Matthias Erb receives an ERC Consolidator Grant
The Swiss Plant Science Web congratulates its member Matthias Erb, professor at the University of Bern. He has just received an ERC Consolidator Grant for his project CANWAS (Canopy Waves - Volatile Information Transfer Across MultiplePlants).
Plants detect scents secreted by stressed neighboring plants and can thus activate their defenses at an early stage. Scents propagate as waves and in this way may be able to reprogram the defenses of entire populations.
With this 2 million Euros grant over 5 years Matthias Erb will develop a system that makes these hypothetical scent waves measurable, and will then use this system to study the interactions between groups of plants in the lab and in the field.
Learn more about his research by checking-out Matthias Erb's research portfolio.
Source
https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2021-consolidator-grants-results
Media release University of Bern
An ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) provides funding to outstanding researchers to establish or maintain a research team at a public or private research institution within the EU or an associated country. The grants, which are part of the EU research framework program "Horizon Europe", are each endowed with approximately 2 million euros and awarded for a period of five years. Currently in the program, the European Commission (EC) treats Switzerland as a non-associated country, making it impossible for researchers from non-associated, non-EU countries to participate in European Commission projects.
However, there was an exception made for the ERC Starting and Consolidator Grants in 2021. These grants were specially evaluated by the EC, as Switzerland was still classified by the EC as a "country to be associated" at the time of the deadline for applications. If the researchers decide to carry out their project at the institution in Switzerland where they are based, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI will provide funding instead of the EC.