EPFL research is back on the European stage

The ERC Advanced Grant 2024 recipients from the School of Engineering: Camille-Sophie Brès, Francesco Stellacci, Elison Matioli and Kirsten Moselund. EPFL 2025 CC BY SA 4.0
Eight EPFL researchers have been selected by the European Research Council (ERC) as part of the 2024 call for proposals for the Advanced Grant competition, including four in the School of Engineering.
The ERC announced today the next round of researchers selected for its Advanced Grant program, carried out as part of the European Union’s Horizon Europe key funding program. A total of €721 million in Advanced Grants will be awarded to 281 researchers across Europe, including eight from EPFL.
This was the first time the call for proposals was open to researchers at Swiss host institutions since Switzerland was classified as a non-associated third country for Horizon Europe. Because these proposals were submitted in 2024, the research will be funded by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.
“Our participation in the Advanced Grant competition was a first step towards the full reintegration of the Swiss scientific community into Horizon Europe,” says Ambrogio Fasoli, EPFL’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. “We’re very happy about the selection of eight proposals submitted by EPFL researchers. The ERC is a barometer of researchers’ competitiveness at the European and global level.”
Four projects in the School of Engineering
The research projects that will be funded under the program span a broad range of topics: neural networks, IT security, protein-interaction engineering, next-generation semiconductors, centriole biogenesis and more. School of Engineering (STI) professors Kirsten Moselund, Elison Matioli, Francesco Stellacci, and Camille-Sophie Brès have been selected as winners of 2024 ERC Advanced Grants, which give senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs.
Francesco Stellacci of the Supramolecular Nano-Materials and Interfaces Laboratory for the project, Engineering Protein Interactions Using Small Molecules.
Camille-Sophie Brès of the Photonic Systems Lab for the project, Chip-scale harmonic-generation based narrow-linewidth accordable visible light sources.
Elison Matioli of the Power and Wide-band-gap Electronics Lab for the project, Polarization-engineered Wide-band-gap Electronic Devices - A ground-breaking semiconductor platform for efficient electronics.
Kirsten Moselund of the Integrated Nanoscale Photonics and Optoelectronics Laboratory (EPFL) and the Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Technologies (Center for Photon Science, Paul Scherrer Institute) for the project, Neuromorphic photonics and III-V Electro-Optic modulators for random lasing Networks