ERC Starting Grant for eight UvA and Amsterdam UMC researchers

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Starting Grants to eight researchers from the UvA and Amsterdam UMC. The recipients are Ruth Carlitz, Harsha Devalla, Lorenz Eberhardt, Jorik van de Groep, Mazi Jalaal, Fernando P. Santos, Rachel Thijssen and Else Vogel. The Starting Grant is a personal grant of approximately 1.5 million euros. The grant offers talented academics support for their research for five years. The UvA recipients. Dr Ruth Carlitz (Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research) Budgeting for the Future: Understanding the Allocation of Climate Finance in the Global South (ClimateFiGS) The impact of climate change is becoming increasingly hard to ignore - and is characterised by acute inequality. Wealthy countries produce the vast majority of global CO2 emissions, while poorer countries bear the brunt of the consequences. In response to this, wealthy countries have pledged to raise 100 billion dollars in 'climate finance' annually. Over the past 10 years, climate finance has almost doubled, but we have very little insight into how these funds are spent, and whether they reach their intended beneficiaries. Carlitz will examine climate finance from the perspective of governments and citizens in the Global South. By studying the driving forces behind decisions related to allocation and spending of climate finance, Carlitz hopes to generate knowledge that will help us understand how these funds can have the greatest possible impact. Dr Harsha Devalla (Amsterdam UMC, location AMC): Unraveling pacemaker (dys)function using novel stem cell-derived human heart models (Beat-to-Beat)