•Monographs

Experience, potential, and the drive needed to pursue high-risk projects are qualities that Marino Arroyo, Romain Quidant and Santiago Badia—three young UPC Barcelona-Tech researchers awarded Starting Grants in the last two years—all have in common. The funding provided by the grant, close to €1.5 million, has changed the way these investigators go about their day-to-day work.

Marino Arroyo, a professor in UPC-Barcelona Tech’s Department of Applied Mathematics III, received his grant in 2009 and recognizes that the first year was tough. “I had some experience in research management, but attracting researchers from other fields to create a more multidisciplinary team is quite complicated,” he says. His project focuses on computer modeling and multiscale simulation, so it involves working with mechanical and civil engineers, chemists and physicists.

Santiago Badia, a researcher with the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) and the recipient of a 2010 Starting Grant, finds himself in a similar situation. “In a few months I need to go from working with just one doctoral student to setting up a major research team. Finding top professionals so quickly isn’t easy,” says Badia.

So far he has managed to bring two of his CIMNE colleagues on board as postdoctoral students, but he still has CVs to consider. Over the next five years, Badia will try to develop a unified numerical framework for simulating the physical processes that take place in nuclear fusion. The aim of his research is to help make this safe, sustainable source of energy a reality.

This line of research represents a major challenge for CIMNE, a center of excellence in R&D that seeks to advance the development and application of numerical and computer-based calculation methods for solving engineering problems.

When the project gets underway, the team will move from the North Campus to the CIMNE building on the Baix Llobregat Campus. The new location in Castelldefels is also home to the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), where Romain Quidant, the other researcher who received a 2010 Starting Grant, carries out his work. Quidant’s project involves applying the optical properties of gold nanoparticles in quantum optics and chemistry. The talent of Quidant and other young researchers is one of the driving forces behind the ICFO, a leading institute for frontier research in various fields of the photonic sciences, from optical telecommunications and biotechnologies to remote detection techniques, sensors, quantum information, and industrial photonics.

Romain Quidant (who together with ICFO researcher Niek van Hulst has just received the City of Barcelona Award in the area of scientific research) sees the Starting Grant as an “important distinction that rewards both the work a researcher has done in recent years and their ideas for the future.” Innovation and the risk a project involves are key considerations for the ERC because research of this kind “could potentially have a huge impact on society.” The program also allows investigators to engage in basic research without being constrained by the guidelines of traditional funding agencies. According to Quidant, “it’s only by pursuing this type of research that we can push back the limits of knowledge.”

Badia says the Starting Grant has become a mark of excellence for young researchers (he’s 31), and that even though they are very difficult to obtain, the grants play a crucial role in enabling researchers to overcome major hurdles and achieve high-impact results.

The three researchers agree that the Starting Grants will make it possible for them to focus all their energy on their projects for the next five years without being distracted by the need to constantly submit proposals. Despite this stability, they are aware that the distinction conferred on them by the ERC has put them in the spotlight, and that they need to demonstrate the talent and ability that earned them the grants.

Marino Arroyo thinks one of the program’s unstated objectives is to compete with the United States in order to prevent a “brain drain” in European research, attract scientists from other countries, and make European research more competitive.

Though very positive about the recognition the awards bring, Badia makes one important point: “While they’re an excellent tool for five years, the Starting Grants don’t provide long-term stability and can even pose a risk.” He says this is because young researchers cannot rely on them for the longer term. “I’m not suggesting that the answer is to create permanent positions for researchers as career civil servants: I think we’ve moved beyond that kind of approach. But I’m sure there are excellent researchers in Catalonia who should have the opportunity to submit proposals for high-quality local calls. At the moment local funding opportunities just aren’t very attractive.”

Apart from the Starting Grants, four researchers linked to UPC-Barcelona Tech have received Advanced Grants in the last two years: Sergio Idelsohn, Niek van Hulst and Víctor Guallar in 2009, and Eugenio Oñate in 2010.

Oñate, the director of the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), received €2.5 million for a project aimed at using numerical methods to solve problems related to the safety of infrastructure at risk due to the action of water. He says he is very happy because the grant enhances the prestige of UPC-Barcelona Tech and CIMNE. “You have to fight to get project funding, and the Advanced Grant has come after many years of training. It’s like in sports: nothing comes without an effort. The evidence is what validates the model.”

Oñate thinks the ERC grants are an effective European strategy for strengthening research groups. “It’s good to generate a flow of people and ideas, to bring an international dimension to research.”

Sergio Idelsohn, also a CIMNE researcher, does not think the program will prevent a European brain drain, but he says “the only way to survive in such a globalized and competitive world is to take advantage of programs like the one run by the ERC to propose new ideas and original products.”

A year ago Idelsohn put aside the other projects he was working on to focus on applying real-time computational mechanics techniques to multi-fluid problems. The project, funded by an Advanced Grant, is aimed at developing specific calculation methods that prioritize calculation time over the precision of results. Idelsohn has five years to achieve his objectives and will invest most of the €2.5 million grant in hiring staff.

For his part, Niek van Hulst will use a significant proportion of his grant to purchase very specialized research equipment for his project. The ICFO researcher, an expert on nanophotonics, will focus his work on a hot field—nanoantennas—which should in the future enable us to study proteins and cellular structures that cannot be observed at present.

According to Van Hulst, “the large sum provided by an Advanced Grant allows us to speed up recruitment of good researchers, which makes teams more competitive.” He also says that over the next five years he will be under less pressure to present new proposals. The Advanced and Starting Grants are not awarded “based on the kind of regional quotas that sometimes apply to funding,” he says: the only thing that counts is the quality of the scientists.

“I always had the idea in the back of my mind, and the Advanced Grant has enabled me to get it off the ground,” says Víctor Guallar of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS). Several months ago Guallar started work on the project for which the ERC awarded him a grant of €1.5 million. It involves developing a public server that will provide access to software for studying how proteins and drugs interact. Initially the software will be aimed at academic institutions and NGOs, but starting in the third year it will be sold to pharmaceutical companies “so the project can continue for another five years.”

“It’s some of the best news we’ve ever had and the learning process is continuous,” says Guallar, who admits that while the award provides security and has an energizing effect, it is also a big responsibility. Guallar worked for several years in the United States and says the country has a stronger tradition of providing numerous grants to fund research. In fact, a high proportion of the salaries of US researchers is dependent on these subsidies.

It will be some years before the impact of the ERC grants can be assessed. Van Hulst says that “giving out grants is easy: right now the focus is on the successes that have been achieved. But to analyze the results we’ll have to wait at least 10 years.” For now the only thing certain is that these seven projects have already started to take shape. CIMNE’s director sums it up this way: “Getting an Advanced Grant is something to celebrate, but in my experience problems are a constant in life. The important thing is that the problems we find ourselves faced with should never be the same ones.”