The European Commission has announced the 11 beneficiary universities and technical institutes of the European Research Area (ERA) chairs project. Universities and research institutes from Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK will benefit from EU funding each in a specific area of research. The ERA chairs will focus on scientific fields such as, amongst others, nanotechnology, molecular veterinary medicine, aquaculture and digital game design.

Calls for funding for ERA chairs were launched at the end of December 2012 under the Seventh Research Programme for Science and Innovation (FP7). The ERA chairs project aims at supporting convergence regions in Europe and their respective research centres. By means of additional funding of up to EUR 2.4 million for each beneficiary, universities and research institutes will be able to attract top academics and develop centres of excellence on their own.

Given the positive response to the first ERA chairs call, a new call for a second cycle of ERA chairs will be launched at the end of this year. 

European Commission - Press release