Two more ERCs at the University of Trento

Two more grants for UniTrento from the ERC: the University has won two of the Consolidator Grants funded this year by the European Research Council. These grants, which aim to stimulate scientific excellence in Europe, are given to established researchers who are leaders in their sector at the international level, and are awarded based on an EU selection procedure. The project proposals submitted by Libertario Demi and Simone Pezzuto are among the 17 that received funding in Italy, out of 349 funded projects across Europe.

The news has just arrived from Brussels: the grants will support the activity of researchers in 25 universities and research centres in Europe with a record budget of 728 million euros. The winners were selected from among the 3,121 applications received by the European Research Council, 35% more than last year. A little more than 1 in 10 scientists receives a grant, that is a success rate of 11.2%. With these grants, the University of Trento has reached the milestone of 48 ERC grants in different categories since 2007, the year in which the awards were first awarded. The sole evaluation criterion is the scientific excellence of the project and of the researcher presenting it.

The ERC project by Libertario Demi of the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science - Disi aims to rethink lung ultrasound to develop innovative methods for the diagnosis and monitoring of lung diseases ("Reimagining the diagnosis and monitoring of lung diseases through the unveiling of ultrasound mechanisms of Interaction with pulmonary tissue", Lumi). The goal of the project is to develop an economical, transportable, bedside solution, that is safe and can give results in real time, as an alternative to CT scans, which is now the diagnostic standard. The research is motivated by the awareness of the great impact that lung diseases have worldwide, such as pneumonia, fibrosis, Covid and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The ERC project by Simone Pezzuto of the Department of Mathematics focuses on cardiac electromechanics, for which he aims to find non-invasive and affordable "digital twin" solutions ("Towards non-invasive and cost-effective digital twin solutions for cardiac electromechanics", Cardiorama). The "digital twins" of the heart are personalised models that replicate the structure and functioning of the heart of a patient. These are typically technologies that require complex and expensive clinical data, which are currently accessible only in a few highly specialised centres. The purpose of Cardiorama is to change this scenario and build digital twins using only two routine economic tests such as the echocardiogram and the electrocardiogram. A technology designed to improve precision cardiology in all hospitals around the world.

Demi and Pezzuto are among the 37 Italian researchers who received the award, making Italians the second most represented nationality this year, after Germany (48) and before the United Kingdom (33).
Admission to international funding programmes is one of the strengths of the research policy of UniTrento, which supports scientists in all phases of the complex procedures for application and fund management. The ERC Grants, which also include the other awards for emerging, leading and established researchers, are funded through the Horizon programme, with a total budget of over 16 billion euros for 2021-2027.