Florian Markowetz secures European Research Council Advanced Grant

The European Research Council today announced the winners of its 2021 Advanced Grants competition. The funding, worth in total €624.6 million, will go to 253 leading researchers across Europe. Senior Group Leader, Dr Florian Markowetz, has been awarded a grant for his project ‘Targeting the roots of chromosomal instability in cancer (CliniCIN)’.

“Genomic chaos caused by chromosomal instability is a hallmark of most lethal cancers,” says Dr Markowetz. “Highly unstable tumours have few biomarkers to guide treatment decisions and patient survival has not improved for decades.

“I propose a novel single cell DNA sequencing approach to identify ongoing mutational processes from unique events in individual cells and use them to choose the best drug for each patient.

“It is a great privilege to be part of this amazing network of European researchers.”

ERC Advanced Grants are designed to support excellent scientists and scholars in any field at the career stage when they are already established research leaders, with a recognised track record of research achievements.

The 2021 Advanced Grants competition will see funding worth €624 million going to 253 leading researchers across Europe. This year, the UK has received grants for 45 projects, Germany 61, the Netherlands 27 and France 26. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme.

Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The ERC Advanced Grants support ground-breaking researchers throughout Europe. It gives our talents the possibility to realise their creative ideas. Their pioneering work contribute to solve the most pressing social, economic and environmental challenges.”

President of the ERC Prof. Maria Leptin commented: “Congratulations to the new grant winners in the latest round of ERC Advanced Grants! By following their scientific curiosity, these senior researchers are pushing the frontiers of our knowledge in a wide range of fields. It’s essential to fund this type of cutting-edge research to keep Europe at the scientific forefront.”