Associate Professor Annele Virtanen at the Department of Applied Physics of the University of Eastern Finland has been granted substantial funding by the European Research Council (ERC) within its call for Starting Grants. The amount of funding granted for the project is approximately EUR 1.5 million for five years. The funding is allocated to a research project which focuses on studying the physical phase of organic aerosol particles and further its impact on atmospheric processes. The physical phase of aerosol particles significantly affects their atmospheric life time and also their ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei. During the project, Associate Professor Virtanen and her research group will for example develop new research methods suitable for determining the viscosity of nano sized particles.
ERC Starting Grants aim to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe. The ERC Starting Grant is a highly prestigious award at the European level, as the level of competition is extremely high. The success rate in the 2013 call was 9%, and 4 Finnish researchers were granted the funding. The Starting Grant awarded to Associate Professor Virtanen is already the second ERC Starting Grant awarded to a researcher working in the Department of Applied Physics.
For further information, please contact:
Associate Professor Annele Virtanen
tel. +358 50 316 4118
annele.virtanen@uef.fi