Leading across Europe

With twelve Synergy Grants, the Max Planck Society claims top spot in the ERC ranking

The Max Planck Society has secured 12 Synergy Grants in the latest round of proposals from the European Research Council (ERC), placing it at the forefront of the international ranking of funded institutions. A total of 15 Max Planck researchers are involved in these successful projects. With a success rate of 39% from 31 submitted applications, Max Planck leads the field in Europe. Overall, the ERC selected 57 projects out of 548 submissions for funding.

Ten Synergy Grants were awarded to the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), followed by institutions in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. The University of Cambridge ranked third with five grants. Of the 57 projects selected, a particularly large number—34—were awarded to teams based in Germany, followed by the UK with 18 and France with 13.

Altogether, 201 top researchers at 184 universities and research institutions across 24 countries within the European Research Area and beyond will participate in Synergy projects. Most researchers are based in Germany (34), the United Kingdom (18), France (13), the USA (12), Spain (11), and the Netherlands (10).

ERC Synergy Grants support research projects involving teams of two to four researchers, providing up to 14 million euros per project over a six-year period.

The following 15 Max Planck researchers will receive funding worth millions from the ERC through Synergy Grants:

Chemistry, Physics & Technology

• Alessandra Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) with Zvi Bern (University of California), Enrico Barausse (SISSA Trieste), and Maarten Van De Meent (University of Copenhagen). Their project, Making Sense of the Unexpected in the Gravitational-Wave Sky (GWSky), will receive 12 million euros to enhance our understanding of gravitational waves. The project aims to identify potential deviations from Einstein's theory of relativity and the standard model of particle physics through precise observation by current and future gravitational-wave observatories,
• Benedetta Ciardi (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) with Laura Pentericci and Valentina D'Odorico (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Rome) and Kirsten Kraiberg Knudsen (Chalmers University of Technology). The REionization Complementary Approach“-Project (RECAP) will use multi-frequency observations to explore early galaxy formation and evolution during the epoch of reionization.
• Torsten Enßlin (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) with Phillip Mertsch (RWTH Aachen University) and Vasiliki Pavlidou (Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas). Their 10-million-euro project, "mw-atlas", aims to create the first comprehensive 3D atlas of our galaxy, reshaping how we observe and understand the universe.
• Xinliang Feng (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics) with Thomas Heine (TU Dresden) and Grégory Schneider (Leiden University): The "2DPolyMembrane" project, funded with 10 million euros, will develop ultra-thin, precision polymer membranes, potentially transforming applications in energy and environmental science.
• Axel Kleinschmidt (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) with Ruth Britto (Trinity College Dublin), Francis Brown (University of Oxford), and Oliver Schlotterer (Uppsala University): Their "Mathematics of Scattering Amplitudes" (MaScAmp) project will explore fundamental particles and black holes using advanced mathematics, supported by a 10-million-euro grant.
• Joël Ouaknine and Florian Luca (Max Planck Institute for Software Systems) with Valérie Berthé (CNRS). Their "DynAMiCs" project will receive ERC support.
• Angel Rubio (Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter) with Tal Schwartz (Tel Aviv University), Thomas Ebbesen (USIAS Strasbourg), and Abraham Nitzan (University of Pennsylvania). The "Unravelling the Mysteries of Vibrational Strong Coupling" (UNMYST) project will investigate how modifying the electromagnetic environment affects chemical and physical processes in molecular systems within the strong light-matter coupling range.

Biology and Medicine

• Herwig Baier (Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence), Jennifer Li and Drew Robson (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics), with Rainer Friedrich (Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel). Their 10-million-euro project, "Neuronal Implementation of Cognitive Maps for Navigation" (COGNECTOMICS), will explore how zebrafish represent their surroundings mentally, shedding light on the formation of cognitive maps and offering insights into biological and artificial intelligence.
• Aneta Koseska (Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior - CAESAR), with Dietmar Schmucker (University of Bonn), Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo (Pompeu Fabra University), and Jeremy Gunawardena (Harvard University). "The CeLEARN: Learning in Single Cells Through Dynamical Internal Representations“, project will explore the surprising ability of single cells to learn from environmental interactions.
• Petra Schwille (Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry) with Bert Poolman (University of Groningen). Their "MetaDivide" project, funded with 5 million euros, will focus on creating a minimal, autonomous cell-like system capable of self-division and energy production.
• Alec Wodtke (Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Science) with Liv Hornekær (Aarhus University), Peter Saalfrank (University of Potsdam), and Varun Verma (NIST, USA). Their "IRASTRO" project, supported with 12 million euros, will study how molecules observed in space are formed on interstellar ice particles through chemical reactions, enhancing our understanding of molecular spectra and chemical activity in space.

Humanities and Social Sciences

• Alexander Herbig (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), with Adam Izdebski (University of Warsaw), Timothy Newfield (Georgetown University), and Eleni Xoplaki (Justus Liebig University Giessen). The ERC-funded "EUROPest" project will investigate historical pandemics, focusing on the Black Death, by examining the roles of genetics, environment, society, and climate in disease progression.