Lisbon researcher gets set-up grant

EMBO Installation Grant provides Lars Jansen with funding and support

EurekAlert!
23-July-2009

Contact: Suzanne Beveridge
suzanne.beveridge@embo.org
49-622-188-91 108
European Molecular Biology Organization

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY, 23 July 2009 – Lars Jansen from the Instituto
Gulbenkian de Ciência (Gulbenkian Institute for Science) in Oeiras,
near Lisbon, is the recipient of an EMBO Installation Grant assisting
him to establish a new research group in Portugal. Dr. Jansen will
receive funding beginning in 2009, similar to the previous seven
awardees announced in December 2008.

EMBO Installation Grants support young group leaders relocating to
selected European countries committed to developing their research
infrastructures. The grants offer 50,000 euro annually for three to
five years to help the scientists establish their groups and
themselves in the European scientific community.

The 36-year-old moved from California to Portugal last year to head
the Epigenetic Mechanisms group. His new team currently consists of
five researchers. Their work focuses on chromosome segregation,
specifically the formation of the centromere, a key cellular structure
in powering and controlling chromosome segregation and accurate cell
division. The project was also recognized with a paper in Nature Cell
Biology published at the end of June this year in collaboration with a
group at Stanford University.

According to Lars, the grant "will give a huge boost to our
research. It is a great recognition of the relevance of our current
work and the science we propose. Moreover, access to the EMBO Young
Investigator Programme allows me to fully integrate our newly
established laboratory in the larger European scientific community."

EMBO Installation Grants are awarded annually and aim to strengthen
science in selected member states of the EMBC, the EMBO
intergovernmental funding body. The EMBC Member States hosting the
grantees finance the grants entirely. EMBC Member States participat
scheme include Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland,
Portugal and Turkey. Lars Jansen’s grant will be jointly financed by
the government funding agency, the Portuguese Science and Technology
Foundation, and by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation that supports
his host institute.

Grantees join the EMBO Young Investigator community, providing
networking opportunities with some of Europe’s best young group
leaders and a range of career development programmes.

"We congratulate Lars Jansen as recipient of an EMBO Installation
Grant and welcome him to the EMBO community," said Gerlind Wallon,
EMBO Deputy Director and Young Investigator Programme Manager. "These
talented scientists will benefit from the secure financial backing of
their host countries plus the active interest and support of EMBO in
their scientific and professional development. They represent a
promising scientific future for the countries receiving them and for
Europe as a whole."

This is the second time that EMBO has rewarded a project developed by
scientists from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência. In 2007, Mónica
Bettencourt-Dias was also awarded an EMBO Installation Grant to get
her group started and establish herself in the European scientific
community.

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The next application deadline for EMBO Installation Grants is 15 April
2010.

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