Professor Erin Saupe awarded ERC Consolidator Grant
Professor Erin Saupe has been awarded funding from the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants, which support highly promising mid-career scientists of any nationality and any field with building a research team. The EXTINCT project will develop new ways of determining what causes marine invertebrates to die out.
Consolidator Grants award around €2 million for projects typically lasting 5 years. Awardees must have 7-12 years of highly promising postdoctoral experience plus an excellent research proposal. With funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, these grants support cutting-edge research at universities and research centres in 25 EU Member States and associated countries. The ERC received 3,121 applications for this call, of which 11.2% were successful.
Extinction has occurred continuously over the history of life on Earth, however, there is still little understanding of the drivers of extinction across timescales. In EXTINCT, Erin Saupe (Professor of Palaeobiology and Senior Research Fellow at St Hugh’s College) will will look at patterns of marine invertebrate extinction across different places and time periods.
This grant enables us to explore the drivers of extinction throughout Earth’s history and to contribute to modern-day conservation efforts. We are excited to develop novel methods and models to tackle these challenges. I am grateful to the ERC funders, to my collaborators for their support and mentorship, and to my group members for their inspiration, dedication, and hard work in this area.
- Professor Erin Saupe
On long timescales, the project will test the importance of environmental stressors in driving species-level extinction. The method will involve new paleoenvironmental reconstructions – using geological and chemical evidence in Earth system models to recreate past environmental conditions. On shorter timescales, the project will examine population-level dynamics to test whether local extinction is prompted by similar environmental stressors across a species’ geographic range and through time.
The project will also determine which species are most vulnerable to extinction under current and future human-caused climate change scenarios. Risk estimates will be based on the paleontological models, which will be fed into International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List assessments of extinction vulnerability, providing conservation insight.
This research aims to deliver a step change in our understanding of the controls on extinction, which will directly impact modern biodiversity.
Erin is one of five academics from the University of Oxford who have been awarded Consolidator Grants this year.
Professor Jim Naismith, Head of the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division (MPLS), said "These ERC awards recognise exceptional ambition and talent. Each project has the potential to deepen scientific understanding and deliver tangible benefits for society – from biodiversity and climate resilience to sustainable technologies and advanced chemistry."
For more information about the ERC Consolidator Grants, visit the European Research Council website.
