GRANTS. Hard work, good preparation and valuable support from many colleagues are the key to success – Emma Börgeson was awarded an ERC Starting Grant, giving her a total of €1.7 million for her research.
The grant secures Emma Börgeson’s funding for a five-year period, which will allow her to set long-term goals for her research.
“This prestigious grant means a great deal to me. It provides a fantastic platform for junior researchers, and it will certainly have tremendous significance in many research areas,” says Emma, noting that the project for which she received funding is relatively risky but with the potential to have a major scientific impact.
“As an early-career principal investigator, it can be challenging to undertake a “high-risk, high gain” project even though the rewards could be substantial if the project is successful. But the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant affords me this opportunity.”
From mice to humans
Emma Börgeson’s group is part of the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine (WCMTM) in Gothenburg. This has provided her with the opportunity to develop very good collaborations with clinical researchers at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
“I aim to ‘translate’ research findings from cell and animal-based experiments to human models. This can, for example, involve culturing and processing human cells or tissue biopsies in test tubes with different substances. To address my research questions, I am therefore dependent on the collaborations I have with clinicians. These collaborations are also very enriching both for me and my research team. Every time we interact with the clinic, we learn something new, which is both thrilling and constructive for developing my research line ‘from mice to humans.’”
Being part of the WCMTM has meant that she has been able to make faster progress in her research program. As an example, she has conducted interesting experiments in collaboration with Jeremie Boucher, who heads one of the other teams within the WCMTM.
Another part of the success story is that Emma has solid support from the Institute of Medicine and the Wallenberg Lab, where her team is located.
“The ERC requires that the researcher has a stable environment, and I feel that the support from my department and institute was invaluable. Many senior colleagues generously shared their experiences and offered valuable advice. I gained useful feedback from an ‘internal advisory board’, which is designed to provide support for junior researchers. In addition, I attended a week-long course in scientific writing run by my department. I also have had fantastic support from our scientific editor, Rosie Perkins,” Emma says.
Metabolically healthy
Emma Börgeson conducts research on obesity-related complications. Although obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, not all obese people are unhealthy. She wants to understand why some people remain relatively healthy metabolically, and to promote metabolic health through the so-called “pro-resolution molecules.”
“Faced with this task, I am both humbled and excited. It’s going to be incredibly stimulating to see if our hypothesis is correct, or if we have to go back to the drawing board. Of course, that is what’s so fantastic about research; your results are not always what you may have expected, but it’s exciting to see where the research findings lead. It’s a bit like a treasure hunt!”
Three years of work
It has been a long road to this grant; Emma had already begun planning for her application three years ago. The list of those who helped her is long, and includes a number of people in the Grants and Innovation Office, as well as her collaborators and colleagues in the institute. She highlights the support from Professors Göran Bergström and Robert Wetterholm, who paved the way for her cooperation with the clinic. Their support has been crucial for her ERC application.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work translationally alongside Göran and being able to develop collaborations with the clinic.”
Large network of contacts
The importance of a strong international network also cannot be underestimated.
“As a doctoral student and postdoc, I built up my international network in Europe and the United States. The ERC Committee and the external reviewers viewed this very positively,” says Emma.
It was important for Emma to maintain her network in the United States when she established her team in Gothenburg, and the institute has supported her in this regard.
“I value my collaborations in the United States a great deal. They provide access to infrastructure that we lack in Gothenburg, but they’re also important for discussing ideas and points of view with leaders in the field such as Ed Dennis, Stephan Lange and Oliva Osborne. Before the ERC application, I received a lot of feedback from Stephan, and we have also received a joint National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, which shows that my collaboration with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) did not end when I moved to Gothenburg.”
Well-prepared
In addition to all the time she spent writing and rewriting her application, she also practiced in preparation for the ERC interview. The Grants and Innovation Office convened a panel of researchers who had all gone through the same process and previously been awarded ERC grants. They acted as coaches to ensure that I was well-prepared for the interview.
“I think that this training made a big difference, and I really appreciate the fact that these people took the time to meet with us applicants.”
Emma believes that another key to her success in receiving the prestigious grant is that she could demonstrate interesting preliminary research results, which she and her closest colleagues generated together.
“I have a fantastic team of postdocs and students who really came together and worked very hard to generate the research data used in the ERC application; they are really worthy of praise!”
Three received ERC Starting Grant
The ERC promotes research-driven projects in all scientific fields and supports cutting-edge research and pioneering ideas that have a powerful influence on research. The ERC Starting Grant is oriented toward early-career researchers (two to seven years after receiving a PhD degree).
The University of Gothenburg has fared well in this round of the ERC Starting Grant. Besides Emma, two additional researchers at the university received the ERC Starting Grant: Adam Shehata at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication and Hiroki Shibuya at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology. That makes a total of five researchers at the university who have received grants from the European Research Council.
TEXT: ELIN LINDSTRÖM CLAESSEN
PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG
