Seven LMU research projects awarded ERC grants

Psychologist Jonas Dora, speech scientist Mireia Marimon Tarter, economist Arthur Seibold, communication scientists Ruth Wendt and Sophia Volk, and medical researchers Kami Alexander Pekayvaz and Steffen Tiedt will each receive a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for their new research projects at LMU. The grant amounts to approximately 1.5 million euros over a period of five years. The ERC awards Starting Grants based on the scientific excellence of the applicants and the proposed project. These grants are among the most prestigious research grants in Europe.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Tschöp, President of LMU: “Seven ERC Starting Grants, five of them in the Social Sciences and Humanities! This is an outstanding achievement and reflects LMU’s particular strength and breadth across academic disciplines. These grants stand for scientific excellence, creativity, and the courage to break new ground. I warmly congratulate all seven grantees! Their success encourages us to continue fostering an environment at LMU in which outstanding researchers can develop their ideas and, in doing so, advance science and society.”

The individual ERC-funded projects

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Inner speech of babies

Dr. Mireia Marimon Tarter is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Languages and Literatures at LMU. She researches early language development and the language acquisition of infants.

Infants produce little spoken language by their first year of life, but they already recognize many familiar words. In her ERC Starting Grant project BASIS (Babies’ Silent Speech), Mireia Marimon Tarter is exploring an unanswered question: Do infants’ first words occur silently in their minds before they begin to talk?

Marimon investigates whether children between the ages of 6 and 24 months possess a form of inner speech. Through the BASIS project, she is researching articulatory readiness for speech, the silent production of familiar words, and the internal processing of multi-word utterances. Using a novel method that registers the synchrony between brain activity and the auditory signal of speech via pupillary responses, the project seeks to render the inner speech of infants measurable for the first time. “The results could provide new insights into the earliest stages of language acquisition and advance fundamental debates on theories of language development and human cognition,” says Mireia Marimon Tarter.

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Mechanisms of alcohol consumption

Dr. Jonas Dora currently works as an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. The psychologist, who researches decision-making processes and addictive disorders, will move to the Faculty of Psychology at LMU in 2027.

Through his ERC Starting Grant project CODED (Cross-Context Computational Models of Emotional Decision-Making in Alcohol Use), Jonas Dora will investigate an important mystery in addiction science. For decades, addiction research has operated under the assumption that people drink alcohol to regulate negative emotions, yet this theory faces an empirical paradox. Laboratory studies show stress and negative emotions increase alcohol consumption, while naturalistic studies in their daily lives reveal that people are less likely to drink on days characterized by high stress and negative emotions. In the CODED project, Dora is seeking to explain this contradiction.

To this end, the psychologist combines laboratory experiments and real-world studies with computational decision-making models. The goal is to not just predict whether people drink alcohol, but also how they make this decision – for example, what information they consider, what unconscious biases play a role, and when they actually make the decision.

Through this research, he aims to identify the mechanisms by which emotions influence alcohol decisions and develop a unified mathematical theory that explains the discrepancy between laboratory and naturalistic studies. “Resolving this mystery has major implications for our understanding of the development of addiction. In the long term, the project could pave the way for more precise and individualized approaches in the prevention and treatment of alcohol dependency,” says Jonas Dora.

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When companies communicate science

Sophia Volk is Professor of Communication Science at LMU and sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Academic Society for Management & Communication (AGUK).

Firms that invest a lot in research and development – such as pharmaceutical, automotive, or tech companies – play an increasingly influential role in science communication. Such corporate science communication can foster public engagement with science and innovation, but commercial incentives can also lead companies to engage in ‘sciencewashing’ – that is, to selectively present or exaggerate scientific evidence to their advantage. This can fuel skepticism toward industry science, which can then spill over to mistrust in science more broadly.

Sophia Volk’s new ERC project COSCOM (Corporate Science Communication: Risks, Opportunities, Interventions) will systematically map the science communication of companies to find out when it builds public trust in science and when it erodes it. The project will also investigate which interventions mitigate risks and leverage benefits. Based on these findings, it will develop effective tools and guidelines for the respective stakeholders.

“COSCOM seeks to equip communication and journalism professionals, the general public, and decision-makers in politics and public administration with evidence to reduce harmful effects of corporate science communication and foster responsible practices,” says Volk.

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Immune cells against thrombosis

Dr. Kami Alexander Pekayvaz is a clinician scientist and a Research Group leader at the Medical Clinic and Polyclinic I at LMU University Hospital.

Thrombosis remains a leading global cause of morbidity and mortality. Inflammation has been recognized as a central driver in its development. In so-called thromboinflammation, proinflammatory neutrophils – an important group of immune cells – and the coagulation system mutually amplify each other and potentially cause thrombotic occlusions of blood vessels.

Building on this knowledge, Pekayvaz discovered another surprising function of neutrophils: they are not only involved in the development of thrombosis but can also infiltrate existing thrombi and promote their resolution. This so-called immunothrombolysis challenges fundamental assumptions in vascular biology and opens up new therapeutic possibilities.

In his ERC project I-CLEAR (Immunothrombolysis: deCoding neutrophiL Engagement in Active thrombus Resolution), Pekayvaz plans to investigate how neutrophils change their role during the course of thrombosis and switch from driving thromboinflammation to promoting immunothrombolysis. In the process, he aims to decipher the underlying biological mechanisms and identify the biological switches that activate this thrombolytic process. “This could open up new paths to reduce bleeding risks through targeted activation of the body’s own thrombus resolution mechanisms,” says Pekayvaz.

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Constant communication in the digital age

Ruth Wendt is Professor of Communication Science with a special focus on Digital Literacy in Algorithmic Spaces at LMU’s Department of Media and Communication.

Today’s digital media allow people to continuously communicate in all kinds of ways, including over distance. This staccato back-and-forth of calls and messages, interspersed with face-to-face communication, facilitates more or less seamless interaction.

In her ERC project DIGIREL (Adolescents’ Social Relationships and Well-Being in the Digital Age: Interstitial Communication Patterns and their Outcomes), LMU scholar Ruth Wendt will examine how adolescents use digital media to communicate in different social relationships and what consequences this seemingly constant connectedness has, for example, on their well-being. “Conventional theoretical and methodological research approaches have failed to adequately account for the complex and dynamic forms of communication between adolescents and their social contacts,” says Ruth Wendt. Her ERC project will therefore analyze the interpersonal communication patterns of adolescents and the skills that are needed in this context.

Through her research, Ruth Wendt wants to answer the question of how the coexistence of various digital and non-digital communication forms affects the relationships and well-being of adolescents.

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The biology of stroke

PD Dr. Steffen Tiedt is a researcher and attending physician at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD) at LMU University Hospital.

Patients with acute stroke lose millions of neurons every hour. Yet, effective treatments remain limited. In only a subset of patients can an occluded blood vessel be reopened in time. One major reason for the lack of additional therapies is the limited understanding of the biological processes unfolding during a stroke.

Tiedt plans to close this gap with his ERC project SURPASS (Super high-frequency multi-omics and ultrasensitive point-of-care testing towards a molecular classification of acute stroke). He will analyze blood samples collected from patients throughout the critical first 48 hours after stroke at an unprecedented molecular depth and temporal resolution. The project seeks to identify biomarkers that reflect the progression of brain injury, distinguish biologically different forms of stroke, and help predict recovery. By integrating these molecular data with brain imaging and detailed clinical information, SURPASS aims to develop a new molecular classification of acute stroke. The most promising biomarkers will then be validated in clinical studies, with the aim of developing ultrasensitive tests for routine clinical use that allow continuous monitoring of brain damage.

“By making the biological evolution of stroke measurable, SURPASS could change how we understand, diagnose and treat acute stroke”, says Tiedt.

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Designing fair pension reforms

Arthur Seibold is Professor of Public Finance and Social Policy at LMU’s Faculty of Economics.

The debate around pension reforms has been a prominent feature of political discourse for years – and not just in Germany. Across Europe, pension systems already account for a large share of government expenditure. As our societies age and the number of contributors to the pension system continues to fall, there is an urgent need for political action.

In his ERC project PENSIONREF (Pension Reforms for Aging Societies: Impact, Design, and Political Economy), Arthur Seibold will study the foundations of effective pension reforms. To this end, he will analyze administrative data to reveal causal relationships between reforms and their economic consequences, such as their effects on employment, productivity, and innovation. In addition, he will address distributional concerns and study the circumstances under which populations support pension reforms based on Europe-wide surveys.

Arthur Seibold wants to contribute to the political feasibility of pension reforms through his research in the ERC project. “Pension reforms are as necessary as they are unpopular. For me, it’s important to show what factors influence whether populations accept them.”