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development optimisation and implementation of artificial intelligence methods for real world data analyses in regulatory decisionmaking and health technology assessment along the product lifecycle
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realworld evidence derived from realworld data rwd has a promising role to inform regulatory decisionmaking based on highly relevant use cases from regulatory practice and across the product lifecycle real4reg develops aibased datadriven methods and tools for the assessment of medicinal products findings will inform training activities on good practice examples and will be implemented in existing and emerging guidelines for both health regulatory authorities and health technology assessment hta bodies across europe there is urgent need to enable the use and establish the value of the application of rwd across the spectrum of regulatory use cases the use of rwd is established in regulatory processes such as safety monitoring but evidentiary value for further use cases especially in the preauthorisation and evaluation phase of medicinal products is rudimentary the use of rwd in postauthorisation steps is constrained by data variability and by challenges in analysing data from different settings and sources thus the development of new and optimised methods for rwd analyses is essential real4reg addresses the challenges and opportunities of rwd analyses across different health care systems by involving multiple stakeholders to work together in a collaborative approach also outreaching to already established european initiatives our consortium assembles partners with outstanding excellence in the field of rwd analyses including experts from regulatory agencies hta bfarm dkma infarmed academia fraunhofer uef csc au dzne and patient organisations eupals eiwh in an advisory board stakeholders provide input and guidance to the project including patients industry payers hta bodies and healthcare professionals the structure and approach of our project facilitates the successful implementation of the effective use of rwd in regulatory decisionmaking and hta and ultimately supports the application of better medicines for patients
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developing and applying a taxonomy of communication behaviours and contextual factors in robotic surgery
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robotic surgery is being rapidly and widely incorporated into surgical practice with the current focus of training on equipment mechanics and technical skills the operating theatre setup for robotic surgery is inherently different from the traditional arrangement with the operating surgeon at a console that is remote from the rest of the surgical team and patient the team faces significant challenges due to this physical separation and the visual barrier imposed by the robotic operating equipment as a result leadership and team communication are dynamically altered nonverbal communication and cues need to be replaced by explicit and descriptive communication the overarching aim of my project is to examine what comprises effective communication by robotic surgical teams i will observe verbal communication of surgical teams being trained in robotic surgical skills in a simulated operating theatre in the worldclass rcsi sim i will also interview them about their experiences of effective and ineffective communication in performing robotic surgeries i will develop a taxonomy of communication behaviours and contextual factors that facilitate or inhibit effective communication their descriptions and examples using the taxonomy i will observe live robotic surgeries in rcsi hospitals and code the frequency time and sequence of communication behaviours and contextual factors using an innovative method called event coding the taxonomy from my research will serve as training materials for simulation training focusing on communication for robotic surgical teams and will contribute to the continuous improvement of modern surgery and the quality and safety of patient care with the support of dr claire condron and prof walter eppich this fellowship will help me pursue a successful career as an academic scientist or director of a simulation centre that makes meaningful impacts on the performance and wellbeing of healthcare professionals and patients
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boosting ingenium for excellence
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the bi4e project is born out from the ingenium alliance of european universities with the ambition of enhancing the existing interuniversity cooperation between the partner universities as well as with other entities both international and local and to strengthen the higher education institutions heis capacity to meet the diverse challenges faced by the higher education system and institutions the twin green and digital transition the fight against climate change the achievement of the agenda 2030 sdgs all of them profound societal challenges the universities must be ready to address the bi4e project intends to give a boost to the alliance making it an effective instrument to promote excellence in the partner heis particularly targeted to the alliance members in the widening countries the gheorghe asachi technical university of iasi and the medical university sofia and involving leading heis from six different member statesthis bi4e project is particularly focusing on the research and innovation missions completing the strategic and operational capacities of the partners especially those from the widening countries bi4e activities will directly touch six out of the seven transformation modules proposed by the policy report towards a 2030 vision on the future of universities in europethe project will improve hei capacity to address major challenges through the implementation of strategic planning adapted to their needs institutional transformation cooperation in terms of research fostering entrepreneurship and the promotion of international scientific careers the project will help to build closer cooperation links between the partners that will facilitate the exchange of information knowledge and experience at the end of the project the alliance will be much more prepared to become a fully operational european university alliance in which cooperation in education and research will be carried out seamlessly
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sustainable preservation of underwater archaeological sites a novel approach to cultural heritage management
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cultural heritage is the legacy of tangible intangible and natural heritage assets of a society that is inherited from past generations preserving the remains of the past for the benefit of future generations is common in international heritage policy current management practice advocates preserving underwater cultural heritage uch where it lies on the seabed in situ however this practice is questioned due to a lack of understanding of the entangled threats posed by multiple natural and anthropogenic drivers in a rapidly changing ocean environment and increasing human exploitation of the marine environment it is necessary to develop new concepts for assessing and preserving this resource with over 3000000 shipwrecks and thousands of submerged prehistoric sites lying on the floors of the worlds oceans endure aims to disentangle both natural and anthropogenic decay processes determine their cumulative and interactive effects on uch and proposes a novel conceptual framework to preserve this heritage based on site entropy this will be achieved by 1 detect visualise and interpret the products of natural and anthropogenic decay of shipwrecks and submerged prehistoric sites using marine remote sensing techniques integrated with natural and anthropogenic variables in a gis platform 2 determine key natural processes and rates of decay of archaeological materials in situ and in the laboratory 3 remotely identify and rank simultaneous decay processes including increasing threats to hidden and largely inaccessible heritage sites using ecosystem modelling and 4 propose novel intervention methods to mitigate threats to uch and where not possible strategies for curated decay ultimately endures holistic structured framework can be synergistically integrated and implemented by stakeholders and marine practitioners for a sustainable preservation of the marine environment and the worlds underwater cultural legacy for future generations
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rust and revolution understanding social technologies in enlightenment europe through metaphorology
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this project asks how if we take rust with its connotations of change and corruption as a starting point we can return to three very different clusters of phenomena each of which has been called a revolution the chemical the french and the industrial to understand how texts implicated in each interact not only do such texts exchange metaphors which structure thought and concept
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parameterized complexity through the lens of path problems
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nowadays numerous problems are known to be nphard and hence unlikely to admit worstcase efficient algorithms fortunately the field of parameterized complexity pc shows that the nutshell of hardness often lies in particular properties called parameters of the instances here we answer the fundamental question what makes an nphard problem hard specifically how do different parameters of an nphard problem relate to its inherent difficulty based on this knowledge we design efficient algorithms for wideclasses of instances of nphard problems at the heart of pc lies the study of path or cycle problems the inception of pc was inspired by the graph minors theory where the resolution of disjoint paths is a cornerstone moreover the study of kpath has led to a large number of major breakthroughs in pc over the past three decades still i fundamental questions concerning path problems have remained unanswered and ii close to nothing is known about the relations between the different techniques to solve path problems the overarching goal of this proposal is to build a unified deep theory to analyze parameterized path problems as known techniques to solve path problems rely individually on graph minors theory extremal combinatorics matroid theory exterior algebra and more i will draw new deep connections between these fields towards unification based on the new theory i believe that i will be able to answer decadesold questions in pc which will revolutionize the power of this field this includes the establishment of an efficient graph minors theory an optimality program for colorcodingamenable problems and a machinery to refute the existence of polynomial turing kernels answers to these questions will substantially reshape the future of the design of parameterized algorithms graph algorithms and preprocessing procedures additionally they will have high impact applications in practice
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a siopen pragmatic clinical trial to monitor neuroblastoma relapse with liquid biopsy sensitive analysis
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highrisk neuroblastoma accounts for 15 of cancer relateddeaths in children half of the 1500 patients yearly diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the eu have highrisk disease which will relapse or progress in half these cases after firstline treatment relapsed neuroblastoma is aggressive and often therapyresistant monitoring for disease relapse and therapy response is crucial for the survival chance of these patients the current standardofcare for monitoring are imaging technologies and bone marrow assessment which are costly invasive and a burden for children who often require anesthesia these drawbacks limit how often is monitored more sensitive less invasive and less toxic monitoring techniques are needed the mutational spectrum often changes in recurring tumors which may explain therapy resistance and provide additional druggable targets imaging however provides no information about molecular characteristics liquid biopsy tests are minimally invasive allow frequent sampling and sensitively detect tumor molecular markers in tumorderived dna and messenger rna circulating in peripheral blood monalisa aims to close existing gaps and establish liquid biopsies as standardofcare to monitor relapsedrefractory neuroblastoma as a blueprint for other pediatric cancers reliable early assessment of molecular progression or relapse is the main aim of the pragmatic randomized clinical trial proposed in monalisa we develop a digital decision support tool to help oncologists use the new monitoring and apply patientreported outcomes to integrate patient viewpoints and assess the effect of minimally invasive liquid biopsy diagnostics on quality of life we will establish whether events can be detected earlier using liquid biopsy monitoring and whether better overall survival is enabled by earlier diagnosis and treatment interventions this essential step towards personalized medicine will support reliable disease monitoring under treatment this action is part of the cancer mission cluster of projects on diagnostics and treatment diagnostics
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climate policy vs economic growth opinions models and novel strategies
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climate change has revived the debate on growthvsenvironment which may intensify in coming years this project studies to what extent concerns about economic growth ranging from pro to antigrowth hamper socialpolitical support for ambitious climate policy and how this can be amended using surveys experiments and interviews it assesses whether beliefs about growthvsenvironment affect policy opinions of distinct stakeholders voters policymakers journalists etc and if this is moderated by preferences regarding instrument types such as standards taxes or subsidies the project further tests the role of information by comparing the effect of distinct beyondgdp metrics on views about growth vs climate policy in addition it studies how growth concerns relate to the design of pledges in the paris agreement as these demarcate national climate policiesbased on collected data and derived insights the project then undertakes systemdynamics and agentbased modelling to study the codynamics of climatepolicy design and support this will create models of the dynamic policysupport cycle dpsc comprising policy design economic and emission impacts opinion dynamics ie supportresistance and policy adaptation it involves comparing growth strategies and climate policies using distinct beyondgdp metrics and connecting this to stakeholder opinion dynamics informed by the model results in a third part the project explores whether an agrowth strategy which is precautious towards both economic and climate risks can increase support for ambitious climate policy given stakeholder diversity we perform interviews to decide about tailored strategies in this respect similar proposals to agrowth notably under the label of postgrowth will be examined as well the ultimate aim is to learn about dynamic packages with climatepolicy instruments and apostgrowth measures that culminate in majority support for ambitious climate policy
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crop responsive greenhouse agrivoltaics system with co2 enrichment for higher yields
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regace will develop and validate a disruptive radical innovative technology that will make agrivoltaics a major contributor to the eu clean energy portfolio the technology is highly competitive compared to other solutions because it fully addresses the desired destination impact of clear affordable energy with a projected installed cost for customer of 600 per kilowatt compared to 880 for ground based photovoltaic fields furthermore the system demonstrated in this project is also cost effective in areas with less sunshine which currently are outside areas for which agrivoltaics could be considered the core technology is a responsive tracking system mounted in the greenhouse driven by a plc controller that changes the angle of the tracking system according to the plants needs we will test a system using co2 enrichment as a means to increase electricity production in low light conditions by increasing the angle of incidence of the bifacial panels in the tracking system the tracking system is hung with a few screws from the supports of the greenhouse removing the need for windproof supports reducing the price per installed kilowatt thus this technology allows not only for the dual use of land but also for the dual use of infrastructure the design of the technology also leads to reduced construction and maintenance costs duration of execution and moreover through reduction of co2 emissions in addition to the economic impact this will also lead to significant positive effect on ecologicalenvironmental sustainability and reduced ecological footprint through its lifespan maintenance and operation it will also lead to the diversification of the energy producing market with small holding greenhouse owners playing a significant part in the market the technology will be tested in operational industrial environments in six locations with different greenhouse types and crops
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moving forward to achieving climateresilient and sustainable european regional economic systems
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farclimate will address the critical challenges of developing and expanding climateresilient measures making them available and understandable to everyone while also paying special attention to the social political and economic barriers that are commonly found farclimate actions will be implemented in at least 20 regions and communities in europe ie case studies where we will address transformative solutions on the path to climate resilience in order to achieve such a great challenge farclimate has set the following work program 1 initial work on engaging with all relevant stakeholders in each region setting governance management mechanism 2 establishment of living labs to perform cocreation testing experimenting and scalingup innovative activities in reallife environments 3 a deep research of the main value chains of the socioeconomic and environmental characteristics and of the existing economic sectors through indicators to be monitored of all investigated regions and communities 4 establishment of the transversal actions to be performed in all case studies tailormade training activities for communities empowerment targeting different types of stakeholders and based among climate change and related hazards and risks 5 the implementation of technical but also socially feasible innovative solutions in the agriculture forestry and fisheries economic sectors with specific solutions to increase their capacity to adapt to climate change impacts on their fields naturebased solutions will be the guiding thread in farclimate innovative actions 6 the creation of different tools to spread the obtained learnings found barriers and successful results among others during farclimate such as policy recommendations guidelines management plans and the innovative transformation hub
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dynamics of mental representations and learning in preverbal infants
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understanding the initial architecture and learning algorithms of the human brain are central goals for cognitive neuroscience anatomical and functional brainimaging studies have revealed that a complex brain architecture is already present at birth including features associated with adult brains such as structural and functional asymmetries longdistance connectivity and activations in prefrontal cortex despite such advances little is known about the depth of information processing and the richness of mental representations in human infants to address this issue i propose to study the dynamics of information processing and conscious access in 34montholdinfants using highdensity eeg 128280 channels combined with new methodological approaches such as decoding singletrial analyses of variability patterns and new paradigms that monitor infants attention with frequency tagging pupillometry and eyetracking i will separate infants shortlived externally triggered versus sustained internally driven responses and shed light on their roles in early learning wp1 will study whether the properties associated with conscious access in adults ignition topdown amplification serial bottleneck are already present in infants and explore how ongoing neural activity topdown expectations and bottomup stimulus features combine to modulate conscious access wp2 will investigate the dynamics of acquisition and manipulation of symbolic representations experimental manipulations combined with finegrained analysis of the temporal dynamics of eeg signals will clarify the time constants of infant cognition how fast a stimulus enters perceptual awareness how long attention can be maintained how robust is this central representation to competing inputs and how quickly it leads to stable learning this project aims to enhance our understanding of early cognition as well as provide new paradigms to shed light on early learning disabilities
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optimizing sensitization for solidstate triplettriplet annihilation upconversion
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improving the efficiency of solar cells can have far reaching impacts globally the proposal optsentuc is devised to improve the quantum yield of solidstate triplettriplet annihilation upconversionsttauc by optimizing the sensitization process sttauc can be exploited to extend the absorption spectral range of any solar cell and hence can significantly improve single pn junction solar cell power conversion efficiency beyond the fundamental shockley queisser limit the first part will focus on understanding the major loss mechanism in sttauc the back transfer of upconverted excitation energy via förster resonance energy transfer fret and will try to address it by quantitatively optimizing sensitizer parameters based on this study a sensitizer concentration threshold with respect to förster distance will be established and an annihilatorsensitizer pair with least fret loss will be identified the threshold intensity for ttauc is usually orders of magnitude higher than the solar flux and decreasing sensitizer concentration to reduce fret will further increase this threshold the second part of the proposal will address this challenge by coupling the sensitizer absorption with a cavity mode so that the ability of the upconversion system to absorb light will be enhanced a simultaneous coupling of another mode of the cavity will make sure the outcoupling efficiency is not compromised due to cavity introduction thus enhancing the scope of sttauc in real world applications
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a fermionic orbital quantum simulator with local digital tunnelling gates
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fermions are ubiquitous in nature and the study of fermionic systems with strong correlations lies at the centre of many fundamental and relevant problems in modern physics and chemistry any microscopic simulation not only needs to treat exponentially large hilbert spaces but also has to accurately represent the fermionic exchange statistics however classical numerical methods suffer from a wellknown sign problem and conventional gatebased quantum computers employ distinguishable spin12 degrees of freedom which requires a significant algorithmic overhead for handling fermionic systemsforbq will be the first quantum processor with digital gates that addresses the anticommutation on the hardware level by using fermionic neutral atoms drawing from my tenyear experience with optical superlattices and quantum gas microscopes i will develop stable programmable tunnelling and exchange gates in an optical lattice with full local control over the tunnelling rates with tunable collisions of atoms and a rapid cycle time forbq introduces a digital bottomup approach for the simulation of strongly correlated fermi systems by directly controlling the coupling between fermionic spin orbitals forbq will implement local 2d hamiltonians efficiently without the cumbersome fermiontospin qubit mapping i will apply the novel hardware to open questions of hole pairing and exotic superconductivity in the hubbard model as well as perform the first simulations of molecules inherently the atoms implement particlenumber conservation and spin symmetries making forbq a powerful platform for electron simulations from multiband hubbard models to quantum chemistryforbq combines welltested robust technologies of ultracold atoms with concepts from quantum computing to create the first fermionic quantum computer and outline a clear path towards a practical quantum advantage for the simulation of electrons
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cherenkov light module for timeofflight positron emission tomography
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timeofflight positron emission tomography tofpet is the standardofcare in cancer detection tofpet scanners performance is dependent on the radiation detectors they use improving time and spatial detection features in such detectors will dramatically impact the diagnostic capacity of tofpet systems the goal of this project is to build a gamma detector concept for tofpet able to improve the time resolution and spatial segmentation of stateoftheart detectors by a factor of up to 7 and 10 respectively without additional production costs chloepet is a forwardlooking gamma detector design for tofpet able to exploit the new photodetector technologies that are currently under development and will become available within the next 5to10 years the novelty of the proposed design lies in using cherenkov light as a prompt time source using an innovative geometry optimized to maximize light collection and employing photodetectors with small pixel pitch this project is the first attempt to build a detector module scalable to a fullsize system that can be used in a hospital setting the chloepet detector will consist of bismuth germanate bgo crystals with 12 mm thickness and will combine the readout of scintillation and cherenkov light chloepet will provide an effective 3d segmentation of 2x2x2 mm3 an intrinsic photon time spread of 20 ps and no intrinsic radiation background unlike stateoftheart tofpet detectors such improvements will allow increasing the signaltonoise ratio of images by 2fold to be able to detect lesions of 2 mm size 3 times the current performance to build portable highperformance organdedicated tofpet systems and to universalize the use of dynamic tofpet studies the combination of these outcomes will provide significantly better diagnostic capabilities in a range of fields such as oncology neurology or cardiology among others and ultimately boost treatment efficacy and patient comfort
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unlocking the effect of residual elements via the nanoengineering of sustainable martensitic steels
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the european steel industry is at a critical juncture squeezed between brutal market conditions and the commitment to mitigate climate change the iron and steel industry is responsible for high greenhouse gas emissions particularly carbon dioxide co2 constituting 57 of the total emissions in the eu 22 tonnes co2 per tonne of crude steel cast refer to world steel data several european steel producers including arcelormittal have committed to fulfilling the goals outlined in the paris agreement and aligning with the european unions target of achieving zero emissions by 2050 as part of the green deal initiative these engagements entail a shift from the predominant method of steel production currently reliant on blast furnacebasic oxygen furnace bfbof technology to cleaner production techniques characterized by significantly lower co2 emissions as the industry shifts toward cleaner production methods particularly those utilizing electricarc furnaces eaf and emphasizing the recycling of iron scrap concerns arise about the potential contamination of steel with residual elements like cu sn as sb and pthe nanosmart project emerges as a response to this pressing need focusing on the systematic and indepth analysis of the impact of residual elements in martensitic steels martensitic steels vital across key sectors such as construction automotive energy and defense play a pivotal role in the eus efforts to achieve climate neutrality and increase renewable energy usage the project addresses macro micro and nanoscale considerations encompassing the entire steel production process nanosmart project aims to provide clear guidelines for redesigning grades and validating technologies in relevant environments by bridging knowledge gaps and embracing cuttingedge technologies nanosmart endeavors to revolutionize martensitic steel production contributing to a sustainable and circular economy in the eu
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the whiteness of wealth management colonial economic structure racism and the emergence of tax havens in the global south
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tropical islands are often stigmatized as tax havens but only a few tropical islands are important exporters of financial services this is surprising since many of them feature attributes associated with tax havenry they are small sovereign reachable from major financial centers within a few hours and practice british common law why have so few applied tax havenry as a development strategy nonetheless conventional wisdom suggests that political stability often measured with contemporary indicators of good governance makes the difference the perception of political stability among foreign investors is however interwoven with racist biases previous research shows that tropical islands had to emphasize their british heritage essentially a code for whiteness to attract foreign capital during decolonization wowmas objective is thus to explain why some tropical island jurisdictions were better able than others to convey stability through an image of whiteness in this historical period in contrast to previous research emphasizing the rule of law wowma investigates the hypothesis that the absence of income taxes paired with white control over government distinguished emerging tax havens from other tropical islands to this end wowma 1 proposes a new theory on the emergence of tax havenry in the global south linking an islands economic structure under colonial rule to the absence of income taxes and the persistence of white oligarchy 2 applies causal inference methods on original historical data gathered from archival sources and 3 probes the persistence of racist biases in investment decisions through conjoint experimentsthe project provides unprecedented depth in the study of small island states political and economic development it foregrounds the entanglement of racism with perceptions of political stability and develops new strategies for its measurement
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feedbacks on extreme storms by ocean turbulent mixing
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i propose to use autonomous underwater ocean glider vehicles with a newly developed airborne deployment system to measure ocean turbulence in extreme storms such as hurricanes typhoons and tropical storms these will be the first vertically resolved measurements of ocean turbulence in extreme storms and will lead to a new understanding and improved estimates of the oceanmixing that is responsible for setting upper ocean temperatures a crucial and poorly constrained feedback on storm intensityby combining the observations with turbulenceresolving large eddy simulations performed on high performance computational clusters a new observationallyconstrained model of the oceanstorm mixing feedback will be constructed that fills a much needed gap in the coupling of extreme storms to the ocean this is crucial since extreme storms are increasing in strength and frequency through climate change and are leading to record damages and loss of life in coastal communities such measurements are only now possible since my research team has played a major role in pioneering the use of microstructure turbulence measurements from autonomous underwater gliders particularly in stormy conditions the final outcomes of the project will consist of i an airborne deployment system for the study of extreme events using autonomous vehicles ii the first observations of upper ocean turbulence and mixing in extreme storms iii a sequence of turbulenceresolving numerical simulations that together with the observations will identify and quantify processes responsible for setting upper ocean heat fluxes and turbulent structure in extreme storms and iv a new parameterisation for ocean mixing in extreme storms that quanties the oceanstorm feedback and its implementation inthe forecasting model of the european centre for mediumrange weather forecasts ecmwf
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redoxmediated hybrid zincair flow batteries for more resilient integrated power systems
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the penetration of renewable energies into the electric grid increases the demand for energy storage to ensure reliable power supply grid resiliency and cost reductions longduration and longterm energy storage ldes and ltes can bridge the intermittency of renewable sources and reduce the risks incurred by diminished fossilfuel baseload generation electrochemical energy storage ees or liion batteries libs are considered for shortduration energy storage 46 hours when talking about seasonal storage hydrogen storage is usually the preferable option the goal of rezilient is to fill the gap between shortterm ees and longterm hydrogen storage by developing and demonstrating at labscale 0515kw6kwh a completely new znair flow battery technology the estimated capital cost for largescale deployment is approximately 80 kwh with a levelizedcostofstorage 05 kwhcycle based on 100 kw1000 kwh system 1 week discharge duration a disruptive redoxmediated strategy for enhanced charge transfer processes is employed with the goal of confining the znzn2 redox reaction in the negative reservoir filled with a semisolid zinc solution and eliminating the electroplating process inside the cell no dendrites to improve battery lifetime this will allow discharge times beyond days contrary to conventional zincbased batteries where long discharge is hampered by the formation of a cmthick zinc anode if successful the technology has disruptive potential in terms of both extremely low levelizedcostofstorage extended storage time recyclability and use of noncriticalrawmaterials a pilot concept design of the cell will be conceived after demonstration of the technology the output of this design will lead to an update of the business case of the distribution network operators and potential customers
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apac the first targeted therapy for peripheral arterial occlusive disease
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there is a major unmet need for effective and safe therapies for advanced peripheral arterial occlusive disease paod due to the high cardiovascular mortality morbidity and amputation rates in these patients aplagon is developing the first vascular injury targeting product apac for the local treatment of advanced paod paod is caused by fatty deposits in lower limb arteries atherosclerosis that become inflamed thromboinflammation resulting in blood coagulation atherothrombosis apac uniquely targets these vessels prevents further atherosclerosis and downregulates thromboinflammation the main drivers of paod aplagon has completed preclinical proofofconcept and toxicology studies and received a regulatory approval to enter clinical studies aplagon has an experienced international team and is supported by a renowned scientific advisory board we are applying for eicfunding to show the safety and efficacy of apac in paodclipatients a major value inflection point
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towards a new zero food waste mindset based on holistic assessment
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food waste is a major problem around 88 million tonnes of food is wasted annually along the eu supply chain from primary production to consumption with associated costs of 143 billion the associated environmental impact is also huge global food loss and waste is equivalent to 810 of total anthropogenic ghg emissions and costs around 1 trillion per year and 30 of agricultural land is wasted the situation may be even worse as statistics indicate that 70 of all food lost or wasted by humans may be unrecorded because it originates from primary production or is used as animal feed in parallel the assessment of this problem remains unresolved not only because it is extremely complex due to the lack of open access data and the absence of a standard methodology for comprehensive assessment in real food systems but also because it affects the commitment of private entities that need to assess the costeffectiveness and sustainability of food waste prevention and reduction fwpr solutions in order to act tonowaste is a 48month project in which 21 institutions from 7 countries collaborate to overcome this challenge with a multistakeholder and interdisciplinary approach that considers not only agronomic economic environmental and business model challenges but also other crosscutting aspects such as psychology law and social innovation to fight also against gender and social inequalities tonowaste will inspire market actors to use science and evidencebased assessment tools and data to make better decisions towards more sustainable food production and consumption patterns it starts from research on what makes the best decision regarding fwpr actions in the fresh food value chain it is an open innovation ecosystem designed to leverage previous findings for the identification of social technicalenvironmental economic politicallegal ethical and demographic drivers and to collaborate with ongoing rd actions to propose comprehensive fwpr solutions
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connecting the dots going backwards an epigenetic memory recorder to trace ancestry during mouse gastrulation
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during development a cells fate will become increasingly restricted facilitated by the combined activity of transcription factors and epigenetic modifiers singlecell rna sequencing has greatly improved our appreciation of the transcriptional dynamics underlying lineage specification however we still do not fully comprehend how epigenetic modifiers guide this highly dynamic process as methods that enable us to accurately concatenate a cells past and present epigenetic state with its current lineage identity are missinghere i propose to investigate the combined dynamics and interdependencies of transcription and the polycombgroup of proteins during the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into gastruloids first i aim to deploy a protocol that enables the simultaneous quantification of both layers in the same single cell to disentangle epigenetic from transcriptional heterogeneity second i aim to develop a molecular memory system to record the past epigenetic profiles of single cells this system will be based on the expression of proteins fused to a bacterial dcm methylase which will allow for the timed recording and faithful transmission of historic epigenetic profiles combined with quantification of transcription of the same single cell this will enable us to directly integrate past epigenetic states with the current identity of single cellsthe proposed work here will therefore allow us to directly assess the role of epigenetic modifiers on establishing cell fate choice and will have important implications on our understanding of the regulation of mammalian development
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closing the immunization gap by reaching zerodose children through improved equitable and costeffective vaccine delivery strategies
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in spite of high immunization coverage in many countries pockets of zerodose zd children still exist as well as communities neglected by current immunisation efforts the immunization agenda 2030s goal of reducing the global count of zd children by 50 remains unfulfilled and has faced setbacks due to the covid19 pandemic the reachout project endeavours to contribute to this crucial goal by developing and testing enhanced strategies for the delivery of essential routine vaccines to zd children in kenya nigeria and rwanda the project has delineated four specific objectives first we will gather and analyze survey data on vaccination behaviour factors to better comprehend zd children also advanced geospatial and epidemiological methods will enrich existing geographical information systems gis and create precise risk maps for immunization support second by employing a humancentered approach we will design gisaugmented vaccine delivery strategies tailored for zd children innovative geospatial decisionsupport tools will optimize microplanning implementation and monitoring third in each target country we will conduct thorough implementation studies and scenario analyses via epidemiological models to assess the interventions costeffectiveness financial sustainability and equity impact fourth we will strengthen the capabilities of incountry partners and stakeholders well explore scalability to ensure sustainability beyond the project fostering wider adoption this endeavour will be taken forward by a robust consortium of eight partners including five from the eu and three from subsaharan african countries providing a multidisciplinary expertise in public health health service research and health policy medical science epidemiology statistics and health economics
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understanding individual heterogeneity in ageing from stochastic dynamics of sigma factor regulatory network in bacteria
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ageing is controlled at the molecular level via genetic and metabolic pathways ageing rates and patterns vary substantially even with fixed genetics and environment however molecular mechanisms of ageing generating individual heterogeneity are poorly understood stochastic dynamics of gene expression can be a main source of the variation in cellular damage dynamics leading to individual heterogeneity in ageing the sigma factor regulatory networks constitute the core part of the bacterial gene expression networks and therefore play important role in deciding the fate of bacterial cells in this project i focus on exploring the role and interplays of four major sigma factors rpod rpos rpoh rpon in individual e coli cells i plan to 1 obtain these sigma factors expression dynamics and the demographic fates at individual e coli cells in microfluidic platforms under fluorescent microscope 2 process and analyze big image data in an automated manner 3 develop mathematical models to interpret expression and demographic signals for damage and ageing i will combine the knowledge and methods from the disciplines of molecular biology genetics fluorescent microscopy and microfluidics machine learning population and evolutionary dynamics and mathematical modelling to shed light on the link from stochastic expression dynamics in sigma factor regulatory network towards individual variations observed in ageing fates
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advanced power conversion technologies based on onboard ammonia cracking through novel membrane reactors
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through a holistic approach apolo aims to tackle the challenges of power conversion from ammonia and develop an efficient and flexible ammonia cracking technology this technology will be coupled with fuel cells and engines to achieve complete decarbonization of the maritime sectoras the main objective of the call is to demonstrate scalability beyond 3mw the consortium will focus on showcasing the following demonstration units i a 125kw power conversion system that utilizes an ammonia cracker coupled with a pem fuel cell system achieving an overall system efficiency of 51 to 54 the ammonia cracker will be customized to work with different pressure conditions and efficiency levels of pem fuel cells a comparison of efficiency levels will be conducted to evaluate the flexibility of the cracking system for all types of pem fuel cellsii a 125kw partial ammonia cracker coupled with a 4stroke engine exhibiting an overall system efficiency above 45apolo is dedicated to minimizing the ecological footprint of transportation and energy focusing on the maritime sector to achieve this were actively developing innovative power conversion technologies such as cracker fuel cell and engine and utilizing life cycle assessment lca at various stages of product developmentthe technologies developed in apolo are capable of targeting the first 30000 ships in the market initially the focus will be on vessels with 1 to 10 mw propulsion with a significant number of them being around 3 mw in the next decade as these are the first vessels relevant for ammoniapowered solutions
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our sustainable future the values that drive it and how to get there
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grand and persistent socialecological challenges such as climate change push forward a rapidly growing discourse on how sustainability science can support society in dealing with todays global crises between studying change and contributing to change sustainability science seeks both to analytically understand sustainability problems but also to design interventions that can contribute solutionoptions to these problems however knowledge about how to intervene in order to reach a desirable vision ie transformation knowledge is typically missing especially how to deliberately engage with values as places of intervention leverage points as proposed by the intergovernmental sciencepolicy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services remains a critical knowledge gap to fill these gaps lever aims to critically develop and apply a transformative theory and practice to support the coproduction of transformation knowledge including a focus on transformation knowledge necessary to investigate and unleash values as leverage points for sustainability transformation to this end lever originally combines transdisciplinary research with the empirically rigorous methods of social science experiments the scientific breakthrough consists in delivering an integrated theory of transformative research capable of representing the many coevolving links between its design principles philosophy of science normative assumptions and ethical dimensions methodologically lever opens new avenues on how to produce transformation knowledge by experimenting with testing and evaluating novel transformative methods finally lever seeks to answer the globally relevant and timely question of how to unleash values using a treatment and control group experimental design lever assesses the impact of valuestargeting interventions and demonstrates the potential of values as leverage points lever pioneers a salient conscious sciencesociety relationship in europe
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global change impacts on cyanobacterial bloom toxicity
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harmful cyanobacterial blooms produce toxins that are a major threat to water quality and human health blooms increase with eutrophication and are expected to be amplified by climate change yet we lack a mechanistic understanding on the toxicity of blooms and their response to the complex interplay of multiple global change factors bloom toxicity is determined by a combination of mechanisms acting at different ecological scales ranging from cyanobacterial biomass accumulation in the ecosystem to the dominance of toxic species in the community contribution of toxic genotypes in the population and the amounts of toxins in cells i will develop a fundamental understanding of bloom toxicity by revealing the combined effects of nutrients elevated pco2 and warming at each scale and integrate these responses using a unique combination of ecological theory technological advances and methodological innovations specifically i will use first principles to scale from cellular traits like carbon and nutrient acquisition cellular toxin synthesis and growth rates to population and community dynamics to enable rapid assessment of numerous cyanobacterial traits i will setup a highthroughput flowcytometry pipeline also i will develop a novel labonachip experimental platform to allow massive parallel screening of key competitive traits in various phytoplankton species and cyanobacterial genotypes to scale from these cellular traits to population and community interactions i will study genotype selection and interspecific resource competition in stateoftheart chemostats i will further scaleup to natural communities in the field and in largescale indoor mesocosms to assess global change impacts on the mechanisms underlying toxicity of near reallife blooms with this unique combination of scaling approaches i will provide a breakthrough in our mechanistic understanding on the toxicity of cyanobacterial blooms and their response to global change
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economic manufacturing process of recyclable composite materials for durable hydrogen storage
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ecohydro aims to develop a new energy efficient filament winding process of hydrogen storage tanks using recyclable materials we will improve the thermoplastic acrylic resin for insitu polymerization which has been used for wind energy and marine applications so far for the highspeed filament winding process by optimizing the uv polymerization of the resin and developing new filament winding tools and equipment especially we will develop multifunctional resin with fireresistance thermal insulation and selfhealing capacity which are expected to enhance the safety of hydrogen storage and hybrid tows to reduce microcracking we will develop a recycling technology to recover 100 of carbon fibres and resin from hydrogen tanks after their endoflife these recovered materials will be used for the rewinding process for new tanks manufacturing this recycling and rewinding technology will contribute to significant reduction of the cost and of carbon footprint of hydrogen storage tanks to improve the safety and durability of hydrogen tanks a new structural health monitoring technology via sensor integration into the tanks in service life will be developed in combination with data science using ai algorithm these sensors embedded into the tank during the manufacturing process will be used to monitor the soundness of filament winding process in real time to improve the yield ratio the developed technologies will be validated by four different types of industrial demonstrators trl4 using either compressed gas hydrogen storage cryogenic liquid hydrogen storage such as aboveground station tube trailor truck and bus and aviation the industrial partners of ecohydro tier 1 endusers will validate the demonstrator development and prepare a future plan for a higher trl 48 development in terms of the kpis dissemination and communication activities will be performed in relation with other eu projects as well as general public and scientific community
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cryamabe problem khler metrics and kstability
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one of the main questions in differential geometry is the existence of special metrics that is a way to measure distances on smooth manifolds they are the basic objects in differential geometry and can be thought of as geometric objects that can be locally approximated by the usual flat space the goal of cryamkmetkstab is to investigate the existence of these special metrics on complex manifolds from the point of view of complex differential geometry by employing techniques that come from differential geometry algebraic geometry and geometric analysis more precisely we propose a novel way to approach constant scalar curvature khler metrics by drawing a connection between the socalled cryamabe problem and kstability of the manifold
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elucidating the functionspecific response of marine phytoplankton to climate change in the southwestern atlantic ocean and its influence on regional co2 fluxes an aibased approach
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phytoplankton is the base of the trophic marine ecosystem and a main regulator of global co2 fluxes climaterelated shifts in the dominant phytoplankton functional types pfts their blooming periods and overall productivity are expected to have major implications on oceans carbon cycle the southern atlantic ocean sao renowned as one of the worlds most biologically productive regions and the largest carbon sink is already experiencing profound environmental changes due to climate change using aitechniques aiphytoclim seeks to analyze how climatedriven changes in physical forcings influence the functioning and structure of phytoplankton and the implications these changes have in surface ocean partial pressure pco2sw and co2 fluxes this study is founded on the analysis of a comprehensive dataset encompassing 26 years of satellite data ocean color numerical modeling results and in situ data the first goal is to establish quantitative relationships between climatedriven physical forcings in the sao and phytoplankton responses at the pft level employing neural network pattern recognition and classification algorithms 2ssom ai the second goal aims to assess the impact of the climate variabilitychange on the pfts and the influence on regional co2 fluxes the responses each pft to climate variability and interconnections between each pfts variability and the pco2sw and co2 fluxes will be explored through timeseries analysis census x13 and statistical approaches eg crosswavelets correlations knowing the coupled physicalpfts relationships over the last 26 years and using the forecasted environmental changes during the next decades cimp6 model i will assess how pfts are likely to evolve in the future ocean and the resulting implications for regional co2 fluxes the methodologies developed in aiphytoclim will provide important new insights on the oceanclimate nexus and on its influence on global climate
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intelligent breast cancer diagnosis and monitoring therapeutic response training network
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candoit will show how a smart multimodal multiphysic sensor array associated with dna oligonucleotides and their peptide nucleic acid pnas analogues dedicated for liquid biopsies analysis has the potential for more accurate diagnostic and treatment monitoring of bc through the study of cuttingedge technologies in bionanomaterials sensors and transducers design fluidics systems and artificial intelligence the candoit objectives are to 1 train the excellent next generation researchers for interdisciplinary careers in basic applied and especially translational bc research and with raising awareness on social issues 2 develop cuttingedge technologies for bc diagnosis and monitoring therapeutic response by bringing together eminent experts from both industry and academia including engineers computational scientists chemists physicists and clinicians 3 pursue key biological targets through intelligent methods all the way from early stage to preclinical and clinical investigation 4 in addition to respond to the bc issue the intelligent biosystems proposed will be a real technological advance breakthrough thanks to the association of different transducers to go towards a multimodal platform the association of structured nanomaterials inspired by living world and an implementation of intelligent algorithms for optimal analysis 5 build a highimpact structure ensuring multilevel dissemination and exploitation of all results
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sexual conflict in the sexually cannibalistic springbok mantis miomantis caffra
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sexual cannibalism which occurs when a female eats her mate before during or after mating is a classic example of sexual conflict since females gain a meal but males lose their life the risk of premature death is expected to select for cautious mating tactics that help males to secure matings and avoid being eaten although such tactics are common in cannibalistic species males of the springbok mantis miomantis caffra take a far more aggressive approach wrestling females to coerce them to mate males that win wrestling bouts are more likely to secure matings and avoid cannibalism but wrestling severely wounds females whose abdomens are punctured by males weaponised forelegs while this harmful male behaviour appears to be a classic manifestation of sexual conflict the exact causes and consequences of male coercion and female injury in this species are yet to be elucidated my project aims to use field laboratory and modelling approaches to investigate the role of sexual conflict in the evolution of cannibalistic and anticannibalistic behaviour first to determine rates of female injury in the wild i plan to use markrecapture techniques to track sexratio and injury incidence through time in wild populations of m caffra in auckland new zealand where the species is widespread second i plan to run a series of laboratory experiments to explore whether males increase their fitness by injuring females or whether injury is an incidental sideeffect of males drive to mate third i plan to run a mesocosm experiment to examine whether an increase in the intensity of sexual conflict reduces female survival and population productivitya key theoretical prediction that has rarely been tested finally i intend to use modelling techniques to investigate more generally the role that sexual conflict over mating decisions plays in shaping male and female behaviour in sexually cannibalistic taxaa relationship that is currently poorly understood
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climate resilient and environmentally sustainable transport infrastructure with a focus on inland waterways
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it is the key objective of the project cristal 36 months to increase the share of freight transport on inland water transport iwt by a minimum of 20 and to demonstrate on its three pilot sites italy poland and france strategies to improve reliability by 80 cristal project will assure iwt capacity at 50 even during extreme weather events towards that cristal will cocreate test and implement integrated cooperative and innovative solutions in its three pilot partners areas identified in italy france and poland the project will include the aspects of technological innovationdevelopment and digitalization further advancement towards the physical internet governance solution and business models will be proposed while targeting sustainability and infrastructure resilience requirements
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does hybridization facilitate explosive speciation of lake baikal amphipods
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the adaptive radiation of amphipods in lake baikal has brought forward more than 340 species 20 of the worlds freshwater amphipods making it one of the largest species flocks after the famous african cichlid radiations and one of the only large radiations in temperate climates despite this iconic status the radiation has not yet been subject to detailed genomic investigation during my phd i was able to demonstrate excessive amounts of parallel adaptation among the transcriptomes of species of this adaptive radiation in this project i will use genomic approaches to test whether the previous results could be explained by hybridisation and adaptive introgression these processes have been shown to occur in other adaptive radiations but their functional role in rapid diversification is still debated my preliminary results indicate that hybridization between two independent lineages of baikalian amphipods emerged in the period when fast speciation started furthermore i found intriguing signals of positive selection on introgressed lociadditional data and specific methodology developed in this project will enable me to disentangle the processes governing speciation in this group profiting from strong relevant experience of the host laboratory i will reanalyze available transcriptomic datasets together with newly sequenced genomes i will map precise directions of hybridization at the phylogenetic tree describe functional associations of introgressed loci test selection signatures associated with introgression and estimate the extent to which repeatable ecomorphological traits are underpinned by reusable elements of ancestral genomes this research has groundbreaking potential in providing a direct test of a potential catalysing role of hybridization in fast speciation in this system
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a robust standardization roadmap towards boosting innovation to market for swappable battery systems for lcat vehicles deployment as a major contribution to safe secure resources and environmental
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a robust standardization roadmap towards boosting innovation to market for swappable battery systems for lcat vehicles deployment as a major contribution to safe secure resources and environmental friendly and interoperable decarbonization solution of the mobilitytransport sector
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neuronal circuits for sensorybody state integration
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thermal homeostasis is essential to survival but how our brain processes thermosensory information and triggers behaviors that help maintain our physiological body state remains a mystery the neural circuits responsible for perception of sensory stimulation and those for regulation of body state have been studied independently yet body state has a profound impact on sensory perception what is more animals constantly adapt their behavior to maintain homeostasis with momentbymoment sensing of the environment current models suggest that the insular cortex plays a key role in integrating internal information about body state with external sensory information about the environment to generate signals that represent the difference between internal and external inputs such sensorystate difference signals allow us to navigate and adapt to a dynamic environment to test this model our aim is to leverage distinct features of the thermal system and examine species with and without the ability to thermoregulate my team has recently located the primary cortical representation of temperature a thermal cortex in a posterior region of the insular cortex we will examine its activity as we monitor and manipulate the internal core body temperature and external thermal input during robust and sensitive thermal behavior we will compare human and mouse which are warmblooded to naked molerats which are nearly coldblooded to identify the cellular mechanisms of sensorystate integration we will use a combination of cuttingedge techniques including neural recordings anatomical tracing and activity manipulations during a thermal perceptual task and thermoregulatory behavior our holistic and comparative approach will provide insight into a fundamental question regarding cortical function and may help tackle disorders of body state associated with insular cortex dysfunction
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lagrangian climate risk and impact attribution
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under a continued increase in global warming extreme events such as heatwaves will further rise in frequency intensity and duration over the next decades climate change impact studies routinely assess hazard and exposure change across discrete time windows but thereby fail to grasp how vulnerability and climate risk evolve across a persons lifetime conversely demographic research has a long tradition of assessing population processes and vulnerability from a cohort perspective but generally ignores climate impacts this project will develop novel concepts and methodologies to express climate change impacts and risk from a cohort perspective more specifically the project pursues i to reconstruct two iconic climate change impacts on people around the world using machine learning heatrelated mortality and burned area ii to uncover agespecific vulnerability to climate extremes including heatwaves wildfires river floods droughts tropical cyclones and crop failures iii to detect and attribute changes in lifetime extreme event exposure and climate impacts on mortality across generations and regions iv to quantify how these attributable cohort impacts change countrylevel life expectancy around the world under a range of warming scenarios and finally v to project how lifetime exposure to extreme events including compound events may trigger irreversible impacts under scenarios of temporary overshooting of longterm warming targetsby bridging physical climate science demography and planetary health lacrima will comprehensively identify whether and where people will live an unprecedented life in terms of climate impacts and how collective mitigation choices can alter the climate change burden on current young generations around the world
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spinmomentum locking and correlated phenomena in chiral topological materials
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chiral topological semimetals are a new class of quantum materials at the intersection of structural and electronic chirality we discovered the first example of this material class three years ago and have since demonstrated that they host new fermionic quasiparticles without analogue in highenergy physics which carry large and controllable topological charges chiraltopmat will go beyond these initial works and aims to discover new extraordinary properties that have only been predicted for these materials but for which experimental evidence remains elusive 1 a new form of isotropic parallel spinmomentum locking that can be considered the natural counterpart of rashba spinorbit coupling 2 new electronic phases that are both correlated and topological and 3 interface effects with magnetic materials that could be exploited for new energyefficient information technology applications we will achieve these research goals by employing spin and angleresolved photoelectron spectroscopy on various energy scales probing these materials surface bulk and interface electronic structures whilst the proposed experiments are challenging our prior work and recent preliminary results have demonstrated their feasibility if successful chiraltopmat will build on these discoveries to search for structureproperty relationships that can be used to control these new phenomena by chemical and structural modification we envision that this new understanding will be the basis for future devices that exploit chiral topological semimetals for energyefficient magnetic memory devices which use multifold fermions for fieldfree switching of magnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
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targetting neutrophilmediated neurotoxicity for the treatment of alzheimers disease
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with the neutrad erc poc project we present the first diseasemodifying alzheimers disease ad drugs that abrogate leukocytemediated neurotoxicity and represent a novel class of drugs in the treatment of adad is a neurological disorder characterized by progressive deterioration of cognitive function and leads to death within 39 years after diagnosis ad is highly prevalent in elderly and it is estimated that 35m patients suffer from the disease worldwide as a result ad has tremendous social and economic impact this is aggravated by the lack of diseasemodifying drugs as current therapies only provide shortterm symptomatic benefit hence novel therapeutic approaches are of critical importance to resolve this urgent and growing health crisis our novel antiad drug candidates use a neutrophiltargeted approach and unlock a novel avenue for the millions that suffer from ad growing evidence supports the role of inflammation in the development of neurodegeneration in ad for example our previous research has demonstrated a role for neutrophils in the induction of memory decline and neuropathological hallmarks of ad furthermore our data shows that a highly activated and degranulating neutrophil phenotype induces neurotoxicity in an in vitro ad context preliminary results have also demonstrated that our novel drug candidates rescue neuronal death and have diseasemodifying potential in adlike mouse modelsin neutrad we will explore the technical and commercial potential of our drug candidates as the first diseasemodifying drugs against ad specifically we will optimise and subsequently test the technical feasibility of our two drug candidates in adlike in vitro and in vivo models in parallel we will explore the commercial opportunity of our novel ad drugs and analyse the ip position and strategy as well as the market and existing and emerging competitors finally we will consolidate the project outcomes in an investorready business plan
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designing longterm systemic transformation frameworks for regions accelerating the shift towards climate neutrality
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the ambition of the transformer project is to design longterm systemic transformation frameworks for regions across europe in order to accelerate the shift towards climate neutrality at the onset of the project a conceptual framework will be developed by mapping defining and categorising transition superlabs tsls actual tsls will be piloted in four regions the ruhr area de emilia romagna it lower silesia pl and western macedonia gr the project will develop a roadmap blueprint a toolkit incl matchmaking mechanisms and a knowledge hub on the one hand to support the pilot regions but also to be applied by other regions across europe moreover an evaluation framework will be developed in order to evaluate the impact of tsls in the transformer pilot regions as well as the respective tools and structures applied by the pilot regions project activities will be accompanied by comprehensive communicate and disseminate activities providing intermediate results of the project and the activities in the pilot tsls providing a hub with information and offering training and capacity building activities for various target groups and stakeholders finally an exploitation plan will be prepared for a longlasting impact of the project
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modification of liposomic nanocarriers a novel strategy for improved drugdelivery and eradication of bacterial biofilms
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bacterial biofilms are widespread both as infections in humans and on devices that have come in contact with infected tissue and pose a major health and economic burden such biofilms are difficult to treat as they present strong resistance to drug delivery due to a dense hydrated polysaccharideprotein matrix in which the bacterial communities encase themselves and from the bacterial membrane itself liposomes stabilized by polyethylene glycol peg moieties the current goldstandard and most commonly used means of stabilization are versatile drugdelivery vehicles but such pegylation is associated with significant shortcomings greatly reducing the efficiency of pegylated liposomes for biofilm treatment here we explore a novel strategy to improve such drug delivery and treatment of biofilms in particular is it effective is it efficient can it be readily applied both in vitro for which we have some promising preliminary indications as for infected biomedical devices and crucially in vivo what is the ipr position for future exploitation of this new drug delivery strategy these questions illustrate the highriskhighgain nature of this proposal and are systematically addressed in this proposal through several interrelated work packages success of our project in demonstrating that our novel drugencapsulating vehicles can efficiently treat and eradicate bacterial biofilm infections would not only have benefits affecting large populations but also tap into a large drugdelivery market
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immunometabolic regulation of microglia function in stroke recovery
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stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide despite recent improvements in stroke prevention and acute treatment there is still a very urgent need for promoting stroke recovery to improve patients quality of life microglia are the predominant brain resident immune cells in charge of brain homeostasis through immune surveillance emerging evidences suggest that poststroke microglial reactivity remains incompletely resolved and persists chronically immunomet aims to study the impact of persistent inflammatory and dysfunctional traits of microglia during stroke recovery through metabolic reprograming a set of essential processes key to satisfy the high energetic requirements of immune activation to fulfill this goal immunomet will use novel and cuttingedge methodologies including sophisticated imaging techniques multiparametric flow cytometry metabolomics and singlecell rna sequencing to investigate the time course evolution of microglia immunophenotype and the potential shifts in microglial metabolic pathways over the course of stroke immunomet will also evaluate the effects of an acute manipulation of microglia cellular metabolism on the stroke recovery as an approach to tackle chronic neuroinflammation and improve brain functional recovery after stroke to this end immunomet aims to assess microglia immunophenotype in two scenarios 1 a transgenic mouse line with altered microglia type i ifn signaling which may regulate energy metabolism and 2 after administering an itaconate derivate a modulator of immune cell polarization immunomet is expected to contribute novel and valuable insights into the immunometabolic adaptations to stroke this research will be a crucial for future development of therapies aimed at enhancing the longterm recovery of stroke survivors addressing a significant sociohealthcare challenge immunomet will be a major step in my academic career as an international independent researcher
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overcoming the sign problem in lattice gauge theories using tensor networks
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tensor networks and particularly projected entangled pair states peps are special quantum manybody states that describe stronglycorrelated systems well due to their entanglement structure they have been successfully applied in various scenarios and recently to lattice gauge theories lgts where they outperformed conventional montecarlo calculations and overcame the sign problem in some examples but mostly in singlespace dimensions due to limitations of tensor network methods a fundamental analogy between peps and gauge theories suggests that peps are suitable for studying lgts and that gauge symmetry often seen as complicating the numerics can help in overcoming the sign problem and perform efficient tensor network computations in higher dimensions the overarching goal of this project is to use this analogy in analytical and numerical ways aiming to 1 analytically devise a comprehensive new formalism for lgt peps and the physics they describe by allowing one to construct the optimal peps to be used as variational ansatz states when combined with numerical techniques 2 devise numerical methods for studying lgts with such peps thanks to the analogy based on sign problemfree variational montecarlo 3 apply these methods numerically to challenging nonperturbative models culminating in su3 in 31d with finite fermionic density towards quantum chromodynamics this is expected to overcome the sign problem of such models thus closing an important challenging and longstanding gap in the field of nonperturbative physics in general and gauge theories in particular the developed methods can be generalized for studying realtime dynamics of quantum field theories models of quantum gravity thermal quantum field theories and many other puzzling questions they will also advance the parallel contemporary approach to lgt quantum simulations and computations as some open problems are shared by both approaches
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feedback between population dynamics and evolution of interactions in a tritrophic system
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predicting ecosystems response to ongoing environmental shifts is a major challenge in ecology and evolution which is tightly linked with the ecoevolutionary feedback loop however we lack studies that thoroughly examine the whole loop of ecology to evolution and back moreover there is a dire need for comprehensive studies on the mechanisms involved in this feedback that integrate different biological levels with dynamictrio we will perform an indepth and multilevel analysis of the ecoevolutionary process by combining experimental evolution and theoretical modelling of a tritrophic system composed of plants arabidopsis thaliana herbivores tetranychus urticae and predators amblyseius swirskii first we will quantify the impact of ecosystem productivity and environmental stress on ecological dynamics aim 1 second we will address how the interplay between ecosystem stability and population dynamics determine trait and genomic evolution aim 2 third we will examine how the evolution of direct and indirect interactions affect species evolution and ecosystem resilience aim 3 finally using the huge body of experimental data produced we will examine how population dynamics system stability and interspecific interactions shape the genotype to phenotype to fitness map of each population this will allow us to incorporate the ecologyevolution feedback loop into fitness landscape models aim 4 by building on the combination of powerful empirical and theoretical approaches which i have been developing throughout my career dynamictrio provides an extensive multidisciplinary understanding of the mechanisms underlying ecoevolutionary dynamics the longterm goal of dynamictrio is the development of statistical and theoretical tools that properly integrate the different components of the ecoevolutionary loop and generate the muchneeded predictions on how a broad range of ecosystems persist in a fastchanging world
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monolithically integrated reram and inchip cooling for emerging neuromorphic applications
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heat generation and removal thereof is one of the main challenges for the realization of many future high performance electronics the heat wall is one of the biggest obstacles to processing large amount of data using the conventional computing architectures to address this formidable challenge smart architectural approaches that consider codesign of electronics and thermal management as well as emerging solutions beyond cmos are needed a resistive switching memory cell reram is a promising candidate for such a technology which offers performance improvements in digital circuits without a need for aggressive device scaling when combined with transistors ultimately the solution may come from monolithic integration of novel electronics and cooling within the same substrate inchip cooling has been recently demonstrated to be promising in gan power electronics on silicon however the multistep and complicated process flow adopted for fabricating the inchip heat sink in the stateoftheart could pose a big challenge for the wide adoption of this new scientifically and technologically interesting concept 3d laser lithography is a currently unrealized opportunity to fabricate inchip microchannels for cooling with substantially simplified fabrication and without a need for cleanroom facilities complex 3d structures can be fabricated by this method through a twostep process that includes femtosecond laser irradiation followed by wet chemical etchingin view of the above mentioned we target to develop memristive arrays integrated with lasermicromachined inchip cooling this offers an immediate and rapid path to overcome the thermal challenges facing todays computing architectures and is of relevance to other technologies that suffer from heating during operation we seek to exploit the highly efficient embedded cooling to pioneer agenda setting advances in addressing the wellknown thermal limitations of future logic and memory technologies
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tracing virusspecific cd8 t cell clonotype zonation and function in humans
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the current covid19 pandemic highlights the need to gain better understanding of precise mechanisms that enable immune control of viral infections although it is established that cd8 t cells are required to suppress viremia most view these cells simply as killer t cells based almost exclusively on studies of blood i recently discovered that efficient immune control of hiv is mediated primarily by nonkiller resident memory cd8 t cells whereas cd8 t cells with high killer instinct are mainly confined to the vasculature these observations force a reevaluation of how antiviral cd8 t cells are distributed anatomically and function in the tissue spaces where most viruses replicate using cuttingedge singlecell technologies on unique paired tissue samples from human organ donors my aim here is to challenge prevailing concepts in the field of adaptive immunology and reassess how and where cd8 t cells actually target viruses in the human body my group will first use singlecell barcoding techniques to establish a reference map of cd8 t cell clones specific for multiple viruses across tissue sites we will then dissect this information to determine whether distinct resident memory cd8 t cell clones andor subsets exhibit differential antiviral functions across tissue sites in parallel we will use more mechanistic approaches to define the epigenetic imprints and functional properties of antiviral cd8 t cells aiming to determine to what extent these features are shaped by subset fate anatomical location andor the nature of the expressed t cell receptor a specific emphasis throughout this project will be to translate the emerging knowledge to the field of covid19 aiming to understand how cd8 t cells control sarscov2 this ambitious but technically feasible project will establish a systematic foundation for future studies of antiviral t cells in humans and inform the development of more effective vaccine platforms to combat future viral threats
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from light fueled selfoscillators to light communicating material networks
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online aims to develop new concepts of communication between inanimate materialswhat is meant by communication in biological context communication refers to interactive behaviour of one organism affecting the current or future behaviour of another in the context of bioinspired materials online will develop lifelike material structures that communicate with each other via physical contact fluidic medium or optical beams these inanimate materials will be coupled to form networks that communicate autonomously through lighthow to make them the core concept behind the communicative materials is selfoscillatory selfsustained motions in lightresponsive liquid crystal elastomers lces selfoscillation is a responsive structure that can selfsustain its own mechanical motion in a constant energy field it captures the key concepts of living organisms ie functioning out of thermodynamic equilibrium and energy dissipation my goal is to scale down the selfoscillator concepts to the microscale and realize soft material robots that can communicatewhy is this important there exists an increasing need for artificial materials that can interact alike biological systems however all the dynamic features of stateoftheart responsive materials are based on internal material properties and making individual materials interact with each other is a huge challenge online proposes three new model systems for material communication i microscopic walker swarm in which the locomotion and patterns of interactions between individuals can be fully programmed ii cilia array that move cooperatively and selfregulate the fluidics at low reynolds numbers iii homeostasislike lightcommunicating coupled network that provides a full set of tunable parameters to mimic the complexity of biological oscillators
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harmonization of advanced materials ecosystems serving strategic innovation markets to pave the way to a digital materials product passport
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the overarching objective of digipass is to enhance the digital maturity of the european communities that develop materials and intermediate products the project will develop recommendations and clear routes toward digitalized circular business models the overarching key result of digipass is to create a sustainable platform which includes support for digital materials product passport and for collaborative innovationbydesign processes in a circular economy served by advanced materials a business model for operating such a platform completes the overarching objectivedigipass is harmonizing and synergizing collected materials data sources and digital infrastructures this will enable interoperability of data exchange and standardization of advanced materials knowledge representation at all maturity levels accelerating the design development and production of advanced safe and sustainable chemicals and materials as they are necessary for innovative products calls for a collaborative approach involving different stakeholders to support durability repair and overhaul reuse and recyclability of products digipass project impacts all materials development communities over the whole circular value chain
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gn51
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as one of the first in a series of projects foreseen under gn5fpa gn51 aims to provide faster more resilient and secure connectivity infrastructure and collaboration services to enable researchers and students access to applications that support evidencebased and effective collaboration across virtual research teams worldwide gn51 will continue the development of stateofthe art costeffective secure and resilient connectivity to provide unconstrained capacity ahead of demand in the backbone network and nren access in multiples of 100gbps delivering terabit connectivity where needed gn51 will prototype pilot and where appropriate procure new online abovethenet services and deliver pervasive innovative and distributed trust and identity infrastructure and services to achieve strategic positioning of ti services as a key enabler of research and education collaboration within europe trusted access to data sources and services and authentication and authorisation infrastructure services such as eidas will also be included the project will address horizon europes priorities in areas such as data security and access control innovation and dnsh and will expand nrens users beyond traditional scientific and research communities enabling networking and access to the common european data spaces gn51 will ensure access for researchers and students to the valued services required for open science it will disseminate learning and training and build community as well as align with eu policies and ongoing participation with standardisation bodies gn51 can offer its distinctive services due to its human network of professionals in a consortium with a deep understanding of evolving user requirements within this community knowledge and experience is shared between partners to constantly enhance the quality of the services offered making it an indispensable element of the era
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betacell recovery to counter diabetes
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globally 875m people with t1d rely only on insulin administration to manage the symptoms of their disease the treatment is complex since it requires injecting insulin 24 timesday and adhering to a restrictive lifestyle eg following a strict diet reducing patient qol even with insulin less than 20 of patients achieve their target glucose level which eventually leads to vascular complications eg stroke renal disease reducing life expectancy by 1015 years diogenx aims to withdraw insulin dependency and cure t1d by regenerating pancreatic betacell to allow autonomous insulin release in response to blood glucose levels increaseswe expect to outlicense our drug to a pharma company some of them have already manifested their interest and invested in the capital of diogenx this may materialize as soon as clinical proof of principle is demonstrated in humans which will be reached in 2026 with the proceeds from series a to be raised in 2023 which is 80 secured
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design of metalstabilized dna and rna nanoconstructs potentially applicable in medicine
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dna nanotechnology can provide breakthroughs in various fields such as catalysis nanofabrication computation bioimaging drug delivery or cancer treatment this approach is based on the idea that if singlestranded dna sequences are not perfectly complementary branchedstranded dnas can be formed from which complex 2d or 3d structures can be constructed with nearatomic precision by proper sequence design although dna nanomaterials seem to be promising the biomedical application is significantly challenged by the fact that current dna and especially rna nanostructures are unstable under physiological conditions sensitive towards nucleases and oxidative damage as well therefore my main goal is to develop more stable dna nanostructures that can later be used to stabilize vaccines or drug carriers for this purpose i will use metalmediated base pairing in addition to the classical watsoncrick hydrogen base pairing during the project i will design purify and analyse oligonucleotides that stabilize silver nanoclusters agncs in the small size regime with mixed ag0agi composition in order to achieve agncoligonucleotide systems nanoconstructs that can remain stable even in the conditions of the human plasma thus can be used later as vaccines or drug carriers this approach is beyond state of the art since it was not even mentioned as a possible application of metalincorporated dna nanoconstructs in the most recent reviews of the field although already existing data combined suggests it could eliminate many of the issues of previous concepts i will use modern separation spectroscopy and structure quantification methods as well as cellular studies to design and characterise the system that best meets the criteria
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algebraic and topological approaches for atomic nuclei and related systems
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the primary goal of the current proposal is to understand the structure of atomic nuclei and its evolution by means of algebraic and topological approaches and to employ the algebraic approach to quark gluon plasma the algebraic approach can offer considerable insight into complex dynamics by classifying underlying symmetries derive selection rules calculate many observables and predict many properties in nuclei in a tractable manner the topological approach can offer new insight into the phases of matter of the nucleusthe different objectives of the proposal are montecarlo code for interacting fermions and bosons we will develop a new openaccess code for numerical calculations of fermions and bosons using the montecarlo method mapping the shell model sm onto the interacting boson model ibm we suggest a novel mapping approach based on effective field theory eft in which we write the sm and ibm in eft and investigate the structure of lie algebras of the feynman integrals a method used for calculating multiloop radiative corrections and use them to map the sm onto the ibm topological phases of atomic nuclei we will investigate the occurrence of berry phases in semimagic mid shell nuclei and find classes of topological orders in atomic nuclei by examining known and new analogies with condensed matter physics algebraic approach to qgp we will introduce a new algebraic model for qgp based on bosonfermion effective degrees of freedom with similar principles as the interacting bosonfermion model for atomic nuclei in order to calculate the phase diagram in a tractable framework with insight to the symmetries of the diagram the above objectives can spur more studies by the researcher the supervisor and other experimental and theoretical research groups in different fields of physics and thus the researcher asks for their funding
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deciphering and targeting cellular states in glioblastoma
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cellular heterogeneity is a fundamental property of glioblastoma gbm tumors and presents a major barrier for therapeutics during the past six years we characterized this heterogeneity in glioblastoma and in other types of glioma using single cell rnaseq scrnaseq we found consistent patterns of heterogeneity across patients such that each tumor harbors multiple subpopulations of cells that resemble neurodevelopmental cell types the consistency of these cellular states across patients highlights their potential clinical significance yet our understanding of how these common states are regulated and of how distinct states respond individually or in combinations to potential treatments remain poorly understood furthermore it is unclear if additional states of clinical significance remain to be uncovered to address these challenges we will perform extensive studies of gbm patient samples animal models and gliomasphere culture models first we will dissect the regulation of the common cellular states aim 1 single cell atacseq of patient samples will be used to infer transcriptional regulators spatial transcriptomics will be used to infer environmental interactions and resulting predictions will be tested further in established model systems second we will search for novel cellular states including rare states or those specifically associated with invasion to the brain parenchyma aim 2 third we will examine strategies for treatment of heterogenous tumors that are composed of multiple states aim 3 we will screen for statespecific drug sensitivities as well as for drugs that induce state transitions and develop rational combinations to eliminate multiple coexisting states while considering interactions among states taken together these studies will considerably expand our understanding of cancer heterogeneity and develop strategies to target heterogeneous tumors
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safety of antimalarials in the first trimester an adaptive platform trial
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background malaria in pregnancy can have devastating consequences particularly in early pregnancy effective treatment in the first trimester can significantly improve maternal and pregnancy outcomes however firsttrimester pregnancies are generally excluded from clinical trials resulting in new and effective antimalarials being withheld from use in early pregnancy who updated its guidelines in 2022 from quinine to artemetherlumefantrine al as the firstline treatment for uncomplicated malaria in the first trimester however there are insufficient data on the benefitharm of other widely used artemisininbased combination therapiesobjectives 1 to generate robust evidence on the safety tolerability and efficacy of antimalarials for the treatment of uncomplicated p falciparum malaria in the first trimester 2 translate research findings into treatment guidelines and clinical practice study design a phase iiib noninferiority bayesian adaptive randomised platform trial comparing pyronaridineartesunate pa and al in burkina faso kenya and mali primary outcome safety secondary outcomes efficacy and tolerability b formative research to inform innovative trial recruitment and retention strategies c acceptability and feasibility to assess values and preferences of antimalarials during early pregnancy d implementation research to explore factors affecting implementation of al in the first trimester to inform translation strategies and e costeffectiveness of pa vs alimpact the trial will provide critical information on the safety and efficacy of alternatives to al for treatment in the first trimester benefiting settings where al is not used and aligning with whos strategy of multiple firstline therapies against antimalarial drug resistance results will be translated into policy and guidelines and ultimately ensure that healthcare providers and pregnant women have access to optimal treatment options for malaria in early pregnancy
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democratising just sustainability transitions
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the dust project will develop and operationalise novel participatory instruments for proactive and strategic citizen engagement in sustainability transitions it will combine designled territorial tools with digital tools for citizen deliberation at scale the project addresses a defining societal and democratic challenge for europe which is to hear the voices of least engaged communities especially in structurally weak regions dependent on energyintensive industries which will be most affected by transitions towards a more sustainable future building on the concept of active subsidiarity the project will employ an innovative mix of research methods and experimental citizen participation to understand the determinants of participation in decisionmaking on sustainability transitions at different levels of government and to develop effective policy recommendations for inclusive engagement of civil society
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advanced wing maturation and integration
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the aeronautical industry is committed to a collective goal of netzero carbon emissions by 2050 in addition to optimized flight operations and sustainable aviation fuels deployment two fundamental enablers to reach this target are the introduction of lh2 technologies and new solutions increasing aircraft and engine efficiency in order to accelerate the entry into service of ultraefficient hydrogen smr aircraft awatar develops a very high aspect ratio strutbraced drywing characterized by laminar portions in the outer areas advanced integrated leading edge systems and an optimized integration of an openrotor propulsion system with the purpose of anticipating and accelerating future certification processes the targeted maturation relies on highfidelity simulations and ground tests etw s2ma collins icing wind tunnelin terms of performance benefits progress to be made in awatar leads to substantial gains with respect to a 2020 stateoftheart aircraft the novel aerodynamic configuration with a large aspect ratio targets a drag reduction at aircraft level of 18 regarding the advanced leading edge solution integrating the ice protection system the investigated technology aims for a 50 reduction of the energy budget needed for a fully evaporative system for laminarity the expected aircraft drag reduction is about 510 depending on the configuration in addition the optimized integration of the unducted single fan limits installation drag to less than 4 of total aircraft drag overall awatar aims at an integrated smr aircraft 250 passengers 2000 nm offering an 18 reduction in block energythis 36 months 20meuros valued project 14meuros funding relies on a strong consortium made of 2 aircraft manufacturers 1 aerospace components supplier 3 research centers 1 wind tunnel operator and 2 universities this complementary and multidisciplinary consortium ensures that awatar maturity path is in line with clean aviation smr roadmap
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dna modules as communicators in tumor immunomodulation
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our goal is to develop alldna structures protocells that can act as modulators of the immune system and in particular of signaling processes in oncology molecular dna switches that interact with cells via aptamers have been developed and used for drug delivery cell imaging and potential therapies however there are several advantages of incorporating these swithces into protocells such as the protection of these circuits against degradation the ability to create gradients and as a delviery method for in vivo application dna protocells that i have the ability to recognize proteins and small molecules and ii amplify signals and generate output that alters cell physiology have not yet been developed realizing these structures requires filling a gap in our knowledge of how of how aptamer reactions network in confinement we anticipate that by filling these gaps in our knowledge we will be able to produce a pure dna protocell that can harbor aptamerbased response networks for modulation of intercelullar communication in the tumor microenvironment
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variations in motivation across the day understanding the how and why of daily fluctuations
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life on earth has evolved in synchrony with the daynight cycle most species from singlecell plants to humans have a circadian system that operates as a pacemaker modulating a multitude of biological processes across the 24h period given the ubiquitous involvement of the circadian system in our physiology it is not surprising that motivation and related neural systems such as dopamine also vary across the day but with large variation between individuals timeofday is increasingly being utilised to strengthen treatment effects and facilitate behavioural change however we still lack fundamental mechanistic knowledge for establishing more effective and widespread therapeutic applications in mental health care as well as in daily life hence there is a need to more fully understand the circadian clock of motivation and drive the objective is first to predict when ie at which time of day drive and motivation are heightened and blunted and second to scrutinise the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms specifically in phase 1 i plan to conduct a largescale field study using a mobile application to quantify fluctuations in motivation to engage in dailylife behaviours and cognitive mechanisms including incentive motivation reinforcementlearning and cognitive flexibility then in phase 2 i will use this knowledge to probe the role of dopamine in timeofday effects of motivation by pharmacologically modulating dopamine at different times of day in a subset of the participants from phase 1 the combination of field research and basic experimental research will provide unique and clarifying knowledge of how and why motivation fluctuates both within and between individuals given the significant role of motivation in the healthy and sick brain the results will provide novel valuable insights for the society at large
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hacking the ribosome to map virushost associations
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high throughput sequencing and metagenomics have deepened our understanding of viruses in nature yet linking viruses to their hosts remains a challenge hindering our knowledge and applications the virhox project aims to overcome this by hacking the ribosome to map virushost associations leveraging a critical moment in the infection cycle of all viruses the translation of viral genes into proteins by the host cell we will uncover concealed relationships between viruses and their hosts providing a universal tool for virushost pairing this novel approach virhoseq involves ligating host ribosomal rna with viral mrna during translation in infected cells using engineered enzymes followed by high throughput sequencing to reveal virushost pairings our interdisciplinary consortium of academic and industrial experts in microbiology protein engineering gene editing viral genomicstranscriptomics and law will develop and then prepare the commercialisation of virhoseq envisioning legislative and analytical frameworks to maximise its impact this technology will significantly help tackle current challenges such as those posed by emerging pathogens ecological disruptions and climate change our approach aligns with the eic work programme objectives demonstrating feasibility on model organisms before validating on relevant samples addressing the engineered living materials challenge
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multimessenger studies of extragalactic supercolliders
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active galactic nuclei agn are among the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe they convert the gravitational energy of matter accreted by supermassive black holes smbhs into electromagnetic and kinetic energy producing highly relativistic electrons and protons they are most likely originated from the vicinity of smbhs but the exact mechanism of their production remains elusive electrons are predominantly found in jets whose acceleration and collimation are still poorly understood even less clear is how and where protons are accelerated and how this process is connected to neutrino production the importance of investigating such highenergy particles transcends astrophysics as they probe regimes that particle accelerators on earth will likely never reachthe recent detection of a highenergy neutrino signal from the blazar txs 0506056 by the icecube neutrino observatory has brought up new multimessenger opportunities for agn studies which can be now most efficiently explored this proposal sets its main aim on carrying out such an exploration and addressing the pivotal questions about proton acceleration jet formation and collimation and neutrino production in agn to achieve these goals we will perform and utilize observations of agn across the electromagnetic spectrum with a particular focus on highresolution verylongbaseline interferometry and data collected by highenergy neutrino telescopesthe information and insight gathered through these investigations will provide the most accurate clues about the extreme energy output in agn and transform these objects into wellunderstood cosmic laboratories which can probe physical conditions unachievable in any experiments performed on earth
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european spacegrade optical transceivers for high speed intrasatellite interconnects and free space lasercom links
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in the current booming satellite ecosystem optical communications are now the champions of data handling they are a must for supercapacity transmission systems and they are a must for smaller and lighter payloads the core enabling technology of these systems is the optical transceiver in its most advanced versions it is deployed either in the form of vcselbased or as integrated coherent lightwave modules these complex products encompass diverse technologies such as lasers electronic and photonic chips microoptics optical and electrical interfaces all in sophisticated miniature packaging european sovereignty in producing such critical devices is of strategic importance but to this date a continental supply chain is missing this is where spacelink come to play spacelink is a natural evolution of h2020spaceorionas and siphodias two successful eu funded projects which have demonstrated optical transceiver circuits and modules to trl 4 establishing the groundwork for the evolution and delivery of flightready hardware spacelink is setup to take the next step and through its manufacturing assembly integration and test campaign will evolve the technology maturity and demonstrate flightready parts at trl 7 spacelink aims to establish the first european supply chain of hirel optical transceivers removing dependency barriers and securing europes digital sovereignty leveraging highend technologies in which europe has and continues to invest spacelink will deliver optical transceivers made in costeffective waferscale fabrication spacelink will deliver vcselbased and photonic integrated circuit systems that will challenge usmade solutions with drastic improvements in size weight and power performance and manufacturability
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twinning for excellence in morphing and aeromechatronic wing control a leap towards ecosmart aviation
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sustainable aviation is an important part of the european green deal program a significant way to achieve this is by reducing wing aerodynamic drag and loading an attractive approach to this is through wing shape morphing aeroelastic control and lightweight structures however morphing requires low wing stiffness aeroelastic control requires high wing stiffness and lightweight structures require different composite materials the mechatwing project aims to resolve these contradictions by introducing a new innovative design of a mechatronic wing using the scientific and innovative competencies of project partners in disciplines such as aeronautics mechatronics structural design material mechanics additive technologies and robotics around this research topic as the backbone the twinning activities between the czech technical university in prague ctu and three top aerospace research institutions the german aerospace center politecnico di torino and technische universitt wien are organized the main mechatwing objective is to bolster ctus excellence capacity and resources thereby closing the still apparent research and innovation gap within the eu ctu aims to achieve this through a targeted knowledge exchange with project partners institutions renowned for their substantial industry alignment and collaboration this will involve the secondments of 11 ctu researchers and students and 4 administrative workers to these institutions exposing them to stateoftheart practices expert mentoring will further support ctus earlystage researchers and research support staff the project partners will send specialists to ctu enhancing its academic environment ctu will also conduct workshops and seminars to integrate new knowledge and techniques by incorporating czechinvest as an associated partner the consortium will enhance ctus efforts to strengthen its relationships with both local and international business and investment communities
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a cellular immunotherapy virtual twin for personalised cancer treatment
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this project aims to create a multiscale patientspecific human virtual twin for patients who are eligible for car t cell therapy which can be extended to cellular immunotherapies in general the virtual twin will be fully integrated into the ecosystem under the digital europe programme and will be available as a researchuseonly prototype in relevant application environments with technology readiness level 6 the virtual twin will support decisionmaking throughout the patients journey from diagnosis to pretreatments cellular immunotherapy and late patient monitoring this will enable patients and health experts to identify the most effective course of therapythe virtual twin for cellular immunotherapies will take multiscale modelling to the next level by providing methodological concepts for integrating living drugs such as car t cells into the human virtual twin ecosystemto achieve this goal the project builds on existing data models for hematological malignancies and multiple myeloma mm to create a virtual twin for car t cell therapy for mm patients the implementation process follows software development principles for software as medical devices ensuring the exploitation of the researchuseonly prototype patients ssh gender differences and other stakeholders perspectives are fully integrated into the design specification and implementation processthroughout the implementation process a modular software architecture and extensible ontologiesterminologies are utilized making the reference model easily transferable to other indications that can be treated with car t cell therapy or other cellular immunotherapies overall the certainty virtual twin will provide decision support for patients and health experts improving the effectiveness of cellular immunotherapies and advancing precision medicine
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tellurene memristors for neuromorphic computing system technology
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bigdata management is currently placing a high demand on both the hardware performance level eg access latency storage capacity cost performance and on the cognitive level eg data processing architectures and algorithms the evergrowing pressure for big data creates urgent global challenges like energy consumption and memory efficiency new device architectures beyond the von neumann paradigm are demanded which are inspired by the biological synaptic operativity towards the socalled neuromorphic computational scheme the memristor is the more viable device emulating the synaptic behavior advanced materials are required to make memristorbased circuits energetically sustainable and outperforming the integration of 2d semiconductors in memristors is a promising path to tackle these global challenges within the neuromorphic computation in this scenario here we propose a singleelement memristor cell design based on tellurene 2d tellurium mimicking artificial synaptic behavior and thus enabling memristor applications tellurene offers solid advantages over other 2d players owing to the structural and chemical simplicity the low thermal budget of its synthesis and the versatility to adapt to rigid and flexible layouts our goals are the scalable production of a tellurene standard and its integration in single memristor cells and in crossbar arrays of memristors aiming at the fabrication of a neuromorphic circuits the peculiar production process makes tellurene fit to delamination and transfer to any kind of surface either rigid or flexible flat or curve and readily available for testing in edgecomputing applications like environmental sensing signal elaboration the translational purpose is to further up technology transfer of the developed products either materials and processes by retrieving stakeholders among small and medium enterprises addressing the ai computing market
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ocean crime narratives a polyhedral assessment of hegemonic discourse on environmental crime and harm at sea 1982present
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with the latest international law of the sea unclos 1982 narratives on environmental crimes and harms at sea have changed their views of ocean governance sustainability and human rights and are now shaping an international hegemonic discourse a growing underexamined corpus of contemporary literary and filmic narratives discusses environmental criminality at sea as subject to contested international and state jurisdiction harmful to oceanic sustainability and threatening human rights and uncertainly poised between crime and harm literature and film are only part of the discourse around environmental criminality at sea since policymakers lawyers and scientists are its main producers how do discourses in the cultural and scientific realms cocreate conceptions arguments and ideas that underpin the actual international regulations and policy negotiations around environmental crime and harm at sea ocn responds to this new challenge with three objectives 1 to analyze the narratives around environmental crime and harm at sea in a new hitherto unexamined corpus of post1982 literature and film 2 to conduct a novel narrative analysis of environmental sea crime and harm discourses aiming for dissemination and governance from the perspective of oceanography green criminology and political ecology 3 to produce a polyhedral assessment of hegemonic international discourse on environmental crime and harm at sea today ocn examines a post1982 corpus of literary filmic and expert narratives dealing with three areas of harm and crime a exploitation of biological and mineral marine resources b toxic waste and plastic dumping c harmful climatechange effects on oceanic ecosystems the project tests an interdisciplinary analysis of discursive practices to provide a fresher critical view of hegemonic international environmental crime discourses at sea which determine definitions of criminality and aim to safeguard the future sustainability of our oceans
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dismantling and recycling rare earth elements from endoflife products for the european green transition
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europes ambitious energy and climate goals are heavily dependent on critical raw materials such as rare earth elements rees the largest enduser of rees is the permanent magnet pm industry for electric mobility and renewable energy technologies the growth in those strategic sectors till 2050 is expected to increase the demand of neodymium nd and dysprosium dy by 4 and 12 times respectively however europe depends 100 on rees imports and there are no marketready substitutes despite the fact that significant amounts of eol products containing reebased pms are collected in europe the current recycling processes do not allow pms recovery and therefore they are lost downstream to face this challenge the reeproduce project aims at setting up for the first time a resilient and complete european reesrecycling value chain at industrial scale for the recovery of rees at competitive cost compared to rees primary production in china at least 25 cheaper with environmentally friendly and socially sustainable technologies reeproduce will capitalize on the knowledge generated in previous projects and aim to solve all remaining technical challenges along the value chain to construct pilots able to produce 70 t of pms per year from variety of eol products bearing ndbased pms additionally it will demonstrate the conversion of pms extracted from many different eol products into high purity rare earth elements oxide reomixtures and rare earth elements alloy rea that will be used in the manufacturing of new pms with performances similar to those manufactured with virgin reesintensive materials this project is formed by key partners covering the whole value chain including eol products recyclers metal recyclers manufacturers of equipment for recycling producers of reesintensive material and pms developers of technologies successfully proven in previous projects and experts in dissemination communication and exploitation
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rangeadapting reinforcement learning and memory
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a wealth of evidence in perceptual and economic decisionmaking research suggests that the subjective value of one option is determined by the range of the values of other available options ie the context yet up until today this literature has almost exclusively focused on decision situations where contexts are explicit and static thus ignoring more ecological and realistic scenarios where value ranges are dynamically shaped by past outcomes this proposal will investigate if and how range adaptation also affects the computation of outcome values that are acquired from experience and stored in memory we hypothesize that rangeadaptation is pervasive in learning because it addresses a fundamental computational costbenefit tradeoffindeed we propose that although range adaptation is locally optimal because it optimizes information processing by tuning the value response function to the experienced outcome distribution this comes at the price of forfeiting the capacity to generalize learnedvalues to new contexts the proposed research will design and validate a comprehensive behavioural and computational framework to test this hypothesis more precisely combining original experimental paradigms behavioural analyses and computational modelling we will i provide a clear algorithmic description of outcome range adaptation ii elucidate the nature of the distorted memory representations of outcome values and finally iii probe the pervasiveness and adaptive value of this process empirically by running experiments in different cultures and theoretically through extensive simulations we believe this project has the potential to further elucidate new fundamental computational constraints of human learning and decisionmaking our theoretical framework and empirical results will undoubtedly contribute to the debate about the ultimate sources of human bounded rationality with potential impact beyond cognitive science
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tuning immune t cells for cancer therapy
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adoptive cell therapy act recently became an important treatment modality for cancer since 2017 several chimeric antigen receptor cart cell therapies approved by the fdaema and more are expected to receive approval for clinical use currently more than 250 clinical act trials are ongoing already in 2021 the market size was 1 billion and is expected to grow tremendously to 25 billion by 2030 act products require extensive ex vivo manipulation and expansion of patient derived t cells prior to reinfusion back into patients to attack cancer cells unfortunately t cell exhaustion and loss of function after reinfusion form a major problem in currently used ex vivo expansion protocolsthe solution dedicated tuning of t cells during ex vivo expansion to preserve their anti cancer function and prevent exhaustion in the body t cells are activated by antigen presenting cells apc to initiate an immune response as patientderived apc are often immunosuppressed much effort is spent on developing artificial antigen presenting cells aapc to expand immune cells for act we developed a unique polymeric aapc platform termed immunofilaments that provide a highly flexible scalable gmp compliant and affordable solution for robust production of t cells for act our initial findings indeed indicate that we can diminish t cell exhaustion and outcompete products currently used in the clinic for ex vivo t cell expansiontuneit will validate the technical and commercial feasibility of this novel technology platform that exploits immunofilaments to significantly improve function and longevity of act products in patients in tuneit we will 1 demonstrate that tuning of ex vivo cultured therapeutic t cells will prevent exhaustion and loss of tumor killing capacity after reinfusing t cells and 2 perform market and business case analyses to ensure commercial feasibility and market entry through simmunext biotherapeutics a radboudumc spinoff
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uncovering the coevolution between microbial predators and prey
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predation plays a key role in the planets ecology and evolution the most prevalent and diverse predators on the planet are protozoans singlecell eukaryotes that live from consuming bacterial prey protozoan predation massively impacts bacterial diversity shapes microbial ecosystems is essential for nutrient cycling and has been linked to the emergence of bacterial virulence yet despite its importance it remains largely elusive how protozoan predators and bacterial prey coevolve to understand this coevolution we need an integrative research approach that accounts for offense and defense mechanisms in both predator and prey and spans from cellular response systems to community ecologyhere i take this approach and present the first integrative research program on microbial predatorprey coevolution by leveraging recent advances in gene editing and singlecell phenotyping we will focus on the coevolution between amoebal predators and bacterial prey in the soil a hotspot for microbial predation first we will establish a predatorprey model system that permits a twosided and systemslevel analysis of predation using genomewide genetic screens we will identify all genes underlying offense and defense mechanisms study how they exert their effect how they are regulated and how they impact selection across environments second we will expand from our model system to study natural predatorprey soil communities we will explore how sexual reproduction and horizontal gene transfer impact coevolution and emulate soil conditions in the lab to determine how biotic and abiotic factors affect ecoevolutionary dynamics of predatorprey communities in both time and spacemy research will connect ecology and evolution with molecular and systems biology opening up the door for breakthrough advances in our understanding of predatorprey interfaces the impact of coevolution on microbial ecosystems and the emergence of nascent pathogenicity
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optical microscope for imaging highspeed precision surface processes
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surflight is at the forefront of optical microscopy innovation aiming to bring an exceptional microscope to the market we have developed a highresolution microscope up to 2 nm capable of monitoring ultrafast surface processes sscale on nontransparent materials under real operational conditions this innovation holds promise for industries like semiconductors batteries and green energy where it is critical to visualize surface phenomena labelfree and in realtime surflights microscope excels in identifying active sites on surfaces and nanomaterials essential for catalytic reactions or solar energy conversion this technology streamlines catalysis rd by offering realtime visualizations cutting costs and optimizing catalyst utilization moreover it minimizes the need for repetitive tests conserving time and resources while enhancing catalyst lifespans and reducing replacements through realtime monitoring of catalyst degradation under realworld conditions most importantly it safeguards against largescale process failures resulting in substantial cost savings in materials and reduced downtime a thorough market analysis within surflight will allow us to step up our dialogue with academic as well as industrial partners and thoroughly characterize the industrys demands and needs for the microscope this will allow us to undertake a final optimization of the microscope once identified the initial targeted customer sector this erc poc will be central for pursuing these goals we envision surflight in the market rapidly and attracting commercial interest from a wide range of industrial sectors
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a blueprint for photonic quantum computer
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recent technological advances allow to build revolutionary devices for information processing by making use of the laws of quantum mechanics most strikingly quantum communication allows to transmit information with physical security guarantees at rates exceeding the capacities of classical links and quantum computers provide a means to speed up certain computations solving certain problems faster than any present or future classical computer one such problem is factoring large numbers into their primes this problem is the basis of much of modern cryptography such as the security of any information transfer through the internet but the factoring problem was shown to be efficiently computable on a quantum computer using shors algorithm a functional quantum computer would therefore jeopardize the security of the internet quantum computation with a discretevariable system such as a twolevel electron spin demands temperatures colder than those found in deep space however continuousvariable systems such as photons particles of light can operate at room temperatures and are more robust against decoherence allowing for full miniaturization and mass manufacturing the theory of quantum errorcorrecting codes provides a new set of techniques to run a quantum algorithm with an arbitrary level of accuracy despite using imperfect noisy photons photonic quantum codes exhibit either translational or rotational symmetry in phase space potential of the latter has remained largely unexplored despite convincing evidence for a striking advantage in phoqc i will develop a novel stabilizer formalism to systematically study rotational symmetry in phase space i will find quantum codes operating on the entire or a part of the hilbert space and i develop the corresponding universal logics we are at the dawn of the quantum computing age and the quantum codes and techniques developed in phoqc will bring photonic quantum computation closer to industrial deployment
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sustainable exploration for orthomagmatic critical raw materials in the eu charting the road to the green energy transition
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critical raw materials crms are fundamental to the eu industrial value chains and strategic sectors particularly with regard to the green energy transition currently the eu domestic supply of primary crms is below 3 for many important commodities to obtain an improved understanding of the eus critical raw materials potential discover new ore deposits and thereby increase the internal sourcing of crms and secure its raw materials autonomy the eu aims to boost the exploration and production of crms orthomagmatic mineral systems host important green transition critical raw materials gtrm including ni cu co v ti cr and platinumgroup elements pge there are currently only 2 mines in operation producing these metals in the eu though there is potential for additional mines in several eu countries this project is designed to develop socially and environmentally sustainable means of exploration for orthomagmatic crms we will apply for the first time in the eu the mineral systems approach to guide exploration for orthomagmatic crms we will thereby generate improved ore models for orthomagmatic mineral deposits which will be translated to mappable exploration criteria to delineate areas of high exploration potential from regional scale to local scale through collaboration between geosciences and social sciences the project will also develop methods to promote social awareness of the importance of responsible exploration and mining further we will map the exploration and production potential of crm in the eu and key crm supplier countries our research will be conducted at five reference sites in finland portugal poland and the czech republic representing different geological social and environmental conditions the ultimate goal is to promote responsible sourcing of crms in the eu and diversify the supply from third countries thereby securing the continued supply of crms for eu industries
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ferroelectric photonics enabling novel functionalities and enhanced performance of next generating pics
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in phoenix we create the next generation of compact photonic integrated circuits pic offering a continuous and efficient control over optical signals a barium titanate bto on silicon nitride sin platform will be optimized to enable novel functionalities and produce enhanced pics the novel functionalities stem from a combination of materials having a metalinsulator transition with epitaxial ferroelectrics vanadium oxides vox deliver a maximum contrast in absorption while barium titanate bto offers an efficient and programmable control of the phase of an optical signal through pockels and photorefractive effectsthe developed technologies will be demonstrated in four uses cases in highimpact emerging applications 1 fully homomorphic encryption 2 5g infrastructure 3 inference of deep neural networks and 4 training of deep neural networksthe project has four main objectives a to provide novel photonic technologies with enhanced functionalities thanks to the integration of vox and bto b to provide a btosin waveguide platform for subsequent manufacturing of pics and an upgraded version of such a platform integrating vox with the potential to improve their performance and scalability c to build up the demonstrators and d to advance in the understanding realization and upscaling of highquality oxide thinfilms by molecular beam epitaxy mbe on large areathe validation of the developed technology will be completed with an extrapolation to benchmark against representative existing systems and a roadmap for photonicelectronic integration the project will perform a market analysis and a technoeconomic evaluation in order to define business models and exploitation plans that ensure the sustainability of the phoenix platform to reduce innovationto markettime and ri costs for disruptive hightech smes and maximize the impact of the 4 user cases demonstrators
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nanostructurebased design of visual perception using highindex disordered metasurface physics
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the optics of disordered media with subwavelength highcontrast resonant inhomogeneities is a fascinating research topic emerging at the interface between the physics of waves in complex media and nanophotonics unseen explores and exploits unconventional waveinterference phenomena in disordered metasurfaces towards a new application the creation of brandnew visual appearanceour perception of objects is completely determined by how they scatter light color is crucial but other attributes such as texture gloss for reflective surfaces clarity for transmissive ones illumination directivity also largely influence appearance although this perception plays a key role in virtually all fine and applied arts appearance engineering has been so far applied only to materials structured at length scales significantly larger than the wavelength this is because the link between nanostructure morphologies and appearance is very complicated for subwavelength scale resonant inhomogeneitiesunseen bridges for the first time the fertile environments of optical metasurfaces and visual appearance in an original and crossdisciplinary way at the forefront of optical modelling and characterization we will develop new tools in nanophotonics which will merge nanoscale electromagnetism mesoscale multiple scattering and macroscale raytracing rendering the tools will allow us to understand the complicated relation between morphology and appearance to harness the manifold degrees of freedom offered by disordered metasurfaces and to discover clues to design novel appearance we will then use available stateoftheart nanofabrication and develop new characterization setups to produce and observe metasurfaces with novel appearances and further study their most promising applications luxury goods document security and headup display
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intersectional spaces of participation inclusive resilient embedded
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participatory and deliberative democracy pdd processes have on the one hand been celebrated for their potential in addressing political distrust and polarisation by deepening public engagement on the other hand they are often accused of being cosmetic solutions to deepseated problems that continue to exclude already disempowered groups along socioeconomic gender racial physical and mental ability lines inspire aims to tackle these accusations and failures by fostering intersectional equality through participatory spaces that are inclusive and start from the needs and assets of marginalised groups resilient to changes in government and developing upon existing grassroots work to support community resilience and embedded within the wider public sphere and in productive relationships with policymaking institutions bussu et al 2022a escobar 2022we employ three key ideas the political economy of participation codesign and assemblage theory we place emphasis on socioeconomic factors that affect peoples capabilities to participate or the political economy of participation we use a range of artsbased digital and creative methods to codesign with participants inclusive participatory spaces that move beyond just talkcentric deliberation which can exacerbate existing inequalities to analyse and foster intersectional equality within pdd we need to overcome the linearity and oversimplification that sometimes characterise methodological approaches in the field which tend to overlook the dynamism complexity and messiness of participation the concept of assemblage helps us look at how different participatory practices coexist interact and change across local national and transnational levels using these theoretical and analytical tools we can trace more clearly processes and power dynamics that exacerbate inequalities and we can strengthen democratic and inclusive participation through its many forms and practices
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a molecular proxy for gender contrasts at the neolithic to bronze age transition
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the project anthropyxx proposes an archaeogenomic exploration of the status and life of women and men during the key transitional period between the neolithic and the bronze age in occidental europe with the ambition to better understand the deep roots of gender contrasts in presentday societies inequalities today can be measured through economical markers health or education levels as these metrics are not directly accessible in prehistoric periods alternative proxies have to be exploited to trace back the emergence of inequalities including data from ethnoarchaeology and anthropobiology traditional isotopic analyses or the interpretation of funerary practices and artistic representation the project anthropyxx proposes to add palaeogenomics to the current gender archaeology toolkit more specifically anthropyxx aims at leveraging the latest advances in ancient genomics applied to a rich collection of protohistoric human remains and combined with isotopic data to better picture the contrasted life of women and men through the reconstruction of family structures inbreeding levels and residential rules the health status of the women and men and their associated microbes will be assessed the development of innovative approaches both on the bench and in silico will enable the characterization of past dna methylation levels and their comparison with modern data especially at positions impacted by adverse life conditions finally we will document the populations genetic heterogeneity and investigate the hypotheses of sex biases in population migrationsthe anthropyxx project will provide a new proxy to test if i health conditions reproductive behaviour as well as epigenetic environmental impact were contrasted between women and men during protohistory ii men and women contributed differently to the genetic makeup of european populations and iii these contrasts were exacerbated during the transition from the neolithic to the bronze age
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reducing empiricism in luminescence models to measure rates of earth surface processes
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feldspar luminescence is a diverse tool used to constrain the timing and rates of past changes of the earths surface but it is also key for understanding future landscape response under a changing climate novel luminescence techniques such as luminescence thermochronometry thermometry and surface exposure dating used to reconstruct rock cooling histories erosion rates and palaeotemperatures require the application of models describing charge trapping due to ionising radiation and luminescence decay due to heat or light stimulation however it has become clear that to improve the precision and accuracy of these approaches a much deeper understanding of the physics underlying these techniques is required the interdisciplinary project reducing empiricism in luminescence models to measure rates of earth surface processes recreate combines solid state physics and geosciences recreate aims at accurately constraining physical parameters in the feldspar lattice governing luminescence production and to develop a unified physically correct feldspar luminescence model to be used in luminescence thermochronometry and thermometry studies with the overall goal of making feldspar luminescence techniques and applications more accurate transparent and widely applicable
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prehellenic loanwords in greek lexicon of the substrate analysed
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philoglossa aims to provide a critical reassessment and analysis of the loanwords borrowed into the ancient greek language of from the prehistoric languages early greek speakers encountered in the bronze age aegean these prehellenic or pregreek loanwords have long been recognised to constitute a significant layer in the greek lexicon the earliest of which are already present in mycenaean greek attested by linear b documents despite the phenomenon being well known the historical origins and linguistic interpretation of these loanwords have remained controversial and attempts to explain them as from a single source as per the interpretational framework of the latest controversial etymological dictionary of greek 2010 leiden by robert beekes has been fraught with methodological problems philoglossa will build an openaccess linguistic database to facilitate a fresh analysis of the material that will be conducted as the main research activities of the project as new archaeogenetic studies have provided new evidence strongly suggesting intensive and sustained social and cultural interaction between the incoming early greek speakers and the earlier inhabitants of the aegean it is of crucial importance to reevaluate the linguistic evidence for these exchanges preserved in the ancient greek language as such the results of philoglossa will be of interest not only to those interested in the history of the greek language but also to indoeuropean comparative linguists aegean prehistorians archaeologists and geneticists more broadly
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mathematics of boseeinstein condensation
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we propose a project in mathematics with a focus on manybody theory in mathematical physics we are especially interested in themathematical tools involved in the description and analysis of the recent experimental realizations of boseeinstein condensation itremains one of the most important challenges of mathematical physics to rigorously understand the formation of condensatesin interacting systems this project aims to address that challengeprogress on the problem of condensation has been made on certain length scales and we aim to push the boundaries of theselengths with a view towards the endgoal of actually having a mathematical proof of condensation in a continuum system ofinteracting quantum particles in the thermodynamic limit to approach this objective we will study various related systems andproblems with the expectation of getting improved understanding by seeing the methods in a new light to fully solve these simpler problems will require the development of new mathematical tools and the gain of critical insight some of these simplified problems are concerned with the energy of the bose gas in the dilute limit also in dimensions different from 3 as well as lhyphysicsspecially prepared systems where the normally lower order correction terms become dominant
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unravelling the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of circularity in latin america
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in unravelling the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of circularity in latin america unica i will explore the socioeconomic and environmental implications of a latin america latam circularity transition and its impact on the eu economy using my expertise in assessing global circularity i will contribute to understanding the potential tradeoffs of a circularity transition from a multiregional perspective which provides essential information to enhance the implementation of circular strategies in the upcoming decade unica will allow me to foster my career in two main ways 1 i will become an expert in the circularity transition in the global south and its connections with highincome countries and 2 i will be able to develop a hybrid career where i will be able to contribute to academic and nonacademic institutions simultaneously
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reading provenance from ubiquitous quartz understanding the changes occurring in its lattice defects in its journey in time and space by physical methods
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quantitative provenance analysis studies are instrumental in understanding the tectonic and climatic processes that are shaping earths landscape although the most abundant mineral in the sedimentary system is quartz almost all studies in provenance analysis investigate accessory minerals quartz crystals contain a vast number of point defects intrinsic or due to impurities although our understanding on the formation and dynamics of these defects is far from complete a few of these defects in quartz are used for dating quaternary sediments by luminescence thermoluminescence tl or optically stimulated luminescence osl or by electron spin resonance esr progress aims at proving that point defects in quartz have also the capacity to carry genetic information and their modifications can provide evidence for antiquity metamorphism or lack thereof as well as knowledge on weathering transport or recycling this information can be unravelled by esr and luminescence methods in combination with microscopic techniques such as scanning electron microscopy coupled with cathodoluminescence cl wavelength resolved spectroscopy to understand changes that are occurring at atomic level in quartz in nature in geological time progress will investigate quartz grains extracted from independently dated old to young quartzbearing continental crustal sources metamorphosed rocks versus their unmetamorphosed equivalents fresh versus highly weathered samples as well as intrusive versus volcanic rocks besides conducting experiments in laboratory environments to tackle natures complexity during sediment movement in space and time the effect of physical and chemical changes that occur during transport of quartz grains will be investigated by the study of river sediments that drain different lithologies these investigations will allow a simple quartz based fingerprinting method to be developed that will have a significant impact on quantitative provenance studies
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safe and sustainable lowcarbon fuels for heavyduty aviation and maritime sectors
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heavyduty vehicles including nonroad mobile machinery eg excavators aircrafts and ships are contributing significantly to emissions of greenhouse gases and healthrelevant air pollutants such as fine airborne particulate matter pm25 as well as emerging pollutants for decarbonization of the sector several new fuels ranging from hydrogen via ammonia to synthetic efuels are considered an import question is how these potential new fuels will influence the emission of air toxicants and other environment and climateactive compounds lowc will address if these new fuels for highpower engines have an impact on the emissions of air pollutants and climatedrivers considering also upstream emissions and secondary pollutants formed under different atmospheric conditions daytime photochemical aging or nighttime atmospheric radical chemistry lowc will apply a series of stateoftheart technologies and models this includes a unique engine emission facility equipped for testing of all currently considered low or zerocarbon fuels with real ship aircraft and landbased heavyduty engines oxidation flow reactors for atmospheric simulation novel realtime insitu exhaust characterization approaches cuttingedge technologies for offline analysis of collected samples and advanced online airliquidinterface ali exposure systems for in vitro testing of biological effects in lung tissue models the toxicological testing will be applied in a tiered manner screening and indepth verification in line with visions of toxicity testing in the 21st century emission data including regulated and emerging pollutants will feed into pollution emission and atmospheric transport models currently used to underpin eu policy and the zero pollution action plan finally lowc will evaluate health and environmental impacts and provide guidance and recommendations to ensure that solutions to reduce co2emissions and prevent climate change are safe and sustainable
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the german democratic republics jewish diplomacy and coming to terms with the past
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the project offers an examination of the german democratic republics gdr contacts with jewish organizations communities and individuals in nonsocialist countries that took place as of the 1950s until the fall of the berlin wall in 1989 as an essential component in the development of an east german notion of coming to terms with the past vergangenheitsbewltigung the project is the first to set the primary focus on jewish communities of different types as a target group of the gdr international relations by initiating these contacts the gdr developed distinctive political and ideological approaches to dealing with the national socialist past different from those developed in the federal republic throughout the 40year existence of the gdr exchange with jews and israelis was influenced by the east german stance towards zionism as well as by geopolitical dynamics of the cold war and the soviet unions interests in the middle east conflict this research project aims to fill a significant gap in the existing body of knowledge on contemporary german and european post1945 history the project also unveils a multitude of reactions from jewish and zionist players in response to the east german political approach towards its own history jews zionism and israel importantly this project introduces fresh perspectives on the concept of coming to terms with the past particularly in light of the contemporary surge of rightwing populist trends in germany and europe
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neuroactive compounds in tomatoes and their role in the development of neurodegenerative diseases via the gutbrain axis using a multiomics approach
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neurodegenerative nd diseases are debilitating and largely untreatable conditions that affect millions worldwide including 7 million europeans although there remains no cure there is growing evidence of a correlation between diet gut and nd diseases but a deeper understanding of what happens to neuroactive compounds once digested and their role in the communication between gut and brain is still missing in response neurotom will answer complex questions about human exposure to neuroactive compounds using tomato as a model food such as what happens to these chemicals during digestion and their role in the gutbrain axis and nd disease development it will use advanced mass spectrometrybased techniques to characterise neuroprotective and neurodisrupting compounds in tomatoes produced organically conventionally and processed an in vitro batch colon model will then be applied to investigate the fate of these compounds in the gut microbiome and identify gutmicrobial metabolites a step towards more realistic conditions will be made by investigating how the presence of neurodisrupting compounds influences the bioavailability and beneficial effects of neuroprotective compounds in the gut selected compounds will also be tested using an innovative in vitro 3d colon organoid model to determine the role of neuroprotectivedisruptive compounds and their gut microbial metabolites on intestinal epithelium cells the proposed research is highly interdisciplinary and encompasses analytical and food chemistry holistic and multiomics approaches nutritional biochemistry biotechnology and aspects of neuroscience the goal of neurotom is to extend the knowledge of dietgut microbiomehost brain interactions and will contribute towards preventing or alleviating the burden of nd disease
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natural microbial interactions in winemakingassociated ecosystems as a tool to foster wine innovation
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the eco2wine project aims at providing a new generation of phd graduated employees for the wine sector who will be able to manage winemakingassociated ecosystems protect and control the biodiversity and use this knowhow to reduce unsustainable interventions in natural environments while improving wine sustainability and natural wine production winemakingassociated ecosystems are complex environments in which more or less stable and evolutionary relevant interactions among species and between each species and abiotic components are established in recent years the direct manipulation of these ecosystems has gained considerable interest in wine science because of the need of boosting sustainable socially relevant and ecofriendly choices for the wine production while meeting the growing consumer demand for more diverse wine styles to better map and exploit the natural biodiversity of winemakingassociated ecosystems the understanding of the relevant microbiota the various ecological interactions within those biota and of the molecular mechanisms involved in interactions is essential such studies will allow to describe how these ecosystems work and how their intelligent exploitation can benefit the wine world the training program is divided in 4 areas of interest wine ecology wine innovation wine business and wine science communication the consortium includes 9 beneficiaries and 12 partner organizations that possess complementary competencies and are working with success in wine research the level of quality of these institutions the longterm collaborations established in the past joint european project yesvite ga612441 and the appropriate exchange scheme of training with private companies will sustain an efficient transfer of knowledge between phd students the broader scientific community and the relevant social and economic actors the project will have a relevant impact on the wine research field winemakers and all potential stakeholders
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multidisciplinary and multiscale approach for coupled processes induced by geoenergies
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geoenergies such as geothermal energy co2 storage and underground energy storage have a great potential to contribute to meet the paris agreement targets on climate change yet their deployment has been hindered by a lack of a full understanding of the processes that are induced in the subsurface by largescale fluid injectionextraction the various processes involved eg fluid flow geomechanical geochemical and thermal effects imply complex interactions that cannot be predicted without considering the dominant coupled processes which is rarely done as a result some early geoenergy projects have occasionally developed unpredicted consequences such as felt and damaging induced earthquakes gas leakage and aquifer contamination dampening public perception on geoenergies smile aims at overcoming these challenges in developing geoenergy solutions by training a new generation of young researchers that will become experts in understanding and predicting coupled processes thus they will be capable of proposing innovative solutions for the successful deployment of subsurface lowcarbon energy sources while protecting groundwater and related ecosystems to achieve this ambitious goal the earlystage researchers will be exposed to an interdisciplinary training on experimental mathematical and numerical modelling of coupled processes upscaling techniques and ground deformation monitoring using field data from highly instrumented pilot tests and industrial sites the training in smile has been designed by both academic and industrial partners to train competitive researchers with both technicalscientific and transferable skills to enhance their employability in academia industry and public sector the outputs of the project will be largely disseminated outreach to society will be achieved through a conspicuous series of initiatives smile will make a significant contribution to the societal challenges of securing clean and lowcarbon energy sources
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observing and mapping marine ecosystems next generation tools
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obamanext aims to develop a toolbox for generating accurate precise and relevant information characterising marine ecosystems and their biodiversity this will be achieved by integrating newemerging technologies including remote sensing edna optical instruments and citizen science with existing marine monitoring techniques for improving our capacity to describe ecosystem function and biodiversity with higher spatial and temporal resolution the project will contribute to shaping next generation monitoring programs and defining essential oceanbiodiversity variables eovsebvs stakeholders will be involved from the onset of the project to identify products needed in an iterative cocreating and specification process these specifications will guide the application of algorithms including advanced statistical analyses and artificial intelligence which combine and translate different data sources into information products ie maps and indicators to fulfil stakeholders needs routines for visualisation and methods for uncertainty assessment are also important components of the toolbox development the toolbox will be evaluated and improved based on 12 selected learning sites ls representing diverse ecosystems and data sources within the four european regional seas the applicability of the information products compiled with the toolbox on ls data will be evaluated as input to models for predicting biodiversity and as support for environmental and biodiversity policies the project will also assess the usefulness of the products with respect to the eu objective of designating an ecologically coherent mpa network and the applicability of cburial rates in angiosperm habitats for carbon offsetting and nationally determined contributions obamanext will strengthen europes capability in acquiring and utilising biological ocean observations for better management of marine resources through strong public outreach and active stakeholder communication
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antiviral therapeutics for rapid response against pandemic infectious diseases
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the european consortium antiviral therapeutics for rapid response against pandemic infectious diseases avithrapid aims to support the search for novel broadspectrum antiviral compounds by advancing multiple approachesbuilding on a preexisting set of bioactive small molecules which are at least at the validated hit level avithrapid strives for the development of preclinical candidates targeting several viruses this will be achieved by combining the relevant expertisefor preclinical drug discovery including molecular modeling biochemical and cellbased assays xray crystallography medicinal chemistry biophysical binding studies admetox profiling in vitro and in vivo pk as well as animal disease models in addition the consortium aims to conduct a phase 2a clinical trial for a small molecule developed against zika virus moreover the consortium aims to identify and validate further viral targets and thereby contribute to the search for novel antiviral targets as a consequence of the activities in avithrapid an earlystage drug discovery pipeline will be established that can be used to rapidly identify and develop novel antiviral compounds against emerging diseases
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multiscale investigation of the chemistry of the atmosphere of venus
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venus is the closest planet to earth despite a similar size and mass there are differences between the two planets at the surface the temperature can reach 730 k with a pressure of 90 bar and a composition of 96 of carbon dioxide venus hosts a global cloud layer between 45 and 70 km of altitude with composition and temperaturepressure conditions close to the earths stratosphere and complex chemistry with both sulphur and water cycle this global cloud layer plays a key role in the radiative equilibrium of the atmosphere therefore it is fundamental to study its composition and dynamics at all spatiotemporal scales to understand the atmosphere of venus despite decades of measurements and modelling there are still many unknowns about the chemistry of the venusian atmospherethe project musicav multiscale investigation of the chemistry of the atmosphere of venus conducted at latmos will develop new and ambitious numerical models using a hierarchy of models a planetary climate model pcm mesoscale and largeeddy simulation les models all coupled to a photochemistry scheme these three models are performed with different resolutions and would help capture the spatiotemporal variability of the chemistry over different scales as never before and will increase the understanding of the coupling of the dynamics and chemistry from the largescale to the smallscalesthe proposed effort is perfectly timed and relevant to ongoing and planned international venus exploration activities esa mission envision and nasa missions davinci and veritas were all three selected to launch in the next decade the main objectives of these missions are to study the surface and the dynamics both inside and below the clouds the project will simulate predictions for chemistry variabilities to produce observables for past and future missions to improve the interpretation of the measurements
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tackling the paradox of growth and sustainability a sdg indicator framework for water energy land and materials based on postgrowth and resource nexus thinking
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the united nations sustainable development goals sdgs suggest a useful framework however they lack welldefined indicators failing to account for resource interlinkages resource nexus thinking has gained traction recently since it targets synergies and helps avoid competition of resources additionally decoupling economic growth from emissions and resource use has been sought after and attempted through sustainable growth and green growth within the sdgs this is a paradox since growth and climate mitigation are not compatible growth has significant environmental and social costs consequently critics of green growth and subsequently the sdgs are gravitating towards degrowth which is not mentioned in the sdgs whose goal is to reduce economic activity reaching a level that is ecologically sustainable although degrowth has the virtue of recognising the concrete limits of global growth it is still under development and has faced criticism since it rarely presents implementable actions with most research concentrating on conceptual essays this project will integrate the postgrowth and resource nexus literatures to construct an analytical framework of indicators to improve on existing sdg indicators regarding water energy land and materials in a move away from green growth and decoupling principles and towards principles of equity and sufficiency the framework will consist of critical indicators accounting for embodied resource use to help towards an equitable downscaling of resource throughput the extent of north and souths unequal exchange will be quantified critical resources and degrowth potential for different countries will be identified while the limits to growth will be tested finally this project will inform a meaningful discussion around green growthpostgrowth within the sdgs and elaborate specific and practical policy recommendations for the improvement of sdg indicators for both 2030 and beyond
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orchestration of reliable computing on heterogeneous infrastructures deployed at the edge
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on earth observation missions payloads become more complex with more and more instruments collecting a huge amount of data that cannot be fully downloaded and needs to be processed on board most of the existing solutions allowing deployment and orchestration of applications at the edge relies on defacto standard technologies coming from the cloud computing area but the community recognizes a need to adapt them for edge computing contexts such as space systems furthermore groundbased data processing introduces latency between acquisition and production of the information to the enduser specific challenges also raise like the dynamic changes of the communication links in terms of network topology or connectivity like the energy saving concern or like cybersecurity issues to cope with this situation unikernel technology promises to be a gamechanger as it allows to build lightweight and secure applications that can be deployed in any edge infrastucture the orchide project aims to allow a safe and secure deployment and orchestration of image processing applications within earth observation satellites whatever the hw processing resources and whatever the hosting sw execution platform the solution aims to be multimission multiusers and to address a large range of services based on the enduser needs a disruptive generic framework and unikernel based solution will be developed to provide easier access to space with just a simple application that can be updated or even modified during all the satellite lifetime it will be demonstrated that the orchide simulation solution can paves the way toward a digital twin of such earth observation systems the orchides impacts will be precious as it will enable scalable adaptable missions for meteo environment ocean observationreconnaissance mission and will integrate the green it values as it enables the overall costs power consumption optimization thus allowing an overhead energy footprint reduction
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maximising tidal energy generation through blade scaling advanced digital engineering
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the maxblade project will specifically focus on delivering a 70 increase in rotor swept area of the technology by addressing design reliability condition monitoring maintenance and control issues relating to tidal turbine blades all of these issues have to date been insufficiently addressed for tidal turbine blades and need to be holistically tackled to reach a siteaveraged 30mwh cost reduction in tidal stream energy while maturing the technology to address barriers around investment attractiveness the project also anticipates significant challenges and expected legislative requirements around applying circular economy principles to tidal stream turbine blades in pursuit of a net zero generation sector with a close interface between blade design and testing activities the project addresses a comprehensive circular economy roadmap for tidal turbine blades including advancing the potential of recyclable thermoplastic resins for use in the composite bladesthe project also progresses initiatives to ensure that the european composite sectors become the international leader in tidal blade manufacture through knowledge transfer practical engagement in the blade production design and identifying and addressing barriers to increasing european supplier capacity the project will consist of a 2year design and development phase an 18month build followed by a 2year performance verification through the build of a tidal array of at least two units c 5mw ensuring that 8 blades 4 rotors are tested providing cumulatively 120000 hours of rotor performance data
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reinforcing the scientific excellence of the institute for ethnopharmacological studies and phytotherapy iesp through twinning with computer science cs
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the main goal of the ethcstwin initiative is to establish a collaborative network between the institute for ethnopharmacological studies and phytotherapy iesp nkua university with two highly renowned academic research teams from italy research team of prof a pieroni and germany research team of prof m hofmannapitius as well as biotech sme pangeaai and uni of prishtina faculty of mathematics and natural sciences in order to incorporate eth insights into novel computational and digital frameworks by focusing on developing a rich portfolio of complex methodologies and tools encompassing the analysis of extensive big data sets and the restoration of both tangible and intangible heritage following thorough research and assessment of data derived from several ethnopharmacological sources eg manuscripts folklore texts ethnobotanical studies ethcstwins subsequent phase will involve knowledge transfer and capacity building in ai machine learning and data mining methodologies as well as advancing ethnopharmacological studies among the projects partners this newly acquired knowledge and capabilities will contribute to developing of the ethcstwin platform which will serve as a resource for data collection processing and creating an extensive relational database comprising a vast dataset repository the project will establish an ecosystem excellence aggregator presented as an open science community that will host the ethcstwin database and toolkit and will offer support for stakeholder training ethcstwin will provide a unique opportunity for iesp and its partners to develop the first european ecosystem with iesp as the regional research centre on ethnopharmacology and phytotherapy connecting the balkans mediterranean and central europe the successful implementation of this project will facilitate future collaborations with experts in the fields of ethnopharmacology and computer science will increase iesps research capabilities
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performance estimation assessment reporting and simulation
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pearl project aims at carrying out the sesar performance management process under the leadership of sesar 3 ju this implies to reconcile and map the performance assessments and results delivered by the ri projects with the sesar performance ambitions in the atm master planto achieve this goal pearl project will conduct the following activitiesa priori estimation of performance contributions from sesar solutionsconsolidation of performance assessments coming from sesar solutions to deliver pagar reportprovision support and guidance to solutions through communities of practice in performance domains as operational performance safety cyber security human performance environment cba digitalisation and uspace as part of a quality assurance processconduct multisesar solution network impact simulations looking for indications of crosseffects of joint deploymentcomplementarily on specific request from sesar 3 ju pearl project will maintain sesar performance framework and related material as well as providing support to maturity gates it will also be flexible for the provision of additional adhoc activities to be agreed with sesar 3 ju
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european shift enabler portal for freight
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in the future european mobility system freight rail plays a key role in making a significant contribution to achieving the goals of the european green deal the fastest and most efficient way to decarbonize freight transport is to shift freight to rail to achieve this shift the overall competitiveness of rail in the transport market should be improved to strengthen the role of freight rail in the transportation market it is necessary to attract the attention of freight customers one manner to increase the awareness of rail freight is to provide customers with highquality and open information about the possibilities of rail transport and the associated benefits of rail freight the objective of the esep4freight project is therefore to provide freight customers with an overview of the available rail freight services in europe via a web platform this will be supported by the creation of a web platform based on an existing map developed by skgv that identifies freight flows with a higher potential for transport by rail the web platform will include an interactive map with different modules such as co2 calculator a schedule viewer a contract toolbox and a match making tool in addition esep4freight aims to support the shift of freight to rail by analysing the current contractual framework proposing a set of recommendations for its updated and suggesting a set of harmonised and standardised models for transport agreements and contracts the set of harmonised contracts will be also the base for piloting a new set of blockchainbased specifications for simplifying transport agreements and contracts
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boosting sustainability reliability and efficiency of perovskite pv through novel materials and process engineering
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perovskite photovoltaics have seen rapid advances in the last decade with the promise of higher efficiency reduced embedded energy and co2 emissions lowtemperature production for versatile applications such as flexible photovoltaics and all at potentially much lower cost than current si technology however poor stability and short lifetime in the field is holding back wide deployment of perovskite photovoltaics the current best performing materials also contain lead pb which is toxic and damaging to health and the environmentto address these limitations sunrey will tackle the root causes of these limiting factors through a suite of innovations covering all aspects of the device design and manufacture including improvements to the stabilityperformance ratio of the perovskite materials themselves development of new charge transport and electrode materials and lowcost deposition methods that can be configured to different perovskite absorbers development of improved stability pbfree materials development of a range of measures for barriers and encapsulation from layers to module and process optimisation these technology developments will be underpinned by new approaches to degradation mechanism analysis and the incorporation of modelling to combine barrier properties data with device performance models and test data the design process will be driven by lifecycle circularity and sustainability analyses developments will be validated to trl5 through testing by an accredited laboratory under both realistic laboratory conditions and outdoorssunrey targets a breakthrough combination of high efficiency 25 pbbased 15 pbfree with long lifetime 25 years reduced emissions and cost of manufacturing compared to si this will open up a wide range of new opportunities for the consortium companies including utilityscale panels iot and micropower independent power sources building applied utility power bapv buildingintegrated photovoltaics
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metabolic control of cell growth by mtor in health and disease a multidisciplinary training
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mentor is a multidisciplinary training network which focuses on the mtor pathway a central mechanistic hub that integrates nutritional cues and controls cell growth and metabolism aberrant activation of mtor underlies monogenic diseases with broad spectrum of pathological manifestations including tissue overgrowth polycystic kidneys and neuropsychiatric disorders affecting around two million of people worldwide to avoid the medical errancy of patients in different clinical departments and surgical mutilations approaches of personalized medicine depending on the genetic landscape need to be implemented taking advantage of suitable pharmacological products the overall goal of the mentor research program is to delineate molecular mechanisms of fundamental and aberrant mtor functions preclinically decipher the pathophysiology of mtor develop a novel arsenal of drugs to selectively target the pathway and provide proofofconcept support for such interventions this ambition can only be achieved by the multidisciplinary research program that mentor has conceived through the training of a new generation of scientists at graduate schools of biology pharmacy chemistry or medicine that will become the leaders of mtor research in both public and private sectors mentor will establish a collaborative and efficient network from academia to industry involving patient associations and clinicians with impact on scientific community and society
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unraveling the cellular and molecular dynamics of adult neurogenic niches and brainbody communication during regeneration
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the regenerative potential of the adult brain lies within the neural stem cells nscs a group of dormant cells capable of generating specialized neurons and glial cells nscs are embedded in dedicated niches that are composed of heterogeneous cells which provide a unique combination of signaling molecules and physical properties to support nscs functions however how niche cells remodel to promote complex nsc activation for repair and act as cohesive unit still remains elusive this project aims to delineate and genetically manipulate the niche cells in vivo and characterize their coordinated functioning in the transition of nscs from quiescence to an active proliferative state during brain regeneration we will take advantage of recently identified quiescent nsclike cells in the adult brain of genetically versatile fruit flies which activate upon injury for regeneration and integrate similar features to their mammalian counterpartwhile the niche provides local cues to articulate the proliferation in the nscs peripherical tissues are also affected upon brain damage notably metabolic relevant tissues as the adipose tissue and the gut are necessary to provide energy for the generation of new cells in the niches however which are the signaling molecules spanning upon damage and their source in the brain remains unknown thus we propose to study the interorgan crosstalk between the brain and other tissues during brain regeneration overall this work will provide detailed knowledge about cell interactions within the niches and interorgan communication upon nsc activation in response to tissue damage by elucidating molecular and cellular mechanisms this study aims to provide a comprehensive framework for harnessing the latent regenerative capacity of the brain ultimately fostering advancements in regenerative medicine
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investigation of coupled bone and eggshell demineralization during laying cycle of hens
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skeletal disorders in laying hens are a major concern for the food industry it is well recognized that bone demineralization in laying hens is coupled to the daily mobilization of ca for egg formation but the relation between bone properties and eggshell quality is still unclear a key point for understanding this coupled process is reveling the factors that influence bone dissolution since the unbalance between resorption and formation is what causes bone diseases such as osteoporosis and osteogenesis imperfecta notably there is limited information on how the composition structural organization and interaction between bone mineral phase and organic matrix in different bone types influence chicken bone dissolution and its mechanical properties bonegghens aims to perform a systematic study from macro to nanoscopic scale on a large array of bone and eggshell samples representative of the hens life cycle to assess i the effect of the mineral labile phase and the organic matrix on bone dissolution ii the relation between micro and nanoscopic characteristics of hens bones to bone quality parameters eg bone density mineral crystallinity and iii the correlation between bone structural and compositional changes and eggshell quality the results of the proposed study will shed light on boneeggshell demineralization processes which will help to find solutions for a more sustainable yet productive farming system for ovoproduction moreover the outcome of bonegghens has potential implications for future biomineral investigation by cuttingedge microscopy tools and most importantly for the study of human bone diseases resembling those in chickens finally the development of the proposal will be careerdefining contributing to the professional and personal growth of the experienced researcher and providing the necessary skills and competences to increase her competitiveness and attain a permanent position in the european scientific framework
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uncovering the core dimensions of visual object representations
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our ability to interact with our visual world is a remarkable feat despite drastic changes in their visual appearance we can effortlessly make sense of thousands of objects and carry out meaningful actions on them to understand the nature of our visual representations that underlie this ability a central goal of cognitive neuroscience is to determine the properties or dimensions that make up our representational space of objects while much progress has been made at identifying the building blocks of visual processing in brain and cognition our scientific understanding of visual representations remains fundamentally limited by 1 our ability to capture the complexity and variability of our visual world for determining the dimensions underlying our object representations and 2 the difficulty in disentangling visual and semantic contributions to these representations coredim is an ambitious interdisciplinary program that aims at overcoming these limitations and provide a detailed interpretable characterization of the core dimensions underlying visual object representations to reach this goal coredim capitalizes on extensive targeted sampling of behavioral and neuroimaging data and cuttingedge artificial intelligence methods that allow the identification of interpretable representational dimensions project 1 aims at uncovering the core representational dimensions of objects across ventral visual cortex using a biologicallyinspired neural network model tailored to each individuals functional neuroanatomy and trained to identify the most informative stimuli project 2 will identify the relative role of vision and semantic knowledge in shaping our core representational dimensions through experimental manipulations at the level of the stimulus task and with crossspecies comparisons together coredim promises to transform our understanding of visual processing laying the foundation for a comprehensive characterization of visual cortex function
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electric natural entryways
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the reach of biological electron transport et increased from nm to cm with the discovery of cable bacteria that do et via highly conductive fibres along their filaments their extremely long distance et electrically connects 1000s of cells and influences redox cycling other bacteria interact with this electric highway via interspecies et a visual version flocking where aerobes use cables to breathe oxygen in its absence flockers dump electrons on intermediates electron shuttles which cables recycle since their discovery cable bacteria sparked interest for green biodegradable electronics flocking suggests that we can access the electric fibre without damaging it cables must have a natural electric entryway to upload electrons from shuttles onto the fibres enter aims to map thiswe combine prof meysmans expertise on cable bacteria fibres with mine on flockercable bacteria interactions to 1 identify the electron shuttle by extensive electrochemical characterization of flockers isolated in my phd map their ability to generate electricity and find shuttle production potential in the genomes 2 advance models to find entryway protein sequences in closed cable bacteria genomes from the host 3 localize the entryways on the filament and activate them using correlative light and electron microscopy with labelled shuttles and raman microscopyenter will provide new insights into the functioning of electric ecosystems and electric microbes it will offer novel perspectives on redox and electron flow in natural systems for example oxygen breathing way beyond its presence will affect co2 burying and sequestration in the seafloor enters impact not limited to natural systems will also inspire new insights for engineered systems microbial fuel cells contaminant biodegradation it could provide critical stepping stones for promising alternatives in new green electronics enter connects many disciplines that it will influence and inspire
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