25 November 2009
Prof. Patti Valkenburg, Prof. Annemarie Mol and Prof. André Nollkaemper of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) received an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC is an institute dedicated to funding pioneering research within the European Union. Valkenburg will receive a sum of 2.5 million Euro, while Mol and Nollkaemper will be awarded 1.8 and 2.1 million Euro, respectively.
The ERC Advanced Grant is a prestigious European research grant for individual researchers. The Grant is awarded as part of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (FP 7), a grant programme for the 2007-2013 period. The ERC Advanced Grant is awarded to outstanding individual researchers conducting groundbreaking research. In addition to the research concept itself, the grant is also awarded on the basis of the researchers' track records and research environment.
The grant recipients:
Annemarie Mol will receive a 1.8 million Euro grant for her study of the ‘eating body' in the Western world. We all know what ‘eating' is, but this project places our existing knowledge and assumptions between parentheses in order to gain a fresh perspective on the familiar. Take the concept of a ‘healthy diet': does this require sober moderation or is there some scope for pleasure and enjoyment? How do people adjust their sense of taste to the food they eat and vice versa? How do eaters relate to the others (both nearby and far) sharing their food? Mol hopes to find a new perspective on such issues by applying similar questions to everyday occurrences, enriching the language and methods of theory formulation used in the social sciences in the process.
The three researchers received support from Dr Bea Krenn, senior advisor on European research funding at the UvA's Knowledge Transfer Office, who helped them apply for their grants. For advice on research grants, contact the UvA's Knowledge Transfer Office (see the link below).