For her project "MENBELONG - Belonging for Single Migrant Men: A Cross-Country Comparative Perspective", Prof Dr G?kce Yurdakul will receive almost 2.5 million euros as part of an ERC Advanced Grant. Prof Dr Hans B?rner is also being funded with an ERC Advance Grant of just under 2.5 million euros for his project "IDefix - Digging Deep into the Sequence Space of Electrochemical Debonding of Peptides to Impact Next Generation Polymer Adhesives". The funding period for the projects is five years.
MENBELONG - Belonging for single migrant men: an international comparative perspective
People who want to live permanently in a new country need a sense of belonging in order to integrate successfully. Single men form a large group among global migrants, but face high barriers to integration: They are often seen as deniers of opportunity and categorised as oversexualised or criminal. Migration research has hardly taken this group into account to date. In her project, Prof Dr G?kce Yurdakul is investigating the experiences of belonging of single men with a migration background in five countries with migration movements and different equality and integration policies - including Syrians in Turkey, Mexicans in Canada, Turks in Germany, Myanmar nationals in Thailand and Venezuelans in Chile. "Together with an interdisciplinary team, I want to develop a theory of migrant belonging as part of my research. The comprehensive approach provides insights into how single men experience belonging despite serious challenges, looking at different countries and life situations," says Yurdakul.
IDefix - Deep sequence data analysis of electrochemically switchable peptides - a path to novel polymer adhesives and functional materials.
Strong adhesives that can be easily released at the touch of a button are becoming important in many applications in microelectronics and technology. This currently answers urgent questions about easy repair and efficient recycling, as called for in the European Community's Green Deal. The aim of the IDefix project is to learn the requirements for high adhesive strength and electrochemical deactivation of adhesion. The scientists are using an information-based approach in which a very large number of different peptides are screened for the desired key properties. With the help of sequence analysis and machine learning, conclusions can be drawn about the necessary properties of the desired materials. From this, a design strategy for strong and switchable polymer-surface interaction can be derived. "Our findings will make new functional materials possible, such as adhesives that can be precisely removed at the touch of a button, but also completely new composites that reinforce themselves in mechanically stressed areas, or radio-controlled drug patches that release drugs smartly into the body," explains B?rner.
ERC Advanced Grants
With Advanced Grants, the European Research Council (ERC) supports excellent researchers who have demonstrated significant research achievements in the last ten years. The maximum funding amount is 2.5 million euros for a period of five years.
Further information on the programme
Press release of the ERC from 17 June 2025
Contact
Prof Dr G?kce Yurdakul
Department of Social Sciences at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin
Tel.: 030 2093-66613
gokce.yurdakul@sowi.hu-berlin.de
Prof Dr Hans B?rner
Department of Chemistry at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin
Laboratory for Organic Synthesis of Functional Systems
Tel: 030 2093-82852
h.boerner? Please insert an @ at this point ?HU-Berlin? Please insert a period at this pointde