On 4th November The European Research Council (ERC) launched the second edition of its prize for public engagement today aiming to award three grantees €10,000 each.
All of 6,800 of the basic research funder’s grantees can apply until 3 February 2022, and the winner will be announced during the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) in July.
The award was introduced in 2020 to highlight the importance of engaging the public with science. “Europeans are more and more interested in science. And over 50% of them, according to a recent Eurobarometer, think that scientists need to engage better with the public. ERC grantees can help meet this expectation and bring their research closer to citizens,” said EU research commissioner Mariya Gabriel.
The new president of the ERC, Maria Leptin, promises to make public engagement an even bigger part of the agency's work, starting with connecting grant holders with journalists and bloggers.
