His project PEOPLE, which has received a grant of 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council, aims to determine whether freshwater availability exerted a key selective pressure on the evolution, ecology and dispersion of anatomically modern humans in South Africa during the Pleistocene
The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has been one of the beneficiary institutions for the assistance conceded by the European Research Council (ERC) to research projects as part of the Starting Grant 2021 call. The Italian researcher Michael Toffolo has been awarded a total of 1.5 million euros, to conduct a research project at the CENIEH into Pleistocene human palaeoecology and adaptations to open landscapes in South Africa.
This project, entitled PEOPLE (PalaeoEcology and OPen-LandscapE adaptations of Pleistocene humans in South Africa), aims to determine whether freshwater availability exerted a key selective pressure on the evolution, ecology and dispersion of anatomically modern humans in the semi-arid interior of South Africa during the Middle and Late Pleistocene, and in the final analysis to understand how and when humans settled in the central interior of South Africa, and therefore in the African continent.
“The support of the CENIEH laboratories is going to be essential for my investigations”, says the geoarchaeologist Michael Toffolo, who will join the CENIEH Geochronology and Geology Program this September.
European research awards
This program of ERC grants is aimed at the creation of independent research groups whose lead researcher holds a doctorate awarded between two and seven years ago, and whose research activity is at the frontier of any topic.
Starting Grant 2021 is the first call for proposals of Horizon Europe, the European Union's R+D+i program. In total, this call will apportion 619 million euros among 397 excellent projects devised by scientists. These grants will help young researchers to launch their own projects on the frontier of knowledge and form their own research teams.
The funds are distributed among 22 member states and associate countries. Spain has received the fifth largest number of grants among EU countries, with 7.54% of the total. The list is headed by Germany, with 72 grants, and France, with 53. The Starting Grant 2021 call received 4,056 applications, representing a rise of 24% over the 2020 call. Of these, 9.9% received funding
