Professor Howard Jacobs wins ERC Advanced Grant in Life Sciences

Professor Howard Jacobs and his project "Molecular by-pass therapy for mitochondrial dysfunction" have been selected as Advanced Grant winners in the Life Sciences and Medicine domain by the European Research Council.

"We are very honoured that our group has been selected for funding from the European Research Council in its first set of awards of investigator-driven research grants", says Professor Jacobs.

In the LS domain 766 applications were submitted. So far, 78 Advanced Grant winners have been selected in this domain.

"Our success reflects the strong support given to us over the years by the Academy of Finland and the generally very high quality of education and research infrastructure in Finland, which underpins our work. It is also, obviously, a feather in the cap for the University of Tampere."

"In the competition for ERC grants in the life sciences sector, Finland obtained a total of 4 out of the 78 awards (5 if you also count Ari Helenius, based currently in Zurich), way above expectation for such a small country and comparable with many of the major countries in Europe. This investment helps to strengthen further Finland's international position in science, and shows how much the country can benefit from inward investment of all kinds, if it continues to offer a good base for internationally competitive research."

The European Research Council was set up to improve Europe's position at the frontiers of research, including in new and fast-growing research fields that will be critical to the knowledge society of the future. The Advanced Grant scheme is set to be a flagship funding programme of the ERC for the years 2008-2013. ERC Advanced Grant scheme will channel around 4 bn Euro over the next 6 years to the very best research projects and the most talented researchers across Europe. The selection process is based on an open competition with scientific excellence as the sole award criterion, and the evaluation of proposals is in the hands of peer review panels.

Professor Howard Jacobs
Institute of Medical Technology, University of Tampere

European Research Council
List of the first LS domain winners

Photo Erkki Karén