ERC Grants: Q&A and testimonials

Note: Watch the recording embedded here and access the speaker presentation in the Attachments section below.

EURAXESS North America will host an online meeting with officials from the European Research Council Executive Agency, which administers ERC grants, as well as current ERC grantees, who will share their experiences applying for the prestigious bottom-up grants and setting up their labs in Europe. Register now and join us live to hear from EU representatives and the researchers themselves, to see if ERC grants could be for you and to improve your proposal.

The activity will take place online via Zoom on Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 at 12:00 noon ET (9:00 AM PT, 6:00 PM CEST) and last approximately an hour and forty-five minutes. The meeting will be held in English, is completely free, but advance registration is required.

Register now

Note that an extremely brief overview will be provided at the beginning of the session, and the main focus will be to give space for a dedicated Q&A session. If you want an introduction to the funding scheme, we invite you to watch our most recent info session and access the presentations:

• Welcome remarks from Jackson Howard, EURAXESS North America

• Presentation on ERC grants by Telma Carvalho, European Research Council Executive Agency

• Reflections throughout presentation by ERC grantees

  • Osvaldo Simeone, Kings College London - Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE) domain

  • Harry Jonas Pontusson, University of Geneva - Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) domain

  • Sven-Oliver Proksch, University of Cologne - Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) domain

• Question and answer session

• Closing remarks

Hear from the following:

Dr. Ir. Telma Carvalho, European Research Council Executive Agency

Telma Carvalho is Research Program Officer at the European Research Council Executive Agency being in charge of the coordination of the Synergy panel on Physics, Engineering, and Computer Sciences. She is a Materials Engineer by the Technical University of Lisbon in Portugal and doctor in Engineering by the Catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven). Before joining the European Commission, she was R&D Manager at a spin-off company of the KULeuven charged of developing sensors and expert systems to assess the integrity of industrial components. 

Dr. Osvaldo Simeone, Kings College London - Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE) domain
Osvaldo Simeone is a Professor of Information Engineering at King's College London and a visiting Professor at Aalborg University. From 2006 to 2017, he was at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Among other recognitions, Prof.  Simeone is a co-recipient of the 2022 IEEE Communications Society Outstanding Paper Award, the 2021 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Jack Neubauer Memorial Award, the 2019 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, the 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Best Paper Award, and the 2015 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award. He was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) in 2025, an Open Fellowship by the EPSRC in 2022, and a Consolidator grant by the ERC in 2016. He was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society in 2021 and 2022, and he was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2017 and 2018. Prof. Simeone is the author of the textbooks "Machine Learning for Engineers" and "Classical and Quantum Information Theory" published by Cambridge University Press, four monographs, two edited books, and more than 200 research journal and magazine papers. He is a Fellow of the IET and IEEE.  

Dr. Jonas Pontusson, University of Geneva - Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) domain

Jonas Pontusson received a PhD in political science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1986.  His research and publications fall in the broad domain of comparative political economy of contemporary capitalism, with a focus on labor markets, trade unions, economic inequality, and the representation of economic interests in politics.  Prior to moving to Geneva in 2010, Pontusson taught at Cornell University (1984-2005) and Princeton University (2005-10). Since 2023, he is a research-active emeritus professor at the University of Geneva. From 2017 to 2023, Pontusson directed a research program on income and class biases in democratic representation (“Unequal Democracies”), financed by the European Research Council (Advanced Grant).  He is currently part of a Horizon research consortium on challenges to social protection in contemporary Europe.

Dr. Sven-Oliver Proksch, University of Cologne - Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) domain

Sven‐Oliver Proksch is Professor of Political Science and Chair for European and Multilevel Politics at the Department of Political Science at the University of Cologne. Prior to Cologne, he was Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University in Montreal. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California in Los Angeles and held a postdoctoral research fellow position at the University of Mannheim. His research interests include political representation, democratic political institutions, party politics, parliamentary debates, political text analysis, and European politics. Sven-Oliver Proksch is the co-recipient of the 2012 Gosnell Prize for Excellence in Political Methodology. His book The Politics of Parliamentary Debate: Parties, Rebels, and Representation (with Jonathan B. Slapin) has been published with Cambridge University Press and is the 2016 winner of the Richard Fenno award for best book in legislative studies as well as 2016 co-winner of the Leon Epstein award for best book on political organizations and parties. He is recipient of a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council for his project Minorityrule - "Democracy without Majorities: Political Representation under Minority Rule."