Young researcher and manager of the #PROMIS project #Key2SM, Dr Jakša Vučičević from the Institute of Physics in Belgrade has won the ERC Starting Grant worth 1.5 million euros, which the European Research Council (ERC) awards to the best European projects and researchers.

His new Project #SCLoTHiFi (Numerically exact theory of transport in strongly correlated systems at low temperature and under magnetic fields) will deal with the research of high-temperature superconductors and other important and still unsolved questions in physics.

ERC grants aim to help the realisation of new scientific and technological discoveries that will create the basis for new industries, markets and wider societal innovations in the future.

Since 2020, Dr Vučičević has been managing the Key2SM project as part of the PROMIS programme of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, our first programme specifically intended for young researchers, and we hope that his experience with the PROMIS programme has helped him in the new competition.

The ERC is a public body for financing scientific and technological research carried out within the European Union. Under Horizon 2020, an estimated 7,000 ERC grants will be funded and 42,000 team members will be supported, including 11,000 PhD students and almost 16,000 postdoctoral researchers.

The European Union’s support for innovation and competitiveness in Serbia is worth more than 200 million euros for the period from 2014 until today. The funds intended for this sector are used to encourage the quality of science, innovation and connections with the European and international scientists and entrepreneurs, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the Serbian economy. Since 2014, Serbia has been a beneficiary of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – Horizon Europe.

The EU encourages the development of science and innovation in order to create the technological preconditions for the development of competitiveness and economy throughout Europe. For the citizens of Serbia, the EU has enabled the use of common research space and training in the EU countries, which has made Serbian scientists more visible to the European and world scientific community.

The support of the European Union is carried out in cooperation with the Government of Serbia. The European Union is a bigger donor for the development of Serbia than all other international donors combined. Donations from the European Union are used for the development of Serbia.