European Research Council funds BAM scientist Janine George
Prof. George receives research funding of 1.5 million euros for her “Multibondes” project
Janine George from the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) has been awarded a Starting Grant of around 1.5 million euros by the European Research Council (ERC). The prestigious grant will support her research project “Multibonds” for five years, which aims to gain a fundamentally new understanding of two- and multi-center bonds in inorganic substances. The findings are crucial for developing customized materials for the energy transition, for example.
It is the chemical bonds between atoms that determine the properties of a material, such as the hardness of a crystal or the thermal conductivity or magnetism of a metal. “Chemists have been studying these bonds for around a hundred years in order to derive fixed rules for material properties from them,” explains Janine George, who heads the Computational materials design junior research group at BAM and teaches at Friedrich Schiller University Jena as Professor of Materials Informatics.
Last year, George received an award from the Werner von Siemens Ring Foundation for her innovative research into how artificial intelligence and quantum mechanical calculations can be used to accelerate the development of new materials.
Incomplete understanding of chemical bonding
The most meaningful method of analyzing bonds between atoms is quantum theory, as Janine George and her team have already successfully demonstrated with bonds between two atoms. However, multi-center bonds involving three or more atoms are also likely to play a major role in the properties of a material. For example, they are responsible for the super-hardness of boron-containing compounds that are used as cutting and drilling tools for industrial applications, in aerospace engine components or in surgical tools.
Accelerated development of customized materials
The new “Multibonds” project at BAM, which has now been awarded an ERC Starting Grant, aims to understand these multi-center bonds. “We want to develop automated quantum chemical methods to be able to use them to analyze multicenter bonds on a large scale,” says George. “We will then use this database to develop novel models using machine learning to predict how innovative materials will behave. Ultimately, we want to use the models to arrive at intuitively understandable and universally valid rules on the relationship between bonds and material properties in order to significantly accelerate the development of new materials in the future.”
About ERC Starting Grants
ERC Starting Grants are among the highest European awards for early career researchers. They enable cutting-edge research and aim to fund outstanding and ground-breaking projects in all scientific disciplines. Starting Grants are awarded to young researchers who wish to establish and expand their own independent research group. ERC funding is based on scientific excellence as the sole selection criterion.
This year, 494 Starting Grants were awarded to young scientists throughout Europe. A total of 3474 projects were submitted to the ERC for funding. Germany received 98 Starting Grants this year.
EU Commissioner Iliana Ivanova, responsible for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth and for the Horizon Europe program, said of this year's ERC Starting Grants: “The European Commission is proud to support the curiosity and passion of our early-career talent under our Horizon Europe programme. The new ERC Starting Grants winners aim to deepen our understanding of the world. Their creativity is vital to finding solutions to some of the most pressing societal challenges. In this call, I am happy to see one of the highest shares of female grantees to date, a trend that I hope will continue. Congratulations to all!”
The European Research Council (ERC)
The ERC, founded by the European Union in 2007, is the most important European funding organization for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of all nationalities and ages to carry out projects across Europe. The ERC offers four core funding programs: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. The ERC is part of the Horizon Europe program.
Further information
- European Research Council (ERC)
- BAM Junior research group “Computational materials design”
- “Data-driven science to discover new materials for safe applications” , Interview
Contact:
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Janine George
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)
Materials chemistry
+49 30 8104-3318
janine.george(at)bam.de
Dr. Janine George on GitHub
Press release BAM, 5 September 2024