Twenty-five winners of the 2005 European Young Investigator awards received diplomas in recognition of their project proposals at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest on Nov. 9. Each will receive up to €1.25 million over five years. Offered by 20 European research organizations, the awards are designed to inspire young scientists worldwide to create their own research teams at European centers. Candidates are selected based on their project’s potential and on academic and research merit.Among the awardees, Adrian Bachtold at the Institut de Microelectronica de Barcelona in Spain received almost €1.2 million for his project on quantum probes based on nanotubes; Valentina Emiliani-Sirtori at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris was allotted €901,795 for her work on wave-fronted engineered microscopy for the investigation of signal transmission in neurons and glial cells; and Igor Gornyi at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, €846,152 for his research on quantum transport in nanostructures.