From ancient medicine to exoplanets: UCL researchers awarded major EU funding

A total of 319 researchers from across Europe received funding from the ERC, as part of their latest Advanced Grant competition. The funding, worth €838 million (£722 million) in total, will give researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. 

Professor Mark Geller (Hebrew and Jewish Studies) received funding for his research project, BabPharmacy. He will apply statistical methods from the study of ancient Chinese medicine to thousands of cuneiform medical recipes to identify which plant and mineral drugs were most trusted by ancient healers. It will aim to answer one of the most persistent questions about ancient Babylonian medicine: did any of it actually work and how can it reflect on today’s modern medicine?   

The ERC funding will support an international team of scholars who will, alongside the statistical analysis, work to decipher hundreds of cuneiform medical fragments that have sat largely unstudied in the British Museum since their arrival in the 19th century.  

Professor Geller said: “Finally, we can apply global knowledge to interpreting the vast numbers of medical tablets recovered and their drug regimes. We are thrilled to have been selected for grant funding for this important project.”   

Prof Neil Burgess (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) has been awarded funding for his project, Generative understanding of memory and planning. The project aims to understand how deep generative networks in the human brain form episodic memories and conceptual knowledge by learning to predict what will happen next, enabling recall, imagination and planning. 

Professor Burgess said: “I really appreciate the ERC’s long-term support for fundamental discovery in cognitive neuroscience. This provides the bedrock on which applications towards improving outcomes in mental health and education can be made.” 

Professor Sergey Yurchenko (UCL Physics & Astronomy) has been awarded an ECR grant for further exploration into the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System. 

His project will develop the molecular data and computational tools needed to interpret observations from leading observatories including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope and the European Space Agency's Ariel mission. By enabling scientists to study atmospheric processes across the entire wavelength range, the project will help transform astronomers’ understanding the chemistry, physics and evolution of planets orbiting other stars.  

Professor Yurchenko said: “What excites me most is building the tools that make new science possible. Over the years, ExoMol has become a trusted resource for the exoplanet community, and this ERC grant, by the needs of that community, gives us the opportunity to tackle some of the most challenging spectroscopic problems still standing in the way of understanding distant worlds.” 

Finally, Professor Sonja Hofer (UCL Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit) will use her grant for the project Neural circuit mechanisms of sensory predictive processing. Professor Hofer studies the mechanisms by which neocortical circuits give rise to sensations, how these circuits are set up during development and how they are changed and shaped by new experiences and learning. 

Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research, and Innovation, said: “My congratulations to all the 319 new ERC Advanced Grant winners and a warm welcome to the researchers from Australia, Canada and the United States who have chosen Europe to carry out their research. These projects embody the spirit of scientific exploration that drives progress. The increase in applications from researchers based outside Europe shows that initiatives such as ‘Choose Europe’, aimed at attracting and keeping talent, are helping to reinforce Europe's appeal to top scientific talent worldwide” 

Links

• Announcement by the ERC
• Professor Mark Geller's academic profile
• Professor Neil Burgess's academic profile
• Professor Sergey Yurchenko's academic profile 
• Professor Sonja Hofer's academic profile
• UCL Hebrew and Jewish Studies
• UCL Arts & Humanities
• UCL Research Department of Epilepsy
• UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences
• UCL Physics & Astronomy
• UCL Mathematical & Physical Sciences
• UCL Faculty of Life Sciences
• UCL Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit

Media contact

Sophie Hunter

E: sophie.hunter [at] ucl.ac.uk