Evangelos Giampazolias received £1.8m in EU funding to pursue cutting-edge research in cancer immunity in Manchester.
We are delighted to announce that Evangelos Giampazolias has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.
These grants support pioneering early career researchers to launch their own projects, form teams and pursue their most promising ideas.
As a Junior Group Leader, Evangelos joined the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute in the beginning of last year to set up his first lab as an independent researcher. His group focuses on mechanisms that enable the immune system to recognise and respond to cancer, studying the integration of cues elicited by dying cells and commensal microbes.
This competition attracted 3,474 proposals, which were evaluated by peer review panels of internationally renowned researchers. Overall, 14.2% of the proposals were selected for funding.
Starting Grants amount to €1.5 million per grant for a period of five years. Additional funds can also be sought to cover costs related to moving from a country outside the EU or associated countries, or the purchase of major equipment.
Critically, Evangelos secured a further €549,000 for a spectral flow cytometer essential to carry out his proposed research.
The ERC was founded in 2007 by the European Union. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age to run projects based in Europe.
I feel extremely honoured to have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to pursue our work on nutrient-host-microbiome interactions in cancer immunity at the Institute. I want to thank the ERC for this incredible opportunity.
Evangelos Giampazolias
Junior Group Leader
We are thrilled to hear of Evangelos’ success in winning an ERC Starting Grant. These awards are highly competitive, and it reflects the excitement we all feel about his programme of research. Many congratulations and we can’t wait to see what he will go on to discover next.
Claus Jorgensen
Deputy Director
Empowering researchers early on in their careers is at the heart of the mission of the ERC. I am particularly pleased to welcome UK researchers back to the ERC. They have been sorely missed over the past years. With fifty grants awarded to researchers based in the UK, this in flux is good for the research community overall.
Professor Maria Leptin
President of the European Research Council