Three UG scientists have been awarded ERC Starting Grants this year. This entails 1.5 million euros for a talented researcher at the early stage of their career.
The prestigious grants have been awarded to Sean Desjardins from the Arctic Centre, Yuliya Hilevych from social and economic history, and Geoffry Hobbis from media studies.
Desjardins conducts archaeological research in the Canadian Arctic and aims to investigate how traditional Inuit knowledge about sustainability differs from scientific insights. He examines aspects such as hunting walruses, seals, and caribou, traditional harvesting methods, and government policies in the Arctic region.
Community well-being
Hilevych will work on a project focused on depopulation and community well-being in Europe between 1950 and 2022. The European population is expected to continue declining after 2023, which she refers to as a ‘slow-burning crisis’. Hilevych intends to explore the stories of those who choose to stay and examine how their well-being in terms of health and care evolves. She plans to compare Finland, the Netherlands, and Ukraine in her research.
Lastly, Hobbis is concerned with the impact of digitalization on ‘alternative’ non-capitalist economies. Communities such as hunter-gatherers face the risk of being overtaken by increasing digitalization, for example, through the use of smartphones. Hobbis hopes to demonstrate that the situation may not be as straightforward and aims to showcase the diversity of economic adaptations in the digital age.