Professor Daniel Rueckert from the Biomedical Image Analysis (BioMedIA) Group, in conjunction with colleagues Professor David Edwards and Professor Joseph Hanjal from King’s College London and Professor Steve Smith from the University of Oxford, has been awarded a prestigious new ERC Synergy grant that promote partnerships in academic research. Entitled ‘The Developing Human Connectome Project’ (dHCP), this project will use MR imaging to track brain connectivity in foetuses and newborn children, providing insights into neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism. Professor Rueckert has received a €3,250,000 share of a €14,974,313 grant.
Launched this year as a pilot, the Synergy grant scheme allocates up to €15m over six years for projects aimed at enhancing collaborations between lead researchers whose complementary skills, knowledge and resources can realise results that would not be possible if they were working alone.
The ERC received 710 applications for Synergy grants and have funded only 11 projects across the EU, which represent the top 1.5 per cent of proposals.
More details about the project can be found here.