After a five-year John Bahcall postdoctoral fellowship at WIPAC, astroparticle physicist Markus Ahlers returned to Europe in February 2017. Currently an assistant professor in the Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology research group at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Markus is now enjoying one of those dreams come true: the birth of his own research team. A Villum Young Investigator grant for 7.350.000 DDK ($1.2 million), which he was formally awarded on January 23, has secured the foundation of a new research group.