Three Ghent University researchers win ERC Proof of Concept Grants
(23-01-2025) Tine Destrooper (in collaboration with postdoctoral researchers Cira Palli-Aspero and Elke Evrard), Anna Tummers and Kevin Van Geem, can now further develop the industrial and social innovation potential of discoveries from their ERC work.
UGent is strongly committed to the ERC programme, and this is paying off. With an impressive number of successful applications, our researchers confirm their excellence. We are also making progress within the human sciences: a clear confirmation that excellent and innovative research gets opportunities in all areas of science.
Tine Destrooper - RedressHub: Bringing People and Data Together
While colonialism is often viewed as a historical chapter, its legacies—intertwined with structural racism and discrimination—continue to shape societies both within and beyond Europe. In response, a growing number of institutional and civil society actors have launched efforts to redress these enduring impacts.
These initiatives include policy reforms, legal and political measures, truth-seeking processes, formal apologies, reparations, artifact restitution, memorialization, and the dismantling of colonial symbols. However, these efforts remain fragmented, with limited opportunities for knowledge-sharing and learning across different contexts.
RedressHub bridges this gap by creating a dynamic platform for cross-sector collaboration on justice initiatives. By bringing people and data together, RedressHub aspires to become an indispensable resource for grassroots organizations, community leaders, policymakers, educators, human rights practitioners, and others. It supports learning, designing, and implementing redress initiatives both within Europe and globally.
As an innovative online platform, RedressHub will leverage advanced data technologies, interactive visualization tools, and participatory design to map and connect efforts addressing colonial harms and their ongoing legacies.
Anna Tummers – CODES: Detecting Art Forgeries more Efficiently
The Consolidator Grant project ARTDETECT is generating new knowledge about significant anomalies that betray forged paintings, as well as (new) information about key characteristics of comparable originals. Furthermore, ARTDETECT is developing ‘thin-slicing’ tools, i.e. computer programs and checklists that help to quickly and effectively select potential forgeries for in-depth analysis.
However, in order to ensure the practical application of the new knowledge and tools, it is crucial to engage with law enforcement agencies and art crime experts at an early stage in order to 1) gain access to a wide range of current cases, 2) test the validity of the preliminary conclusions, and 3) identify the challenges and opportunities in this restricted part of the market.
The team has a unique opportunity to collaborate with experts in the field and gain access to a large number of (potential) forgeries in the styles of more than 100 modern painters. We are also setting up our own lab. These circumstances allow us, at relatively low cost, to build an extensive curated image database of actual cases of forgery, to carefully annotate the images, and to rigorously validate our preliminary conclusions.
Through in-depth confidential research with stakeholders the ERC-PoC Project CODES will provide an extensive test dataset and user-oriented guidelines that have the potential to revolutionize counterfeit detection.
Kevin Van Geem - AVATAR: ‘bye bye’ CO2
The AVATAR project will validate these findings through experiments. Expected results are a ten times higher amount of CO2 that can be captured in the same reactor volume, considerable operational and capital cost reductions, and improved feasibility for future high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) applications. This potential for high TRL-level applications is a testament to the revolutionary nature of AVATAR technology.
The PoC dataset will be essential in convincing industrial stakeholders to invest in post-AVATAR scale-up. A roadmap will be developed to guide industrial implementation.
About the ERC
The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants.
With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Since November 2021, Maria Leptin is the President of the ERC. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, under the responsibility of European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva.
Researchers who wish to apply for an ERC Grant with Ghent University as their host institution, can contact the EU Team for advice and support.
Contact
EU-team UGent, eu-team@ugent.be