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spin polarized transport in transfer doped diamond wafers
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with the advancement of techniques to grow highpurity singlecrystal synthetic diamonds and due to extreme physiochemical characteristics and ultrawide bandgap 547 ev nature diamond has been considered the nextgeneration material for high power high temperature and highfrequency electronics quantum computing sensing and communication applications observing the temperatureindependent conductivity and the possibility of generating excessive hole carrier concentrations and spinorbit coupling soc generated by electron acceptors a systematic investigation on the prospects of spinpolarized transport in 2d hole gas 2dhg formed at transfer doped hydrogenterminated diamond surfaces is vital spotted will investigate the strength of spinorbit couplingsoc in transfer doped diamond via magnetotransport studies and study the possibility of spin injection and spinpolarized transport through hanle measurements and rashbaedelstein effect respectively we will also attempt to reduce the carrier scattering due to electron acceptors immediate to the 2dhg that may cause spindepolarization by applying 2dhbn between the transfer dopants and the diamond surfaces besides using timedomain thz spectroscopy the spindependent density and momentum scattering time of charge carriers 2dhg will be unraveled with and without 2d hbn to shed light on the spin asymmetry of 2dhg during the scattering process these studies are expected to raise a lot of research in the future and the realization of spinpolarized transport in diamond wafers offers a robust materials system for spintronics devices and enables faster yet efficient microelectronic devices that are operable even in extreme environments
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recovering metals and mineral fraction from steelmaking residues
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each year the eu steel sector generates several million tons of metal and mineral containing residues that are currently largely underexploited and are often sent to landfills with an enormous waste of resources that could replace virgin materials remfra main objective is the development and validation of highly efficient pyrometallurgic melting and reduction demonstration plant at relevant industrial scale for recovering metals and minerals contained in a wide range of steelmaking residues the remfra process will allow to valorise steelmaking residues such as filter dust scale sludge and slags to obtain pig iron iron rich oxides a highly concentrated zinc oxide and an inert slag remfra comprises two main parts to be developed improved and tested at industrial scale plasma reactor and recodust the first will be dedicated to recover the coarse residues scale sludge slag while the second will focus on finegrained dusts the project will allow the improvement of iron yield using recovered pig iron instead of new pig iron and replacing the iron ore with the iron rich oxide the recovery of concentrated zno and inert slag as byproducts will provide a significant source of income and will contribute to the overall carbon neutrality to reach the full circularity the process foresees the use as reducing agent of secondary carbon sources ie waste plastics energy recovery solutions will also be integrated in the metal recovery process starting from enabling the use of molten pig ironremfra consortium comprises 5 steelmaking companies 4 rtos as technology providers with large experience in steel sector 1 university and the european steel technology platform to conclude remfra is expected not only to enable technological advances in the demonstrators involved but will also contribute to the development of new standards training programmes adaptation and certification of industrial processes thus facilitating the replication of the project
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making protection from cancercausing radon available to everyone with a unique radon sensor small fast reliable connected affordable
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indoor radon is the 2nd frequent source for lung cancer causing each year 290000 deaths worldwide as naturally occurring radioactive gas it diffuses from the ground into buildings and accumulates inside it cant be seen smelled or tasted in the eu 34000000 buildings mostly homes are affected by increased radon levels and have a need for monitoring mitigation a compact affordable smart radon sensor is central to serve that need our alphasensor is 65 smaller 60 cheaper than any other sensor yet fast precise and very robust its designed to be produced in large quantities at low costs and has interfaces for easiest integration into air quality devices smart building control systems several manufacturers of such highvolume applications have expressed interest in alphasensor serving them with our unique sensor will boost our company growth considerably relying on a motivated team of skilled business experts we make protection from radon available to everyone
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market access and economic development
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a huge challenge for research and policy efforts to accelerate economic development is that firms in poor countries grow surprisingly slowly making job creation in the global south difficult to achieve we dont know why the existing literature has focused on internal or supplyside determinants of productivity that firms in poor countries are hypothesized to lack but these appear to have modest explanatory power a notable alternative explanation is that many latently productive firms are constrained by forces external to the firm recent studies indeed establish that access to input and output markets appear to be important for growth however the existing evidence focuses on access constraints arising from poor infrastructure and countries trade barriers firms and individuals de facto ability to acquire production inputs and sell output is likely influenced by a much broader set of economic political and social factors similarly the consequences of market access may extend to subsequent economic development outcomes like job creation and changes in inequalityaccess puts the causes and consequences of market access in poor countries at the center of inquiry for the first time the research program is organized around the various stages of the production process firms access to labor markets firms access to suppliers and buyers in intermediate markets and firms access to final product demand in its last part access returns to the origin of the production process to investigate how barriers to the most fundamental form of market accessindividuals ability to own and operate firmsaffects local economiesnovel forms of detailed microeconomic data from a wide range of developing countriesespecially colombia liberia the philippines and uganda new economic theory and varied empirical methods are used to begin to uncover the many overlooked barriers to and consequences of market access
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excellence hub for a smart agriculture and circular bioeconomy towards a sustainable agrifood sector in widening countries and beyond
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agribiocircularhub is a firstofitskind excellence hub in sustainable agriculture and circular bioeconomy aimed at strengthening ri capabilities and innovation ecosystems of 3 widening countries including one emerging ecosystem pl lv and ua building on experience of 2 more developed countries es and be and in particular on a frontrunner region catalonia a leading european regional ecosystems in the field we aim to respond to the common needs and challenges of these ecosystems fully aligned with key strategic areas for the development of the smart specializations of these regions by bringing together relevant european and regional actors with track record in ri ecosystems and bioeconomy we aim at leveraging the qhelix innovation model by creating and strengthening links between academia business government and society to promote and foster crossborder and interregional ri cooperation we will design and deliver a longterm ri action plan across key strategic ri themes towards a sustainable and biocircular agriculture to enhance the ri capabilities of 3 targeted widening countries we propose to design pilot and scale up trl36 a pipeline of ri business cases driven by regional challenges and local innovative smes to foster and promote transfer of knowledge and good practices across regions we will deliver capacity building training and networking activities for innovation and entrepreneurship diffusion as well as tailored mentoring module targeting the needs of an emerging ecosystem ua to promote entrepreneurship provide support in bringing innovations to farmers we will deliver an open innovation and entrepreneurship mentoring programme to promote innovation biocircular and sustainable agriculture practices we propose development of a cascade funding scheme to support smes engaged in the development and adoption of smart and circular technologies and innovation towards sustainable agriculture
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miniaturized lidar for mars atmospheric research
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studying the climate on mars has been a topic for scientific curiosity since long time already as on earth the composition of the martian atmosphere is a key factor for understanding the climate which is of vital importance to enable future human exploration of the red planet the use of atmospheric lidar to characterize densities and sizes of aerosol with a height profile is commonly used on earth however earth instruments are heavy and with high power consumptions which make them not easily onboardables for planetary exploration mili proposes to higher the trl of 3 basic technologies to enable the construction of a lighter and less power miniaturized lidar for mars atmospheric research
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exploring the pristine conditions for transforming interstellar dust into planetesimals
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the formation and properties of exoplanetary systems is a fascinating question which has been at the heart of our quest to define mankind and the conditions for life to develop in a broader contextrecent astronomical observations have deeply modified our paradigm of planet formation as they suggest the socalled protoplanetary disks surrounding ttauri stars may actually already host planets moreover we have obtained some of the first observational clues that the dust particles contained in the pristine diskforming reservoirs that are the embedded protostars may already have significantly evolved from the submicronic dust populating the interstellar medium these results suggest that dust evolves significantlyalready during the first 05 myrs of the star formation process and highlight the prime importance of understanding the properties and evolution of dust in young protostarsthe pebbles project aims at developing a thorough methodology to characterize the properties of dust in embedded protostars where we know the star and its disk are forming concomitantly using an innovative methodology combining cutting edge observational datasets dust models and numerical models we aim to transform our understanding of1 the nature of the dust incorporated in the youngest disks a key for models of disk evolution towards planetary systems2 the processes at work for dust evolution in young protostars from envelopes to disk scales3 the efficiency of magnetic fields to couple to the stardisk forming material and set the disk propertiesby shedding light on early dust evolution we will not only address one of the oldest and most challenging question regarding the initial conditions for planet formation in disks around solartype stars but also provide new insight to the conditions reigning and their impact on physical processes during the main accretion stage during which stars acquire most of their properties
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understanding nonco2 impact for decarbonized aviation
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the unic proposal under the accelerating climate neutral aviation minimizing nonco2 emissions call will enhance scientific understanding and mitigate the impact of nonco2 aviation emissions which emminate from both combustor and oil lubrication vent unics objectives are to improve nonco2 emission measurements including nitrogen oxides and volatile and nonvolatile particulate matter across all flight phases this will improve the understanding of the impact of alternative fuels saf and h2 on nonco2 aged emissions and refine aerosolcloud interaction models whilst providing robust data to support future aviation policy decisionsto achieve these objectives unic will develop and enhance novel technologies including a cold oxidation flow reactor and an integrated onboard sensor for realtime co2 and nonco2 emission quantification across the entire flight envelope including cruise unic will conduct extensive laboratory combustor engine and flight tests using both conventional and alternative fuels these extensive tests will go beyond certification testing to provide a comprehensive assessment of pollutantes that impact climate they will include particle size distributions down to 1 nm gas and particlephase chemical composition charged particleion concentration and ice nucleation potential of emissions including those of lubrication oil the project will leverage advanced modelling techniques to simulate the interactions of emissions with clouds to improve assessment of their radiative forcing impact more accuratelyunic aligns with the horizon work programme by addressing urgent needs in aviation emission science and regulation providing data that supports the development of effective emission reduction strategies the proposals relevance is underscored by its potential to guide regulatory frameworks and contribute to the broader goal of reducing aviations climate impact ensuring it supports sustainable development in the sector
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hybrid electrochemicallypaired light irradiated organic synthesis
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the synergy of visible light and electrical energy has been employed for decades in water splitting to hydrogen but only recently was used to power the synthesis of higher value complex organic molecules natural products pharmaceuticals synthetic photoelectrochemistry pec is receiving notable attention due to its enhanced scope of redox transformations sustainability and selectivity compared to photo or electrochemistry alone synthetic electrochemistry ec is a useful synthetic tool that replaces atomuneconomical chemical redox agents with simple electrons and protons however in most ec reactions and in all pec reactions only one halfreaction of the cell is optimized to generate value the other halfreaction sacrifices its own electrode or redox additives paired electrolysis where both halfreactions afford useful species is key to sustainability and efficiencyhelios will discover develop and disseminate paired synthetic pec reactions intermediates generated by both halfreactions are converged in novel creative chemical transformations includingi marriage of radicals or ions generated by each halfreaction to furnish phenethylamines and azetidines valued pharmaceuticalsii ringfusing reactions that furnish bicyclic scaffolds toward molecules with high 3d character urgently required in drug discoveryiii alcohol inversion reactions that are catalytic environmentallyfriendly and use mild conditionsmultifunctional catalysts will be used that can be electroactivated in both cathodic and anodic halfcells to photochemically generate and stabilize reactive intermediateshelios i harnesses electrical and light energy to rapidly convert cheap abundant chemical feedstocks to valueadded complex molecules and ii improves the sustainability and selectivity of synthetic pec and ec processes helios opens an entirely new dimension of chemical reactivity that will revolutionize the way chemists use redox to synthesize molecules
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computational design of industrial enzymes for green chemistry
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catalysts are able to reduce activation barriers of reactions making them possible at lower pressure an temperatures enzymes are the most efficient specific and selective catalysts known green chemistry has emerged as a new area focusing on use of environmentally friendly nonhazardous and efficient solvents and catalysts in the synthesis of new products enzymes are nontoxic and capable of operating under mild biological conditions which makes them green catalysts offering an attractive alternative to traditional catalysis however their application in industry is rather limited as most industrial processes lack a natural enzyme the solution is the routine design of enzymes but this task has not yet been achieved due to several limitations such as the high complexity of enzyme catalysis the lack of accurate computational approaches for designing and estimating the catalytic potential of the new variants and the inability to identify potential mutation sites far away from the active site of the enzyme greenzyme provides a new protocol able to capture this high complexity and design new enzymes capable of predicting active site and distal mutations thus achieving high levels of activity as it would occur in nature this is achieved by integrating current shortest path mapancestral sequence reconstruction spmasrbased computational protocol developed in previous projects such as the ercstg netmodezyme with deep learning techniques thanks to a wellthoughtout exploitation and communication strategy will make possible the premise of routine enzyme design this will have a largescale socioeconomic impact as it will reduce the production costs of many drugs and will allow industries to use environmentally friendly alternatives in line with new european policies
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lifelong health monitoring and assessment for lifetime maximization of liion batteries
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lithiumion liion batteries have an integrated battery management system bms whose performance is critical in maximizing the available life of the batteries and increasing their sustainability the bms monitors state parameters such as stateofcharge soc and stateofhealth soh for safety and performance optimization purposes the accuracy of these parameters plays a critical role in maximizing the available battery lifetime this msca fellowship project aims to maximize the available lifetime of liion batteries and subsequently the lifetime of their applications by making the battery impedance accessible in realtime for the bms state estimation algorithms by using a novel ternarysequence impedance measurement method that is integrated onboard the battery pack the impedancebased soc and soh estimation algorithms will offer higher accuracy compared to the available traditional algorithms thus the bms will be able to optimize the batterys use and consequently maximize its life in its primary application ie firstlife application such as in electric vehicles despite lacking the performance for the primary application the battery is still likely to be used in a less demanding application ie stationary energy storage with adequate health information available using the novel impedancebased algorithms at the end of its firstlife the battery will become an attractive candidate for secondlife application as reliable predictions can be made about its remaining lifetime safety and economic value with firstlife maximized and second life provided for the battery pack the lifetime of the battery is significantly prolonged before the eventual recycling increasing liion batteries sustainabilitythis highly innovative project has a high scientific economic and societal impact furthermore the project will allow the applicant to enrich his technical and managerial skills thus boosting his career prospects and enlarging his horizon
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coherent control of spin chains in graphene nanostructures
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elementary nuclear and electronic spins are called to be key components in the second quantum revolution their atomicscale integration into scalable platforms with tunable interactions is a demand that i will address in conspira by synthetizing graphene architectures with interacting spin chains using customized onsurface reactions of organic precursors and by controlling their quantum state through microwave spectroscopies i envision the formation of collective magnetic states through the assembly of interacting electronic and nuclear spins in periodic arrays with atomically precise spacings through rational design and synthesis strategies we will tune spin interactions via the graphene host and hyperfine coupling with the goal of bringing the quantum state of the arrays into different regimes of energy coherence and topology to access the broad energy range of such multiscale interacting system and to probe its quantum dynamics we will combine two antagonist experimental techniques like scanning tunnelling microscopy stm and cavity quantum electrodynamics qed this will be realized by incorporating superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators cwrs as substrate of a low temperature stm we will use qed techniques to couple the resonant states of spin chains with microwave photons of the resonator while the stm tip acts as a local gate the mhz and picometer resolution of this new type of spectrometer will enable us to study the quantum coherence of the spin arrays and undertake the coherent control of distant nuclear states entangled through the electronic spin system a potential system for qedbased quantum computation conspira will provide a new platform for quantum spins and methods to address and manipulate their coherent state the combination of qed and stm represents a groundbreaking experimental development which is called to boost studies of general correlated phenomena in condensed matter physics
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growing up among bright books and generous genes the intergenerational cycle of educational achievement
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poor educational achievement in childhood is a major risk factor for poor health and low income in adulthood poor educational outcomes tend to run in families generating a cycle of inequality children whose parents talk and read less to them tend to struggle in school this parentchild association has been interpreted as a causal effect of parenting but parents provide their children not only with a rearing environment but also genes we can only discover causal effects of the home learning environment eg parentchild interactions reading storybooks if we control for genetics or run an rct my overarching aim is to discover which aspects of the home learning environment causally impact childrens language reading and math development intergen will use a variety of innovative observational and experimental designs we will employ existing rich datasets and collect novel data to triangulate four intergenerational ie parentchild designs using an onlinelearning platform we will assess parent and child literacy and numeracy in 3000 twin families in an rct 2000 of these families will get access to the onlinelearning platform to boost the home learning environment intergen will 1include geneenvironment interplay in studying childrens motivation literacy and numeracy development2discover which features of the home learning environment have a causal impact on learning 3test the effectiveness of offering families an onlinelearning platform to practice literacy and numeracymy training and established network in both education and genetics combined with recent breakthroughs in statistical modelling genefinding work and educational technology make me uniquely suited to lead this timely project intergen has the groundbreaking opportunity to unravel the mechanisms underlying familial educational disadvantage this will inform policy on how to target malleable causal mechanisms to ensure that all children can learn and thrive
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tellchloroplasts trafficking of news on extracellular latest likely danger to chloroplasts
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plants have evolved a sophisticated system to perceive and transmit external stimuli to the cell interior and inform growth and defense the host lab discovered a new pathway linking the pm to chloroplasts and regulating defence based on inducible protein relocalization coopted by pathogens during evolution both the plant protein calcium dependent protein kinase 16 cpk16 and the viral protein c4 from tomato yellow leaf curl virus relocalize from the pm to chloroplasts upon activation of pathogen associated molecular pattern pamptriggered immunity pti from the organelle cpk16 acts as a positive regulator of downstream defence responses while c4 acts as a suppressor however the molecular and cellular events enabling and regulating protein trafficking from pm to chloroplasts remain elusive preliminary data in the host lab found the colocalization of c4 with syp61 and ara7positive compartments upon flg22 treatment among them c4 colocalizes with ara7 at the periphery of chloroplasts upon flg22 treatment cpk16 was also able to form mobile dots in the cytoplasm these results suggest that endocytosis is likely to be involved in c4cpk16 trafficking from the pm to chloroplasts in addition phosphorylation regulation and nterminal cleavage could also regulate the pmtochloroplast protein trafficking as evidenced by mass spectrometry analyses in this project i will utilize both cpk16 and c4 to investigate the molecular determinants underlying the protein trafficking from the cell surface to chloroplasts including how proteins are transported from the pm to chloroplasts objective 1 and how nmyristoylated c4 and cpk16 are released from membrane compartments prior to chloroplast import objectives 2 by using cell biology protein biochemistry molecular biology and plant genetic methods this project will expand our understanding of the pmtochloroplast protein trafficking and serve as stepping stone for the engineering of immune responses
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the fragments of aristotle a reconstruction of his lost works
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one of the greatest minds of antiquity was no doubt aristotle he left a lasting impression on western civilization influencing among others the founding fathers in designing the us constitution but what many do not know is that only a fraction of his works survive those preserved through medieval transmission his socalled esoteric works go back to college lectures and were intended to be used by his small circle of students but aristotle also wrote many works for a wider audience which survive only in fragments ie citations in later authors and a number of epitomes in fact what is preserved today is not what aristotle was famous for throughout most of antiquity or even what he intended to be known for yet modern research focuses almost exclusively on the esoteric works the result is that the aristotle one meets in contemporary scholarship is really only the aristotle of the preserved school writings in order to truly understand his views on politics ethics poetry rhetoric logic and the soul or his approach as a scientist and historian we must also study the lost works the fragments are essential to understand his philosophy and assess his impact on western thought fragarist aims to shift the attention back to what were initially his most important works and establish a new understanding of aristotle by reconstructing and interpreting his lost works we will combine methods taken from philology papyrology philosophy ancient history and digital humanities and apply pioneering editing techniques and the latest cuttingedge imaging techniques for the first time we will also incorporate the fragments found in syriac and arabic sources we will create a radically new perspective on aristotles personality and elucidate his influence on later authors including the alexandrian grammarians roman philosophers neoplatonic philosophers and christian authors this will also revolutionize our knowledge of the history of literature and science
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propelling the shift toward the future of circular safe and sustainable packaging and single use device ecodesigned solutions through healthcare environments
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the healthcare sector is hindered by several barriers that hamper the application of circular economy principles eg the safety restrictions of the domain limit the use of recycled materials due to the need of materials biocompatibility and safety in products to be used in the human body led by a multidisciplinary consortium of 39 partners plus 13 industry affiliates from 15 eu countries plus uk and usa enkore aim to tackle challenges and develop an ecodesign framework that supports the development of safe and environmental compliant devices ecoresponsible packaging which minimize the environmental impact reduce the carbon footprint and maximize the use and preservation of resources the main goal is to connect the design of the medical devices packages with the endoflife stage thus the technologies that support circularity are taken into account at the medical device conception stage enkore framework will be validated in 5 reference use cases rucs led by 5 different health regions that bring hpcs and policy maker 3 large eu hospitals and the reference network for european regional and local health authorities euregha the project developments and rucs are supported by several associations and ngos a packaging manufacturer and a group of smes and researchers specialists in circularity lca social sciences environment circularity and materials the validation of the framework shall provide evidence to work with policymakers creating new or revised standards and create tangiblequantitative evidence policy making and regulatory engagement will be strongly performed the methods and tools comprise environmental and social life cycle assessment elcaslca circularity calculator cc and digital product passport dpp approaches which could be adapted during the second stage of the proposal
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handshake complexes of chiral nanoparticles and proteins
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chirality or the absence of mirror symmetry is omnipresent in both biological and abiological forms of matter rapid progress has recently been achieved in the synthesis of chiral inorganic nanoparticles nps of great interest because of the giant optical activity observed in individual nps and their assemblies such nanostructures yield chiral features at multiple length scales resulting in a huge diversity of chiral morphologies the field is expanding toward connecting chirality across the worlds of nano and bio linking optical and biological chiral functionalities however what is currently hampering realworld applications is the step from intuitive synthesis of chiral nanostructures to a purposeful design for specific interactions with biological components the main objective of chiralpro is to develop a widely applicable methodology to design chiral nps with exceptional optical activity for strong and predictable enantioselective interactions with nanoscale biological entities such as proteins and amyloid fibrils the fundamental understanding of the role of chirality in the recognition between inorganic and biological chiral structures will be used for the programmed assembly into optically active nanofibers and for case studies in sensing and metamaterials to reach this ambitious goal the complementary expertise of all three partners involved will be essential synthesis and assembly of chiral plasmonic nps lizmarzn threedimensional electron microscopy of nps and the visualization of their interactions with biomolecules in liquid bals and selfassembly methods and computational predictions for chiral multiscale interactions kotovin addition to groundbreaking advancements in fundamental research the high gain of this work can be found in the generation of a toolbox enabling the scientific community to shift from guessing to precise design of chiral nanostructures with predefined properties
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enhanced solar pv performance through improved research infrastructure for adapted climate conditions
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73 of the global co2 emissions are generated by the energy sector including transport and buildings electrification combined with power generation using low carbon renewable energy sources represent a viable path to tackle climate change in this context solar power represents today not only the cheapest energy source but also the quickest to deploy solar power installations particularly pv have been growing exponentially a trend which is expected to continue especially considering the fluctuating and volatile gas and oil markets in an energy system where solar photovoltaic power will represent the major energy source potentially up to 69 of the global energy supply by 2050 the need to understand improve and forecast the operations of pv plants becomes critical for the security and safety of the society cactus proposes to improve the research infrastructure ri and its portfolio of services for an enhanced solar pv performance particularly adapted for various climate conditions such as tropical desert temperate considering the whole lifetime of pv projects from design installation operations decommissioning and end of life this will be achieved by linking outdoor and indoor measurements with physical parameters based on material analysis improving algorithms for om developing common data treatment procedures assessing sustainability related aspects while enhancing biregional scientific cooperation eulatam in the renewable energy sector
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heritage ecologies culture resilience and development in island states
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this proposal investigates the role of cultural heritages in promoting local economic development and social and environmental resiliences in the context of small island states sis small island and developing states sids and sub national island jurisdictions snijs located in europe the african continent and in the indian ocean small islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change due to their small size and exposure to sea level rise affecting their social and economic development crossing anthropology heritage environment development and island studies this research aims at integrating institutional heritagization processes and indigenous knowledge systems in actions for sustainable futures this project will be hosted by the islands and small states institute issi of the university of malta one of the few european entities in island studies and insular development and supervised by dr stefano moncada specialist in development economics climate change and sustainable development and by professors lino briguglio and godfrey baldacchino world leading scholars in small states and islands studies addressing the challenges at european and global level of informing effective responses to mitigate social economic and ecological consequences of climate change this project will focus on the sis of malta the sids of comoros mauritius and seychelles and the snijs of the french island territories of reunion and mayotte through an innovative interdisciplinary methodology this research contributes with ethnography and cultural studies to sustainable development theories and brings socioeconomic resilience analyses to heritage studies this research will contribute overall to the role of malta and of sis in the un actions for sustainable development the eu development and cooperation actions and the missions of the horizon europe 20212027 framework
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human pluripotent stem cell registry hpscreg
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the human pluripotent stem cell registry hpscreg is providing validated information about human embryonic stem cells esc and other human pluripotent stem cells psc such as induced psc this information is linked through an unique persistent identifier and it includes data on ethical provenance and scientific quality cell line application and clinical studies performed with hpsc the open access registry acts globally to provide a transparent resource and tool for psc to maximize cell utility reproducibility and benefit and minimize research ethical and regulatory risks it validates and certifies the registered cell lines based on the provided documents data and information assuring high quality of certified lines hpscreg is involved in multiple euprojects international consortia and organizations to provide information data standards and support dissemination the main task of hpsccreg within this project proposal are to maintain and improve its function as a centralized registry of hesc and hipsc lines allowing for i transparent validation and monitoring of the ethical and scientific developments in the field ii transparent data based certification of psc to assure and maintain highest quality iii implementing fair data standards and a continuously improved data reliability in downstream stem cell research iv supporting academic industrial and clinical research on pscs and maximizing their potential and v inclusion of diverse stakeholders in the communication process on emerging psc based technologies including research towards clinical applications
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life of giant phages
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bacterial viruses phages are ubiquitous and most numerous entities in the biosphere development of sequencing techniques has increased our understanding on the diversity of phages that have not been isolated due to lack of cultivable hosts andor suitable isolation methods while sequence data enables a better view to the viral diversity at the same time lack of functional data and biological connection increases recently different studies have found megaphages mainly phages with a genome over 600 kbp by assembling metagenomes from various environmental samples however no such isolates have been obtained thus far meaning that their characteristics and host interactions are completely unknown in this erc project i will enlighten the life of giant phages the term i coined for both jumbo and megaphages i will achieve this by using the first megaphage isolates that i have isolated from boreal freshwaters during the project evidence on the megaphage structure the host interactions and symbiotic relationship with host will be provided using a unique set of different phage sizes infecting the same host i will determine the size correlation to different life history traits i will provide insight to the mutualistic relationship between bacteria and their viruses and reveal new mechanisms behind phage competition i will also determine the environmental preferences for the megaphage emergence and abundance in boreal freshwaters in this proposal i aim to understand how where and when megaphages are isolated consequently results will aid in understanding the role of megaphages in other environments such as gut microbiome and potentially provide avenues for developing new genetic tools this project will open new understanding for microbial ecology and especially phage ecology and the project will create a new field of study under phage biology
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integration through rights in a european society a new theory on the role of law for integration within and beyond a fractured eu
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among the many crises of the european union eu the fracturing of its promise to integrate the emerging european society peacefully through law represents a fundamental one at the time of writing martial conflict and pressure through economic sanctions are once again relied upon to assuage conflict in the eus neighbourhood while the authority of eu law has been challenged by several constitutional courts most recently by the romanian and the polish supreme courts in december and september 2021 the question thus is can the eu still rely on the integrative capacity of its law rightstounite addresses this question by placing citizens practical usage of substantive euderived rights at its centre it conceptualises rights as claims between citizens as well as between citizens and states and the eu itself european integration is defined as a process combining citizen into a coherent though diverse society this approach captures whether and if so how integration through rights can succeed in a multipolar society constituted by european union law both in the eu and its neighbourhood while also specifying conditions which are supportive and averse to achieving integration of the emerging european society after theorising conditions for euderived rights to integrate the emerging european society in the eu and its neighbourhood qualitative comparative research is deployed to identify to what extent eu derived rights are part of europes living law in the eu and beyond the qualitative research develops an innovative methodology comprising interactive vignettes visualising scenarios in which eu economic social and digital rights could be relevant this enables crosscultural exploration of citizens everyday experience with eu derived rights in a final step the results are synthesised in a sociolegal theory of integration through rights for the context of the eu and its neighbourhood
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an electric contrast medium for computationally intensive electroencephalographies for high resolution brain imaging without skull trepanation
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imaging the brain activity is fundamentally important for many brainrelated scientific disciplines among the noninvasive neuroimaging strategies electroencephalography eeg from scalp potentials is one of the primary in eeg the neuroninduced electric potential is measured by using electrodes on the patients scalp the skull however highly resistive shields eeg recordings limiting the spatial resolution the standard way to avoid skull shielding effects is to invasively implant eeg electrodes under the skull ecog or in the brain cortex stereoeeg in both cases after trepanning the patients skull scalp eegs are noninvasive but lack spatial imaging accuracy ecog and stereoeeg are highly accurate but require skull trepanation and they image only a limited part of the brain there is the need for increasing the resolution of scalp eeg providing the same level of accuracy of invasive eegs this will be the grand challenge which cerebro will achieve by conceiving the first ever existing eeg contrast medium able to provide imaging of the entire brain and in a noninvasive way
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targeted insula stimulations as treatment for autoimmune disorders
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inflammatory bowel diseases ibd are a group of chronic inflammatory conditions affecting the gastrointestinal gi tract including crohns and ulcerative colitis the prevalence of ibd has been increasing globally and almost doubled from 37 million in 1990 to 68 million in 2017 with the highest prevalence rates observed in europe and north america 422 cases per 100000 population patients with ibd suffer from chronic relapsing abdominal pain urgency and incontinence and depending on the severity of their presentation are at risk of developing acute lifethreatening complications eg severe bleeding fulminant colitis perforation although these conditions primarily affect the gi tract other organ systems such as the eyes skin musculoskeletal system and lungs hepatobiliary and hematologic function might be affected as well as of today the etiology of the disease is largely unknown and the current available treatments are limited in their efficiency and accompanied by significant side effects these treatments largely target inflammatory mediators to suppress excess inflammation these can include general immunosuppression such as highdose corticosteroids or more specific biological agents eg antitnf patients with ibd are dependent on the lifelong administration of immunosuppressive drugs exposing them to multiple adverse effects ranging from systemic infections to metabolic dysregulation and even cancer taken together this is a systemic disease that affects many physiological systems and has a strong emotional component yet treatment with immune suppressive drugs can only alleviate some symptoms and cannot treat the source of the disease nor its broad systemic manifestations
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development and validation of the first digital clinical grade flow cytometry platform for enhanced diagnosis accuracy and sustainability in immunology and hemato oncology
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after successful development of metaglut1 an ivd medical device for diagnosis of the glut1 deficiency syndrome available for clinical use we are currently focused on developing a new breakthrough solution metaflow flow cytometry fc is a powerful tool widely use in research however the high cost and complexity of interpretation of fc data hampers its full clinical exploitation main painpoints of clinical fc data analysis include need for manual analysis which is accompanied by complexity with increasing number of dimensions lack of robustness and limited scaleup the lack of automated analytical process stems from dearth of robust algorithms limited regulatory compliance and need for considerable coding skills with metaflow we bring to the market the first digital clinical grade fc platform which offers comprehensive data analysis robustness and usability addressing the lost in translational research issue of flow cytometry in the clinics
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personalizing virtual brains with neurodegenerative disease noninvasive stimulation approach
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tracking of individual progression trajectory of neurodegenerative brain disease such as alzheimers disease ad can enable targeted interventions to prolong active living with increased quality of life and substantially reduce the socioeconomic burden approaches based on mechanistic modeling have the capacity to integrate heterogeneous data and capture the interindividual variability but their application in the case of ad is challenging due to nonidetifiability of relevant parameters from spontaneous brain activity this project will use the recently developed technology for noninvasive brain stimulation the temporal interference to address the key question is the response to stimulation sufficiently informative to allow estimation of the model parameters reflecting the position of an individual along the ad progression trajectory the main objective of this project is to develop and validate a proofofconcept of a brain health status estimation workflow informed by both the response to targeted noninvasive stimulation ti and the resting state dynamics fmri while leveraging the personalized modelbased inference the project will advance along following main axes systematic analysis of parameter identifiability using both stimulation and resting state paradigms development of a personalization workflow combining structural data resting state fmri and the ti and evaluation of model inversion performance using response to different stimulation targets the results of the project have the potential to pioneer personalized mechanistic model inversion in the context of ad and to pave the way for further development of the ad monitoring workflows which can be adapted in routine health screening practices
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circadian rhythm from preclinical to postdiagnosis dementia
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circadian rhythm cr regulates body functions over the 24hour daynight period sleepwake cycle is its most visible manifestation cr disruptions have long been observed in patients with dementia and emerging evidence points to their presence in the preclinical period of dementia this suggests that certain aspects of cr could be useful in identification of highrisk individuals and could serve as potential targets for interventions to delay dementia onset and progression this requires an indepth understanding of the role of cr in dementia pathogenesis as population ageing increases dementia burden it is critical to find strategies to identify patients at risk of dementia with precision prevent and slow its progression building on recent advances in accelerometery to assess cr features comprehensively and dementia biomarkers deepphenotyping of dementia pathogenesis rhythm in dementia will make a decisive stepchange in knowledge by determining cr features involved in dementia processes along the course of the disease the aims are 1 identify core cr features that shape 10year risk of dementia in a communitydwelling cohort of 4000 older adults 2 uncover specific cr disruptions that characterise major dementia subtypes and stages of alzheimers disease determined by biomarkers in a new cohort of 1500 patients recruited from two memory clinics in paris and 3 ascertain how cr affects dementia prognosis in the patient cohort by examining cognitive and functional decline hospitalisation institutionalisation and mortalitythis project will yield new insight into the nature of the association between cr and dementia progression these findings will ultimately inform the potential for a costeffective and easy to use tool to assess cr features to facilitate both identification of patients at risk of dementia and tailored secondary prevention interventions that address cr disruptions in dementia patients and slow progression of dementia
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multi4 the first surgical instrument for bladder cancer treatment through a 20minute outpatient procedure
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bladder cancer bc is the most overlooked cancer type in terms of the development of new surgical tools aimed at achieving efficient cancer treatment the instruments used in the operating room have remained unchanged since the 1960s the standard of care involves a rigid metal cystoscope and a surgery under anaesthesia the inherent risks to the patient are manifold encompassing damage to the urethra frictions infections and the potential reseeding of cancer cells elsewhere in the bladder the lack of progress in this field is evident in the statistics this cancer type has the highest recurrence rate of all cancers up to 75 in bc approx 60 of healthcare costs are attributed to patient surveillance and treatment of recurrences bc remains one of the most expensive cancers to manage and treat globallymulti4 established by the experienced surgeon and women innovator miden mellehannah is developing a groundbreaking surgical instrument that allows for effective treatment of bc in outpatient settings this innovation transforms the patients healthcare journey instead of the waiting period for difficult and hazardous surgeries patients can now have their tumours removed directly in the urologists office this advancement is made possible through cuttingedge deep tech innovations in instrument engineering design these innovations result in a surgical tool which integrates four functionalities thus we call it multi4 1 inject local anaesthesia through a thin needle 2 remove cancerous tissue using specially coated forceps 3 transport the cancer tissue out through the instrument itself 4 burn the area where the cancer was located to ensure the elimination of all cancer cellsthis project will close the gap to market for milti4 through clinical studies transfer to production and certification according to mdr the technology we propose is the first attempt since the 1960s to develop a new type of instrumentation for the treatment of bc
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mechanisms and functions of brain body environment interactions in c elegans
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recent largescarecent largescale neuronal activity recordings in awake behaving animals revealed a new unexpected neuroscientific principle widespread neuronal activity patterns across the brain encode parameters of movement surprisingly these brainwide behavior representations even extend to areas that are implicated in the processing of sensory information eg the visual cortex in mice thus a large fraction of the brains activity seems to be dedicated to representing the animals current ongoing behavior these observations have been made across the animal kingdom including worms flies and mammals suggesting a universal principle however the underlying mechanisms and functions remain unknown in this proposal we take advantage of the tractable model organism c elegans to tackle this problem combining brainwide single cell resolution ca2imaging in freely behaving animals with genetic circuit manipulation tools it was previously recognized that the brain operates in a closed loop actively sensing its body and its environment and making predictions of movement outcomes to optimally control behavior here we propose to reconcile these longstanding concepts with the new observations of brainwide behavior representations our core hypothesis is that sensory to motor transformation is a distributed process incorporating multiple functions like gaincontrol reafference prediction and predictive processing our team is at the forefront of scientific innovation and discoveries in this field and we thereby are making substantial contributions to this currently ongoing paradigm shift in our understanding of how the brain operates studying these phenomena in worms offers a unique and timely opportunity to rapidly uncover the universal functions of brain wide behavioral representations we therefore aim to make fundamental predictions and to formulate new working hypotheses for similar studies in larger model organisms with more complex brains
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improving kidney health by targeting urinary biomarkers for tubular function
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chronic kidney disease ckd affects one in ten people worldwide and is often progressive progressive ckd not only causes kidney failure but also premature aging cardiovascular disease and loss of quality of life currently progressive ckd can only be diagnosed after irreversible damage to the kidney has already occurred there is therefore an urgent need for earlier biomarkers the kidney consists of filters and tubules but diagnosis of progressive ckd is currently based on filter function alone this is surprising as it is tubular injury that drives ckd progression and it is the tubule that is targeted by recently developed kidneyprotective treatments utube therefore aims to identify and apply nextgeneration biomarkers for kidney tubular function to facilitate the early detection and treatment of progressive ckd my central hypothesis is that the factors that cause tubular injury and ckd progression are present in urine and therefore detectable as biomarkers i will focus on urinary microcrystals and extracellular vesicles evs as the drivers of tubular injury which i will first study in tubuloids using a multiomics approach subsequently i will perform a largescale analysis of crystallization and evs in urine samples from people with stable or progressive ckd i will then single out those biomarkers that can be targeted by kidneyprotective treatment these targetable biomarkers will be moved forward for the development of a highthroughput tubular panel that i will test for its potential to predict progressive ckd compared to a gold standard test for tubular function utube will use cuttingedge innovations to identify urinary biomarkers for tubular function that are targetable and implementable in clinical practice if successful it will advance the prediction of ckd progression and as such redefine how we assess kidney health by enabling early kidneyprotective treatment utube has the potential to vastly improve ckd outcomes
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xchromosome biology and immune health in females
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females have a higher risk for autoimmune disease and lower risk of mortality from infectious disease than males reflecting a more robust immune response in females against both selfantigens autoimmunity and nonselfantigens infections genes that escape the process of xinactivation xci are present in a higher dose in female cells and many play key roles in tcell biology xxhealth will reveal the role of escape genes in mediating sexdifferences in tcell response different cells in a tissue can inactivate the maternal xm or paternal xchromosome xp mosaicism in addition different ratios of xm and xp may become silenced in cells of a given tissue resulting in skewed xinactivation sxci rendering functional dissection of xci very challenging rare females 1300 inactivate the same parental xchromosome in all cells cxci removing the confounding effect of mosaicism and offering a powerful genetic system in which to dissect xci in tcell biology we will develop a novel methodology trixseq allowing highresolution screening of sxci and cxci in a large n8000 unselected cohort of females using tcells isolated from identified cxci females we will i generate a unique multiomic map of xci during human tcell differentiation at a resolution well beyond the stateoftheart and ii directly test the function of alleles specifically expressed from the inactive xchromosome xi in tcell biology with sxci data in hand we will also reveal the associations if any of sxci with disease risk and use the unique availability of parental and grandparental dna to assess the genetic origin of cxci sexbias in covid19 mortality has highlighted the importance of sex as a contributor to disease risk the technical and conceptual advances delivered by xxhealth will make a seminal contribution to our understanding of this poorly understood component of human health
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drivers of demographic dynamics
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this project aims to reconstruct the human demography of sw amazonia during the holocene and to reveal the role of environmental and cultural changes in shaping it despite decades of research the relative importance of environmental vs cultural factors in determining prehistoric population growth is still one of archaeologys greatest scientific challenges reaching an agreement about the drivers of demographic dynamics is very difficult because of the fragmentary incomplete and biased nature of archaeological records demodrivers is designed to overcome this problem this fiveyear interdisciplinary project will investigate the patterns and drivers of human demographic dynamics by focusing on a regional case study the llanos de moxos lm in the bolivian amazon that has a potentially unparalleled explanatory power this region at the southwestern end of the amazon hosts a recently discovered almost complete archaeological record made up of 4700 sites spanning 8300 years and distributed over 100000 km2 this area is unique in the world offering us the first opportunity to quantify how far demographic trends and patterns responded to exogenous climate landscape and endogenous culture technology variables this project will exploit the full potential of the lm archaeological record by taking an unconventional approach the density of the occupation and its spatial and temporal boundaries will be measured by studying 150 stratigraphic cores extracted from 100 evenly distributed archaeological sites the approach is interdisciplinary integrating conventional archaeology with stateofart geoarchaeology biomarkers paleoclimatology palaeoecology and artificial intelligence the results of the project will provide a very thoroughly documented case study against which other models and reconstructions based on incomplete fragmented and often biased datasets can be compared the results of the project have broad implications across several disciplines
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optic fibrebased hydrogen leak control systems
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hydrogen has emerged as a required fuel and commodity needed for the decarbonization of the generation distribution storage and energy consumption through the eu hydrogen strategy the ec recognised the important role of hydrogen and the need for the hydrogen market to be significantly scaled up the boost in hydrogen production and its introduction in the energy market has arised one important issue leakage of hydrogen during its storage transportation and distribution this leakage produces two negative side effects there is a safety issue derived from the hydrogens broad flammability range 4 to 74 concentration in air and it contributes to a net emmission of greenhouse gases ghg by depleting hydroxyl radicals oh thus increasing the atmosperic lifetime of methane and influencing tropospheric ozone formation with an estimate accumulation effect of 58 increase over 100 yearsthe green2tsoopthycs project will aim to develop new sensor technologies for continuous leak detectors based on optical fibre sensors technologies which will lead to an increase in the safety level of hydrogen applications from production to storage and distribution both in new infrastructure working with pure h2 and in natural gas repurposed installations and pipelines contributing to a safe and economically viable implementation of h2 production transport and storage processes ophtycs project is built upon 3 conceptual areas a technology pillars analysis and definition of new sensor technology b validation of key use cases pipelines hrs and midstream sites compression metering stations etc of the new technologies in 3 different controlled validation sites and c aspects of the technologies derived from the use cases including the assessment of the security and environmental risks evaluations and regulatory framework and a scalability and cost efficiency study
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sustainable renewable energy value chains for answering farmers needs
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in order to defossilise the agricultural sector in line with the eu green deal the local incorporation of renewable energy technologies matching local farmers needs in terms of electricity heat mobility waste and land management is key in this context the value4farm project will gather 14 partners including 7 researchoriented partners 3 smes and 3 associations in a 42month project to demonstrate at trl67 the effectiveness sustainability and replicability of three renewablebased local value chains based on biogas and coupling sustainable food and renewableenergy production in denmark addons to the traditional biomethane pathway will be brought for answering the local specificities of largescale farms in belgium a pathway towards better use of alreadyexisting residual streams will be demonstrated for efficient production of electricityheat and fuel thus answering mobility needs for smallscale farms in italy hybridisation compatibilities will be investigated towards the creation of an efficient offgrid biomethane plant sustainable agricultural crop protocols will be developed based on at least 200 farmers specifications meeting the challenges of the agricultural sector while matching renewable energy production all value chains will promote circularity through nutrient recovery the uptake of the demonstrated value chains will be facilitated by a strong involvement of farmers from the very beginning of the project three replication sites in iceland italy and poland have already been selected in the project the assessment of the economic environmental and social benefits of the value4farm value chains will be widely shared and disseminated to relevant stakeholders in particular to encourage the wider farming community across europe to benefit from producing both food and energy from their land and showcasing the lessons learnt in the demonstration sites an online decision support tool will be made available in openaccess
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babots the design and control of small swarming biological animal robots
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we aim to establish a fundamentally new technology of biological animal robots babots consisting of small animals with a genetically modified nervous system enabling the execution of a desired repertoire of behaviors beyond their natural abilities we will implement the first babot system in c elegans a 1 mm long nematode worm these worms will be programmed to act as a collective and to detect locate and attack invading pathogens in an agricultural setting being 100 biological babots are highly compatible with the natural environment selfproducible and fully degradable they will also be agile and highly sensitive to surrounding signals to control babot behavior we will genetically insert specific new synaptic connections and synthetic gene circuits in c elegans to produce artificial aggregation dynamic sensorimotor switching and other functional building blocks to ensure a safe and controlled deployment we will genetically implement a multilayered biocontainment apparatus to gain tighter control over the babot collective behavior we will exploit heterogeneity in the population blending for example leader and follower babots based on their differential access to information the science behind this innovative technology includes a synthetic neurobiological approach to modifying individual worm behavior the study of collective behavior in engineered worms and the development of a theory of heterogeneitybased swarm control we also dedicate a substantial effort to establish a firm and effective safety ethical and regulatory framework under which current and future babots can be developed this project will generate a radically new approach to biorobotics that could contribute to precision agriculture industry and medicine improving over a previous proposal we significantly enhanced i the methodology ii the safety and ethical aspects and iii the demonstration and exploitation by implementation in an agricultural setting
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secured satcombased solution enhancing emergency services and search rescue missions sat2rescue
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the aim of the sat2rescue project is to strengthen the use of satellite communication by government institutions and nongovernmental organizations in particular in the areas of response to natural and manmade disasters optimization of emergency services activities and telemedicine in humanitarian aid infrastructure and services under the govsatcom initiative will be usedas part of the project a telecommunications satellite terminal will be built which it is portable and mobile compact dimensions flat electronic antenna and rugged durable form allow it to fit in a vehicle boat or carry in a backpack it allows you to establish reliable communication voice and data transmission even in the absence of a cellular network signal or outside the range of a terrestrial radio communication system it is fully automatic when turned on it locates itself using gnss including galileo locks on to a satellite in both geostationary and low earth orbit and controls the antenna to track it it can also dynamically switch between satellites without interrupting the connection enables you to establish and maintain a connection even while on the move eg while driving it is resistant to gnss signal jamming and spoofing provides the ability to divide a single satellite communication channel into independent virtual networks software defined networkingusage scenarios will be defined including mountain and sea rescue and rescue operations in urbanized areas after disasters application software will be developed for rescue operations management centers providing a situational picture of the operation integrating geoinformation and weather data image data from the copernicus system and geotag data collected via the galileo system the system will be demonstrated according to usage scenarios
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restoring organ microphysiology via intravital ultracompact biopriniting endoscope
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minimally invasive diagnostic and surgical tools have become a staple in modern medical routines worldwide endoscopes a few millimeters in size are inserted directly into the organ or cavities inside the body allowing for high precision and fewer traumacontaining procedures so far these minimally invasive procedures have been limited to conventional microoptical imaging and micromechanical surgical routines such as cutting and making small incisions ideally any medical intervention should be capable of recreating intact biological ultrastructure and function directly at the target site following the most relevant cytocompatible approaches this proposal seeks to implement noninvasive methods yield to obtain safeguarded integrated and improved cuttingedge additive and subtractive 3d manufacturing technologies for developing a miniaturized endoscopic device for organ structure and function intravital regeneration
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expand flow accessing new chemical space via a combined flash and photochemical flow chemistry approach for the functionalisation and ring expansion of heterocycles
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with everincreasing costs for the development of new drugs the call for the development of more costeffective and efficient methodologies to streamline the access to new drug candidates is imperative to access new chemical space the ringdistortion strategy latestage modification of rings to a variety of different functionalized cyclic and acyclic motifs has proven a particularly successful approach recently numerous ringexpansion and functionalisation protocols to cyclopentanones tetralones functionalized butanones from cyclobutanols have been developed using classical batch processes despite the advances the translation to pharmaceutically relevant applications is still outstanding mainly due to three factors1the application of heterocycles in these protocols has been very limited or even impossible 2the twocarbon ring expansion has only been successful on arylsubstituted analogues yet not on alkenesubstituted analogues 3scaleup to practical quantities is often difficult due to the requirement for conditions difficult to realise using batch processing expand flow presents a multidisciplinary project that lies in the intersection of flash chemistry and synthetic photocatalysis with microfluidic engineering and computational chemistry for the development of a selective sustainable and applicable methodology for the ring deconstruction and functionalisation of heterocycles ultimately its applicability to the pharmaceutical industry will be proven by the total synthesis of thc and its hitherto unexplored heterocyclic analoguesoverall this project will add a valuable tool to the synthetic chemists repertoire for the rapid environmentallyfriendly and costeffective development of new drug candidates by the versatile functionalisation of various heterocycles this innovative approach will have a high scientific technological and societal impact reinforcing the european competitiveness in the development of lifesaving drugs
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blocking baff signaling to treat proliferative kidney disease pkd in trout
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pkdcontrol is aimed at validating the use of a recombinant protein to reduce the pathology and mortality produced by proliferative kidney disease pkd in salmonids pkd is caused by the myxozoan parasite tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae that affects both cultured and wild salmonids in north america and europe it can eventually lead to mortalities of up to 90 generating great economic loses every year to the aquaculture industry this problem may be aggravated by global warming since the incidence and severity of pkd are exacerbated by rising temperaturesduring my erc consolidator grant we have demonstrated that the cytokine baff b cell activating factor mediates the dysregulation of diverse b cell subsets present in the kidney during pkd we have shown that the intramuscular injection of a plasmid coding for the extracellular domain of baff receptor baffr led to secretion of this truncated baffr tbaffr that in turn sequestered circulating baff blocking baff signalling preliminary field tests in spain and usa demonstrated the potential of this approach in reducing the pathology and mortality of the infected stocks in this project we will recombinantly produce tbaffr in yeast to facilitate its uptake by the industry and test its bioactivity in both lab and field experiments in parallel to these technical activities we will reinforce the ipr position based on a pct international patent application that has received a very positive patentability report by the patent office we will also design a longterm ipr strategy and develop a knowledge transfer strategy through the recently initiated collaboration with a fish health management company willing to reach commercialization of tbaffr under a license and to contribute with their own funds to the activities carried out under this project a business case will also be elaborated to support the commercialization of the recombinant tbaffr to ensure that the innovation potential of our results
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failoperational safety making autonomous vehicles a reality
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we have seen a revolution in autonomous driving technology today more than 75 of newly registered vehicles have some level of driver assistance however despite vast strides in new ai and sensing technology fully autonomous vehicles are yet to be realized because the actuator technology for the safetycritical steering and braking systems are not mature enough to guarantee failoperational capabilitychassis autonomy has developed the first failoperational steerbywire system which is suitable for fully autonomous vehicles it is the final step toward fully driverless vehicles ie no steering wheel and will unlock the next wave of automotive drivingwe have completed a series of early prototyping and validation activities and we are now seeking the support of the eic to finalize our technology and go to market in two years to meet the roadmaps of the leading autonomous mobility developers
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implications of genderaffirming hormone therapy for psychosocial functioning and social relationships of transgender people
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transgender health is an area of increasing focus for researchers and medical practitioners across europe in part due to rapidly escalating numbers of people identifying as transgender a crucial oversight in this area is that very little research has examined how genderaffirming hormone therapy the most common form of medical intervention for transgender people shapes psychosocial functioning and ultimately social relationship experiences given the paramount importance of social relationships to health and wellbeing evidence for psychosocial effects of genderaffirming hormone therapy is vital to ensuring health equity for transgender people who suffer from alarmingly high rates of social disruption and suicide risk i draw together independent strands of research on biological effects of hormones from social neuroendocrinology and health influences of psychological and sociocultural factors from social psychology and epidemiology to propose a novel biopsychosocial model linking genderaffirming hormone therapy to psychosocial functioning in transgender people drawing upon this model i propose a programme of research involving four complementary work packages triangulating across a variety of novel and cuttingedge research methods this work will be guided by three key aims a to isolate causal pathways from a biopsychosocial model linking genderaffirming hormone therapy to psychosocial functioning b to empower transgender people to give voice to their own personal and relational experiences in the context of genderaffirming hormone therapy and c to guide policy and practice for gender identity services in line with the informed consent model directing focus to the improvement of psychosocial functioning and social relationship outcomes this interdisciplinary programme of research will sit at the forefront of genderaffirming healthcare and treatment for transgender people
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isolation observation and quantification of mechanisms responsible for hydrogen embrittlement by tritium based micromechanics
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hydrogen is an indispensable element in the energy transition and expected to be key for decarburization of the european society hydrogen embrittlement recognized and in focus of materials science since almost 150 years still causes catastrophic failure until today it is wellunderstood that all mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement materialize at the scale of individual defects such as dislocations grain and phaseboundaries but we are still missing a correlative measurement of the mechanical behaviour of individual defects and the local hydrogen content which is urgently needed to assess the occurrence importance and magnitude of mechanisms playing a role during hydrogen embrittlement in aid of this tritime for the first time facilitates the isolation observation and quantification of hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms by tritium based micromechanics the mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement will be isolated by small scale mechanical testing on samples containing only a few crystal defects the defect properties are observed and measured by in situ micromechanical experiments in the scanning electron microscope and at synchrotron beamlines simultaneously tritime will monitor the local hydrogen content by observing the decay of tritium with high spatial resolution for which a unique tool will be developed in addition post mortem analysis using atom probe tomography and secondary ion mass spectroscopy take advantage of the reduced mobility of tritium tritime will provide unprecedented insights into the local hydrogen content of newly formed slip bands mobile and immobile dislocations and fracture surfaces consequently if successful tritime will obtain a mechanismbased quantitative understanding of hede help and their interplay in doing so tritime sets the base for a mechanismbased optimization of microstructures used in distribution and storage of hydrogen and therefore is an indispensable tool towards europes hydrogen society
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deciphering the role of regulatory factors driving epigenetic inheritance of alternative chromatin states
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epigenetics the study of molecules and mechanisms that perpetuate alternative gene activity states in the context of the same dna sequence is an exciting field with important epistemological and biomedical implications but the molecular mechanisms underlying epigenetic inheritance are still little understood polycomb group proteins are pleiotropic chromatin components that have been suggested to be capable of driving epigenetic inheritance and their dysregulation leads to cell fate changes and is associated with cancer recently we discovered that a transient decrease in expression of a polycomb gene can drive the formation of tumors of epigenetic nature ie in the absence of dna mutations the goal of waddingtonmemory is to decipher how epigenetic components can lead to stable changes in cell fate specifically we willaim 1 identify the molecular steps leading to epigenetic cell fate derailment following transient polycomb protein depletion in drosophila we will perform a timecourse study using bulk and singlecell multiomic and imaging approaches in order to dissect the dynamics of cell fate transformationaim 2 identify the polycombtargets leading to cell fate dysregulation and decipher their mechanistic role we will test candidate factors identified in aim 1 in order to identify those that drive cell fate derailment and to elucidate their mode of actionaim 3 test the role of epigenetic inheritance in mammalian cell differentiation we will analyse the role of epigenetic inheritance in mouse gastruloids an in vitro system that reflects cell differentiation events typically found in early embryogenesistogether this groundbreaking project will reveal how epigenetic components drive cell fate derailment and it will establish robust paradigms that can be utilized by the scientific community to discriminate between epigenetic inheritance and dna sequencemediated cell transformationlli
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realworld evidence for decisions in diabetes
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randomised controlled trials are the cornerstone of evidencebased medicine however the digitisation of realworld data rwd including data from devices wearables and electronic health records in large national registries provides opportunities to demonstrate efficacy and safety of innovative technologies including drugs devices diagnostics and digital health these data are particularly relevant to longterm conditions such as diabetes mellitus where drugs lifestyle interventions and digital technologies often work together to better utilise rwd in diabetes for regulatory decision making a development of standards guidance and an assessment of the efficacy to effectiveness gap is neededreddie realworld evidence for decisions in diabetes aims to explore how rwd can complement rcts to improve efficacy safety and value for money of technologies to prevent and treat diabetes the overall aim of reddie is to support the use of rwd in diabetes and healthrelated research which will maximise europes scientific expertise and knowhow to benefit people with diabetes resulting in safer more efficient and costeffective interventionswe thus aim to engage with stakeholders such as regulatory and hta authorities and codevelop evidentiary standards for the collection assessment and acceptability of rwd we will then develop and validate stateofthe art modelling techniques using synthetic data derived from large national registries to better assess outcomes of interventions using rwd we will use data from four large national registries to elucidate the gap between outcomes in rcts and rwd studies and understand the factors that affect this gap finally we will test the ability of machine learning to facilitate the better use of rwdreddie will generate standards for rwd use for the evaluation of medicines and other interventions by regulatory authorities and hta bodies
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superconducting radiofrequency switch for quantum technologies
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despite the high expectations and numerous announcements that have been made over the past ten years the spread of quantum computers qcs is still in its infancy the major factors limiting the diffusion and market penetration of qcs are their low scalability and high cost both issues are connected to the bulkiness and complexity of the signal lines that operate the qc the required large amount of cables undermine the scalability and decrease the thermal stability of the quantum processing units qpus with this project we aim to increase the scalability and reduce the thermal issues of qpu developing a radiofrequency rf switch quest that allow to simultaneously control the state of multiple qubits through the same cable quest goes well beyond what is achieved with stateoftheart electronics that typically provide bulky slowly and energy inefficient solutions the core component of quest is an allmetallic superconducting transistorcontrolled via gate voltages this transistor exploits the peculiar characteristics of a superconducting material to work at frequencies 1 thz unachievable with classical semiconductor electronic components and with nearly zero power dissipation during spectrum we are going to build a complete test platform quest devices the stateoftheart nanofabricated prototype of quest will be tested in a custom made cryostat able to unleash the true potential of this technology furthermore ultrafast fpgabased electronics will take the case of the control of multiple switches providing an affordable and performant control over the prototype this platform will be the environment in which quest will be studied at strict contact with the state of the art quantum processing units the experiments performed in real quantum computer under the eufunded spectrum project will be the first step to the true quantum revolution
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linking ketone metabolism and signaling in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction
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heart failure with preserved ejection fraction hfpef is a burgeoning public health problem for which there are little to no evidencebased therapies this syndrome has proven particularly challenging because of the limited insight into its underlying molecular mechanisms metabolic adaptations are critical for cardiomyocyte response to stress ketones are metabolites actively produced in heart failure and their role as metabolic rheostat capable of modulating cardiac metabolism and cardiomyocyte signaling pathways has been postulated however there is fundamental open gap in understanding how ketones are utilized as source of energy in hfpef and how hydroxybutyrate ohb the most abundant ketone plays a role as nonenergy carrier governing cardiomyocyte function in this project proposal i hypothesize that ketones are major regulators of cardiomyocyte biology representing an alternative source of fuel in hfpef energy role and act as protein modifiers trough hydroxybutyrylation a lysinebased posttranslational modification ptm thereby regulating chromatin architecture gene transcription and metabolic signaling in cardiomyocytes nonenergy role the overall aim of ketocardio is to define mechanisms integrating ketone metabolic adaptation with signaling pathways and epigenetic changes in hfpefstressed cardiomyocyte coupling proteomics transcriptomics and genomics approaches together with cardiac and systemic metabolic evaluation and rigorous preclinical experimental modeling of hfpef i will be able to define the previously unrecognized roles of ketones as energy substrates in hfpef and as substrate for proteins ptm impacting on cardiomyocyte function in summary focusing on metabolic pathways that govern cardiomyocyte abnormalities in preclinical hfpef this project will provide a transformative molecular understanding of ketones biology in cardiomyocyte fostering innovation in the field and beyond
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advanced technology for stationary energy storage systems in naion
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atenas main objective is to contribute to improve the competitiveness of the european battery industry by demonstrating a new generation of safe sustainablebydesign highperformance costeffective and fully madeineurope sodiumion battery sib technology at preindustrial scale trl 7 by leveraging a multidisciplinary consortium of leading european research institutions and toptier industrial players atena will demonstrate the manufacturing of up to 80 ah and 25kwh modules representative of bess applications by i optimizing cuttingedge active materials ie stable cofree layered oxides with minimal ni content and improved energy density and processability eusourced biobased hard carbon made from sustainably managed forests with enhanced capacity efficiency and material density customized advanced electrolytes with interphasestabilizing characteristics highionic conductivity and high electrochemical stability ii developing environmentallyfriendly processing techniques for high performance electrode production iii improving cell and module architecture designs featuring high reparabilitylevel low maintenance requirement and enhanced safety performance and iv integrating an advanced bms with battery passport capabilities and finetuned soc management to achieve optimal cell performance all this supported by iterative feedback loops with thorough electrochemical and safety testing environmental ecodesign and recyclability criteriafinally the technology will be virtually upscaled to full bess level to evaluate the systems performance across 5 different real enduser operating conditions to accelerate postproject technology commercialization and ultimately contributing to the establishment of a competitive resilient and sustainable battery manufacturing industry in europe
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development of metastatic organonachip for modelling the role of sex steroids in bladder cancer metastasis to bone
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bladder cancer bca is the 5th most common cancer in europe with an annual economic burden of 5 billion despite efforts aimed at early detection and targeted therapies the development of metastatic bca 5 remains a major cause of mortality patient survival rate of only 21 recent evidence has strongly implicated a role of bone morphogenic proteins bmps in bca progression however their regulation remains poorly understood and their role in metastatic bca remains to be elucidated moreover there is paucity of understanding regarding the gender disparity in bca whereby men are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed compared to women who have worse prognosisdemobilise seeks to address this critical gap in the knowledge by investigating the synergistic role of sex steroids ss and bmps in bca bone metastasis this will be achieved by using single cell multiomics and crispr gene editing coupled with stateoftheart organonachip ooc technology and spatially resolved imaging of the bone perivascular niche within the ooc this study will thereby investigate at an unprecedented level of detail the functional role of bmp signalling and its synergy with ss in bca metastatic processesi will spend 2 years at columbia university usa expanding my skills in cancer models and single cell sequencing and also acquiring a new skillset in ooc fabrication i will return to the university of limerick ireland and receive training in steroidogenesis highdimensional imaging and mass spectrometry additionally i will have a 6month nonacademic placement in the startup company hooke bio who specialize in the development and utilisation of high throughput microfluidic systems for 3d microtissue drug screening i will be immersed within a multidisciplinary team with expertise in ooc fabrication bone metastasis and 3d cancer modelling that will support me in meeting my researchtraining objectives and prepare me for a career as an independent researcher
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resolving the mechanism of plant cell expansion at high spatiotemporal resolution
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plants critically shape ecosystems and our societies by converting sunlight and co2 into o2 and biomass while they grow understanding this growth process constitutes a major frontier in plant research growth is a multiscale process at a subcellular scale it depends on the expansion of the cell walls which involves changes in the chemistry and architecture of constituent polymer networks very little is known on the nature and the control of the cell wall changes that are critical for growth in striking contrast to the often detailed knowledge of growthregulating signaling networks this is in part due to the lack of appropriate tools to study changes in the complex cell wall polymer assemblies that often occur at fast s and small micrometer scales in this project i propose firstly to breach the spatial limits of the tools by using multitarget optical nanoscopy to visualize cell wall architecture and remodeling and secondly to overcome their temporal limits by using lightgated actuators and multiplexed intracellular biosensors to simultaneously perturb and monitor the system dynamics in vivo in particular i will address pectin remodeling the role of which in plant growth was shown to be critical but without clearly understanding the mechanism my objectives are to 1 reveal the key changes in cell wall architecture and chemistry during growth 2 understand the fast signaling by which cells perceive and coordinate wall remodeling and 3 build a dynamic hybrid model to explain how plants coordinate wall expansion this interdisciplinary project will provide new insights into the nanoscale organization of cell walls and propose a novel pectinbased mechanism for its active reorganization during growth this will provide an essential framework not only for understanding plant growth and morphogenesis but also for the study of life beyond the plasma membrane for instance in relation to immunity multicellularity or symbiosis
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countering jihadi insurgencies in africa repress resist reorder
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many african countries including libya nigeria mali dr congo somalia and mozambique have been affected by violence of jihadist armed groups these groups pose a distinct threat to social political and economic orders across africa as they violently reject the nationstate and can rely on support from the transnational violent networks of the islamic state and alqaeda research has primarily focused on international responses to violent extremism in africa but international actors do not operate in a vacuum and interact with responses on the ground if we want to understand and effectively tackle this violent threat we need to know more about how domestic actorsgovernments security forces and affected communitiescounter jihadist armed groups in africa why do some governments repress these groups through domestic security operations while others invite foreign countries to militarily intervene why do some governments respond immediately while others delay a response to a new jihadist threat why do some communities decide to cooperate with jihadist groups while others opt to resist them why do some communities attempt to resist these groups nonviolently while others form selfdefence militias to protect themselves and finally how do domestic responses to jihadist armed groups reorder security in the region and shape conflict stabilization or escalation counterrr will deliver crucial analyses of when how and why domestic actors repress and resist jihadist armed groups and reorder security it will adopt an innovative multilevel and multimethod comparative approach focused on variation within and across three countries mali nigeria and mozambique understanding how african countries and affected communities respond to jihadist insurgencies will help international actors to coordinate and adjust their responses to benefit from local knowledge and prevent further escalation of conflict
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breeding for coffee and cocoa root resilience in low input farming systems based on improved rootstocks
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fruit tree crops ftc represented by more than 50 species grown on over 100 m ha are strongly affected by climate change cc thanks to grafting rootstocks can confer enhanced tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses providing a valuable solution to expand food production bolero aims to i develop phenotyping tools ii employ them to score root system architecture rsa traits of coffeecocoa including grafted plants under controlled and onfield conditions iii decode the microbiome of coffeecocoa plants and the interface with the root exudates with largescale metabolic modelling and iv use these resources to build predictive models of rsa traits in terms of genotypic data and microbiome composition and abundance to accelerate coffeecocoa breeding this data compendium will be used in combination with a data hub to survey the genetic diversity in ftcs and use it to dissect the genetic basis of rsa traits and their plasticity bolero will propose fast and lowcost breeding strategies to create rootstocks which will be tested in lowinput coffeecocoa farming systems the agronomic performances and profitability of grafted plants will be assessed in vietnam bolero will rely on the knowledge of the large scientific community in europe the support of national institutes in tropical countries and the expertise of industries to lead a multidisciplinary study for rootstocks selection with coffee as a model cocoa as proof of concept and propose tools and techniques transferable easily to all ftcs bolero will develop and demonstrate for the first time at a large scale the opensource seeds initiative bolero will therefore contribute to the biodiversity and farm to fork strategies through significant impacts on the way ftcs are bred and on the use of beneficial soil biota and biodiversity leading on adaptation to cc inputs used and soil carbon sequestration
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new mobility solutions for climate neutrality in eu cities
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mobilities for eu aims at demonstrating that innovative passenger mobility and freight transport concepts designed and implemented following participative and usercenter principles are costeffective and feasible solutions to contribute significantly to the cities transformation towards climateneutrality allowing to speed up the process even to reach scope 2 emissions reduction in 2030madrid spain and dresden germany will implement 11 pilots comprising 27 very innovative solutions for mobility of people and freight exploiting the combined potential of electrification automation and connectivity from the design to the implementation and evaluation stages acting as lead cities lc both cities also ambition to act as pioneers of this process taking advantage of multiple already existing initiates of social engagement and empowerment that will be integrated in the idea of urban transport labs utlabs conceived as innovation hubs with the aim of fostering faster upscaling and replicability at eu level making 5 replication cities ioaninnagreece trencinslovakia espoofinland gdanskpoland and sarajevobosniaherzegovina through their own utlabs direct participants of the processes and later on main protagonists of their own designs
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proportional algorithms for democratic decisions
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the project is set in the field of computational social choice we will focus on formal models describing scenarios where a group of individuals called voters disagrees on certain matters yet needs to make a collective decision the decision must truly represents a compromise we focus on group fairness understood as proportionality there are numerous reallife scenarios that involve collective public decisions and where our solutions could be applied examples include elections of representative bodies such as parliaments faculty boards etc participatory budgeting elections where citizens decide how to allocate a part of a municipal budget or scenarios where certain local communities say housing cooperatives make series of decisions in addition proportional algorithms for making collective decisions can be used for selecting nominees for an award for constructing rankings of movies or books for selecting validators in consensus protocols such as the blockchain for constructing rankings of webpages in response to user queries for locating public facilities or for improving genetic algorithmsthe goal of this project is to develop generic methods of reasoning about equity of treatment of voters and to design new algorithms that satisfy the most demanding criteria of proportionality the new methods should be applicable to a number of specific models that concern public decisions we will 1 prove theorems specifying whether and under which conditions our notions of proportionality are satisfiable and 2 we will analyse various rules and algorithms with respect to our criteria of proportionality and other important desiderata that are commonly considered in social choice theory we plan to 3 determine the computational complexity of the problem of finding proportional public decisions and to 4 develop exact approximation fixedparametertractable and heuristic algorithms for this and related computational problems
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illuminating neutron stars with radiative plasma physics
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this research program will use firstprinciples radiative plasma simulations to understand how neutron stars radiate neutron stars are the culprits of the most infamous astrophysical emission enigmas 1 pulsar radio emission 2 multimessenger signals of compactobject binary mergers and 3 simultaneous generation of giant flares and fast radio bursts from magnetars these emission mechanisms have remained elusive because we do not have a selfconsistent theory that combines plasma physics describing microscopic motions and energy dissipation of the magnetized gas and radiative processes describing the reprocessing of the energy into radiationthis project combines the forefront plasma physics theory with exascale highperformance computing technologies to achieve two breakthroughs 1 generation of firstprinciples 3d models of the radiative plasmas around pulsars mergers and magnetars and 2 development of a novel opensource simulation toolkit for selfconsistent and highfidelity modeling of astroplasmas these enable a quantitative understanding of the unsolved emission mechanisms including efficiency variability and output spectra and direct comparison to observationsanalyzing astronomical observations with these superior physicsconstrained models enable direct tests of their validity and a leap in improving the accuracy of the modern nuclearparticle physics theories of the stillunknown neutron star equation of state the pi has a worldleading role in computational astroplasma physics an established record of impactful and innovative research in the astrophysics of neutron stars and 10 years of experience in stateoftheart highperformance computing solutions
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chip urinary engineered system for modelling bladder biomechanics and disease
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urinary tract infections uti are severe bacterial infections of the urinary system low understanding of specific bacteriahost interactions and associated disease aetiologies has led to global misuse of antibiotics driving bacterial resistance however relevant human modelling platforms that replicate all parameters of a physiological bladder and reciprocate infection conditions are nonexistent during infection bladder stretchmechanisms are commandeered by opportunistic bacteria to penetrate the impermeable bladder defence that are then not appropriately cleared by antibiotics regimens with curies we will develop microfluidic bladderonchip systems able to replicate the dynamic biomechanical scenarios and chemicallyrich environments of the bladder epithelium the urothelium without appropriate models that recapitulate organ biomechanics the emergence of superpathogens is likely to never be counteracted by targeted therapeutic design accelerating antibiotic resistance to greater crisis levels in this msca application i aim to combine my bioengineering experience with the worldleading expertise of my host laboratory in epithelial mechanobiology to create dynamic simulations of human bladderonachip homeostasis and uti infections i will perform thorough analyses on the transcriptomic level of changes across the expanse of the urothelium with periodic filling and voiding during pathogenic and nonpathogenic infections curies will have unparalleled relevance for the drug discovery industry bringing together such advanced methodologies will yield discoveries in molecular mechanisms impacted by bladderpathogen interactions and enable computational modelling simulations to serve as predictive tools by undertaking this work i will develop valuable transferable skills increase my scientific visibility and move closer to scientific independence curies will both shape my academic career and positively impact the fight against antibiotic resistance
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surfing radio waves to detect liquid water in the solar system
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in the near future a number of space missions will aim to study the icy galilean satellites of jupiter to detect subglacial liquid water using radar sounders to properly interpret the radar data it is necessary to understand the dielectric properties of the icy shells of these bodies as they control radar signal penetration and anomaly ie water detection the current knowledge of these properties for the types of water ices believed to be present is limited which would potentially produce incorrect interpretations of the radar data thus risking the scientific goals of these missions based on extensive experience in characterizing the dielectric properties of planetary analogues which led me and my group to discover the first extraterrestrial subglacial stable body of liquid water on mars we intend to develop new methodologies and protocols to create a groundbreaking knowledgebase that fills this critical gap we will apply the first of its kind methodology for conducting dielectric measurements across a wide range of frequencies including the challenging interval used by these radar systems and temperatures representative of the different iceforming environments produce groundbreaking studies on the structural and chemical behavior of different ice types using ct microtomography and molecular dynamic modelling and will create a wideranging dataset of the dielectric properties of nonterrestrial ices such pioneering and high gain research will allow to obtain the maximum benefit from missions such as juice and europa clipper by the end of the project significant and fundamental progress will be made to properly perform dielectric measurements on icy planetary analogues in the comprehension of the physics behind the dielectric behavior of water ice and icy materials and in radar data modelling and interpretation moreover the projects results will serve as a critical knowledge base for present and future radar sounder planetary missions
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west african middle stone age timeline using esr dating of quartz
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the evolution of h sapiens in africa is intrinsically linked to the expansion of the middle stone age msa west africa is one of the last frontiers for human evolutionary research and has long been considered to have played virtually no role in our species biological cognitive and behavioural evolution recentlyexcavated msa sites across west african changed this perception but there is still a critical need for reliable chronometric dates to establish a secure timeline for the msa while the optically stimulated luminescence osl dating applied to quartz has already provided some key chronological constraints the method has also shown some clear limitations as it cannot chronologically cover the entire msa time rangewatime project aims to explore the potential of the electron spin resonance esr dating the key alternative method to date quartz the project is built on promising results from a pilot study at bete ianyama site ivory coast which not only demonstrated the potential and feasibility of using titanium ti signals to date quartz samples from west africa but also led to the identification of some specific methodological issues worth investigating further to ensure the reliability of the esr dating method watime will address them by developing and quantifying and measurable accurate criteria to assess the suitability of ti esr signal improving spectral resolution measurement precision and signal characterizationimplementing a new rapid and accurate laboratory esr dating procedure will help resolve the chronology of msa west african sites that cannot be dated by other means watime opens an innovative way to date the key changes in culturalbehavioural patterns from the archaeological record in west africa the results will be broadly communicated through open access and open peer reviewed article resources and targeted public outreach activities
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are anthropogenic pollutants in marine sediments a potential methane ch4 source me4sure
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current climate change and global warming with a continuous increase of methane ch4 emissions will reshape life on earth oceanic methane emissions are predominantly controlled by the coastal environments which are confronted with intensifying inputs of various anthropogenic chemicals from human activities alarming new correlations have been found between this increased coastal pollution especially discharges from wastewater treatment plants wwtp and ch4 emissions however without knowing the mechanism of influence of the anthropogenic chemicals on ch4 cycle in marine sediments we might be underestimating ch4 into the atmosphere from polluted coastal environments and cannot mitigate these emissions to move from correlationbased observations to a mechanistic and experimentalbased knowledge of ch4 production pathways in polluted coastal sediments it is necessary to apply multidisciplinary approaches in this project it is achieved by a novel strategy through both field and experimental approach where different disciplines compoundspecific isotope analysis biogeochemistry and microbial analysis are applied to provide separate line of to define the level of anthropogenic organic chemicals influence of ch4 emissions in coastal environment i will investigate a representative polluted coastal area located in the swedish west coast which hosts the largest scandinavian oil harbor the primary petrochemical industry in sweden several streams debouch from agricultural areas and the direct discharge of hundreds of chemicals from a wwtp this project is the first step to improve our understanding on how much ch4 is produced in coastal areas affected by chemical pollution with global impact on the ch4 oceanic budget
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one health approaches to support agroecological transformation of periurban farming
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today more than half of the planets inhabitants live in cities and this is projected to increase the worldwide migration of rural people to cities is particularly prominent in west africa this leads to increased practicing of periurban agriculture supported by a the lack of formal jobs and as a means of adding up to household income in low and middleincome countries lmic b the young generations of farmers are not willing to live in remote areas c initial stages of agriculture intensification in lmic usually involves concentration of production in periurban areaseven though intensified periurban farming has significant advantages it also introduces concerns about zoonotic diseases sanitary issues local environmental degradation antimicrobial resistance and more especially in lmic the intensification of food systems as they transition from subsistence to marketoriented production is typically associated with human health risks urbane is addressing this challenge of sustainable agriculture for food nutrition security applying a one health approach for tackling issues related to the application intensification of periurban agriculture as well as providing the necessary framework for its sustainable safe application in different contexts to achieve this the project will be built around the principles of agroecology urbane is building on the extensive experience in agroecology of its partners whilst exploiting friendly tools methods for measuring the progress impact of the agroecological transition of farming the urbane approach will be demonstrated through 6 case studies in africa while its transferability in other regions will also be studied and facilitated through specific tools new adapted business models will also be worked out for the urbane case studies that will act as lighthouse examples of how such business models can be with suitable local adaptations informed by local specificities
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eiisa a connected affordable light solution for treating sleep apnea
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sunrise is a leading researcher and developer of solutions for diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea our goal is to develop and commercialise sunrise tx the first truly noninvasive affordable and readily accessible solution to treat sleep apnea this is to address the 80 treatment gap of sleep apnea sufferers who fail to access treatment due to high costs and long waiting times for diagnosis also even within those diagnosed at least 35 fail to comply with wearing a mask all night strapped tightly to the face blowing air to clear airways for breathing due to the associated discomfort in contrast sunrise tx is a wearable device involving no nasal obstruction sunrise tx is set to improve treatment access compliance cost and accuracy
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traumatic spinal cord injury the need to classify disease severity
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traumatic spinal cord injury tsci markedly reduces patients quality of life and economically burdens health systems neurological examinations and clinical magnetic resonance imaging mri scans are currently insufficient for the proper classification of the tsci baseline level ie severity although mri scans are routinely employed in tsci patients the mri potential is not fully utilised due to the complexity of the analysis and diversity of mri data across hospitals the aim of this project is to propose a fully automatic and reproducible analysis tool that could be run by clinicians to improve the clinical management of tsci patients first deep learning models for automatic spinal cord and lesion segmentation from mri images will be developed to go beyond the currently used errorprone and timeconsuming manual segmentations the models will be trained on a multi institutional mri dataset to be robust to mri data heterogeneity across hospitals then quantitative measures of the tsci severity will be automatically computed from the segmented structures ie spinal cord and lesions and employed within the statistical model to predict tsci severity finally the developed methodology will be translated to the realworld healthcare system and tested on a prospectively acquired dataset of tsci patients importantly deep learning models analysis pipeline and statistical model will be seamlessly integrated into the current stateoftheart ecosystem for spinal cord mri data analysis and made publicly available to facilitate open science and reproducibility across hospitals the project will create the first step in the improvement of care and clinical management in millions of patients with tsci worldwide in the longer term after demonstrating the clinical relevance of the proposed tools we assume that advanced mribased methods will be adopted by the larger clinical community for more personalised care
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sustainable agriculture through novel pesticides using an integrated approach
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safe and secure food production is central to the european farm to fork policy however secure crop production still depends on the widespread use of chemical pesticides which is associated with negative impacts on the environment and human health diminishing use of socalled candidates for substitution identified in regulation ec no 11072009 is of particular importance for combating harmful effects sagropia employs integrated pest management ipm to demonstrate substitution and reduction of chemical pesticides in the cultivation of potato and sugar beet these row crops are prone to diseases such as early and late blight and cercospora leaf spot and to pests such as nematodes and the colorado beetle sagropia will bring forward thirteen biological and lowrisk pesticides from three company partners with the aim to replace several candidates for substitution active substances including the nematicide oxamyl and the fungicides difenoconazole fluopicolide and metalaxyl it also aims to reduce overall use of candidates for substitution copper and insecticides pirimicarb lambdacyhalothrin and esfenvalerate by at least 50 sagropias approach combines several biocontrol solutions that individually have already proven activity on specialty crops and are close to market sagropia solutions are formulated production is upscaled and their mode of action is being studied to grant affordability and ready acceptance by farmers sagropia envisions not simple replacement of chemical pesticides but incorporation of its solutions into innovative comprehensive ipm strategies effectiveness will be demonstrated in participatory real lifetrials performed in five potato and sugar beet growing european regions with active participation and engagement of farmers thorough sustainability assessments will give account of economic feasibility and show improved performance in terms of natural resources people and the environment besides preparing novel solutions
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integrating innovative theories and practices in historical culture and education
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the central aim of this project is setting up a gender balanced international interdisciplinary and intersectoral network of organisations to produce new knowledge both theoretical and applied in the field of historical culture and education studies this in order to improve the role of historical representations in present democratic and reflective societies enveloping both formal and informal contexts in which views on the past are disseminated this field invites a closer collaboration of academics and practitioners working in historical museums heritage environments historical reenactments memorial sites and schools a total of 23 institutions in europe africa australia canada israel and latin america will be participating in makinghistories special attention will be paid to the presence of gender history in formal and informal educational environments and to how they could further develop in this respect also the importance of understanding the challenges of globalisation and global history will be considered in both cases introducing these two rather new and innovative historiographical approaches has the purpose of contributing to the renovation of historical culture environments and the present uses of history representations furthermore the project aims to study how innovative dialogical and multiperspectivist practices might affect historical representations this project will produce research articles books and digital media short videos podcasts audioguides and multimedia history textbooks chapters for disseminating and communicating these efforts expanding a dialogical view of formal and informal contexts of history education these digital media will be produced in the context of a cpd to improve skills of practitioners and that will continue to be online after the project is over essentially contributing to the projects selfsustainability
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ultracold polyatomic molecules for controlled chemistry and precision physics
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ultracold atoms have been successfully used in quantum simulations and precision measurements molecules possess a richer internal structure promising new applications however only relatively simple molecules have been produced and employed at ultralow temperatures this project aims to understand and harness the increasing complexity of ultracold polyatomic molecules to probe the fundamentals of chemistry and physicswe will extend the range of ultracold polyatomic molecules and their applications in controlled chemistry and precision spectroscopy we will propose and theoretically investigate two paths 1 association of ultracold deeplybound diatomic molecules into ultracold weaklybound polyatomic molecules and 2 direct cooling deeplybound polyatomic molecules carefully selected and manipulated with electromagnetic fields the first approach will build on established atomic techniques which we will extend to molecular systems the second one will employ strong fields short pulses and structural modifications to engineer closed transitions suitable for laser cooling we will combine and develop novel electronic structure and quantum scattering methods enhanced by machine learning and highperformance computing next we will study new applications exploiting features emerging from singlemolecule and coherent control conical intersections and nontrivial electronic states and geometries absent in simpler systems applications will range from quantumcontrolled chemical reactions and molecular dynamics to precision measurements of fundamental constants and their spatiotemporal variation the realization of the project will push cold chemistry into the quantum realm and bring unprecedented complexity to ultracold physics thus give new insights into the physical basis of chemistry and the fundamental laws of nature a unique experience of the pi in both quantum chemistry and ultracold atomic physics will be instrumental in achieving these goals
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circular bioeconomy business models owned by agrocooperatives
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the bioeconomy rollout on a large scale needs the establishment of new models and interactions between the primary sector and other stakeholders toward coparticipated bioindustriesin this sense robocoopeu proposes a breakthrough cultural change in the agrosector by deploying effective regional and circular biobased business models for the valorisation of waste streams from 3 agricultural sectors grape olive and stone fruit this will expand real scenarios of commercial opportunities to diversify the economy of small and medium scale farmers and cooperatives enabling a more versatile biorefinery with a portfolio of biobased products this model will allow the integration of secondary streams in a holistic closed loop thus improving the ecological footprint and revenues with social impact robocoopeu will involve 8 actors of the primary sector in the establishment of biobased value chains avoid 2530 of ghg emissions by means of supply chain and logistic optimisation design 1 zerowaste multifeedstock biorefinery at industrial scale based on existing processes for biocompounds extraction and 2nd streams valorisation validate 17 new products 3 food formulations 3 feed additives 5 cosmetics and nutraceutics 1 plasticiser and 5 biofertilisersin order to achieve a successful implementation of the business models in its 3 regional hubs extremadura apulia and western macedonia robocoopeu will integrate multidisciplinary knowledge by developing cocreative spaces called living labs where partners and stakeholders will discuss and validate the most consensual pathway towards sustainable and profitable coparticipated biorefinery and seek for public and private fund scheme workable scenario robocoopeu consortium is composed by 22 multisectorial partners specifically designed to cover the entire biobased value chain in noncompetitive and complementary position which in turn will ensure an effective dissemination and exploitation of results
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structured unconventional reactors for co2free methane catalytic cracking
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storming will develop breakthrough and innovative structured reactors heated using renewable electricity to convert fossil and renewable ch4 into co2free h2 and highly valuable carbon nanomaterials for battery applications more specifically innovative febased catalysts highly active and easily regenerable by wastefree processes will be developed through a smart rational catalyst design protocol which combines theoretical density functional theory and molecular dynamics calculations and experimental cluster studies all of them assisted by in situ operando characterisation and machine learning tools the electrification microwave or jouleheated of structured reactors designed by computational fluid dynamics and prepared by 3d printing will enable an accurate thermal control resulting in high energy efficiency the project will validate at trl 5 the most promising catalytic technology chosen considering technological economic and environmental assessments to produce h2 with energy efficiency 60 netzero emissions and decreasing ca 10 the costs in comparison with the conventional process the dissemination and communication of the results will boost the social acceptance of the h2related technologies and the stakeholder engagement targeting shortterm process exploitation and deployment the key to reach the challenging objectives of storming is the highly complementary and interdisciplinary consortium where basic and applied science merge with engineering computer and social sciences
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solar polygeneration collector for combined heat power hydrogen fuel and wastewater treatment
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the spectrum project aims to develop validate and test an innovative solar concentrating collector that fully harness the solar spectrum by converting solar radiation into three renewable energy vectors solar heat solar electricity and green hydrogen required by industrial sector while performing industrial wastewater treatment spectrum will boost the sustainability of iww treatment converting waste into a valuable solar fuel through an efficient photocatalytic remediation process coupled with h2 cogeneration matching the energy grade between the solar spectrum and the conversions the system uses the uv for photocatalytic h2 production with synergistic degradation of pollutants infrared for generating thermal energy and visiblenear infrared light for pv electricity allowing to achieve higher solar conversion efficiency spectrum concept will go beyond the current state of the art through i the development of low cost sustainable photocatalysts with focus on dualfunctional photocatalysis processes ie h2 production and pollutants degradation and considering the easy recovery and reuse of the catalysts and ii development of spectral splitting solutions to separate ir part of the solar spectrum allowing the pv cells to be thermally decoupled from the thermal absorber generating hightemperature heat without compromising the electrical efficiency integrate optical thermal and electrical subsystem of spectrum hybrid solar collector will be design and developed aiming to reach an effective total management and distribution of the solar radiation two hybrid solar collector prototypes for low and medium temperature spectrumlt and spectrumht will be constructed and tested under outdoor conditions technoeconomic analysis using life cycle assessment and life cycle costing together with social impact analysis will be used to validate the sustainability of the spectrum approach in the economic environmental and social domains
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immersion cooling advanced materials for heat recovery from data centers
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the moderator project aims to improve the overall energy efficiency of data centres by developing an integrated system based on immersion cooling combined with novel and highly efficient longterm heat storage materials and systems the main innovations of the project are related to the development and integration of individual components which include i a novel designed immersion cooling system that enables heat recovery from data centres ii a novel waste heat recovery whr system using phase change materials pcms for efficient lowtemperature heat recovery iii a highly efficient multilayer insulation system for thermal energy storage tes that uses recycled glass granules and microparticles to minimize heat losses and iv the integration of these components into an automated prototype for direct heat utilization and longterm storage furthermore the project employs modeling and simulation activities evaluation tools and dissemination methods to increase the exploitation potential of the developed technologies the major outcome will be the operation and demonstration of a fully automated integrated prototype combining a 40 kw data centre immersion cooling system and a 500 kwh tes for whr trl8 potential utilization options of the stored thermal energy ie space heating and electricity generation will also be demonstrated within the project the successful implementation of the moderator project will have multiple impacts on different sectors to accomplish all these results the moderator project will build upon the wide expertise of its 11 partners in particular the consortium consists of 3 research organizations and 8 smes with experience on various research and technological areas including materials science systems design process engineering systems operation modeling and simulation technoeconomic environmental and socioeconomic assessment roadmap design dissemination and communication etc
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european men masculinity and extremist leadership online
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the emmelo project european men masculinity and extremist leadership online examines the role of masculinity in extremist movements online across europe and the threats it poses to democracy fundamental rights and eu values as is well established the internet has become a focal point for modern extremist activities what is less understood in a european context is the role masculinity plays in these online communities and platforms more insight is also required into how extremist leaders use and perform masculinity to appeal to european men and how in turn these men respond to these gender narratives and how this shapes their perception of democracy and the eu to address this need for deeper more critical understandings of these gendered phenomena emmelo focuses on six countries ireland sweden france hungary germany and slovakia exploring how different forms of masculinity are used by extremist movements and their leadership to appeal to men and undermine traditional democratic participation and discourse in cross european contexts the project explores how extremist movements construct perform and circulate narratives of masculinity online how these narratives shape the perspectives and gendered experiences of european men currently or formerly active in extremist online communities and the wider implications of these trends for democratic processes and social cohesion online and offline from its activities emmelo will develop innovative gendersensitive tools and policy recommendations to enable policymakers practitioners and citizens better understand and address the role of masculinity in modern european extremist movements the projects findings will be targeted at key audiences in formats designed to raise awareness at the levels of policy practice and citizen of the key role masculinity plays in extremism including how to identify it discuss it and challenge it
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promoting green nudging for sustainable agriculture and forestry
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prudent aspires to change the way agriculture and forestry systems currently operate and to accelerate the transition to sustainable agriculture and forestry practices and smart farming technologies the project will identify and evaluate the most effective green nudges in the context of appropriate behavioural and experimental settings that can enable farmerforester behavioural change to more sustainable agriculture and forestry nudges will be also tested in natural contexts to evaluate the interactive effect of nudges with actual policy changes in the transition to sustainability innovative nudging tools in the form of webmobile apps will be employed to boost farmerforester selfregulatory capacity and enhance the durability of nudging effects four different systems representing major farming and forestry systems in europe arable crops wheat perennial crops grapevines apples olives livestock bovines and forests boreal forests in various eu regions northern southern and central europe will be studied to account for the heterogeneity of farmingforestry systems and contexts in the eu the behavioural insights are used to develop transformative pathways via social innovations business models and policy recommendations to encourage transition to fair healthy and environmentallyfriendly agriculture and forestry systems prudent will provide a set of social innovations and business models establishing roadmaps for a shift towards sustainable agriculture and forestry and will develop a series of policy recommendations and tools to foster behaviourally informed policy design and implementation throughout the projects lifespan multiple value chain actors at various levels of society will actively participate in cocreation activities to establish a mutual understanding of the benefits and bottlenecks of the value chain as well as effective transformation pathways to change
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future agricultural resource management and water innovations for a sustainable europe
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farmwise transforms the eu agricultural sector by empowering farmers and decisionmakers with a stateoftheart decision support system combining precision agriculture artificial intelligence and remote sensing farmwise provides new insights into water quality quantity soil health and nutrient managementfarmwises stateoftheart framework fosters knowledge sharing between scientists farmers and policymakers in a cocreation environment systems thinking it consolidates existing collaborations and promotes new longterm cooperations between european organisations including water4all brgm and water europe sitesthe farmwise project will develop improved tools based on artificial intelligence ai for more efficient european water policy and decisionmaking founded on researchbased technologies to solve the most burning water pollution and climate change problems for this purpose the farmwise consortium brings together the best european water agricultural climate and ai researchers to handle the sustainability of water resources the natural environment and efficient agriculture in the highly diverse european landscape in view of present and future climate change farmwises impact will increase interest and bond cooperation of quadruple helix stakeholders for sciencebased solutionsfarmwise evaluates monitors and implements gender and diversity balance in the consortium during the planned activities t74 all partners have established policies to foster gender equality diversity and inclusion for all employees uea holds a silver athena swan award in recognition of good practice in recruiting retaining and promoting women in stemm subjects
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the impact of 3d regulatory landscapes on the evolution of developmental programs
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vertebrate genomes are organized in 3d regulatory landscapes that control pleiotropic gene expression within them transcription emerges from a precise interplay between genes regulatory elements and 3d chromatin organization we and others have shown how mutations in these regulatory layers can modulate phenotypes however how 3d regulatory landscapes shape the evolutionary history of developmental programs is still largely unexploredour limited capability to read interpret and modify genomes has constrained our knowledge on how gene regulation evolves however recent advances in longrange sequencing singlecell chromatin interaction and genome editing methods offer novel tools to link genomic variation and phenotypes here i will combine these methods to investigate how changes in 3d regulatory landscapes contribute to refine the function of developmental programs as a testbed i will study gonadal sex determination an essential process for species perpetuation but characterized by a remarkable evolutionary plasticitywe will use singlecell transcriptomics across tetrapod clades to unravel the core and variable transcriptional network of sex determination singlecell epigenomics and novel chromatin interaction methods will reconstruct 3d regulatory landscapes and infer sources of regulatory variation with phylogenomic comparative strategies we will estimate the contribution of different types of mutations to different sex determination programmes as well as the impact of whole genome duplications finally we will develop innovative transgenic methods for interspecies replacement of 3d regulatory landscapes using this technology to activate early estrogen synthesis in mouse 3drevolution will provide groundbreaking insights on the evolution of gene regulation this will improve our understanding of the genomic sources and underlying mechanisms of phenotypical variation which are relevant for developmental and evolutionary genetics
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societyaware machine learning the paradigm shift demanded by society to trust machine learning
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to date the design of ethical machine learning ml algorithms has been dominated by technology owners and remains broadly criticized for strategically seeking to avoid legally enforceable restrictions in order to foster trust in ml technologies society demands technology designers to deeply engage all relevant stakeholders in the ml development this erc project aims at responding to this call with a societyaware approach to ml saml my goal is to enable the collaborative design of ml algorithms so that they are not only driven by economic interests of the technology owners but are agreed upon by all stakeholders and ultimately trusted by society to this end i aim to develop multiparty ml algorithms that explicitly account for the goals of different stakeholdersie owners those experts that design the algorithm eg technology companies consumers those that are affected by the algorithm eg users and regulators those experts that set the regulatory framework for their use eg policy makers the proposed methodology will enable quantifying and jointly optimizing the business goals of the owners eg profit the benefits of the consumers eg information access and the risks defined by the regulators eg societal polarization the saml project involves a highriskhighgain paradigm shift from an ownercentered to a societycentered multiparty ml design on the one hand it will require significant and challenging methodological innovations at every stage of the ml development from the data collection all the way to the algorithm learning on the other hand it will impact how ml technologies are deployed in society by enabling an informed discussion among different stakeholders and in general by society about these new technologies the results of this project will provide the urgently needed methodological foundations to ensure that these new technologies are at the service of society
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dual challenges in the discovery and sustainability of nanozeolites controlling defect sites and structural flexibility
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zeolites are a class of nanoporous crystalline inorganic materials that rank among the most versatile catalysts and are capable of facilitating the development of sustainable chemistry separation and emerging processes the aim of zeolight is to understand the fundamental molecularlevel interactions leading to specific crystallization events of nanozeolites to direct their properties the three challenges are 1 rational formation of molecularlyordered precursors with different tetrahedral tatoms understanding the fundamentals of zeolite growth kinetics in colloidal and high solid precursors resulting in frameworks with controlled defects and flexible structures fundamental understanding of defects and flexibility of nanozeolites 2 translate the discovery at the atomistic scale to development of novel nanozeolites and finetuning of relevant properties including crystals size pore dimension framework structure bulk chemistry and stability engineering nanozeolites and 3 relate the defects and flexibility as the origin of the remarkable properties of ultrastable zeolites for applications in heterogeneous catalysis the selection of the nonoxidative conversion of methane reaction as a specific case but not limited to will be considered application the mysterious defects associated with the generation of various silanol species brnsted acid sites and vacancies as integral parts of the reaction center of zeolites and their relation to the framework flexibility will be elucidated by advanced characterization the zeolight project will be the fundamental scientific driver for seeking novel nanozeolites and fully realize the knowledge gained in global cases where porous materials are considered the key achievements are understanding the properties of nanozeolites by uncovering the consequences of defects and flexibility the nanozeolites will claim a sizeable share of the global zeolite market for both classical and emerging applications
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implementing wastewater and environmental surveillance for mpox in subsaharan africa
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mpox a reemerging viral zoonotic disease has recently posed significant public health challenges in subsaharan africa particularly in the democratic republic of congo drc the disease has led to thousands of suspected cases and hundreds of deaths prompting the drc ministry of health to declare a public health emergency in april 2024 given the rapid spread and high fatality rate of the outbreak a coordinated research response is urgently needed to understand and mitigate this public health threatmpoxs emergence as a significant public health threat in subsaharan africa aligns with project odins core objective of addressing critical infectious pathogens through genomic surveillance and wastewaterbased epidemiology building upon the successful foundation of project odin this proposal aims to implement a comprehensive water genomic surveillance system specifically targeting the mpox outbreak in the drc and neighboring countriesby leveraging advanced genomic surveillance and wastewaterbased epidemiology this initiative will provide novel critical and timely insights into the presence and spread of the mpox virus in the environment this information will guide targeted public health interventions such as targeted vaccination campaigns and resource allocation to highrisk areas additionally the approach will enable the early detection of the mpox virus in water sources allowing for rapid public health interventions to prevent further transmissionthe project will identify mpox virus sublineages with the highest impact on case numbers and fit them into a global context providing evidence of international sublineages that likely emerged or spread early in the drc and neighboring countries this data will be crucial not only in addressing the immediate outbreak but also in contributing to building global public health strategies and preparedness for future outbreaks by gaining a deeper understanding of the mpox virus itself
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intergenerational spillovers of paternity leave
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recent evaluations show that paternity leave reforms have successfully increased fathers involvement in childcare and have contributed to a shift in gender norms but whether this shift in gender norms can be passed on to the next generation and affect childrens reallife decisions remains to be seen this study thus fills an important gap since preference formation and social norms have been found to be the main contributor to the persistence of gender inequality over timethe objectives of this research project are twofold first it will determine whether the introduction of paternity leave can promote counterstereotypical attitudes that are transmitted from parents to children a survey of young adults exposed or not to a father eligible for paternity leave will be conducted to measure attitudes toward gender roles second the study will evaluate whether paternity leave has spillover effects on the next generations reallife decisions as such it will use register data to observe whether young adults human capital labour supply or fertility decisions are affected by their fathers use of paternity leaveto evaluate the intergenerational spillover effects of paternity leave this research proposes to analyse the 2002 belgian paternity leave reform which offers an appealing setup indeed belgium was an early adopter of paternity leave policies introducing a twoweek leave in 2002 the children of belgian fathers have therefore entered adulthood and will be 22 years old in 2024 to measure the causal effects of the paternity leave reform across generations the study will use a natural experiment that relies on the fact that when paternity leave was introduced in belgium in 2002 only fathers of children born after july 1 were eligible to take the paid leave using a regression discontinuity design this research will therefore compare young adults born before and after the reform cutoff
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smart complex emulsions a versatile approach to optoelectronics and sensors
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dynamically reconfigurable complex emulsions are becoming increasingly important in pharmaceuticals medical diagnostics and sensing the main objective of smartdrops is to develop original smart complex emulsions sces and unlock their extraordinary multifaceted potential by creating novel integrated devices in particular smartdrops will be focused on exploring three potential applications of sces 1 sces containing multifunctional liquid crystals to create new dynamically controlled lensing devices 2 sces that can form complex nanostructures which will be used as highperformance organic electronics devices wherein the liquid crystal organization will facilitate the charge transport and 3 scesbased sensors that will be incorporated into organsonchips for continuous monitoring of cell activity without the need for complex and specialized equipment our target materials and their properties are relevant to present and newly emerging technologies including highresolution microlenses highperformance opvofet devices and inexpensive chemical sensors with extraordinary sensitivity and versatilitysmartdrops includes a strong transfer of knowledge between the host institution and me the fellowship will advance my future independent research career in chemistry by providing me an interdisciplinary training in widerange of skills mentoring from leading experts in the field and helping me to develop a new research line that has not yet been investigated at the hosting institution the results emerging from smartdrops will have a significant impact on the scientific community focused on the preparation of advanced functional materials the proposed applications may contribute to advance future innovative technologies and thus special attention will be given to the exploitation of the scientific results and their ip protection this multidisciplinary project is in line with the msca strategy contributing to europes competitiveness and growth
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prediction monitoring and personalized recommendations for prevention and relief of dementia and frailty
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comfortage is a joint effort of medical experts ie neurologists psychiatrists neuropsychologists nurses memory clinics social scientists and humanists technical experts ie data scientists ai experts robotic experts and digital innovation hubs to establish a pan european framework for communitybased integrated and peoplecentric prevention monitoring and progression managing solutions for agerelated diseases and disabilities the projects framework will be empowered by a unique combination and integration of i medicalclinical innovations eg novel approaches to risk factor analysis and personalized prediction aibased medical devices integrated data sources of agerelated clinical evidence and evidencebased healthcare technology assessment hta ii cutting edge ai innovations eg explainable ai xai secure ai serious games patient digital twins virtual assistive technologies for trusted accurate secure and personalized clinical decision making iii digital innovation hubs eg smart homes robotics and living labs to facilitate and promote research activities in the health and wellbeing domain and iv social innovations for promoting innovative views and cocreating new or improved solutions for assistance and improvement of social integration and interaction comfortage will facilitate the integration harmonization and management of a host of different data sources including biobanks cohorts medical records longitudinal observational studies realworld data about patients as well of alternative secondary data sources such as sensors wearables and mobiles in a standardized structure called holistic health records hhrs comfortage will become a catalyst to help prevent monitor and manage progression of agerelated diseases and disabilities especially of dementia and frailty based on highend research and analysis of the utilization of the aforementioned technologies
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the city rising inequality and mobility in a growing metropolis of the 19th century
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the rising industrial metropolises of the 19th century faced a series of timeless challenges the disruptive effects of new technologies the integration of new immigrants the threat of epidemics in this project we study with the use of novel highquality highfrequency individuallevel archival data how the city of munich dealt with these challenges and provided opportunities for economic and social mobility to its dwellers in the period 18231914 our study is composed of three parts in part 1 we study the consequences of a technological shock the introduction of mass transportation on the spatial structure of the city we show how occupations and businesses were subject to differential agglomeration forces and document the reorganization of economic activity and residents across space using schooling data we study the impact of this reorganization on social mobility in part 2 we study how members of a long marginalized ethnic group jews were integrated into the growing city and how they rose to ranks of the educated upper middle classes we study the initial conditions that determined their occupational specialization and eventual success place of origin religious current residential segregation human capital of ancestors we also study assimilation strategies and identity choices as evidenced by first name choices human capital investments and intermarriage in part 3 we study how the provision of a core health amenity sanitation reshaped the social geography of the city we analyze its consequences on child mortality fertility choices and human capital investments using linked individual data and consider the confounding role of spatial sorting in this process we expect our research to unify hitherto disparate literatures in economic history urban economics political economy and social mobility and to demonstrate the feasibility of collecting largescale individuallevel data from european history
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atomically layered materials for nextgeneration metasurfaces
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atomically layered materials composed of individual atomic planes bonded together by weak van der waals vdw interactions have sparked a revolution in solid state physics due to their unique electronic properties and capability for forming multimaterial heterostructures with atomically sharp interfaces however accessing fundamental electronic excitations of twodimensional 2d materials optically has so far been a major challenge due to the associated low absorption cross sections and their low environmental stability metanext will establish a new paradigm for amplifying and harnessing lightmatter interactions in 2d materials by shaping vdw heterostructures into the resonant building blocks of optical metasurfaces at the core of the proposed platform is the implementation of nanostructured hexagonal boron nitride hbn as a photonically active material pushing beyond its currently prevalent use as a passive buffer layer in optoelectronics leveraging the emerging concept of optical bound states in the continuum i will use my extensive experience in nanophotonic engineering to design and experimentally realize hbnbased metasurfaces with ultrasharp resonances incorporating mono and fewlayer systems of vdw materials allowing direct optical access to such 2d systems with unprecedented efficiency and spectralspatial control over the excitation specifically i will utilize the metanext platform to 1 push the limits of lightmatter coupling in black phosphorus heterostructures 2 greatly boost the efficiency of singlephoton generation from localized defects in atomically thin molybdenum disulfide mos2 and to 3 realize a completely new concept for valleydependent onchip lasing from transition metal dichalcogenide tmd monolayers metanext will deliver both fundamental insights into the optical excitation mechanisms of current and future 2d materials as well as important conceptual advances for practical chipintegrated quantum light sources
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the centrioles role in male infertiliy
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applying cuttingedge technology like cryoelectron tomography subtomogram averaging and singleparticle cryoelectron microscopy to sperm cells i aim to uncover structural details of sperm centriolesas most other cells in the human body sperm cells carry two centrioles called the proximal and the distal centriole in the field of reproduction biology it is widely accepted that these organelles are essential for the process of fertilization one of their many important functions for this process is to provide centrioles for the zygote as oocytes lose their own centrioles during maturation yet the molecular mechanisms that determine their exact role in mediating fertility is not entirely understoodconcurrently infertility is increasing globally and so is the demand for treatment commonly summarized as assisted reproductive technology art the success rate of art is however only between 3040 and even lower for women older than 35 one of the underlying reasons is that in up to 60 of the cases male infertility is idiopathic these numbers underpin the urge of improving our understanding of sperm biology and the molecular mechanisms of fertilization this project defines three main objectives to achieve this1resolve the ultrastructure of sperm centrioles by applying cryoelectron tomography2isolation and highresolution structure determination of the proximal centriole by cryoelectron microscopy3comparison of the centriole ultrastructure of sperm from fertile and infertile individualsa comprehensive structurefunction investigation in a native setting will shed light on how centrioles are embedded within the neck of sperm cells at high resolution proteins that are associated to the centrioles and link them to surrounding structures can be identified finally these findings will improve the understanding of male infertility the diagnosis of such and ultimately increase the success rate of in vitro fertilization treatments
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evaluation of lesion network mapping as a technique to identify therapeutic targets for brain disorders
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disorders of the brain are a major source of disability and place an enormous burden on society currently many firstline treatmentsare nonspecific invasive or cause sideeffects noninvasive brain stimulation techniques such as repetitive transcranial magneticstimulation rtms have been shown to offer a safe treatment alternative with rtms first clinically approved for major depression in 2007 unfortunately since then translation to other disorders has been slow mainly due to the lack of reliable methods to identify where in the brain to stimulate lesion network mapping lnm is a method recently introduced to address this problem lnm works by mapping the connections of causative brain lesions converging upon a small number of commonly connected locations in the brain lnm has localised abnormal networks in over 40 different disorders however as yet no study has tested whether these networks respond to treatment therefore the aim of this study is to conduct a clinical trial testing whether rtms delivered to a specific site in the somatosensory cortex identified in our previously published lnm study corp et al 2019 brain results in treatment benefit for cervical dystonia patients cervical dystonia is an ideal test case as changes in abnormal neck movement symptoms are easily measurable and this somatosensory location is on the surface of the brain so easily reachable with rtms we will employ a randomised shamcontrolled doubleblind crossover clinical trial with 30 patients receiving 10 daily sessions of real and sham rtms before and after the brain stimulation we will collect clinical behavioural and physiological data to measure patients response to the intervention improvement in cervical dystonia symptoms after brain stimulation would serve as proof of the principle that lnm can effectively identify therapeutic targets potentially unlocking safe and effective treatment protocols for a range of brain disorders
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science society and environmental change in the first millennium ce
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in the mediterranean in the first millennium ce environmental and climatic changes have been identified as causes for significant short and longterm societal and political processes and events such as epidemics and the rise and fall of empires however the effects of environmental or climatic variation on humans are substantially more complex than a narrative of causation of major events since culturally specific perceptions and interpretations of environmental or climatic variation can have significant social religious or political implicationssse1k builds on stateoftheart research but goes beyond it to ask novel important questions about relationships between past societies and environmental climatic fluctuation the project will pioneer an approach which is both multi and interdisciplinary centring on these questions how did humans experience and perceive environmental and climatic variation across the mediterranean in the first millennium ce and how did they respond both intellectually and socially to these changing conditions sse1k addresses issues which have been raised as significant challenges for collaborative study of climate change but have yet to be fully addressed it will investigate how the circulation of knowledge and adaptability intersect with sustainability and resilience in premodern societies and how human perceptions and ways of thinking shaped societal political or religious responses to environmental climatic changethe project will integrate textual archaeological and environmental evidence to investigate a large geographical area the mediterranean at a scale which balances human lived experience and climate trends the first millennium ce over macro and microlevels this integration is crucial in producing a holistic picture of past knowledge resilience and sustainability and will change the ways that scholars understand the relationships between past humans and environmental climatic fluctuation
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biological nitrification inhibition bni of the root exudates under drought stress in wheat and maize
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globally the use of nitrogen n fertilizer for agricultural purposes is tremendous with an estimated total of 120 million tyear due to high nitrification activity in the soil much of the n applied to farmland about 70 is not absorbed by the crops and gets washed out resulting in water pollution and the emission of nitrous oxide n2o a powerful greenhouse gas 298 times co2 global warming effect suppressing the nitrification rate of agricultural soil could be a sustainable solution plant roots can exudate natural compounds that prevent nitrification a process known as biological nitrification inhibition bni wheat and maize are staple cereals that require excess fertilizers and their efficiency has not increased to meet future food demand since 1980 the main aim of this study is to screen root exudates secondary metabolites of diverse wheat and maize genotypes for their bni compounds and also evaluate the bni potential under drought stress even though wheat and maize are major cereals covering the largest area among food crops the study of its root exudates and the potential presence of bni compounds and related bni capacity have scarcely been studied consequently the discovery possibility of new bni compounds remains minimally explored in these crops and root exudate plasticity in response to environmental changes is still extremely limited the evaluation and selection of crop varieties lowers the nitrogen fertilizer dependency and is suitability for sustainable agriculture translates into specific key activities 1 biochemical characterization of agronomic and environmental traits of the germplasm collection 2 measurement of secondary metabolites in root exudates of germplasm lines in glasshouse under drought stress conditions to explore the full diversity of natural metabolic variation and bni activity and 3 potential isolation of new bni compounds and understand how plant traits and phylogeny are associated to this capacity
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microfluidic wastewater treatment and creation of green hydrogen via electrochemical reactions
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macghyver produces green hydrogen from wastewater using innovation in highvolume microfluidics noncrm electrodes and electrochemical compression the device performs advanced water treatment while producing hydrogen resulting in clean water as a byproduct the design consists of modular stackable units capable of small to large scale production volume the novel components microfluidic electrolyser electrochemical compressor separator are combined with existing renewable energy sources for maximum sustainability design and development are guided by lifecycle analysis of each system ultimately the device enables the production of clean energy and clean water a key enabling technology for decarbonization and the advent of the european green deal
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wireless ultrasound powered diamond based neural stimulators
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the neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disordered in central nervous system cns are increasingly recognised as major causes of death and disability in the world which eventually treatment cost is about 800 billion per year the main reason behind the nonexistence of efficient treatment is that unlike young neurons mature neurons from the cns lose the ability to regenerate their axons after injury to understand the detailed mechanisms remain not only unknown in neuroscience but represents also a major challenge for public health and society neurostimulation is technique that stimulate the activity of neuron and provides solutions to fill the knowledge gap current neurostimulation techniques somehow limited to large neuron brain areas rely on wires to powering system and suffers from rejection by body inflammable the emerging wireless and batteryfree technologies based on ultrasonic communication allows to remove electrode connections to external source the overall goal of sononeuros project is to develop proof of concept of a fully wireless ultrasoundbased powering of electrical stimulation technique with in submm range with diamond electrode materials this research proposal aims to develop and validate the proposed stimulators for sufficient amount fully wireless power communication battery free with shrinking size for implantable within 100 m we will use diamond due to interesting properties for chronic implantation is its high resistance to corrosion very good biocompatibility in this idea combining ultrasound powering with piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer pmut technology to diamond electrodes in order to reduce the size results at a smaller scale axial resolution of single neuron activity after develop wireless neural stimulators we will have used it to study the effect of electrical stimulation on output of retinal ganglion cells rgcs which provides new way towards to visual prostheses
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injectable nanoelectrodes for wireless and minimally invasive neural stimulation
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neural devices used in the brain and spinal cord have yielded medical breakthroughs to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injury parkinsons disease and hearing loss however current neural devices are large complex and invasive and are therefore used by only a fraction of people who could benefit from them instead i want to make neural devices that are nanoscale injectable and wireless by lowering invasiveness and implantation risk this technology could address the unmet medical needs of more people with neurological impairments the work proposed herein is to develop a minimally invasive nanoelectrode system capable of wireless spatially selective and multiplexed neural stimulation i have previously developed nanoelectrodes that directly stimulated ie with no geneticbiochemical neuron modification the deep brain of mice as a proofofconcept this was possible because unlike other wireless neural technologies device powering was nonresonant and thus independent of size in my proposed research i will now develop optimized nanoelectrodes and i will approach this by developing a toolbox of nanomaterials to study and learn from in particular i will look at how nanoelectrode size and shape affects signalresponse and neurostimulation this approach will generate new enabling technologies such as the ability to individually stimulate some particles while ignoring others for multiplexed stimulation control while the field of nanoscale and wireless neuroelectrodes is exceptionally small new and high risk the proposed work could one day enable minimally invasive wireless neural modulation
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the ethics of empty beliefs chinese buddhist philosophy in the period of disunity
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is it ethical to believe chinbuddhphil will explore this basic yet troubling question by reconstructing what is a hitherto largely unstudied yet highly original philosophical conception of how belief relates to ethical action substantively this project will constitute a major contribution to the historical and systematic study of chinese buddhist philosophy it will accomplish this end through specialist research on the unduly neglected sanlun school a foundationally important movement active during a seminal period in the epochally transformative history of buddhism in china this will be the first comprehensive elaboration of sanlun philosophy in any western language by placing sanlun into debate with its indian antecedents later elaborations within chinese buddhism and analogues in western philosophy this project will also forge multiple disciplinary innovations thus within philosophy it will transform our understanding of philosophically valuable traditions by demonstrating that chinese buddhist philosophers merit consideration not only as historical artifacts but as genuinely interesting and insightful contributors to live philosophical problems it will likewise redress the preponderant exclusion of chinese perspectives from philosophicallyoriented scholarship in buddhist studies and do so in a manner that bridges it with philologicallyoriented buddhology and by investigating both the transmission of indian buddhist thought into china and its transformation once established there it will revise the standard chronology of chinese buddhist philosophy theorize indiachina as a globalized sphere of dynamic intellectual interaction within transcultural asian studies and inform scholarship on cultural appropriation and assimilation enculturation and acculturation all from a distinctly noneurocentric perspective methodologically chinbuddhphil will use synchronic hermeneuticphilosophical as well as diachronic texthistorical methods
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disrupting gendered stereotypes and disclosing neglected valueladen motivations of academic entrepreneurship
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economic growth boosted by entrepreneurs and gender inclusivity is one of the major priorities of the european agenda which calls for more entrepreneurs and empowers female entrepreneurship the transfer of knowledge and technology generated in academic settings to the industry is essential for this growth one condition for this transfer to happen is that researchers are willing to engage in research commercialization ventures or in relationships with industry actors previous research has shown on the one hand that scientists have intrinsic valueladen motivations to engage in these ventures or relationships other than pecuniary reasons
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taxonomy and azole resistance in aspergillus section flavi
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the project on taxonomy and azole resistance in aspergillus section flavi aims to investigate the classification and drug resistance patterns of fungal species within this specific section aspergillus section flavi comprises various species known to produce carcinogenic aflatoxins posing significant risks to human and animal healththe project involves taxonomic studies to accurately identify and classify different species within aspergillus section flavi this classification is essential for understanding the diversity and distribution of these fungi as well as their specific traits and potential virulence factors another crucial aspect of the project is the investigation of azole resistance in aspergillus section flavi azoles are commonly used antifungal drugs for treating aspergillus infections however reports of azole resistance in certain aspergillus species have raised concerns understanding the mechanisms behind azole resistance is crucial for developing effective treatment strategies and identifying potential targets for drug developmentthe project involves molecular analysis techniques to detect and characterize genetic mutations or other mechanisms associated with azole resistance in aspergillus section flavi additionally it may involve assessing the clinical impact of azole resistance on patient outcomes and exploring potential risk factors for the development and spread of resistant strainsby combining taxonomic studies with investigations into azole resistance the project aims to enhance our understanding of the diversity distribution and drug resistance profiles of aspergillus species within section flavi this knowledge can ultimately contribute to improved diagnostic methods treatment approaches and public health strategies to mitigate the impact of these fungal infections
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science and dogma tracing natural knowledge within scholastic theology 15451789
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the early modern period is usually viewed as a time of profound change including the socalled scientific revolution and the protestantcatholic reformation historians have linked these two seemingly disparate transformations in many different ways but one important dimension is yet to be uncovered scigmas main hypothesis is that natural knowledge significantly influenced dogmatics as a central branch of theology in the early modern university university textbooks eagerly addressed many questions related to natural knowledge such as can the bodily resurrection be understood from a physiological perspective which physics apply for the eucharist while much has been written on the impact of theology on the natural sciences scigma will turn the tables to uncover their truly entangled relationship the project will systematically investigate how naturalism and empiricism informed scholastic and dogmatic theology from the council of trent to the french revolution across all western christian denominations its research agenda will consider theology as a scientia in the premodern university and therefore include it within the history of science and knowledgescigmas first goal is to discover the multiple and changing ways in which natural knowledge informed premodern scholastic theology which sought a rational reconstruction of faith second it will uncover what effective epistemological frameworks accommodated this interplay of empiricism and revelation third it will trace how these epistemological frameworks were determined by their embedding within religious and secular institutions of learning this complex historical analysis will reveal the significant role of the physicodogmatic domain in institutional learning thereby it sheds novel light on how premodern western societies fundamentally reshaped scientific inquiry while being deeply religious and ultimately paved the way to secularization and scientism in these societies
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water for the people dcor for the city nymphaea and public fountains in iudaeasyriapalaestina and provincia arabia from the roman until the byzantine periods ca 1st bce7th ce
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hydraulic installations play a fundamental role in human survival development and the prosperity of urban settlements mostly in semiarid regions in this regard waterdecor plans to investigate nymphaea and public fountains in iudaeasyriapalaestina and provincia arabia from the establishment of the roman province until the byzantine period ca 1st bce7th century ce it analyses the ways in which these water management installations were built across this vast semiarid geographical area and evaluates cultural social and economic implications through a historical perspective and the record of past societies this project embraces the eus challenges in the field of climate action and resource efficiency bringing awareness to the importance of conscious water use furthermore in line with the strategic framework for the eus cultural policy and the european neighbourhood policy enp this research promotes international cultural relations with southern neighbours israel syria jordan palestine lebanon the projects novelty consists in considering a group of infrastructures from a vast geographic area over time and most importantly it undertakes an overall examination that moves away from traditional studies based on individual monuments or typology stricto sensu it delves into a multitude of aspects that makes it possible to enhance several issues spanning from ancient technologies to climate change issues the specific objective focuses on nymphaea and public fountains in a context of semiarid o arid climatic conditions which makes the construction of large waterconsuming structures challenging the second objective investigates urban and sociocultural contexts and how these constructions were perceived by the local population the third objective examines climate change effects on these structures and in general on the urban water distribution system
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additive manufacturing of amorphous metals for soft magnetics
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am2softmag is working toward the vision that one day 3d printing will become the de facto standard technology for the manufacturing of highperformance amorphous softmagnetic components for highly efficient electrical machines and passive electrical components to prove the viability of the approach the partners expect to demonstrate superior operating efficiency of an electric motor comprised of softmagnetic stator and rotor components created by means of selective laser melting slm of softmagnetic bulk metallic glass bmg alloys and powders specially designed and optimized for the additive manufacturing am process adding to the already outstanding magnetic and mechanical properties of bmgs this incremental casting process overcomes the wall thickness limitations of conventional metallic glass casting processes enables the energyefficient near netshape production of complex geometries not achievable by other means and opens up avenues for the digital design of microlocalized properties throughout the components furthermore the method will expand the spectrum of manufacturable and recyclable amorphous metals thereby increasing the availability of alloys with unique magnetic and mechanical properties while reducing or eliminating the need for environmentally critical elements such as cobaltwe establish a long overdue cooperation among academic and industrial leaders in the fields of metallic glass design and processing mechanical and magnetic testing quality control and certification as well as design and testing of electrical machines through the design of powdered amorphous softmagnetic alloys optimization of slm process parameters and verification of resulting electromagnetic devices we will achieve major breakthroughs in the flexible and energyefficient production of superior softmagnetic components thereby enhancing the energy efficiency of electrical devices and thus substantially contributing to the european green deal
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ice coupling protein inhibitors
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antibiotic resistance ar is one of the greatest threats to human health the global overuse of antibiotics has resulted in the proliferation and dissemination of antibiotic resistant bacteria harboring a multitude of antibiotic resistance genes that can be mobilized by different horizontal gene transfer processes such as conjugation integrative conjugative elements ices are mobile genetic elements which are typically found integrated in the bacterial chromosome and encode the machinery for their conjugation the socalled coupling proteins have a critical role in the conjugation process icecoup is focused on the molecular and functional characterization of a critical component for ice transmission the coupling protein with the ultimate goal of finding ice conjugation inhibitors to block or at least minimize the ar spread to date ice coupling proteins have received little attention despite their importance in the transfer mechanism the supervision of dr itziar alkorta at the university of basque countryupvehu is a key element to guarantee the success of this project icecoup will generate extensive and innovative scientific outputs that in the long run will have a societal impact enhancing the catalogue of weapons to combat antibiotic resistance the multidisciplinary approach of icecoup will allow me the reinforce my scientific knowledge and soft skills while i acquire outreach and project management capacities undoubtedly should this project be funded it will strengthen my prospects to forge a stable career as an independent researcher able to secure funding
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hormonefree solution for vaginal atrophy
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vaginal atrophy va is a chronic and progressive condition va impacts on the quality of life relationships everyday activities and confidence of women sufferers it is associated with thinning drying and inflammation of the vaginal tissue it is experienced by 80 of all women globally and is the most common symptom of the menopause over 70 of breast cancer survivors will also suffer from va due to side effects of chemotherapy and the cancerblocker drugs they take further exacerbate symptoms of va current treatment options for va primarily pharmaceuticals are either ineffective or poorly tolerated in the eu and us 36m patients of va reject existing treatments aveta a medical device delivering the only hormone free affordable and safe targeted therapy for all women suffering from va solution is based on pathophysiology of wound healing and will be prescribed by a clinician in an outpatient setting and women will selfadminister the therapy monthly at home
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deep multiplexed epigenetic profiling of plasma cellfree nucleosomes for early cancer diagnostics
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over recent years cancer diagnostics based on cellfree dna cfdna in liquid biopsies demonstrated great promise in guiding treatment and screening for recurrent diseases current diagnostic strategies are mainly based on the analyses of dna mutations fragment length or dna methylation status however these strategies do not provide a universal approach for cancer identification are costly and labour intensive and generally fall short in detecting cancer at early tumorigenic stages or minimal residual disease an underexplored field is the development of diagnostic applications based on histone posttranslational modifications ptms the strategy to harness these epigenetic signatures to identify celloforigin is potentially superior over stateofthe art methods because it offers targeted and multiplexed amplifications of exclusively informative genomic regions ie promoters and enhancers such strategies are costeffective and display much increased sensitivity over existing methods in their accuracy in eg early cancer diagnoses relapse detection or screenings unfortunately the development of this field is hampered by a lack of methods that are sensitive enough to detect multilayered histone ptmsignatures in samples with limited material such as blood plasma this proposal describes our plan to implement two new strategies for ultrasensitive detection of multilayered histone ptms signatures in blood plasma our proposal outlines 1 a research plan for the implementation and optimization of these strategies to profile histone ptm profiles in plasma of healthy and patient material to determine the diagnostic potential of the method and 2 develop a market strategy and navigate product development opportunities for commercialization of the method successful execution of this proposal will result in the establishment of a novel diagnostic strategy with unprecedented potential for universal cancer screeningapproaches based on liquid biopsies
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mcaa new horizon enhancing the impact of msca alumni on the european research landscape
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the mcaanewhorizon project will provide support to the management of the marie curie alumni association mcaa as well as to the implementation of its core activities the mcaa is an international nonprofit organisation that brings together current and past marie skodowskacurie actions msca fellows its main goal is to increase the impact of the msca by promoting networking opportunities for the alumni by supporting their career development and by providing feedback to the european commission and other organisations on the msca and other policiesthe project activities will be organised in five core work packages governance management it includes activities aiming to ensure a proper management of the association eg support to governing bodies working groups and regional chapters wgc and the overall administration of the mcaa alumni engagement networking and services it includes activities aiming to engage msca fellows in the mcaa and its initiatives such as the annual conference and events organised by wgc it also aims to provide support for the career development of the msca alumni via access to education and training opportunities financial support for the participation in events and courses promotion of networking opportunities etc policy institutional relations it mostly concerns the provision of feedback to the commission on the msca and other policies partly based on surveys to the mcaa members it also includes all institutional relations with relevant scientific and nonscientific organisations that could represent a benefit for the msca alumni eg through partnership agreement with institutions communication outreach it includes all activities aiming to disseminate the activities of the association engage msca fellows and promote the msca to different audiences worldwide it infrastructure it will mostly deal with the further development of the website as a digital ecosystem
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a circuit perspective on olfaction how learning and context shape the propagation of information between brain areas
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sensory information is initially processed in specialized brain areas but only integration with previously acquired knowledge provides meaningful information for flexible action selection this requires the propagation of information from sensory to association areas where sensory information is put into context and memories are acquired the entorhinalhippocampal network is of particular importance for information integration and memory formation recent findings about learninginduced changes in sensory areas raise the question whether they occur independently or reflect altered topdown influence of the abundant feedback projections from associative areaswhile learning and contextrelated changes of activity have been described for individual brain areas it is largely unknown how learning affects propagation of information between areas the proposed project aims to dissect the mechanisms by which learning and context shape propagation of sensory information from the olfactory system to the entorhinalhippocampal network in mice olfaction provides unique features to address this aim a short pathway from sensory to association areas a discrete time frame for information sampling by respiration and the capability of mice to quickly learn odorguided tasksthe main hypothesis of this project is that timing and synchrony of neuronal activity are key parameters in determining the propagation of information between brain areas and that they are affected by learning and context through feedback projections from association areas this hypothesis will be tested by simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in olfactory bulb piriform cortex lateral entorhinal cortex and hippocampus during learning of odorreward associations combined with optogenetic manipulations and anatomical assessment of connectivity between these areasthis project will reveal the mechanisms by which learning and context change the propagation of information between brain areas
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from maternal hormones to malaria susceptibility and accelerated ageing new insights from wild birds
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for centuries malaria has been a major global health concern and despite intensive research efforts malaria infection remains a key issue for many countries malaria parasites are also responsible for wildlife population declines and even extinction of many bird species despite being exposed to the same risk there is a clear interindividual variation in the susceptibility to malaria infection through mathormal i propose that such interindividual variability in malaria susceptibility might be linked to both the prenatal programming of physiology by maternal hormonal effects and by initial differences in cellular ageing ie assessed through telomere length higher exposure to certain maternal hormones can depress immunity accelerate cellular ageing and deregulate the protective microbiome of the uropygial gland linked to antimalarial defensive mechanisms thus i hypothesize that increased prenatal exposure to certain maternal hormones could make the offspring more susceptible to malarial infections potentially through its effects on telomeres and uropygial microbiome to test this i will first use artificially increased yolk hormone experiments glucocorticoid testosterone and thyroid hormones in a wild bird population and assess malaria infection intensity immunity telomere dynamics and uropygial microbiome then i will experimentally induce earlylife telomere lengthening with ta65 to assess the potential role that short telomeres play in malaria susceptibility this project will advance our understanding of the interindividual variation in malaria susceptibility which will help to improve malaria prevention strategies mathormal will use an integrative approach at the crossroad of evolutionary ecology ecophysiology and parasitology and largely benefit from the dual knowledge transfer between myself expertise in maternal hormonal effects and avian malaria and my host group expertise in maternal hormonal effects and telomere biology
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facilitating innovations for resilient livestock farming systems
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the overall objective of relivestock is to evaluate and mobilize the adoption of innovative practices applied crossscale animal herd farm sector and region to reduce ghg emissions from livestock farming systems and increase their capacity to dealing with potential climate change impacts to reach our aim relivestock have brought together the excellence scientific expertise in europe and australia and across disciplines including coinnovation animal feeding breeding welfare farm management environmental and socioeconomic assessment and policy analysis to develop novel and scientifically supported integrated approaches specific for different dairy beef and pig systems and geographic regions in the context of climate change strong collaboration with industry stakeholders to identify the innovations and to codesign the validation will ensure relevance and maximise the adoption of best practices national groups of farmers case studies and stakeholder forums together with a european multiactor platform will allow for an engaged codesign of transition pathways whilst learning from innovation networks will allow for the testing and sharing of latest innovative solutions a community of practice will extend the multiactor approach to a broad range of stakeholders
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