The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded one of its prestigious Advanced Grants to Jun Borras, Professor of Agrarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS).
Jun will use this ERC Grant to build upon his long-standing work on land politics and widen it to examine how it reshapes five spheres of global social life, namely, food, climate change politics, labour, nation-state/citizenship, and geopolitics in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Dr Tsegaye Moreda, a post doctoral fellow and graduate of the ISS PhD Programme, will join Jun’s team as a post-doctoral researcher. The application for the five year, €2.5 million grant, was jointly prepared by Jun with the help of many others from both ISS and elsewhere.
About the ERC Advanced grant
EU invests a total of €540 million to boost cutting-edge research, with 222 scientists (approximately 11% of the submitted proposals) winning the European Research Council’s Advanced Grants this year.
Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: 'The ERC Advanced Grants back outstanding researchers throughout Europe. Their pioneering work has the potential to make a difference in people’s everyday life and deliver solutions to some of our most urgent challenges. The ERC gives these bright minds the possibility to follow their most creative ideas and to play a decisive role in the advancement of all domains of knowledge'.
The President of the European Research Council (ERC), Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, commented: 'Since 2007, the European Research Council has attracted and financed some of the most audacious research proposals, and independent evaluations show that this approach has paid off. With this call, another 222 researchers from all over Europe and beyond will pursue their best ideas and are in an excellent position to trigger breakthroughs and major scientific advances'.
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