ERC Consolidator Grant for Dr Felix Gunkel

Dr Felix Gunkel, Associate Professor at IMS/MESA+ at the University of Twente and group leader in the Electronic Materials division at the Peter Grünberg Institute of Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his research project “Scrambled Oxs”. In this project, he develops new materials that can make the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen more efficient and more affordable. As hydrogen is a promising clean energy carrier, the research has strong relevance for the global energy transition.

The project will be carried out at FZJ, but will further contribute and strengthen the longstanding collaboration between the University of Twente and Forschungszentrum Jülich. This partnership, formally strengthened in 2025, includes joint research collaboration and projects, co-supervised PhD trajectories and shared access to state-of-the-art facilities. Within this partnership, Dr Felix Gunkel and UT Professor Chris Baeumer play a key role by jointly supervising PhD candidates and combining UT’s expertise in material design with FZJ’s advanced analytical capabilities.