BRUSSELS, May 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission has appointed Mauro Ferrari as the next president of the European Research Council (ERC), the European Union (EU)'s executive arm said Tuesday in a press release.
Ferrari will take over from Jean-Pierre Bourguignon and assume office on Jan. 1, 2020. The new president will be mainly responsible for funding investigator-driven frontier scientific research in Europe, said the commission.
Ferrari "has a distinguished academic career, including many years in the United States, during which he contributed to multiple fields including mathematics, engineering, medicine and biology, and helped pioneer the field of nanomedicine," the commission said.
"It is an honor to have been chosen to serve as the next president of the European Research Council," Ferrari said.
"The ERC has a global reputation for funding excellent, curiosity-driven research. Professor Mauro Ferrari is internationally renowned for his outstanding interdisciplinary academic career," said European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas.
The ERC, set up by the EU in 2007, is a funding organization for excellent frontier research. It has funded over 9,000 projects based in Europe since its establishment. Its overall budget from 2014 to 2020 amounts to over 13 billion euros (14.6 billion U.S. dollars), according to the ERC's official website.
