The results of the 2023 European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant call (call deadline 25 October 2022) were published. Starting Grants are open to researchers with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD (extensions are possible under certain documented circumstances), a scientific track record showing great promise and an excellent research proposal.

Proposals are evaluated in 27 evaluation panels in three research domains (Physical Sciences and Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities and Life Sciences) composed of top scientists and scholars coming from all over the world and in addition by remote referees with necessary specialised expertise (two to five per proposal).

Of the 2696 submitted proposals 400 researchers with 44 different nationalities received an ERC Starting Grant: 110 In Life Sciences, 173 in Physical Sciences and Engineering and 117 in Social Sciences and Humanities. In the ERCEA news articles more background on the evaluation results, call statistics and several project examples are highlighted.

However the statistics and final list are provisional since the UK is still considered non-associated to Horizon Europe. The successful proposals of applicants based in a country in the process of associating to Horizon Europe will be eligible for funding only if the relevant Horizon Europe association agreement applies by the time of the signature of the grant agreement.

Among the 400 selected researchers are fourteen based at Flemish host institutions. The projects of these fourteen Principal Investigators (PIs) are presented in the news articles of Universiteit Gent, KU Leuven, Universiteit Antwerpen and VIB.

• Marijn Bauters, Universiteit Gent, “FORECAT - Biogeochemical impact of land-use intensification and its legacy effects on tropical forest recovery through cation limitation”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 10
• Dominic Bowman, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, “SYMPHONY - StudYing Massive star PHysics Of blue supergiaNts with asteroseismology”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 9. As of 1 September 2023, he has taken on a faculty position at Newcastle University.
• Tom Bultreys, Universiteit Gent, “FLOWSCOPY- Unravelling unsteady fluid flows in porous media with 3D X-ray micro-velocimetry”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 8
• Antonio Calcara, Universiteit Antwerpen, “CODE - Competition in the Digital Era: Technology and Geopolitics in the XXI Century”, evaluation panel Social Sciences and Humanities 2
• Jozefien De Leersnyder, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, "PsychAcc - Re-thinking Psychological Acculturation: From Explicit to Implicit Cultural Affiliations”, evaluation panel Social Sciences and Humanities 3
• Elke Debroye, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, “X-PECT - Toward next-generation X-ray imaging: Pb-free PErovskite Charge Transport engineering”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 4
• Charles Disimone, Universiteit Gent, “Gandhara Corpora - Corpora in Greater Gandhāra: Tracing the Development of Buddhist Textuality and Gilgit/Bamiyan Manuscript Networks in the First Millennium of the Common Era”, evaluation panel Social Sciences and Humanities 5
• Gamze Erdem Turkelli, Universiteit Antwerpen, “GENESIS - GovErning humaN rights through partnErShIpS: investigating the normative and operational interface of international law and multistakeholder governance”, evaluation panel Social Sciences and Humanities 2
• Jonas Hereijgers, Universiteit Antwerpen, “RECHARGE - Redox flow batteries charging tomorrow’s world through the in-depth understanding and enhanced control over battery hydrodynamics”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 8
• Sara Pacchiarotti, Universiteit Gent, “CongUbangi - The Congo-Ubangi watershed : An interdisciplinary approach to the genesis of a linguistic accretion zone in Central Africa”, evaluation panel Social Sciences and Humanities 4
• Sven Rogge, Universiteit Gent, “STRAINSWITCH - Strain engineering to design functional 4D polymorphism in nanostructured materials”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 4
• Raf Van Rooy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, “ERASMOS - From Chrysoloras’ Latin to Erasmus’ Greek: Renaissance classical bilingualism as a European phenomenon (1397-1536)”, evaluation panel Social Sciences and Humanities 5
• Anastassia Vorobieva, VIB, “PoreMADNeSS - Massive parallel de novo design of sensing nanopores”, evaluation panel Life Sciences 1
• Harry Zekollari, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, “ice cubed - ICE³: Modelling the global multi-century evolution of glacier ICE in 3D”, evaluation panel Physical Sciences and Engineering 10