Spoiler alert: I did not get it

ERC grants are kind of like the Oscars for European basic science.

They support many amazing projects that have a positive impact on society.

As such, the competition is fierce.

In 2024, I decided to give it a go.

I had an idea worth exploring and felt it was time to put it on paper.

Due to some health issues, I had much less time to prepare than planned.

This is why the writing was very intense, but suuuuper fun.

Fast-forward a few months – I did not get it.

But I did get a grade good enough to apply for a national complementary project.

Which I did get. Thank you, ARIS.

I can’t wait to start working on it and dive deeper into understanding the mechanisms of viral inactivation with plasma technologies at NIB, with the help of our plasma experts at IJS.

***

PS: Huge thanks to the reviewer who wrote:

“This was an extremely well written proposal…”

It not only made my day (or week), but it also showed that writing a proposal in a slightly unconventional way can work 😊. You can get a glimpse of it in the picture below showing the beginning of my ERC proposal.