Trinity researcher to lead new European Research Council project focused on ancient microfossils
Posted on: 01 October 2026
Dr Corentin Flament-Loron, from Trinity’s School of Natural Sciences, has won an ERC Starting Grant, which will support his investigations into one of the biggest questions in the history of life: when did complex cells first emerge on Earth?
Dr Flament-Loron’s project, “eugene”, will combine fossil analysis, machine learning approaches, fossilisation experiments, and cutting-edge molecular techniques to uncover clues hidden in microfossils. These early fossils are billions of years old and have been largely overlooked by science to this point.
Ultimately, Dr Flament-Loron’s research will shed new light on the origins of complex life and help us better understand how life evolved alongside our changing planet.
“We still don’t know when prokaryotes transitioned to eukaryotes,” he said. “In other words, we know very little about an extraordinary event that gave rise to complex life and modern ecosystems, so I am really excited to apply a mixture of approaches to help resolve this first-order evolutionary question.
“Interestingly, most of the early fossil record has been dismissed when reconstructing ancient ecosystems because its microfossil components have been deemed 'too simple' to classify. Like astronomical dark matter, these simple fossils are everywhere but are invisible to our current methods of investigation.
“With eugene, however, we will unlock some of the secrets within this 'fossil dark matter'. Using methods I have developed that combine high-resolution spectroscopic analyses and machine learning models we will finally shed light on this forgotten fossil record.”
ERC Starting Grants enable early career researchers to set up independent teams or laboratories and are among the most sought-after and competitive awards in Europe.
Since the inception of the ERC, Trinity has participated in 98 projects with a value of roughly €167 million. This new award will join 46 active projects hosted at Trinity, including Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants, including two others announced earlier this month.
For more information on Trinity’s past and present projects, see ERC Awards at Trinity (https://www.tcd.ie/research/people/erc.php).
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