York chemist awarded European Research Council Consolidator Grant

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. The European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants are highly competitive 5-year awards designed to support researchers at the career stage where they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal.

Dr Paul McGonigal is an expert in synthetic organic and physical organic chemistry. The Consolidator Grant will enable him to progress the FIELD ERC Consolidator project which will develop the synthesis, analysis, and applications of rigid small molecules that rapidly flit between their mirror-image structures, undergoing fluxionality-induced enantiomerisation. The project will look to address one of the most urgent challenges in chemistry: the control of stereochemistry and chirality. 

Head of Department Professor Caroline Dessent said “Congratulations are due to Paul for winning an ERC Consolidator grant!  This is a testimony to Paul's growing international reputation as a research leader.  These grants are extremely prestigious and competitive, and are given to support high-risk, ground-breaking research.  York Chemistry researchers have been extremely successful at winning these grants, so Paul joins a growing group of York Chemistry ERC grantees.”

Read more about the ERC Consolidator Grants