The University of Bologna Earns Three New ERC Consolidator Grants

From left to right: Annalisa Bonafede, Emanuele Campiglio, Elisabetta De Cao

The University of Bologna has secured three new ERC projects, for a total of almost 6 million euros. The results of the latest ERC Consolidator Grant call award the university’s excellence, making it the Italian university with the highest number of funded projects.

Awarded by the European Research Council (ERC), an EU organization that supports talented researchers pursuing frontier research, these grants are designed to assist scientists with highly promising scientific careers in strengthening their research activities in Europe.

The three prestigious grants were awarded to Annalisa Bonafede, Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, for the BELOVED project; to Emanuele Campiglio, Professor at the Department of Economics, for the BELIEFS project; and to Elisabetta De Cao, Professor at the Department of Economics, for the HARSH project.

EXPLORING MAGNETIC FIELDS
The BELOVED - B-field EvoLution and Origin in Vast Extragalactic Domains project, funded with an ERC Consolidator Grant of 1.9 million euros, investigates the mechanisms behind the amplification of magnetic fields in galaxy clusters.

Annalisa Bonafede, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Principal Investigator of the project, states: “From galactic to extragalactic scales, questions about the origins and amplification of magnetic fields remain unanswered due to the scarcity of available data and the limitations of the techniques in use. However, in the coming years, the BELOVED team is going to start using powerful new instruments. These resources will offer unprecedented opportunities to delve deeper into these unresolved issues and aim to answer fundamental questions regarding, among others, astroparticle and plasma physics, as well as  cosmology.”

EXPECTATIONS AND INVESTMENTS FOR DECARBONISATION
The BELIEFS - Climate-related Beliefs and Low-Carbon Transition Dynamics project, led by Emanuele Campiglio, Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Bologna, will shed light on the complex relationship between corporate perspectives investment choices and climate policy strategies. The goal of the project is to find reliable ways to develop a zero-emission society. The project is funded with a 2 million euros ERC Consolidator Grant and is carried out in collaboration with the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (CMCC).

Campiglio explains: “Today, there are significant gaps in expectations surrounding the ecological transition. Current models are unable to fully evaluate their impact, empirical evidence on their distribution is limited, and we lack a clear understanding of both the factors determining their evolution and how to effectively align them with climate goals. For this reason, the BELIEFS project will create a dynamic model of transition processes, with a realistic representation of corporate expectations: heterogeneous, interdependent, and constantly evolving.”

THE ROOTS OF VIOLENT DISCIPLINARY PRACTICES
With the support of a 2 million euros ERC Consolidator Grant, the HARSH - Uncovering the Roots of Harsh Parenting project will study for the first time the contextual factors that cause violent disciplinary practices by parents towards their children. This research will go beyond the family influences previously examined and explore emotional violence, an area still not well understood.

Elisabetta De Cao, Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Bologna and Principal Investigator of the project, remarks: “Every parent is influenced by the social context in which they live. For this reason, our goal is to identify the broader factors — cultural, economic and institutional — that explain the support for and use of violent disciplinary practices. So far, theories and empirical evidence have been developed separately across fields such as psychology, medicine, sociology, and anthropology. With HARSH, we aim to integrate this knowledge through an interdisciplinary perspective.”