The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) has decided on approved applications for research and development projects, and, among other things, for a special call on a non-toxic environment and combination effects. Ten researchers at the Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES) receive in total over 40 million SEK.
“For senior researchers, external grants provide an opportunity to hire new PhD students and post docs. Without young and talented people coming to us from all over the world, it is difficult to develop new research findings. For junior researchers, with no permanent position, external grants mean everything. It provides an opportunity to develop as a scientist, to gain new knowledge and experience. It is also crucial for building a strong CV to become competitive for permanent positions later on”, says Magnus Breitholtz, Head of department at ACES.
Magnus Breitholtz, Head of department, ACES. Photo: Eva Dalin
“This year we received major grants from the special call on combination effects. I really think ACES now has an extremely strong platform for generating some groundbreaking research in this area”, he continues.
Within funding for research and development projects Cynthia de Wit receives 3 000 000 SEK for the project “The organohalogen compound iceberg”, Jonathan Benskin gets 2 999 055 SEK for the project “Are cosmetics and personal care products a significant source of human and environmental exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)?”, Magnus Breitholtz gets
3 000 000 SEK for “Towards microbiome research standards in ecotoxicology” and Paul Glantz receives 2 639 400 SEK for “Trends in Aerosols and Warming for northern Europe (TAWE)”.
Within funding for research on a non-toxic environment 2018 – combination effects Jonathan Martin gets 11 999 853 SEK for “Toxicity of Personalized Contaminant Mixtures in Human Blood by NonTarget Exposomics and High-Throughput in vitro Screening”, Oskar Karlsson receives 12 000 000 SEK for “The chemical exposome and male reproduction: sperm alterations and effects on child health” and Jana Weiss gets 11 999 072 SEK for “Risk modeling of mixtures of endocrine disrupting chemicals relevant to human exposure, using zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo as model organism (RiskMix)”.
Mobility starting grants are given to Ioannis Sadiktsis of 2 899 377 SEK for “Chemical characterizations of diesel engine exhaust particles and its transformation products from renewable fuels” and to Dennis Lindqvist of 2 890 377 SEK for “Do halogenated environmental toxins cause immunosuppression in Baltic Sea salmon?”
Birgit Wild gets a grant for research and development projects to future research leaders of 2 995 653 SEK for ”Emissions of the strong greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from thawing coastal and subsea permafrost in the Siberian Arctic”.
“I think this year was exceptional in terms of number of projects. Last year was exceptional in terms of total funding received. To summarize, you could say that ACES has a pretty nice research trend at the moment“, says Magnus Breitholtz.