The European Research Council (ERC), the European Union organization that rewards talented scholars engaged in innovative research, is funding EUNICE, a project led by Prof. Massimo Tavoni from the Politecnico di Milano. The research project was selected from among more than 2,000 proposals received by ERC.This is a great result for the Politecnico, considering that this year only 11.8% of the projects submitted have obtained funding. In addition to these two projects, to date, a total of 49 ERC grants have been awarded to researchers from the Politecnico di Milano.
Massimo Tavoni, Professor of Engineering for the Environment and the Territory, has been awarded the grant for EUNICE, which aspires to correct the errors of the ensembles of climate-energy-economy models that study climate stabilization, and to develop methods to validate and confirm the intuitions of the scenarios.
The objective of the project is therefore to develop an innovative and integrated approach to quantify, translate, and communicate in an effective and timely manner the main uncertainties associated with low-carbon pathways and scenarios that explore very distant futures, renewing the methodological and experimental bases of model-based climate assessments.
EUNICE is a project of great relevance also for other research areas: the approach and innovations developed by EUNICE can in fact also be applied to other high-risk environmental, social, and technological assessments.
Its unique combination of computational and behavioural science and public engagement will be an important mediation tool in debates on fundamental decisions for our society, increasing confidence in and recognition of the scientific method.
ERC Consolidator Grants are intended for researchers with at least 7 years of experience since obtaining their PhD and with a very promising scientific profile. These are scholars who aim to consolidate their independence in research, strengthening their research group and continuing to develop a career in Europe. Funding can reach €2 million per single project, for a maximum duration of 5 years.
