Project acronym BIOUNCERTAINTY
Project Deep uncertainties in bioethics: genetic research, preventive medicine, reproductive decisions
Researcher (PI) Tomasz ZURADZKI
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Uncertainty is everywhere, as the saying goes, but rarely considered in ethical reflections. This project aims to reinterpret ethical discussions on current advances in biomedicine: instead of understanding bioethical positions as extensions of classical normative views in ethics (consequentialism, deontologism, contractualism etc.), my project interprets them more accurately as involving various normative approaches to decision making under uncertainty. The following hard cases in bioethics provide the motivation for research:
1) Regulating scientific research under uncertainty about the ontological/moral status (e.g. parthenogenetic stem cells derived from human parthenotes) in the context of meta-reasoning under normative uncertainty.
2) The value of preventive medicine in healthcare (e.g. vaccinations) in the context of decision-making under metaphysical indeterminacy.
3) Population or reproductive decisions (e.g. preimplantation genetic diagnosis) in the context of valuing mere existence.
The main drive behind this project is the rapid progress in biomedical research combined with new kinds of uncertainties. These new and “deep” uncertainties trigger specific forms of emotions and cognitions that influence normative judgments and decisions. The main research questions that will be addressed by conceptual analysis, new psychological experiments, and case studies are the following: how do the heuristics and biases (H&B) documented by behavioral scientists influence the formation of normative judgments in bioethical contexts; how to demarcate between distorted and undistorted value judgments; to what extent is it permissible for individuals or policy makers to yield to H&B. The hypothesis is that many existing bioethical rules, regulations, practices seem to have emerged from unreliable reactions, rather than by means of deliberation on the possible justifications for alternative ways to decide about them under several layers and types of uncertainty.
Summary
Uncertainty is everywhere, as the saying goes, but rarely considered in ethical reflections. This project aims to reinterpret ethical discussions on current advances in biomedicine: instead of understanding bioethical positions as extensions of classical normative views in ethics (consequentialism, deontologism, contractualism etc.), my project interprets them more accurately as involving various normative approaches to decision making under uncertainty. The following hard cases in bioethics provide the motivation for research:
1) Regulating scientific research under uncertainty about the ontological/moral status (e.g. parthenogenetic stem cells derived from human parthenotes) in the context of meta-reasoning under normative uncertainty.
2) The value of preventive medicine in healthcare (e.g. vaccinations) in the context of decision-making under metaphysical indeterminacy.
3) Population or reproductive decisions (e.g. preimplantation genetic diagnosis) in the context of valuing mere existence.
The main drive behind this project is the rapid progress in biomedical research combined with new kinds of uncertainties. These new and “deep” uncertainties trigger specific forms of emotions and cognitions that influence normative judgments and decisions. The main research questions that will be addressed by conceptual analysis, new psychological experiments, and case studies are the following: how do the heuristics and biases (H&B) documented by behavioral scientists influence the formation of normative judgments in bioethical contexts; how to demarcate between distorted and undistorted value judgments; to what extent is it permissible for individuals or policy makers to yield to H&B. The hypothesis is that many existing bioethical rules, regulations, practices seem to have emerged from unreliable reactions, rather than by means of deliberation on the possible justifications for alternative ways to decide about them under several layers and types of uncertainty.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 625 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym BLAST
Project Eclipsing binary stars as cutting edge laboratories for astrophysics of stellar
structure, stellar evolution and planet formation
Researcher (PI) Maciej Konacki
Host Institution (HI) CENTRUM ASTRONOMICZNE IM. MIKOLAJAKOPERNIKA POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE9, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary Spectroscopic binary stars (SB2s) and in particular spectroscopic eclipsing binaries are one of the most useful objects in astrophysics. Their photometric and spectroscopic observations allow one to determine basic parameters of stars and carry out a wide range of tests of stellar structure, evolution and dynamics. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, they can also contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of (extrasolar) planets. We will study eclipsing binary stars by combining the classic - stellar astronomy - and the modern - extrasolar planets - subjects into a cutting edge project.
We propose to search for and subsequently characterize circumbinary planets around ~350 eclipsing SB2s using our own novel cutting edge radial velocity technique for binary stars and a modern version of the photometry based eclipse timing of eclipsing binary stars employing 0.5-m robotic telescopes. We will also derive basic parameters of up to ~700 stars (~350 binaries) with an unprecedented precision. In particular for about 50% of our sample we expect to deliver masses of the components with an accuracy ~10-100 times better than the current state of the art.
Our project will provide unique constraints for the theories of planet formation and evolution and an unprecedented in quality set of the basic parameters of stars to test the theories of the stellar structure and evolution.
Summary
Spectroscopic binary stars (SB2s) and in particular spectroscopic eclipsing binaries are one of the most useful objects in astrophysics. Their photometric and spectroscopic observations allow one to determine basic parameters of stars and carry out a wide range of tests of stellar structure, evolution and dynamics. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, they can also contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of (extrasolar) planets. We will study eclipsing binary stars by combining the classic - stellar astronomy - and the modern - extrasolar planets - subjects into a cutting edge project.
We propose to search for and subsequently characterize circumbinary planets around ~350 eclipsing SB2s using our own novel cutting edge radial velocity technique for binary stars and a modern version of the photometry based eclipse timing of eclipsing binary stars employing 0.5-m robotic telescopes. We will also derive basic parameters of up to ~700 stars (~350 binaries) with an unprecedented precision. In particular for about 50% of our sample we expect to deliver masses of the components with an accuracy ~10-100 times better than the current state of the art.
Our project will provide unique constraints for the theories of planet formation and evolution and an unprecedented in quality set of the basic parameters of stars to test the theories of the stellar structure and evolution.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2016-11-30
Project acronym CepBin
Project A sub-percent distance scale from binaries and Cepheids
Researcher (PI) Grzegorz PIETRZYNSKI
Host Institution (HI) CENTRUM ASTRONOMICZNE IM. MIKOLAJAKOPERNIKA POLSKIEJ AKADEMII NAUK
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE9, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary We propose to carry out a project which will produce a decisive step towards improving the accuracy of the Hubble constant as determined from the Cepheid-SN Ia method to 1%, by using 28 extremely rare eclipsing binary systems in the LMC which offer the potential to determine their distances to 1%. To achieve this accuracy we will reduce the main error in the binary method by interferometric angular diameter measurements of a sample of red clump stars which resemble the stars in our binary systems. We will check on our calibration with similar binary systems close enough to determine their orbits from interferometry. We already showed the feasibility of our method which yielded the best-ever distance determination to the LMC of 2.2% from 8 such binary systems. With 28 systems and the improved angular diameter calibration we will push the LMC distance uncertainty down to 1% which will allow to set the zero point of the Cepheid PL relation with the same accuracy using the large available LMC Cepheid sample. We will determine the metallicity effect on Cepheid luminosities by a) determining a 2% distance to the more metal-poor SMC with our binary method, and by b) measuring the distances to LMC and SMC with an improved Baade-Wesselink (BW) method. We will achieve this improvement by analyzing 9 unique Cepheids in eclipsing binaries in the LMC our group has discovered which allow factor- of-ten improvements in the determination of all basic physical parameters of Cepheids. These studies will also increase our confidence in the Cepheid-based H0 determination. Our project bears strong synergy to the Gaia mission by providing the best checks on possible systematic uncertainties on Gaia parallaxes with 200 binary systems whose distances we will measure to 1-2%. We will provide two unique tools for 1-3 % distance determinations to individual objects in a volume of 1 Mpc, being competitive to Gaia already at a distance of 1 kpc from the Sun.
Summary
We propose to carry out a project which will produce a decisive step towards improving the accuracy of the Hubble constant as determined from the Cepheid-SN Ia method to 1%, by using 28 extremely rare eclipsing binary systems in the LMC which offer the potential to determine their distances to 1%. To achieve this accuracy we will reduce the main error in the binary method by interferometric angular diameter measurements of a sample of red clump stars which resemble the stars in our binary systems. We will check on our calibration with similar binary systems close enough to determine their orbits from interferometry. We already showed the feasibility of our method which yielded the best-ever distance determination to the LMC of 2.2% from 8 such binary systems. With 28 systems and the improved angular diameter calibration we will push the LMC distance uncertainty down to 1% which will allow to set the zero point of the Cepheid PL relation with the same accuracy using the large available LMC Cepheid sample. We will determine the metallicity effect on Cepheid luminosities by a) determining a 2% distance to the more metal-poor SMC with our binary method, and by b) measuring the distances to LMC and SMC with an improved Baade-Wesselink (BW) method. We will achieve this improvement by analyzing 9 unique Cepheids in eclipsing binaries in the LMC our group has discovered which allow factor- of-ten improvements in the determination of all basic physical parameters of Cepheids. These studies will also increase our confidence in the Cepheid-based H0 determination. Our project bears strong synergy to the Gaia mission by providing the best checks on possible systematic uncertainties on Gaia parallaxes with 200 binary systems whose distances we will measure to 1-2%. We will provide two unique tools for 1-3 % distance determinations to individual objects in a volume of 1 Mpc, being competitive to Gaia already at a distance of 1 kpc from the Sun.
Max ERC Funding
2 360 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-11-01, End date: 2021-10-31
Project acronym FIELDS-KNOTS
Project Quantum fields and knot homologies
Researcher (PI) Piotr Sulkowski
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary This project is concerned with fundamental problems arising at the interface of quantum field theory, knot theory, and the theory of random matrices. The main aim of the project is to understand two of the most profound phenomena in physics and mathematics, namely quantization and categorification, and to establish an explicit and rigorous framework where they come into play in an interrelated fashion. The project and its aims focus on the following areas:
- Knot homologies and superpolynomials. The aim of the project in this area is to determine homological knot invariants and to derive an explicit form of colored superpolynomials for a large class of knots and links.
- Super-A-polynomial. The aim of the project in this area is to develop a theory of the super-A-polynomial, to find an explicit form of the super-A-polynomial for a large class of knots, and to understand its properties.
- Three-dimensional supersymmetric N=2 theories. This project aims to find and understand dualities between theories in this class, in particular theories related to knots by 3d-3d duality, and to generalize this duality to the level of homological knot invariants.
- Topological recursion and quantization. The project aims to develop a quantization procedure based on the topological recursion, to demonstrate its consistency with knot-theoretic quantization of A-polynomials, and to generalize this quantization scheme to super-A-polynomials.
All these research areas are connected via remarkable dualities unraveled very recently by physicists and mathematicians. The project is interdisciplinary and aims to reach the above goals by taking advantage of these dualities, and through simultaneous and complementary development in quantum field theory, knot theory, and random matrix theory, in collaboration with renowned experts in each of those fields.
Summary
This project is concerned with fundamental problems arising at the interface of quantum field theory, knot theory, and the theory of random matrices. The main aim of the project is to understand two of the most profound phenomena in physics and mathematics, namely quantization and categorification, and to establish an explicit and rigorous framework where they come into play in an interrelated fashion. The project and its aims focus on the following areas:
- Knot homologies and superpolynomials. The aim of the project in this area is to determine homological knot invariants and to derive an explicit form of colored superpolynomials for a large class of knots and links.
- Super-A-polynomial. The aim of the project in this area is to develop a theory of the super-A-polynomial, to find an explicit form of the super-A-polynomial for a large class of knots, and to understand its properties.
- Three-dimensional supersymmetric N=2 theories. This project aims to find and understand dualities between theories in this class, in particular theories related to knots by 3d-3d duality, and to generalize this duality to the level of homological knot invariants.
- Topological recursion and quantization. The project aims to develop a quantization procedure based on the topological recursion, to demonstrate its consistency with knot-theoretic quantization of A-polynomials, and to generalize this quantization scheme to super-A-polynomials.
All these research areas are connected via remarkable dualities unraveled very recently by physicists and mathematicians. The project is interdisciplinary and aims to reach the above goals by taking advantage of these dualities, and through simultaneous and complementary development in quantum field theory, knot theory, and random matrix theory, in collaboration with renowned experts in each of those fields.
Max ERC Funding
1 345 080 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-12-01, End date: 2018-11-30
Project acronym KaraimBible
Project (Re)constructing a Bible. A new approach to unedited Biblical manuscripts as sources for the early history of the Karaim language
Researcher (PI) Michal NÉMETH
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET JAGIELLONSKI
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Eastern European Karaims are the sole representatives of Karaite Judaism in Europe. Their native tongue is a severely endangered Turkic vernacular listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds’ Languages in Danger. Due to many historical events, including World War II and the Soviet era, the cultural heritage of this intriguing ethnic minority suffered great losses. At the same time, since its investigation requires a rare combination of unique linguistic and palaeographic skills merely a fraction of its surviving written heritage has entered scholarly circulation. In particular, no comprehensive edition of the Karaim Hebrew Bible exists, even though nearly 100 Karaim Biblical texts have been discovered to date.
The project will construct a digital edition of the entire Karaim Bible, almost exclusively based on unedited texts in Hebrew script (15th–20th cc). It will be used as a tool to deliver the first linguistic and palaeographic descriptions of the oldest, still unedited records of Karaim as well as reconstruct the way in which the Karaim Bible was created. Combining traditional and computer-aided research methods will provide essential data on the early history of the Karaim language and ethnicity. The edition will be a highly complex instrument interconnected with a dictionary, which is an absolute novelty in the field.
The edition will contain the first ever comprehensive Karaim translation intelligible to present-day native-speakers. The texts will be treated according to the principles of textual criticism and translated into English. If permitted, facsimiles will be provided. One exciting aspect of the enterprise is that it will offer a virtual unification of the Karaim translations of one of the most important and influential works in world literature. Such a task is of fundamental importance and is crucial to sustaining an endangered culture, given that an awareness of the oldest Bible translations is an important component of European national identities.
Summary
Eastern European Karaims are the sole representatives of Karaite Judaism in Europe. Their native tongue is a severely endangered Turkic vernacular listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the Worlds’ Languages in Danger. Due to many historical events, including World War II and the Soviet era, the cultural heritage of this intriguing ethnic minority suffered great losses. At the same time, since its investigation requires a rare combination of unique linguistic and palaeographic skills merely a fraction of its surviving written heritage has entered scholarly circulation. In particular, no comprehensive edition of the Karaim Hebrew Bible exists, even though nearly 100 Karaim Biblical texts have been discovered to date.
The project will construct a digital edition of the entire Karaim Bible, almost exclusively based on unedited texts in Hebrew script (15th–20th cc). It will be used as a tool to deliver the first linguistic and palaeographic descriptions of the oldest, still unedited records of Karaim as well as reconstruct the way in which the Karaim Bible was created. Combining traditional and computer-aided research methods will provide essential data on the early history of the Karaim language and ethnicity. The edition will be a highly complex instrument interconnected with a dictionary, which is an absolute novelty in the field.
The edition will contain the first ever comprehensive Karaim translation intelligible to present-day native-speakers. The texts will be treated according to the principles of textual criticism and translated into English. If permitted, facsimiles will be provided. One exciting aspect of the enterprise is that it will offer a virtual unification of the Karaim translations of one of the most important and influential works in world literature. Such a task is of fundamental importance and is crucial to sustaining an endangered culture, given that an awareness of the oldest Bible translations is an important component of European national identities.
Max ERC Funding
1 484 075 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-02-01, End date: 2024-01-31
Project acronym McHAP
Project Entrapment of Hypoxic Cancer by Macrophages Loaded with HAP
Researcher (PI) Magdalena KROL
Host Institution (HI) SZKOLA GLOWNA GOSPODARSTWA WIEJSKIEGO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS9, ERC-2016-STG
Summary The proposed project seeks to open a new research front within the field of drug delivery to the solid tumours. Unsatisfactory response of tumours to chemotherapy is mainly related to impaired diffusion of the anticancer drug because of decreased drug uptake due to poor vasculature. Moreover, the drug is not able to penetrate the most hypoxic sites. Cells from these ‘untreated’ sites are responsible for relapse and metastasis. However, these avascular regions attract macrophages that migrate even to areas far away from blood vessels. Therefore, they might constitute a unique delivery system of drug containing particles to these parts of the tumour mass. A promising example of such particles that could be used are ferritins, whose caged architecture allows for efficient drug encapsulation and whose uptake from macrophage cells has been well demonstrated. My recent ground breaking finding was that macrophages are also able to specifically and actively transfer these taken up ferritins (loaded with the compound of choice) to cancer cells. Thus, these preliminary results indicate the possibility to use macrophages to deliver ferritin encapsulated compounds directly to the tumour cells even in its hypoxic areas. Then, the use of hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAP) which are selectively activated only in hypoxic regions will be exploited in order to make cancer therapy safer. However, the molecular mechanism of ferritin uptake by macrophages, their storage, and transport to the cancer cells represent key issues to be investigated and pave the way to the experimental design of the present project.
In the present project, we will develop and characterize a completely new and modern approach to anticancer therapy and drug delivery. As such we expect to be able to precisely administer drugs to the tumour site (even to the hypoxic regions) where it is activated by tumour-specific conditions, avoiding side effects of anticancer therapy.
Summary
The proposed project seeks to open a new research front within the field of drug delivery to the solid tumours. Unsatisfactory response of tumours to chemotherapy is mainly related to impaired diffusion of the anticancer drug because of decreased drug uptake due to poor vasculature. Moreover, the drug is not able to penetrate the most hypoxic sites. Cells from these ‘untreated’ sites are responsible for relapse and metastasis. However, these avascular regions attract macrophages that migrate even to areas far away from blood vessels. Therefore, they might constitute a unique delivery system of drug containing particles to these parts of the tumour mass. A promising example of such particles that could be used are ferritins, whose caged architecture allows for efficient drug encapsulation and whose uptake from macrophage cells has been well demonstrated. My recent ground breaking finding was that macrophages are also able to specifically and actively transfer these taken up ferritins (loaded with the compound of choice) to cancer cells. Thus, these preliminary results indicate the possibility to use macrophages to deliver ferritin encapsulated compounds directly to the tumour cells even in its hypoxic areas. Then, the use of hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAP) which are selectively activated only in hypoxic regions will be exploited in order to make cancer therapy safer. However, the molecular mechanism of ferritin uptake by macrophages, their storage, and transport to the cancer cells represent key issues to be investigated and pave the way to the experimental design of the present project.
In the present project, we will develop and characterize a completely new and modern approach to anticancer therapy and drug delivery. As such we expect to be able to precisely administer drugs to the tumour site (even to the hypoxic regions) where it is activated by tumour-specific conditions, avoiding side effects of anticancer therapy.
Max ERC Funding
1 413 750 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2021-12-31
Project acronym NAMO
Project Narrative Modes of Historical Discourse in Asia
Researcher (PI) Ulrich Timme Kragh
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET IM. ADAMA MICKIEWICZA W POZNANIU
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary Modern historiography produced in Asia belongs to the history-paradigm of the European humanities and it is from within these epistemological confines that Western as well as Eastern scholars of Asian studies view the Asian writing of the past. While source criticism and historicism have today become key parts of historical consciousness in Asia, Asian historical representations are nonetheless firmly embedded in pre-modern Asian literary traditions via specific uses in historical writing of traditional rhetorical structures of narrative, emplotment, tropes, and literary imagery.
Taking such linkage between present and past Asian traditions of historiography as its premise, project NAMO – with four team members consisting of the PI and three Postdocs – will examine the literary features of Asian historiography in India, China, and Tibet across the longue durée of the classical, medieval, and modern periods. First, a new method for the study of the literary forms that characterize historiography in Asia will be established by adapting basic analytical principles from Asian literary theories drawn from twelve classical Indian and Chinese works on poetics. Next, the team will determine the specific literary characteristics of narrative, plot, tropes, and historical explanation found in seventeen classical and medieval histories composed in China, India, and Tibet. Finally, it will be examined to which extent those traditional literary features still function as constitutive rhetorical elements in modern Asian history writing. This will be done by analyzing the literary forms used in a selection of twenty representative histories written in the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India during the period 1980-2010.
The outcome will be a novel approach for the empirical study of Asian history that will open up a new level of comparative work in the theory of history across non-Western and Western traditions.
Summary
Modern historiography produced in Asia belongs to the history-paradigm of the European humanities and it is from within these epistemological confines that Western as well as Eastern scholars of Asian studies view the Asian writing of the past. While source criticism and historicism have today become key parts of historical consciousness in Asia, Asian historical representations are nonetheless firmly embedded in pre-modern Asian literary traditions via specific uses in historical writing of traditional rhetorical structures of narrative, emplotment, tropes, and literary imagery.
Taking such linkage between present and past Asian traditions of historiography as its premise, project NAMO – with four team members consisting of the PI and three Postdocs – will examine the literary features of Asian historiography in India, China, and Tibet across the longue durée of the classical, medieval, and modern periods. First, a new method for the study of the literary forms that characterize historiography in Asia will be established by adapting basic analytical principles from Asian literary theories drawn from twelve classical Indian and Chinese works on poetics. Next, the team will determine the specific literary characteristics of narrative, plot, tropes, and historical explanation found in seventeen classical and medieval histories composed in China, India, and Tibet. Finally, it will be examined to which extent those traditional literary features still function as constitutive rhetorical elements in modern Asian history writing. This will be done by analyzing the literary forms used in a selection of twenty representative histories written in the People's Republic of China and the Republic of India during the period 1980-2010.
The outcome will be a novel approach for the empirical study of Asian history that will open up a new level of comparative work in the theory of history across non-Western and Western traditions.
Max ERC Funding
1 995 162 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-12-01, End date: 2019-11-30
Project acronym NEGOTIATINGMODERNITY
Project “Negotiating Modernity”: History of Modern Political Thought in East-Central Europe
Researcher (PI) Balázs Trencsényi
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDY SOFIA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2007-StG
Summary The principal aim of the Project is an unprecedented synthetic volume on the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. It is not meant to be compartmentalized according to national sub-chapters but based on a diachronic analysis especially sensitive to transnational discursive phenomena (e.g. the ideological traditions transcending national borders such as liberalism, socialism, conservatism, federalism), and being equally open to supra-national and sub-national (regional) frameworks, where different national projects were interacting. The project entails the task of “redescription” and conceptual transfer, i.e. finding a regional and trans-culturally acceptable set of analytical categories, as well as new knowledge-production – answering questions about the basic components of European political thought, formulated on the basis of a regional and trans-regional comparative analysis. It also necessitates the “trading” of concepts: both in the direction of inserting specific historical experiences and analytical categories into European circulation, and also testing the value of the interpretative models linked to such notions as “populism”. The project thus aims neither at a compendium of case-studies nor at a deductive Area Studies-type of approach that tends to eliminate differences to forge a general narrative. What it seeks to produce instead is a cross-cultural “synthesis”– the work of a compact team of multi-national composition, skilled in comparative research and drawing on the recent upsurge of transnational historiography. By shifting the reference point of historical thinking from the “West” to the cross-European experience with a special emphasis on East-Central Europe, in other words, the project seeks to rethink the history of the “negotiation of political modernity,” moving from “moral ethnocentrism” and oversimplification towards a more encompassing notion of what constitutes the European intellectual heritage.
Summary
The principal aim of the Project is an unprecedented synthetic volume on the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. It is not meant to be compartmentalized according to national sub-chapters but based on a diachronic analysis especially sensitive to transnational discursive phenomena (e.g. the ideological traditions transcending national borders such as liberalism, socialism, conservatism, federalism), and being equally open to supra-national and sub-national (regional) frameworks, where different national projects were interacting. The project entails the task of “redescription” and conceptual transfer, i.e. finding a regional and trans-culturally acceptable set of analytical categories, as well as new knowledge-production – answering questions about the basic components of European political thought, formulated on the basis of a regional and trans-regional comparative analysis. It also necessitates the “trading” of concepts: both in the direction of inserting specific historical experiences and analytical categories into European circulation, and also testing the value of the interpretative models linked to such notions as “populism”. The project thus aims neither at a compendium of case-studies nor at a deductive Area Studies-type of approach that tends to eliminate differences to forge a general narrative. What it seeks to produce instead is a cross-cultural “synthesis”– the work of a compact team of multi-national composition, skilled in comparative research and drawing on the recent upsurge of transnational historiography. By shifting the reference point of historical thinking from the “West” to the cross-European experience with a special emphasis on East-Central Europe, in other words, the project seeks to rethink the history of the “negotiation of political modernity,” moving from “moral ethnocentrism” and oversimplification towards a more encompassing notion of what constitutes the European intellectual heritage.
Max ERC Funding
689 579 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-04-01, End date: 2013-04-30
Project acronym OGLEIV
Project Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment: New Frontiers in Observational Astronomy
Researcher (PI) Andrzej Udalski
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE9, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary We apply for financial support for the new, fourth phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-IV) - one of the largest scale sky surveys worldwide, operating continuously since 1992. During its operation the OGLE project contributed significantly to many fields of modern astrophysics including gravitational microlensing, extrasolar planets searches, stellar astrophysics, Galactic structure and many others. The main scientific goal of the OGLE-IV phase will be the second generation planetary microlensing survey. It should result in top rank discoveries of the Earth mass planets and should provide the full census of planets down to Earth masses orbiting their hosts at 1-5 AU orbits. This parameter space is only accessible to the microlensing technique. Complementary census of planets orbiting at the distances smaller that 1 AU is to be made by space missions using transit technique. OGLE-IV survey will also conduct research in many other top rank astrophysical topics like the search for Pluto size dwarf planets from the Kuiper Belt, search for free-floating black holes, microlensing in the Magellanic Clouds and Galactic disk. Hundreds of new discoveries in the variable star field are also guaranteed. Moreover, OGLE-IV will operate on-line services providing real time photometry of variable objects of many types. The OGLE-IV data will be placed in public domain and available to the astronomical community.
Summary
We apply for financial support for the new, fourth phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-IV) - one of the largest scale sky surveys worldwide, operating continuously since 1992. During its operation the OGLE project contributed significantly to many fields of modern astrophysics including gravitational microlensing, extrasolar planets searches, stellar astrophysics, Galactic structure and many others. The main scientific goal of the OGLE-IV phase will be the second generation planetary microlensing survey. It should result in top rank discoveries of the Earth mass planets and should provide the full census of planets down to Earth masses orbiting their hosts at 1-5 AU orbits. This parameter space is only accessible to the microlensing technique. Complementary census of planets orbiting at the distances smaller that 1 AU is to be made by space missions using transit technique. OGLE-IV survey will also conduct research in many other top rank astrophysical topics like the search for Pluto size dwarf planets from the Kuiper Belt, search for free-floating black holes, microlensing in the Magellanic Clouds and Galactic disk. Hundreds of new discoveries in the variable star field are also guaranteed. Moreover, OGLE-IV will operate on-line services providing real time photometry of variable objects of many types. The OGLE-IV data will be placed in public domain and available to the astronomical community.
Max ERC Funding
2 498 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym OurMythicalChildhood
Project Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges
Researcher (PI) Katarzyna Marciniak
Host Institution (HI) UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary The project aims at developing a pioneering approach to the reception of Classical Antiquity in children’s and young adults’ contemporary culture. This newly identified research field offers valuable insights into the processes leading to the formation of the culture recipients’ identities along with their initiation into adulthood. However, the most vital potential of this phenomenon remains unexploited, for the research is still selective, focused mainly on Western culture. With my project, I intend to overcome these limitations by applying regional perspectives without the pejorative implication of regional as parochial or inferior. I recognize regions as extremely valuable contexts of the reception of Antiquity, which is not only passively taken in, but also actively reshaped in children’s and young adults’ culture in response to regional and global challenges. Thus, the essence of this innovative approach consists in comparative studies of differing reception models not only across Europe but also America, Australia & New Zealand and – a bold but necessary step – in parts of the world not commonly associated with Graeco-Roman tradition: Africa and Asia. The shared heritage of Classical Antiquity, recently enhanced by the global influence of popular culture (movies, Internet activities, computer games inspired by the classical tradition), gives a unique opportunity – through the reception filter – to gain deeper understanding of the key social, political and cultural transformations underway at various locations. The added value of this original research, carried out by an international team of scholars, will be its extremely broad impact on the frontiers of scholarship, education and culture: we will elaborate a supra-regional survey of classical references, publish a number of analyses of crucial reception cases, and prepare materials on how to use ancient myths in work with disabled children, thus contributing to integration and stimulating cultural exchange.
Summary
The project aims at developing a pioneering approach to the reception of Classical Antiquity in children’s and young adults’ contemporary culture. This newly identified research field offers valuable insights into the processes leading to the formation of the culture recipients’ identities along with their initiation into adulthood. However, the most vital potential of this phenomenon remains unexploited, for the research is still selective, focused mainly on Western culture. With my project, I intend to overcome these limitations by applying regional perspectives without the pejorative implication of regional as parochial or inferior. I recognize regions as extremely valuable contexts of the reception of Antiquity, which is not only passively taken in, but also actively reshaped in children’s and young adults’ culture in response to regional and global challenges. Thus, the essence of this innovative approach consists in comparative studies of differing reception models not only across Europe but also America, Australia & New Zealand and – a bold but necessary step – in parts of the world not commonly associated with Graeco-Roman tradition: Africa and Asia. The shared heritage of Classical Antiquity, recently enhanced by the global influence of popular culture (movies, Internet activities, computer games inspired by the classical tradition), gives a unique opportunity – through the reception filter – to gain deeper understanding of the key social, political and cultural transformations underway at various locations. The added value of this original research, carried out by an international team of scholars, will be its extremely broad impact on the frontiers of scholarship, education and culture: we will elaborate a supra-regional survey of classical references, publish a number of analyses of crucial reception cases, and prepare materials on how to use ancient myths in work with disabled children, thus contributing to integration and stimulating cultural exchange.
Max ERC Funding
1 489 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-10-01, End date: 2021-09-30
