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Instruct-ERIC R&D Awardees 2024

11-Jul-2024

Instruct-ERIC is delighted to announce the awardees of the latest R&D funding calls. Recipients have been awarded funding for pilot research into technology and methods development for structural biology.

Between 2013 and 2024, Instruct has provided R&D funding for more than 60 projects, being the catalyst for technical advancement and development in the field of structural biology.

Instruct now offers funding for R&D projects through 2 different calls:

  • R&D Pilot Award Scheme
  • TechDev Funding

 

R&D Pilot Funding

R&D pilot projects are funded up to a maximum of €15,000 – the intent of this support is to help researchers develop external funding for projects, i.e. the expectation is that a pilot study will lead to a grant submission to national or international funding bodies.
The call is open to all topics, but must contain aspects of technology or software development within integrated structural biology, accessing technologies/expertise at one or multiple Instruct centres. This call is specifically aimed at early career researchers as defined in the EU ERC programme.

Awardees

  • Paola Lanzoni-Mangutchi, Newcastle University: X-ray crystallography structural characterisation of enzyme inhibition
  • Sven Klumpe, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry: Improving throughput of samples for FIB-SEM milling
  • Sarah O’Keefe, University of Helsinki: Utilising cryo-EM to visualise early protein synthesis
  • Piotr Stepien, Durham University: Enhancing cryo-EM imaging of membrane proteins


TechDev Funding

TechDev projects are funded up to a maximum of €30,000 – the call is aimed at researchers with a proven track record in technology and methods development.
The methods and technology development must be within a specific thematic area, which changes with each call. In 2024, the topics were:
Topic 1: Sample preparation
Sample preparation technologies to improve methodologies for the synthesis of proteins, DNA or RNA for structural biology studies.
Topic 2: Data management
Management or analysis of data generated either by structural biology or computational methods that need to be represented by ensembles of biomolecular structures.

Awardees

  • Michal Sharon, Weizmann Institute: Developments in sample preparation for native mass spectrometry
  • Maria Garcia Alai and Osvaldo Burastero, EMBL Hamburg: Utilising kinetics data for measuring biomolecular interactions

The next call is planned to open in 2025.