I request ERC funding to set up a dedicated science team to detect, for the first time, the redshifted 21-cm radio line emission of neutral hydrogen (HI) with LOFAR coming from the first billion years of the age of the Universe (the Epoch of Reionization and the Dark Ages ).The study of this pristine neutral hydrogen gas is a rapidly emerging field of astrophysics, both theoretically and observationally. A number of expert international groups in the US/Australia (MWA), China (21CMA), India (GMRT) and the Netherlands (LOFAR) are contending to be the first to detect this hydrogen gas. My proposed ERC project is high-risk and high-gain; however, all risks are controlled and the scientific rewards of detection of neutral hydrogen at these early times would have a tremendous impact and open a new frontier in astronomy. The study of neutral hydrogen, as in the nearby Universe, will revolutionize our knowledge of astrophysical processes in the first phases of the Universe, just after recombination.The LOFAR Epoch-of-Reionization Key-Science Project (LOFAR EoR-KSP), of which I am a PI, aims to be the first, and if being the first fails, to provide the best detection of this neutral HI gas. Indeed, we are in a very good starting position to reach both goals. Our team has access to the most sensitive telescope available for these studies (LOFAR) and leads a Key Science Project with guaranteed observing time. Our KSP is rapidly ramping up to the observational phase of the project (2010), and now more than ever requires dedicated scientists that together in a small team maximize the scientific return of the project (i.e. detect and study HI). If successful, our research team would be in a position to start leading similar projects with the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). It is crucial that we gear up for the use of that future instrument and retain Europe s position at the forefront of astrophysics and radio astronomy.