A project of a Serbian scientist has for the first time been selected to receive the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant worth up to EUR2 million, the ERC said. Sofija Stefanovic has been chosen as one of 328 first-class scientists whose projects are expected to provide high contribution to science.
Sofija Stefanovic and her team from the bioarchaeology laboratory at the Archaeology Department of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade has won a European Research Council grant for the Birth project, which deals with the evolution of fertility in the Neolithic period in the Balkans from 10.000 to 5.000 BC.
Specifically, Stefanovic and her team are examining finds of human teeth from prehistoric times in a bid to find out why the human population multiplied several times over in that period.
The ERC has selected 328 first-class scientists to receive its prestigious Starting Grants. This first Starting Grant competition under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, and the seventh to date, awards €485 million to early-career talent to develop their ambitious high-risk, high-gain research projects in any field.
On July 1 in Brussels, Serbian Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development Srdjan Verbic signed an agreement on Serbia’s accession to the Horizon 2020 programme, which will enable Serbian scientists to access EU science funds.
The European Research Council, a part of Horizon 2020, was established in 2007 and has a EUR 13 billion budget.
ERC_Press_Release_2014_Starting_Grant_call_results.pdf
Read about Sofija Stefanovic
Check out “Grants for the dream of science” by European Research Council video on Vimeo.
