(-) Remove (SH) Social Sciences & Humanities (25) filter (SH) Social Sciences & Humanities (25)
Project acronym CAPTURE
Project CApturing Paradata for documenTing data creation and Use for the REsearch of the future
Researcher (PI) Isto HUVILA
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary "Considerable investments have been made in Europe and worldwide in research data infrastructures. Instead of a general lack of data about data, it has become apparent that the pivotal factor that drastically constrains the use of data is the absence of contextual knowledge about how data was created and how it has been used. This applies especially to many branches of SSH research where data is highly heterogeneous, both by its kind (e.g. being qualitative, quantitative, naturalistic, purposefully created) and origins (e.g. being historical/contemporary, from different contexts and geographical places). The problem is that there may be enough metadata (data about data) but there is too little paradata (data on the processes of its creation and use). In contrast to the rather straightforward problem of describing the data, the high-risk/high-gain problem no-one has managed to solve, is the lack of comprehensive understanding of what information about the creation and use of research data is needed and how to capture enough of that information to make the data reusable and to avoid the risk that currently collected vast amounts of research data become useless in the future. The wickedness of the problem lies in the practical impossibility to document and keep everything and the difficulty to determine optimal procedures for capturing just enough. With an empirical focus on archaeological and cultural heritage data, which stands out by its extreme heterogeneity and rapid accumulation due to the scale of ongoing development-led archaeological fieldwork, CAPTURE develops an in-depth understanding of how paradata is #1 created and #2 used at the moment, #3 elicits methods for capturing paradata on the basis of the findings of #1-2, #4 tests the new methods in field trials, and #5 synthesises the findings in a reference model to inform the capturing of paradata and enabling data-intensive research using heterogeneous research data stemming from diverse origins. "
"Considerable investments have been made in Europe and worldwide in research data infrastructures. Instead of a general lack of data about data, it has become apparent that the pivotal factor that drastically constrains the use of data is the absence of contextual knowledge about how data was created and how it has been used. This applies especially to many branches of SSH research where data is highly heterogeneous, both by its kind (e.g. being qualitative, quantitative, naturalistic, purposefully created) and origins (e.g. being historical/contemporary, from different contexts and geographical places). The problem is that there may be enough metadata (data about data) but there is too little paradata (data on the processes of its creation and use). In contrast to the rather straightforward problem of describing the data, the high-risk/high-gain problem no-one has managed to solve, is the lack of comprehensive understanding of what information about the creation and use of research data is needed and how to capture enough of that information to make the data reusable and to avoid the risk that currently collected vast amounts of research data become useless in the future. The wickedness of the problem lies in the practical impossibility to document and keep everything and the difficulty to determine optimal procedures for capturing just enough. With an empirical focus on archaeological and cultural heritage data, which stands out by its extreme heterogeneity and rapid accumulation due to the scale of ongoing development-led archaeological fieldwork, CAPTURE develops an in-depth understanding of how paradata is #1 created and #2 used at the moment, #3 elicits methods for capturing paradata on the basis of the findings of #1-2, #4 tests the new methods in field trials, and #5 synthesises the findings in a reference model to inform the capturing of paradata and enabling data-intensive research using heterogeneous research data stemming from diverse origins. "
Project acronym CEAD
Project Contextualizing Evidence for Action on Diabetes in low-resource Settings: A mixed-methods case study in Quito and Esmeraldas, Ecuador.
Researcher (PI) Lucy Anne Parker
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD MIGUEL HERNANDEZ DE ELCHE
Summary The relentless rise in diabetes is one of the greatest global health emergencies of the 21st century. The increase is most pronounced in low and middle income countries where today three quarters of people with diabetes live and over 80% of the deaths attributed to non-communicable diseases occur. In light of the wealth of knowledge already available about how to tackle the problem, most major international organizations call for the adoption healthy public policies and initiatives to strengthening health systems. However, implementation of recommended action remains limited in many settings. Most evidence comes from high-income settings and may generate recommendations that cannot be successfully implemented in other settings without careful consideration and contextualization. I propose here that this "know-do" gap can be reduced by revealing the barriers to implementing evidence-based recommendations, engaging local stakeholders in developing context-led innovations and developing a tool-kit for contextualizing and implementing diabetes recommendations in low-resource settings. I plan the research in two carefully selected settings in Ecuador, with mixed-methods combining quantitative epidemiological research and qualitative methodology to generate the rich and varied knowledge that is required to trigger policy action and/or changes in care models. Furthermore, I will engage patients, community members, health workers and decision makers in the process of knowledge generation, interpretation and use. The overarching objective is hence, to explore the process by which global recommendations can be translated into context-specific, evidence-informed action for diabetes prevention in low-resource settings. The findings will support the global endeavour to bridge the global "know-do" gap, one of the most important public health challenges this century and a great opportunity for strengthening health systems and achieving health equity.
The relentless rise in diabetes is one of the greatest global health emergencies of the 21st century. The increase is most pronounced in low and middle income countries where today three quarters of people with diabetes live and over 80% of the deaths attributed to non-communicable diseases occur. In light of the wealth of knowledge already available about how to tackle the problem, most major international organizations call for the adoption healthy public policies and initiatives to strengthening health systems. However, implementation of recommended action remains limited in many settings. Most evidence comes from high-income settings and may generate recommendations that cannot be successfully implemented in other settings without careful consideration and contextualization. I propose here that this "know-do" gap can be reduced by revealing the barriers to implementing evidence-based recommendations, engaging local stakeholders in developing context-led innovations and developing a tool-kit for contextualizing and implementing diabetes recommendations in low-resource settings. I plan the research in two carefully selected settings in Ecuador, with mixed-methods combining quantitative epidemiological research and qualitative methodology to generate the rich and varied knowledge that is required to trigger policy action and/or changes in care models. Furthermore, I will engage patients, community members, health workers and decision makers in the process of knowledge generation, interpretation and use. The overarching objective is hence, to explore the process by which global recommendations can be translated into context-specific, evidence-informed action for diabetes prevention in low-resource settings. The findings will support the global endeavour to bridge the global "know-do" gap, one of the most important public health challenges this century and a great opportunity for strengthening health systems and achieving health equity.
Project acronym CHROMOTOPE
Project The 19th century chromatic turn - CHROMOTOPE
Researcher (PI) Charlotte Ribeyrol
Host Institution (HI) SORBONNE UNIVERSITE
Summary CHROMOTOPE will offer the very first analysis of the changes that took place in attitudes to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the 'chromatic turn' of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. Britain's industrial supremacy during this period is often perceived through the darkening filter of coal pollution, and yet the industrial revolution transformed colour thanks to a number of innovations like the invention in 1856 of the first aniline dye. Colour thus became a major signifier of the modern, generating new discourses on its production and perception. This Victorian 'colour revolution', which has never been approached from a cross-disciplinary perspective, came to prominence during the 1862 International Exhibition – a forgotten, and yet key, chromatic event which forced poets and artists like Ruskin, Morris and Burges to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, they invited their contemporaries to learn from the 'sacred' colours of the past – a 'colour pedagogy' which later shaped the European arts and crafts movement. Building on a pioneering methodology, CHROMOTOPE will bring together literature, visual culture, the history of sciences and techniques and the chemistry of pigments and dyes, with high-impact outcomes, including one major exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, a thorough pigment analysis of Burges's Great Bookcase and the creation of an online database of 19th century texts on colour. This project will not only give invaluable insight into hitherto neglected aspects of 19th century European cultural history, it will also reveal the central role played by chromatic materiality in the intertwined artistic and literary practices of the period. This will in turn change the way the relationships between text and image, as well as the materiality of the text itself, may be envisaged in literary studies.
CHROMOTOPE will offer the very first analysis of the changes that took place in attitudes to colour in the 19th century, and notably how the 'chromatic turn' of the 1850s mapped out new ways of thinking about colour in literature, art, science and technology throughout Europe. Britain's industrial supremacy during this period is often perceived through the darkening filter of coal pollution, and yet the industrial revolution transformed colour thanks to a number of innovations like the invention in 1856 of the first aniline dye. Colour thus became a major signifier of the modern, generating new discourses on its production and perception. This Victorian 'colour revolution', which has never been approached from a cross-disciplinary perspective, came to prominence during the 1862 International Exhibition – a forgotten, and yet key, chromatic event which forced poets and artists like Ruskin, Morris and Burges to think anew about the materiality of colour. Rebelling against the bleakness of the industrial present, they invited their contemporaries to learn from the 'sacred' colours of the past – a 'colour pedagogy' which later shaped the European arts and crafts movement. Building on a pioneering methodology, CHROMOTOPE will bring together literature, visual culture, the history of sciences and techniques and the chemistry of pigments and dyes, with high-impact outcomes, including one major exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, a thorough pigment analysis of Burges's Great Bookcase and the creation of an online database of 19th century texts on colour. This project will not only give invaluable insight into hitherto neglected aspects of 19th century European cultural history, it will also reveal the central role played by chromatic materiality in the intertwined artistic and literary practices of the period. This will in turn change the way the relationships between text and image, as well as the materiality of the text itself, may be envisaged in literary studies.
Project acronym DEMOSERIES
Project Shaping Democratic Spaces: Security and TV Series
Researcher (PI) Sandra LAUGIER
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE PARIS I PANTHEON-SORBONNE
Summary In France, the UK, Germany, the US, and Israel, a growing number of films and television series are set 'behind the scenes' of democratic regimes faced with terrorist threats. These works reveal a moral state of the world. They may be analysed as 'mirrors' of society, or as ideological tools. But they can also be understood as new resources for the education, creativity, and perfectibility of their audiences; as the emergence of a form of 'soft power' that can serve as a resource for public policies and democratic conversation. Because of their format (weekly/seasonal regularity, home viewing) and the participatory qualities of the Internet (tweeting, sharing, liking, chat forums), series allow for a new form of education by expressing complex issues through narrative and characters. As a result, TV series are increasingly recognised in current research. However, their aesthetic potential for visualising ethical issues and their capacity at enabling a democratic empowerment of viewers has not yet been analysed ; nor their power for confronting cultural and social upheavals underway, and developing a collective inquiry into democratic values and human security. DEMOSERIES brings together a team of scholars of moral philosophy, film studies, digital media and cultural data, sociology, law and political science, to explore a corpus of TV 'security series' from conception to reception. Doing so requires a particularist ethics based on attention to multi-faceted situations, paired with qualitative methods (interviews with security experts, showrunners, viewers; analyses of images, tropes, words; ethnography of reception) and quantitative methods (tweets and web analytics). By elucidating how these series are conceived by their creators and audiences, DEMOSERIES thus aims to understand if and how they might play a crucial role in building the awareness necessary for the safety of individuals and societies, and in creating shared and shareable values in the EU and beyond.
In France, the UK, Germany, the US, and Israel, a growing number of films and television series are set 'behind the scenes' of democratic regimes faced with terrorist threats. These works reveal a moral state of the world. They may be analysed as 'mirrors' of society, or as ideological tools. But they can also be understood as new resources for the education, creativity, and perfectibility of their audiences; as the emergence of a form of 'soft power' that can serve as a resource for public policies and democratic conversation. Because of their format (weekly/seasonal regularity, home viewing) and the participatory qualities of the Internet (tweeting, sharing, liking, chat forums), series allow for a new form of education by expressing complex issues through narrative and characters. As a result, TV series are increasingly recognised in current research. However, their aesthetic potential for visualising ethical issues and their capacity at enabling a democratic empowerment of viewers has not yet been analysed ; nor their power for confronting cultural and social upheavals underway, and developing a collective inquiry into democratic values and human security. DEMOSERIES brings together a team of scholars of moral philosophy, film studies, digital media and cultural data, sociology, law and political science, to explore a corpus of TV 'security series' from conception to reception. Doing so requires a particularist ethics based on attention to multi-faceted situations, paired with qualitative methods (interviews with security experts, showrunners, viewers; analyses of images, tropes, words; ethnography of reception) and quantitative methods (tweets and web analytics). By elucidating how these series are conceived by their creators and audiences, DEMOSERIES thus aims to understand if and how they might play a crucial role in building the awareness necessary for the safety of individuals and societies, and in creating shared and shareable values in the EU and beyond.
Project acronym DYMOLAMO
Project Dynamic Modeling of Labor Market Mobility and Human Capital Accumulation
Researcher (PI) Joan LLULL CABRER
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACIÓ MARKETS, ORGANIZATIONS AND VOTES IN ECONOMICS
Summary In today's globalized world, labor mobility is at the core of the political debate and a centerpiece for economic policy. The design of migration policies, such as selective, skill-biased, immigration policies, policies to encourage the integration of immigrants, or ones that facilitate geographical mobility to increase labor market opportunities of disadvantaged workers, requires a good understanding of a more fundamental issue: understanding the role of internal migration and immigration in shaping the career paths and human capital accumulation of workers. This project aims at providing a coherent analysis that allows us to understand the interactions between labor mobility and human capital accumulation, and their implications for economic policy design. This project focuses on three main issues: labor mobility, labor market effects of immigration, and the interaction between the two. Our questions are: (a) What are the role of temporary and permanent contracts in shaping career paths and geographic mobility of workers? (b) Does the forgone human capital accumulation during a recession produce a lost generation? Is this alleviated by geographical mobility? (c) What is the role of geographical and occupational mobility in spreading or containing the effects of technological progress on wage inequality? (d) To what extent selective immigration policies maximize native workers' prospects and wellbeing? (e) How can we increase degree of assimilation of immigrants? To address these questions, we will develop dynamic equilibrium models that explicitly characterize human capital accumulation decisions of workers and how these decisions interact with migration. Our proposed models will introduce rich labor market structures and a variety of economic shocks. They will require the implementation of novel estimation methods, which we will also develop. The estimated models will be used to evaluate and design key economic policies for the labor market.
In today's globalized world, labor mobility is at the core of the political debate and a centerpiece for economic policy. The design of migration policies, such as selective, skill-biased, immigration policies, policies to encourage the integration of immigrants, or ones that facilitate geographical mobility to increase labor market opportunities of disadvantaged workers, requires a good understanding of a more fundamental issue: understanding the role of internal migration and immigration in shaping the career paths and human capital accumulation of workers. This project aims at providing a coherent analysis that allows us to understand the interactions between labor mobility and human capital accumulation, and their implications for economic policy design. This project focuses on three main issues: labor mobility, labor market effects of immigration, and the interaction between the two. Our questions are: (a) What are the role of temporary and permanent contracts in shaping career paths and geographic mobility of workers? (b) Does the forgone human capital accumulation during a recession produce a lost generation? Is this alleviated by geographical mobility? (c) What is the role of geographical and occupational mobility in spreading or containing the effects of technological progress on wage inequality? (d) To what extent selective immigration policies maximize native workers' prospects and wellbeing? (e) How can we increase degree of assimilation of immigrants? To address these questions, we will develop dynamic equilibrium models that explicitly characterize human capital accumulation decisions of workers and how these decisions interact with migration. Our proposed models will introduce rich labor market structures and a variety of economic shocks. They will require the implementation of novel estimation methods, which we will also develop. The estimated models will be used to evaluate and design key economic policies for the labor market.
Project acronym e-NeuroPharma
Project Electronic Neuropharmacology
Researcher (PI) Rolf Magnus BERGGREN
Summary As the population ages, neurodegenerative diseases (ND) will have a devastating impact on individuals and society. Despite enormous research efforts there is still no cure for these diseases, only care! The origin of ND is hugely complex, spanning from the molecular level to systemic processes, causing malfunctioning of signalling in the central nervous system (CNS). This signalling includes the coupled processing of biochemical and electrical signals, however current approaches for symptomatic- and disease modifying treatments are all based on biochemical approaches, alone. Organic bioelectronics has arisen as a promising technology providing signal translation, as sensors and modulators, across the biology-technology interface; especially, it has proven unique in neuronal applications. There is great opportunity with organic bioelectronics since it can complement biochemical pharmacology to enable a twinned electric-biochemical therapy for ND and neurological disorders. However, this technology is traditionally manufactured on stand-alone substrates. Even though organic bioelectronics has been manufactured on flexible and soft carriers in the past, current technology consume space and volume, that when applied to CNS, rule out close proximity and amalgamation between the bioelectronics technology and CNS components – features that are needed in order to reach high therapeutic efficacy. e-NeuroPharma includes development of innovative organic bioelectronics, that can be in-vivo-manufactured within the brain. The overall aim is to evaluate and develop electrodes, delivery devices and sensors that enable a twinned biochemical-electric therapy approach to combat ND and other neurological disorders. e-NeuroPharma will focus on the development of materials that can cross the blood-brain-barrier, that self-organize and -polymerize along CNS components, and that record and regulate relevant electrical, electrochemical and physical parameters relevant to ND and disorders
As the population ages, neurodegenerative diseases (ND) will have a devastating impact on individuals and society. Despite enormous research efforts there is still no cure for these diseases, only care! The origin of ND is hugely complex, spanning from the molecular level to systemic processes, causing malfunctioning of signalling in the central nervous system (CNS). This signalling includes the coupled processing of biochemical and electrical signals, however current approaches for symptomatic- and disease modifying treatments are all based on biochemical approaches, alone. Organic bioelectronics has arisen as a promising technology providing signal translation, as sensors and modulators, across the biology-technology interface; especially, it has proven unique in neuronal applications. There is great opportunity with organic bioelectronics since it can complement biochemical pharmacology to enable a twinned electric-biochemical therapy for ND and neurological disorders. However, this technology is traditionally manufactured on stand-alone substrates. Even though organic bioelectronics has been manufactured on flexible and soft carriers in the past, current technology consume space and volume, that when applied to CNS, rule out close proximity and amalgamation between the bioelectronics technology and CNS components – features that are needed in order to reach high therapeutic efficacy. e-NeuroPharma includes development of innovative organic bioelectronics, that can be in-vivo-manufactured within the brain. The overall aim is to evaluate and develop electrodes, delivery devices and sensors that enable a twinned biochemical-electric therapy approach to combat ND and other neurological disorders. e-NeuroPharma will focus on the development of materials that can cross the blood-brain-barrier, that self-organize and -polymerize along CNS components, and that record and regulate relevant electrical, electrochemical and physical parameters relevant to ND and disorders
Project acronym EMAGIN2D
Project Electrical control of magnetism in multiferroic 2D materials
Researcher (PI) Efrén NAVARRO-MORATALLA
Summary The avenue of magnetism in the field of 2D materials has marked the ultimate milestone in the discovery of one-atom-thick classes of materials. Bulk ferromagnets and antiferomagnets now have their 2D counterparts and are at one's provision for the realization of imagination-limited artificial layered structures. At the same time, this awaited breakthrough has brought in new conundrums that demand investigation. This project is driven by the exploration of the limits of van der Waals 2D magnets from both a fundamental physics and a materials science and devices point of view. Firstly, it addresses fundamental key questions regarding spin order at the true 2D limit, which remain a mystery to the date. Here, the great variety of magnetic anisotropies exhibited by the transition metal halides will shed new light to the subtle equilibrium of interactions in few-layer magnets. Secondly, the project will invoke the control of the magnetic ground states and spin textures in true 2D magnets via electrical manipulation. Electric fields will assist in tuning the magnetic coupling and critical behaviour and the spatial manipulation of spin topologies. Anticipated breakthroughs will be the enhancement of the critical temperature in semiconducting single layer magnets towards room temperature 2D magnetism and the realization of single-layer multiferroic 2D materials. Thirdly, the field effect electrical control of magnetism in designer van der Waals and lateral heterostructures will allow for an enhanced magneto-electric coupling, yielding functional devices for effective charge-to-spin transduction that hold promise in spintronics. The proposal will achieve success by an integral approach to research, through the combination of the study of solid-state growth techniques together with the implementation of state-of-the-art deterministic manipulation of 2D materials in inert conditions and the use high resolution magnetism probes to test hybrid magnetic-optoelectronic devices.
The avenue of magnetism in the field of 2D materials has marked the ultimate milestone in the discovery of one-atom-thick classes of materials. Bulk ferromagnets and antiferomagnets now have their 2D counterparts and are at one's provision for the realization of imagination-limited artificial layered structures. At the same time, this awaited breakthrough has brought in new conundrums that demand investigation. This project is driven by the exploration of the limits of van der Waals 2D magnets from both a fundamental physics and a materials science and devices point of view. Firstly, it addresses fundamental key questions regarding spin order at the true 2D limit, which remain a mystery to the date. Here, the great variety of magnetic anisotropies exhibited by the transition metal halides will shed new light to the subtle equilibrium of interactions in few-layer magnets. Secondly, the project will invoke the control of the magnetic ground states and spin textures in true 2D magnets via electrical manipulation. Electric fields will assist in tuning the magnetic coupling and critical behaviour and the spatial manipulation of spin topologies. Anticipated breakthroughs will be the enhancement of the critical temperature in semiconducting single layer magnets towards room temperature 2D magnetism and the realization of single-layer multiferroic 2D materials. Thirdly, the field effect electrical control of magnetism in designer van der Waals and lateral heterostructures will allow for an enhanced magneto-electric coupling, yielding functional devices for effective charge-to-spin transduction that hold promise in spintronics. The proposal will achieve success by an integral approach to research, through the combination of the study of solid-state growth techniques together with the implementation of state-of-the-art deterministic manipulation of 2D materials in inert conditions and the use high resolution magnetism probes to test hybrid magnetic-optoelectronic devices.
Project acronym EXTREME
Project The Rise and Fall of Populism and Extremism
Researcher (PI) Maria PETROVA
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Summary In the recent years in advanced democracies there has been a wave of electoral successes of populist politicians supporting extreme messages. Is populism caused by negative economic shocks? If so, what are the mechanisms? What explains heterogeneity in responses to such shocks? In this project, I will test empirically if personal experiences, information environment, and their interaction with aggregate economic shocks shape people's political decisions. The project consists of three parts. First, I will study how personal employment histories, potentially affected by globalization and technological shocks, individual predispositions, and information environment influenced voting for Trump. I will use a unique database of more than 40 million resumes for the period 2010-2016, the largest available repository of resumes of job-seekers in the US, which was not previously used in academic research, and match it with zipcode-level economic and voting variables. Second, I will study how negative social experiences during the formative years affect subsequent labor market outcomes, antisocial behavior, and the support of populist agenda. I will examine how corporal punishment in schools in UK affected subsequent educational attainment, employment, antisocial behavior, and voting for UKIP and Brexit. I will digitize archival records on regulations and practice of corporal punishment in different educational authorities in the UK during 1970-80s, combining it with contemporary outcomes. Third, I will examine what makes people actively resist extremist regimes even when it is associated with high personal costs. I will study a historical example of resistance to Nazi regime in Germany during the WWII, which provides unique methodological opportunity to study determinants of resistance to extremism in a high stake environment. I will use a self-collected dataset on treason cases to measure resistance, combining it with data on bombing and exposure to foreign propaganda.
In the recent years in advanced democracies there has been a wave of electoral successes of populist politicians supporting extreme messages. Is populism caused by negative economic shocks? If so, what are the mechanisms? What explains heterogeneity in responses to such shocks? In this project, I will test empirically if personal experiences, information environment, and their interaction with aggregate economic shocks shape people's political decisions. The project consists of three parts. First, I will study how personal employment histories, potentially affected by globalization and technological shocks, individual predispositions, and information environment influenced voting for Trump. I will use a unique database of more than 40 million resumes for the period 2010-2016, the largest available repository of resumes of job-seekers in the US, which was not previously used in academic research, and match it with zipcode-level economic and voting variables. Second, I will study how negative social experiences during the formative years affect subsequent labor market outcomes, antisocial behavior, and the support of populist agenda. I will examine how corporal punishment in schools in UK affected subsequent educational attainment, employment, antisocial behavior, and voting for UKIP and Brexit. I will digitize archival records on regulations and practice of corporal punishment in different educational authorities in the UK during 1970-80s, combining it with contemporary outcomes. Third, I will examine what makes people actively resist extremist regimes even when it is associated with high personal costs. I will study a historical example of resistance to Nazi regime in Germany during the WWII, which provides unique methodological opportunity to study determinants of resistance to extremism in a high stake environment. I will use a self-collected dataset on treason cases to measure resistance, combining it with data on bombing and exposure to foreign propaganda.
Project acronym Foldmetcat
Project Bioinspired Catalytic Metallofoldamers
Researcher (PI) ANTONIO M ECHAVARREN PABLOS
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACIO PRIVADA INSTITUT CATALA D'INVESTIGACIO QUIMICA
Summary Inspired by mimicking the characteristics of terpenoid cyclase enzymes, the goal of this proposal is to design new types of catalysts containing electrophilic transition metal centers that could simultaneously fold and activate polyunsaturated substrates promoting non-inherent cyclization modes. Our goal is unprecedented, although it is rooted on fundamental organometallic chemistry, in particular, on the known activation of polyunsaturated substrates by highly electrophilic transition metals. These unconventional cyclizations cascades challenge the paradigm that the intrinsic reactivity of the substrate is the relevant factor in carbocation-initiated processes and would provide access to large carbocyclic skeletons such as those present in taxol and ophiobolin enantioselectively in a single step under catalytic conditions. Although the initial work will be carried out with gold catalysts, a major goal of this research is to develop other general-purpose efficient chiral electrophilic catalysts based on zinc. To attain our goal, we will study more simple catalysts to delineate the factors that control the folding of polyenynes and polyenes. Thus, we will prepare new series of C2-chiral catalysts in which the stereogenic elements are close to the reaction site. Related C2-chiral systems will be generated by supramolecular hydrogen-bond pairing. A similar chiral arrangement could also be achieved by an intramolecular chiral anion translocation from the metal to a distant hydrogen-bond donor site. In addition, we will explore larger systems based on structurally well-defined metallic clusters to generate highly electrophilic chiral reactive sites. The folding and activation of polyunsaturated substrates will be studied first with a series of catalytic prototypes based on digold or heterobimetallic complexes with N-heterocyclic carbenes, diphosphines, mixed ligands of these types, as well as resorcinarene-phosphonite cavitant ligands.
Inspired by mimicking the characteristics of terpenoid cyclase enzymes, the goal of this proposal is to design new types of catalysts containing electrophilic transition metal centers that could simultaneously fold and activate polyunsaturated substrates promoting non-inherent cyclization modes. Our goal is unprecedented, although it is rooted on fundamental organometallic chemistry, in particular, on the known activation of polyunsaturated substrates by highly electrophilic transition metals. These unconventional cyclizations cascades challenge the paradigm that the intrinsic reactivity of the substrate is the relevant factor in carbocation-initiated processes and would provide access to large carbocyclic skeletons such as those present in taxol and ophiobolin enantioselectively in a single step under catalytic conditions. Although the initial work will be carried out with gold catalysts, a major goal of this research is to develop other general-purpose efficient chiral electrophilic catalysts based on zinc. To attain our goal, we will study more simple catalysts to delineate the factors that control the folding of polyenynes and polyenes. Thus, we will prepare new series of C2-chiral catalysts in which the stereogenic elements are close to the reaction site. Related C2-chiral systems will be generated by supramolecular hydrogen-bond pairing. A similar chiral arrangement could also be achieved by an intramolecular chiral anion translocation from the metal to a distant hydrogen-bond donor site. In addition, we will explore larger systems based on structurally well-defined metallic clusters to generate highly electrophilic chiral reactive sites. The folding and activation of polyunsaturated substrates will be studied first with a series of catalytic prototypes based on digold or heterobimetallic complexes with N-heterocyclic carbenes, diphosphines, mixed ligands of these types, as well as resorcinarene-phosphonite cavitant ligands.
Project acronym HEALFAM
Project The effects of unemployment on health of family members
Researcher (PI) Anna BARANOWSKA-RATAJ
Host Institution (HI) UMEA UNIVERSITET
Summary Previous research has investigated the relationship between unemployment and health from a perspective of an isolated individual. HEALFAM takes a novel approach and examines how transition to unemployment triggers diffusion of ill mental and physical health within families. It investigates how becoming unemployed affects health outcomes of partners, children and elderly parents of the unemployed and whether the magnitudes of these influences differ across families and societies. Thus, instead of viewing the unemployed as functioning in isolation, HEALFAM assesses the consequences of unemployment for family members taking a multi-actor perspective and international comparative approach. Guided by the life course theoretical framework, which views health and well-being as a process rather than a state and calls for considering interrelatedness of individuals, HEALFAM employs longitudinal data that provide information about multiple members of families. In order to analyse these datasets, HEALFAM uses longitudinal dyadic data analysis techniques as well as multilevel models for longitudinal data. HEALFAM aims to open a new frontline of research on health and wellbeing from a life course perspective. It benefits from my knowledge on three interrelated social phenomena: (1) the role of labour market career and experiences of unemployment (2) family structure and intra-family resources (3) social antecedents of health and wellbeing among family members. It draws on high quality register and panel survey data as well as the expertise at the interdisciplinary research centres that I am connected to at Umeå University. Through international collaborations, it brings together experts in multiple disciplines carrying out research taking a life course perspective.
Previous research has investigated the relationship between unemployment and health from a perspective of an isolated individual. HEALFAM takes a novel approach and examines how transition to unemployment triggers diffusion of ill mental and physical health within families. It investigates how becoming unemployed affects health outcomes of partners, children and elderly parents of the unemployed and whether the magnitudes of these influences differ across families and societies. Thus, instead of viewing the unemployed as functioning in isolation, HEALFAM assesses the consequences of unemployment for family members taking a multi-actor perspective and international comparative approach. Guided by the life course theoretical framework, which views health and well-being as a process rather than a state and calls for considering interrelatedness of individuals, HEALFAM employs longitudinal data that provide information about multiple members of families. In order to analyse these datasets, HEALFAM uses longitudinal dyadic data analysis techniques as well as multilevel models for longitudinal data. HEALFAM aims to open a new frontline of research on health and wellbeing from a life course perspective. It benefits from my knowledge on three interrelated social phenomena: (1) the role of labour market career and experiences of unemployment (2) family structure and intra-family resources (3) social antecedents of health and wellbeing among family members. It draws on high quality register and panel survey data as well as the expertise at the interdisciplinary research centres that I am connected to at Umeå University. Through international collaborations, it brings together experts in multiple disciplines carrying out research taking a life course perspective.
Project acronym InOutBioLight
Project Advanced biohybrid lighting and photovoltaic devices
Researcher (PI) Rubén Darío COSTA
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACION IMDEA MATERIALES
Summary InOutBioLight aims to design multifunctional rubbers with enhanced mechanical, thermal, color-converting, and light-guiding features towards advanced biohybrid lighting and photovoltaic technologies. The latter are placed at the forefront of the EU efforts for low-cost production and efficient consumption of electricity, a critical issue for a sustainable development. In this context, the use of biomolecules as functional components in lighting and photovoltaic devices is still a challenge, as they quickly denature under storage and device operation conditions. This paradigm has changed using an innovative rubber-like material, in which the biofunctionality is long preserved. As a proof-of-concept, color down-converting rubbers based on fluorescent proteins were used to design the first biohybrid white light-emitting diode (bio-HWLED). To develop a new generation of biohybrid devices, InOutBioLight will address the following critical issues, namely i) the nature of the protein-matrix stabilization, ii) how to enhance the thermal/mechanical features, iii) how to design multifunctional rubbers, iv) how to mimic natural patterns for light-guiding, and v) how to expand the technological use of the rubber approach. To achieve these goals, InOutBioLight involves comprehensive spectroscopic, microscopic, and mechanical studies to investigate the protein-matrix interaction using new polymer matrices, additives, and protein-based nanoparticles. In addition, the mechanical, thermal, and light-coupling features will be enhanced using structural biocompounds and reproducing biomorphic patterns. As such, InOutBioLight offers three major advances: i) a thorough scientific basis for the rubber approach, ii) a significant thrust of the emerging bio-HWLEDs, and iii) innovative breakthroughs beyond state-of-the-art biohybrid solar cells.
InOutBioLight aims to design multifunctional rubbers with enhanced mechanical, thermal, color-converting, and light-guiding features towards advanced biohybrid lighting and photovoltaic technologies. The latter are placed at the forefront of the EU efforts for low-cost production and efficient consumption of electricity, a critical issue for a sustainable development. In this context, the use of biomolecules as functional components in lighting and photovoltaic devices is still a challenge, as they quickly denature under storage and device operation conditions. This paradigm has changed using an innovative rubber-like material, in which the biofunctionality is long preserved. As a proof-of-concept, color down-converting rubbers based on fluorescent proteins were used to design the first biohybrid white light-emitting diode (bio-HWLED). To develop a new generation of biohybrid devices, InOutBioLight will address the following critical issues, namely i) the nature of the protein-matrix stabilization, ii) how to enhance the thermal/mechanical features, iii) how to design multifunctional rubbers, iv) how to mimic natural patterns for light-guiding, and v) how to expand the technological use of the rubber approach. To achieve these goals, InOutBioLight involves comprehensive spectroscopic, microscopic, and mechanical studies to investigate the protein-matrix interaction using new polymer matrices, additives, and protein-based nanoparticles. In addition, the mechanical, thermal, and light-coupling features will be enhanced using structural biocompounds and reproducing biomorphic patterns. As such, InOutBioLight offers three major advances: i) a thorough scientific basis for the rubber approach, ii) a significant thrust of the emerging bio-HWLEDs, and iii) innovative breakthroughs beyond state-of-the-art biohybrid solar cells.
Project acronym J-INNOVATECH
Project Beyond Eureka: The Foundations of Japan's Industrialization, 1800-1885
Researcher (PI) Aleksandra Kobiljski
Summary Beyond Eureka seeks to challenge current understanding of how Japan became a global industrial power along with the model of how innovation takes place. Japan was the first Asian nation to industrialize and in a space of several decades went from a relatively isolated agrarian economy to an industrialized nation. The key assumption of this project is that a grasp of the salient features of the technological landscape during the pivotal period between 1800 and 1885 is an important tool for understanding Japan's industrialization. To date, this transitional period has been widely acknowledged as crucial for later development but remains empirically poorly understood. Recognizing the complexity of causation, this project seeks to use technology as a site for forging a more nuanced understanding of the emergence of Asia's first industrial power. By bringing technological change into historical focus, the project challenges the notion of innovation as necessarily a matter of disruption. In Japanese, for example, there is no conceptual or cultural equivalent to Eureka, to stand for a unique, distinct moment of individual ingenuity. If we choose the Eureka moment to epitomize the conception of innovation, early examples in Japanese industry are few and far between. Instead, a small but growing body of research shows that a sophisticated and patient examination of archives can reveal innovative processes in place of what historiography has described as borrowing, imitation or adaptation. This project seeks to foreground innovation as a long-term process of accumulation in which the new only could only work by taking root and embedding itself within the old, not by replacing it and starting from scratch. The team, comprising the PI and five postdoctoral fellows, will combine expertise and previously unexamined archives to bring depth and nuance to not only to the specific case of Japanese industrialization, but also more broadly of innovative processes in human past.
Beyond Eureka seeks to challenge current understanding of how Japan became a global industrial power along with the model of how innovation takes place. Japan was the first Asian nation to industrialize and in a space of several decades went from a relatively isolated agrarian economy to an industrialized nation. The key assumption of this project is that a grasp of the salient features of the technological landscape during the pivotal period between 1800 and 1885 is an important tool for understanding Japan's industrialization. To date, this transitional period has been widely acknowledged as crucial for later development but remains empirically poorly understood. Recognizing the complexity of causation, this project seeks to use technology as a site for forging a more nuanced understanding of the emergence of Asia's first industrial power. By bringing technological change into historical focus, the project challenges the notion of innovation as necessarily a matter of disruption. In Japanese, for example, there is no conceptual or cultural equivalent to Eureka, to stand for a unique, distinct moment of individual ingenuity. If we choose the Eureka moment to epitomize the conception of innovation, early examples in Japanese industry are few and far between. Instead, a small but growing body of research shows that a sophisticated and patient examination of archives can reveal innovative processes in place of what historiography has described as borrowing, imitation or adaptation. This project seeks to foreground innovation as a long-term process of accumulation in which the new only could only work by taking root and embedding itself within the old, not by replacing it and starting from scratch. The team, comprising the PI and five postdoctoral fellows, will combine expertise and previously unexamined archives to bring depth and nuance to not only to the specific case of Japanese industrialization, but also more broadly of innovative processes in human past.
Project acronym LArcHer
Project Breaking barriers between Science and Heritage approaches to Levantine Rock Art through Archaeology, Heritage Science and IT
Researcher (PI) Ines DOMINGO SANZ
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Summary LArcHer project aims at pioneering a new and more comprehensive way of understanding one of Europe's most extraordinary bodies of prehistoric art, awarded Unesco World Heritage status in 1998: Levantine rock art (LRA). The ground-breaking nature of the project relies on combining a multidisciplinary (Archaeology, Heritage Science and IT) and multiscale approach (from microanalysis to landscape perspectives) to gain a holistic view of this art. It also aims at closing existing gaps between science and heritage mainstreams, to better understand the values and threats affecting this tradition and bring about a change in the way we understand, care, use and manage this millenary legacy. LArcHer aims are: a) Use cross-disciplinary knowledge and methods to redefine LRA (i.e. new dating techniques to refine chronology, new analytical methods to understand the creative process); b) Use LRA as a proxy to raise new questions of global interest on the evolution of creative thinking and human cognition (i.e. the timing and driving forces behind the birth of anthropocentrism and visual narratives in the history of prehistoric art); c) Develop new research agendas to set off complementary goals between science and heritage and define best practices for open air rock art conservation and management. Spread across Mediterranean Iberia, LRA is the only European body of figurative art dominated by humans engaged in dynamic narratives of hunting, violence, warfare, dances and so forth. These scenes are unique to explore past social dynamics, human behaviour and cultural practices. As such, it is the only body of European rock art with potential to answer some of the new questions raised by LArcHer. Key to LArcHer are the systematic recording and analysis of the art through 3D Digital technologies, management and data storage systems, GIS, physicochemical analysis of pigments and bedrock and comparative analysis with other major bodies of art with equivalent developments.
LArcHer project aims at pioneering a new and more comprehensive way of understanding one of Europe's most extraordinary bodies of prehistoric art, awarded Unesco World Heritage status in 1998: Levantine rock art (LRA). The ground-breaking nature of the project relies on combining a multidisciplinary (Archaeology, Heritage Science and IT) and multiscale approach (from microanalysis to landscape perspectives) to gain a holistic view of this art. It also aims at closing existing gaps between science and heritage mainstreams, to better understand the values and threats affecting this tradition and bring about a change in the way we understand, care, use and manage this millenary legacy. LArcHer aims are: a) Use cross-disciplinary knowledge and methods to redefine LRA (i.e. new dating techniques to refine chronology, new analytical methods to understand the creative process); b) Use LRA as a proxy to raise new questions of global interest on the evolution of creative thinking and human cognition (i.e. the timing and driving forces behind the birth of anthropocentrism and visual narratives in the history of prehistoric art); c) Develop new research agendas to set off complementary goals between science and heritage and define best practices for open air rock art conservation and management. Spread across Mediterranean Iberia, LRA is the only European body of figurative art dominated by humans engaged in dynamic narratives of hunting, violence, warfare, dances and so forth. These scenes are unique to explore past social dynamics, human behaviour and cultural practices. As such, it is the only body of European rock art with potential to answer some of the new questions raised by LArcHer. Key to LArcHer are the systematic recording and analysis of the art through 3D Digital technologies, management and data storage systems, GIS, physicochemical analysis of pigments and bedrock and comparative analysis with other major bodies of art with equivalent developments.
Project acronym LUBARTWORLD
Project Migration and Holocaust: Transnational Trajectories of Lubartow Jews Across the World (1920s-1950s)
Researcher (PI) Claire ZALC
Summary Migrations are a central issue of the modern period, particularly since World War One. At the same time, the implementation of a systematic policy of categorization, discrimination, persecution, and extermination of European Jews is one of the major events of the first half of the 20th century. How should the relations between these two histories be understood? The goal of this project is to explore the links between migration and the Holocaust from a transnational microhistorical perspective. To this end, it will implement an original method: producing the collective biography of the Jewish inhabitants from the Polish shtetl of Lubartow from the 1920s to the 1950s, whether they emigrated or stayed behind, whether they were exterminated or survived the Holocaust. This research will, for the first time, reconstruct the trajectories of a group of persecution victims across the different places they travelled through, which is possible today thanks to new access to an impressive body of archives and the affordances of the digital humanities. The methodological and archival challenge is immense. This transnational collective biography explores the directions of individual journeys, the diversity of fates, as well as the connections between those who remained and those who left. By doing so, the LUBARTWORLD project addresses some prominent theoretical issues: the dynamics of a social structure drawn into a major disruption, the variability of social categorizations in diverse national and political contexts, and the complex making of identities. From an epistemological point of view, it will develop innovative ways of reconstructing and analyzing life-course information. Although the project begins with Lubartow, it leads to the world in its globality. Lubartow residents crisscrossed the globe, and their trajectories outline and embody in their own way the upheavals of Europe's relations with the world before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Migrations are a central issue of the modern period, particularly since World War One. At the same time, the implementation of a systematic policy of categorization, discrimination, persecution, and extermination of European Jews is one of the major events of the first half of the 20th century. How should the relations between these two histories be understood? The goal of this project is to explore the links between migration and the Holocaust from a transnational microhistorical perspective. To this end, it will implement an original method: producing the collective biography of the Jewish inhabitants from the Polish shtetl of Lubartow from the 1920s to the 1950s, whether they emigrated or stayed behind, whether they were exterminated or survived the Holocaust. This research will, for the first time, reconstruct the trajectories of a group of persecution victims across the different places they travelled through, which is possible today thanks to new access to an impressive body of archives and the affordances of the digital humanities. The methodological and archival challenge is immense. This transnational collective biography explores the directions of individual journeys, the diversity of fates, as well as the connections between those who remained and those who left. By doing so, the LUBARTWORLD project addresses some prominent theoretical issues: the dynamics of a social structure drawn into a major disruption, the variability of social categorizations in diverse national and political contexts, and the complex making of identities. From an epistemological point of view, it will develop innovative ways of reconstructing and analyzing life-course information. Although the project begins with Lubartow, it leads to the world in its globality. Lubartow residents crisscrossed the globe, and their trajectories outline and embody in their own way the upheavals of Europe's relations with the world before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Project acronym MapModern
Project Social Networks of the Past: Mapping Hispanic and Lusophone Literary Modernity, 1898-1959
Researcher (PI) Diana Roig Sanz
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACIO PER A LA UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
Summary Data mining and big data approaches are changing the ways in which we create knowledge, access information and preserve our cultural heritage. This research applies cutting-edge technology to analyse a neglected aspect of European and non-European social and cultural life of the 20th century: the impact of Hispanic and Lusophone literary networks and cultural mediators in international modernity between 1898 and 1959. The project pursues three central goals: 1) to retrieve the lost history of Iberoamerican mediators in modernist intercultural and multilingual networks and reappraise their role; 2) to narrow the knowledge divide in terms of access and production in the Iberoamerican field by generating and making freely available new and reliable data that addresses the lack of documented cultural heritage, and 3) to offer an innovative and reproducible model that can be applied across periods, languages, and disciplines to analyse cross-border phenomena, under-examined mediators and networks and overshadowed geographical scales in their relations to the wider world. These goals will be achieved by a twofold methodology: i) an open and collaborative research tool providing a data source for quantitative and qualitative analysis on Iberoamerican mediators, and ii) four subprojects on key cultural transformation processes distinctive of modern societies (the institutionalization of Iberoamerican cultures, the rise of translated literature in key Iberoamerican modernist journals, the position of Iberoamerican women in the cultural field, and the role of Iberoamerican mediators in new forms of mass media). By combining computational methods, cultural, literary history, translation, sociology, gender and media studies, I will lead an interdisciplinary team of 6 researchers that will fill the gap in modernist studies and will offer an original, reproducible and empirically tested method for studying social human interaction within a global, cultural and decentred approach
Data mining and big data approaches are changing the ways in which we create knowledge, access information and preserve our cultural heritage. This research applies cutting-edge technology to analyse a neglected aspect of European and non-European social and cultural life of the 20th century: the impact of Hispanic and Lusophone literary networks and cultural mediators in international modernity between 1898 and 1959. The project pursues three central goals: 1) to retrieve the lost history of Iberoamerican mediators in modernist intercultural and multilingual networks and reappraise their role; 2) to narrow the knowledge divide in terms of access and production in the Iberoamerican field by generating and making freely available new and reliable data that addresses the lack of documented cultural heritage, and 3) to offer an innovative and reproducible model that can be applied across periods, languages, and disciplines to analyse cross-border phenomena, under-examined mediators and networks and overshadowed geographical scales in their relations to the wider world. These goals will be achieved by a twofold methodology: i) an open and collaborative research tool providing a data source for quantitative and qualitative analysis on Iberoamerican mediators, and ii) four subprojects on key cultural transformation processes distinctive of modern societies (the institutionalization of Iberoamerican cultures, the rise of translated literature in key Iberoamerican modernist journals, the position of Iberoamerican women in the cultural field, and the role of Iberoamerican mediators in new forms of mass media). By combining computational methods, cultural, literary history, translation, sociology, gender and media studies, I will lead an interdisciplinary team of 6 researchers that will fill the gap in modernist studies and will offer an original, reproducible and empirically tested method for studying social human interaction within a global, cultural and decentred approach
Project acronym MOF-reactors
Project Metal-Organic Frameworks as Chemical Reactors for the Synthesis of Well-Defined Sub-Nanometer Metal Clusters
Researcher (PI) Emilio PARDO
Summary Humankind advancement is connected to the use and development of metal forms. Recent works have unveiled exceptional properties –such as luminescence, biocompatibility, antitumoral activity or a superlative catalytic activity– for small aggregations of metal atoms, so–called sub–nanometer metal clusters (SNMCs). Despite this importance, the gram-scale synthesis of structurally and electronically well–defined SNMCs is still far from being a reality. The present proposal situates at the centre of such weakness and aims at making a breakthrough step-change on the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as chemical reactors for the in–situ synthesis of stable ligand-free SNMCs with such unique properties. This challenging synthetic strategy, which is assisted by striking published and inedited preliminary results, has solid foundations. Firstly, the design and large-scale preparation of cheap and novel families of highly robust and crystalline MOFs with tailor-made functional channels to be used as chemical reactors. Secondly, the application of solid-state post-synthetic methods to drive the multigram-scale preparation of unique ligand-free homo- and heterometallic SNMCs, which are, in the best-case scenario, very difficult to be obtained and stabilised outside the channels. Last but not least, single-crystal X-Ray diffraction will be used as the definitive tool for the characterisation, at the atomic level, of such ultrasmall species offering unprecedented snapshots about their real structures and formation mechanisms. The ultimate goal will be upscaling this synthetic strategy aiming at the large-scale fabrication of SNMCs and their industrial application will be then evaluated. A successful achievement of all the aforementioned objectives of this ground-breaking project would open new routes for the use of MOFs as chemical reactors to manufacture, at competitive prices, MOF-driven, structurally and electronically well–defined, ligand–free SNMCs in a multigram-scale.
Humankind advancement is connected to the use and development of metal forms. Recent works have unveiled exceptional properties –such as luminescence, biocompatibility, antitumoral activity or a superlative catalytic activity– for small aggregations of metal atoms, so–called sub–nanometer metal clusters (SNMCs). Despite this importance, the gram-scale synthesis of structurally and electronically well–defined SNMCs is still far from being a reality. The present proposal situates at the centre of such weakness and aims at making a breakthrough step-change on the use of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as chemical reactors for the in–situ synthesis of stable ligand-free SNMCs with such unique properties. This challenging synthetic strategy, which is assisted by striking published and inedited preliminary results, has solid foundations. Firstly, the design and large-scale preparation of cheap and novel families of highly robust and crystalline MOFs with tailor-made functional channels to be used as chemical reactors. Secondly, the application of solid-state post-synthetic methods to drive the multigram-scale preparation of unique ligand-free homo- and heterometallic SNMCs, which are, in the best-case scenario, very difficult to be obtained and stabilised outside the channels. Last but not least, single-crystal X-Ray diffraction will be used as the definitive tool for the characterisation, at the atomic level, of such ultrasmall species offering unprecedented snapshots about their real structures and formation mechanisms. The ultimate goal will be upscaling this synthetic strategy aiming at the large-scale fabrication of SNMCs and their industrial application will be then evaluated. A successful achievement of all the aforementioned objectives of this ground-breaking project would open new routes for the use of MOFs as chemical reactors to manufacture, at competitive prices, MOF-driven, structurally and electronically well–defined, ligand–free SNMCs in a multigram-scale.
Project acronym MULTIPALEOIBERIA
Project Population dynamics and cultural adaptations of the last Neandertals and first Modern humans in inland Iberia: a multi-proxy investigation
Researcher (PI) Manuel ALCARAZ-CASTAÑO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD DE ALCALA
Summary The relations between cultural developments and environmental change among hunter-gatherers are crucial for studying population dynamics during the last glaciation (110,000–11,700 years ago). However, proposing solid interpretations on how climate and environment variability affected the social and techno-economic organisation of hominins, requires robust geoarchaeological, chronological, and palaeoecological evidence. In the Iberian Peninsula, a key area for this period due to its geographic position and ecological variability, models on these topics are biased by the poor quality of available evidence for its interior lands. The Iberian interior has been traditionally depicted as a marginal and few populated region due to its harsh ecological conditions compared to the coastal areas. Based on preliminary data suggesting that this picture could be wrong, I hypothesize (1) that the human settlement of interior Iberia during this period was more stable than previously thought and (2) that his has relevant implications at the European scale for problems such as the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans, the first modern human peopling of Europe, and the patterns of land use and mobility during the coldest stages of the last glacial. To test these hypotheses, this project will investigate population dynamics and human-environment interactions of the last Neandertals and first modern humans in interior Iberia based on completely unprecedented evidence gathered by means of a macro-regional and interdisciplinary research project. This involves the participation of a wide team of scholars coordinated by the PI, and a network of methods including field surveys, geoarchaeological excavations and chronometric, paleoecological, zooarchaeological, techno-economic and symbolic studies. The results will significantly change our views on key biocultural and ecological processes of the European prehistory, and the way human societies have dealt with challenging environments.
The relations between cultural developments and environmental change among hunter-gatherers are crucial for studying population dynamics during the last glaciation (110,000–11,700 years ago). However, proposing solid interpretations on how climate and environment variability affected the social and techno-economic organisation of hominins, requires robust geoarchaeological, chronological, and palaeoecological evidence. In the Iberian Peninsula, a key area for this period due to its geographic position and ecological variability, models on these topics are biased by the poor quality of available evidence for its interior lands. The Iberian interior has been traditionally depicted as a marginal and few populated region due to its harsh ecological conditions compared to the coastal areas. Based on preliminary data suggesting that this picture could be wrong, I hypothesize (1) that the human settlement of interior Iberia during this period was more stable than previously thought and (2) that his has relevant implications at the European scale for problems such as the replacement of Neandertals by modern humans, the first modern human peopling of Europe, and the patterns of land use and mobility during the coldest stages of the last glacial. To test these hypotheses, this project will investigate population dynamics and human-environment interactions of the last Neandertals and first modern humans in interior Iberia based on completely unprecedented evidence gathered by means of a macro-regional and interdisciplinary research project. This involves the participation of a wide team of scholars coordinated by the PI, and a network of methods including field surveys, geoarchaeological excavations and chronometric, paleoecological, zooarchaeological, techno-economic and symbolic studies. The results will significantly change our views on key biocultural and ecological processes of the European prehistory, and the way human societies have dealt with challenging environments.
Project acronym OFF-SITE
Project Violence, State formation and memory politics: an off-site ethnography of post-revolution Iran
Researcher (PI) Chowra MAKAREMI
Summary How can violence be studied when access to the field is impossible? Fieldwork is a trademark of ethnography, which is fast becoming a key practice in qualitative research across disciplines. In conflict and post-conflict zones, social scientists tend to negotiate access to fieldwork through an international community of experts and practitioners. But empirical investigation proves more difficult in strong regimes that are closed or restricted, and exert (tight) surveillance over academics and the civil society. The power-knowledge apparatus draws some boundaries for researchers to respect in order to keep access to the field: thus, subjects that fall outside the domain of 'researchability' disqualify for ethnographic study. Consequently, research is (re)oriented by opportunities of access to the field. The study of violence (its mechanisms, effects, genealogy and everyday experiences) in repressive States thus remains a blind spot, with protracted effects on the understanding of societies that are built on this history of violence. Based on the case of Iran, this pioneering research seeks to change our ways of studying 'locked' societies, by adapting our methods and episteme to the global circulation of norms, data and people. Through the anthropology of the State and violence, archive ethnography and the use of new technologies, it experiments trans-disciplinary methods in the production of empirical study off-site, in order to fill a substantive gap in scientific knowledge on the Khomeini years in Iran (1979-1988), and how their legacy reappears in todays' politics of memory. By classifying and reviewing available sources in a digital "counter-archive", the project will establish a genealogy of post-revolutionary violence and state formation in Iran, and make this documentation available for further research. It will also document and analyze the memory politics linked to this foundational past and how they redefine the boundaries of political participation.
How can violence be studied when access to the field is impossible? Fieldwork is a trademark of ethnography, which is fast becoming a key practice in qualitative research across disciplines. In conflict and post-conflict zones, social scientists tend to negotiate access to fieldwork through an international community of experts and practitioners. But empirical investigation proves more difficult in strong regimes that are closed or restricted, and exert (tight) surveillance over academics and the civil society. The power-knowledge apparatus draws some boundaries for researchers to respect in order to keep access to the field: thus, subjects that fall outside the domain of 'researchability' disqualify for ethnographic study. Consequently, research is (re)oriented by opportunities of access to the field. The study of violence (its mechanisms, effects, genealogy and everyday experiences) in repressive States thus remains a blind spot, with protracted effects on the understanding of societies that are built on this history of violence. Based on the case of Iran, this pioneering research seeks to change our ways of studying 'locked' societies, by adapting our methods and episteme to the global circulation of norms, data and people. Through the anthropology of the State and violence, archive ethnography and the use of new technologies, it experiments trans-disciplinary methods in the production of empirical study off-site, in order to fill a substantive gap in scientific knowledge on the Khomeini years in Iran (1979-1988), and how their legacy reappears in todays' politics of memory. By classifying and reviewing available sources in a digital "counter-archive", the project will establish a genealogy of post-revolutionary violence and state formation in Iran, and make this documentation available for further research. It will also document and analyze the memory politics linked to this foundational past and how they redefine the boundaries of political participation.
Project acronym OPTNETSPACE
Project Optimal Transport Networks in Spatial Equilibrium
Researcher (PI) Edouard SCHAAL
Summary Every year, the world economy invests a large amount of resources to improve or develop transport infrastructure. How should these investments be allocated to maximize social welfare? In this proposal, I propose to develop and apply new methods to study optimal transport networks in general-equilibrium models of international trade, urban economics and economic geography. The methodology will build on recent work (Fajgelbaum and Schaal, 2017), in which my coauthor and I studied the network design problem in a general neoclassical trade framework. In the first project, I develop a new framework to analyze optimal infrastructure investment in an urban setting. The model features people commuting between residential areas and business districts as well as a choice over the mode of transportation. We plan to evaluate the framework to historical data about specific cities. In the second project, I propose and implement an new algorithm to compute optimal transport networks in the presence of increasing returns to transport, a likely prominent feature of real-world networks. The algorithm applies a branch-and-bound method in a series of geometric programming relaxations of the problem. In the third project, I study the dynamic evolution of actual transport networks using satellite data from the US, India and Mexico. In the spirit of Hsieh and Klenow (2007), I use the model to measure distortions in the placement of roads between rich and poor countries. In the fourth project, I study the inefficiencies and welfare losses associated with political economy frictions among governments and planning agencies. I use the model to identify inefficiencies and relate them to measures of institutions and political outcomes. In the final project, I propose a new explanation behind the Zipf's law distribution of city sizes. I show that Zipf's law may result from particular topological properties of optimal transport networks that allocate resources efficiently in space.
Every year, the world economy invests a large amount of resources to improve or develop transport infrastructure. How should these investments be allocated to maximize social welfare? In this proposal, I propose to develop and apply new methods to study optimal transport networks in general-equilibrium models of international trade, urban economics and economic geography. The methodology will build on recent work (Fajgelbaum and Schaal, 2017), in which my coauthor and I studied the network design problem in a general neoclassical trade framework. In the first project, I develop a new framework to analyze optimal infrastructure investment in an urban setting. The model features people commuting between residential areas and business districts as well as a choice over the mode of transportation. We plan to evaluate the framework to historical data about specific cities. In the second project, I propose and implement an new algorithm to compute optimal transport networks in the presence of increasing returns to transport, a likely prominent feature of real-world networks. The algorithm applies a branch-and-bound method in a series of geometric programming relaxations of the problem. In the third project, I study the dynamic evolution of actual transport networks using satellite data from the US, India and Mexico. In the spirit of Hsieh and Klenow (2007), I use the model to measure distortions in the placement of roads between rich and poor countries. In the fourth project, I study the inefficiencies and welfare losses associated with political economy frictions among governments and planning agencies. I use the model to identify inefficiencies and relate them to measures of institutions and political outcomes. In the final project, I propose a new explanation behind the Zipf's law distribution of city sizes. I show that Zipf's law may result from particular topological properties of optimal transport networks that allocate resources efficiently in space.
Project acronym PuppetPlays
Project Reappraising Western European Repertoires for Puppet and Marionette Theatres
Researcher (PI) PLASSARD DIDIER
Summary This project aims at transcending boundaries between « high » and « popular » cultures, here established playwrights and anonymous writers, by investigating their productions for a same medium: puppet and marionette theatre. Focusing on key-periods of drama history (1600-2000) it explores how puppeteers and authors both contribute to the raise of a specific dramaturgy. Introducing these repertoires into the history of Western European drama opens a double ground-breaking perspective: on one side, it exceeds the limits of local inquiries and reveals cultural transfers through social groups and nations; on the other, it leads to reexamine theatre historiography by considering the cohesion of "theatrical systems" (Marotti) and giving visibility to a long despised and scatered corpus. The main objectives are 1) to gather a corpus of representative plays which document the development of puppetry in Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Nederlands, Portugal, Spain); 2) to identify the specific features of puppet and marionette plays and their variations through time, cultural areas, conditions of production and targeted audiences; 3) to re-evaluate the contribution of these repertoires to the construction of European cultural identity. The principal investigator brings to this project, besides a long experience of internationally recognized research, an excellent knowledge of artistic and cultural networks which guarantees the access to primary sources as well as the mobilisation of experts and partner institutions. Using digital humanities tools and methods, the project will produce a platform making available the selected corpus through a data base and searchable thesaurus, and offering innovative resources to the research community, pedagogues, practitioners and public at large. The research will lead to a better integration of puppetry into theatre history, an increased knowledge of its heritage, and a growing institutional recognition.
This project aims at transcending boundaries between « high » and « popular » cultures, here established playwrights and anonymous writers, by investigating their productions for a same medium: puppet and marionette theatre. Focusing on key-periods of drama history (1600-2000) it explores how puppeteers and authors both contribute to the raise of a specific dramaturgy. Introducing these repertoires into the history of Western European drama opens a double ground-breaking perspective: on one side, it exceeds the limits of local inquiries and reveals cultural transfers through social groups and nations; on the other, it leads to reexamine theatre historiography by considering the cohesion of "theatrical systems" (Marotti) and giving visibility to a long despised and scatered corpus. The main objectives are 1) to gather a corpus of representative plays which document the development of puppetry in Western Europe (Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy, Nederlands, Portugal, Spain); 2) to identify the specific features of puppet and marionette plays and their variations through time, cultural areas, conditions of production and targeted audiences; 3) to re-evaluate the contribution of these repertoires to the construction of European cultural identity. The principal investigator brings to this project, besides a long experience of internationally recognized research, an excellent knowledge of artistic and cultural networks which guarantees the access to primary sources as well as the mobilisation of experts and partner institutions. Using digital humanities tools and methods, the project will produce a platform making available the selected corpus through a data base and searchable thesaurus, and offering innovative resources to the research community, pedagogues, practitioners and public at large. The research will lead to a better integration of puppetry into theatre history, an increased knowledge of its heritage, and a growing institutional recognition.
Project acronym ReNewHydrides
Project Renewable Hydride Donors and Their Utilization in Catalytic Reduction and Deoxygenation Reactions
Researcher (PI) Thibault CANTAT
Summary The production of chemicals, plastics, solvents, etc., contributes to 20 % of the Gross Value Added in the EU, where sales have doubled over the last 20 years. Despite this dynamism, the chemical industry is energy intensive and 95 % of organic chemicals derive from fossil oil and natural gas. To sustain the growth of this industry, the replacement of fossil feedstocks with renewable carbon, phosphorus and silicon sources should be encouraged. Nonetheless, such a sourcing shift represents a paradigm shift: while the development of petrochemistry has relied on the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, the conversion of renewable feedstocks (e.g. CO2, phosphates, silicates or biomass) requires efficient reduction methods and catalysts to overcome their oxidized nature. Today, no reduction method meets the criteria for a versatile and energy efficient reduction of oxidized feedstocks and the aim of the ReNewHydrides project is to design novel reductants and catalytic reactions to achieve this important aim. At the crossroads of main group element chemistry, organometallic chemistry, electrochemistry and homogenous catalysis, I propose to develop innovative and recyclable reductants based on silicon and boron compounds, and to utilize them to tackle catalytic challenges in the reduction of C–O, P–O and Si–O bonds. The overarching principle is to build a balanced synthetic cycle, where the electrochemical reduction of functionalized and oxidized substrates is ensured by silicon and boron based hydride donors, with a high energy efficiency and selectivity. This project will foster innovative routes in the utilization of renewable carbon, phosphorus and silicon feedstocks. It is therefore of high risk, but ultimately extremely rewarding. The results will also also open-up new horizons in silicon and boron chemistry and they will finally serve the scientific community involved in the fields of organic and inorganic chemistry, sustainable chemistry and energy storage.
The production of chemicals, plastics, solvents, etc., contributes to 20 % of the Gross Value Added in the EU, where sales have doubled over the last 20 years. Despite this dynamism, the chemical industry is energy intensive and 95 % of organic chemicals derive from fossil oil and natural gas. To sustain the growth of this industry, the replacement of fossil feedstocks with renewable carbon, phosphorus and silicon sources should be encouraged. Nonetheless, such a sourcing shift represents a paradigm shift: while the development of petrochemistry has relied on the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, the conversion of renewable feedstocks (e.g. CO2, phosphates, silicates or biomass) requires efficient reduction methods and catalysts to overcome their oxidized nature. Today, no reduction method meets the criteria for a versatile and energy efficient reduction of oxidized feedstocks and the aim of the ReNewHydrides project is to design novel reductants and catalytic reactions to achieve this important aim. At the crossroads of main group element chemistry, organometallic chemistry, electrochemistry and homogenous catalysis, I propose to develop innovative and recyclable reductants based on silicon and boron compounds, and to utilize them to tackle catalytic challenges in the reduction of C–O, P–O and Si–O bonds. The overarching principle is to build a balanced synthetic cycle, where the electrochemical reduction of functionalized and oxidized substrates is ensured by silicon and boron based hydride donors, with a high energy efficiency and selectivity. This project will foster innovative routes in the utilization of renewable carbon, phosphorus and silicon feedstocks. It is therefore of high risk, but ultimately extremely rewarding. The results will also also open-up new horizons in silicon and boron chemistry and they will finally serve the scientific community involved in the fields of organic and inorganic chemistry, sustainable chemistry and energy storage.
Project acronym ReverseAndCat
Project Reversible Creation of Non-Inherent Reactivity Patterns in Catalytic Organic Synthesis
Researcher (PI) Pawel Franciszek DYDIO
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE INTERNATIONAL DE RECHERCHE AUX FRONTIERES DE LA CHIMIE FONDATION
Summary Current methods in organic synthesis only enable reactions at the most reactive bonds or at bonds predisposed by specific directing groups. Consequently, many less reactive bonds, including numerous C-H and C-C bonds, cannot be functionalized, enormously limiting the scope of possible transformations. To overcome these limitations, I propose Reverse&Cat, a revolutionary strategy using a novel method to change the reactivity pattern of molecules. This strategy combines the dynamic equilibrium mediated by the first catalyst and a functionalization reaction catalyzed by the second catalyst. The originality of the transformation stems from exploiting three simultaneous processes: (i) the dynamic exchange of one functional group (FG) for another FG that modulates the reactivity of the substrate; (ii) the functionalization of the temporarily activated bond; and (iii) the restoration of the initial FG. In essence, the processes (i) and (iii) – the components of the dynamic equilibrium – realize the novel concept of the temporary creation of non-inherent reactivity of a substrate. The program is divided in three phases, which will establish the full potential of the strategy. In phase A, I will develop a set of new reactions enabled by the bi-catalytic systems. I will exploit two types of reversible reactions: (1) reversible oxidation of alcohols, which delivers temporarily activated aldehydes/ketones, with the distinct reactivity of their C-H bonds; and (2) reversible retro-hydrofunctionalization of nitriles or their analogues, which delivers temporarily activated alkenes, containing allylic C-H and C=C bonds. In phase B, I will conduct detailed mechanistic studies to gain the mechanistic understanding and enable further rational development. In phase C, I will establish the utility of this new strategy in practical organic synthesis. Overall, the strategy will open a new dimension of reactivity, with prospective applications in production of fine-chemicals and materials.
Current methods in organic synthesis only enable reactions at the most reactive bonds or at bonds predisposed by specific directing groups. Consequently, many less reactive bonds, including numerous C-H and C-C bonds, cannot be functionalized, enormously limiting the scope of possible transformations. To overcome these limitations, I propose Reverse&Cat, a revolutionary strategy using a novel method to change the reactivity pattern of molecules. This strategy combines the dynamic equilibrium mediated by the first catalyst and a functionalization reaction catalyzed by the second catalyst. The originality of the transformation stems from exploiting three simultaneous processes: (i) the dynamic exchange of one functional group (FG) for another FG that modulates the reactivity of the substrate; (ii) the functionalization of the temporarily activated bond; and (iii) the restoration of the initial FG. In essence, the processes (i) and (iii) – the components of the dynamic equilibrium – realize the novel concept of the temporary creation of non-inherent reactivity of a substrate. The program is divided in three phases, which will establish the full potential of the strategy. In phase A, I will develop a set of new reactions enabled by the bi-catalytic systems. I will exploit two types of reversible reactions: (1) reversible oxidation of alcohols, which delivers temporarily activated aldehydes/ketones, with the distinct reactivity of their C-H bonds; and (2) reversible retro-hydrofunctionalization of nitriles or their analogues, which delivers temporarily activated alkenes, containing allylic C-H and C=C bonds. In phase B, I will conduct detailed mechanistic studies to gain the mechanistic understanding and enable further rational development. In phase C, I will establish the utility of this new strategy in practical organic synthesis. Overall, the strategy will open a new dimension of reactivity, with prospective applications in production of fine-chemicals and materials.
Project acronym RIVERS
Project Water/human rights beyond the human?Indigenous water ontologies, plurilegal encounters and interlegal translation
Researcher (PI) Lieselotte VIAENE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID
Summary RIVERS's main challenge is to produce ground-breaking knowledge, from an empirical, interdisciplinary and dialoguing perspective, about the contentions and challenges intrinsic to reconceptualising human rights with different ways of understanding and relating to water. Worldwide, indigenous peoples are mobilising against the neoliberalisation of nature, demonstrating radically different ways of knowing, being and living. At the same time, in 2010 the UN acknowledged water as a human right, while in 2017 New Zealand, India and Colombia established ground-breaking legal precedents by granting rivers human rights. RIVERS's overarching research question is: To what extent can international human rights law come to grips with plurilegal water realities? This project engages with one of the most pressing questions of this century: the relationship between humans and nature. RIVERS tackles two intertwined core objectives: 1) analysing different ways of knowing and relating to water and life among indigenous peoples and their understanding of its (potential) violation by extractive projects; 2) discussing the contributions, challenges and pitfalls of interlegal translation of differing water natures in plurilegal encounters at domestic and international levels. RIVERS will develop a multi-sited analysis and empirical case-studies in three contexts: Colombia, Nepal and the UN human rights protection system. Through the lens of legal pluralism, this will foreground competing political and legal water realities that interrogate dominant understandings of the modern world. RIVERS will address two interrelated research challenges: 1) indigenous visions/practices: beyond water as a natural resource and human right; 2) the UN human rights system: towards counter-hegemonic water knowledge production. This project will pioneer new ways of thinking about water beyond the modern divides of nature/culture, providing clues about future paths towards reconceptualising human rights.
RIVERS's main challenge is to produce ground-breaking knowledge, from an empirical, interdisciplinary and dialoguing perspective, about the contentions and challenges intrinsic to reconceptualising human rights with different ways of understanding and relating to water. Worldwide, indigenous peoples are mobilising against the neoliberalisation of nature, demonstrating radically different ways of knowing, being and living. At the same time, in 2010 the UN acknowledged water as a human right, while in 2017 New Zealand, India and Colombia established ground-breaking legal precedents by granting rivers human rights. RIVERS's overarching research question is: To what extent can international human rights law come to grips with plurilegal water realities? This project engages with one of the most pressing questions of this century: the relationship between humans and nature. RIVERS tackles two intertwined core objectives: 1) analysing different ways of knowing and relating to water and life among indigenous peoples and their understanding of its (potential) violation by extractive projects; 2) discussing the contributions, challenges and pitfalls of interlegal translation of differing water natures in plurilegal encounters at domestic and international levels. RIVERS will develop a multi-sited analysis and empirical case-studies in three contexts: Colombia, Nepal and the UN human rights protection system. Through the lens of legal pluralism, this will foreground competing political and legal water realities that interrogate dominant understandings of the modern world. RIVERS will address two interrelated research challenges: 1) indigenous visions/practices: beyond water as a natural resource and human right; 2) the UN human rights system: towards counter-hegemonic water knowledge production. This project will pioneer new ways of thinking about water beyond the modern divides of nature/culture, providing clues about future paths towards reconceptualising human rights.
Project acronym SENSiSOFT
Project New sensor devices based on soft chemistry assisted nanostructured functional oxides on Si integrated systems
Researcher (PI) Adrien CARRETERO
Summary Piezoelectrics are the active elements of many everyday applications, from ink-jet printers to ultrasound generators, representing a billion euro industry. They are the key elements of motion sensors and resonators present in any wireless network sensor (WNS) node. However, an increased production of piezoelectrics in a sustainable way is to-date a milestone. SENSiSOFT proposes to come up with materials that can provide a solution to this problem: piezoelectric materials that are abundant, cheap and harmless. The aim of this project is to produce new piezoelectric devices of nanometer size with an unusual limit for wireless mechanical sensors, using direct and combined chemical integration of quartz, perovskite and hollandites materials as nanostructured epitaxial thin films on silicon. This is a major challenge that demands bridging the gap between soft-chemistry and microfabrication techniques. Three strategies are proposed for this goal: i) Implement a soft chemistry unified, monolithic process that will allow integrating epitaxial quartz, hollandite and perovskite oxide thin layers on silicon substrate with high piezoelectric response. ii) Nanostructuration of piezoelectric epitaxial oxide thin films into controllable morphologies or nanostructures, in particular porous structure and 1D nanowires or nanorods, allowing excellent properties of oxides to be exploited to the fullest, mainly by avoiding clamping and improving its sensitivity. iii) Fabrication of nanostructured SAW resonator-based and a LAMB-WAVE multisensor for monitoring mechanical parameters (mass, forces, pressure…). We will use MEMs technology in order to be able to define resonating structures (plates, membranes, bridges…) by silicon micromachining. So, SENSiSOFT presents three innovative strategies to develop sensor devices capable to answer the metrology demand, with a detection threshold 10 to 100 times more sensitive resulting from a 1D and 2D configuration of novel piezoelectric oxides.
Piezoelectrics are the active elements of many everyday applications, from ink-jet printers to ultrasound generators, representing a billion euro industry. They are the key elements of motion sensors and resonators present in any wireless network sensor (WNS) node. However, an increased production of piezoelectrics in a sustainable way is to-date a milestone. SENSiSOFT proposes to come up with materials that can provide a solution to this problem: piezoelectric materials that are abundant, cheap and harmless. The aim of this project is to produce new piezoelectric devices of nanometer size with an unusual limit for wireless mechanical sensors, using direct and combined chemical integration of quartz, perovskite and hollandites materials as nanostructured epitaxial thin films on silicon. This is a major challenge that demands bridging the gap between soft-chemistry and microfabrication techniques. Three strategies are proposed for this goal: i) Implement a soft chemistry unified, monolithic process that will allow integrating epitaxial quartz, hollandite and perovskite oxide thin layers on silicon substrate with high piezoelectric response. ii) Nanostructuration of piezoelectric epitaxial oxide thin films into controllable morphologies or nanostructures, in particular porous structure and 1D nanowires or nanorods, allowing excellent properties of oxides to be exploited to the fullest, mainly by avoiding clamping and improving its sensitivity. iii) Fabrication of nanostructured SAW resonator-based and a LAMB-WAVE multisensor for monitoring mechanical parameters (mass, forces, pressure…). We will use MEMs technology in order to be able to define resonating structures (plates, membranes, bridges…) by silicon micromachining. So, SENSiSOFT presents three innovative strategies to develop sensor devices capable to answer the metrology demand, with a detection threshold 10 to 100 times more sensitive resulting from a 1D and 2D configuration of novel piezoelectric oxides.
Project acronym SlaveVoices
Project Slave Testimonies in the Abolition Era. European Captives, African Slaves and Ottoman servants in 19th century North Africa
Researcher (PI) M'hamed OUALDI
Host Institution (HI) FONDATION NATIONALE DES SCIENCES POLITIQUES
Summary SLAVEVOICES has two main groundbreaking scientific goals. First, it aims at fully renewing our approach of the end of slavery, a crucial social transformation in North Africa as a part of the Muslim world. So far historians have explained the abolition and slow vanishing of slavery in this region either as the outcome of European imperialistic interventions or to a lesser extent as resulting from debates among Muslim scholars and leaders who were owning slaves. SLAVEVOICES will instead interpret the end of slavery through the testimonies of the ones who experienced and acted for the end of slavery: namely the testimonies of the slaves and their descendants written in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and European languages. Second, by studying together –and not apart as is often the case– the various groups of slaves in North Africa hailing from Africa, Europe and Asia, SLAVEVOICES will propose a new way of conceiving and writing the history of North Africa. Instead of studying each historical phenomenon according to each national part of this region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt) as it is has often been the case, SLAVEVOICES will be a concrete attempt at writing a globalized and connected history of modern North Africa. It will explore the reshaping of the connections that groups of slaves built up within North African societies and between this part of the Muslim world and other adjoining societies in Africa, Asia and Europe in the abolition era. SLAVEVOICES will innovate in resituating slave testimonies within a broader history of literacy in North Africa throughout a long nineteenth century, a period in which literacy and written sources underwent major changes in Ottoman and colonial North Africa. Finally through a website, a book, a play, and videos SLAVEVOICES will bring back the voices, the speeches and emotions of nineteenth century slaves to a present audience as new forms of enslavement and social dependency are resurfacing across the Mediterranean.
SLAVEVOICES has two main groundbreaking scientific goals. First, it aims at fully renewing our approach of the end of slavery, a crucial social transformation in North Africa as a part of the Muslim world. So far historians have explained the abolition and slow vanishing of slavery in this region either as the outcome of European imperialistic interventions or to a lesser extent as resulting from debates among Muslim scholars and leaders who were owning slaves. SLAVEVOICES will instead interpret the end of slavery through the testimonies of the ones who experienced and acted for the end of slavery: namely the testimonies of the slaves and their descendants written in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish and European languages. Second, by studying together –and not apart as is often the case– the various groups of slaves in North Africa hailing from Africa, Europe and Asia, SLAVEVOICES will propose a new way of conceiving and writing the history of North Africa. Instead of studying each historical phenomenon according to each national part of this region (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt) as it is has often been the case, SLAVEVOICES will be a concrete attempt at writing a globalized and connected history of modern North Africa. It will explore the reshaping of the connections that groups of slaves built up within North African societies and between this part of the Muslim world and other adjoining societies in Africa, Asia and Europe in the abolition era. SLAVEVOICES will innovate in resituating slave testimonies within a broader history of literacy in North Africa throughout a long nineteenth century, a period in which literacy and written sources underwent major changes in Ottoman and colonial North Africa. Finally through a website, a book, a play, and videos SLAVEVOICES will bring back the voices, the speeches and emotions of nineteenth century slaves to a present audience as new forms of enslavement and social dependency are resurfacing across the Mediterranean.
Project acronym SUBSILIENCE
Project Subsistence and human resilience to sudden climatic events in Europe during MIS3
Researcher (PI) ANA B. MARIN-ARROYO
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA
Summary Climate has long been proposed as a possible trigger-factor for the extinction of Neanderthals and the rapid colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). Abrupt and acute oscillations of climate, as recorded from polar ice sheets, are particularly threatening as they can push ecosystems towards catastrophic outcomes. Under these conditions, the survival of a species critically depends on their adaptive skills. Understanding the exact role that these episodes could have had in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is then essential to unravel the real causes of Neanderthal demise and AMH success. To do this, SUBSILIENCE will identify the subsistence strategies adopted by both human species in response to those climatic changes at 20 key archaeological sites located across southern European peninsulas. By applying zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses, the behavioural flexibility and resilience of each human species will be assessed. In addition, to enable effective testing, local terrestrial climatic and environmental conditions will be accurately reconstructed using stable isotopes from animals consumed, producing a unique, continuous and properly-dated general environmental framework, improving existing knowledge. Finally, to further explore the problem, an innovative procedure to estimate prey abundance, ecology and human behaviour, involving the estimation of the ecosystem carrying capacity, will be developed. This multidisciplinary and novel approach will provide, for the first time, accurate answers to questions concerning a) which particular subsistence patterns (if any) favoured AMH over Neanderthals while coping with the changing environment and b) the extent to which climatic oscillations affected Neanderthal extinction. In this, it will be of relevance to the study of Prehistory on a pan-European scale.
Climate has long been proposed as a possible trigger-factor for the extinction of Neanderthals and the rapid colonization of Europe by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH). Abrupt and acute oscillations of climate, as recorded from polar ice sheets, are particularly threatening as they can push ecosystems towards catastrophic outcomes. Under these conditions, the survival of a species critically depends on their adaptive skills. Understanding the exact role that these episodes could have had in the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is then essential to unravel the real causes of Neanderthal demise and AMH success. To do this, SUBSILIENCE will identify the subsistence strategies adopted by both human species in response to those climatic changes at 20 key archaeological sites located across southern European peninsulas. By applying zooarchaeological and taphonomic analyses, the behavioural flexibility and resilience of each human species will be assessed. In addition, to enable effective testing, local terrestrial climatic and environmental conditions will be accurately reconstructed using stable isotopes from animals consumed, producing a unique, continuous and properly-dated general environmental framework, improving existing knowledge. Finally, to further explore the problem, an innovative procedure to estimate prey abundance, ecology and human behaviour, involving the estimation of the ecosystem carrying capacity, will be developed. This multidisciplinary and novel approach will provide, for the first time, accurate answers to questions concerning a) which particular subsistence patterns (if any) favoured AMH over Neanderthals while coping with the changing environment and b) the extent to which climatic oscillations affected Neanderthal extinction. In this, it will be of relevance to the study of Prehistory on a pan-European scale.
Project acronym TEMPORE
Project Self-Regulating Porous Nano-Oscillators: from Nanoscale Homeostasis to Time-Programmable Devices
Researcher (PI) Marco FAUSTINI
Summary Living systems exhibit unique autonomous behaviors such as homeostasis, self-regulation or spontaneous oscillations, not existing in conventional materials. Designing artificial systems with life-like functionalities is a long-standing challenge in chemistry and material science. This groundbreaking research field has been developed exclusively at the molecular and supramolecular level, through chemical self-regulation based on interconnected networks of reactions in solution. In this project, I will explore a conceptually new and different approach based on interconnected nanomaterials in open atmosphere; I will design a new family of autonomous systems, called porous Nano-Oscillators, exhibiting a "physical" self-regulation mechanism at the nanoscale. To do so, I will engineer nanoparticles, nanoporous materials and light in a very specific way in order to activate artificial feedback loops; self-oscillatory behavior will be time-programmed by exploiting the sorption dynamics of the nanoporous materials. I will exploit a multidisciplinary approach based on nanochemistry, nanofabrication and optics to fabricate isolated and groups of nano-oscillators and to investigate their dynamic behaviors. By analogy with cells, communication, synchronization and collective response will be investigated by a new methodology able to describe the spatiotemporal evolutions of self-oscillating nano-objects in controlled environments. Themo-optical simulations will support the experimental work by providing thermodynamic and kinetic guidelines. Inspired by examples from nature, I will provide proof-of-concept of time-programmable, autonomous devices, working in open atmosphere with unprecedented functionalities.
Living systems exhibit unique autonomous behaviors such as homeostasis, self-regulation or spontaneous oscillations, not existing in conventional materials. Designing artificial systems with life-like functionalities is a long-standing challenge in chemistry and material science. This groundbreaking research field has been developed exclusively at the molecular and supramolecular level, through chemical self-regulation based on interconnected networks of reactions in solution. In this project, I will explore a conceptually new and different approach based on interconnected nanomaterials in open atmosphere; I will design a new family of autonomous systems, called porous Nano-Oscillators, exhibiting a "physical" self-regulation mechanism at the nanoscale. To do so, I will engineer nanoparticles, nanoporous materials and light in a very specific way in order to activate artificial feedback loops; self-oscillatory behavior will be time-programmed by exploiting the sorption dynamics of the nanoporous materials. I will exploit a multidisciplinary approach based on nanochemistry, nanofabrication and optics to fabricate isolated and groups of nano-oscillators and to investigate their dynamic behaviors. By analogy with cells, communication, synchronization and collective response will be investigated by a new methodology able to describe the spatiotemporal evolutions of self-oscillating nano-objects in controlled environments. Themo-optical simulations will support the experimental work by providing thermodynamic and kinetic guidelines. Inspired by examples from nature, I will provide proof-of-concept of time-programmable, autonomous devices, working in open atmosphere with unprecedented functionalities.
Project acronym TRADITION
Project Long-term coastal adaptation, food security and poverty alleviation in Latin America
Researcher (PI) Andre Carlo COLONESE
Summary TRADITION aims to understand the long-term trajectory of human interaction with coastal resources and its legacy to present day small-scale fisheries in Latin America. Founded on traditional knowledge rooted in the past, small-scale fisheries are a crucial source of food and livelihood for millions of people worldwide, and play a pivotal role in poverty eradication in developing countries. A thorough recognition of the cultural and socio-economic significance of Latin American fisheries requires a temporal component that only archaeology and history can provide. TRADITION will investigate a 4000-year record of coastal exploitation in one of the world's most threatened tropical environments: the Atlantic forest of Brazil. We will draw together archaeological, palaeoecological, historical and ethnographic records to address fundamental questions that impinge upon our current understanding of the development of small-scale fisheries in this region. How did coastal economies adapt to the spread of agriculture? What was the impact of past climate and environmental changes on coastal populations? What was the impact of European colonisation of the Americas on the development of small-scale fisheries? What was the role of historical institutions and regulations in the negotiation between traditional and modern practices in small-scale fisheries? How have the historical practices and events shaped current small-scale coastal communities, and can this knowledge benefit current management strategies. The answers will help us understand how coastal economies responded to unprecedented societal and environmental changes by adapting their subsistence practices, technology and culture, while contributing to the foundation of coastal societies in Latin America.
TRADITION aims to understand the long-term trajectory of human interaction with coastal resources and its legacy to present day small-scale fisheries in Latin America. Founded on traditional knowledge rooted in the past, small-scale fisheries are a crucial source of food and livelihood for millions of people worldwide, and play a pivotal role in poverty eradication in developing countries. A thorough recognition of the cultural and socio-economic significance of Latin American fisheries requires a temporal component that only archaeology and history can provide. TRADITION will investigate a 4000-year record of coastal exploitation in one of the world's most threatened tropical environments: the Atlantic forest of Brazil. We will draw together archaeological, palaeoecological, historical and ethnographic records to address fundamental questions that impinge upon our current understanding of the development of small-scale fisheries in this region. How did coastal economies adapt to the spread of agriculture? What was the impact of past climate and environmental changes on coastal populations? What was the impact of European colonisation of the Americas on the development of small-scale fisheries? What was the role of historical institutions and regulations in the negotiation between traditional and modern practices in small-scale fisheries? How have the historical practices and events shaped current small-scale coastal communities, and can this knowledge benefit current management strategies. The answers will help us understand how coastal economies responded to unprecedented societal and environmental changes by adapting their subsistence practices, technology and culture, while contributing to the foundation of coastal societies in Latin America.
Project acronym URBAG
Project Integrated System Analysis of Urban Vegetation and Agriculture
Researcher (PI) Gara Villalba Méndez
Summary This research aims to find out how urban green infrastructures can be most efficient in contributing to urban sustainability. This will evaluate which combinations of urban, peri-urban agriculture and green spaces result in the best performance in terms of local and global environmental impact. For this purpose, I will use novel and comprehensive analysis that will integrate the life cycle impacts of the resources required for green infrastructures with the understanding of how green infrastructures impact the urban atmosphere interaction. This comprehensive approach allows to capture the urban metabolism to optimize the food-energy-water nexus. In previous works, the impacts had been only studied individually. The analysis will consist of 1) A geo-referenced land-use model to optimize urban and peri-urban food production in terms of nutrients, water, and energy, considering urban morphology and determining life cycle impacts 2) A spatially-temporally resolved framework for quantitative analysis and simulation of green infrastructures to determine the direct and indirect effects on the urban and regional atmosphere. The research will be implemented in two selected cities with different profiles, Barcelona and Oslo. The study ambitions to gather substantial quantitative evidence in green infrastructures and sustainability, contributing to cover the existing gap in previous works. This project and the envisaged: Green infrastructures - A Guide for city planners and policy makers, are timely and urgent. Many cities are implementing green infrastructures despite having little quantitative and comprehensive knowledge as to which infrastructure strategies are more effective in promoting food production, air quality and temperature while reducing environmental impact. This intended Guide will contain evidence-based guidance and tools to create green infrastructure strategies; to help to meet sustainability targets, and promote wider and diffused social benefits.
This research aims to find out how urban green infrastructures can be most efficient in contributing to urban sustainability. This will evaluate which combinations of urban, peri-urban agriculture and green spaces result in the best performance in terms of local and global environmental impact. For this purpose, I will use novel and comprehensive analysis that will integrate the life cycle impacts of the resources required for green infrastructures with the understanding of how green infrastructures impact the urban atmosphere interaction. This comprehensive approach allows to capture the urban metabolism to optimize the food-energy-water nexus. In previous works, the impacts had been only studied individually. The analysis will consist of 1) A geo-referenced land-use model to optimize urban and peri-urban food production in terms of nutrients, water, and energy, considering urban morphology and determining life cycle impacts 2) A spatially-temporally resolved framework for quantitative analysis and simulation of green infrastructures to determine the direct and indirect effects on the urban and regional atmosphere. The research will be implemented in two selected cities with different profiles, Barcelona and Oslo. The study ambitions to gather substantial quantitative evidence in green infrastructures and sustainability, contributing to cover the existing gap in previous works. This project and the envisaged: Green infrastructures - A Guide for city planners and policy makers, are timely and urgent. Many cities are implementing green infrastructures despite having little quantitative and comprehensive knowledge as to which infrastructure strategies are more effective in promoting food production, air quality and temperature while reducing environmental impact. This intended Guide will contain evidence-based guidance and tools to create green infrastructure strategies; to help to meet sustainability targets, and promote wider and diffused social benefits.
Project acronym VARME
Project Varieties of Media Effects
Researcher (PI) Adam Mahmoud Saad Shehata
Host Institution (HI) GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET
Summary The overall objective of VARME is to determine the long-term effects of the news media on citizens' beliefs about societal problems. Theoretically and empirically, the program challenges the prevailing Short-term Media Effects Paradigm that characterizes most research on media effects. In doing so, the program uncovers a variety of important long-term media effects largely ignored in previous research. These include how beliefs about societal problems are initially formed (RQ1), how beliefs are maintained and reinforced (RQ2), as well as under what conditions they change both temporarily and more permanently (RQ3). The ambitious objective of VARME is achieved by three complementary projects. These projects are all possible thanks to an internationally unique infrastructure for data collection at the University of Gothenburg. Project 1 uncovers the long-term processes of media effects over a period of several years. Using an extensive longitudinal mixed-methods design, this study provides unique knowledge on how citizens' beliefs about society are maintained, reinforced and potentially changed by the news media in the long run. Project 2 clarifies how citizens' beliefs initially form in response to news coverage. By setting up a novel event-based study, this project enables a close "live" analysis of belief formation as real-world events take place and media coverage unfolds over time. Project 3 focuses on causality and mechanisms behind long-term media effects. Working together with professional journalists, this project is based on a series of realistic experiments on how citizens' news choices and news exposure influence the maintenance, reinforcement and changes of beliefs over time. Apart from documenting the varieties of long-term effects on citizens' beliefs about a wide range of societal problems, VARME makes significant contributions to several established theories of media effects.
The overall objective of VARME is to determine the long-term effects of the news media on citizens' beliefs about societal problems. Theoretically and empirically, the program challenges the prevailing Short-term Media Effects Paradigm that characterizes most research on media effects. In doing so, the program uncovers a variety of important long-term media effects largely ignored in previous research. These include how beliefs about societal problems are initially formed (RQ1), how beliefs are maintained and reinforced (RQ2), as well as under what conditions they change both temporarily and more permanently (RQ3). The ambitious objective of VARME is achieved by three complementary projects. These projects are all possible thanks to an internationally unique infrastructure for data collection at the University of Gothenburg. Project 1 uncovers the long-term processes of media effects over a period of several years. Using an extensive longitudinal mixed-methods design, this study provides unique knowledge on how citizens' beliefs about society are maintained, reinforced and potentially changed by the news media in the long run. Project 2 clarifies how citizens' beliefs initially form in response to news coverage. By setting up a novel event-based study, this project enables a close "live" analysis of belief formation as real-world events take place and media coverage unfolds over time. Project 3 focuses on causality and mechanisms behind long-term media effects. Working together with professional journalists, this project is based on a series of realistic experiments on how citizens' news choices and news exposure influence the maintenance, reinforcement and changes of beliefs over time. Apart from documenting the varieties of long-term effects on citizens' beliefs about a wide range of societal problems, VARME makes significant contributions to several established theories of media effects.
Project acronym WINK
Project Women's Invisible Ink: Trans-Genre Writing and the Gendering of Intellectual Value in Early Modernity
Researcher (PI) Carmen FONT PAZ
Summary Literature scholars have succeeded in recovering texts by early modern women from different languages, genres, and sociopolitical contexts. Still, compared to their male counterparts, few women writers feature in national canons, or they compose a separate set of 'early modern women writers'. A nuanced qualitative approach to their textual production reveals forms of self-taught, intellectually-minded trans-genre discourse (traversing poetry, drama, prose, novels) traditionally deemed irrelevant as it did not conform to a practice of scholarly male-dominated discourse. Thus, much original thinking by women has remained intact even if their texts are available to us. The proposed research locates, identifies and examines the invisible written production of women in early European modernity in order to modify the single-gender paradigm of intellectual value. It surveys sources in six languages through a methodology based on trans-genre writing rather than on close genre types, allowing patterns of persuasive argumentation to emerge as intellectual input, while exposing the rhetorical models that have impinged on the social and cognitive processes identifying intellectual value as being androcentric. The main research unfolds in three strands: 1) Synergies, examining religious and life-writing themes that shaped into ethical discourses on the common good. 2) Cloud intertextualities, tracing fragmented chains of intuitive argument in discursive narrative. 3) Textual porosity, understanding patterns of knowledge transference and authorial attribution in the management of sources. The research outcomes will render co-authored articles, a virtual space environment as the reservoir and task field for comparative textual analysis, and a four-volume collection on the cultural history of textual misogyny. WINK approaches intellectual value as a category of gender analysis, bringing to light transformative thinking from understudied and underrepresented women authors.
Literature scholars have succeeded in recovering texts by early modern women from different languages, genres, and sociopolitical contexts. Still, compared to their male counterparts, few women writers feature in national canons, or they compose a separate set of 'early modern women writers'. A nuanced qualitative approach to their textual production reveals forms of self-taught, intellectually-minded trans-genre discourse (traversing poetry, drama, prose, novels) traditionally deemed irrelevant as it did not conform to a practice of scholarly male-dominated discourse. Thus, much original thinking by women has remained intact even if their texts are available to us. The proposed research locates, identifies and examines the invisible written production of women in early European modernity in order to modify the single-gender paradigm of intellectual value. It surveys sources in six languages through a methodology based on trans-genre writing rather than on close genre types, allowing patterns of persuasive argumentation to emerge as intellectual input, while exposing the rhetorical models that have impinged on the social and cognitive processes identifying intellectual value as being androcentric. The main research unfolds in three strands: 1) Synergies, examining religious and life-writing themes that shaped into ethical discourses on the common good. 2) Cloud intertextualities, tracing fragmented chains of intuitive argument in discursive narrative. 3) Textual porosity, understanding patterns of knowledge transference and authorial attribution in the management of sources. The research outcomes will render co-authored articles, a virtual space environment as the reservoir and task field for comparative textual analysis, and a four-volume collection on the cultural history of textual misogyny. WINK approaches intellectual value as a category of gender analysis, bringing to light transformative thinking from understudied and underrepresented women authors.