New funding awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) for young people (Starting grants): 619 million euros for 397 researchers.
Among the winners of the grants, the first awarded under the new European framework program for research, Horizon Europe, 58 are Italian.
Of the 397 researchers awarded, 43% are women, 37% more than last year.
Italians are the second largest group after the Germans (67) to receive the funds, but of the funded researchers, only 28 are hosted by Italian institutions. In third place is France with 44 winners.
Leading the nations hosting the winners is still Germany with 72, followed by France (53) and the United Kingdom (46), Italy is only sixth (28) tied with Switzerland, which of Swiss researchers awarded it has only 11.
"Allowing young talents to thrive in Europe and pursue their most innovative ideas - this is the best investment for our future, even considering the ever-growing competition globally. We must trust young people and their insights into what areas they will be important tomorrow ", commented the president of the European Research Council, Maria Leptin.
ERC grants have been awarded since 2007 to promote the most creative researchers whose activities are based in Europe, this section of the awards published today (Starting grants) is especially dedicated to young people and the initiation of research considered interesting in all sectors of research, from physics to human sciences.