The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded its Starting Grants. Among this year's recipients are literary scholar Núria Codina Solà, engineer Benjamin Gorissen, bioscience engineer Koenraad Van Meerbeek, and chemical engineer Xing Yang.
ERC Starting Grants provide funding for promising early-career researchers with two to seven years of post-PhD experience. The grants are awarded for a five-year period and may be worth up to € 1.5 million.
Núria Codina Solà: understanding how literary collaboration amplifies migrant voices
Postdoctoral researcher at the Literary Studies Research Unit
"My project will examine how non-profit organisations, collaborations with amateur and professional writers, and crowdfunding initiatives enable migrants to participate in the literary scene. Literary collaboration is not a new phenomenon, but the quick pace, the huge amount of output, and the migratory contexts of today are unprecedented. The collaborative practices at the centre of this project challenge traditional notions of authorship, constitute a political strategy to enhance intercultural exchange and the social integration of migrants, and offer an alternative economic model that brings new voices to the publishing industry."
"Our initial focus will be on the European context and the seven languages that I speak myself, but I am hoping that the three doctoral researchers and the postdoc I plan to recruit will know non-European languages. This might create new opportunities for the project. Much will also depend on the political context and the humanitarian crises of tomorrow, which might lead to new collaborative initiatives."
