The ERC grants are designed for researchers with two to seven years of experience since obtaining their PhD and are intended to allow young scientists to build their research theme around an original theme. Photo: Matic Zorman.

The ERC grants are designed for researchers with two to seven years of experience since obtaining their PhD and are intended to allow young scientists to build their research theme around an original theme. Photo: Matic Zorman.

A researcher from the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (Liser), Camille Perchoux has received a starting grant from the European Research Council for her project aiming to evaluate everyday life effect on stress.

Perchoux’s  FragMent  project, scheduled to run for five years, aims to asses environmental characteristic effects on physiological and psychological stress as well as social inequalities in stress. Momentary, daily, and chronic stress all fall under the categories which the young researcher will study after receiving backing from the EU funded organisation.

“This is a great opportunity to build up a research team and consolidate it for the next few years. And to establish yourself as an independent researcher recognised on a European scale,” said Perchoux, speaking to Delano. 

Having previously written a thesis on how the environments we spend time in daily affect our health as opposed to looking for the answer in recent environments, Perchoux considers this new project a good continuation of her experiences as a researcher.

The young researcher’s project--also reviewed by Luxinnovation prior to its submission—will be based on a combination of smartphone tracking, web-survey and map-based questionnaire. Perchoux and her team will follow people in their authentic environments and characterise their stress levels. In addition to that, a series of lab-based experiments featuring a walking simulator and immersive virtual environments will assess the effect of urban environments on stress.

“Winning an ERC grant is a proof of the excellent research of Liser and Dr. Perchoux. It takes courage and a breakthrough idea, combined with good preparation and support to create a successful project,” said Charles Betz, Senior Advisor EU RDI support at Luxinnovation.

The ERC grants are designed for researchers with two to seven years’ experience since obtaining their PhD and are intended to allow young scientists to build their research project around an original theme.

Perchoux’s grant is part of a round of financial support allocated to 397 researchers for a total of €619m as part of the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme . Averaging €1.5m per project, the grants cover a wide array of research fields from artificial intelligence to designing a legal regime for fair influencer marketing. Female researchers won 43% of the grants, marking a visible increase from 2020 when just 37% were awarded to women.

“Letting young talent thrive in Europe and go after their most innovative ideas--this is the best investment in our future, not least with the ever-growing competition globally. We must trust the young and their insights into what areas will be important tomorrow. So, I am thrilled to see these new ERC Starting Grant winners ready to cut new ground and set up their own teams. Some of them will be coming back from overseas, thanks to the ERC grants, to do science in Europe. We must continue to make sure Europe remains a scientific powerhouse,” said professor Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council.