Three new multi-million euro grants for the University of Helsinki – ERC announces recipients of Consolidator Grants

According to the assessment of the European Research Council, Professor Tuuli Toivonen and Associate Professors Mikko Voutilainen and Pekka Katajisto are pioneers in their fields.

Professor Tuuli Toivonen and Associate Professor Mikko Voutilainen from Kumpula Campus and Associate Professor Pekka Katajisto from Viikki Campus have been granted competitive ERC Consolidator Grants. The European Research Council (ERC) published the results of the call for applications on 17 March.

The total sum of each grant is approximately €2 million. In addition, Pekka Katajisto received other additional funding, increasing the total awarded to him to €2.6 million.

Digital geography, particle physics and stem cell biology
  • Tuuli Toivonen’s project entitled ‘Greener Urban Environments For Everyone: From measured wellbeing impacts to Big Data analytics’ is from the field of digital geography. Toivonen works at the Faculty of Science’s Department of Geosciences and Geography.
  • In his project entitled ‘Jet Energy Corrections for High-Luminosity LHC’, Mikko Voutilainen investigates particle physics phenomena measured with the LHC particle accelerator at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Voutilainen works at the Faculty of Science’s Department of Physics.
  • Pekka Katajisto’s project ‘Niche geometry as the regulator of communal metabolism and cell fate’ focuses on stem cell biology. Katajisto works at the Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE).

The European Research Council awards funding to top researchers and their research groups for pioneering and innovative research. The topics of research are not predetermined, and the projects to be funded are selected on the basis of scientific quality.

ERC Consolidator Grants are intended for researchers who completed their doctoral degree 7–12 years ago. The two other primary funding forms of the ERC are Starting Grants for promising early-career scholars and Advanced Grants for established and leading investigators.

Read more: Researchers and projects funded by ERC