ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Demand for biofuels and other biologically derived commodities is growing worldwide as efforts increase to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to limit climate change. Most commercial approaches rely on fermentations of organic matter with its inherent problems in producing CO2 and being in conflict with the food supply of humans. These problems are avoided if CO2 can be used as feedstock. Autotrophic organisms can fix CO2 by producing chemicals that are used as building blocks for the synthesis of cellular components (Biomass). Acetate-forming bacteria (acetogens) do neither require light nor oxygen for this and they can be used in bioreactors to reduce CO2 with hydrogen gas, carbon monoxide or an organic substrate. Gas fermentation using these bacteria has already been realized on an industrial level in two pre-commercial 100,000 gal/yr demonstration facilities to produce fuel ethanol from abundant waste gas resources (by LanzaTech). Acetogens can metabolise a wide variety of substrates that could be used for the production of biocommodities. However, their broad use to produce biofuels and platform chemicals from substrates other than gases or together with gases is hampered by our very limited knowledge about their metabolism and ability to use different substrates simultaneously. Nearly nothing is known about regulatory processes involved in substrate utilization or product formation but this is an absolute requirement for metabolic engineering approaches. The aim of this project is to provide this basic knowledge about metabolic routes in the acetogenic model strain Acetobacterium woodii and their regulation. We will unravel the function of “organelles” found in this bacterium and explore their potential as bio-nanoreactors for the production of biocommodities and pave the road for the industrial use of A. woodii in energy (hydrogen) storage. Thus, this project creates cutting-edge opportunities for the development of biosustainable technologies in Europe.

2 497 140 €

Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30

Mathematical proofs have always been prone to error. Today, proofs can be hundreds of pages long and combine results from many specialisms, making them almost impossible to check. One solution is to deploy modern verification technology. Interactive theorem provers have demonstrated their potential as vehicles for formalising mathematics through achievements such as the verification of the Kepler Conjecture. Proofs done using such tools reach a high standard of correctness. However, existing theorem provers are unsuitable for mathematics. Their formal proofs are unreadable. They struggle to do simple tasks, such as evaluating limits. They lack much basic mathematics, and the material they do have is difficult to locate and apply. ALEXANDRIA will create a proof development environment attractive to working mathematicians, utilising the best technology available across computer science. Its focus will be the management and use of large-scale mathematical knowledge, both theorems and algorithms. The project will employ mathematicians to investigate the formalisation of mathematics in practice. Our already substantial formalised libraries will serve as the starting point. They will be extended and annotated to support sophisticated searches. Techniques will be borrowed from machine learning, information retrieval and natural language processing. Algorithms will be treated similarly: ALEXANDRIA will help users find and invoke the proof methods and algorithms appropriate for the task. ALEXANDRIA will provide (1) comprehensive formal mathematical libraries; (2) search within libraries, and the mining of libraries for proof patterns; (3) automated support for the construction of large formal proofs; (4) sound and practical computer algebra tools. ALEXANDRIA will be based on legible structured proofs. Formal proofs should be not mere code, but a machine-checkable form of communication between mathematicians.

2 430 140 €

Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31

AnonymClassic is the first ever comprehensive study of Kalila and Dimna (a book of wisdom in fable form), a text of premodern world literature. Its spread is comparable to that of the Bible, except that it passed from Hinduism and Buddhism via Islam to Christianity. Its Arabic version, produced in the 8th century, when this was the lingua franca of the Near East, became the source of all further translations up to the 19th century. The work’s multilingual history involving circa forty languages has never been systematically studied. The absence of available research has made world literature ignore it, while scholars of Arabic avoided it because of its widely diverging manuscripts, so that the actual shape of the Arabic key version is still in need of investigation. AnonymClassic tests a number of ‘high-risk’ propositions, including three key hypotheses: 1) The anonymous Arabic copyists of Kalila and Dimna are de facto co-authors, 2) their agency is comparable to that of the named medieval translators, and 3) the fluctuation of the Arabic versions is conditioned by the work’s fictional status. AnonymClassic’s methodology relies on a cross-lingual narratological analysis of the Arabic versions and all medieval translations (supported by a synoptic digital edition), which takes precisely the interventions at each stage of transmission (redaction, translation) as its subject. Considering the work’s paths of dissemination from India to Europe, AnonymClassic will challenge the prevalent Western theoretical lens on world literature conceived ‘from above’ with the view ‘from below,’ based on the attested cross-cultural network constituted by its versions. AnonymClassic will introduce a new paradigm of an East-Western literary continuum with Arabic as a cultural bridge. Against the current background of Europe’s diversifying and multicultural society, AnonymClassic purposes to integrate pre-modern Near Eastern literature and culture into our understanding of Global Culture.

2 435 113 €

Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31

We propose the development of the chemistry of black phosphorus (BP). B-PhosphoChem will constitute a new text book chapter in the realm of synthetic chemistry located at the interface of inorganic-, organic-, and materials chemistry as well as solid state physics. B-PhosphoChem will provide the basis for exciting and so far elusive applications such as ion batteries and stable high performance devices. Thin sheets of BP represent a new class of 2D materials and have recently raised tremendous interest in the scientific community. Outstanding physical properties such as high charge carrier mobility, combined with transparency and the persistence of a band gap have been discovered. However, the chemistry of BP remains still unexplored. B-PhosphoChem will close this gap and will a) provide the opportunity to modulate and fine tune the physical properties, b) allow for considerably improving the processability and increasing the solubility, c) establish concepts for the desired chemical stabilization, d) give access to the combination of BP properties with those of other compound classes, e) reveal the fundamental chemical properties and reactivity principles, and f) provide methods for establishing practical applications. Five work packages will be addressed: 1) Production of Thin Layer BP, 2) Supramolecular Chemistry of BP, 3) Intercalation Compounds of BP, 4) Covalent Chemistry of BP, and 5) BP-Based Materials and Devices. The work packages will be supported by systematic calculations. For our group, whose core competence is synthetic organic and supramolecular chemistry, the orientation towards inorganic phosphorus chemistry constitutes a major step into a completely new direction. However, we are convinced to be the most predestinated research group in the world successfully facing this challenge because of our leadership and well documented interdisciplinary experience in synthesizing and characterizing 0D-, 1D-, and 2D nanostructures.

2 491 250 €

Start date: 2017-08-01, End date: 2022-07-31