ERC funded projects

The European Research Council (ERC) awards prestigious research funding to applicants from all over the world. View all ongoing projects with ERC funding at the University of Bergen.

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Kollasj av bilder og portretter fra ERC-prosjekter og ERC-logo
Photo: Sindre Skrede, Eivind Senneset x 2, ERC.

Synergy Grants

CODICUM (2025–2030) – Åslaug Ommundsen

The Medieval Book and Networks of Northern Europe c. 1000–1500: Texts, Crafts, Fragments. 

The project will investigate the significance of the medieval manuscript book in shaping Northern Europe between c. 1000 and 1500, focusing on a unique collection of over 50,000 parchment book fragments found in five Nordic countries.

Principal Investigator: Åslaug Ommundsen, Department of linguistic, literary and aestethic studies, Faculty of Humanities.

Go to COCICUM's webpage

QUANTA (2021–2027) – Andrea Bender

The Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification

QUANTA investigates when, why, and how humans developed number systems,and why those vary so massively across cultures.

Principal Investigator: Andrea Bender, Department of Psychosocial Science, Faculty of Psychology.

Go to the QUANTA website

Advanced Grants

AI STORIES (2024–2029) – Jill Walker Rettberg

This project explores how narrative archetypes shape AI outputs.

Principal Investigator: Jill Walker Rettberg, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, Faculty of Humanities.

Read more on AI STORIES' webpage

Consolidator Grants

COMPLEX (2025-2030) - Linda Grõning

COMPLEX: Understanding the criminal law’s complex association between criminal insanity and mental disorders 

In this project we will explore the legal relevance of mental disorders for criminal accountability and punishment, through cross-country, empirical and interdisciplinary legal studies.

Principal Investigator: Linda Gröning, Faculty of Law.

AuditeMatrem (2025- 2030) - Marc Vaudel

AuditeMatrem: Temporary inconvenience or early warning signs? A new take on maternal symptoms in early pregnancy and their consequences. 

In this project, we investigate the cause of symptoms in early pregnancy and study their relationship with consequences for women and their children.

Principal Investigator: Marc Vaudel, Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine.

5-D (2024-2028) - Bettina Husebø

5-D: Decoding Death and Dying in people with Dementia by Digital thanotyping.

This project is investigating how sensing technology can be used to recognize symptoms among people with dementia at the end of life. 

Principal Investigator: Bettina Husebø, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care/ Centre for Elderly and Nursing Home Medicine, Faculty of Medicine.

ROVER (2024-2028) - Kjetil Våge

ROVER: Resilient northern overturning in a warming climate 

In this project we investigate how the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation responds to reduced sea-ice extent in a warming climate. 

Principal Investigator: Kjetil Våge, Geophysical Institute/Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Faculty of Science and Technology.

DATA-DRIVEN OFFSHORE (2023 - 2028) - Cristian Gebhardt

DATA-DRIVEN OFFSHORE: Data-Driven Approaches in Computational Mechanics for the Aerohydroelastic Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbines

Principal Investigator: Cristian Gebhardt, Geophysical Institute/Bergen Offshore Wind Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology.

DYNAMIT (2023-2027) - Karl Magnus Laundal

DYNAMIT: Dynamic Magnetosphere Ionosphere Thermosphere coupling.

The project will investigate how Earth's atmosphere is dynamically coupled to space. 

Principal Investigator: Karl Magnus Laundal, Department of Physics and Technology/Birkeland Centre for Space Science, Faculty of Science and Technology.

PREPARE (2023-2027) - Hallvard Moe

PREPARE (2023-2027)
Distributed and prepared. A new theory of citizens’ public connection networks in the age of datafication.

Principal Investigator:  Hallvard Moe, Department of Information and Media Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences.

ORIGINEURO (2023-2027) - Pawel Burkhardt

ORIGINEURO:  Tracking the deep evolutionary origins of neurons

The project will investigate the special nervous system of ctenophores (comb jellies) with a focus on their anatomy, development and function and could challenge the standard view that neural networks always consist of individual neurons.

Principal Investigator: Pawel Burkhardt, Michael Sars Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology.

MAPSI (2021-2026) - Inga Berre

MAPSI: Mathematical and Numerical Modelling of Process-Structure Interaction in Fractured Geothermal Systems.

The project will develop new mathematical models and numerical methods, and use these in the simulation of processes in geothermal systems that has not been possible to quantify previously.

Principal Investigator: Inga Berre, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology.

SUCCESS (2021-2026) - Ragnhild Muriaas

SUCCESS: Gender-Gap in Political Endurance: a novel political inclusion theory

The project will shed light on what makes women leave politics faster than men, and what makes them stay. Muriaas will launch a completely new way of understanding gender balance in politics. 

Principal Investigator: Ragnhild Muriaas, Department of Government, Faculty of Social Sciences.

FluidMICS (2021-2026) - Nele Meckler

FluidMICS: Fluid Inclusion Microthermometry in Speleothems

Nele Meckler and her colleagues will reconstruct past climate, by studying stalagmites in tropical caves, where tiny drops of ancient water are preserved in the rocks and can tell them about climate at the time when the water dripped from the cave ceiling.

Principal Investigator: Nele Meckler, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology.

INCLUDE (2021-2026) - Elisabeth Ivarsflaten

INCLUDE: Openings to the Inclusion of Muslim Minorities in Today’s Democracies

Professor Elisabeth Ivarsflaten receives the ERC Consolidator Grant for the project "INCLUDE". The project addresses one of the most fundamental challenges of our time; how to live peacefully together as diverse societies.  

Principal Investigator: Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, Department of Government, Faculty of Social Sciences.

LOPRE (2019-2025) - Saket Saurabh

LOPRE: Lossy preprocessing

Saket Saurabh aims to revolutionise how we handle, utilise and compress Big Data.

Principal Investigator: Saket Saurabh, Department of Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology.

Starting Grants

OCEANCOUPLING (2024–2029) – Yan Li

This project takes on the quest to understand how extreme ocean surface waves affect us. Such waves pose a threat to ships and infrastructure, becoming increasingly frequent and extreme due to climate changes.

Principal Investigator: Yan Li, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Social Sciences.

CONFRONT (2024–2029) – Aaron Spitzer

CONFRONT: Contested frontiers: Rights clashes and the (re)constitution of settler-state peripheries

This project studies how liberal-democratic settlers/states deploy rights-claims to domesticate borderland jurisdictions, and how Indigenous peoples deploy countervailing rights-claims to resist such domestication

Principal Investigator: Aaron Spitzer, Department of Comparative Politics, Faculty of Social Sciences.

ASYKNOW (2023–2028) – Marry-Anne Karlsen

ASYKNOW (Contested Knowledges in and through Asylum Litigation) 

The project investigates how expert knowledge is mobilized, contested, and constituted in and through asylum appeal processes. 

Principal Investigator: Marry-Anne Karlsen, Department of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences.

SmartGROW (2023–2027) – Justas Zalieckas

SmartGROW: Fractals and metamaterials support 3D diamond growth for industrial coatings

Principal Investigator: Justas Zalieckas, Department of Physics and Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology.

Nonmanual (2023–2027) – Vadim Kimmelman

NONMANUAL: Fundamentals of formal properties of nonmanuals: A quantitative approach 

The project will study facial expressions and body and head movements in five different sign languages, using large datasets, Computer Vision and advanced statistical analysis.

Principal Investigator: Vadim Kimmelman, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, Faculty of Humanities.

WarEffects (2022–2026) – Carlo Koos

WarEffects: The Micro-Level Effects of Civil Wars on Multiple Dimensions of Women’s Empowerment

The project investigates if, how and under which conditions violence in Civil Wars affects women's empowerment and gender relations.

Principal Investigator: Carlo Koos, Department of Government, Faculty of Social Sciences.

CONSULTATIONEFFECTS (2019–2025) – Adriana Bunea

CONSULTATIONEFFECTS: Effects of stakeholder consultation on inputs, processes and outcomes of executive policymaking

The project aims to investigate stakeholder consultations as institutions of political participation and representation, and to systematically study their effects on executive policymaking in the EU.

Principal Investigator: Adriana Bunea, Department of Comparative Politics, Faculty of Social Sciences.

EvoConBiO (2019–2025) – Iain G. Johnston

EvoConBiO: Uncovering and engineering the principles governing evolution and cellular control of bioenergetic organelles

EvoConBiO will investigate a hypothesised universal tension between robustness and control that shapes how organelle genomes have evolved, how they are controlled and protected by modern-day cells, and how scientists may intervene to improve bioenergetic performance in important crop and biofuel species. 

Principal Investigator: Iain G. Johnston, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology.

BRuSH (2018–2023) – Randi J. Bertelsen

BRuSH: Oral bacteria as determinants for respiratory health

BRuSH will examine of bacteria in the oral cavity can have an influence on the health of our respiratory system.  

Principal Investigator: Randi Jacobsen Bertelsen, Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine.

ERC Grants

Prestigious research funding with applicants from all over the world. Awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). 

  • Synergy Grant is awarded to ambitious projects in a group of 2-4 outstanding researchers. Up to €10 million over 6 years.
  • Advanced Grant is awarded to established world-class researchers. Up to €2.5 million over 5 years.
  • Consolidator Grant is awarded to established researchers 7-12 years after their PhD. Up to €2 million over 5 years.
  • Starting Grant is awarded to researchers 2-7 years after their PhD. Up to €1.5 million over 5 years.
  • Proof of Concept Grant is innovation funding for ERC grantees.

The ERC promotes high-quality research by funding the best researchers and the best ideas in Europe. The topics are proposed by the researchers themselves and selected through strong competition. ERC funding is considered one of the most prestigious awards a researcher can receive.

ERC logo og EU-flagg
Photo: EU

These projects have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research and innovation programmes.

Last updated: 25.06.2025