Project acronym A-BINGOS
Project Accreting binary populations in Nearby Galaxies: Observations and Simulations
Researcher (PI) Andreas Zezas
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE9, ERC-2013-CoG
Summary "High-energy observations of our Galaxy offer a good, albeit not complete, picture of the X-ray source populations, in particular the accreting binary sources. Recent ability to study accreting binaries in nearby galaxies has shown that we would be short-sighted if we restricted ourselves to our Galaxy or to a few nearby ones. I propose an ambitious project that involves a comprehensive study of all the galaxies within 10 Mpc for which we can study in detail their X-ray sources and stellar populations. The study will combine data from a unique suite of observatories (Chandra, XMM-Newton, HST, Spitzer) with state-of-the-art theoretical modelling of binary systems. I propose a novel approach that links the accreting binary populations to their parent stellar populations and surpasses any current studies of X-ray binary populations, both in scale and in scope, by: (a) combining methods and results from several different areas of astrophysics (compact objects, binary systems, stellar populations, galaxy evolution); (b) using data from almost the whole electromagnetic spectrum (infrared to X-ray bands); (c) identifying and studying the different sub-populations of accreting binaries; and (d) performing direct comparison between observations and theoretical predictions, over a broad parameter space. The project: (a) will answer the long-standing question of the formation efficiency of accreting binaries in different environments; and (b) will constrain their evolutionary paths. As by-products the project will provide eagerly awaited input to the fields of gravitational-wave sources, γ-ray bursts, and X-ray emitting galaxies at cosmological distances and it will produce a heritage multi-wavelength dataset and library of models for future studies of galaxies and accreting binaries."
Summary
"High-energy observations of our Galaxy offer a good, albeit not complete, picture of the X-ray source populations, in particular the accreting binary sources. Recent ability to study accreting binaries in nearby galaxies has shown that we would be short-sighted if we restricted ourselves to our Galaxy or to a few nearby ones. I propose an ambitious project that involves a comprehensive study of all the galaxies within 10 Mpc for which we can study in detail their X-ray sources and stellar populations. The study will combine data from a unique suite of observatories (Chandra, XMM-Newton, HST, Spitzer) with state-of-the-art theoretical modelling of binary systems. I propose a novel approach that links the accreting binary populations to their parent stellar populations and surpasses any current studies of X-ray binary populations, both in scale and in scope, by: (a) combining methods and results from several different areas of astrophysics (compact objects, binary systems, stellar populations, galaxy evolution); (b) using data from almost the whole electromagnetic spectrum (infrared to X-ray bands); (c) identifying and studying the different sub-populations of accreting binaries; and (d) performing direct comparison between observations and theoretical predictions, over a broad parameter space. The project: (a) will answer the long-standing question of the formation efficiency of accreting binaries in different environments; and (b) will constrain their evolutionary paths. As by-products the project will provide eagerly awaited input to the fields of gravitational-wave sources, γ-ray bursts, and X-ray emitting galaxies at cosmological distances and it will produce a heritage multi-wavelength dataset and library of models for future studies of galaxies and accreting binaries."
Max ERC Funding
1 242 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31
Project acronym ASSESS
Project Episodic Mass Loss in the Most Massive Stars: Key to Understanding the Explosive Early Universe
Researcher (PI) Alceste BONANOS
Host Institution (HI) NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE9, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Massive stars dominate their surroundings during their short lifetimes, while their explosive deaths impact the chemical evolution and spatial cohesion of their hosts. After birth, their evolution is largely dictated by their ability to remove layers of hydrogen from their envelopes. Multiple lines of evidence are pointing to violent, episodic mass-loss events being responsible for removing a large part of the massive stellar envelope, especially in low-metallicity galaxies. Episodic mass loss, however, is not understood theoretically, neither accounted for in state-of-the-art models of stellar evolution, which has far-reaching consequences for many areas of astronomy. We aim to determine whether episodic mass loss is a dominant process in the evolution of the most massive stars by conducting the first extensive, multi-wavelength survey of evolved massive stars in the nearby Universe. The project hinges on the fact that mass-losing stars form dust and are bright in the mid-infrared. We plan to (i) derive physical parameters of a large sample of dusty, evolved targets and estimate the amount of ejected mass, (ii) constrain evolutionary models, (iii) quantify the duration and frequency of episodic mass loss as a function of metallicity. The approach involves applying machine-learning algorithms to existing multi-band and time-series photometry of luminous sources in ~25 nearby galaxies. Dusty, luminous evolved massive stars will thus be automatically classified and follow-up spectroscopy will be obtained for selected targets. Atmospheric and SED modeling will yield parameters and estimates of time-dependent mass loss for ~1000 luminous stars. The emerging trend for the ubiquity of episodic mass loss, if confirmed, will be key to understanding the explosive early Universe and will have profound consequences for low-metallicity stars, reionization, and the chemical evolution of galaxies.
Summary
Massive stars dominate their surroundings during their short lifetimes, while their explosive deaths impact the chemical evolution and spatial cohesion of their hosts. After birth, their evolution is largely dictated by their ability to remove layers of hydrogen from their envelopes. Multiple lines of evidence are pointing to violent, episodic mass-loss events being responsible for removing a large part of the massive stellar envelope, especially in low-metallicity galaxies. Episodic mass loss, however, is not understood theoretically, neither accounted for in state-of-the-art models of stellar evolution, which has far-reaching consequences for many areas of astronomy. We aim to determine whether episodic mass loss is a dominant process in the evolution of the most massive stars by conducting the first extensive, multi-wavelength survey of evolved massive stars in the nearby Universe. The project hinges on the fact that mass-losing stars form dust and are bright in the mid-infrared. We plan to (i) derive physical parameters of a large sample of dusty, evolved targets and estimate the amount of ejected mass, (ii) constrain evolutionary models, (iii) quantify the duration and frequency of episodic mass loss as a function of metallicity. The approach involves applying machine-learning algorithms to existing multi-band and time-series photometry of luminous sources in ~25 nearby galaxies. Dusty, luminous evolved massive stars will thus be automatically classified and follow-up spectroscopy will be obtained for selected targets. Atmospheric and SED modeling will yield parameters and estimates of time-dependent mass loss for ~1000 luminous stars. The emerging trend for the ubiquity of episodic mass loss, if confirmed, will be key to understanding the explosive early Universe and will have profound consequences for low-metallicity stars, reionization, and the chemical evolution of galaxies.
Max ERC Funding
1 128 750 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym GHOST
Project Geographies and Histories of the Ottoman Supernatural Tradition Exploring Magic, the Marvelous, and the Strange in Ottoman Mentalities
Researcher (PI) Marinos SARIGIANNIS
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The project aims to explore Ottoman notions and belief systems concerning the supernatural. Its major objectives will be to explore the meaning and content of the perceptions of the “supernatural”, to localize such beliefs in the various Ottoman systems of thought, to analyze the changes that took place and to associate them with emerging or declining layers of culture and specific social groups. The project will address larger debates in recent historiography about the relevance of the “disenchantment” and “enlightenment” paradigms, integrating Ottoman intellectual history into the broader early modern cultural history.
The research team, composed of the PI, three post-doctoral fellows, four collaborating researchers, five post-graduate students and a technical assistant, will explore these objectives and produce a web portal (containing crowd-sourced dictionaries and bibliographies, open access papers and other material), three international meetings, monographs and papers, and an annual open-access periodical journal. Specific research modules will study the rationalist trends in Ottoman science, various aspects of the Ottoman occult and magic, and the formation and development of the Ottoman cosmological culture. A monograph will be written by the PI and dwell in: the various conceptions of the supernatural/preternatural and their development, the presence of spirits/jinn in Ottoman world image, theory and practice of Ottoman magic, attitudes toward folklore traditions, saintly miracles, and “marvelous geographies”. Monographs will also be produced by the post-doctoral fellows.
The project proposes an innovative approach in many ways, in a subject very much in the frontiers of the field; by exploring the supernatural and the occult in the context of the Ottoman Weltanschauung, the project will address a wider problématique on the Ottoman culture and its place in early modernity, especially as it will focus to the role of different cultural and social layers.
Summary
The project aims to explore Ottoman notions and belief systems concerning the supernatural. Its major objectives will be to explore the meaning and content of the perceptions of the “supernatural”, to localize such beliefs in the various Ottoman systems of thought, to analyze the changes that took place and to associate them with emerging or declining layers of culture and specific social groups. The project will address larger debates in recent historiography about the relevance of the “disenchantment” and “enlightenment” paradigms, integrating Ottoman intellectual history into the broader early modern cultural history.
The research team, composed of the PI, three post-doctoral fellows, four collaborating researchers, five post-graduate students and a technical assistant, will explore these objectives and produce a web portal (containing crowd-sourced dictionaries and bibliographies, open access papers and other material), three international meetings, monographs and papers, and an annual open-access periodical journal. Specific research modules will study the rationalist trends in Ottoman science, various aspects of the Ottoman occult and magic, and the formation and development of the Ottoman cosmological culture. A monograph will be written by the PI and dwell in: the various conceptions of the supernatural/preternatural and their development, the presence of spirits/jinn in Ottoman world image, theory and practice of Ottoman magic, attitudes toward folklore traditions, saintly miracles, and “marvelous geographies”. Monographs will also be produced by the post-doctoral fellows.
The project proposes an innovative approach in many ways, in a subject very much in the frontiers of the field; by exploring the supernatural and the occult in the context of the Ottoman Weltanschauung, the project will address a wider problématique on the Ottoman culture and its place in early modernity, especially as it will focus to the role of different cultural and social layers.
Max ERC Funding
1 289 824 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28
Project acronym GRASSROOTSMOBILISE
Project Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe: Examining Grassroots Mobilisations in Europe in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence
Researcher (PI) Efterpe Fokas
Host Institution (HI) Elliniko Idryma Evropaikis kai Exoterikis Politikis (HELLENIC FOUNDATION FOR EUROPEAN AND FOREIGN POLICY)
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2013-StG
Summary The European public square has, in the last twenty years and increasingly so, been inundated with controversies around the place of religion in the public sphere. Issues such as freedom of religious expression, freedom of speech v. blasphemy, and the public display of religious symbols loom large in the workplace, in schools, in media coverage etc., at the local, national, and supranational level. The presence of Islam has been a catalyst for many debates on religion in Europe, but these have now grown to encompass much broader assumptions about the nature of religious communities, their relationship to state institutions, and the place of minority religious communities in society. Against this backdrop the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) adds its own voice and significantly influences the terms of the debates. This project examines the domestic impact of the ECtHR religion case law: it explores the mobilisation of local and national level actors in the wake of a number of high-profile ECtHR religious freedom cases in order to determine the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism. In light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts, the project probes developments that take place ‘in the shadow’ of the Court. It engages especially with the extent to which court decisions define the ‘political opportunity structures’ and the discursive frameworks within which citizens act. What is the aftermath of the Court’s religion jurisprudence in terms of its applications at the grassroots level? The question is important because ECtHR case law will shape, to a large extent, both local and national level case law and – less conspicuously but no less importantly – grassroots developments in the promotion of or resistance to religious pluralism. Both the latter will, in turn, influence the future of the ECtHR caseload. The project will thus impart rare insight into directions being taken in religious pluralism in Europe.
Summary
The European public square has, in the last twenty years and increasingly so, been inundated with controversies around the place of religion in the public sphere. Issues such as freedom of religious expression, freedom of speech v. blasphemy, and the public display of religious symbols loom large in the workplace, in schools, in media coverage etc., at the local, national, and supranational level. The presence of Islam has been a catalyst for many debates on religion in Europe, but these have now grown to encompass much broader assumptions about the nature of religious communities, their relationship to state institutions, and the place of minority religious communities in society. Against this backdrop the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) adds its own voice and significantly influences the terms of the debates. This project examines the domestic impact of the ECtHR religion case law: it explores the mobilisation of local and national level actors in the wake of a number of high-profile ECtHR religious freedom cases in order to determine the nature and extent of European juridical influence on religious pluralism. In light of scholarly debates questioning the direct effects of courts, the project probes developments that take place ‘in the shadow’ of the Court. It engages especially with the extent to which court decisions define the ‘political opportunity structures’ and the discursive frameworks within which citizens act. What is the aftermath of the Court’s religion jurisprudence in terms of its applications at the grassroots level? The question is important because ECtHR case law will shape, to a large extent, both local and national level case law and – less conspicuously but no less importantly – grassroots developments in the promotion of or resistance to religious pluralism. Both the latter will, in turn, influence the future of the ECtHR caseload. The project will thus impart rare insight into directions being taken in religious pluralism in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 184 568 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym HETEROPOLITICS
Project Refiguring the Common and the Political
Researcher (PI) Alexandros KIOUPKIOLIS
Host Institution (HI) ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Heteropolitics is a project in contemporary political theory which purports to contribute to the renewal of political thought on the ‘common’ (communities and the commons) and the political in tandem. The common implies a variable interaction between differences which communicate and collaborate in and through their differences, converging partially on practices and particular pursuits. The political pertains to processes through which plural communities manage themselves in ways which enable mutual challenges, deliberation, and creative agency.
Since the dawn of the 21st century, a growing interest in rethinking and reconfiguring community has spread among theorists, citizens and social movements (see e.g. Esposito 2013; Dardot & Laval 2014; Amin & Roberts 2008). This has been triggered by a complex tangle of social, economic and political conditions. Climate change, economic crises, globalization, increasing migration flows and the malaise of liberal democracies loom large among them.
These issues are essentially political. Rethinking and refiguring communities goes hand in hand thus with rethinking and reinventing politics. Hence ‘hetero-politics’, the quest for another politics, which can establish bonds of commonality across differences and can enable action in common without re-enacting the closures of ‘organic’ community or the violence of transformative politics in the past.
Heteropolitics will seek to break new ground by combining an extended re-elaboration of contemporary political theory with a more empirically grounded research into alternative and incipient practices of community building and self-governance in: education; the social economy; art; new modes of civic engagement by young people; new platforms of citizens’ participation in municipal politics; network communities, and other social fields (Relevant cases include Sardex, a community currency in Sardinia; Barcelona en Comú, a citizens’ platform governing the city of Barcelona, etc.)
Summary
Heteropolitics is a project in contemporary political theory which purports to contribute to the renewal of political thought on the ‘common’ (communities and the commons) and the political in tandem. The common implies a variable interaction between differences which communicate and collaborate in and through their differences, converging partially on practices and particular pursuits. The political pertains to processes through which plural communities manage themselves in ways which enable mutual challenges, deliberation, and creative agency.
Since the dawn of the 21st century, a growing interest in rethinking and reconfiguring community has spread among theorists, citizens and social movements (see e.g. Esposito 2013; Dardot & Laval 2014; Amin & Roberts 2008). This has been triggered by a complex tangle of social, economic and political conditions. Climate change, economic crises, globalization, increasing migration flows and the malaise of liberal democracies loom large among them.
These issues are essentially political. Rethinking and refiguring communities goes hand in hand thus with rethinking and reinventing politics. Hence ‘hetero-politics’, the quest for another politics, which can establish bonds of commonality across differences and can enable action in common without re-enacting the closures of ‘organic’ community or the violence of transformative politics in the past.
Heteropolitics will seek to break new ground by combining an extended re-elaboration of contemporary political theory with a more empirically grounded research into alternative and incipient practices of community building and self-governance in: education; the social economy; art; new modes of civic engagement by young people; new platforms of citizens’ participation in municipal politics; network communities, and other social fields (Relevant cases include Sardex, a community currency in Sardinia; Barcelona en Comú, a citizens’ platform governing the city of Barcelona, etc.)
Max ERC Funding
758 031 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2020-07-31
Project acronym PASIPHAE
Project Overcoming the Dominant Foreground of Inflationary B-modes: Tomography of Galactic Magnetic Dust via Measurements of Starlight Polarization
Researcher (PI) Konstantinos TASSIS
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE9, ERC-2017-COG
Summary An inflation-probing B-mode signal in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) would be a discovery of utmost importance in physics. While such a signal is aggressively pursued by experiments around the world, recent Planck results have showed that this breakthrough is still out of reach, because of contamination from Galactic dust. To get to the primordial B-modes, we need to subtract polarized emission of magnetized interstellar dust with high accuracy. A critical piece of this puzzle is the 3D structure of the magnetic field threading dust clouds, which cannot be accessed through microwave observations alone, since they record integrated emission along the line of sight. Instead, observations of a large number of stars at known distances in optical polarization, tracing the same CMB-obscuring dust, can map the magnetic field between them. The Gaia mission is measuring distances to a billion stars, providing an opportunity to produce, the first-ever tomographic map of the Galactic magnetic field, using optical polarization of starlight. Such a map would not only boost CMB polarization foreground removal, but it would also have a profound impact in a wide range of astrophysical research, including interstellar medium physics, high-energy astrophysics, and galactic evolution. Taking advantage of our privately-funded, novel-technology, high-accuracy WALOP optopolarimeters currently under construction, we propose an ambitious optopolarimetric program of unprecedented scale that can meet this challenge: a survey of both northern and southern Galactic polar regions targeted by CMB experiments, covering >10,000 square degrees, which will measure linear optical polarization at 0.2% accuracy of over 360 stars per square degree (over 3.5M stars, a 1000-fold increase over the state of the art), combining wide-field-optimized instruments and an extraordinary commitment of observing time by Skinakas Observatory and the South African Astronomical Observatory.
Summary
An inflation-probing B-mode signal in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) would be a discovery of utmost importance in physics. While such a signal is aggressively pursued by experiments around the world, recent Planck results have showed that this breakthrough is still out of reach, because of contamination from Galactic dust. To get to the primordial B-modes, we need to subtract polarized emission of magnetized interstellar dust with high accuracy. A critical piece of this puzzle is the 3D structure of the magnetic field threading dust clouds, which cannot be accessed through microwave observations alone, since they record integrated emission along the line of sight. Instead, observations of a large number of stars at known distances in optical polarization, tracing the same CMB-obscuring dust, can map the magnetic field between them. The Gaia mission is measuring distances to a billion stars, providing an opportunity to produce, the first-ever tomographic map of the Galactic magnetic field, using optical polarization of starlight. Such a map would not only boost CMB polarization foreground removal, but it would also have a profound impact in a wide range of astrophysical research, including interstellar medium physics, high-energy astrophysics, and galactic evolution. Taking advantage of our privately-funded, novel-technology, high-accuracy WALOP optopolarimeters currently under construction, we propose an ambitious optopolarimetric program of unprecedented scale that can meet this challenge: a survey of both northern and southern Galactic polar regions targeted by CMB experiments, covering >10,000 square degrees, which will measure linear optical polarization at 0.2% accuracy of over 360 stars per square degree (over 3.5M stars, a 1000-fold increase over the state of the art), combining wide-field-optimized instruments and an extraordinary commitment of observing time by Skinakas Observatory and the South African Astronomical Observatory.
Max ERC Funding
1 887 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31
Project acronym PLANTCULT
Project Identifying the food cultures of ancient Europe: an interdisciplinary investigation of plant ingredients, culinary transformation and evolution through time
Researcher (PI) Soultana Maria Valamoti
Host Institution (HI) ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary The project seeks to explore culinary practice among early farming European communities, from the Aegean to Central Europe, spanning the Neolithic through to the Iron Age (7th-1st millennia BC). The project seeks to identify the ‘food cultures’ of prehistoric Europe, and to reconstruct how cultivated and wild plant foods were transformed into dishes exploring their underlying cultural and environmental contexts and their evolution through time. The project will explore how culinary identities were shaped through the selection of plant foods both in terms of ingredients as well as processing and cooking practices. Thus not only species and meals but also the equipment involved in plant food preparation will be considered for the study area, linking the end product to the relevant technologies of transformation. Macroscopic and microscopic examination of the archaeological finds and experimental replication of various aspects of food preparation techniques informed by ethnographic investigations will form the main analytical tools. The interdisciplinary and contextual examination of the archaeological record will provide a fresh insight into prehistoric cuisine in Europe, the transformation of nature to culture through cooking. The project will revolutionise perceptions of prehistoric food preparation providing insights for the ‘longue durée’ of traditional plant foods constituting Europe’s intangible cultural heritage.
Summary
The project seeks to explore culinary practice among early farming European communities, from the Aegean to Central Europe, spanning the Neolithic through to the Iron Age (7th-1st millennia BC). The project seeks to identify the ‘food cultures’ of prehistoric Europe, and to reconstruct how cultivated and wild plant foods were transformed into dishes exploring their underlying cultural and environmental contexts and their evolution through time. The project will explore how culinary identities were shaped through the selection of plant foods both in terms of ingredients as well as processing and cooking practices. Thus not only species and meals but also the equipment involved in plant food preparation will be considered for the study area, linking the end product to the relevant technologies of transformation. Macroscopic and microscopic examination of the archaeological finds and experimental replication of various aspects of food preparation techniques informed by ethnographic investigations will form the main analytical tools. The interdisciplinary and contextual examination of the archaeological record will provide a fresh insight into prehistoric cuisine in Europe, the transformation of nature to culture through cooking. The project will revolutionise perceptions of prehistoric food preparation providing insights for the ‘longue durée’ of traditional plant foods constituting Europe’s intangible cultural heritage.
Max ERC Funding
1 891 875 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31
Project acronym RICONTRANS
Project Visual Culture, Piety and Propaganda: Transfer and Reception of Russian Religious Art in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean (16th to early 20th Century)
Researcher (PI) Yuliana BOYCHEVA
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH6, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The Russian religious artefacts (icons and ecclesiastical furnishings) held in museums, church or monastery collections in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean constitute a body of valuable monuments hitherto largely neglected by historians and historians of art. These objects acquire various interrelated religious/ideological, political and aesthetic meanings, value and uses. Their transfer and reception is a significant component of the larger process of transformation of the artistic language and visual culture in the region and its transition from medieval to modern idioms. It is at the same time a process reflecting the changing cultural and political relations between Russia and the Orthodox communities in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states in the Balkans over a long period of time (16th-20th century). In this dynamic transfer, piety, propaganda and visual culture appear intertwined in historically unexplored and theoretically provoking ways.
The aim of RICONTRANS is to investigate, for the first time in a systematic and interdisciplinary way, this transnational phenomenon of artefact transfer and reception. Applying the cultural transfer approach in combination with the recent challenging openings of art history to visual studies, this project aims to: map the phenomenon in its long history by identifying preserved objects in the region; follow the paths and identify the mediums of this transfer; analyse the dynamics and the moving factors (religious, political, ideological) of this process during its various historical phases; study and classify these objects according to their iconographic and artistic particularities; inquire into the aesthetic, ideological, political, and social factors which shaped the context of the reception of Russian religious art objects in various social, cultural and religious environments; investigate the influence of these transferred artefacts on the visual culture of the host societies.
Summary
The Russian religious artefacts (icons and ecclesiastical furnishings) held in museums, church or monastery collections in the Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean constitute a body of valuable monuments hitherto largely neglected by historians and historians of art. These objects acquire various interrelated religious/ideological, political and aesthetic meanings, value and uses. Their transfer and reception is a significant component of the larger process of transformation of the artistic language and visual culture in the region and its transition from medieval to modern idioms. It is at the same time a process reflecting the changing cultural and political relations between Russia and the Orthodox communities in the Ottoman Empire and its successor states in the Balkans over a long period of time (16th-20th century). In this dynamic transfer, piety, propaganda and visual culture appear intertwined in historically unexplored and theoretically provoking ways.
The aim of RICONTRANS is to investigate, for the first time in a systematic and interdisciplinary way, this transnational phenomenon of artefact transfer and reception. Applying the cultural transfer approach in combination with the recent challenging openings of art history to visual studies, this project aims to: map the phenomenon in its long history by identifying preserved objects in the region; follow the paths and identify the mediums of this transfer; analyse the dynamics and the moving factors (religious, political, ideological) of this process during its various historical phases; study and classify these objects according to their iconographic and artistic particularities; inquire into the aesthetic, ideological, political, and social factors which shaped the context of the reception of Russian religious art objects in various social, cultural and religious environments; investigate the influence of these transferred artefacts on the visual culture of the host societies.
Max ERC Funding
1 914 670 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym SeaLiT
Project Seafaring Lives in Transition. Mediterranean Maritime Labour and Shipping during Globalization, 1850s-1920s.
Researcher (PI) Apostolos Delis
Host Institution (HI) IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2016-STG
Summary SeaLiT explores the transition from sail to steam navigation and its effects on seafaring populations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea between the 1850s and the 1920s. In the core of the project lie the effects of technological innovation on seafaring people and maritime communities, whose lives were drastically altered by the advent of steam. The project addresses the changes through the actors, seafarers, shipowners and their families, focusing on the adjustment of seafaring lives to a novel socio-economic reality. It investigates the maritime labour market, the evolving relations among shipowner, captain, crew and their local societies, life on board and ashore, as well as the development of new business strategies, trade routes and navigation patterns.
Maritime labour and shipping remains an understudied case of the transition from the premodern working environment of the sailing ship to that of the steamer, in a period of rapid technological improvements, economic growth and market integration. Therefore, the project will address a major gap in maritime historiography: on the one hand, the transition from sail to steam, and on the other, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, “the extended Mediterranean” according to F. Braudel.
The project examines in a comparative approach seven maritime regions: the Ionian, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and Black Seas, Spain and southern France. The research team composed of the PI, three postdoctoral fellows, four senior researchers and four Ph.D. candidates from Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Ukraine will study unpublished sources: ship logbooks, crew lists, business records, and private correspondence. They will produce a collective volume, several articles, a final synthesis by the PI, four Ph.D. dissertations, three workshops, one international conference and a website with an online open access database, an archival and bibliographical corpus and reconstruction of ship voyages on a web G.I.S. application.
Summary
SeaLiT explores the transition from sail to steam navigation and its effects on seafaring populations in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea between the 1850s and the 1920s. In the core of the project lie the effects of technological innovation on seafaring people and maritime communities, whose lives were drastically altered by the advent of steam. The project addresses the changes through the actors, seafarers, shipowners and their families, focusing on the adjustment of seafaring lives to a novel socio-economic reality. It investigates the maritime labour market, the evolving relations among shipowner, captain, crew and their local societies, life on board and ashore, as well as the development of new business strategies, trade routes and navigation patterns.
Maritime labour and shipping remains an understudied case of the transition from the premodern working environment of the sailing ship to that of the steamer, in a period of rapid technological improvements, economic growth and market integration. Therefore, the project will address a major gap in maritime historiography: on the one hand, the transition from sail to steam, and on the other, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, “the extended Mediterranean” according to F. Braudel.
The project examines in a comparative approach seven maritime regions: the Ionian, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and Black Seas, Spain and southern France. The research team composed of the PI, three postdoctoral fellows, four senior researchers and four Ph.D. candidates from Greece, Italy, Spain, France and Ukraine will study unpublished sources: ship logbooks, crew lists, business records, and private correspondence. They will produce a collective volume, several articles, a final synthesis by the PI, four Ph.D. dissertations, three workshops, one international conference and a website with an online open access database, an archival and bibliographical corpus and reconstruction of ship voyages on a web G.I.S. application.
Max ERC Funding
1 372 350 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-02-01, End date: 2022-01-31
Project acronym TrafficFluid
Project Lane-free Artificial-Fluid Environment for Vehicular Traffic
Researcher (PI) Markos PAPAGEORGIOU
Host Institution (HI) POLYTECHNEIO KRITIS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2018-ADG
Summary "Traffic congestion is a serious threat for the economic and social life of modern societies as well as for the environment, which calls for drastic and radical solutions. The proposal puts forward an utterly original idea that leads to a novel paradigm for vehicular traffic in the era of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and is based on two combined principles.
The first principle is lane-free traffic, which renders the driving task for CAVs smoother and safer, as risky lane-changing manoeuvres become obsolete; increases the static and dynamic capacity of the roadway due to increased road occupancy; and mitigates congestion-triggering manoeuvres. The second principle is the nudge effect, whereby vehicles may be ""pushing"" (from a distance, using sensors or communication) other vehicles in front of them; this allows for traffic flow to be freed from the anisotropy restriction, which stems from the fact that human driving is influenced only by downstream vehicles. The nudge effect may be implemented in various possible ways, so as to maximize the traffic flow efficiency, subject to safety and convenience constraints.
TrafficFluid combines lane-free traffic with vehicle nudging to provide, for the first time since the automobile invention, the possibility to design (rather than merely describe or model) the traffic flow characteristics in an optimal way, i.e. to engineer the future CAV traffic flow as an efficient artificial fluid. To this end, the project will develop and deliver the necessary vehicle movement strategies for various motorway and urban road infrastructures, along with microscopic and macroscopic simulators and traffic management actions.
TrafficFluid risk stems from the immense challenge of designing a new traffic system from scratch; however, we expect that the project will trigger a whole new path of international innovative research developments and testbeds that would pave the way towards a new efficient traffic system in the era of CAVs.
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Summary
"Traffic congestion is a serious threat for the economic and social life of modern societies as well as for the environment, which calls for drastic and radical solutions. The proposal puts forward an utterly original idea that leads to a novel paradigm for vehicular traffic in the era of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) and is based on two combined principles.
The first principle is lane-free traffic, which renders the driving task for CAVs smoother and safer, as risky lane-changing manoeuvres become obsolete; increases the static and dynamic capacity of the roadway due to increased road occupancy; and mitigates congestion-triggering manoeuvres. The second principle is the nudge effect, whereby vehicles may be ""pushing"" (from a distance, using sensors or communication) other vehicles in front of them; this allows for traffic flow to be freed from the anisotropy restriction, which stems from the fact that human driving is influenced only by downstream vehicles. The nudge effect may be implemented in various possible ways, so as to maximize the traffic flow efficiency, subject to safety and convenience constraints.
TrafficFluid combines lane-free traffic with vehicle nudging to provide, for the first time since the automobile invention, the possibility to design (rather than merely describe or model) the traffic flow characteristics in an optimal way, i.e. to engineer the future CAV traffic flow as an efficient artificial fluid. To this end, the project will develop and deliver the necessary vehicle movement strategies for various motorway and urban road infrastructures, along with microscopic and macroscopic simulators and traffic management actions.
TrafficFluid risk stems from the immense challenge of designing a new traffic system from scratch; however, we expect that the project will trigger a whole new path of international innovative research developments and testbeds that would pave the way towards a new efficient traffic system in the era of CAVs.
"
Max ERC Funding
2 495 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-10-01, End date: 2024-09-30
