Project acronym 19TH-CENTURY_EUCLID
Project Nineteenth-Century Euclid: Geometry and the Literary Imagination from Wordsworth to Wells
Researcher (PI) Alice Jenkins
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2007-StG
Summary This radically interdisciplinary project aims to bring a substantially new field of research – literature and mathematics studies – to prominence as a tool for investigating the culture of nineteenth-century Britain. It will result in three kinds of outcome: a monograph, two interdisciplinary and international colloquia, and a collection of essays. The project focuses on Euclidean geometry as a key element of nineteenth-century literary and scientific culture, showing that it was part of the shared knowledge flowing through elite and popular Romantic and Victorian writing, and figuring notably in the work of very many of the century’s best-known writers. Despite its traditional cultural prestige and educational centrality, geometry has been almost wholly neglected by literary history. This project shows how literature and mathematics studies can draw a new map of nineteenth-century British culture, revitalising our understanding of the Romantic and Victorian imagination through its writing about geometry.
Summary
This radically interdisciplinary project aims to bring a substantially new field of research – literature and mathematics studies – to prominence as a tool for investigating the culture of nineteenth-century Britain. It will result in three kinds of outcome: a monograph, two interdisciplinary and international colloquia, and a collection of essays. The project focuses on Euclidean geometry as a key element of nineteenth-century literary and scientific culture, showing that it was part of the shared knowledge flowing through elite and popular Romantic and Victorian writing, and figuring notably in the work of very many of the century’s best-known writers. Despite its traditional cultural prestige and educational centrality, geometry has been almost wholly neglected by literary history. This project shows how literature and mathematics studies can draw a new map of nineteenth-century British culture, revitalising our understanding of the Romantic and Victorian imagination through its writing about geometry.
Max ERC Funding
323 118 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2011-10-31
Project acronym AAREA
Project The Archaeology of Agricultural Resilience in Eastern Africa
Researcher (PI) Daryl Stump
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF YORK
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2013-StG
Summary "The twin concepts of sustainability and conservation that are so pivotal within current debates regarding economic development and biodiversity protection both contain an inherent temporal dimension, since both refer to the need to balance short-term gains with long-term resource maintenance. Proponents of resilience theory and of development based on ‘indigenous knowledge’ have thus argued for the necessity of including archaeological, historical and palaeoenvironmental components within development project design. Indeed, some have argued that archaeology should lead these interdisciplinary projects on the grounds that it provides the necessary time depth and bridges the social and natural sciences. The project proposed here accepts this logic and endorses this renewed contemporary relevance of archaeological research. However, it also needs to be admitted that moving beyond critiques of the misuse of historical data presents significant hurdles. When presenting results outside the discipline, for example, archaeological projects tend to downplay the poor archaeological visibility of certain agricultural practices, and computer models designed to test sustainability struggle to adequately account for local cultural preferences. This field will therefore not progress unless there is a frank appraisal of archaeology’s strengths and weaknesses. This project will provide this assessment by employing a range of established and groundbreaking archaeological and modelling techniques to examine the development of two east Africa agricultural systems: one at the abandoned site of Engaruka in Tanzania, commonly seen as an example of resource mismanagement and ecological collapse; and another at the current agricultural landscape in Konso, Ethiopia, described by the UN FAO as one of a select few African “lessons from the past”. The project thus aims to assess the sustainability of these systems, but will also assess the role archaeology can play in such debates worldwide."
Summary
"The twin concepts of sustainability and conservation that are so pivotal within current debates regarding economic development and biodiversity protection both contain an inherent temporal dimension, since both refer to the need to balance short-term gains with long-term resource maintenance. Proponents of resilience theory and of development based on ‘indigenous knowledge’ have thus argued for the necessity of including archaeological, historical and palaeoenvironmental components within development project design. Indeed, some have argued that archaeology should lead these interdisciplinary projects on the grounds that it provides the necessary time depth and bridges the social and natural sciences. The project proposed here accepts this logic and endorses this renewed contemporary relevance of archaeological research. However, it also needs to be admitted that moving beyond critiques of the misuse of historical data presents significant hurdles. When presenting results outside the discipline, for example, archaeological projects tend to downplay the poor archaeological visibility of certain agricultural practices, and computer models designed to test sustainability struggle to adequately account for local cultural preferences. This field will therefore not progress unless there is a frank appraisal of archaeology’s strengths and weaknesses. This project will provide this assessment by employing a range of established and groundbreaking archaeological and modelling techniques to examine the development of two east Africa agricultural systems: one at the abandoned site of Engaruka in Tanzania, commonly seen as an example of resource mismanagement and ecological collapse; and another at the current agricultural landscape in Konso, Ethiopia, described by the UN FAO as one of a select few African “lessons from the past”. The project thus aims to assess the sustainability of these systems, but will also assess the role archaeology can play in such debates worldwide."
Max ERC Funding
1 196 701 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym ABRSEIST
Project Antibiotic Resistance: Socio-Economic Determinants and the Role of Information and Salience in Treatment Choice
Researcher (PI) Hannes ULLRICH
Host Institution (HI) DEUTSCHES INSTITUT FUR WIRTSCHAFTSFORSCHUNG DIW (INSTITUT FUR KONJUNKTURFORSCHUNG) EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH1, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Antibiotics have contributed to a tremendous increase in human well-being, saving many millions of lives. However, antibiotics become obsolete the more they are used as selection pressure promotes the development of resistant bacteria. The World Health Organization has proclaimed antibiotic resistance as a major global threat to public health. Today, 700,000 deaths per year are due to untreatable infections. To win the battle against antibiotic resistance, new policies affecting the supply and demand of existing and new drugs must be designed. I propose new research to identify and evaluate feasible and effective demand-side policy interventions targeting the relevant decision makers: physicians and patients. ABRSEIST will make use of a broad econometric toolset to identify mechanisms linking antibiotic resistance and consumption exploiting a unique combination of physician-patient-level antibiotic resistance, treatment, and socio-economic data. Using machine learning methods adapted for causal inference, theory-driven structural econometric analysis, and randomization in the field it will provide rigorous evidence on effective intervention designs. This research will improve our understanding of how prescribing, resistance, and the effect of antibiotic use on resistance, are distributed in the general population which has important implications for the design of targeted interventions. It will then estimate a structural model of general practitioners’ acquisition and use of information under uncertainty about resistance in prescription choice, allowing counterfactual analysis of information-improving policies such as mandatory diagnostic testing. The large-scale and structural econometric analyses allow flexible identification of physician heterogeneity, which ABRSEIST will exploit to design and evaluate targeted, randomized information nudges in the field. The result will be improved rational use and a toolset applicable in contexts of antibiotic prescribing.
Summary
Antibiotics have contributed to a tremendous increase in human well-being, saving many millions of lives. However, antibiotics become obsolete the more they are used as selection pressure promotes the development of resistant bacteria. The World Health Organization has proclaimed antibiotic resistance as a major global threat to public health. Today, 700,000 deaths per year are due to untreatable infections. To win the battle against antibiotic resistance, new policies affecting the supply and demand of existing and new drugs must be designed. I propose new research to identify and evaluate feasible and effective demand-side policy interventions targeting the relevant decision makers: physicians and patients. ABRSEIST will make use of a broad econometric toolset to identify mechanisms linking antibiotic resistance and consumption exploiting a unique combination of physician-patient-level antibiotic resistance, treatment, and socio-economic data. Using machine learning methods adapted for causal inference, theory-driven structural econometric analysis, and randomization in the field it will provide rigorous evidence on effective intervention designs. This research will improve our understanding of how prescribing, resistance, and the effect of antibiotic use on resistance, are distributed in the general population which has important implications for the design of targeted interventions. It will then estimate a structural model of general practitioners’ acquisition and use of information under uncertainty about resistance in prescription choice, allowing counterfactual analysis of information-improving policies such as mandatory diagnostic testing. The large-scale and structural econometric analyses allow flexible identification of physician heterogeneity, which ABRSEIST will exploit to design and evaluate targeted, randomized information nudges in the field. The result will be improved rational use and a toolset applicable in contexts of antibiotic prescribing.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 920 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym ACO
Project The Proceedings of the Ecumenical Councils from Oral Utterance to Manuscript Edition as Evidence for Late Antique Persuasion and Self-Representation Techniques
Researcher (PI) Peter Alfred Riedlberger
Host Institution (HI) OTTO-FRIEDRICH-UNIVERSITAET BAMBERG
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2015-STG
Summary The Acts of the Ecumenical Councils of Late Antiquity include (purportedly) verbatim minutes of the proceedings, a formal framework and copies of relevant documents which were either (allegedly) read out during the proceedings or which were later attached to the Acts proper. Despite this unusual wealth of documentary evidence, the daunting nature of the Acts demanding multidisciplinary competency, their complex structure with a matryoshka-like nesting of proceedings from different dates, and the stereotype that their contents bear only on Christological niceties have deterred generations of historians from studying them. Only in recent years have their fortunes begun to improve, but this recent research has not always been based on sound principles: the recorded proceedings of the sessions are still often accepted as verbatim minutes. Yet even a superficial reading quickly reveals widespread editorial interference. We must accept that in many cases the Acts will teach us less about the actual debates than about the editors who shaped their presentation. This does not depreciate the Acts’ evidence: on the contrary, they are first-rate material for the rhetoric of persuasion and self-representation. It is possible, in fact, to take the investigation to a deeper level and examine in what manner the oral proceedings were put into writing: several passages in the Acts comment upon the process of note-taking and the work of the shorthand writers. Thus, the main objective of the proposed research project could be described as an attempt to trace the destinies of the Acts’ texts, from the oral utterance to the manuscript texts we have today. This will include the fullest study on ancient transcript techniques to date; a structural analysis of the Acts’ texts with the aim of highlighting edited passages; and a careful comparison of the various editions of the Acts, which survive in Greek, Latin, Syriac and Coptic, in order to detect traces of editorial interference.
Summary
The Acts of the Ecumenical Councils of Late Antiquity include (purportedly) verbatim minutes of the proceedings, a formal framework and copies of relevant documents which were either (allegedly) read out during the proceedings or which were later attached to the Acts proper. Despite this unusual wealth of documentary evidence, the daunting nature of the Acts demanding multidisciplinary competency, their complex structure with a matryoshka-like nesting of proceedings from different dates, and the stereotype that their contents bear only on Christological niceties have deterred generations of historians from studying them. Only in recent years have their fortunes begun to improve, but this recent research has not always been based on sound principles: the recorded proceedings of the sessions are still often accepted as verbatim minutes. Yet even a superficial reading quickly reveals widespread editorial interference. We must accept that in many cases the Acts will teach us less about the actual debates than about the editors who shaped their presentation. This does not depreciate the Acts’ evidence: on the contrary, they are first-rate material for the rhetoric of persuasion and self-representation. It is possible, in fact, to take the investigation to a deeper level and examine in what manner the oral proceedings were put into writing: several passages in the Acts comment upon the process of note-taking and the work of the shorthand writers. Thus, the main objective of the proposed research project could be described as an attempt to trace the destinies of the Acts’ texts, from the oral utterance to the manuscript texts we have today. This will include the fullest study on ancient transcript techniques to date; a structural analysis of the Acts’ texts with the aim of highlighting edited passages; and a careful comparison of the various editions of the Acts, which survive in Greek, Latin, Syriac and Coptic, in order to detect traces of editorial interference.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym ACOULOMODE
Project Advanced coupling of low order combustor simulations with thermoacoustic modelling and controller design
Researcher (PI) Aimee Morgans
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2012-StG_20111012
Summary "Combustion is essential to the world’s energy generation and transport needs, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Mitigating its impact on the climate and human health, by reducing its associated emissions, is thus a priority. One significant challenge for gas-turbine combustion is combustion instability, which is currently inhibiting reductions in NOx emissions (these damage human health via a deterioration in air quality). Combustion instability is caused by a two-way coupling between unsteady combustion and acoustic waves - the large pressure oscillations that result can cause substantial mechanical damage. Currently, the lack of fast, accurate modelling tools for combustion instability, and the lack of reliable ways of suppressing it are severely hindering reductions in NOx emissions.
This proposal aims to make step improvements in both fast, accurate modelling of combustion instability, and in developing reliable active control strategies for its suppression. It will achieve this by coupling low order combustor models (these are fast, simplified models for simulating combustion instability) with advances in analytical modelling, CFD simulation, reduced order modelling and control theory tools. In particular:
* important advances in accurately incorporating the effect of entropy waves (temperature variations resulting from unsteady combustion) and non-linear flame models will be made;
* new active control strategies for achieving reliable suppression of combustion instability, including from within limit cycle oscillations, will be developed;
* an open-source low order combustor modelling tool will be developed and widely disseminated, opening access to researchers worldwide and improving communications between the fields of thermoacoustics and control theory.
Thus the proposal aims to use analytical and computational methods to contribute to achieving low NOx gas-turbine combustion, without the penalty of damaging combustion instability."
Summary
"Combustion is essential to the world’s energy generation and transport needs, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Mitigating its impact on the climate and human health, by reducing its associated emissions, is thus a priority. One significant challenge for gas-turbine combustion is combustion instability, which is currently inhibiting reductions in NOx emissions (these damage human health via a deterioration in air quality). Combustion instability is caused by a two-way coupling between unsteady combustion and acoustic waves - the large pressure oscillations that result can cause substantial mechanical damage. Currently, the lack of fast, accurate modelling tools for combustion instability, and the lack of reliable ways of suppressing it are severely hindering reductions in NOx emissions.
This proposal aims to make step improvements in both fast, accurate modelling of combustion instability, and in developing reliable active control strategies for its suppression. It will achieve this by coupling low order combustor models (these are fast, simplified models for simulating combustion instability) with advances in analytical modelling, CFD simulation, reduced order modelling and control theory tools. In particular:
* important advances in accurately incorporating the effect of entropy waves (temperature variations resulting from unsteady combustion) and non-linear flame models will be made;
* new active control strategies for achieving reliable suppression of combustion instability, including from within limit cycle oscillations, will be developed;
* an open-source low order combustor modelling tool will be developed and widely disseminated, opening access to researchers worldwide and improving communications between the fields of thermoacoustics and control theory.
Thus the proposal aims to use analytical and computational methods to contribute to achieving low NOx gas-turbine combustion, without the penalty of damaging combustion instability."
Max ERC Funding
1 489 309 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym ACROSS
Project Australasian Colonization Research: Origins of Seafaring to Sahul
Researcher (PI) Rosemary Helen FARR
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2017-STG
Summary One of the most exciting research questions within archaeology is that of the peopling of Australasia by at least c.50,000 years ago. This represents some of the earliest evidence of modern human colonization outside Africa, yet, even at the greatest sea-level lowstand, this migration would have involved seafaring. It is the maritime nature of this dispersal which makes it so important to questions of technological, cognitive and social human development. These issues have traditionally been the preserve of archaeologists, but with a multidisciplinary approach that embraces cutting-edge marine geophysical, hydrodynamic and archaeogenetic analyses, we now have the opportunity to examine the When, Where, Who and How of the earliest seafaring in world history.
The voyage from Sunda (South East Asia) to Sahul (Australasia) provides evidence for the earliest ‘open water’ crossing in the world. A combination of the sparse number of early archaeological finds and the significant changes in the palaeolandscape and submergence of the broad north western Australian continental shelf, mean that little is known about the routes taken and what these crossings may have entailed.
This project will combine research of the submerged palaeolandscape of the continental shelf to refine our knowledge of the onshore/offshore environment, identify potential submerged prehistoric sites and enhance our understanding of the palaeoshoreline and tidal regime. This will be combined with archaeogenetic research targeting mtDNA and Y-chromosome data to resolve questions of demography and dating.
For the first time this project takes a truly multidisciplinary approach to address the colonization of Sahul, providing an unique opportunity to tackle some of the most important questions about human origins, the relationship between humans and the changing environment, population dynamics and migration, seafaring technology, social organisation and cognition.
Summary
One of the most exciting research questions within archaeology is that of the peopling of Australasia by at least c.50,000 years ago. This represents some of the earliest evidence of modern human colonization outside Africa, yet, even at the greatest sea-level lowstand, this migration would have involved seafaring. It is the maritime nature of this dispersal which makes it so important to questions of technological, cognitive and social human development. These issues have traditionally been the preserve of archaeologists, but with a multidisciplinary approach that embraces cutting-edge marine geophysical, hydrodynamic and archaeogenetic analyses, we now have the opportunity to examine the When, Where, Who and How of the earliest seafaring in world history.
The voyage from Sunda (South East Asia) to Sahul (Australasia) provides evidence for the earliest ‘open water’ crossing in the world. A combination of the sparse number of early archaeological finds and the significant changes in the palaeolandscape and submergence of the broad north western Australian continental shelf, mean that little is known about the routes taken and what these crossings may have entailed.
This project will combine research of the submerged palaeolandscape of the continental shelf to refine our knowledge of the onshore/offshore environment, identify potential submerged prehistoric sites and enhance our understanding of the palaeoshoreline and tidal regime. This will be combined with archaeogenetic research targeting mtDNA and Y-chromosome data to resolve questions of demography and dating.
For the first time this project takes a truly multidisciplinary approach to address the colonization of Sahul, providing an unique opportunity to tackle some of the most important questions about human origins, the relationship between humans and the changing environment, population dynamics and migration, seafaring technology, social organisation and cognition.
Max ERC Funding
1 134 928 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym ACROSSBORDERS
Project Across ancient borders and cultures: An Egyptian microcosm in Sudan during the 2nd millennium BC
Researcher (PI) Julia Budka
Host Institution (HI) LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary Pharaonic Egypt is commonly known for its pyramids and tomb treasures. The present knowledge of Egyptian everyday life and social structures derives mostly from mortuary records associated with the upper classes, whereas traces of ordinary life from domestic sites are generally disregarded. Settlement archaeology in Egypt and Nubia (Ancient North Sudan) is still in its infancy; it is timely to strenghten this field. Responsible for the pottery at three major settlement sites (Abydos and Elephantine in Egypt; Sai Island in Sudan), the PI is in a unique position to co-ordinate a research project on settlement patterns in Northeast Africa of the 2nd millennium BC based on the detailed analysis of material remains. The selected case studies situated across ancient and modern borders and of diverse environmental and cultural preconditions, show very similar archaeological remains. Up to now, no attempt has been made to explain this situation in detail.
The focus of the project is the well-preserved, only partially explored site of Sai Island, seemingly an Egyptian microcosm in New Kingdom Upper Nubia. Little time is left to conduct the requisite large-scale archaeology as Sai is endangered by the planned high dam of Dal. With the application of microarchaeology we will introduce an approach that is new in Egyptian settlement archaeology. Our interdisciplinary research will result in novel insights into (a) multifaceted lives on Sai at a micro-spatial level and (b) domestic life in 2nd millennium BC Egypt and Nubia from a macroscopic view. The present understanding of the political situation in Upper Nubia during the New Kingdom as based on written records will be significantly enlarged by the envisaged approach. Furthermore, in reconstructing Sai Island as “home away from home”, the project presents a showcase study of what we can learn about acculturation and adaptation from ancient cultures, in this case from the coexistence of Egyptians and Nubians
Summary
Pharaonic Egypt is commonly known for its pyramids and tomb treasures. The present knowledge of Egyptian everyday life and social structures derives mostly from mortuary records associated with the upper classes, whereas traces of ordinary life from domestic sites are generally disregarded. Settlement archaeology in Egypt and Nubia (Ancient North Sudan) is still in its infancy; it is timely to strenghten this field. Responsible for the pottery at three major settlement sites (Abydos and Elephantine in Egypt; Sai Island in Sudan), the PI is in a unique position to co-ordinate a research project on settlement patterns in Northeast Africa of the 2nd millennium BC based on the detailed analysis of material remains. The selected case studies situated across ancient and modern borders and of diverse environmental and cultural preconditions, show very similar archaeological remains. Up to now, no attempt has been made to explain this situation in detail.
The focus of the project is the well-preserved, only partially explored site of Sai Island, seemingly an Egyptian microcosm in New Kingdom Upper Nubia. Little time is left to conduct the requisite large-scale archaeology as Sai is endangered by the planned high dam of Dal. With the application of microarchaeology we will introduce an approach that is new in Egyptian settlement archaeology. Our interdisciplinary research will result in novel insights into (a) multifaceted lives on Sai at a micro-spatial level and (b) domestic life in 2nd millennium BC Egypt and Nubia from a macroscopic view. The present understanding of the political situation in Upper Nubia during the New Kingdom as based on written records will be significantly enlarged by the envisaged approach. Furthermore, in reconstructing Sai Island as “home away from home”, the project presents a showcase study of what we can learn about acculturation and adaptation from ancient cultures, in this case from the coexistence of Egyptians and Nubians
Max ERC Funding
1 497 460 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-12-01, End date: 2018-04-30
Project acronym AFFINITY
Project Actuation of Ferromagnetic Fibre Networks to improve Implant Longevity
Researcher (PI) Athina Markaki
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2009-StG
Summary This proposal is for an exploratory study into a radical new approach to the problem of orthopaedic implant loosening. Such loosening commonly occurs because the joint between the implant and the surrounding bone is insufficiently strong and durable. It is a serious problem both for implants cemented to the bone and for those dependent on bone in-growth into a rough/porous implant surface. In the latter case, the main problem is commonly that bone in-growth is insufficiently rapid or deep for a strong bond to be established. The idea proposed in this work is that the implant should have a highly porous surface layer, made by bonding ferromagnetic fibres together, into which bone tissue growth would occur. During the post-operative period, application of a magnetic field will cause the fibre network to deform elastically, as individual fibres tend to align with the field. This will impose strains on the bone tissue as it grows into the fibre network. Such mechanical deformation is known to be highly beneficial in promoting bone growth, providing the associated strain lies in a certain range (~0.1%). Preliminary work, involving both model development and experimental studies on the effect of magnetic fields on fibre networks, has suggested that beneficial therapeutic effects can be induced using field strengths no greater than those already employed for diagnostic purposes. A comprehensive 5-year, highly inter-disciplinary programme is planned, encompassing processing, network architecture characterisation, magneto-mechanical response investigations, various modelling activities and systematic in vitro experimentation to establish whether magneto-mechanical Actuation of Ferromagnetic Fibre Networks shows promise as a new therapeutic approach to improve implant longevity.
Summary
This proposal is for an exploratory study into a radical new approach to the problem of orthopaedic implant loosening. Such loosening commonly occurs because the joint between the implant and the surrounding bone is insufficiently strong and durable. It is a serious problem both for implants cemented to the bone and for those dependent on bone in-growth into a rough/porous implant surface. In the latter case, the main problem is commonly that bone in-growth is insufficiently rapid or deep for a strong bond to be established. The idea proposed in this work is that the implant should have a highly porous surface layer, made by bonding ferromagnetic fibres together, into which bone tissue growth would occur. During the post-operative period, application of a magnetic field will cause the fibre network to deform elastically, as individual fibres tend to align with the field. This will impose strains on the bone tissue as it grows into the fibre network. Such mechanical deformation is known to be highly beneficial in promoting bone growth, providing the associated strain lies in a certain range (~0.1%). Preliminary work, involving both model development and experimental studies on the effect of magnetic fields on fibre networks, has suggested that beneficial therapeutic effects can be induced using field strengths no greater than those already employed for diagnostic purposes. A comprehensive 5-year, highly inter-disciplinary programme is planned, encompassing processing, network architecture characterisation, magneto-mechanical response investigations, various modelling activities and systematic in vitro experimentation to establish whether magneto-mechanical Actuation of Ferromagnetic Fibre Networks shows promise as a new therapeutic approach to improve implant longevity.
Max ERC Funding
1 442 756 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2015-11-30
Project acronym AGESPACE
Project SPATIAL NAVIGATION – A UNIQUE WINDOW INTO MECHANISMS OF COGNITIVE AGEING
Researcher (PI) Thomas Wolbers
Host Institution (HI) DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FUR NEURODEGENERATIVE ERKRANKUNGEN EV
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2013-StG
Summary "By 2040, the European population aged over 60 will rise to 290 million, with those estimated to have dementia to 15.9 million. These dramatic demographic changes will pose huge challenges to health care systems, hence a detailed understanding of age-related cognitive and neurobiological changes is essential for helping elderly populations maintain independence. However, while existing research into cognitive ageing has carefully characterised developmental trajectories of functions such as memory and processing speed, one key cognitive ability that is particularly relevant to everyday functioning has received very little attention: In surveys, elderly people often report substantial declines in navigational abilities such as problems with finding one’s way in a novel environment. Such deficits severely restrict the mobility of elderly people and affect physical activity and social participation, but the underlying behavioural and neuronal mechanisms are poorly understood.
In this proposal, I will take a new approach to cognitive ageing that will bridge the gap between animal neurobiology and human cognitive neuroscience. With support from the ERC, I will create a team that will characterise the mechanisms mediating age-related changes in navigational processing in humans. The project will focus on three structures that perform key computations for spatial navigation, form a closely interconnected triadic network, and are particularly sensitive to the ageing process. Crucially, the team will employ an interdisciplinary methodological approach that combines mathematical modelling, brain imaging and innovative data analysis techniques with novel virtual environment technology, which allows for rigorous testing of predictions derived from animal findings. Finally, the proposal also incorporates a translational project aimed at improving spatial mnemonic functioning with a behavioural intervention, which provides a direct test of functional relevance and societal impact."
Summary
"By 2040, the European population aged over 60 will rise to 290 million, with those estimated to have dementia to 15.9 million. These dramatic demographic changes will pose huge challenges to health care systems, hence a detailed understanding of age-related cognitive and neurobiological changes is essential for helping elderly populations maintain independence. However, while existing research into cognitive ageing has carefully characterised developmental trajectories of functions such as memory and processing speed, one key cognitive ability that is particularly relevant to everyday functioning has received very little attention: In surveys, elderly people often report substantial declines in navigational abilities such as problems with finding one’s way in a novel environment. Such deficits severely restrict the mobility of elderly people and affect physical activity and social participation, but the underlying behavioural and neuronal mechanisms are poorly understood.
In this proposal, I will take a new approach to cognitive ageing that will bridge the gap between animal neurobiology and human cognitive neuroscience. With support from the ERC, I will create a team that will characterise the mechanisms mediating age-related changes in navigational processing in humans. The project will focus on three structures that perform key computations for spatial navigation, form a closely interconnected triadic network, and are particularly sensitive to the ageing process. Crucially, the team will employ an interdisciplinary methodological approach that combines mathematical modelling, brain imaging and innovative data analysis techniques with novel virtual environment technology, which allows for rigorous testing of predictions derived from animal findings. Finally, the proposal also incorporates a translational project aimed at improving spatial mnemonic functioning with a behavioural intervention, which provides a direct test of functional relevance and societal impact."
Max ERC Funding
1 318 990 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym AgricUrb
Project The Agricultural Origins of Urban Civilization
Researcher (PI) Amy Marie Bogaard
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH6, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary The establishment of farming is a pivotal moment in human history, setting the stage for the emergence of class-based society and urbanization. Monolithic views of the nature and development of early agriculture, however, have prevented clear understanding of how exactly farming fuelled, shaped and sustained the emergence of complex societies. A breakthrough in archaeological approach is needed to determine the actual roles of farming in the emergence of social complexity. The methodology required must push beyond conventional interpretation of the most direct farming evidence – archaeobotanical remains of crops and associated arable weeds – to reconstruct not only what crops were grown, but also how, where and why farming was practised. Addressing these related aspects, in contexts ranging from early agricultural villages to some of the world’s earliest cities, would provide the key to unraveling the contribution of farming to the development of lasting social inequalities. The research proposed here takes a new interdisciplinary approach combining archaeobotany, plant stable isotope chemistry and functional plant ecology, building on groundwork laid in previous research by the applicant. These approaches will be applied to two relatively well researched areas, western Asia and Europe, where a series of sites that chart multiple pathways to early complex societies offer rich plant and other bioarchaeological assemblages. The proposed project will set a wholly new standard of insight into early farming and its relationship with early civilization, facilitating similar approaches in other parts of the world and the construction of comparative perspectives on the global significance of early agriculture in social development.
Summary
The establishment of farming is a pivotal moment in human history, setting the stage for the emergence of class-based society and urbanization. Monolithic views of the nature and development of early agriculture, however, have prevented clear understanding of how exactly farming fuelled, shaped and sustained the emergence of complex societies. A breakthrough in archaeological approach is needed to determine the actual roles of farming in the emergence of social complexity. The methodology required must push beyond conventional interpretation of the most direct farming evidence – archaeobotanical remains of crops and associated arable weeds – to reconstruct not only what crops were grown, but also how, where and why farming was practised. Addressing these related aspects, in contexts ranging from early agricultural villages to some of the world’s earliest cities, would provide the key to unraveling the contribution of farming to the development of lasting social inequalities. The research proposed here takes a new interdisciplinary approach combining archaeobotany, plant stable isotope chemistry and functional plant ecology, building on groundwork laid in previous research by the applicant. These approaches will be applied to two relatively well researched areas, western Asia and Europe, where a series of sites that chart multiple pathways to early complex societies offer rich plant and other bioarchaeological assemblages. The proposed project will set a wholly new standard of insight into early farming and its relationship with early civilization, facilitating similar approaches in other parts of the world and the construction of comparative perspectives on the global significance of early agriculture in social development.
Max ERC Funding
1 199 647 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31
