ICG researchers have been awarded £2million in two major new grants.
Over €2million has been won by Will Percival for his research into dark energy and the growth of large-scale structure in our universe. The award from the European Research Council will support a team of researchers including two postdoctoral researchers and several graduate students over a five year period. This new “consolidator” grant from the ERC follows on from Will’s previous successful ERC starting grant, 2008-13.
Another new grant, from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), will support research investigating a period of accelerated expansion, called inflation, in the very early universe. This grant will fund ICG staff and a postdoctoral researcher for 17 months to study quantum fluctuations in the fields driving inflation and how they could provide the seeds for the origin of structure observed in the universe today.