Chemist Andrea Auer, physicist Simon Baier, and political scientist Fabian Habersack from the University of Innsbruck each receive an ERC Starting Grant -a generously funded European grant for early-career researchers in the field of fundamental research.
The European Research Council (ERC) supports fundamental research by outstanding scientists in Europe. The ERC Starting Grant rewards successful young researchers with generous project budgets of up to 1.5 million euros. In addition to the base funding, an additional 1 million euros can be provided to cover eligible costs.
On Thursday, September 3, the ERC announced that Andrea Auer, Simon Baier, and Fabian Habersack have been awarded this prestigious honor. In their research projects, they focus on the nanoscale mapping of structure and chemistry at electrochemical solid-liquid interfaces, the boundaries between quantum physics and classical physics, and the question of political accountability in representative democracies.
"Supporting talented early-career researchers is of central importance for scientific excellence. The fact that three Starting Grants are being awarded to researchers at the University of Innsbruck this year makes me particularly proud," emphasizes Rector Veronika Sexl. "I congratulate the awardees and wish them great success in carrying out their research projects."
Andrea Auer
Batteries and fuel cells have solid-liquid interfaces where electrochemical reactions take place that are crucial for energy storage and electricity generation. How efficiently and selectively these electrochemical reactions occur depends on the specific arrangement of atoms, molecules, and ions. "Electrochemical interfaces are incredibly complex at the nanoscale. Conventional methods are not sufficient to make this complexity accessible," explains Andrea Auer. Her research project, NanoELECTRA, aims to develop a new three-dimensional nanoscale imaging and spectroscopy approach that reveals the surface structure, solvent and ion organization, and chemical composition under electrochemical conditions. "The overarching goal is to better understand processes at electrochemical interfaces. This is relevant for efficient energy conversion and storage and enables new solutions for sustainable energy technologies," Auer explains.
Andrea Auer studied chemistry at the University of Innsbruck and earned her Ph.D. there in physical chemistry in 2021. Her research stays took her to the University of Alicante (Spain), the Technical University of Munich, and the University of Regensburg, among others. She has been working at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck since 2023-and has served as an assistant professor there since 2025. She has already received several awards for her research achievements, including a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Karl Schlögl Prize (Austrian Academy of Sciences), and the Sosnovsky Prize (University of Innsbruck).
Simon Baier
"Where does the quantum world end and the classical world begin? We simply don't know yet-that's the boundary we want to explore," says Simon Baier. With his ERC project SpinCaT, physicist Simon Baier aims to push the boundary between the two worlds by generating macroscopic quantum motion states in levitating nanodiamonds and using them to test models of wave function collapse. The central goal is to create a spatial superposition and measure how the coherence of this system behaves under well-controlled conditions. The project targets previously unexplored areas where known collapse models can be strictly constrained, while also opening up new possibilities for quantum-based sensing.
Simon Baier earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Innsbruck in 2018. As an Erwin Schrödinger Fellow at TU Delft (Netherlands), he developed a solid-state spin platform that enabled the realization of the first fully functional three-node quantum network consisting of remote quantum network nodes. In Innsbruck, he now leads research on levitated macroscopic objects equipped with quantum spin particles.
Fabian Habersack
"Politicians are often expected to take 'responsibility.' But how do we determine whether they actually do so? And in what areas is that even possible?" - This is how political scientist Fabian Habersack describes the central research questions of his ERC Starting Grant project. In an era of globalization and international conflicts, politicians are frequently held responsible for developments over which they often have only limited influence. At the same time, prominent examples show that political decision-makers can also gain support through a policy of "irresponsibility." Fabian Habersack and his team examine social and political conceptions of responsibility in 20 democracies worldwide. They analyze how political responsibility is negotiated today between those in power and the governed-and what consequences different conceptions of it have for political trust, voting behavior, and support for democracy.
Fabian Habersack earned his Ph.D. in 2021 from the University of Salzburg with a dissertation on how established parties in Austria and Europe are responding to the rise of the populist radical right. Since 2021, he has been conducting research at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Innsbruck. In 2025, he spent time as a visiting scholar at the Australian National University in Canberra.
