ERC Consolidator Grant: Unipd project by Matteo Millan financed with 2M euros

29.11.2023

The Executive Agency of the European Research Council - ERCEA announced the winners of the 2023 ERC Consolidator Grants call. The winners include Matteo Millan, who was previously awarded a Starting Call Grant in 2015 as part of the Horizon2020 framework program, who is currently an associate professor at the Department of Historical, Geographical, and Antiquity Sciences at the University of Padua. Prof Millan submitted a highly topical project entitled, EU-GUNS - "A Continent Disarmed? Gun Culture, Gun Control and the Making of Western Europe (ca. 1870-1970)". Prof Millan will be able to benefit from a budget of almost 2 million euros, to carry out visionary and innovative research in the social sciences and humanities.

Excellence at the University of Padua is therefore confirmed, thanks to the awarding of multiple extremely competitive international calls for tenders. Specifically, the ERC Consolidator Grants scheme supports scientists who are in a phase of consolidating their careers and research groups within various disciplines. The results obtained in this and other recent ERC calls reward the University of Padua's commitment to promoting internal programs aimed at financially supporting competitive research projects and supporting researchers who intend to apply for ERC grants.

Among the approximately 300 proposals selected for funding, across 23 different countries, 15 are those hosted by Italian institutes including that of the University of Padua. Only after the Germans, the largest number of financed PIs of Italian nationality, many of whom however carried out their research abroad.

Comments by Unipd Vice-rector for Research, Prof. Fabio Zwirner: “Well-deserved congratulations to Matteo Millan, who wins an ERC Grant for the second time. The results of his fascinating contemporary history project will provide food for thought, not only to experts but also to political decision-makers and aware citizens, on the very current issue of legal possession of weapons.”