01/02/08

Two UPF researchers have been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council

Two researchers from the UPF Department of Economics and Business, Marta Reynal-Querol and Jan Eeckhout , will be able to conduct their respective research projects after having been awarded one of the first Starting Grants to be offered by the European Research Council. These grants provide up to two million euros in order to undertake research work during the next five years.

Marta Reynal-Querol , Ramon y Cajal researcher at UPF, holds a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics ( United Kingdom ) and a Master in Economics from UPF. The research areas she focuses on are related to resolving conflicts and addressing their consequences, the reasons behind civil wars, ethnic polarisation and institutional economics.

Jan Eeckhout is from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and will soon join the UPF Department of Economics and Business. The lines of research he is focussed on are related to applied theory, the game theory and microeconomics.

Other selected candidates also included Antoni Calvo , PhD in Economics from UPF and researcher of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), who died recently. The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), a centre attached to UPF, has been awarded a grant for the researcher Ben Lehner (two more grants are still to be confirmed). It is worth noting that Nicola Pavoni , PhD in Economics from UPF and currently a lecturer at University College London, is among those who have been awarded this important grant.

For the first edition of the Starting Grant, the European Research Council received over 9000 applications for funding projects aimed at promoting research among young researchers. According to scientific quality criteria, only 300 applications were chosen , 24 of which were from Spain . Of these, 15 (63%) were from researchers working in Catalan centres and universities.

The European Research Council ( ERC ) was set up in 2007 as part of the 7th EU Research Framework Programme. It is formed by prestigious scientists and it is the organisation in charge of funding EU scientific research projects. Andreu Mas-Colell , chair of Economics at UPF will be the secretary general of this body from 2009 to 2011.