ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Driven by public outrage at bank bailouts during the financial crisis, many governments have since then tried to rewrite the rules governing finance. Yet the anger provoked by the bailouts has not subsided. In Europe and in North America, citizen fury against bankers continues to structure battles over financial regulation. It also affects broader perceptions of fairness in the political system and feeds anti-elite populism. Scholars of political economy have chronicled the clashes between states and large banks, and scholars of political behaviour have noted the failings of governments to respond to the will of democratic majorities. No one has explored the feedback loops between policies regulating banks, the public anger towards banking elites, and media discussions of finance. BANK-LASH fills this gap, using a cutting-edge, high-risk research design comprising three work packages to link policy outcomes with public opinion and media coverage. BANK-LASH 1will collect the first cross-nationally comparable data on public attitudes towards finance, including a series of innovative survey experiments that assess how different media frames affect emotions and preferences. BANK-LASH 2 will use supervised machine learning to measure the overall media environment of these countries for the last decade, assessing how much different national media systems discuss finance and how different national media systems frame the discussion of banking regulation. BANK-LASH 3 links the micro-level study of attitudes and macro-level media coverage with episodes of policy intervention in each country in order to determine when democracies have imposed significant new regulation on their banks. By harnessing these different intellectual tools within a single study, BANK-LASH brings together the concerns of political economy, behavioral research and policy studies to untangle the relationship between banks, public policy, and anti-elite sentiment in the wake of the financial crisis.

2 454 198 €

Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31

Can benefit-sharing address the equity deficit within the green economy? This project aims to investigate benefit-sharing as an under-theorised and little-implemented regulatory approach to the equity concerns (disregard for the special circumstances of developing countries and of indigenous peoples and local communities) in transitioning to the green economy. Although benefit-sharing is increasingly deployed in a variety of international environmental agreements and also in human rights and corporate accountability instruments, no comprehensive account exists of its conceptual and practical relevance to equitably address global environmental challenges. This project will be the first systematic evaluation of the conceptualisations and operationalisations of benefit-sharing as a tool for equitable change through the allocation among different stakeholders of economic and also socio-cultural and environmental advantages arising from natural resource use. The project will combine a comparative study of international law with empirical legal research, and include an inter-disciplinary study integrating political sociology in a legal enquiry on the role of “biocultural community protocols” that articulate and implement benefit-sharing at the intersection of international, transnational, national and indigenous communities’ customary law (global environmental law). The project aims to: 1. develop a comprehensive understanding of benefit-sharing in international law; 2. clarify whether and how benefit-sharing supports equity and the protection of human rights across key sectors of international environmental regulation (biodiversity, climate change, oceans, food and agriculture) that are seen as inter-related in the transition to the green economy; 3. understand the development of benefit-sharing in the context of global environmental law; and 4. clarify the role of transnational legal advisors (NGOs and bilateral cooperation partners) in the green economy.

1 481 708 €

Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31

Bioinorganic chemistry is a rapidly expanding area of research, but the potential for the therapeutic application of metal complexes is highly underdeveloped. The basic principles required to guide the development of metal-containing therapeutic agents are lacking, despite the unique therapeutic opportunities which they offer. It is the goal of the proposed research to establish basic principles of medicinal coordination chemistry of metals that will allow the rational screening of future metallopharmaceuticals. We propose to utilize the power of inorganic chemistry to provide new knowledge of and new approaches for intervention in biological systems. This will be based on improved understanding of reactions of metal complexes under physiological conditions, on improving the specificity of their interactions, and gaining control over the potential toxicity of synthetic metal complexes. The research programme is highly interdisciplinary involving chemistry, physics, biology and pharmacology, with potential for the discovery of truly novel medicines, especially for the treatment of diseases and conditions which are currently intractable, such as cancer. The challenging and ambitious goals of the present work involve transition metal complexes with novel chemical and biochemical mechanisms of action. They will contain novel features which allow them (i) to be selectively activated by light in cells, or (ii) to be activated by a structural transition, or (ii) exhibit catalytic activity in cells. This ground-breaking research potentially has a very high impact and is based on recent discoveries in the applicant s laboratory. A feature of the programme is the use of state-of-the-art-and-beyond methodology to advance knowledge of medicinal metal coordination chemistry.

1 565 397 €

Start date: 2010-07-01, End date: 2015-12-31

Bio-medical innovation makes a substantial contribution to Western societies and economies. But leading research organisations in the West are increasingly reliant on clinical research conducted beyond the West. Such initiatives are challenged by uncertainties about research quality and therapeutic practices in Asian countries. These only partly justified uncertainties are augmented by unfamiliar conditions. This study examines how to create responsible innovation in the life sciences by looking for ways to overcome existing obstacles to safe, just and ethical international science collaborations. Building on observations of scientists, managers and patients and supported by Asian language expertise, biology background, and experience with science and technology policy-making, we examine the roles of regional differences and inequalities in the networks used for patient recruitment and international research agreements. Profit-motivated networks in the life sciences also occur underground and at an informal, unregulated level, which we call bionetworking. Bionetworking is a social entrepreneurial activity involving biomedical research, healthcare and patient networks that are maintained by taking advantage of regionally differences in levels of science and technology, healthcare, education and regulatory regimes. Using novel social-science methods, the project studies two main themes. Theme 1 examines patient recruitment networks for experimental stem cell therapies and cooperation between research and health institutions involving exchanges of patients against other resources. Theme 2 maps and analyses exchanges of biomaterials of human derivation, and forms of ‘ownership’ rights, benefits and burdens associated with their donation, possession, maintenance, and application. Integral analysis of the project nodes incorporates an analysis of public health policy and patient preference in relation to Responsible innovation, Good governance and Global assemblages.

1 497 711 €

Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31