Tavernarakis elected Vice President of the European Research Council
Nektarios Tavernarakis, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), and Professor at the Medical School of the University of Crete, has been unanimously elected Vice President of the European Research Council (ERC).
Tavernarakis will be in charge of ERC activities in the domain of Life Sciences, assuming duties in January 2021.
He has been a member of the ERC Scientific Council since 2016, after being selected by an independent Identification Committee, of six distinguished scientists appointed by the European Commission.
Tavernarakis is the first Greek to have been elected Vice President of the ERC.
The European Research Council, set up by the EU in 2007, selects and funds the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based in Europe.
Since 2007, close to 10.000 top researchers have been selected for funding through open competitions and over 110.000 articles acknowledging ERC support have been published in international scientific journals.
ERC’s budget in the framework of the “Horizon 2020” program exceeds 13.3 billion euros.
Tavernarakis said he was “deeply honored” by the decision.
“Having witnessed firsthand, as a grantee, the transformative impact of ERC on European science, I am wholeheartedly committed towards contributing to its mission,” he said.
[ANA-MPA]