Professor Vili Lehdonvirta is amongst four University of Oxford researchers who have been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants of up to €2.5 million each to explore their most innovative and ambitious ideas. These grants recognise leading researchers who have a proven track record of significant achievements.
The ERC is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research, and the ERC Advanced Grants are amongst the most prestigious and competitive EU funding schemes. These provide leading senior researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The new grants, worth in total nearly €652 million, are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
This latest call for proposals attracted over 1800 applications, of which around 14% were selected for funding. The successful projects will carry out cutting-edge research in a wide range of fields, from life sciences and physical sciences to social sciences and humanities.
Professor Lehdonvirta’s research examines the politics and socio-economic implications of digital technologies. His new project will focus on the geopolitics of cloud computing, and the impacts of data being increasingly stored on “hyperscale” data centres operated by multinational cloud computing providers, rather than on users’ own devices. Whilst this concentration generates significant economies of scale and improves energy efficiency, it also creates new systemic risks and impacts international relations, as governments and economies become more reliant on infrastructures that are often situated in another country.
Professor Lehdonvirta said: ‘I am deeply grateful to the European Research Council for another opportunity to launch an investigation into a new frontier topic, and to the many colleagues who helped me shape this new research agenda.
‘US and Chinese cloud providers are competing to expand their infrastructures globally, while countries in Europe, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere attempt to navigate this competition and retain “digital sovereignty.” For the first time, this project will map the changing geography of computation and examine how different states are attempting to shape it to their advantage. The goal is to understand how government policies interact with technology companies’ business strategies to shape global digital infrastructures—and through them global politics.’
Iliana Ivanova, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education, and Youth, said: ‘To all the new ERC grantees, my heartfelt congratulations! These grants will not only support leading researchers in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, but also create some 2500 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and other research staff across Europe. This investment nurtures the next generation of brilliant minds. I look forward to seeing the resulting breakthroughs and fresh advancements in the years ahead.’
Our congratulations to all grant recipients including Oxford researchers Professor Shadreck Chirikure, School of Archaeology, Professor Véronique Gouverneur, Department of Chemistry and Professor Jin-Chong Tan, Department of Engineering Science. Find out more about their projects here.
