Two Researchers at the University of Turku Receive the Prized ERC Grant

​The grants appropriated by the European Research Council (ERC) are among the most esteemed European grants and are available for researchers from all the fields of science. ERC appropriates grants each year in three different categories to top researchers and their research groups for pioneering research. The goal is to consolidate the expertise, dynamism and creativity of European research.

Both Ivaska and Erola received the Consolidator Grant which is appropriated for researchers in the middle of their careers. In the selection process, the key factor is the pioneering and innovative nature of the research.

Both Ivaska and Erola received the grant for five years and each got nearly two million euro, which is equivalent to three research grants from the Academy of Finland.



Ivaska is one of the few researchers who have received two consecutive grants from ERC. Five years ago, she received the Startier Grant, which is appropriated for researchers at the beginning of their careers. With the first Grant, Ivaska partially funded her research group of ten, which, among other things, studied how the cell integrins affect the signalling of cancer cells. The second grant opens up possibilities for taking the research to new paths.

–We are researching the changes that are related to the origins of cancer metastases. Cancer first develops locally, but at some point it becomes even more malignant and starts to metastasise. We want to find out how the cell integrins are part of this change, says Ivaska.

The group is also researching the similarities between different stages of ontogenesis and the origin and spread of cancer. Ivaska uses the mammary gland as an example: the invasion process of the developing lactiferous ducts, which produce milk, begins and ends at a certain stage of ontogenesis. Ivaska’s goal is to find out why the cancer cells do not stop spreading.



Jani Erola, who researches the inheritance of social status, is the first Finnish researcher of social sciences to receive the ERC grant. Erola is researching the compensation of lost family resources during childhood. The traditional assumption has been that, for example, a parent’s death will lead to a lower social status as the resources of the childhood home are reduced. However, a child whose parent has deceased is not generally less successful than others.

–The lost resources are replaced with those that are available at the moment. The source can be near relatives or the society, says Erola and continues: - The harmful consequences of losing a parent can be compensated by the fact that uncles, aunts or acquaintances can become closer than before or that the society provides widow’s pension or free education, illustrates Erola.

The central questions are when does the compensation affect the inheritance of social status and how do different societies differ in this.


Text: Erja Hyytiäinen
Translation: Mari Ratia
Photos: Hanna Oksanen