Three University of Liverpool research projects have been awarded funding totalling almost €8.5M from the European Research Council (ERC)'s latest Advanced Grant competition, announced today (23 June 2026).
The innovative five-year projects cover:
- Understanding the physics and chemistry of earthquakes
- The design and discovery of materials
- The influence of AI-assisted smartphone photography in how we see the world
The Advanced Grants give senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The grants are part of the EU's Horizon Europe programme.
The circa €3.5M PhysiQuake project led by Professor Daniel Faulkner aims to build a fundamental understanding of physics and chemistry processes that occur during all stages of an earthquake. It will overcome key fundamental knowledge gaps across the earthquake cycle-nucleation, propagation, and arrest-to unblock our understanding of the full system.
Earthquakes occur at an enormous human and economic cost. While a framework exists for understanding the physics of earthquakes, a lack of physical understanding of key stages in the earthquake cycle hinders our progress towards better predicting their timing and strength.
This interdisciplinary project draws on new developments and world-leading expertise in surface science, electrochemistry, tribology, experimental rock mechanics, and numerical modelling to advance seismic forecasting and hazard assessment.
Professor Matt Rosseinsky OBE FRS will lead his third ERC Advanced Grant, a 2.5M€ project titled MaterED, Materials Discovery: From Exploration towards Design. The project aims to develop a hypothesis-driven approach to the discovery of functional materials.
Using the unique structure and associated ion transport mechanism of a recently discovered lithium conductor, the researchers will seek to build unique ionic structures in a way that incorporates structural understanding into materials design, accelerating the identification of compositions with new structures and thus their synthesis.
This capability will broaden the scope of the chemistry and associated property control beyond lithium transport, demonstrating the transition from discovery by exploration to discovery by design.
Materials are critical for most if not all technologies, and society will need new technologies to meet future challenges, creating an opportunity for the development of new paths to the required materials through fundamental research. This project will integrate experimental and computational teams to find new materials more efficiently, building on a design hypothesis arising from a recently discovered solid state lithium ion conductor.
The team are based at the Materials Innovation Factory at the University of Liverpool, a unique facility spanning industry and academia that brings together cutting-edge technology, automation, and expert knowledge across physical and computer science to accelerate materials discovery.
Almost €2.5M has been awarded to ExtractiveSeeing - a world first research project that examines how AI is shaping everyday photographic practices. The research will ask how the way we see the world is affected by the integration of generative AI into mobile phone cameras. Current AI and digital photography are dependent on mineral extraction, and vast amounts of water and energy, and the project examines the connections between this infrastructure and the images these cameras can produce, as well as the ideas about photography and reality being circulated by the industry.
Led by Professor Michelle Henning, the project will seek to characterise the modes of seeing being built into everyday photography, comprehending these in relation to historical practices and current environmental concerns.
University of Liverpool Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim Jones said: "This funding for Professors Michelle Henning, Matt Rosseinsky OBE FRS and Daniel Faulkner and their teams is an outstanding achievement. Securing three ERC Advanced Grants in a single competition reflects the exceptional talent we have here at Liverpool and our commitment to supporting ambitious, interdisciplinary research that addresses some of the most important scientific and societal challenges of our time."
President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, said: "The new Advanced Grant projects demonstrate the creativity, ambition, and intellectual boldness that frontier research requires. The ERC's role is to support researchers who are asking difficult scientific questions and want to venture into unexplored territory in pursuit of new knowledge. Congratulations to all our new grantees. They are of 33 different nationalities - testament to Europe's strength as a destination for outstanding scientific talent, regardless of origin. We need to step up investment for Europe to lead in science and innovation."
