Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) obtains almost four million euros to develop two research projects of excellence focused on estimating turbulent air flows with sensors and analyzing the consent of losers in the survival of democracy. Andrea Ianiro, from the Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, and Ignacio Jurado, from the Dept. of Social Sciences at UC3M, have each received two million euros after being awarded Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC).
The ERC Grant program is part of Horizon Europe, the main European Union (EU) funding program for research and innovation. In this case, the Consolidator Grants are aimed at researchers who are consolidating their own research team or program, and UC3M is the Spanish university that has obtained the most grants in this call. These grants will allow the development of both high-impact research over the next five years.
The Spandrels project, led by Andrea Ianiro, addresses the challenge of predicting turbulence, phenomena that affect the aerodynamic drag of transport vehicles and their emissions. Combining concepts of fluid mechanics and machine learning, Ianiro seeks to develop sensors that revolutionize aerodynamics, promoting the design of more sustainable transportation systems.
The proposal, inspired by nature, seeks to replicate the efficiency of sensors in insect wings, as they can accurately detect very small changes in air flow. Ianiro's goal is to design sensors based on these models to control turbulence more efficiently, reducing the need for large amounts of data.
The second project, led by Ignacio Jurado, analyzes the role of consent of losers in democratic stability. This concept, fundamental to political legitimacy, has been called into question after events such as the attack on the Capitol in the US and the Congress in Brazil.
Jurado's research will study how elite narratives and policy proposals can reinforce or weaken this consent. Combining longitudinal analyses, comparative surveys and experiments in twenty established democracies, it will seek to understand how the breakdown of consent affects political behavior and social cooperation.
The grants obtained by Andrea Ianiro and Ignacio Jurado highlight UC3M's commitment to research excellence. In total, the university has obtained 18 ERC projects since the creation of the program (8 Starting Grants, 8 Consolidator Grants and 2 Proof of Concept) with an overall funding of around 30 million euros.