The ERC Consolidator Grant is designed to support researchers at the stage in which they aim to set up their own independent research team and research programme. The Consolidator Grant is worth up to two million euros.
electroANME
Cornelia Welte
Anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea naturally remove methane, but are poorly understood due to difficult cultivation. Using newly developed near-axenic, faster-growing cultures, this project will uncover how ANME oxidize methane, interact with bacteria, and use diverse metabolic pathways. The results will deepen understanding of methane cycling, improve climate models, and support biotechnologies that mitigate methane-driven climate change. Welte: ‘The microbial methane filter is very important to reducing methane emissions. With this grant, we can obtain unprecedented insights into a poorly studied part of the microbial methane filter, the anaerobic methanotrophic archaea.’
NONLIN
Martin Vinck
Human cognition arises from intensive cooperation between different areas of the brain. Vinck argues that this cooperation cannot be adequately explained by looking only at simple, linear signals between areas (such as activities that vibrate at the same frequency). This is because brain signals vary greatly in speed and strength, and because thoughts and consciousness can change rapidly.
Instead, he argues that non-linear interactions – complex forms of communication in which patterns are recognised and combined – are crucial to understanding how large brain networks work together. These interactions cannot be broken down into separate, independent contributions from individual areas of the brain.
The NONLIN project is developing new mathematical methods to measure these non-linear and difficult-to-separate forms of cooperation, independently of ordinary linear relationships. Using large amounts of brain measurements from humans and monkeys, NONLIN is investigating how these complex interactions fit in with the anatomical connections in the brain and how they reveal new properties that are not visible using traditional methods.
NONLIN also tests whether active, alert brain states show more of this type of complex integration, and whether important cognitive functions such as attention, working memory and the merging of perceptions mainly revolve around temporary, broadband and cross-frequency interactions.
These insights can lead to a better understanding of cognition and contribute to improved diagnoses and treatments of brain disorders and altered states of consciousness.
EMERGENCE
Stephanie Forkel
The traditional view of language as relying on isolated brain areas is increasingly challenged by clinical and anatomical evidence suggesting that it emerges from the dynamic interplay of distributed neural networks across cortical, subcortical, and white matter systems. Despite language’s centrality to human cognition, a unified anatomical model integrating structural, functional, and neurochemical foundations remains absent—limiting progress in our fundamental understanding and clinical translation of research results. The overarching goal of EMERGENCE is to uncover the anatomical principles underlying how language emerges in the brain—molecularly, structurally, functionally, computationally, and clinically—while centring the multimodal integration at the heart of the investigation. Using advanced neuroimaging, computational modelling, behavioural analysis, and clinical investigations it will: (1) map multimodal language networks, highlighting subcortical structures and neurotransmitter contributions; (2) construct the language connectome by integrating structural connectivity and cognitive correlations with a data-driven functional analysis; (3) deliver the first functional white matter atlas of language by exploring the structuralfunctional basis of five experimental linguistic tasks; and (4) investigate underexplored features such as prosody and phenomena like “clicks” and the selective loss of clicks (aclickia) in African languages, integrating them into a unified brain-cognition model. The project will redefine the neurobiology of language, offering actionable insights for diagnostics, neurosurgical precision, and inform novel interventions. By embracing linguistic diversity and bridging fundamental science with clinical applications, it promises to reshape our understanding of the anatomical principles underlying how language emerges in the brain—molecularly, structurally, functionally, computationally, and clinically.
SKA-CR
Katie Mulrey
What is the origin of the highest energy Galactic cosmic rays, ionized atomic nuclei that travel through space at nearly the speed of light? To answer this question we must detect them via the “air showers” of particles that are induced when cosmic rays interact in the atmosphere. However, current experiments lack the precision needed to fully reconstruct air shower features and, consequently, to understand the cosmic rays themselves. Moreover, the hadronic interactions that shape air shower development take place at energies beyond what we can reproduce in a laboratory setting and are not well understood. To solve this problem, we will revolutionize air shower detection by leveraging the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope as the ultimate precision cosmic-ray detector. As the leader of the cosmic-ray detection groups at the LOFAR and SKA telescopes, I will capitalize on my expertise to implement cosmic-ray detection capabilities at the SKA. The instrument’s incredible antenna density will enable us to sample the air shower radio signal with order of magnitudes more detail than is currently possible, uniquely giving us access to fine details of the shower development. We will also install in-situ particle detectors with the capability to distinguish different air shower particles. By combining these data with radio observables, we can achieve comprehensive air shower reconstructions while refining hadronic interaction models—an essential step in advancing our understanding of high-energy cosmic-ray physics.
We will use this novel technique to do the most precise air shower reconstructions ever made over a wide energy range, allowing us to distinguish cosmic-ray acceleration models and identify sources in the energy region where cosmic rays transition from Galactic to extragalactic origin. This project will lay the groundwork for decades of cosmic-ray science at the SKA, and yield the information we need to finally understand the elusive origins of cosmic rays.
REMMINIS
Kati Ihnat
Ritual is a powerful means for minority religious communities to express and preserve their collective identities. This has traditionally been said of Christians in al-Andalus, the area of the Iberian Peninsula that was under Islamic rule for half a millennium in the middle ages. The idea that minority Christians in this area continued to practice the same religious rites as before the Arab conquest is thought to show their resistance to Islamic rule. But can we assume this without establishing what their rites were? A lack of direct sources means little is known about the Andalusi Christian tradition. We must revisit the resulting assumptions about Christian ritual practice in al-Andalus, not least because of their use in modern political discourse to support the idea of Spain's 'Christian identity'.
REMMINIS, part of Radboud Institute of Culture and History, sets out to reconstruct what can be known about Christian ritual in al-Andalus. Through an innovative interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, musicology, Arabic studies and archaeology, we aim to recover this important cultural heritage. Digital methods (corpus analysis, sequence alignment, handwritten text recognition) will provide new insight into a series of complex and diverse sources, including 1) liturgical manuscripts containing instructions for worship from diaspora Andalusi communities (text and music), 2) Arabic translations of biblical and canonical works, some with many hundreds of Arabic notes in the margins, and 3) the remains of churches, cemeteries and objects in which and with which Christians conducted their ritual lives. These sources hold great promise for revealing the extent to which Christians in al-Andalus followed unique ritual practices and engaged with Arabic and Islamic culture. Close collaboration between disciplines will allow us to gain a holistic picture that does justice to the multimodal nature of ritual and to the potential for diversity, hybridity and entanglement of religious identities in medieval Spain.
