ERC's Scientific Council admits another member from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
At the turn of the year, Professor Liselotte Højgaard joined the European Research Council (ERC) as a member of the Scientific Council. This means that the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences now has two members in the prestigious Council.
The European Research Council (ERC) was established by the EU in 2007 and has in a short span of time become one of the most important players in the European research world. With a budget of EUR 16 billion toward 2027, they distribute research funds every year in free competition among researchers from across Europe.
Therefore, it is no small matter to be appointed as a member of ERC's Scientific Council which, among other things, lays the scientific strategy for the ERC and appoints researchers who can help the Council with peer reviews. Nevertheless, this is what has now happened to Liselotte Højgaard, Professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine and head of the clinic at Rigshospitalet.
‘Since its establishment in 2007, the ERC has been crucial in strengthening the quality of European research and here, during the Corona crisis, the ERC has shown that basic research can solve societal challenges. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with RNA technology was developed by ERC-supported researchers. I look forward to working in the ERC and hope that many Danish researchers will submit good strong applications. It is gratifying with relatively good support for younger researchers and budding research areas’, says Liselotte Højgaard.
Something We Can be Proud of
Thus, Liselotte Højgaard is now the second member from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH. Professor Jesper Svejstrup from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine is already a member.
‘The ERC is immensely important to the European research landscape and, therefore, the gratifying appointment of Liselotte is not just a huge recognition of her research career, but of Danish health research as a whole. We can be proud that we now have not just one, but two members in ERC's Science Council’, says Ulla Wewer, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
Liselotte Højgaard does not join the Science Council without experience with this type of work. She is currently a member of the boards of the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Robert Bosch Foundation in Germany. In addition, she has chaired the EU Science Advisory Board for Medicine, the Danish National Research Foundation and the European Medical Research Councils.
Contact
Liselotte Højgaard
+45 35 45 42 15
liselotte.hoejgaard@regionh.dk
Communications Consultant Mathias Traczyk
+45 93 56 58 35
mathias.traczyk@sund.ku.dk