UCC School of Law Academic Awarded Prestigious ERC Advanced Grant

30 Mar 2023

Professor Schiek is the first legal scholar in Ireland to secure a €2.5m ERC Advanced Grant. 

University College Cork Professor Dagmar Schiek has been awarded a highly competitive European Union research grant of €2.5 million to develop a new theory of European law.

The European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant is awarded to established research leaders to lead cutting-edge research, Professor Schiek is the first legal scholar in Ireland to secure an ERC Advanced Grant.

Professor Schiek, Synnott Family Chair in EU Law and Vice Dean for Research in the School of Law at UCC, has received funding for a project entitled RIGHTS-TO-UNITE.

The project aims to generate a new socio-legal theory to integrate the EU and its neighbours, to their mutual benefit and interest, and to explore its viability through qualitative research.

Led by Professor Schiek, the researchers will investigate three areas of integration through citizens’ rights: liberal/economic rights, social rights and digital rights to develop laws that support democratic, socially equitable and inclusive societies.

The research will focus on four EU countries (Ireland, Czech Republic, Greece and Sweden) and four neighbourhood states (Northern Ireland, Norway, North Macedonia and Georgia).

Professor Dagmar Schiek said: “It is a great honour being awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant. As the Synott Family Chair in EU Law at UCC, I have developed a research programme on renewing European integration through citizens’ rights, which is at the heart of the new Centre for European Integration, which is recognised as a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. The ERC funding enables me to lead theoretical and empirical enquiry for a new socio-legal theory on European Union law, with a large international team, while expanding EU legal research into smaller EU Member States and EU neighbourhood states.”

Professor Mark Poustie, Dean of School of Law said: “Many congratulations to Dagmar on securing this very prestigious ERC research grant. Dagmar’s project builds on the work of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence which she established. The project will enable significantly greater international research networking and impact across a number of EU countries and neighbours.”

Professor John Cryan, Vice President for Research and Innovation said: “Congratulations to Dagmar on securing a highly competitive and prestigious ERC Award. I welcome, in particular, the opportunities that this award will offer her to expand her research team and further develop the international impact of her work. Her project on a new theory of EU law will place citizens at the centre of EU derived rights and I look forward to hearing about the impactful outcomes from this research in due course.”

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for frontier research. Nearly 1,650 applications from across Europe were received for these ERC Advanced Grants, which were reviewed by panels of renowned researchers.