Professor Rob Salguero-Gómez awarded ERC Consolidator Grant

It is our pleasure to announce that Pembroke’s E.P. Abraham Fellow and Tutor in Ecology, Professor Roberto Salguero-Gómez, has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council. 

Funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, these grants support mid-career researchers to pursue cutting-edge research at universities and research centres in the EU and associated countries. Rob is one of five Oxford academics to receive this grant, receiving funding of up to €2 million for his project proposal, ResIntegrate. His proposal was chosen from 3,121 applications of which only 11.2% were successful. 

“I am absolutely thrilled to receive this ERC Consolidator Grant,” shared Rob. “For an ecologist, this is the highest level of research support available at my career stage, and it will allow my team and I to tackle one of the most urgent questions in biodiversity science: why some species and ecosystems bounce back from disturbances while others do not. 

My project will help us understand how living systems, from individual plants and animals to whole populations, communities, and full ecosystems, respond to the increasingly frequent droughts, fires, heatwaves, and human pressures affecting the natural world. By combining ecological theory, large global datasets, and experimental work across a new international network, I will build the first predictive, integrative framework for ecological resilience. 

This funding will enable us to move beyond merely describing ecological change as multiple disturbances and will instead aim to predict which species and ecosystems are more vulnerable, which are more likely to recover, and why. These insights are essential for conservation and for managing natural resources sustainably in a rapidly changing world. 

I am deeply grateful for the support of Pembroke College and the University of Oxford. This award not only recognises the work my group has been developing over the years but also gives us the opportunity to deliver the kind of paradigm-shifting science that can help safeguard biodiversity for future generations.”

Congratulations, Rob!