The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded a £1.6 million Programme Grant (over £2 million fEC) to two of the country's leading mathematics researchers, Professor Sanju Velani, Head of Pure Mathematics at the University of York and Professor Victor Beresnevich, also in the Mathematics Department.  Over the next six years the grant for a project  entitled “New Frameworks in Metric Number Theory: Foundation and Applications” will fund a wide range of activities and appointments including six Research Assistantships, short and long term visitors and an international workshop.  

To date there have only been three other Programme Grants awarded in Mathematical Sciences for a research-led project – namely those held at Cambridge, Imperial and Oxford.  The EPSRC website states that `Programme grants are a flexible mechanism to provide funding to world-leading research groups to address significant major research challenges.'

The grant will help Professor Velani and Professor Beresnevich establish new frameworks in number theory that could solve long-standing problems in mathematics and have potentially far-reaching benefits for the real world.  News of this grant has already attracted much interest, for example:

Techeye.net

Electronicsweekly.com

Phys.org

Investingbusinessweek.com

Compute Scotland

Ciência e tecnologia saúde Digest

Electronics Yorkshire

Electronic Components