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Five scientists from Heidelberg University are each receiving valuable funding from the European Research Council (ERC), an ERC Advanced Grant. These grants are intended for top-flight researchers who are pursuing groundbreaking projects with their work. The projects are receiving a total of over 13 million euros in funding over a period of five years.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 17 June 2025
Valuable Funding for Five Researchers at Universität Heidelberg
The European Research Council finances groundbreaking projects with ERC Advanced Grants
Five scientists from Heidelberg University are each receiving valuable funding from the European Research Council (ERC), an ERC Advanced Grant. These grants are intended for top-flight researchers who are pursuing groundbreaking projects with their work. Two of the grants go to Prof. Dr Loredana Gastaldo and Prof. Dr Wolfram Pernice, who do their research at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics on the mass of neutrinos and in the area of photonic computing. At the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) Prof. Dr Claudio Joazeiro investigates cellular protein quality control. Also selected for funding are Prof. Dr Michela Mapelli from the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics – she focuses on intermediate-mass black holes – and Prof. Dr Jana Zaumseil from the Institute for Physical Chemistry, whose research is on semiconducting carbon nanotubes. The projects are receiving a total of over 13 million euros in funding over a period of five years.
Loredana Gastaldo
Physicist Loredana Gastaldo works on the development of low-temperature detectors for the investigation of fundamental properties of matter. She optimizes these detectors for the measurement of the energy released in Holmium-163 decay. This set the basis for the ECHo experiment for which she is the spokesperson. It aims to determine the mass scale of neutrinos, which are the lightest elementary particles in the Standard Model of particle physics, at least a million times lighter than the electron. In cooperation with colleagues from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Prof. Gastaldo is constructing an experiment consisting of 20,000 detectors, each with Ho-163 ions embedded. The goal is to gain new insights into the neutrino mass scale and to provide the basis for a future larger experiment. Knowledge of the neutrino mass will pave the way for extending the Standard Model of particle physics. The ERC is funding the project “Electron Capture in Ho-163 – Large Experiment” (ECHo-LE) to the tune of approximately 2.4 million euros, of which around 1.8 million euros are allocated for research in Heidelberg. Loredana Gastaldo has been conducting research as an experimental physicist at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics since 2005, as a junior professor from 2016, and as an adjunct professor since 2024.
Wolfram Pernice
Physicist Wolfram Pernice works in the field of photonic computing on artificial neural networks, which use light instead of electrons for data processing and data communication. His current research aims to link these new technologies with processes of probabilistic computing. It involves machine learning models which, unlike determinist approaches, work with probability statements and use noise as a resource. The project aim is to develop hybrid integrated photonic circuits that use physical randomness for ultrafast computing. This is expected to enable optical computers performing at operation rates well beyond the limits of conventional digital computing. For his ERC project “Probabilistic Photonic Computing” (PICNIC) Prof. Pernice is to receive just under 3.5 million euros in funding. The scientist has been Professor of Experimental Physics at Heidelberg University since 2021 and heads the working group on neuromorphic quantum photonics at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics. For his research on information processing and rapid computation using light he was awarded the German Research Foundation’s Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for 2025. The Advanced Grant marks the second time he has received funding from the ERC, after having been awarded a Consolidator Grant in 2016.
Claudio Joazeiro
The research of Claudio Joazeiro focuses on proteostasis processes, which play a crucial role for the functioning and viability of cells by regulating the production, folding, transport and degrading of proteins. Among other things, disturbances in this dynamic network can lead to the accumulating and depositing of faulty proteins in nerve cells – a characteristic of neurodegenerative diseases. In order to gain new insights into the underlying mechanisms, the molecular biologist will investigate a key protective mechanism he discovered, known as ribosome-associated quality control (RQC). Ultimately, the research aspires to shed light on how RQC defects cause neuronal functional disorders and why neurons are particularly vulnerable to such defects, with a view to finding new approaches to developing targeted therapies. For his project “Surveillance of Translation: From Molecular Mechanisms to Roles in Disease” (SuTra) Prof. Joazeiro is to receive ERC finance totaling just under 2.5 million euros. In 2015 Claudio Joazeiro was appointed to a Professorship for Molecular Biology at the ZMBH, where he and his research group explore fundamental questions relating to protein synthesis and quality control.
Michela Mapelli
Astrophysicist Michela Mapelli uses computer-based methods to investigate the origin of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH), which are 100 to 10,000 times the mass of the sun and are decisive for the question of how supermassive black holes emerge across cosmic ages. With the aim of deciphering the largely unknown formation channels of IMBHs, Prof. Mapelli will use electromagnetic and gravitational-wave data. Reaching this goal also requires complex theoretical models, to understand whether multiple stellar collisions or repeated black hole mergers in star clusters lead to the formation of IMBHs. The ERC has granted just under 2.5 million euros to fund her project “Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy” (IMblack). Michela Mapelli has been teaching and researching as Professor for Computational Physics at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, which is part of the Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg University, since 2023. Here she leads the working group on gravitational-wave astrophysics; she also does research at the STRUCTURES Cluster of Excellence and the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing. In 2017, she was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for her research on the demography of binary black holes.
Jana Zaumseil
With her ERC-funded project, chemist Jana Zaumseil aims to make the purification and processing of semiconducting carbon nanotubes more sustainable. These microscopic tube-shaped compounds have outstanding optical and electronic properties. However, harmful chemicals are often used for their sorting and processing. The goal is to draw on bioderived and degradable materials such as cellulose instead. By using more easily scalable processes, Prof. Zaumseil wants to advance the practical applications of carbon nanotubes in optical sensors and energy conversion, e.g. thermoelectric generators. Her ERC project “Scalable and Sustainable Sorting and Processing of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes as Functional Materials” (SCALE-NT) will receive just under 2.5 million euros in funding. Jana Zaumseil was appointed as Professor for Applied Physical Chemistry at Heidelberg University in 2014. Currently, she is Executive Director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry and spokesperson of the Research Training Group “Mixed Ionic-Electronic Transport”. After a Starting Grant (2012) and a Consolidator Grant (2018), Prof. Zaumseil has obtained ERC funding for the third time with this Advanced Grant.
ERC Advanced Grant
The ERC Advanced Grant of the European Research Council goes to outstanding established researchers who, with their scientific work, want to implement a groundbreaking, ambitious research project. The financial support lasts, at most, for five years.
Contact:
Heidelberg University
Communications and Marketing
Press Office, phone +49 6221 54-2311
presse@rekorat.uni-heidelberg.de
http://Loredana Gastaldo – www.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/people/gruppe.php?action=details&num=1066
http://Wolfram Pernice – www.kip.uni-heidelberg.de/photon
http://Claudio Joazeiro – www.zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de/Joazeiro/default.shtml
http://Michela Mapelli – www.zah.uni-heidelberg.de/research-groups#c3462
http://Jana Zaumseil – www.pci.uni-heidelberg.de/apc/zaumseil/index.html
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