EURYI Award given for the first time to 25 young European researchers

For the first time, the European research organisations, under the umbrella of the European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs), have honoured 25 young researchers with the European Young Investigator Award (EURYI). Over the next five years, four of the prizewinners will conduct research at German institutes. The prize is worth €1.25 million and is intended to support the career development of the next generation of leading researchers and, at the same time, to increase the attractiveness and international competitiveness of the European Research Area. This new programme of excellence is based upon the "Memorandum of Understanding" signed by 18 research organisations from 15 European countries in 2003. The prizes will be awarded on 26 August 2004 during the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in Stockholm by the current president of the EUROHORCs, Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation).

In Germany, prizewinners include Hungarian doctor Zsuzsanna Izsvak at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Lithuanian physicist Andrius Baltuška at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Ukrainian biochemist Alexey Rak at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, and German psychologist and 2001 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz prize recipient Thomas Mussweiler at the University of Würzburg. Invitations to conduct research abroad have been extended from the British Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine to German-Swedish physicist Jens Eisert, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to German computer scientist Monika Henzinger, and from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris to German physicist Jakob Reichel.

Young researchers from all countries and disciplines apply for the EURYI Award in the participating country in which they wish to carry out their research. This requires an invitation from the host research institutions indicating their willingness to facilitate the young researchers and their working groups. The review process and final selection are based solely on standards of scientific quality and take place in two stages. In the first stage, the responsible research funding organisation, e.g. the DFG in Germany, conducts a peer review assessment at the national level. Candidates who are successful in this stage go on to the joint selection process at the European level, for which the European Science Foundation (ESF) in Strasbourg is responsible. In this first year of the award, a total of 762 proposals were received by the participating organisations, of which 133 were submitted to the international review process.

The EURYI Award gives young researchers throughout the world the opportunity to establish and lead their own junior research group with two or three project positions for doctoral students or postdoctoral students. In addition to funding for the position of group leader and the junior research group, the award also covers consumables and travel expenses.

The next call for proposals for the EURYI programme will begin on 1 September 2004.

Further Information

More about the EURYI Awards may be found under http://www.dfg.de/en/international/young_researchers/euryi_award/index.html

European Science Foundation (ESF)
European Union Research Organisations Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs)

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