ERC grants awarded to three CU researchers












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            * ERC CZ grants awarded to three CU researchers
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            * Among the funded projects is research of Greenland Ice Sheet
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            The Czech Republic's Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has awarded promising researc

            grants (entitled ERC CZ), providing funding and recognition (ie. lifeblood) for deserving 
            Thursday, the names of eight recipients from five institutions were announced: three grant

            by researchers at Charles University, amounting to funds in the tens of millions of crowns
            At Charles University, the fresh recipients are: Marek Stibal of the Faculty of Science, Z
            the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, and Alessandro Testa of the Faculty of Social Scie

            Marek Stibal’s project, receiving an ERC CZ Consolidator Grant, will examine the microbial
            release of methane from the Greenland Ice Sheet and the implications for global warming. Y
            official project description here:

            “Microbial Production and Release of Methane (CH4) from the Greenland Ice Sheet”. The proj
            the basal environments of ice sheets produce and store large reserves of methane (CH4), wh
            the potential to raise atmospheric CH4 concentration and thus further climate warming, if 

            during periods of deglaciation. The Greenland ice sheet (GrIS), the largest ice mass in th
            Hemisphere, is retreating rapidly, losing mass at over 400 km3 per year. Recent field meas
            shown subglacial CH4 of microbial origin is released at the ice sheet margin. However, no 

            CH4 footprint of the entire GrIS currently exists. The principal aim of this project is to
            potential of the GrIS bed to produce and release CH4 – a potent greenhouse gas – and affec
            cycle and climate. The underlying hypothesis is that global climate change and resulting i

            of the GrIS causes export of subglacial CH4 of microbial origin to the atmosphere.
            Zdeněk Dvořák’s project, entitled “Algorithms and Complexity within and beyond Bounded Exp
            received an ERC CZ Consolidator Grant.

            The project focus on developing a fine-grained algorithmic theory within bounded expansion
            study the consequences in more general settings. We will focus on the points in the bounde
            hierarchy where structural phase transitions occur, develop algorithmic tools appropriate 

            points and determine which types of computational problems are no longer efficiently solva
            points.
            Alessandro Testa clinched a ERC CZ Starting Grant with a project called “The Re-Enchantmen

            Eastern Europe”. The description:
            This research project embraces the perspective of a historical anthropology of religious b
            practices in post-socialist central-eastern Europe after 1989. Although the topic of relig

            socialist countries has been rather explored in recent years, the originality of this proj
            being built on a set of research questions that have received little attention so far.


            Charles University extends congratulations to the recipients!