000 projects. During this time, the number of proposals submitted by women has increased from nearly 30 percent to nearly 40 percent.