Outstanding early-career researchers awarded European Research Council funding to launch their ideas

The ERC is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. Their Starting Grants, part of the Horizon Europe programme, are designed to support exceptional researchers at the beginning of their careers to launch their own projects, build research teams, and pursue their most promising ideas. This year, the scheme attracted 3,928 proposals, with just 478 (12%) of these being funded.

Dr Martina Baradel and Associate Professor Rachel Bernhard

Dr Martina Baradel (Department of Sociology): Dr Baradel’s ERC-funded project, CrimCross, will investigate how organised crime groups, focusing on the Japanese yakuza, expand abroad by navigating cultural, linguistic, and legal barriers. It will examine how these groups build connections and adapt to different cultural contexts in East and Southeast Asia. Ultimately, this will advance understanding of cross-border criminal networks and their local entrenchment.

Associate Professor Rachel Bernhard (Department of Politics & International Relations): Her project will investigate how complexity shapes politics, from simple slogans such as “build the wall” to the challenges of solving climate change. By developing new theories, data, and methods, the project will reveal why some problems are reduced to simple narratives while others remain stubborn “wicked problems.” Read more about Rachel's project on politics.ox.ac.uk

All these bright minds and the plethora of brilliant ideas that they will go after really inspire me, and so does their scientific creativity.

President of the European Research Council Professor Maria Leptin

Further information about the 2025 ERC Starting Grants can be found on the ERC website.

This news story was originally published on ox.ac.uk. Read the full story here.