Guenette Awarded a 2020 Synergy Grant by European Research Council

November 5, 2020
The NEXT-White detector

Prof. Roxanne Guenette, with colleagues Juan José Gómez Cádenas (Donostia International Physics Center) and Fernando P. Cossío (the University of the Basque Country), have been awarded a 2020 Synergy Grant by European Research Council (ERC) for their proposal of a background-free experiment to discover the nature of neutrinos based on single Barium Atom Light Detection.

The grants, €350 million in total, are intended to support scientific projects that address some of the world’s most formidable research problems spanning multiple scientific disciplines. Out of more than 440 submitted proposals, 34 were selected, making this year's application process one of the most competitive in ERC history. These proposals involve 116 researchers who will carry out their projects at 86 universities and research centers in 22 countries across Europe and beyond.

The ERC Synergy Grant scheme is part of the EU's research and innovation program, Horizon 2020, which helps groups of two to four outstanding researchers bring together complementary skills, knowledge and resources in one ambitious project.

The European Research Council, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premiere European funding organization for excellent frontier research. Every year, it selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe. The ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialization.

Above: NEXT-White, a high pressure Xenon gas detector [@Javier Larrea