Professor Tim Coulson, joint Head of the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow in Zoology at Jesus College, is one of four Oxford researchers to have been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant of €2.5 million over five years to explore their most innovative and ambitious ideas.
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. They provide researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs.
Professor Tim Coulson, Professorial Fellow in Zoology at Jesus College
Tim will investigate the ecological and evolutionary consequences of changes in predation within an ecosystem, and the long-term consequences it can have on an environment. This will be explored across three different ecological systems: Yellowstone National Park in the US, freshwater streams in Trinidad, and the oceanic islands surrounding Australia.
He said: ‘Differing levels of predation pressure can cause striking patterns of ecological and evolutionary change such as rapid development of unique life histories and phenotypic traits. Research undertaken as part of this grant will consolidate evidence from different systems and timescales and inform understanding of predation regime change more widely. In turn, it is hoped that this information will give a better picture of what might happen if predators are removed or added to various ecosystems, helping to inform conservation or land management policies.’
Tim’s colleague in the Department of Biology, Professor Craig MacLean, has also been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant and will investigate the ecological and evolutionary drivers of antibiotic resistance in patients. The project aims to uncover the drivers of both emergence and loss of resistance during infection, as well as exploring how bacterial genomes evolve in response to antibiotic treatment. The other Oxford award recipients are Professor Dame Carol Robinson, from the Department of Chemistry and Director of the Kavli Institute, and Professor Neil Brockdorff from the Department of Biochemistry
Maria Leptin, ERC President, said: ‘These new ERC Advanced Grantees are a testament to the outstanding quality of research carried out across Europe. I am especially pleased to see such a high number of female researchers in this competition and that they are increasingly successful in securing funding. We look forward to seeing the results of the new projects in the years to come, with many likely to lead to breakthroughs and new advances.’
More information about the four award recipients can be found here.