European Research Council (ERC) grants support outstanding research in Europe and this year the CRG scientists Vivek Malhotra, the coordinator of the Cell and Developmental Biology Programme, and Manuel Mendoza, group leader in the same department have received the ERC Advanced Investigator grant and the Starting Independent Researcher grant, respectively.
ERC Starting Grants are given to young researchers to establish independent and innovative research proposals. The Advanced Grants are given to established scientists to take on more challenging and riskier research proposals.
Vivek Malhotra 
The project funded by the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant is to support their research on “the Mechanism of Unconventional Protein Secretion – MUPS”. 
A large number of proteins are secreted from the cells without entering the conventional, i.e. the Endoplasmic Reticulum-Golgi secretory pathway. These proteins include cytokines, growth factors, insulin degrading enzymes and basically proteins involved in cell survival, immune surveillance and tissue morphogenesis. The mechanism of this unconventional protein secretion is poorly understood. The aim of the MUPS project is to reveal how the specific cargo is selected, sorted and secreted from the cells in a signal dependent manner. 
Vivek Malhotra’s MUPS project has a budget of more than 2 million Euros for 5 years.

Manuel Mendoza
Manuel Mendoza’s project funded by the ERC is entitled “Chromosome segregation and aneuploidy – LONGCHROM”. 
The goal of this project is to understand the mechanism of chromosomal segregation during cell division. This process is essential for cell survival and Mendoza’s team will combine classical molecular and genetic techniques with the state-of-the-art genomics and proteomics approaches to address their goals. 
The LONGCHROM project will be funded at 1 million Euros for 5 years.
The Centre for Genomic Regulation is now the top Spanish institute with 2 advanced and 5 starting grants from the ERC.