16 December 2025

VU Amsterdam

University of Amsterdam

Sanquin

ERC grants support AI-driven research at VU and UvA

Society

The European Research Council has awarded multiple Consolidator Grants this year to Amsterdam-based researchers whose work focuses on artificial intelligence, computational tools and large-scale data analysis. Part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, the grants enable researchers to further develop independent research lines that combine technological innovation with legal, medical and societal questions.

At Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, legal scholar Thibault Schrepel receives an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project ATLANTIS. The project examines how antitrust authorities can use computational tools, including AI, to monitor and regulate digital markets while remaining consistent with the principles of competition law and administrative law. ATLANTIS combines legal analysis with insights from computational science and institutional economics and builds on Schrepel’s long-standing collaboration with more than 75 antitrust agencies worldwide.

At the University of Amsterdam, AI also plays a key role in health-related research. Psychologist Eirini Karyotaki has been awarded a Consolidator Grant for the project SYNTHESIS, which brings together large collections of individual patient data with machine learning techniques. The project aims to better understand why psychotherapy works for some patients but not for others, and to support more personalised mental healthcare through predictive models and open decision-support tools for clinicians.

In addition, Katja van den Hurk, special professor at the UvA and affiliated with Sanquin, receives a Consolidator Grant for the project DONOR-PROTECT. This research focuses on developing personalised algorithms to better protect the health of blood and plasma donors. By tailoring donation type, timing and preventive measures to individual risk profiles, the project aims to contribute to a sustainable and ethically grounded blood supply system.

Together, these ERC-funded projects highlight the role of Amsterdam’s knowledge institutions in advancing AI-driven research across law, healthcare and public interest domains. They illustrate how AI is increasingly used not only as a technological tool, but also as a means to strengthen public values, health outcomes and legal safeguards.

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