Radical Housing: Dr Michele Lancione awarded major grant from European Research Council

Dr Michele Lancione from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning has been awarded European Research Council grants in this year’s first completed ERC call for proposals.

Radical Housing: Dr Michele Lancione awarded major grant from European Research Council

This important award will allow myself and the team to pursue an innovative and ambitious research agenda, which connects Urban and Housing studies in novel ways. My objective is to approach the struggle against housing from below, from how it is lived in felt by communities worldwide, to provide for new ways of engaging with it and thinking across it.

Dr Michele Lancione | Senior Research Fellow and Director of ECRS Development

Department of Urban Studies and Planning, The University of Sheffield


As part of the EU Research and Innovation programme, horizon 2020, four hundred and eight early-career researchers have been awarded European Research Council grants in this year’s first completed ERC call for proposals. Dr Michele Lancione of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning was one of the successful applicants.

Michele's project will explore cities and the global fight against housing precarity.

President of the European Research Council (ERC), Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, commented: “Science breaks down borders. With researchers of 51 nationalities, the outcome of this call marks a record high in ERC competitions. It also reminds us that talent is everywhere to be found and it is essential that the EU keeps attracting and funding outstanding researchers from all over the world. It is with great pride that the ERC contributes to this challenge.”

Michele is an urban ethnographer and activist. His work focuses on the politics of life at the urban margins, with a particular focus on the embodiment on housing precarity. He is part of the grassroot activist organisation Common Front for the Right to Housing (FCDL), based in Bucharest, and a core partner of the Unequal Cities Network at UCLA.

In Sheffield, he leads the Life at the Margins research theme at the Urban Institute, and he is the Director of the ECRs (Early Career Researchers) Development Network.

Flagship institutes

The University’s four flagship institutes bring together our key strengths to tackle global issues, turning interdisciplinary and translational research into real-world solutions.