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mri analysis tool for early detection of dementia
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worldwide due to population ageing there will be 75 million patients with alzheimers disease by 2030 alzheimers is a disease described by accelerated brain ageing which leads to decline in both memory and cognitive skills thus affecting everyday activities of those suffering on average over 60 of patients do not receive a diagnosis and average cost of misdiagnosis is estimated to be over 2k existing screening and early diagnostics methods lack speed and accuracy are not automated enough and detect only already existing symptoms when it is late for prevention at neurosalience we develop a software for assessing brain ageing for early detection of alzheimers disease from lowresolution mri and ct scans measuring subjects brain age and extracting important features for making a prediction are used to assess the risk of alzheimers disease the tool determines whether patient has alzheimers along with its stage and type of dementia we aim at supplying healthcare providers with a more accurate cheaper and faster early diagnostic tool for alzheimers disease the tool allows decreasing patientrelated costs and improving the quality of life of patients the tool is first in the world to be capable of processing even lowresolution mri data and providing interpretable results over whole brain with the support of the women techeu programme we will boost the market readiness of the neurosalience tool by developing the project both from business and regulatory perspectives for this purpose we plan to develop a pricing model for the tool improve deep learning models used in the product and prepare all the documentation along with quality management system required for regulatory approval we would benefit from the women techeu services of mentoring and coaching on how to support and run investor relationships as we plan to set up partnerships with hospitals we would also benefit from advice on running such partnerships in the healthcare
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transformative climate resilience by naturebased solutions in the continental biogeographical region
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it is demonstrated that nature based solutions nbs efficiently and effectively contribute to climate adaptation however nbs need to be adapted locally and to be coherently chosen in order to assure sustainability and no side effects to achieve this arcadia will mobilise 8 european regions and communities from italy croatia austria denmark sweden bulgaria romania slovenia to accelerate nbs adoption and assist them in accessing uptodate evidencebased actionable knowledge guidance knowledgeintense tools and services mutual learning and networking opportunities the project will foster enabling conditions to accelerate regeneration using nbs by analysing individual and socially determined perceptions of risks and solutions and experimentally designing incentives and behavioural nudges fostering social acceptance and community actionsin arcadia the definition of regional ambitions and of methodologies and approaches codeveloped at consortium level will be followed by the implementation of 15 coinnovation labs with the engagement of the interested communities and societal partners the learning across policy areas will be exploited to upscale and deploy at large scale the solutions in the regions developing robust policy and economic tools regulations funding schemes business models investment tools strategic objectives of the proposal are1 codesign regional strategies to accelerate transformative adaptation building upon and mainstreaming innovative actionable nbs with demonstrated feasibility effectiveness and social value2 assist and empower communities public administrations and businesses3 stimulate collaborative knowledge building and transfer developing capacities and capabilities4 promote coherence and exploit synergies value and production chains and public and private spheres of business innovation5 advance eu research innovation agenda on nbs and eu mission adaptation
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science from the large scale cosmic microwave background polarization structure
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observational cosmology is moving towards its next major milestone highprecision measurements of the cosmic microwave background polarization with the goal of detecting and characterizing the primordial bmodes these polarization patterns would provide a unique picture of the early universe shedding the light on the conditions at that time be it cosmic inflation gauge fields or more exotic possibilities in a regime of energy where standard models are expected to break such observations could revolutionize our current picture of cosmology and high energy physicscharacterizing such signal requires 1 reaching extremely low instrumental sensitivity levels and 2 controlling instrumental and astrophysical systematic effects with unprecedented fidelity while 1 is about to be reached with the planned deployment of funded cuttingedge observatories such as the simons arrayobservatory cmbs4 and litebird 2 is already limiting the current constraints and will be studied and uniquely mitigated by scipolmy project is an opportunity to claim a leadership role for europe in one of the most active and impactful research areas in physics complementing the hardware efforts led by the us and japan i will construct accurate opensource and versatile models for the instrumental astrophysical signals and noise properties develop and exploit new general algorithms adjusting previous models from observations and producing a unique set of instrument and foregroundcorrected maps make a statistically robust cosmological inference of these especially on the large scale implementing a gravitational lensing correctioni have been at the forefront of this research for the last 10 years made key contributions to the analysis and scientific exploitation of the polarbear data sets and to preparations and scientific optimization of the forthcoming efforts i am consequently uniquely positioned to deliver the objectives of the proposed work
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nanoengineered particles for enhanced cancer radiotherapy
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current cancer research efforts are focused on obtaining targeted therapies with greater precision that lead to improved patient survival with fewer adverse effects to ensure a better quality of life encant nanoengineered particles for enhanced cancer radiotherapy will contribute to this aim by developing new therapeutic agents based on biocompatible nanoparticles bearing high atomic number z elements which will enhance external beam radiotherapy ebrt effect on cancer tissue this will allow the use of a lower radiation dose consequently lowering adverse effects related to radiotherapy lack of specificitythe physicochemical properties of the nps can be rationally designed according to different needs nps will be functionalized to increase their blood circulation time and facilitate their accumulation in the tumoural tissue nps will be tested in vivo to describe toxicity ranges targeting efficiency and their therapeutic effect with external beam radiotherapy using in vivo cancer modelsencant will initially focus on highz nps for prostate cancer pc nevertheless their adaptability should allow to use them for other tumour types thus expanding their range of application encant aims to improve and expand oncology treatment options available to cancer patients thus providing them a more personalized treatment
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innovative artificial intelligence methodologies for monitoring and maintaining large scale complex infrastructures and obtaining greener more resilient and smart societies
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over the past 2 decades the use of artificial intelligence ai has exponentially increased toward complete automation of structural inspection and assessment tasks this trend will continue to rise in image processing as unmanned aerial systems uas and the internet of things iot markets are expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 575 and 26 respectively from 2021 to 2028 it is generally accepted that ai will drive the next revolution in autonomous inspection and health monitoring of civil infrastructure the possibility of complete automation of the inspection process resulted in a lot of attention from the scientific community leading to a plethora of research in this area fourier intends to establish a network of individual research projects working towards breaking through and innovative system state monitoring stm techniques via the use of ai for largescale autonomous systemic monitoring inspection and proactive testing including respective explicit identification of information gaps and uncertainties information quality of complex engineering systems to improve their resilience against failures accidents sabotage disruptions and disasters the objective of fourier is to offer innovative research training as well as knowledge exchange opportunities for doctoral candidates dcs through crossborder and crosssector mobility for future growth in europe fourier is an intermultidisciplinary and intersectoral programme as it includes seven academic partners three research centers and seven private companies and two end users from seven different european countries
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a pragmatic clinical study of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery versus surgery alone for patients with high risk retroperitoneal sarcoma
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retroperitoneal sarcomas are rare diseases refractory to treatment with dismal prognosis surgery is the only standard approach to primary disease we are proposing an innovative pragmatic approach supplementing a standard phase iii clinical trial with an observational cohort it is proposed to amend the ongoing phase iii eortc clinical trial strass2 investigating the added value of neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery for highrisk retroperitoneal sarcoma and to add an observational arm strexit2 that will capture real world data from patients not participating to strass2 we will compare the clinical outcomes between strass2 and strexit2 and explore the possible combination of strass2 and matched strexit2 patients to strengthen the results of the randomized clinical trial data and increase the power of subgroup analyses if conclusive the proposed research will help to understand the clinical added value and costseffectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery for highrisk retroperitoneal sarcoma we will perform health economics analysis assessing the economic value of different treatment scenarios based on strass2 and strexit2 if successful the outcomes of the project will define a new evidencebased standard of care for highrisk retroperitoneal sarcomas the proposed research could lead to improved patient survival and quality of life but also improving health system sustainability this is a multidisciplinary and multistakeholder consortium involving clinical oncologists surgeons health economists and patient representatives the study design was successfully discussed with patients this action is part of the cancer mission cluster of projects on diagnosis and treatment
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resilient enhancement for the silicon industry leveraging the european matrix
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the general objective of project resilex is to demonstrate 7 industrydriven technological and business innovative solutions covering the full silicon value chain in order to contribute to improving the resilience and sustainability of this critical raw material value chain in europe resilex resilient enhancement for the silicon industry leveraging the european matrix will assess the economical social and environmental impact of these solutions and identify roadmap provide open source policymaking recommendations to accelerate the replication of the ones with the highest potential while also addressing transversal challenges from the european mining industry as a whole with a 8th pilot transversal demonstration
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phytobacterial vesiculation regulation cargoes and function
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phytopathogenic bacteria are of substantial economic importance threatening the quantity and quality of food production reducing crop losses from disease epidemics caused by bacterial pathogens is critical for the supply of agricultural produce on the other hand colonisation of plants with beneficial bacteria can stimulate plant growth by increasing the nutrient uptake by roots or prime plants for enhanced defense against biotic and abiotic stresses which can help to improve or bring new approaches to efforts to reach sustainable agriculturecelltocell communication which is ubiquitous in all biological systems plays a critical role in plantbacteria interaction recently it has been considered that one of the significant ways to achieve celltocell communication is through extracellular vesicles evs these cytosolcontaining membrane spheres provide selection storage and protection against degradation of enclosed cargoes in a highly dynamic and environmental cueresponsive manner evs also offer the opportunity for directed cargo delivery to dedicated recipient cells and serve as a quick adaptation strategy to react to a changing environment 1this project proposal aims to shed light on the vesiculation process of phytobacteria and the role of evs in plantbacteria interactions the missing detailed understanding of vesiculation and evs properties is a critical gap in our complete knowledge of celltocell communication especially in plantbacteria interactionsat its completion this project will lead to new insights into the crucial tool celltocell communication contributing to the virulence of pathogenic phytobacteria and the mechanism for how bacterial symbionts promote plant growth and fitness
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cochlear implants and spatial hearing enabling access to the next dimension of hearing
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the loss of inner hair cells in the cochlea causes deafness since the first trial of a cochlear implant in 1957 cochlear implants have been developed to the point where they can rerestore hearing and speech understanding in a large proportion of patients although spatial hearing is central to controlling and directing attention and to enabling speech understanding in noisy environments it has been largely neglected in current implants matching of binaural information a basic prerequisite for spatial hearing is not yet implemented furthermore intensive rehabilitation programs are lacking the here proposed interdisciplinary doctoral network in which physicians psychologists and engineers collaborate aims at the improvement of spatial hearing in cochlear implant users in ten different interconnected projects spatial hearing will be improved by 1 applying machine learning algorithms to identify sounds sources and to provide the information to ci users through visual or tactile spatial cues 2 examining physiological impairments of spatial hearing in ci users and matching the imbalance of the binaural inputs and by 3 patientcentered training programs that make use of virtual environments the doctoral training network will provide the next generation of researchers and engineers that will have a good understanding of the multifaceted problems of spatial hearing and that will be equipped with expertise and skills to come up with innovative solutions in this field the collaboration between academia and the private sector enables the realisation of new solutions for spatial hearing with cis thus enabling deaf patients to substantially improve their hearing
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cold sintering process for fabrication of biodegradable drugeluting ceramics
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drugcer proposes a paradigm shift in drug delivery for bone restoration by making drugs an inherent part of a biodegradable ceramic implant such a new approach would require drug loading during ceramic sintering which in turn requires multidisciplinary research and development of lowtemperaturecold ceramic processing accordingly the main research goal of drugcer is to apply a novel pressureassisted cold sintering process csp for cosintering of biodegradable ceramics with drugs to achieve the goal the researcher will receive advanced training in csp and develop the cosintering process by establishing a relationship between the processing parameters and properties of the resulting bioceramics she will train in and master cryofocused ion beam milling and cryoscanning transmission electron microscopy to investigate the process kinetics and densification mechanisms finally she will train in and develop methods for complex shaping to adapt the method for potential translation to preclinical studies coldsintering will decrease energy consumption in bioceramics fabrication it will also enable bioceramic cosintering with other temperaturesensitive materials eg polymers opening paths to innovations in fields beyond orthopedics or even medicine eg construction ceramicsmultidisciplinary supervising teams at fraunhofer ikts host and penn state university secondment will support training through research and transferrable skills development grant writing teachingmentoring project management networking and horizontal skills intersectoral communication with charit hospital short visits will ensure highquality guidance in developing prospective biomedical technology from its very beginning thus drugcer will equip the researcher with unique expertise skills and a professional network for establishing an independent group in the niche of lowtemperature energyefficient ceramic processing
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european data as a product value ecosystems for resilient factory 40 product and production continuity and sustainability
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as part of the green circular and digital transformation of the european manufacturing community it is extremely important that datadriven digital manufacturing processes urgently incorporate innovative and active resiliency strategies at production and supply chain levels to maintain their sovereignty and competitiveness levels respecting european digital values excellence privacy trust to improve individual and value chain flexibility in order to achieve longterm resilience to reorganise supply chains or speed up decision making to dealt with any disruption it is imperative to ensure the implementation of distributed dataintensive intelligent and dynamic industrial decision support augmentation and automation processes integrating artificial intelligence smart anticipation and intelligent automation rapid response capabilities in humanautomation symbiosis hence only businesses that can articulate their data based on ai digital thread and digital twin solutions will be able to react rapidly to external shocksre4dy mission is to demonstrate that the european industry can jointly build unique datadriven digital value networks 40 to sustain competitive advantages through digital continuity and sovereign data spaces across all phases of product and process lifecycle proposing data as a product core concept to facilitate the implementation of digital continuity across digital threads data spaces digital twin workflows and aimldata pipelines this concept leverages resiliency on top of advanced manufacturing digital processes and value ecosystems supporting the development and implementation of digital continuity so distributed data management solutions implemented to deal with factory resiliency can be immediately and seamlessly reused to enhance connected factory and value network level processes
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a new approach to sustainable development of airport and seaport territory through citizen science hubcities
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airport and seaport territories are special types of areas they are hubs centers of transport or transshipment activities and centers of territories and networks that consume resources land water and air in europe there are 347 airports and 3024 seaports the challenges they face are at the heart of the eus policy frame of referenceconfirmed for example by the driving urban transitions partnership which guides muchneeded urban change toward a sustainable future these challenges are addressed by a novel approach the main aim of the project is to train a new profile of urban planner that is able to use citizen science in such difficult urban planning situations engaging residents in codesign citizen participation and citizen science is a bottomup approach that is still underused in applying a bottomup approach any further spatial development of these territories would include the perspectives of their inhabitants thus an important step would be taken toward a longterm spatial future strategy to be better understood these territories need to be named as hubcities and decoded as an urban resource three supporting instruments will make it possible to develop a methodology hubcities platform as a communication instrument hubcities labs as an event engaging citizens and hubcities toolkit as a planning tool for citizens the paradigm shift caused by such an approach would be applicable in practice research and education three selected hubcity regions will serve as a testbed the airport and logistics center of graz austria networked passenger airport at the koper seaport slovenia regional passenger airport of trieste port city italy as a result of the project my career prospects as a researcher will grow decisively i will become the leading figure in adapting urban planning procedures with citizen science approached by colleagues and actors for transfer of the skills acquired and highquality planning solutions
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alternatives for an effective transition to sustainable reusable and recyclable construction products by the innovative production of user and ecofriendly biobased materials
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the building and construction sector is a key area that has significant impacts on the economy and environment this sector contributes to the economy about 9 of the eus gross domestic product gdp provides direct and indirect job opportunities 18 million direct jobs at the eu and satisfies the peoples needs for buildings and facilities therefore any effort concerning global climate change and cleaner production should include this industry as a major playeratrium exploits the potential of combining natural fibres leftovers of european crops mainly hemp second and third generation of bioplastics biopepapu and myceliumbased biotechnology to produce biocomposites intermediates that can be integrated in construction products outdoor and indoor floorings acoustic panels green wall systems and building block to be easily used by professionals and amateurs in building and renovation actuations in this way atrium will not only provide more safety and nontoxic construction solutions but also boost the creation of sustainable biobased value chains and the integration of efficient biotechnology to develop the circular economy and bioeconomy sectors to do this atrium will develop production pilot lines that integrate efficient and flexible technologies coextrusion foaming injection moulding additive manufacturing and biofabrications and engage the key actors for the design acceptance and certification of the new products atrium will also promote the public engagement dialogue to bring the eu closer to citizens and local urban and rural areas through appropriate communications local initiatives and actions
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location location location the repositioning of regulatory elements in the mammalian genome
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in mammalian genomes the enhancers e that control a promoter p are often scattered over tens to hundreds of kb and frequently interdigitate with es that control other nearby ps how such apparently haphazard linear arrangements can result in specific gene regulation is a major puzzle three main constraints are thought to be involved first biochemical compatibility of es and ps may ensure that not all ps respond equally strongly to a given e second chromatin loops may either facilitate or curb particular ep interactions third es and ps are controlled by the local landscape of chromatin modifications much is still to be learned about these constraints and their interplay to unravel the logic of this linear arrangement of ps and es it is necessary to systematically alter the positions of es ps and elements that control looping so far no efficient method has been available for this purpose we propose to develop and apply relocate a scalable broadly applicable technology to transplant selected dna elements to hundreds of alternative positions within a 2 mb region and track the functional consequences we will employ relocate in combination with a highthroughput combinatorial reporter assay to systematically study how biochemical compatibility may dictate how es choose and activate the correct target ps furthermore we will adapt relocate to precisely map how loop extrusion shapes ep interactions by insertion of hundreds of unidirectional road blocks throughout a locus finally we will use the method to finemap the repressiveactivating chromatin landscape of selected regions at high resolution and elucidate how es and ps may respond differently when inserted throughout this landscape this work will reveal how the ordering and spacing of regulatory elements along the genome contributes to optimal gene regulation and will yield a powerful perturbation tool with many applications in genome biology and human genetics
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supervised mechanisms for locomotor learning in the cerebellum
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motor learning is essential to move in a continuously changing environment but the underlying neural circuit mechanisms are still poorly understood this is critical for locomotion a fundamental but complex behavior which requires precise control of wholebody movements at the same time the cerebellum plays a key role in motor learning supposedly generating corrective movements through supervised errorbased mechanisms in response to perturbation for simple tasks climbing fibers originating in the inferior olive drive supervised learning generating changes of cerebellar activity and corrective responses during locomotion perturbations cause gait asymmetries which can be externally induced in a splitbelt treadmill with belts running at different speeds the host laboratory developed a splitbelt treadmill to study locomotor adaptation in mice showing that it is similar to humans occurs through motor corrections with complex spatiotemporal dynamics and is driven by the cerebellum however the underlying neural bases are unknown superloco aims to identify supervised mechanisms for locomotor learning exploiting the synergy between cuttingedge technologies to interact with neural circuits and computational neuroscience tools specifically we will i record climbing fiber and cerebellar activity during locomotor learning in mice with highyield electrophysiology ii simulate locomotor learning in a bioinspired spiking neural network of the cerebellum with climbing fibersupervised plasticity iii optogenetically stimulate climbing fibers to induce locomotor learning based on model predictions our main hypothesis is that the timing of climbing fiber signals determines changes of cerebellar activity through supervised plasticity driving locomotor learning superloco outcomes will shed light on neural mechanisms for complex wholebody movements fundamental in neuroscience and crucial for treatment of movement disorders
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ai organoid image analysis
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organoids are microscopically small patientderived 3d organs that can be cultivated in the laboratory over months mimicking human organs and their functions in vitro these miniorgans have a human genetic background maintain disease traits in vitro and are currently available for almost every human organ due to these advantages organoid research and its commercial applications are rapidly evolving and increasingly used given the high variability of these complex 3d structures classical cell culturebased image quantification tools techniques do not accurately capture organoids in microscope images this has resulted in much image quantification at our laboratory like in many others being performed using manual timeconsuming tools with a high researcher variability in sum there is a global challenge to in a standardized manner quantify organoid experiments we propose the first software as a service saas toolbox explicitly tailored to organoid imaging building upon powerful aibased algorithms for cuttingedge image quantification and independent of the underlying microscope and culture system hardware the saas seamlessly fits in the analysis workflow by offering a userfriendly approach to upload brightfield and immunofluorescence microscope images and videos of organoid cultures which at the core of our product are automatically quantified by aimodels generating a range of organoid metrics overall the provided automation drastically reduces analysis time promotes accurate phenotypical organoid analyses and ensures standardization of results between different researchers culture conditions and imaging hardware integrated in an easytouse web app the saas tool is of great interest and essential for researchers working in the emerging field of organoids as shown by the high utilization in our laboratory and the high interest from external partner institutions
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the iaea and the two koreas history of the rok and the drpk in their challenges and contribution to the international nuclear safeguards and verification regime
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international verification through the international atomic energy agency iaea safeguards forms the cornerstone of global nuclear nonproliferation efforts to prevent the misuse of nuclear material and technology for military purposes this research examines several critical junctures in the historical development of the relationship between the iaea and the two koreas south korea rok and north korea dprk to address how this international organization has evolved in its handling of nuclear proliferators historical paths of the iaea with the two koreas the north which succeeded in developing its own bombs vs the south which abandoned its weapons program have been more complicated and less onesided than what is commonly believed south korea became an iaea member state in 1957 and ratified the npt in 1975 but it maintained a clandestine nuclear weapons program throughout the 1970s furthermore although south koreas military nuclear pursuits were halted when its president was assassinated in 1979 suspicions about its nuclear ambitions were revived when the rok government disclosed its past nuclear activities as it signed the additional protocol with the iaea in 2004 it revealed that rok scientists separated a small amount of plutonium from irradiated uranium in 1982 and conducted some laboratoryscale experiments in 2000 to enrich uranium up to a higher level than what was allowed by the iaea the case of the dprk with the iaea was more dramatic as widely known with its withdrawal from iaea membership in 1994 and its expulsion of iaea inspectors thus based on extensive research in the rok us and iaea archives analysis of opensource data and interviews with key stakeholders this project intends to shed new light on the understudied history of the two koreas challenges and contribution to the iaea and further examine any lessons that the iaea learned through its turbulent relationship with one successful and one failed proliferator
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precision nutrition and postprandial immune responses
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a grand challenge for sustainable development in europe is to improve public health through reducing incidence of noncommunicable diseases premature mortality and health costs an unhealthy diet is one of the most important risk factors for the global burden of diseases therefore changing the dietary habits in the population is urgently needed precision nutrition is an important area for eus research and innovation policy food2030 and has emerged as a paradigm with promising results that could help to improve health in the postgenome era to allow development of more effective preventive strategies via precision nutrition the determinants driving the interpersonal differences in response to specific foods and meals need to be better understood this implies also the underlying mechanisms causing differential responses we eat meals several times per day and are constantly in the postprandial phase postprandial changes in circulating metabolites play a major role on human health and the immune response this leads to the question if one can predict the type of meal which will be most beneficial to improve an individuals metabolic health once such knowledge emerges tailored stratified dietary advice can be developed and evaluated the focus of nutriome is to train 10 research doctoral candidates rdcs in datadriven precision nutrition using two complementary training strategies to learn how to handle and combine multiomics data to evaluate the response to foods and diets we will provide multidisciplinary training so that the rdcs i are able to utilize share and disseminate public available multiomics data ii know the regulations and routine for collaborative data sharing in a fair manner and iii are experts in analyzing integrating and interpreting increasingly complex data this will provide a new competence profile to resolve a bottleneck for development of personalised preventive solutions for improved health in europe
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logic and automata over sequences with data
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formal language theory is indisputably one of the most successful theories in theoretical computer science with many applications in such fields as formal verification programming languages and databases to name a few despite this the standard restriction to finite alphabets has been a limiting factor in the applicability of the theory in various important application domains wherein sequences with data ie ranging over an infinite domain like the set of integers and the set of strings naturally arise this has motivated an extensive study of automata over infinite alphabets in the last three decades which aims to develop algorithms for analyzing data languages it was however quickly realized that permitting anything but the simplest data reasoning results in undecidability for the most fundamental models in the theory given the growing practical needs for tools for reasoning about sequences with data it is crucial that we break through this undecidability barrier the aim of the project is to overcome the current undecidability barrier in extending automata theory over infinite alphabets with complex data reasoning the first concrete objective is thus to identify new decidable logicautomata models for data languages that permit complex data reasoning over various data domains eg integer linear arithmetic realclosed fields string constraints etc and to develop efficient algorithms for analyzing them in addition to making fundamental theoretical contributions in automata theoryover infinite alphabets i also aim to address the current practical needs for tools for reasoning about sequencesthus the second objective of the project is to transfer new algorithmic insights to the following important application domains1 querying graph databases 2 verification of listmanipulating programs and 3 interpretable machine learning for sequences
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transformation of energy intensive process industries through integration of energy process and feedstock flexibility
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trineflex is an integrated eiitransformation toolkit following the x as a service model for the endusers eiis trineflex will function as an endtoend service managing the plants digital lifecycle and the process of transition to flexible and sustainable operation this process will be enabled by advanced and green data acquisition big data infrastructures process analysis model development and finally digital twins with integrated multiagent decision support systems trineflex will be implemented at each of five demonstration sites with unique challenges from 4 sectors glass copper aluminium and water industries the implementation will be supported through the integration of transformative technologies from the energy efficiency clean energy sustainable fuels and feedstocks and ccus sectors that synergise with the powerful digital solutions to demonstrate flexibility measures towards energy neutrality additionally trineflex is designed for rapid replicability in these sectors and high transferability in other p4planet sectors centred on energy flexibility on the short term and industrial symbiosis on the long termtrineflex will mobilise local stakeholders and communities into new ways of interacting with the energy and process industries capacity building open science and introducing new forms of sustainable economic activity service and communitybased demandresponse will be employed to leverage local energy resources coupled with emphasis on sustainable fuels and feedstocks accelerating the adoption of industrialurban symbiosis8 large companies 7 smes will work with rtos and supporting entities to achieve over 8 reduction of energy costs 18 peak reduction flexibility cost below 12 kwh over 8 energy demand reduction that are projected to yield over 330gwh of energy savings 45m in energy costs and co2 tax over 110kt of co2 averted and over 800 jobs created by 2030 trineflex private investment is around 4m
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thermal energy storage solutions to optimally manage buildings and unlock their grid balancing and flexibility potential
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thumbs up aims to develop and demonstrate thermal energy storage tes at daily based on environmental friendly pcm and weekly level based on tcm sorption technology solutions to be easily integrated in eu buildings both connected and notconnected to dhn to increase their energy efficiency as well as to exploit powertoheat pth approaches also to make eu buildings as grid flexibility actors thumbs up wants to overcome all the limits of stateoftheart buildingintegrated pcm and tcm tes technologies increasing tes energy density and reducing capex thumbs up innovates at different levels from modelling to materials and enhance heat exchanger solutions targeting demonstration at trl 7 highperformance tes solutions part of an eu sustainable economy is a factor at the core of thumbs up the project develops truly i biobased pcms from raw materials currently wasted in the eu food industry turning them into valuable tes materials and ii tcms relying exclusively on nonhazardous materials and on water as working fluid thumbs up tes will be demonstrated in 3 demosites a singlefamily building in spain and 2 multifamily buildings in swedenspain in different eu climates and energy market contexts also to assess thumbs up replication potential in two replication sites ita nl via its demonstration and replication campaign thumbs up promotes tes role as key enabling technology to optimize thermal comfort and energy efficiency in buildings as well as to promote pth as facilitator of res grid integration in a sector coupling approach to be studied via innovative modelling tools thumbs up gives specific attention to how to fully integrate tes solutions into buildings and wider smart energy networks by combining the technology advancements with testailored digital innovations thumbs up widens the capability to control monitor and forecasts how to operate buildingintegrated tes systems to provide services toward both the hc and power sector
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a circular economy aproach for the valorization of orange peel waste to establish food safety
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food safety and food waste management remain two major challenges in europe with enormous effects on the economy the environment and public health each year 23 million cases of foodborne illness and 5000 deaths are reported in europe at the same time one third of food produced for human consumption is wasted because it is considered unfit for consumption which amounts to approximately 13 billion tons each year therefore the development of innovative measures to reduce food waste presents a viable alternative in a situation where new solutions are desperately required in this sense the development of circular economies that revalorize byproducts and residues of food industries as products that can be reused is a promising research avenuewastetosafety will confront this challenge by developing the scientific basis to implement a circular economy that uses waste from the citrus industry to extend the shelf life of fresh produce from the mediterranean area namely it will optimize two green methods microwave ultrasound for the extraction of essential oils eo from orange peel the eo will be used as the basis for two food preservation technologies a washing solution and an active packaging the project will also evaluate their potential impact on the food chain through a quantitative microbiological risk assessment qmra a life cycle analysis lca combined with a material flow analysis wastetosafety will thus provide tangible advances to the field of food science developing a noticeable solution for the revalorization and utilization of citrus waste it will also open new research avenues related to the upscaling of these technologies to an industrial level
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controlling oxygen selectivity at the atomic scale
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developing new materials with optimized catalytic properties is a crucial challenge towards sustainable energy production in order to achieve this longstanding goal fundamental understanding of the processes taking place at the electrodeelectrolyte interface is vital progress here requires a comprehensive atomicscale picture of the fundamental chemical and catalytic properties of surfaces in connection to their macroscopic catalytic performance this knowledge remains hindered due to the complexity of real catalytic systems and the lack of experimental techniques that can provide information of the catalytic process from singlemolecule interaction to operando conditionsthe project cosas focuses on the electrochemical water oxidation to hydrogen peroxide and seawater electrolysis it proposes an atomistic study of the electrodeelectrolyte surface to unveil the key parameters for selective activation of alternative reaction paths for water oxidation the experimental approach of the project represents a novel quasiin situ electrochemical characterization near ambient pressure xray photoemission spectroscopy combined with atomicscale access to the electronic structure scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy on the very same sample the project will study thin films of transition metal oxides as model systems for exploring structurefunction relationships while presenting catalytic relevance for oxygen related reactions the unique methodology of the project promises novel atomistic insight in the mechanism behind complex reactions with multiple intermediates unveiling key parameters that can guide the design of active and selective electrocatalysts for costeffective water electrolysis
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flat bands for quantum metrology
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the ultimate limit on the accuracy of any measurement is set by quantum mechanics this also means that quantum effects can be used in metrology and sensing to go well beyond any classical approach for classical systems statistical error is proportional to 1sqrtn with n the number of measured particles measurements in quantum systems can overcome this limit and reach the heisenberg limit proportional to 1n however quantum standards and sensors are challenging to put in practice and their working conditions are nowadays intrinsically incompatible eg magnetic field and superconductivity therefore limiting their reach in terms of users and their development as accurate and enhanced quantum technologies the vision we propose in flats is to use twisted bilayer graphene as a multiphenomena platform to develop present electrical quantum metrology standards working under compatible conditions and to develop the new generation of metrological sensor going beyond the international system of units si their common platform will allow their integration as a single multiuse onchip quantum labto achieve this we will first create a european twistronics plateform for an unprecedented control of the relative angular alignment between graphenebn layers we will develop novel and original quantum electrical standards with twisted heterostructures our onchip metrological quantum lab also enables the implementation of metrological sensors beyond the si this will be the first step towards quantumenhanced measurements for metrological applications
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development and validation of a new magnetocaloric highperformance hydrogen liquefier prototype
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hylical will contribute to reaching an energy demand of 8 kwhkg and a liquefaction cost of 15 kg as targeted in the call by validating an innovative and energyefficient liquefier prototype for the cryogenic region 120 k based on magnetic refrigeration the implementation of the magnetocaloric hydrogen liquefaction mchl technology developed in hylical offers the following perspectives i increased energy efficiency of 20 for small liquefaction volumes of 5 tonnes per day tpd and up to 50 for 5 tpd ii reduced capital expenditures capex and operating expenses opex by at least 20 in addition to the targeted energy savings iii decentralized local production of liquid hydrogen lh2 thus reducing the need for distribution and transport across long distances iv coupling of the mchl technology to hydrogen production from renewables green hydrogen for offgrid configurations v integration into conventional liquefaction plants to increase their overall energy efficiency vi application of the process for the liquefaction of hydrogen and for boiloff management of lh2 tanksthe mchl technology will enable the decentralized production of green lh2 in competition with lh2 from fossil sources and will furthermore reduce the need to transport lh2 over large distances if there is a local green energy source available eg biobased or electricity from renewables we will drive the technology relevance level for mchl technology from initially trl 3 to trl 5 at project end this will be achieved by significantly increasing the liquefaction capacity of the demonstrator from the current soa 1 kgday to close to 100 kgday we will demonstrate that there are no intrinsic limitations that prevent the mchl technology from being scaled up to suit flowrates above 100 tpd as highlighted in the call thus satisfying the need for largescale production capacities needed in the heavyduty mobility sector and elsewhere
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prime editing to repair inherited metabolic errors in vivo gene correction for human genetic disease
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treatment options are insufficient for the majority of genetic metabolic diseases methylmalonic acidemia mma is one such severe metabolic disease with current therapeutic strategies patients still develop metabolic decompensations brain damage kidney failure and have a lifelong risk to acutely become blind repair of the genetic cause of disease would revolutionize outcomes for these patients especially with increasing detection in neonatal screening programs this makes it possible to correct the cause of disease prior to the onset of irreversible damage however efficiency safety versatility and delivery of precise gene editing is not yet sufficient for in vivo genecorrection therapiesthe aim of this proposal is to develop an in vivo geneediting therapy program for patients with metabolic diseases targeting the liver where most metabolic genes are highly expressed as a proofofprinciple i will repair genetic causes of mma validate this in personalized cells and mouse models and lay the groundwork for human trialsto this end i will1 generate a clinically applicable geneediting technique i recently demonstrated that the novel geneediting technique prime editing could accurately correct different mutations in patientderived organoids using an innovative reporter and patientderived organoids i will develop prime editing into an efficient and safe strategy that can correct 90 of patient mutations2 create a system for in vivo delivery of the primeediting machinery with lipid nanoparticles to target the liver using patientderived liver organoids and an existing mma mouse model 3 develop a roadmap to tailor genecorrection therapies to individual patients using the reporter with the patient mutation and mutational context patientderived organoids and a mutationspecific animal model for a common mma mutationthis foundational work will lay the basis for broad clinical application of precise geneediting therapies
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human traffickers the social circuits of human trafficking and transnational organised crime
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during the past two decades millions of euros have been spent by national governments and international organisations on combatting human trafficking and on offering assistance to victims of trafficking however we know surprisingly little about the people who facilitate manage and orchestrate human trafficking the traffickers but who are the human traffickers if we look beyond the stereotypes the trafficker project will answer this question and fill this knowledgelacuna by ethnographically investigating the business operations and social relationships of human traffickers via the analytical concept of social circuitsthe project is based on ethnographic fieldwork in two sites in respectively one country of origin and one destination country of the traffickers a the city of galati in eastern romania and b in prisons in lisbon portugal among inmates that are incarcerated for human trafficking the trafficker project builds on my extensive research and fieldwork experience within the fields of transnational crime thirdparty facilitationpimping and sex work this background is essential to the project since it provides access to the necessary local networks as well as providing the needed methodological knowledge and ethical awarenessthe project illuminates1 how human trafficking is carried out by traffickers on the ground and thus how national criminal networks make their illegal business transnational2 the ways in which the kinships relations and social relationships of human traffickers hinder or enable their transnational criminal livelihood3 the lives of human traffickers both during and after imprisonment and their navigation of legal and illegal work domainsthis knowledge will not only be beneficial for the academic research community on transnational organised crime but also for stakeholders such as ngos policy makers international organisations governments and law enforcement as well as for the wider public
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continuous construction of resilient social contracts through societal transformations co3
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a social contract is a politicaltheoretical concept which describes the fictive basic agreement between the members of a polity on the principles of this polity there is a long legacy of various definitions of a social contract in political theory there is also a long historical legacy of practiced social contracts in countries inside and outside the european union to grasp the impact of the social contract between individuals and groups as well as between the demos and the state across societies it is crucial to understand the concept in plural and analyse how definitions and practises shape also the scope implications and resilience of social contracts in the face of societal transformations this requires a highlevel of context sensitivity and ability to shift between local regional national and transnational settings based on the analyses of the limitations of and challenges to the social contracts in political theorising and practices co3 aims at developing and promoting a more democratic more inclusive and more open model of social contracts which manifest political and social resilience in the face of major societal challenges crises and antidemocratic tendencies drawing from 8 empirical case studies in eu member states and in 3 nonmember states co3 researchers safeguards and mechanisms for resilient social contracts overtime while the theoretical ambition of the co3 project is to analyse how the contemporary theories of the social contract contribute to our understanding of the social contracts in the current crisesdriven european political environment the empirical ambition is to investigate contradictions and tensions between practices narratives and lived experiences in social contracts across europe through concrete cases as a result co3 generates evidencebased knowledge on the safeguards and mechanisms for promoting resilient social contracts which support citizen involvement and democracy across europe
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clean heat and power from hydrogen
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achieving the european green deal target of becoming the worlds first climateneutral continent by 2050 will require deep cuts to emissions across all aspects of the economy including the power generation and heating sector this combined with the repowereu plans places hydrogen as a clean energy carrier in a unique position it can be used in and thereby couple all sectors like powerheat transport and industry hydrogen offers long term storage it can be transported over large distances and it can be produced and used without or with very low emissions a central part of the eu climate strategies is the target of domestic renewable hydrogen production of 10 million tons by 2030 in addition to the same amount imported largescale stationary fuel cells in the mwrange should be able to operate on such industrial quality h2 without repurification they can offer a lowcost clean alternative for both large scale peak power and heat production as well as for small medium and largescale backup power units for the critical infrastructure thereby also improving the resilience of the energy system the aim of cleaner is to develop and demonstrate for more than 5000 hours a 100 kw pem fuel cell system operating on industrial quality hydrogen
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eyes for information communication and understanding
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gaze is an important communication channel to be captured remotely which works even without language it thus holds great potential for universal inclusive technologies eyes for information communication and understanding eyes4icu explores novel forms of gaze interaction that rely on current psychological theories and findings computational modeling as well as expertise in highly promising application domains its approach of developing inclusive technology by tracing gaze interaction back to its cognitive and affective foundations a psychological challenge results in better models to predict user behavior a computational challenge by integrating insights in application fields gazebased interaction can be employed in the wild accordingly the proposed research is divided into three work packages namely understanding users wp1 gaze communication wp2 and in the wild wp3 all three work packages are pursued from three different perspectives a psychological empirical perspective a computational modeling perspective and an application perspective ensuring a unified and aligned progress and concept along these lines training is also divided into three packages of empirical research methods wp4 computational modeling wp5 and transferable skills wp6 consequently the consortium is composed of groups working in psychological computing and application fields all beneficiaries are experts in using eye tracking in their respective areas ensuring best practices and optimal facilities for research and training a variety of associated partners from the whole chain of eye tracking services ensures for applicability practical relevance and career opportunities by contributing to supervision training and research this will advance communication by eye tracking as a field and result in european standards for gazebased communication in a variety of domains disseminated through research and application
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visualization of plant hormone dynamics using bioluminescence during abiotic stress
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live visual investigation of hormonal fluxes upon abiotic stress in arabidopsis using bioluminescence
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computational studies on heterogeneous astrocatalysis of spaceabundant transition metals
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the formation of solarlike planetary systems is a complex process that goes through different steps where not only physical changes occur but also an increasing of the molecular complexity this gives rise to a rich chemical diversity and complexity of gasphase molecular species in different astrophysical environments however not all the molecules observed can be formed at this state the presence of interstellar grains ie submicronsized solidstate particles ubiquitously present in space is especially important for the synthesis of molecules that would not form in the gas phase in the abundance required to satisfy observations interstellar grains are advocated to infer catalytic effects however such a catalytic role is associated with enhancing the encountering of the reactive species on the grain surface due to adsorption and diffusion and the capability of the grains to dissipate the energy excess of largely exothermic reactions in fact stateoftheart research on the field mainly focuses on the reactivity happening on the ices covering the grains and whose capability to reduce activation barriers is rather limited nevertheless other materials beyond ices are also present in interstellar environments and can indeed exhibit catalytic properties refractory grains containing space abundant transition metals such as fe and ni are the perfect candidates to perform as heterogeneous catalysts by using fischertropsch co h2 and haberbosch n2 h2 processes as model reactions and by means of quantum chemical simulations the project chaos will present for the first time a complete and deep description of the heterogeneous catalytic processes that can occur in the interstellar medium the data obtained will go beyond representing the catalytic capacity of such materials in the outer space it will be further used for predictive purposes as inputs in machine learning models
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the interplay of himalayan uplift climate change and plant diversification a key to conserve one of the worlds richest flora
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the recent international panel for climate change ipccar6 report warns that high mountains in asia will witness a drastic rise in temperature precipitation and reduced snow cover by the middle of the 21st century which will seriously threaten its rich biodiversity the himalaya the highest mountain chain on earth and one of the worlds most biodiverse regions spans two biodiversity hotspots that are particularly sensitive to anthropogenic activities despite the effects of a changing environment the evolution of presentday biodiversity patterns remain poorly explored previous research has mainly focused on orogenesis and monsoons as key factors governing the assembly of regional diversity while their relative roles on species diversification are less explored or studied separately few ecoevolutionary studies exist for himalaya and most of them are based on the inferences from timecalibrated phylogenetic trees of single taxa or simplistically link node ages to contested uplift phases this project aims to generate a new paleoelevation profile for the himalayan mountains for this it will i disentangle the relative roles of mountain uplift temperature and precipitation through a macroevolutionary analysis of four selected plant lineages in conjunction with a newly developed paleoelevation reconstruction by assessing fossil pollen assemblages and testing the chemical composition of selected taxa ii integrate macroevolution and uplift history with species distribution models to identify areas of high speciation iii assess the impact of future climate changes on these hotspots the crossdisciplinary approach involving paleobotany phylogeny macroevolution and species distribution modeling is unique for the himalaya region the project will provide novel insights into understanding the pace of the himalayan uplift and its influences on plant diversification and conservation strategies to preserve its unique biodiversity
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the influence of gut microbiota and microbial metabolites on a mouse model relevant to binge eating disorder
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binge eating disorder bed is a psychiatric disorder with grave health risks previous studies have associated alterations of gut microbiota status with bed however whether this is a causal relationship where differences in gut microbiota status promote bingelike eating behavior independent of changes in body weight remains to be explored and forms the central aim of microbed microbed will also characterize the influence of gut microbiota on behavioral outcomes relevant to bed via the hedonic feeding circuit lastly microbed will explore whether certain microbial metabolites can alleviate bingelike eating behavior it hypothesizes that gut microbiota influences bed associated behavior by altering activation of the hedonic feeding circuit via circulating microbial metabolitesmicrobed will be performed in the weizmann institute one of the worlds leading multidisciplinary basic research institutions it will be highly interdisciplinary and involve collaboration with renowned neuroscientists and computational biologists the outcomes of microbed could have significant societal impact as it can lead to development of novel therapies for bed general public policy makers and scientific audiences will be informed about the outcomes of microbed through a multipronged dissemination strategymicrobed will also greatly aid my career development by providing worldclass training in a multidisciplinary setting it will enhance my research skills foster my managerial abilities and strengthen my professional network i will also benefit from the highlevel training provided by the feinberg graduate school including courses and workshops in technical and soft skills and by attending international conferences like fens and sfn to conclude microbed will provide an important opportunity in my career that would allow me to acquire critical skills and competencies that will enable me to transition from an early career scientist to research group leader
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improving tropical forest conservation in africa
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the importance of nontimber forest products ntfps for better balancing tropical forest conservation and poverty alleviation goals is increasingly recognised yet in africa poor understanding of the impact of harvesting on species populations and forest carbon stocks together with little information on the traditional institutions which have informally regulated ntfps extraction in the past and could continue to do so in the future hamper the use of ntfps in both forest conservation and development initiatives afrifor will gather the knowledge needed to determine 1 the key enablers of sustainable harvesting for groups of plant or wild meat species 2 which types of ntfp harvesting can have synergies with carbon storage and 3 how traditional institutions can be integrated into formal conservation to achieve these objectives afrifor provide new methods including i a new interdisciplinary approach for investigating ntfps harvesting impacts combining traditional ecological knowledge tek from local communities surveys of plants and wildlife market surveys and modelling techniques and ii a novel standardised protocol for gathering information about traditional institutions and compliance towards them afrifor will gather data and knowledge from 20 socioecological forest contexts in five countries sierra leone cameroon dr congo uganda and kenya which will allow insights to transcend single sites and provide a muchneeded general understanding this highrisk and highgain project will provide a stepchange in our ability to inform forest conservation in africa by identifying synergies between biodiversity conservation carbon storage and poverty alleviation goals
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realtime characterization of anisotropic carbonbased technological fibres films and composites
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reliance will develop and implement depthresolved multimodal xray imaging and scattering tools that will enable the automated realtime characterization at the nanoscale of the structure and morphology of materials devices and their manufacturing processes reliably and with precision providing training in the use of these tools as well as training in openaccess science and development of transferable skills for all esr fellows is one of the key objectives of reliancethe methodologies developed by reliance will be implemented for optimizing and controlling the processing of highperformance polymeric materials and composites ie solutionspinning of aramid fibres compactionheat stretching of polyethylene film and pultrusion of composites reliance will significantly improve quality control of a wide range of technological materials used in composite materials through integration of realtime data analysis and process parameters by application of machine learning the methods will lend themselves to industry 40 solutions relying on cyber physical systems for decentralized decisions based on actual current structural properties observed during processing the realtime access to nanostructure in the diverse applications is provided by specialized xray instrumentation a shared methodology for data reconstruction and machinelearning assisted analysis exploiting prior knowledge and modelling of structural anisotropy is applied to enable the data reduction speed required to match industrial processing reliance brings together a consortium of leading international experts in xray scattering imaging and automatized analysis of scattering data 3d reconstruction algorithms and automatized analysis of imaging data and materials applications with industrial leaders in manufacturing and application of highperformance polymer materials and in highly specialized xray instrumentation and scientific data acquisition and analysis
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modulation of neuronal signaling by brain extracellular space structure and dynamics
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neuroexcell aims to reveal physiological roles of the ecs structure and dynamics in directly regulating neuronal signalling by taking advantage of the innovative new superresolution shadow imaging sushi technique it will elucidate the nanoscale structure of the ecs of entire mouse brain hemispheres at different planes of the brain inherently it will reveal simultaneously all cells as analyzable shadows what will provide unprecedented ecs maps to complement general existing cellular maps the results will further clarify the distribution and duration of structural ecs dynamics across areas and will disclose the relation between ecs structure dynamics and protein distribution in the extracellular matrix investigating this in live tissue slices will further allow direct visualization and analysis of diffusional processes what will help to disclose the physiological roles of the ecsthe fundamental nature of the results and the advanced technological framework will be of fundamental interest for neurophysiologists glia cell biologists and glymphatic system researchers among others neuroexcell will be carried out in a multidisciplinary environment involving advanced fluorescence imaging methods classic electrophysiological techniques computational modelling biophysical theory and biochemistry for the project i will join an emerging neuroscience institute where i will further enhance and diversify my professional competences through advanced training and quality research adding to my development toward becoming an independent research group leader
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soniethio sonic ethnographies italian colonialism and dignity restitutions
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the project aims to investigate the role of music and songs in shaping and chronicle cultural encounters within the context of the second italoethiopian war here intended as a period of five years including both the invasion of ethiopia and its military occupation 19361941 therefore collections of sound archives and ethnographies from that period will be used as prompt to implement a participative research on the role of these cultural productions in the development of performances personal and collective expressions social changes as part of the fascist project of occupation the italian military and political leaders as well as scholars and civilians based in ethiopia showed interest in ethiopian culture and specifically in local music like many aspects of italian colonialism such interest was twofold on the one hand italians understood that music was a form of expression that escaped their control therefore they persecuted and killed many azmari musicians and other musicians in particular in 1937 within the infamous reprisal on the other hand both musical instruments and sounds were collected in particular sound records in the form of 78rpm vinyls were produced intended for both institutional archive in italy and commercial distribution as a result a significant archive of records as well as an official monography on ethiopian music in italian were released within a short period of time the project aims to deeply analyse the sound collections and the published book in order to 1 reconstruct both the historical and cultural background in which the collections emerged 2 compare the material with later features of cultural production 3 develop a project of restitution of the collections based on the concept of dignity restitutions that can make it relevant for local communities
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craft understanding education training and preservation for posterity and prosperity
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craeft will deepen our understanding of making activities that include care judgement and dexterity standing on anthropology knowledge representation cognitive science art history advanced digitisation audiovisual haptic immersivity and computational intelligence to cover the multifaceted expression of crafts as living and developing heritage as a sustainable source of income and as the expression of the mind through imagery technology and sedimented knowledge a generative approach will prove sufficiency for digital conservation reenactable preservation and scaling of approach for the full range of materials and techniques craeft will catalyse craft education and training with intuitive digital aids telecommunications craftspecific simulators advanced immersivity and highend digitisation to widen access economise learning increase exercisability and relax remoteness constraints in craft learning the integration of haptics intelligence haptics in digital design connects tacit knowledge in computeraided craftspecific design tools workflow simulation will support experimental archaeology for the recovery of lost techniques the analytic workflow analysis leads to digital fabrication opportunities for menial tasks material savings and reuse and reduction of energy consumption digital dimensions attached to individual works of craft will enable certification and attachment of digital content but also enable reputation and community building supported by a community portal for professionals and the public that connects to the new media hosts heterogeneous craft portforlios and registers practitioner credentialsthe efficacy of the approach will be piloted in eight representative craft instances with the crosscutting objectives of craft education training design valorisation and community services across the range of materials
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gender empowerment through politics in classrooms
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ensuring the future of democracy requires empowering all social group to engage yet the gender gap in political leadership political ambition and political selfefficacy is the most persistent and most difficult to tackle across western democracies the situation when looking across the intersect of gender social class and ethnicity becomes even more grave these differences have been shown to begin in the school and classroom dynamics has been cited as the likely socialisation process that leads to these different outcomes gepic a multinational consortium of universities and civil society organisations has been brought together with the aim of fostering social innovation and testing interventions to reduce gender inequality in politics the 7 partners in 6 countries belgium czechia denmark germany spain and united kingdom will begin by establishing the state of play through classroom observations and reanalysis of existing quantitative data to understand how inequalities in attitudes and dispositions towards political engagement are learnt gepic will then create experiments in schools and pilot designbased interventions codeveloped with civilsociety teachers and students these experiments and interventions will be rigorously evaluated in comparisons with control groups and will lead to the development of the gender empowerment in classroom intervention that will be disseminated and delivered in schools across europe creating the possibility for real change and the reduction of the gender gap in political leadership in addition gepic will also carry out a holistic evaluation of the national context and the local and european policy framework to design strategies regulations and policies that are conducive to a more equitable gender political involvement particularly of girls with a disadvantaged background
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familyfocused adolescent lifelong health promotion
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young people in eastern europe face risks to their health and wellbeing due to factors including violence poverty inequality and other adverse experiences exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in ukraine programs focusing on the adolescentcaregiver relationship are an evidencebased solution to supporting adolescent health by addressing a cluster of common individual and family risk factors parenting for lifelong health plh is one such program developed for implementation and scaleup in lowresource settings flourish will adapt implement and evaluate the plh teens program the program will be adapted to the service delivery and cultural setting of two countrywide health networks in north macedonia and moldova including the needs of the refugee populations from ukraine the program covers evidencebased skills such as problemsolving and emotional regulation for adolescents 1014 years old and their caregivers through building skills and strengthening the adolescentcaregiver relationship communication and caregiver monitoring the program has the potential to prevent and reduce multiple common mental health problems and risk behaviors such as alcohol misuse therefore reducing the risk of future noncommunicable diseases informed by coproduction with stakeholders and intervention process evaluation flourish will explore the costeffectiveness of intervention components and test the final intervention package in a hybrid implementationeffectiveness randomized trial as well as develop a scaling strategy informed by qualitative data and statistical modeling the project will foster methodological innovation flourish will advance the uptake and scaleup of evidencebased opensource and sustainable family interventions for adolescents in lowresource settings and therefore have a profound impact on reducing the risks for future noncommunicable diseases
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learning ventures for climate justice
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we live in an increasingly fragmented and unequal society democracy is in crisis and mistrust in science is on the rise yet the unprecedented challenges we face such as the climate and biodiversity crises require greater scientific literacy and engagement across society education needs to provide the scientific knowledge to engender engaged and informed societies but also to equip learners with the holistic competences to support and motivate them to become courageous thinkers and doers actively shaping their own futures we urgently need connected systemwide responses that incorporate varied perspectives are empathetic to different stakeholders needs and centre social justice and care to achieve this we need models for education that are more flexible and inclusive and advance lifelong learning to empower all citizens levers delivers learning ventures a replicable model for expansive science learning through multistakeholder regional partnerships that collaboratively explore challenges and design science learning experiences to address local issues in 9 learning venture demonstrator regions stakeholders from formal nonformal and informal education across education levels community organisations research and innovation industry and government will be supported to adopt a systemic design approach to create climate justice projects offering meaningful realworld learning experiences capacity building and a mentoring programme will offer role models and guidance within and between regional learning ventures linking ri with education the levers learning framework and field guide will enable the partnership model to be adapted for other regions and challenges professional learning programmes and open schooling resources will enable widespread uptake from youth and adult educators guides for industry engagement business models and policy recommendations will ensure transformative impact on science education in europe into the future
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demonstration of a sustainable circularbydesign manufacturing system based on additive manufacturing
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diameter aims to facilitate the implementation of a circular economy within the metal manufacturing sector through the development of hybrid manufacturing systems based on additive manufacturing the consortium will develop a set of digital tools to improve the design optimise the manufacturing process and ease the implementation of circularity strategies remanufacturing refurbishing repairing and recycling by the additive manufacturing industry to support those tools we will develop a novel aiassisted algorithm able to calculate both the ecological and economic impacts of a process to assess its sustainability this aiassisted algorithm will rely on experimental data from process monitoring and part characterisations and process simulation covering preprocessing machining additive manufacturing and postprocessing machining we will integrate these tools into a first platform called diagonal to facilitate the uptake by the industry the platform will integrate the european digital product passport by enabling the use of supplier data for more accurate ecological impact estimations and allowing the upload of experimental data to enrich product transparency on origin materials and recyclability we will develop a second platform diademia to support the upskilling of the workforce through interactive training courses workshops and exercises overall diameter will contribute to reducing the manufacturing sectors carbon footprint enhancing recycling developing a greener industry 40 and promoting local production
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improved transdisciplinary science for effective ecosystembased maritime spatial planning and conservation in european seas marineplan
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one of todays most pressing challenges is to safeguard the loss of ecosystem biodiversity and functioning while simultaneously allowing for their exploitation by those who depend on their services goods and benefits in europe maritime spatial planning msp is the main governance process to ideally integrate sustainability and exploitation this requires tools and knowledge to align msp and marine protected area mpa designation processes which are lacking particularly regarding transboundary coordination and connectivity founded on a large amount of expertise and a solid theoretical basis marineplan will codevelop with stakeholders a decision support system dss for ecosystembased maritime spatial planning ebmsp together with best practice guidance to enhance the effectiveness of spatial conservation and restoration measures for marine biodiversity in european seas tools will comprise operational criteria for ecologically or biologically significant marine areas ebsa enabling the allocation of conservation and restoration areas at various scales in complex sea areas with multiple uses while including the effects of climate change the dss will be developed and applied at eight european planning sites from coastal ecosystems to open ocean and the deep sea and from local to transboundary scales applying and validating the dss will incorporate realistic planning scenarios key action points to achieve the eu biodiversity strategy and policy recommendations how to enhance ebmsp implementation in european seas marineplan will communicate results to decisionmakers at horizontal between sectors and vertical from local to european levels and enable the transfer of knowledge to areas in differing socioecological settings the improved natural and social science base will ensure effective policymaking to support a greater coherence in implementing environmental policies as well as to enable streamlined planning for marine industries
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seen together activating together how object cooccurrence statistics shape object representation and visual cognition
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visual objects in real life carry both perceptual and semantic information which cannot readily be inferred from simple visual features and is based on prior knowledge however semantics is not a unitary concept it can be separated into taxonomy eg ducks and frogs are both animals and cooccurrence eg candles appear together with cakes previous studies have extensively characterized the role of taxonomy in visual cognition while cooccurrence is less wellunderstood and more disputed the aim of this proposal is to investigate the impact of object cooccurrence on object representation and visual cognition the project has four objectives first i will use fmri and eeg to identify where and when object cooccurrence statistics are represented in the brain how they rival other competing organizations and which mechanisms enable these representations objective 1 will provide a characterization of cooccurrence as a key organizational principle of object representation second i will investigate how cooccurrence modulates neural competition between objects using fmri objective 2 will clarify whether organizing objects based on cooccurrence can overcome information processing bottlenecks in the visual brain third i will examine whether cooccurrence can facilitate conscious perception using the attentional blink paradigm and explore where and when neural representations of cooccurrence predict ab magnitudes fourth i will investigate how and when cooccurrence impacts performance and neural processing in visual search using eeg objectives 3 and 4 will aid our understanding of how object cooccurrence contributes to human perception and cognition and thereby helps people to perform everyday tasks successfully overall this research will provide a comprehensive characterization of how object cooccurrence in the world shapes human vision and open new avenues for explaining visual behaviors in natural environments
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unravelling the eukaryotic posttranscriptional regulatory code
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genomes encode instructions for cells to regulate gene activity in response to their environment however and despite its importance for biology medicine and biotechnology the underpinning regulatory code remains undeciphered gene regulation consists of two major steps first genes are transcribed into mrna second posttranscriptional mechanisms regulate mrna stability and the rate at which it is translated into proteins this second step of gene regulation is still poorly understood because relevant parameters such as mrna halflife mrna protein binding and subcellular localization are difficult to assay the lack of understanding of posttranscriptional regulation implies that we still do not have a complete picture of the regulatory code in epic we exploit the advantages of the model eukaryote saccharomyces cerevisiae and other species covering a broad evolutionary range to derive the first comprehensive sequencebased model of eukaryotic gene regulation epic integrates the complementary expertise of 3 teams it combines innovative highthroughput technologies pelechano to probe posttranscriptional regulation at an unprecedented scale across a broad range of species and conditions with synthetic biology to massively test regulatory sequences verstrepen deep learning on these data allows us to build predictive models and unravel complex regulatory instructions gagneur ultimately epic will enable us to decipher the actual language of gene regulation and facilitate rewriting genomes epic will enable understanding and predicting regulation and ultimately phenotype from dna closing a major gap in basic biology while also opening exciting avenues for applications in biotechnology and medicine from pinpointing diseasecausing mutations to rational design of genes rnas and cells
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a thermoelectric generator for lowgrade heat to electricityhydrogen conversion h2e
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heattopower conversion can be achieved by thermoelectric generators tegs devices that exploit the seebeck effect to build up an electric potential across a stack of semiconductors subjected to a temperature difference this physical effect has long been known but widespread application has remained limited because of the low efficiency less than 5 and high cost of available semiconductors often containing rare metals and featuring high toxicity and poor thermal stability compared to alternative technologies for valorisation of lowgrade heat eg the organic rankine cycle teg technology has substantial advantages including lower weight and absence of moving parts this leads to high reliability and lowmaintenance crucial attributes for the chemical process industry using less expensive semiconductor materials and increasing efficiency are the main challenges to broaden the application field of tegs h2e proposes a new approach to enable improved tegs using a thermoelectrochemicalhydrogen production device tech based on recently discovered robust low cost nontoxic porous semiconductor materials these new semiconductors are implemented in an original design mounting them in stacks to produce a tech device that is modular and exhibits good scalability the resulting disruptive increase in efficiency will enable power generation with a decreased cost per unit power h2e will valorise lowgrade waste heat in the temperature range below 100 c a range currently not exploited in industry besides industrial waste heat also lowgrade geothermal heat represents huge potential h2e aims to innovate the production of two end products renewable electricity and green hydrogen by water splitting h2e will contribute to a more energyefficient and lowcarbon future in line with europes longterm strategy to become climateneutral by 2050 as set by the european commission in the european green deal
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transcriptional regulation assessed in neuronal subtypes in three major interrelated psychiatric disorders
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schizophrenia scz bipolar disorder bp and major depressive disorder md are three major psychiatric disorders that affect mood thinking and behavior these disorders are strongly genetically intercorrelated and exhibit pronounced clinical overlap suggesting that they are different manifestations of a shared underlying neurobiology along a spectrum however the neurobiological mechanisms and pathophysiology of these disorders are still poorly understood limiting effective drug discovery there is an urgent need for new models for drug testing as animal models have major limitations and current psychiatric organoids systems are dependent on patient derived stem cells in which technical genetic and biological diversity confound the interpretation and obscure the underlying neuropathology the major challenge of this erc proposal is to develop organoid models for psychiatric disorders by targeting upstream transcription factors transcription factors are key molecules that drive cell type differentiation including neuronal network formation hence the central hypothesis of this erc proposal is that neuronal subtype associated transcription factors can function as targets to model these disorders using brain organoids however the neuronal transcriptional regulators that mediate these disorders are currently unknown and difficult to identify novel genomics technologies allow for an unbiased characterization of the brain in order to detect cell types and genes that are dysregulated in disease and can be used to identify putative upstream transcription factors here i propose a selection of multiomics profiling strategies to a unique collection of high quality psychiatric human brain tissue aimed at reliably identifying key upstream transcription factors we will subsequently target those transcription factors in brain organoid systems to establish neurobiological models of these disorders
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decoding the molecular basis of lateral root stem cell specification in plants cfern as a model system
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to conquer land vascular plants evolved a sophisticated root system which consists of primary and lateral roots lrs the de novo lr organogenesis represents a major evolutionary innovation which has provided sessile organisms like plants with the capacity to forage for water and nutrients the host lab is a pioneer in demonstrating that lr formation requires de novo specification of stem cells inside the primary root they also discovered that the early stages of lr initiation are regulated by an oscillatory mechanism where the phytohormone auxin plays a major role despite these advances the exact molecular mechanisms underlying lateral root stem cell lrsc specification remain largely elusive and it is not known how these mechanisms emerged during plant evolution to address these fundamental questions i will use an emerging model system ceratopteris richardii cfern which is an evolutionary pivotal yet underexplored model plant based on fossil records ferns and seed plants diverged during the middle devonian period from a common ancestor suggesting that several key regulators might be conserved among them despite some differences in their root ontogeny in cfern the formation of lrscs is clearly visible at the anatomic level cfern has ancestral and possibly simpler mechanisms underlying lrsc specification in this project i aim to identify key transcription factors controlling lrsc specification in cfern to achieve this goal i will combine my expertise in molecular and developmental biology with multidisciplinary approaches including single cell rna sequencing crisprcas9based genome editing and topnotch confocal imaging this project has a strong potential to introduce novel concepts in the field of plant stem cells and their evolution it will also open new perspectives for me to become an independent researcher in the field of evodevo of plant stem cells
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4d scanning transmission electron microscopy for structural biology
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electron microscopy em has transformed research in the life and physical sciences separately cryoem in life sciences allows the 3d structure determination of proteins down to 10 resolution in case they are large enough and present in high numbers in homogeneous states for many molecules involved in diseases like neurodegeneration however structure determination is still severely hampered due to their insufficient contrast when imaged in vitreous ice or in their native cellular environment to date em in the physical sciences generated utmost contrast for light atoms and established a resolution in the range of 02 limited only by thermal motion this record was achieved by evolving scanning transmission em stem from a 2d to a 4d imaging technique combining imaging with diffraction in this project we will work out 4dbiostem methodologies and develop a cryoem tool that maximizes contrast and resolution by bringing together em groups from life and physical sciences 4dstem imaging of frozen biological specimens will be approached with unique and specialized hardware theory and simulation the development of microscope operation routines and image reconstruction algorithms in particular we will acquire sparse 4d data using ultrafast detectors employ methods for direct phasing differential phase contrast dpc and establish advanced socalled ptychographic techniques to gain maximal signal from noisy 4d cryostem data that are limited in their electron dose budget we will make use of synergies between recently separated fields in order to make proteins smaller than 50 kda amenable to structure elucidation furthermore we will expand 4dstem to tomography to obtain highcontrast 3d reconstructions from cellular samples human brain tissue of neurodegenerative diseases and vitrified organic energy materials a new comprehensive structural imaging framework will be put forward and benchmarked as to its utility in life and physical science applications of cryoem
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flowassist pouch will help to improve the skin condition of ostomy pouch users while introducing novel design features dramatically improving their lifestyle and management of their condition
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ostoform has developed and patented a new class i medical technology flowassist by combing a nonabsorbent material with an absorbent material hydrocolloid the nonabsorbent material comprises a flexible spout positioned beneath the patients stoma and is combined with hydrocolloid adhesive to keep the spout in place this hybrid design directs stoma output away from the patients skin and into the pouch the spout prevents output from being absorbed so the hydrocolloid material does not break down this means that the appliance lasts for longer the skin is protected for longer and the risk of leaks and skin complications is significantly reducedthe ostoform seal with flowassist has been successfully developed and commercialised through the h2020 sme instrument ostoform now plans to develop the ostoform pouch with the same flowassist technology as the ostomy pouch market is larger than the seal market the novel pouch will increase market opportunity and company value
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cerabyte a ceramic data storage system for global it cloud service provider
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our digital society generates enormous amounts of data at an ever growing speed most of these data are cold which means they never change and are rarely retrieved storing these data consumes a lot of energy and requires hardware replacement every 35 yearstherefore we have developed cerabyte a novel cold data storage technology which stores data on ceramic nanolayers enabling an unlimited timespan cerabyte outperforms these mature technologies by leveraging ceramic nanolayers in combination with a massive parallel laser writing and reading mechanism once data are written no energy is needed to maintain the data for a long lifespan which leads to savings of up to 99 of energy and co2 emissions as well as 95 of total cost of ownership tco cerabyte will offer data storage systems which are fully compliant with current data center standards and easy to integrate for business customers into their data storage architecture this will disrupt the data storage component market with a market size of 416 bn in 2022 growing to 1369 bn in 2030cerabyte has established a new value chain together with international manufacturing partners and reached trl6 with the launch of a fully functional demosystem in october 2023 located in aachen germany the demo system has been recently validated by the us national academy of sciences engineering and medicine rapid expert consultation on archival data storage technologies for the intelligence community in january 2024our base patent for ceramic data carriers was granted in record time in eu usa rus aus can prc tw sk jp and in covering 77 global gdp 675 smartphone 49 global population by combining our extensively patented technology with already existing robotic storage systems we will be able to disrupt the 50 bn data storage infrastructure market
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a 21st century approach to study chytrid fungal infections in an amphibian hybrid zone
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worldwide declines in amphibian populations have led to many local and global extinctions and are connected to the global spread chytrid fungus bd because few animals survive infection bd poses a strong selection pressure in infected populations hybrid zones where two species meet and reproduce are an ideal setting for research on adaptation as different combinations of gene variants are tested however two contrasting hypotheses exist on the role of hybridisation in infection resistance genetic incompatibilities between diverging populations limit gene flow between closely related species and cause lower fitness in hybrids thus the first hypothesis postulates that the negative impact of pathogens is higher in hybrid zone populations than in populations comprising a single species the second hypothesis proposes that the resistance of a hybrid population towards pathogens is strengthened by the coexistence of multiple immune gene variants in comparison to populations comprising a single species the two species of yellowbellied and redbellied toads bombina are an ideal system to investigate these hypotheses as 1 their hybrid zone has been wellstudied before using various but few genetic markers and 2 toads of these species have previously been found to be infected with bd on a side note the skin microbiome of amphibians is different between healty individuals and individuals infected with bd to date little is known about the interaction between bd infection and the skin microbiome and even less is known about this effect in bombina with this action i aim to investigate the role of hybridisation in pathogen resistance in amphibian populations i will also explore changes in composition of the amphibian skin microbiome in response to bd infection i will use the genus bombina as a model system employing 21st century sequencing technology
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palliative care yields cancer wellbeing support
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challenge many patients with advanced cancer in the final phase of life leave the hospital without continuity of information and certainty about further treatment and care provision often communication between healthcare providers in different settings is suboptimal and this leads to poor continuity and coordination of care negatively impacting the quality of life and increasing preventable hospital admissions solution the palcycles programme a transitional palliative care programme for patients with advanced cancer adaptable to local cultures and healthcare systems the programme contains an intervention aiming for a smooth transition from hospital care to community care consisting of five cornerstone components 1 identification of a patient with palliative and supportive care needs in collaboration with the oncologist and the hospital palliative care team 2 compassionate communication towards the patient and their family 3 a collaborative multidimensional care plan and followup in the home care setting 4 periodic evaluation of the care plan with patients and relatives 5 identification of the terminal phase if there based on the periodic evaluations with appropriate intensification of care and endoflife talks depending on local possibilities and habits including consultation with patient and families about ethically and legally sensitive issues plan we intend to develop adapt implement and evaluate the palcycles programme in seven european countries using a stepped wedge randomized controlled trial design patient relatives and health care provider experiences as well as ethical and equity issues will be addressed with qualitative methods impact the palcycles programme will facilitate patientcentred communication and continuity of palliative cancer care in the community care setting reducing unplanned hospital admissions and improving quality of life for patients with advanced cancer at the end of life
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autonomous aerial inspection of gnssdenied and confined critical infrastructures
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the 50k large vessels across the world must be regularly monitored for corrosion and defects by human surveyors including dangerous and dirty confined gnssdenied areas such as ballast water tanks and cargo holds one person is killed every week from accidents in these enclosed spaces which despite having large surface areas consist of many smaller confined compartments with narrow passages 40cmx60cm however a radical new approach is possible using unmanned aerial systems uas or drones by combining the latest developments in 1 collisiontolerant uas 2 multimodal slam 3 path planning 4 autonomous drone racing 5 aerial manipulation 6 miniaturized ndt sensors and 7 mlbased defect identification only through a complete integration of these technologies is it possible to address the challenges of deploying aerial robots in these challenging conditions equipped with automated aibased scanning mapping navigation and contactbased ndt this has the potential to completely remove the need for human inspection using a digital twin approach brings superhuman results comprehensive semanticaware detailed 3d mapping 1 cm resolution of large structures 300 m high resolution visual and ndt analysis 100um and improved traceability with automatically generated trend analysis the ml for system mapping and ndt is trained with sociotechnical inputs from experienced human inspectorscurrently a typical inspection costs 1m and requires 15 days 8 days inspection and 7 days travel to low cost far eastern docks a uasbased inspection will take 1 day with 12 days travel to an eu port at a cost of 200k saving the industry 9b pa with 24mt of co2 reduction this consortium includes many of the world leaders in the field of uasbased inspection teamed with vessel owners and inspectors enabling an endtoend survey solution which would save 50 livesyr and provide safer more reliable and accurate inspection data
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toward an understanding of the brain interstitial system and the extracellular proteome in health and autism spectrum disorders
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since the ancient egyptians the fluid in the brain has been considered a product of spirits a pathological signature or inert liquid even at the turn of the 19th century when the cerebrospinal fluid csf was first described as a physiological substance the csf and the interstitial fluid isf the fluid surrounding all the cells of the brain were considered solely as a cushion only more recently studies have begun to show that the compositions of these fluids can have a marked impact on brain development and animal behaviour a number of studies have employed omics to demonstrate that the isf and the csf are rich in secreted proteins rnas and metabolites however it is still unclear how these factors influence the development and the function of the brain here we will take a systematic approach to advance our knowledge about the role of extracellular proteins in the brain in health and disease using knowhow in studying the causes of autism spectrum disorders asds my lab will study the effects of changes in the composition of the extracellular space of the brain at unprecedented resolution and scale specifically we aim to 1 functionally identify proteins of the extracellular space that modulate neural development 2 study proteins that are packaged into extracellular vesicles and whose mutations are considered high asdrisk factors 3 analyse in vivo the function of hnrnp u an rnabinding protein which we identified in brain extracellular vesicles and whose mutations are tightly linked to neurodevelopmental disorders this endeavour will represent an important step toward a better understanding of the role of extracellular factors in brain development and function my work will highlight an entire class of protein encoding genes that crucially contribute to neural development by a previously underappreciated pathway ie through the extracellular parenchyma and that when altered lead to forms of asds which may be more amenable to treatment
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mechanosensitive proteins as a pathway to mechanotargeted drug delivery
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biophysical research over the last two decades has revealed that an impressive number of mechanical signals are key regulators of cell behavior so far the focus has been on understanding fundamental mechanosensing and transduction mechanisms in health and disease as increasing numbers of molecular players and signalling pathways are identified the time has come to utilize this knowledge for diagnosing and treating diseases where mechanical processes play a role in this proposal i aim to target integrins to deliver reporter molecules and drugs to cells with a distinct mechanical phenotype integrins are transmembrane receptors through which cells can sense transmit and discriminate biomechanical forces during cell adhesion and migration integrins engage with specific ligands in the extracellular matrix and undergo integrin recycling through continuous endo and exocytosis this known endocytic pathway integrin clustering during adhesion and overexpression in disease states has made integrins a prime target for drug delivery however the chemical and physical factors governing integrinmediated uptake of drugs and their intracellular fate are unknown i propose to utilize molecular force sensor mfs technology to deconvolute the key factors in integrinmediated drug delivery using rational protein design a series of coiled coil mfss with distinct chemical charge and hydrophobicity and physical mechanical and thermal stability properties will be produced the molecular constructs will be appended with the integrintargeting rgd motif a fluorescent protein to investigate the intracellular fate and an actinbinding protein as a model drug that may potentially interfere with the cytoskeleton architecture this mfsbased drug delivery system will enlighten the pivotal factors of integrinmediated delivery provide a diagnostic assay for discriminating cells based on their mechanical phenotype and open up the road towards mechanotargeted drug delivery
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aiinformed holistic evs integration approaches for distribution grids
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the ahead aiinformed holistic electric vehicles integration approaches for distribution grids project will create a simulation environment capable of predicting the most convenient location to place the electric vehicle ev charging stations and optimise both the usage of the power grid resources and the charging stations located in urban and rural areas this simulation environment will exploit the unique features of currently available ai models and include two layers the spatial mapping one placing the chargers where the people need them to be and the power grid one placing the chargers where the grid can support them innovative smart charging algorithms will be designed and tested in the model to minimise the impact of ev charging pools on the network and ensure the consumers have economic benefits moreover these smart charging algorithms will be tested in three demonstration sites dedicated to assessing the technical and economic feasibility of smart charging light and heavyduty evs and boats to this end ahead gathered relevant partners from all the ev valuechain technology providers who want to test their equipment in the real world grid operators who want to optimise the usage of the grid resources and mitigate the ev charging impact and research institutions who aim at advancing the knowledge on the topic and producing value for society particular attention is going to be placed on the user experience and cybersecurity part of the demonstrators with specific partners who focus their efforts on understanding how to minimize the impact of smart charging on the user experience and on creating a model to represent cyberattacks on the chargers to suggest efficient defensive mechanisms for system protection
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chirality and spin selectivity in electron transfer processes from quantum detection to quantum enabled technologies
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chirality is a key property of molecules important in many chemical and nearly all biological processes recent observations have shown that electron transport through chiral molecules attached to solid electrodes can induce high spin polarization even at room temperature electrons with their spin aligned parallel or antiparallel to the electron transfer displacement vector are preferentially transmitted depending on the chirality of the molecular system resulting in chiralityinduced spin selectivity ciss the longterm vision of the castle project is to transform the ciss effect into an enabling technology for quantum applications this will be accomplished by achieving four key objectives 1 the occurrence of ciss will be studied at the intramolecular level by photoinducing rapid electron transfer within covalent donorchiral spaceracceptor molecules to generate longlived radical pairs rps 2 direct detection of rp spin polarization will be performed using timeresolved and pulsed electron and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques in addition polarization transfer from one of the radicals comprising the spinpolarized rp to a stable molecular spin q will be used to initialize the quantum state of q making it a good qubit for quantum applications particularly sensing 3 quantum mechanical studies of the ciss effect will provide predictive models for molecular qubit design 4 the ciss effect will be used to control readout and transfer information in prototypical devices embedding hybrid interfaces based on semiconducting or conducting substrates thus dramatically advancing the use of molecular spins in quantum information technologies targeting hightemperature operation these devices will be used also to prove moleculebased quantum error correction the knowledge acquired with castle will impact a wide range of fields including magnetless spintronics dynamic nuclear polarization for nmr signal enhancement catalysis and light harvesting
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unravelling the impact of radiofrequency in liver surgery the key to decrease local recurrence
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colorectal cancer crc ranks fourth in cancer deaths worldwide between 20 and 30 of patients with advanced crc have liver metastases crlm liver cancer ranks second in cancer deaths worldwide including hepatocellular carcinoma hcc despite recent advances liver resection offers the only chance of cure for patients with liver metastases however the recurrence rate of these tumours is high even after postresection the presence of positive margins in the remaining liver after resection correlates with increased local recurrence and decreased overall survival the only factor where prognosis could be influenced by the performance of surgery however at present the extent of an rnegative status remains debatable and varies widely from one publication to another currently there are radiofrequency ablation studies that based on preliminary retrospective human clinical trials are able to correlate an additional coagulation of tumor margins with a reduction on local recurrence however there is no prospective and pragmatic controlled study that accurately measures this additional margin and its impact on oncological outcomes the aim of liveration is to conduct an ambitious pragmatic multicenter clinical trial with 720 patients with crlm and hcc at 24 clinical centres in 6 different countries to determine whether additional ablated margin produced by radiofrequency can decrease the recurrence rate and improve patient survival we will also evaluate the patientcentredness of the intervention and its comparativeness with other therapeutic alternatives in terms of quality of life and patient experience in realworld settings to this end the consortium has been formed by highly experienced highly qualified and multidisciplinary entities to carry out the project successfully the results will not only have a major impact on a social and scientific level but also on an economic level for the eu this action is part of the cancer mission cluster of projects on diagnosis and treatment
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highpressure nitride materials towards the controllable and scalable synthesis in a diamond anvil cell
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over the past decade a branch of solidstate inorganic chemistry has emerged that aims the discovery of novel atypical compounds at highpressure conditions nevertheless the need of modern technology in new materials which are available only from the highpressure synthesis can be fulfilled only if these materials are produced in measurable quantities via a controlled and reproducible process within hipmat i will focus on the synthesis of nitride materials a class of compounds with outstanding and diverse physical and chemical properties which find applications as ultrahard materials as well as in semiconductor technology the overarching aim of hipmat is to address the challenges of highpressure synthesis which lie beyond simple material discovery we will use new opportunities provided by the european xray free electron laser for studying mechanisms of highpressure nitridation reactions using the combination of pulsed laserheating and ultrafast xray probing knowledge of the reaction mechanisms and kinetics will allow to choose reaction conditions favoring maximum amounts of desired products next we will focus on the upscaling of the synthesis of the most promising highpressure nitrides by developing novel precursors and by performing the synthesis in newly developed largevolume diamond anvil cells hipmat will not only result in the discovery of plethora of novel highpressure materials but also will provide deep understanding of mechanisms underlying the chemical synthesis at highpressure conditions and will enable controllable largescale synthesis of new functional materials the methods developed within hipmat will be applicable to other classes of materials and will be an important contribution to the field of solidstate inorganic chemistry and materials science
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geometric analysis and surface groups
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we propose to study links between curves in flag manifolds surfaces solutions of geometric partial differential equations in some affine symmetric spaces and functions on the moduli space of curves we will consider the relevant energy functions on the moduli spaces of those curves or on the moduli space of anosov representations for periodic data in particular in the context of positivity amongst our concrete ambitious goals are obtain topological invariant through quantising anosov deformation spaces define and compute volumes of anosov deformation spaces and prove recursion formulae for them find surfaces in symmetric spaces associated to opers and the relevant higherrank liouville action solve special cases of the auslander conjecture using foliated spacesmore specifically the backbone of this project is to explore a general class of functions on moduli spaces of anosov representations and beyond of uniformly hyperbolic bundles then we propose to identify the family of curves that will be possible asymptotic boundaries in the spirit of quasisymmetric curves in the sphere the periodic ones corresponding to anosov representations we will prove the existence and uniqueness of surfaces bounded at infinity by these curves going back we will consider the area of such a surface both at critical points on the moduli space and as a renormalising function allowing to consider volumes of these moduli spaces finally we will consider the space foliated by surfaces solutions of the asymptotic datum and define entropy
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advanced remote continuous patient health management solution
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patients die because deteriorations are missed there is a huge unfulfilled need for better patient monitoring diagnostics and reaction everywhere in healthcare a reason is that despite advancements with remote monitoring devices the current care model still relies on short snapshots examinations which leave a lot of dangerous conditions missed untackled or tackled too late at checkpointcardio we are enabling the switch from a snapshot model to a full movie model where patients and carers are fully and constantly connected we have set up the first of its kind 247 remote observation medical centre that thanks to a wearable device and the use of ai constantly monitors and manages healthcare delivery for more than 50 000 critically ill patients already saving hundreds of lives we now want to replicate the model for patients suffering from chronic diseases multiplying both our business opportunity and the impact we have on peoples lives
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investigating virusinduced morbidity in filarial infections
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filarial parasites cause over 200 million infections globally filarial morbidity was presumably limited to the skin eyes and lymphatic vessels however my research generated evidence that onchocerca volvulus infection also induces neurological disease including onchocerciasisassociated epilepsy oae however the causal mechanisms for neurological symptoms linked to o volvulus infection are still unknownrecently my research group codiscovered a virus ovrv1 within o volvulus being related to the rabies virus family ovrv1 could potentially cause oae i will investigate the clinical implications of this virus in 1600 persons from 3 affected countries casecontrol studies will verify whether ovrv1 is a risk factor for oae in a cohort study of onchocerciasisexposed children with neurological symptoms i will investigate the presence of ovrv1 in cerebrospinal fluid and assess its neurotoxicity by seeding ovrv1positive samples on neural organoids viral metagenomics on mansonella perstans most common filarial disease 110 million infections will determine if it also harbours ovrv1 or other viruses finally i will establish a prospective pregnancy cohort n900 and followup their children to investigate the maternofoetal consequences of in utero exposure to filarial parasites andor virusesthis project is expected to unveil new disease mechanisms and may lead to new diagnostictreatment options if ovrv1 is shown to be associated with oae it could serve as a biomarker to diagnose this condition however if ovrv1 is found to be an o volvulusspecific endosymbiont it could be used to improve the performance of the current onchocerciasis diagnostic tests it could even become a target for the development of new macrofilaricidal drugs demonstrating that filarial infections can adversely impact pregnancychild health will justify research on safe approaches to treat pregnant women and underfives with ivermectin during mass drug administration
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conductive minerals as electrical conduits in methane cycling
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this proposal aims to gain a fundamental understanding of the impact of anthropogenic conductive particles on methane emissions we recently showed that conductive particles are vital for the interspecies crossfeeding of a methaneproducing consortium from the baltic sea previous to that we showed that conductive particles accelerate methane production in synthetic dualspecies consortia that typically function via direct electron transfer others showed that conductive particles may also stimulate anaerobic methane oxidation for the latter the reports are scarce and contradictory it is mysterious how microorganisms interact with the conductive particles and how conductive particles affect the methane cycle in the environment these knowledge gaps we will study here we will use synthetic consortia enriched environmental consortia and whole sediment cores we will identify marker genes for microbeparticle contacts by combining expression studies with targeted genedeletion and physicochemical cell surface studies the marker genes we can then use to track similar microbeconductive particle associations in the environment we will examine the link between increased anthropogenic particle input and methane emissions in environments from the mediterranean to the arctic where higher particle input is likely i expect to deliver fundamental knowledge about the microorganisms involved in methane transformations by anthropogenically derived conductive particles
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bioinspired composite architectures for responsive 4 dimensional photonics
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bio4d aims to achieve a fundamental understanding and develop a true biomimetic model of natural responsive photonic systems from air paradise bird to land panther chameleon and soil hoplia argentea beetle to water neon tetra fish nature has enabled organisms to morph their colour visibility and reflectivity to camouflage signal mimic distract and regulate biological processes due to the complexities of these systems true synthetic analogues have not been achievable to date bio4d will develop novel responsive 3d photonic structures by combining selfordering photonic nanomaterials with stateoftheart 3d fabrication at the nano and microscale this will enable dynamic photonic behaviour including controllable refractive index adaptable reflectivity and transmission angle independency and stimuli response this highly ambitious goal will be achieved bydeveloping selfordered photonic nanomaterials in stimuli responsive hydrogel networksunderstanding the effect of combining photonic substructures and superstructures fabricated via 2photon polymerisation using finitedifference timedomain analysisfabricating biomimetic 3d photonic structures from composite hydrogels using 2photon polymerisationdemonstrating 4d photonic structures that show ondemand dynamic optical responsethis will enable truly biomimetic models through selfordering nanomaterials modelling keratin and chitin stimuliresponsive materials modelling motor proteins and actin filaments and 3d direct laser writing yielding ordered and disordered superstructures these stimuliresponsive photonic structures will offer a direct pathway to applications in active display technologies biometric recognition polarisation encryption and extremely lowcost sensing in liquid and gas the fundamental breakthroughs that will be achieved will be far reaching in materials development chemistry and physics
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social space and nature conservation in the gerzxurs transboundary biosphere reserve portugalspain
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the project aims to analyze the social space of nature conservation in the gerzxurs transboundary biosphere reserve at the borders of portugal and spain to do so it will be necessary to incorporate an entirely new methodology into classical social space studies in order to account for the environmental dimensions of social dynamics specifically advanced geospatial analysis combined with ethnographic approaches will be added to geometric data analysis mainly the established methodology for the social space construction this contribution is based on the parameters of a nonintrusive approach to living conditions proposed by virgilio borges research team at the institute of sociology in the university of porto ramos et al 2021 the inclusion of the environment into the social space of nature conservation will lead to the development of a new approach to current ecological problems as a result the research findings will provide alternatives to understand prevent and manage the main conflicts facing sustainable development in the gerzxurs transboundary biosphere reserve in sumary the social space of nature conservation aims to model the socialenvironmental interdependencies surrounding a biosphere reserve by a strong synergy of spatial statistical and ethnographic methodologies this social space can be replicated compared and improved in its operation in other biosphere reserves of the world
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porous media life and death of their waves and flames
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turbulent combustion of fossil fuel remains an important source of energy creation and propulsion worldwide generating pollutant emissions endangering both human health and climate a major factor inhibiting the mitigation of emissions pertains to combustion instabilities ie large pressure oscillations resulting from a coupling between unsteady combustion and pressure waves carrying out the combustion within porous inert media holds great promise for lean combustion owing notably to a strong heat recirculation effect occurring inside them despite the recognition that porous materials are natural wave absorbers very little has been studied so far regarding the potential synergy between combustion instabilities and porous media poroleaf aims to pioneer the field of research residing at the intersection between the disciplines of waves turbulent combustion and porous media a new set of scientific challenges will be introduced related to the complex flow physics involved in porous media combustion as well as the difficulty of accessing the physical fields within the pore matrix to tackle these challenges i will build on the skills developed during my thesis in the characterization of porous media microstructure as well as recent advances in 3d printing technology for heat resistant materials to create porous samples allowing optical access this will pioneer the way for a new set of stateoftheart experiments i aim to leverage decades of previous work in combustion instabilities and focus on the new behaviors introduced by porous media in particular the effects of turbulence entropy vaporization and flame dynamics will need to be reevaluated in light of porous media interactions the improved knowledge of these principles will enable unprecedented understanding of the influence of porous media properties on the nonlinear flame response this will directly assist in the design of cleaner and more stable combustion processes
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solarpowered multienergy hub for electric vehicle and district heating thermal energy storage
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transportation electrification and adoption of district heating dh are both critical technical approaches toward the european unions eus carbon neutrality goal in 2050 however the expansion of electric vehicle ev adoption is currently impeded by power supply shortage where the situation is similar for the dh regarding thermal energy supply distributed photovoltaics for ev pvev charging is a promising solution because they can be deployed at reasonable costs with flexible capacities and locations however the inherent mismatch between power generation and charging demand remains unsolved this project proposes to develop a novel distributed solarpowered multienergy hub that integrates pvev charging stations and dh thermal energy storage for improving renewable selfconsumption alleviating evinduced grid stress and enhancing dh energy flexibility excess pv power is exported to thermal network via heating device storing energy in the thermal inertia of the dh network and enduser buildings and reducing peak heating demanddevelopment of the multienergy hub will be achieved through joint efforts of numerical simulation and reallife studies a comprehensive performance investigation will be conducted for the proposed multienergy hub to identify its design boundary based on which a simulationbased design optimization method will be developed for improving its operating performance a modelpredictive control framework will be established finally a proofofconcept of the multienergy hub and the control framework will be achieved through testing on energy planning and design of existing and new areas with the ev adoptions and renewable penetration facilitated by the multienergy hub the research outcomes will effectively contribute to the eus carbon neutrality target
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developing firstinclass diamondbased quantum microscopy for immediate semiconductor industry applications
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semiconductors are an essential component of modern electronics the miniaturization of semiconductors has been a key driver of technological innovation however as semiconductor technology continues to advance the available quality control methods such as thermal imaging or voltage alteration measurements become insufficient diamondbased quantum sensing has the potential to answer the need for precise diagnostics of detecting magnetic field alterations caused by chips defect but available implementations suffer from a tradeoff between speed and imaging resolutionat quantumdiamonds we overcome these challenges and developed a superresolution quantum imager sqi that combines advanced optical components with proprietary diamond production and software our system enables imaging at sub100 nm resolution and fast measurement in the range of minutes in this project we will test it with actors from the semiconductor industry and prepare our system for commercialization
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single cell guided polygenic risk prediction of ascvd
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atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease ascvd is the most common cause of death worldwide aside from asymptomatic manifestations the first sign of clinically significant ascvd is often a severe clinical event such as stroke or myocardial infarction thus identification of people at high risk is central to battle the deadly consequences of ascvd the usefulness of current risk prediction models such as score2 is unsatisfactory most likely since the score is built on prevalent risk factors rather than mechanistic changes occuring along the disease path especially genetic risk factors acting already early in life and diverse longitudinal exposures accumulating during the lifetime of a person lead to disturbance of gene regulatory networks which are not considered in the current risk models in addition the current models predict the combined risk of coronary and peripheral artery disease and ischemic stroke despite mounting evidence of ascvd heterogeneity to capture these missing aspects of ascvd risk we leverage the predictive ability of genetic variation provided to us by the worlds largest metaanalysis of gwas for ascvd and introduce a new disease mechanismbased stratification in work package wp 1 we will map the transcriptomic and epigenetic effects of risk variants using single cell multiomics profiling of 500 human atherosclerotic tissue samples in wp2 we infer disease associated genes genegene interactions and gene regulatory networks using an innovative crisprbased experimental approach in wp3 we will make use of the generated information to develop novel functionally informed polygenic risk models which are benchmarked against the conventional risk prediction models for predictive accuracy ultimately this information will provide us with a mechanistic understanding of the genetic basis of disease while allowing construction of new gold standard polygenic risk prediction models for prevention of ascvd events
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continuous fiber manufacturing for industry
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the cfm4industry project promoted by moi composites represents an industrialization and technology commercial launch project aiming to revolutionize advanced composite manufacturing through continuous fiber manufacturing cfm technology this patented novel digital additive manufacturing framework aims at complete automation in advance of continuous fiber reinforced composites production simplifying manufacturing workflows and reducing cycle and lead times by integrating robotics and nextgeneration am composite materials moi composites evolves 3d printing standards catering to functional products with significant weight reduction and marking a pivotal shift towards costeffective wasteminimized and sustainable composite production the projects primary objective is the industrialization and commercialization of cfm technology in broad applications across industries such as aerospace automotive biomedical oilgas and marine this will be achieved through a strategic framework comprising the development of tailored materials implementation of a dedicated cam path planning the refinement of the cfm printing apparatus as well as the development of the technology center for the system integration the relevance of cfm4industry is evident in its commitment to technological innovation and sustainability by eliminating the need for molds and significantly reducing material waste cfm technology aligns with the programs goals of efficient and ecofriendly manufacturing furthermore the integration of robotics and digital fabrication showcases a forwardlooking approach to advanced manufacturing the cfm4industry project represents a transformative step to revolutionize the am industry paving the way for a future of digitalized sustainable and economically efficient highperformance composite production
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disability discrimination and linguistic justice a human variation perspective
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humvar is a project in applied ethics and it adopts the framework of a particular disability model the human variation model hvm the goal of humvar is to advance research on the hvm and it has three objectives first to provide a philosophical defense of the hvm humvars interpretation of the hvm shows that an important aspect of disability disadvantage is caused by exclusive environments this causation story grounds societal responsibility and justifies the provision of more accommodating environments the favored policy response of social models of disability the first objective defends this interpretation against the challenge that social models of disability cannot justify the policy of environmental reconstruction humvars second objective is to redefine the problem of disability that the model articulates as a special case of discrimination discriminationashumanvariation discriminationashumanvariation is a revisionary account of the hvm as the original version of the model aims to be an alternative to discriminationbased approaches to disability this revisionary interpretation explores that disabilityashumanvariation is a form of ableism the third objective is to expand the idea of human variation to the case of linguistic diversity and justice showing that the logic of the hvm is present in other spheres of social life beyond disability humvar makes the case that minority languages are also disadvantaged by their social environment and vulnerable to discriminationashumanvariation it also examines the case of sign language through the lens of linguistic justice to find a novel answer to why changing individual impairments is problematic from a moral point of view humvars answer is that societys insistence on changing individual impairments instead of providing accommodating environments is a case of wrongful assimilation
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resilient beekeeping and breeding to safeguard natural genetic resources and pollination services
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beeguards aims to strengthen the resilience of the european beekeeping sector by providing sustainable management practices novel breeding strategies and digital and forecasting tools that allow the sector to adapt to a changing environment we focus on determining how abiotic factors such as management practices climate change nutrition and resource limitations drive emerging biotic stressors that threaten colony health and erode the resilience of european beekeepingbeeguards comprises multiple actors and adopts a multiactor approach from inception which has led to an open and inclusive design of the work programme as a community we will perform europeanwide field studies evaluating and validating innovative thresholdbased management and breeding strategies for resilience using hives equipped with technological measurement tools complementary detailed immunological behavioural microbiological pathological ecological investigations will elucidate the ways in which management and climate act on honey bees and other pollinators in this way beeguards will for the first time provide a truly holistic view of the mechanisms determining beekeeping resilience and implement naturebased local solutions for adaption including modelbased advisory tools for stakeholdersour open and participatory actions include development of a wikibeedia community website where we will share and promote the beeguards concepts and results including a quest for sustainable beekeeping practices ultimately beeguards will show the way for a change of perspective that is needed to achieve resilient beekeeping beeguards will mitigate the environmental impact of beekeeping in terms of impact on wild pollinators and of carbon footprint protect pollinator biodiversity ensure the future provision of pollination services and support the economic development and inclusiveness of beekeeping preparing the european apicultural sector to meet the climate challenge
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wind in my backyard using holistic modelling tools to advance social awareness and engagement on large wind power installations in the eu
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wind power is one of the fastestgrowing most mature and costcompetitive renewable energy technologies but its deployment faces significant challenges due to a lack of understanding of the distribution of complex positive and negative impacts and their interplay with low local acceptance wimby addresses these challenges by fostering the societal engagement of citizens and stakeholders so that wind energy gains substantially more popular support thereby enabling its role in europes decarbonisation goals to do so wimby translates the results of indepth models to assess the potential for the development of wind parks into useful and comprehensive information and tools for stakeholders facilitating decision making towards lower impact and more participative wind energy deployment to thoroughly assess locationdependent potential impacts conflicts and synergies of wind power deployment on the natural and social environment wimby combines high resolution spatially explicit technoeconomic models under multiple regulatory frameworks with models to assess environmental security and health impacts on the one hand and models to determine potential synergies in ecosystems on the other wimby follows a citizens science approach for dissemination supported through a webgis interactive forum that improves upon the content and functionality of the new european wind atlas on a community level we study four geographically climatically and socioeconomically diverse pilot cases across the eu where detailed modelling and an immersive 3d platform and a multicriteria satisfaction analysis framework are employed in workshops with stakeholders of potential projects throughout the project wimby deepens the knowledge of the drivers and barriers for social acceptance and develops guidelines to raise public understanding and engagement with wind power especially promoting the uptake of new generations of larger wind power turbines and farms
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secure execution of smart contracts
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smart contracts are computer programs that autonomously execute on the blockchain they have the potential to revolutionize many applications from finance insurance energy healthcare and production industries however smart contracts have become an appealing attack target since smart contracts are always online and easy to hack once a vulnerability is discovered recent attacks resulted in large losses of cryptocurrency thereby questioning the benefits of this revolutionary technology consec is the first holistic framework that will enable secure execution of smart contracts on the blockchain it takes a holistic approach by developing security mechanisms covering various stages of the blockchain ecosystem starting from smart contract development and maintenance to smart contract execution and forensic analysis a key aspect of this project is the development of the first secure smart contract compiler which detects and automatically patches smart contract bugs in the development phase an innovative update process complements the secure compiler to mitigate new and unknown attack vectors supporting developers who deployed vulnerable contracts further consec will develop a secure execution monitor to audit smart contracts while they execute on the blockchain allowing instant reaction to runtime attacks to tackle the current lack of comprehensive approaches to validate the security of already deployed contracts consec will develop new forensic dynamic analysis approaches consec establishes trust in smart contract technology enabling secure deployment and execution of smart contracts on the blockchain
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scalable modular high temperature costefficient thermal energy and power storage and conversion system made of upcycled industrial byproducts
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300 twh energy thats 51 billion from heat sources is wasted every year in the eu due to the lack of costefficient spacesaving and scalable storage systems heat losses equal net heat demand a dramatic waste of resources and capital industrial companies and energy producers waste excess energy because intermediate storage or conversion to electricity is not economic with kraftblock economic energy storage and conversion becomes affordable for the first time our patented storage granule is produced from 85 upcycled blast furnace slag and a selfdeveloped binding agent with this patented granule storagecapacitym is increased by a factor of 10 while the storage price per mwh is reduced by a factor of 12 the granule is part of our energy storage system which are stackable units of 60mwh enabling heattoheat heattopower powertoheat and powertopower operations in the steel glass ceramics metal cement food and paper industry
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building excellence in the study of galaxies and cosmology at the university of tartu
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the current era of large astronomical surveys and simulations produces massive amounts of new data when combined with new analytical frameworks it will allow for statistical inference to tackle many unsolved questions such as the role of the cosmic web in the formation and evolution of galaxies the current observations show the environment of galaxies plays a major role in the star formation quenching mass assembly and even the orientation of the galaxies in the cosmic web filaments to succeed in studies like this requires combining knowledge and experience in observations cosmological simulations cosmic web theory and applied mathematics this proposal aims to strengthen the research capacity of the university of tartu utartu in these subjects the advanced partners of the project are internationally renowned experts in hydrodynamical simulations cosmic web theory cosmic web finders and applied geometric and spatial analysis thanks to the knowledge transfer from advanced partners this project will provide utartu with the required expertise to actively participate in the nextgeneration galaxy evolution surveys that allow mapping of the cosmic web in unprecedented detail in collaboration with the partners an improved method for cosmic web modelling will be developed that builds on the experience of the bisous model developed in utartu and other cosmic web finders that the partners have developed disperse nexus vweb this new galaxyweb model aims to simultaneously detect the groups and filaments directly from the observed redshifts of galaxies and work efficiently with significantly higher target densities and the nontrivial selection functions of the nextgeneration surveys this twinning proposal will help ensure longterm mutually beneficial collaboration between the four project partners raise the international visibility and attractiveness of utartu and contribute to the cosmic web studies and understanding of galaxy evolution
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coupling morphogen dynamics with mechanics in the control of form and pattern
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embryogenesis entails both the generation of cell type diversity and largescale morphogenetic movements sculpting the forming body axes how patterning and morphogenesis are each individually controlled is increasingly understood yet how these fundamental processes are coordinated remains an open question in biology my recent work in zebrafish gastrulation a crucial developmental stage where the germ layers are specified and shaped provided a conceptual framework for how patterning and morphogenesis can be coupled by morphogen signalling however how a small set of highly conserved morphogens mechanistically controls a striking diversity of biological functions across many developmental systems remains unclear especially as little is known on how morphogen signalling encodes the mechanical forces organizing morphogenesis we hypothesize that examining the multiscale interplay between morphogen dynamics and mechanics will provide the missing link to understand how the emergence of pattern and form are coordinated by a handful of morphogens using both zebrafish embryos and human 2d gastruloids we aim to uncover1 how the dynamics of morphogen signalling encodes the mechanical properties organizing morphogenesis2 how cell and tissue mechanics in turn modulate morphogen signalling dynamics and robust patterning 3 how cells decode dynamical mechanochemical inputs to instruct cell fate and patterningtowards these goals we will combine our expertise in biophysics and developmental biology with recent advances in livecell signalling reporters optogenetics biophysical tools and gastruloid models to quantitatively understand the design principles and molecular effectors of the crosstalk between morphogen dynamics and mechanics this will generate novel insights relevant beyond developmental biology with direct implications for engineering of organoid technologies regenerative medicine and our understanding of the evolution of form and pattern
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the brain erythropoietin cycle as driver of adaptive neuroplasticity via functional hypoxia
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cognitive disability and decline play key roles in neuropsychiatric conditions but lack effective therapies erythropoietin epo is a hypoxiainducible growth factor named after its original description in erythropoiesis we discovered by reverse approach human trials first that recombinant human rh epo has potent procognitive effects hematopoiesisindependent searching for mechanistic insight in mice we saw that rhepo markedly drives differentiationmaturation of pyramidal neurons and oligodendrocytes from nondividing precursors in cornu ammonis outside known neurogenesis areas in parallel rhepo dampens microglia this suggests that endogenous brainexpressed epo bepo acting in autoparacrine fashion has fundamental hitherto overlooked physiological significancebrepoci will pursue the groundbreaking hypotheses that i functional hypoxia is a physiological consequence of increased neuronal activity inciting an integrated response of many brain cell types and ii this activityinduced hypoxia stimulates bepo expression to optimize multicellular brain plasticity providing substantial hardware upgrade iii also brepoci postulates diverse epor in brain and will study their nature and contribution to these pivotal processes upon normoxia functional and inspiratory hypoxia iv rhepo treatment of intellectual disabilityautism caused by tbr1 or zbtb20 lossoffunction mutations will constitute a first mechanistic approach to specific brain pathologies translatable to humansthis erc project can build on acquired novel genetic mouse tools celltype specific epoepor mutants inducible hypoxia reporters multiomic mice sophisticated behavior tests mrimrs multiphoton imaging nanosims scsnrnaseq confocallightsheetelectron microscopy electrophysiology brepoci will illuminate rhepobepo effects on physiological brain functions and explore how it limits developmental delay intellectual disability or neurodegeneration
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prodemocracy platform advocacy fostering social medias accountability to dissident voices under authoritarianism
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digital platforms such as facebook and twitter have long touted themselves as defenders of freedom of expression yet their content moderation rules have faced global criticism amongst others for failing to tackle authoritarian repression of dissident voices government trolls successfully run malicious reporting campaigns that result in the platforms removal of activists posts and accounts meanwhile civil society under authoritarianism lacks means of legal recourse and can only engage in international advocacy to urge social media companies to implement safeguards to which extent have advocacy efforts for protection of prodemocracy content led to changes in digital platforms content moderation rules have these changes resulted in a more open online civic space for prodemocracy activism what limitations remain to address these questions and foster platform accountability for vulnerable users i will work under prof trisha meyers supervision at vrije universiteit brussel vub centre for digitalisation democracy and innovation cd2i at brussels school of governance bsog and sam gregorys secondment supervision at witness inc to achieve two main ri objectives first the project will build and test a theoretical model of prodemocracy platform advocacy based on original evidence from asian prodemocracy movements and their advocacy toward three social media platforms facebook twitter and telegram second the findings will be turned into two openaccess academic articles and three applied innovations including a best practice guide for prodemocracy activists a set of policy recommendations for social media companies and a digital advocacy resource for social media users i will disseminate and exploit these results via presentations at eight academic and three multistakeholder conferences publications on open research europe platform and five facilitation workshops with activists and meetings with social media companies
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early life imprinting of b cell memory and its role in adult immunity
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this proposal addresses the combined role of early life derived b cells in the adult immune system neonatal immune imprinting is now wellestablished concept it emphasizes the importance of the early life window to establish hostmicrobial mutualism and the setpoint for immune responsiveness later in life however the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this immune programming are not well understood despite the ability of b cells to integrate and store complex immunological memory for a lifetime surprisingly little is known about its ability to confer the longitudinal effects of neonatal microbial instructionby timestamping b cells that arise early in life my research team resolved a selfsustaining network of igm and iga b and plasma cells that carry memory of neonatal exposure such early life origin b elob cells are unevenly distributed among immunophenotypically and anatomically defined b cell subsets and make up a substantial portion of the adult b cell pool in unimmunized mice these findings reveal pervasive neonatal antigenic imprinting of the adult b cell compartment challenging the assumption that the adaptive immune system is nave in the absence of deliberate immunization with this understanding arises an urgent need to dissect the formation and function of elob cell memory and their lasting impact on host protection and longterm homeostasis to this end we have built an unprecedented genetic toolkit leveraging the power of our timestamping approach to track and manipulate elob cell responses without perturbing aduloverarching hypothesis elob cells uniquely imprinted by developmental and microbial determinants early in life shape the trajectory of adult immune responses in health and diseaseaim 1 dissecting the formation of a complex elob cell layeraim 2 tracing elob cell derived antibodies and their contribution to adult b cell responsesaim 3 defining the role for elob cells in immunological tolerance
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prototype spiked microcapsule based oral insulin pill for diabetes
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diabetes is a chronic metabolic syndrome with millions of people affected globally caused by impaired glucose metabolism due to insufficient pancreatic insulin release or the development of insulin resistance to control the glycaemic load in the diabetic patient insulin needs to be administered by parenteral injection which causes patient compliance issues oral administration of insulin is the preferred route but there is no oral insulin on the market because of the hurdles it faces in the gastrointestinal tract oral administration is the preferred route but until now there is no oral insulin in the market because of the hurdle gastric ph and enzymatic degradation low permeability it faces in the gastrointestinal tract therefore there is an unmet need for oral insulin development to solve these problems we will use microneedle technology for development of oral insulin delivery microinsulin oral administration of microinsulin will be investigated at the level of physicochemical characterization preliminary safety assessment in in vitro and ex vivo models and pharmacokinetics and efficacy in in vivo rodent models high insulin intestinal absorption will be expected from the polymeric needle microcapsule via its piercing mechanism with controlled and localised release of insulin which will be facilitated by a polymer matrix and the permeatingenhancing cationic cyclodextrin polymer the objective of the project is aligned with the eus horizon 2020 programme focus area health demographic change and wellbeing and un sustainable development goal good health and wellbeing the global marie curie fellowship research will be conducted in partnership with the outgoing phase at a renowned institution from a third countries and incoming phase at eu country the team is well equipped with skill and infrastructure required for the project this will help bring advanced skills to eu countries and will have a significant impact on the fellows career
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an edible microelectrofluidic biosensor for gastric enzyme quantification
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edisens will deliver the first edible microelectrofluidic biosensor for enzyme activity quantification in gastric fluid that the human body can digest after completing its task this will be accomplished by integrating passive microfluidics electronics and bioreagents into an edible device fabricated with foodgrade materials the biosensor will find application in the detection of pancreatic diseases including pancreatic cancer today existing ingestible electronics represent a trilliondollar market yet they suffer from retention risk as they use nondegradable materials and heavily contribute to the accumulation of ewaste in the environment edisens will deliver a safetoeat device performing a rapid accurate enzymatic test on gastric fluid before being digested that eliminates the retention risk and does not require hospitalisation and disposal the proposed technology will be highly versatile and will be beneficial for applications beyond our immediate test case the transition to edible alternatives will spark the next generation of diagnostic devices for gastrointestinal tract monitoring which are safer noninvasive environment friendly and can be used at the point of care the project will start a change in the social perception of diagnostic devices where safe and familiar materials can be engineered to provide noninvasive diagnostic tools edisens works toward the vision that clinical testing will be as easy as eating candy one day this action is in line with the horizon europe global challenges program that promotes advanced noninvasive safer health technologies and a greener and more sustainable european society for the success of this action the researcher will utilise his experience in standard pointofcare and ingestible electronics exploit the supervisors expertise in organic and bioresorbable electronics and benefit from the stateoftheart laboratory at the center for nano science and technology istituto italiano di tecnologia
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beyond neuroinflammation new concepts to elucidate the immune systems vital role in parkinsons disease
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decades of research into parkinsons disease pd have fallen short in fully comprehending its mechanisms leaving us without a cure current treatments merely alleviate symptoms temporarily but are unable to impede the progression of the disease clearly pd research has hit a wall and new approaches are needed recent discoveries of the involvement of the peripheral immune system in pd have sparked a groundbreaking proposition by biceps pd must be considered a systemic disease with an immune response involving both brain and periphery thus to revolutionize pd research we must shift away from the neurocentric approach of past decades and extend our focus to studying the immune system outside the brain furthermore recent advancements such as systems biology and artificial intelligence aidriven data mining diagnosis and drug development hold significant promise for advancing pd researchtherefore biceps is uniting pd researchers immunologists and experts in ai and systems biology from leading european academic institutions startup companies and established pharmaceutical firms into a unique consortium the primary objective is to train a new generation of pd researchers with interdisciplinary expertise in these fieldsthis ambitious goal will be realized through an intensive training program that encompasses cuttingedge methodologies encourages innovation nurtures transferable skills and provides immersive handson research experiences thereby the biceps network aims to shape the future of pd research by adopting a fresh perspective and expediting the development of diagnostics and therapies for pd with a particular focus on the immune system
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scalable continuous variable cluster state quantum technologies
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continuous variable cv quantum technologies have in recent years made significant impact on the fields of quantum communication sensing and computing as signified by the detection of gravitational waves and demonstration of quantum advantage via gaussian boson sampling moreover the recent generation and manipulation of cv cluster states comprising thousands of entangled modes have direct implications for future developments of scalable cv quantum computing and networking systems in clustec we will pursue an interdisciplinary approach to unfold the full potential of cv cluster state technology by making conceptual and technical breakthroughs along three different directions first we will develop two complementary optical platforms for scalable generation of massive cv cluster states of different entanglement topologies and generation of hardware efficient errorcorrecting codes the two systems will be based on a wellestablished lowloss fiber platform and the emerging highly promising integrated photonics platform of thinfilm lithium niobate second we will develop and test radically new measurementinduced cv quantum computational and networking protocols and algorithms with certified quantum advantage and reallife applications third we will explore and develop theoretically and experimentally novel quantum errorcorrecting cv protocols and technologies that facilitate the realization of practical faulttolerant quantum technologies for quantum computing communication and sensing with true scalability potential with these activities clustec will create a new path towards scalable quantum technologies and accelerate the development of practical quantum technologies with potentially radical impact on european society and economy the results will pave the way for industrial uptake and exploitation in the near and long term and in turn support the development of european leadership and autonomy in emerging strategic technologies
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from cell shape to organism shape the cellular basis for the evolutionary origin of animal morphogenesis
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my work concerns a critical question how did the cellular mechanisms underpinning animal morphogenesis first evolve while the first multicellular ancestors of modern animals have left limited fossil traces insights can be gained by studying their closest living relatives the choanoflagellates this group of microeukaryotes has several features of high relevance to animal origins including temporal cell differentiation facultative multicellularity and a metazoanlike developmental gene toolkit importantly they have become amenable to functional genetics in the past few years we will study the molecular and cellular mechanisms of three morphogenetic processes in choanoflagellates 1 the formation of the collar complex a ring of microvilli surrounding the flagellum which represents an example of complex singlecell morphogenesis and has been central to hypotheses about animal origins
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evolving organsonchip from developmental engineering to mechanical reevolution
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evooc aims at developing smart mechanically active organsonchip platforms as clinically relevant in vitro setups to unravel mechanisms underlying tissue regeneration and progression of unmet diseasesa decade ago developmental engineering de proposed to model in vitro clinically relevant tissues replica by recapitulation of embryonic developmental events despite physical forces have recently been suggested as main driver of developmental processes mechanical conditioning never prevailed as key de strategy this is related to a lack in current in vitro mechanobiology setups mainly based on open loop systems which disregard the fact that native mechanical environment varies in time as function of tissue state itself evooc vision is to elevate mechanobiology as leading de approach through a groundbreaking paradigm named mechanical reevolution based on the highriskhighgain hypothesis that an iterative manipulation of mechanical forces is necessary to guide in vitro adult tissue development at unprecedented levels towards this vision i will deliver a new method evolving ooc evooc integrating three enabling functions move to apply nativeinspired mechanical forces to tissues in vitro sense to monitor their comprehensive effect on tissue development adapt to modulate forces as a function of tissue responses through machine learning mlbased algorithms towards an unsupervised tissue evolution i will take advantages of two paradigmatic testcases cartilage and heart to showcase the power of mechanical reevolution in guiding in vitro tissue physiological and pathological states towards the identification of a brandnew class of mechanotherapeutics for unmet pathologiesby combining principles of microfabrication de mechanobiology and ml evooc will revolutionize basic studies in tissue development and disease modeling facilitating innovative translational strategies to tackle tissue repair in manifold applications
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prescription optics providing a universal lens for augmented reality eyewear
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popular aims at developing the first generic augmented reality eyewear are platform covering the widest range of users and use cases in professional context leisure or in daily life the ordinarylooking glasses will provide visual wearable vestibular and social comfort making them suitable for allday use including personal ophthalmic correctionmajor innovations are related to compactness and invisible technology optical quality ultralow power consumption and long operation times integrating costefficiency aspects as well ssh aspects will be considered in all stages of the project by using a dual approach with an interplay between human driven design and multidisciplinary system engineering through iterative prototype testingpopular will develop all critical components namely ultralow power microdisplay with related optics and electronics innovative holographic lens mirror as well as application software and perform the integration into eyewear prototypes demonstration will be achieved by performing enduser tests with the prototypes in 3 realistic use case scenarios outdoor sports healthcare and logisticsthe consortium is a unique combination of crossfunctional experts representing the entire value chain it consists of 10 partners from 4 eu countries including 4 rtoaca 3 industrial companies of which 2 smes and 3 usecase partners in addition an advisory board of stakeholders and ethics experts will guide the popular consortium during the main steps of the projectthe innovation provided by the project provides a unique chance to the european industry becoming a leader in a growing market of are building on its worldwide leadership in the eyewear industry and its strong rd and innovation capabilities through the project demonstrations and the continuous support of the advisory board guidelines covering user design market and societal requirements will be developed supporting deployment in real scenarios
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biocomposites in smart plastic transformation processes to pave the way for the largescale uptake of sustainable biobased products
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the general objective of biouptake project is to ensure a sustainable uptake increase the use in a 39 of bioplastic composites through boosting a twin green and digital transformation in the european manufacturing industry in particular biouptake solution will focus scientific and technology efforts on developing flexible manufacturing processes to produce biobased endproducts for the construction medical and packaging sectors based on the combination of intermediate formats made of natural andor biobased synthetic fibres reinforced with biopolymers which are easily adaptable to new market demands the novel approach on which biouptake project relies is based on modularity or prefabrication a smart combination of intermediate formats organosheets tapes and pellets into a final endproduct which allows to overcome the current technical and environmental limitations to meet the demanding requirements of a specific sectorapplication where a single biobased material doesnt thus the synergistic potential of composite materials will pave the way for the integration and uptake of biobased materials in mass customised manufacturing manufacturing as a service three disruptive manufacturing processes based on conformal technologies will be developed within biouptake focused on the plastics manufacturing sector which is on the centrality of a variety of value chains and being demonstrated in 3 demo cases bathroom ceiling cabinet feet orthosis and garbage container lid sustainability criteria will be applied since the design phase to reach circularity by design obtaining products with more than 75 biobased content and decreasing ghg up to 33 biouptake solution does not request large investment in complex equipment too biouptake consortium is formed by 13 interdisciplinar and complementary partners 6 industries 4 rtos 1 academia and 2 other organizations the overall budget is 5994886 euros
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copernicus responding to eu cities mission
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the recently concluded h2020 project cure prepared the ground for exploitation of copernicus core services in urban planning achieving climate neutrality requires a city that has joint the eu mission on climateneutral and smart cities the cities mission to reduce the greenhouse gases ghg emissions from all sectors within the citys boundary to net zero by 2030 including emissions within the city boundary from combustion of fossil fuels in buildings and facilities combustion of fossil fuels for all vehicles and transport and changes in land use agriculture forestry and other land uses all the above are considered as scope 1 ghg emissions direct emissions and the copernicus land monitoring service clms based on the cure method for co2 emissions monitoring holds promise in aiding cities to achieve the ambitious goals of the mission by assisting in monitoring the efficiency of efforts to trace the advancement towards climate neutrality the proposed project clmscities copernicus responding to eu cities mission aims to improve clms with new elements and products capable of being integrated into land planning decisions with regard to climate change mitigation at local scale clmscities will contribute to clms evolution as it is expected to lead to more evidencebased urban planning activities related to climate change mitigation resulting in improved ghg emissions inventory methods and outputs to support cities to meet the missions ambitious objectives it will focus on the ten cities of the mission that were recently 2023 labelled providing the missions community with spatially disaggregated environmental intelligence at a local scale and a proofofconcept that urban planning and management strategies enhancing the ghg inventories can be supported by clms clmscities method will be modular and scalable delivering consistent products across the cities of the mission and developing synergies between clms and thirdparty data sources
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deciphering females sex hormones microbiota interactions during a menstrual cycle for an efficient personalized medicine in cardiometabolic disorders
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cardiometabolic disorders cmd a group of conditions that include cardiovascular diseases type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome are characterised by dysfunction of glycaemic andor lipid metabolism clinical manifestations severity and progression are different between sexes the underlying mechanisms of which are largely unknown the poorer prognosis in women globally calls for an urgent need for better womens tailored prevention and treatment strategies still for an efficient personalised strategy femalespecific mechanisms have to be identified the semicycle project will systematically investigate females sex hormonesmicrobiota interactions to unravel femalespecific microbiota features regulating glycaemic and lipid metabolism in women during homeostasis and diseases findings of this research project will pinpoint key mechanisms useful to improve current prevention and diagnostic tools as well as therapeutic options of cmd semicycle will follow up 300 healthy women during one menstrual cycle and longitudinal crossomics data five layers of information from host genome gut microbiome gut metabolome vaginal microbiome plasma proteome will be generated analysed and integrated with female sex hormones variations lifestyle and diet glycaemic and lipid phenotypes using stateoftheart methodologies and computational approaches subsequently mechanisms identified during homeostasis will be investigated for association with cmd onset and progression using already existing cohorts totalling more than 10000 samples this research is based on my expertise and that of my research group in generating and analysing omics data in large data sets findings will reveal previously unknown microbiota regulators of cmd in women thus offering alternative routes for prevention diagnosis and treatments in women a necessary step for an efficient personalised medicine
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mining food for nutraceuticals for beneficial microbiome modulation
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the human gut microbiome is recognized as an essential element in human health and disruption of the homeostasis between the host and gut microbiome has been associated with the development of various diseases diet plays a major role in modulating the gut microbiome but understanding the exact relationship and its effect on health remains a key challenge in microbiome research nutrome aims to develop nutraceuticals food components with health benefits based on key dietary components of the mediterranean diet that are capable of modulating imbalances or dysbiosis on the human gut microbiome of two relevant population groups the elderly and people with irritable bowel syndrome understanding how key dietary components and gut microbiome interact in the context of dysbiosis will require insight of the taxonomic and functional composition and relevant ecological dynamics of the microbiome by cuttingedge microbiome manipulations and multiomics approach joint analyses of metagenomics metabolomics and metaproteomics data together with measures of mechanistic experiments in in vitro cells and an in vivo germfree mice model will allow me to provide a framework for the understanding of the potential molecular mechanisms behind these modulations other original aspects of nutrome will be the evaluation of not only the impact of pure compounds but also the development of new forms of presenting them by encapsulation andor immobilisation to guarantee that they reach the target site and microbial population of interest in the gut collectively this will allow to design nutraceuticals for dietary intervention in the form of enriched foods or dietary supplements nutrome provides an exceptional opportunity to the researcher to gain stateoftheart expertise in microbiomics along with other relevant research and transferable skills to strengthen her competitiveness for becoming an independent researcher
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next generation imaging for realtime dose verification enabling adaptive proton therapy
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the novo project will address a fundamental issue in proton radiotherapy pt of cancer namely the lack of realtime dose verification rdv that significantly limits the potential of pt due to uncertainties in the precise delivery of the prescribed dose in the novo project we will develop the first proofofconcept of an rdv technology adaptable to any pt treatment and bring the concept to trl 4 by also considering integration into the pt clinical workflow the rdv technology will be pivotal for enabling the next generation of adaptive pt therapy ie doseguided realtime adaptive therapy realtime measurement of the dose to targeted and nontargeted tissues will be the key to truly empower patientcentered personalized cancer treatment important to improve curation and qualityoflife posttreatment as a highriskhighgain project novo aims at a firstofitskind rdv technology through the unique synergy between 1 cuttingedge inexpensive organic scintillator technology that can detect secondary radiation during treatment for noninvasive measurements 2 novel and fast image reconstruction artificial intelligence aiaccelerated models and aienhanced image reconstruction to allow simultaneous detection of multiple radiation species and tissue compositional analysis 3 tumortracking and imaging of tissue radiosensitivity based on oxygen levels 4 intelligent automation of decisionmaking schemes for realtime doseguided adaptive therapy the project will essentially open a new era in pt that enables curing more cancer patients and reducing toxicity from treatment the novo consortium covers the entire value chain of rdv development technology providers theory and modelling technology integration and pt clinics and optimally engages nuclear medical and highenergy physicists chemists mathematicians computer scientists oncologists biologists as well as european pt centers
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molecular quantum heat engines
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heat engines are an integral part of our daily lives they power cars or produce electricity by converting heat into work increasing their efficiency is very difficult and only marginal improvements have been achieved over the last decades thus to reach the ambitious climate goals it is necessary to go beyond conventional technologies atomsized systems where quantum mechanical effects come into play could enable this theory predicts that their efficiency can be boosted beyond the classical limits imposed by thermodynamics however so far this has not been tested in practice due to a lack of suitable model systemsi propose to build a molecular heat engine of only a few atoms in size with such high control over its structure and properties that these predictions can finally be tested the engines quantum properties will be robust at experimentally accessible temperatures its coupling to the environment will be controllable and electrical transport through it will be quantum coherent i seek to exploit the full gamut of their physical properties to boost efficiency including spin entropy and vibrational coupling practically i will 1 implement a scanning probe setup into a dilution refrigerator 2 fabricate singlemolecule junctions with microheaters and ultrasensitive superconducting thermometers and 3 perform and interpret caloric experiments on single molecules at unprecedented precisionthe results will teach us about the fundamental properties of atomscale quantum systems and heat flowing through single molecules it will inspire new ways to increase the performance of thermoelectric applications such as waste heat harvesters nanoscale spotcooling devices or even thermal rectifiers and transistorsi am one of the forerunners in molecular thermoelectrics with extensive handson experience in material sciences nanotechnology and mesoscopic physics this multidisciplinary background is needed to make this ambitious project a success
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transcription factor gene therapy for bradyarrhythmias
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pacingcure has developed bradytx01 a novel gene therapy medicinal product gtmp to cure lifethreatening cardiac pacing dysfunctions by reprogramming cardiomyocytes into pacemaker cells bradytx01 is based on a novel method to optimally control transcription factor overexpression through adenoassociated virus aav mediated gene transfer the biological pacemaker that is created 1 improves cardiac function 2 responds to metabolic demand 3 can be delivered using minimally invasive techniques and 4 potentially lasts a lifetimein the traction project pacingcure together with aumc will further optimize aavmediated transcription vector gene therapy for pacemaker applications validating the novel aav vector technology in mice pigs and nonhuman primates subsequently a largescale manufacturing process will be designed to release the materials that will be used for validating and demonstrating longterm safety and efficacy in porcine studies thereby establishing preclinical proofofconcept of bradytx01in parallel we will validate and optimize the technologyproductmarket fit of bradytx01 and the evolving value propositions will be tested and optimized with relevant stakeholders we will define the optimal regulatory strategies perform health technology assessments and develop the optimal business strategy thereby setting the stage for effective clinical and commercial development of bradytx01within the traction project we will take the next steps in our development while also establishing the optimal strategy for our trajectory towards the clinical stage and commercialization of bradytx01 the traction project will thus facilitate the complete transition of pacingcure into a fully operational company with an attractive and investmentready business proposition
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training future big data experts for europe
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bigdata management through highperformance computing is nowadays considered as the richness of the new knowledge economy providing unprecedented opportunities in several ri and applicative domains from climate change to health from mobility to cultural heritage from digital change in production systems to new materials and financial analysis in italy 70 of the national computing and storage capacity is set in the emiliaromagna region making it an authentic data valley while supercomputing infrastructures are a prerequisite for european competitiveness datadriven ri needs qualified experts in datascience and bigdata application in relevant societalindustrial domains in this context the university of bologna in partnership with the other 5 universities located in the region with the support of the regional authority and involving the relevant stakeholders is proposing futuredata4eu to train the datascience experts of tomorrow through an interdisciplinary international and crosssectoral approach futuredata4eu builds on existing phd courses will offer a pioneering combination of training in research and transversal skills in the multi and transdisciplinary field of bigdata through the enabling technologies and the thematic areas representing the horizon europe clusters 1 health 2 culture creativity and inclusive society 3 civil security for society 4 digital industry and space 5 climate energy and mobility 6 food bioeconomy natural resources agriculture and environment
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promoting innovation excellence in transformation of coal regions to climateneutral thriving economies
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energy efficiency renewable energy sources energy storagebatteries hydrogen efficient buildings climate neutrality reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonization of industries coal regions are in the heart of european policies for the new programming period ie green deal eu strategic energy technology plan twin industrial transition etc many financial instruments have been setup to support these objectives that have a common denominator in sustainable energy eu alliances across the value chains ie eba ipceis ie descarbonization hydrogen batteries and research policy platforms ie coal regions in transition are dedicated to facilitate the advancement of ri in the field through the collective effort of eu members and enable the transformation of eu regions to climate neutral thriving economies this context finds a lot of countries striving to comply especially challenging those that traditionally have economies heavily dependent on fossil fuel mining and exploitation a major shift has to be done in a short amount of time putting at risk the balances in the local economies and making yearslong expertise and wellestablished skills become obsolete coalition intends to strengthen the regional innovation ecosystems in coaldepended areas through the creation of regional excellence hubs and the definition of a joint strategic agenda for sustainable energy so as to facilitate their transition in a just and inclusive way the regions have been carefully selected western macedonia gr centru ro southeastern bg among the under transition eu states that are also characterized as widening in an attempt to maximize the longterm impact of the joint ri strategy that will be developed within the project as those territories are about to amass large amounts of funding and coalition aims to create multiplier effects in the given investments by attracting and mobilizing external investments
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investigating mammalian evolution using millionyear genomic transects
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the field of ancient dna has made major contributions to evolutionary biology and palaeontology in recent years due to its power to reveal novel information about prehistory however even though many of the evolutionary processes that shaped the presentday biota have taken place over hundreds of thousands of years nearly all ancient dna studies to date have focused on biological changes during the last 50000 years i here propose a groundbreaking project that aims to study evolution on a millionyear time scale we will develop and apply novel palaeogenomic methods to extend the current limits of dna recovery which will allow us to address scientific questions previously thought to be beyond the realm of ancient dna research more specifically we aim to sequence one hundred ancient genomes recovered from early and middle pleistocene remains of multiple holarctic mammalian species this will enable us to examine macroevolutionary changes across speciation events and key periods of pleistocene climate change more specifically we will investigate several fundamental questions on how species originate the importance of interspecific introgression the timing and rate of adaptive evolution and the demographic consequences of past environmental change my research group has a trackrecord at the cuttingedge of wildlife palaeogenomics and recently led the study that extended the limit of ancient dna recovery to beyond one million years based at the newly established centre for palaeogenetics in stockholm the project will extend beyond the current state of the art and will set a new paradigm for palaeogenomic research the resulting data will provide an unparalleled resource for researchers studying longterm evolutionary dynamics and environmental changes at a global scale
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the transmission and transformation of texts in the tarim basin a corpus approach
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the transmission and transformation of texts in the tarim basin a corpus approach project 4tb is designed to contribute to the study of three prominent languages of the preislamic tarim basin in todays xinjiang uygur autonomous region in the peoples republic of china tocharian a old uyghur and sanskrit the innovation part of this contribution assumes creating a comprehensive parallel text corpus of buddhist texts in the said languages an openaccess digital tool for linguistic and philological study the research part assumes analyzing details and searching for patterns of transmission and transformation of those buddhist texts from sanskrit to tocharian a from tocharian a to old uyghur this is going to be achieved by answering the following research questions 1 what are the linguistic patterns of transmission and transformation of the discussed texts 2 how were the discussed texts transmitted and transformed from the philological point of viewthe results of my action will substantially facilitate crosslinguistic studies for scholars of three language groups also they will have an interdisciplinary impact bringing a large amount of textual information to nonlinguist researchers eg scholars of buddhism and historians moreover my action has a potential for further research as it can later include other adjacent languages the host institution will be university of vienna my supervisor will be hannes fellner one of the key developers of the cetom project the tocharian a and b text corpus and the lead of the tarim brahmi project his experience in digital humanities and the tocharian studies will be extremely helpful for my research
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