Özyeğin University awarded the first European Research Council (ERC) project
Özyeğin University Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering faculty member, Assistant Prof. Dr. Sedat Nizamoğlu has been qualified for the European Research Council’s (ERC) Starting Grant. Dr. Nizamoğlu will be using the funding provided by the council for 5 years for his research project titled “Novel Nanoengineered Optoelectronic Biointerfaces”.
Dr. Nizamoglu will be developing novel nanomaterial based neural interfaces for blindness of retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt’s disease, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in Western societies and today it is estimated that it affects more than 30 million people worldwide. Therefore, the project is expected to have high impact and may herald a new paradigm in neural interfacing.
The ERC, which has a tradition of supporting the world’s top researchers and their ground-breaking projects, provides funding to support scientific work in many countries every year. The ERC funding is regarded as the most prestigious research funding in Europe and has been awarded to several Nobel Laureate scientists previously.
Dr. Nizamoğlu’s grant is the first ERC Starting grant received by Özyeğin University. Since 2007 after the ERC grants were started, only 6 researchers have received the ERC funding in Turkey.
About the ERC The European Research Council is Europe’s leading and most prestigious scientific institution, which provides support for the most original and progressive scientific research conducted in Europe.