ERC Advanced Grants for COPL Researchers Julia Vorholt and Jérôme Faist
The Centre for Origin and Prevalence of Life congratulates Professors Julia Vorholt and Jérôme Faist, both COPL members, on receiving ERC Advanced Grants. These highly competitive grants are the first to be awarded to Swiss-based researchers since Switzerland regained partial access to the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
Switzerland’s transitional status as a "beneficiary" in Horizon Europe now allows researchers at Swiss institutions to fully participate in EU-funded projects. Although the official agreement will only be signed in late 2025, the grants will be funded in the meantime by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and labeled as ‘SERI-funded ERC Advanced Grants’.
For Julia Vorholt and Jérôme Faist, the grants represent both a recognition of their groundbreaking work and an opportunity to pursue bold new research directions.
Julia Vorholt (Department of Biology), now a three-time ERC Advanced
Grant recipient, investigates microbial interactions and cellular
metabolism. Her new project will study the origins of endosymbiosis – a
foundational event in the evolution of complex life – by developing
technologies to introduce entire cells into others in a controlled way.
This work has the potential to reveal key evolutionary mechanisms and
open new paths in biotechnology.
Jérôme Faist (Institute of Quantum Electronics) explores the interaction between light and electrons in nanoscale semiconductor structures. His ERC project focuses on engineering terahertz resonators that amplify vacuum fluctuations to control electron behavior in solids. This could lead to the stabilisation of exotic quantum states and even the generation of superconductivity through light alone.