ERC Consolidator grants for TU Delft researchers

TU Delft researchers Hayley Hung (EEMCS) and Kunal Masania (AE) have been awarded a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). These European grants are given to ambitious "groundbreaking research projects," with funding per grant of up to €2 million with a duration of five years.

TU Delft's two ERC Consolidator Grant projects are:

Hayley Hung, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science (EEMCS)
Nonverbal Multimodal Social Intention Modelling (NEON)

With their project NEON, Hayley Hung and her team aim to tackle a complex problem in the field of artificial intelligence (AI): understanding human intentions, even in complex situations. Traditionally, AI systems are trained to judge situations using clear, mutually exclusive labels. The assumption is that in each situation, there is 'one real truth' that can be derived using those definitive labels. However, when it comes to understanding human intentions, this is hardly ever the case. In reality, different people judge other people's intentions differently. Hung aims to combine these different perspectives into one single system. In this, it also immediately shows its value: by combining and interpreting these different human perspectives, we can learn to better understand each other.

Read more about the research of Hayley Hung.

Kunal Masania, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering (AE)
Additive Manufacturing of Living Composite Materials (AM-IMATE)

Associate Professor of Aerospace Structures and Materials, Dr Kunal Masania envisions a world where rigid, lightweight composite structural materials literally come to life. In doing so, he not only takes inspiration from Nature when designing the microstructures of materials, he actually integrates living organisms into the material. This link with biology allows lightweight composite materials, as used for example in aerospace, to adapt themselves to conditions such as load or damage. The European Research Council has awarded Masania an ERC Consolidator Grant of €2 million for his research proposal AM-IMATE. This research on living composites can lead to ground breaking technology for making aviation more sustainable.

Read more about the research of Kunal Masania.

About ERC Consolidator grants
ERC Consolidator grants are part of the EU’s current research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe, and the 2022 call was worth in total €657 million. The ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to outstanding researchers of any nationality and age, with at least seven and up to twelve years of experience after PhD, and a scientific track record showing great promise. Research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation located in one of the EU Member States or “Associated” Countries. The funding - up to €2 million per grant, plus in some cases an additional €1 million for start-up costs - is provided for up to five years and mostly covers the employment of researchers and other staff to consolidate the grantees' teams.

More information
Read the press release about the Consolidator Grants.