Celebrating Excellence: Three Indian Scientists Awarded ERC Starting Grants

Host Institution: Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium)

The Challenge: Stars are the universe’s cosmic factories: over their lifetimes, they create many of the chemical elements that eventually become part of new stars, planets, and even life. Yet some of the physical processes operating deep inside stars remain hidden from us and cannot be observed directly through telescopes. How can we "see" what’s hidden?

About the Project: Dr. Shetye’s MERLIN project will investigate whether magnetic fields inside evolved stars leave detectable fingerprints in the chemical composition observed at their surfaces. By studying these chemical fingerprints, one can use the surface of a star to learn about physical processes taking place deep within its interior. MERLIN will combine detailed observations of individual evolved stars with data from large spectroscopic surveys to investigate how magnetism, rotation, and internal mixing influence stellar evolution and the production of heavy elements.

Shreeya obtained her joint PhD from Université Libre de Bruxelles and KU Leuven and currently is an FWO postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Astronomy. She built an international research career spanning Belgium and Switzerland, becoming an expert on the chemical evolution of evolved stars. 

"We cannot directly see what is happening deep inside a star, but its surface chemistry preserves clues about the physical processes operating within," explains Shetye. "With MERLIN, we want to use these chemical fingerprints to investigate whether magnetic fields influence internal mixing and the production of heavy elements in evolved stars."

Host Institutions: Royal Observatory of Belgium & KU Leuven (Belgium)

The Challenge:Sub-Neptunes - planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune - are the most common in our galaxy, yet our solar system lacks any examples. Beneath their thick hydrogen atmospheres they are thought to hold oceans of molten rock over a rocky mantle and an iron core. Their interiors, where hydrogen, molten rock, and iron collide under extreme pressures, remain a puzzle. Without lab data on these conditions, even the James Webb Space Telescope observations can’t be fully interpreted.

About the Project: Dr. Hakim’s ExoGeochem will produce the missing data, combining high-pressure laboratory experiments with quantum-mechanical simulations, and use it to interpret spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope and, later, from Ariel and the Extremely Large Telescope.

Born and educated in India, Kaustubh Hakim trained first as an electronics engineer and worked in banking before turning to astronomy, taking a master's degree in Belgium, a PhD in the Netherlands and a postdoctoral position in Switzerland. He now holds a joint appointment between the Royal Observatory of Belgium and KU Leuven.

"Nearly half the planets in our galaxy are sub-Neptunes, and we still cannot say what they are made of," says Hakim. "For sub-Neptunes, the missing ingredient is thermochemical data: how hydrogen, rock and iron actually behave when they meet deep inside a planet. Providing these missing data is the key objective of ExoGeochem."

Host Institution: ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

The Challenge: Severe muscle injuries often heal incompletely, leaving patients with long-term disabilities. While traditional tissue engineering and regenerative medicine - where living cells are guided by pre-fabricated scaffolds to form new tissue—has shown promise, these pre-made structures struggle to adapt to complex injuries inside the body. 

About the Project: Dr. Chansoria’s EchoPrint will develop a new method for this purpose, based on novel soft materials for the scaffold. These materials respond to superimposed ultrasound waves: where the waves overlap, they crosslink the material, allowing to shape it into fine, precise structures. Chansoria will also develop the ultrasound device required for this process. The new materials are designed to be biocompatible, enabling the method to be used directly inside the body. He plans to test the technology first in the lab, then later in animals.

Parth is an SNSF Ambizione Fellow at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology (D-HEST). He was previously a Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellow at D-HEST. His research group at ETHZ (www.metslab.org), currently hosted in the RMB lab (headed by Prof. Ori Bar-Nur), broadly investigates three complementary domains:

- Biofabrication and automated functional characterization of miniaturized cardiac and skeletal muscle models

- Direct in situ biofabrication for regenerative medicine applications

- Tissue Engineering in microgravity and space

He has amassed a total of six patents and invention disclosures, and his research has been published in reputed peer-reviewed journals. 

Next Starting Grants call – 2027 round: Interested in applying for an ERC Starting Grant? The 2027 funding round is now open for applications, with the deadline set for 14 October 2026. Go to the call details

About the ERC: 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 ERC offers four core grant schemes: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants. With its additional Proof of Concept Grant scheme, the ERC helps grantees to bridge the gap between their pioneering research and early phases of its commercialisation. A new ERC Plus Grants scheme is open for applications since June 2026. The ERC is led by an independent governing body, the Scientific Council. Maria Leptin has been the President of the ERC since November 2021. The overall ERC budget from 2021 to 2027 is more than €16 billion, as part of the Horizon Europe programme, which is under the responsibility of Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation.