IRCHSS Press Release

29 May 2009: IRCHSS Principal Investigator is awarded the first European Research Council Award for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ireland

Dr Robert Gerwarth of the School of History & Archives, UCD, has been awarded an ERC Researcher Grant, a personal grant of which will total between 1.2 and 1.5 million euro for a ground-breaking four-year project on the transnational history of failed demobilization and paramilitary violence in Ireland and Europe after the end of the Great War. This is the first time that such an award has been made to a humanities scholar in Ireland. It is also among the largest EU research grants ever made for a humanities project in Ireland.

The project builds on a substantial seed funding grant of 300,000 euro awarded to Dr Gerwarth by the IRCHSS after a rigorous peer-review process last year.

The grant will boost research activity at Dr Gerwarth’s Centre for War Studies at UCD and intensify collaboration with national and international partner institutions.

The European Research Council Independent Researcher Grants (ERC Starting Grants) are the most competitive academic awards worldwide. They are designed to support internationally recognized research leaders from across the globe to undertake pioneering frontier research in Europe and to create new research centers of excellence.

The academic excellence of the PI and the project are the sole criteria in the two-step selection process of 457 short-listed proposals from over 2,500 applications from all disciplines for the 2009 Scheme. The evaluation of proposals lies in the hands of 25 peer review panels covering all disciplines, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities. Each of these panels is composed of 10-15 distinguished senior specialists from across Europe. Each individual proposal is also peer-reviewed by additional external expert reviewers.

"The ERC award is the highest accolade which any scholar can achieve in the European Research Area. I congratulate Dr. Gerwarth on his achievement. It is a testament to his originality as a humanities scholar and establishes him among the most elite of European academics. It is a great honour for him, for Ireland and for UCD" said Professor Maurice Bric, Chairperson of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences which acts as the National Contact Point for the European Research Council.

Dr Gerwarth is about to complete his second monograph and has published six edited volumes. His work has been translated into German and French. He has also written fifteen peer-reviewed articles, both in edited volumes for leading publishers and top international journals.

For further information on the ERC schemes

ERC contact person: Ms Sorcha Carthy, IRCHSS Tel 01 660 3652