Dr. Triantafyllos Stylianopoulos, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Constructions at the University of Cyprus and Head of the Cancer Biophysics Laboratory, has secured the first European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for Cyprus in 11 years, as announced by the Research & Innovation Foundation (RIF).

The RIF revealed that Dr. Stylianopoulos's new project, titled "Overcoming Mechanically-Induced Resistance to Chemo-Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer" (“MechanoResistance”), funded with €2.5 million, aims to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The project focuses on discovering new biomarkers and therapeutic targets to overcome the specific cancer type’s resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs.

The RIF congratulates Dr. Stylianopoulos on this significant achievement in the highly competitive ERC Advanced Grant 2023 funding process.

Out of the 1829 proposals submitted for the ERC Advanced Grant 2023, the ERC announced funding of €652 million for 255 scientists across Europe, with a success rate of 13.9%.

This grant marks the sixth ERC project for Dr. Stylianopoulos, who is the first researcher in Cyprus and among the few in Europe to have secured all three main ERC funding lines: Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grant. He also holds three ERC Proof of Concept Grants.

Cyprus now boasts 11 projects under Horizon Europe, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2021-2027, and 33 projects in total since the 7th Framework Programme.