European Research Council – ERC has announced the results of the call for applications for „Starting Grants” for the best young scientist in Europe who implement innovative research projects.
AmonW gronie tegorocznych laureatów znalazło się dwóch Polaków:
- Łukasz Bola, PhD from the Institute of Psychology Polish Academy of Sciences, who will receive almost EUR 1.5 mln for the implementation of the BLINDBRAIN project - the first ERC grant in Poland in the field of psychology.
- Piotr Alexandrowicz, PhD from the AMU Faculty of Law and Administration in Poznan, who received funding for research entitled PetrIUS project: “Petrification of ius commune through printed paratexts”
Congratulation to both laureats!
NAWA scholarship holder among the winners
Łukasz Bola PhD is a scholarship holder of the Ulam NAWA Seal of Excellence programme, under which he implemented the project „The function of the primary visual cortex (V1) in blind individuals”. The ERC grant will focus on brain plasticity in people blind from birth.
A large part of the human brain is genetically programmed to handle the sense of sight - explains Dr. Bola - In my work, I investigate what these areas do when it comes to blind people who, naturally, do not use the visual cortex in the same way as sighted people. It allows me to understand how the brain adapts to new challenges.
In recent years, neuroimaging studies conducted on blind people have made exciting discoveries. It turned out that the visual areas of blind people are activated in response to linguistic stimuli, such as words and sentences - says the ERC grant winner - In my project, I will investigate the mechanisms that may underlie this type of activation. For example, does hearing the word <apple> lead to the appearance of in the visual areas of a blind person of a relatively simple, spatial representation of a small and round object? If yes, it would suggest that these areas retain to some extent their typical functions, such as judging the size and shape of objects, even when it comes to blind people. However, it may be, that the activations observed in these areas are related to the representation of more abstract knowledge - for example, that apples do not grow in Antarctica or that the word heard is a noun. This type of result would be evidence that visual areas can perform completely different tasks in blind people than in sighted people. This would be a revolution in our understanding of the plasticity of the human brain.
In addition to the research project, ERC experts also appreciated the Polish scientist's achievements. Drs Bola is an author of of several dozen publications in leading international journals (including PNAS, Current Biology, eLife). He completed research internships at the University of Glasgow and Harvard. He is the winner of many awards and distinctions, including: START FNP scholarship for the most talented young scientists in Poland, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation, or the MEiN scholarship for outstanding young scientists. Thanks to the support of the National Science Center and Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, the researcher returned to Poland after working at Harvard. He has been leading his own research team at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences for over three years.
As he himself says, experience in national grant competitions was extremely helpful when applying for an ERC grant.
The basis is an original research idea, as well as the credibility of the person applying for the grant - says the scientist - We need to convince a team of experts, consisting of outstanding scientists from around the world, that we are the right person to solve the mystery described in the grant application. - He adds that institutional support is also important. He cites mentoring initiatives conducted by the National Contact Point for EU Research Programmes, as well as trial panels and expert consultations organized by the Office of Scientific Excellence of the Polish Academy of Sciences as resources that helped him receive this prestigious distinction.
The ERC grants are synonymous with scientific excellence and one of the most important awards that a scientist working in Europe can receive. This year, almost 3,500 researchers applied for grants in the "Starting Grants" category, of which less than 500 obtained funding for their applications. This group included two people affiliated with Polish institutions. Since the program was established in 2007, a total of 87 ERC grants in all categories (Starting, Consolidator, Advanced, Synergy, Proof of Concept) have been awarded to Polish scientists.