Project acronym ACCELERATES
Project Acceleration in Extreme Shocks: from the microphysics to laboratory and astrophysics scenarios
Researcher (PI) Luis Miguel De Oliveira E Silva
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2010-AdG_20100224
Summary What is the origin of cosmic rays, what are the dominant acceleration mechanisms in relativistic shocks, how do cosmic rays self-consistently influence the shock dynamics, how are relativistic collisionless shocks formed are longstanding scientific questions, closely tied to extreme plasma physics processes, and where a close interplay between the micro-instabilities and the global dynamics is critical.
Relativistic shocks are closely connected with the propagation of intense streams of particles pervasive in many astrophysical scenarios. The possibility of exciting shocks in the laboratory will also be available very soon with multi-PW lasers or intense relativistic particle beams.
Computational modeling is now established as a prominent research tool, by enabling the fully kinetic modeling of these systems for the first time. With the fast paced developments in high performance computing, the time is ripe for a focused research programme on simulation-based studies of relativistic shocks. This proposal therefore focuses on using self-consistent ab initio massively parallel simulations to study the physics of relativistic shocks, bridging the gap between the multidimensional microphysics of shock onset, formation, and propagation and the global system dynamics. Particular focus will be given to the shock acceleration mechanisms and the radiation signatures of the various physical processes, with the goal of solving some of the central questions in plasma/relativistic phenomena in astrophysics and in the laboratory, and opening new avenues between theoretical/massive computational studies, laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations.
Summary
What is the origin of cosmic rays, what are the dominant acceleration mechanisms in relativistic shocks, how do cosmic rays self-consistently influence the shock dynamics, how are relativistic collisionless shocks formed are longstanding scientific questions, closely tied to extreme plasma physics processes, and where a close interplay between the micro-instabilities and the global dynamics is critical.
Relativistic shocks are closely connected with the propagation of intense streams of particles pervasive in many astrophysical scenarios. The possibility of exciting shocks in the laboratory will also be available very soon with multi-PW lasers or intense relativistic particle beams.
Computational modeling is now established as a prominent research tool, by enabling the fully kinetic modeling of these systems for the first time. With the fast paced developments in high performance computing, the time is ripe for a focused research programme on simulation-based studies of relativistic shocks. This proposal therefore focuses on using self-consistent ab initio massively parallel simulations to study the physics of relativistic shocks, bridging the gap between the multidimensional microphysics of shock onset, formation, and propagation and the global system dynamics. Particular focus will be given to the shock acceleration mechanisms and the radiation signatures of the various physical processes, with the goal of solving some of the central questions in plasma/relativistic phenomena in astrophysics and in the laboratory, and opening new avenues between theoretical/massive computational studies, laboratory experiments and astrophysical observations.
Max ERC Funding
1 588 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-07-31
Project acronym BlackBox
Project A collaborative platform to document performance composition: from conceptual structures in the backstage to customizable visualizations in the front-end
Researcher (PI) Carla Maria De Jesus Fernandes
Host Institution (HI) FACULDADE DE CIENCIAS SOCIAIS E HUMANAS DA UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2013-StG
Summary The global performing arts community is requiring innovative systems to: a) document, transmit and preserve the knowledge contained in choreographic-dramaturgic practices; b) assist artists with tools to facilitate their compositional processes, preferably on a collaborative basis. The existing digital archives of performing arts mostly function as conventional e-libraries, not allowing higher degrees of interactivity or active user intervention. They rarely contemplate accessible video annotation tools or provide relational querying functionalities based on artist-driven conceptual principles or idiosyncratic ontologies.
This proposal endeavours to fill that gap and create a new paradigm for the documentation of performance composition. It aims at the analysis of artists’ unique conceptual structures, by combining the empirical insights of contemporary creators with research theories from Multimodal Communication and Digital Media studies. The challenge is to design a model for a web-based collaborative platform enabling both a robust representation of performance composition methods and novel visualization technologies to support it. This can be done by analysing recurring body movement patterns and by fostering online contributions of users (a.o. performers and researchers) to the multimodal annotations stored in the platform. To accomplish this goal, two subjacent components must be developed: 1. the production of a video annotation-tool to allow artists in rehearsal periods to take notes over video in real-time and share them via the collaborative platform; 2. the linguistic analysis of a corpus of invited artists’ multimodal materials as source for the extraction of indicative conceptual structures, which will guide the architectural logics and interface design of the collaborative platform software.The outputs of these two components will generate critical case-studies to help understanding the human mind when engaged in cultural production processes.
Summary
The global performing arts community is requiring innovative systems to: a) document, transmit and preserve the knowledge contained in choreographic-dramaturgic practices; b) assist artists with tools to facilitate their compositional processes, preferably on a collaborative basis. The existing digital archives of performing arts mostly function as conventional e-libraries, not allowing higher degrees of interactivity or active user intervention. They rarely contemplate accessible video annotation tools or provide relational querying functionalities based on artist-driven conceptual principles or idiosyncratic ontologies.
This proposal endeavours to fill that gap and create a new paradigm for the documentation of performance composition. It aims at the analysis of artists’ unique conceptual structures, by combining the empirical insights of contemporary creators with research theories from Multimodal Communication and Digital Media studies. The challenge is to design a model for a web-based collaborative platform enabling both a robust representation of performance composition methods and novel visualization technologies to support it. This can be done by analysing recurring body movement patterns and by fostering online contributions of users (a.o. performers and researchers) to the multimodal annotations stored in the platform. To accomplish this goal, two subjacent components must be developed: 1. the production of a video annotation-tool to allow artists in rehearsal periods to take notes over video in real-time and share them via the collaborative platform; 2. the linguistic analysis of a corpus of invited artists’ multimodal materials as source for the extraction of indicative conceptual structures, which will guide the architectural logics and interface design of the collaborative platform software.The outputs of these two components will generate critical case-studies to help understanding the human mind when engaged in cultural production processes.
Max ERC Funding
1 378 200 €
Duration
Start date: 2014-05-01, End date: 2019-04-30
Project acronym CAPSAHARA
Project CRITICAL APPROACHES TO POLITICS, SOCIAL ACTIVISM, AND ISLAMIC MILITANCY IN THE WESTERN SAHARAN REGION
Researcher (PI) Francisco Manuel Machado da Rosa da Silva Freire
Host Institution (HI) CENTRO EM REDE DE INVESTIGACAO EM ANTROPOLOGIA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH5, ERC-2016-STG
Summary This project proposes an analysis of the reconfigurations established in the socio-political vocabulary of the western Saharan region – southern Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania – from the “post-empire” to the contemporary period. The project should produce an analysis of 1) the social and political structures shared in the region, 2) the local variations of those structures, based on case studies, 3) their specific configurations, based on social markers such as gender, age, and class, 4) the use of those structures in different historical periods. All these will be under theoretical and ethnographic scrutiny in order to achieve its main goal: 5) to understand the recent articulation of the social and political structures of the Western Saharan region, with broader and often exogenous political vocabularies.
The methodology used in this project is based on readings associated with different social sciences, with a particular focus on anthropology, history, and political science. The members of the research team, with experience and linguistic competence in the different geographies involved in this project, are expected to conduct original field enquiries, enabling a significant enhancement of the theoretical and ethnographic knowledge associated with this region.
The project’s main goal is to analyse the types of interplay established between pre-modern socio-political traditions and contemporary political expression and activism, in a particularly sensitive – and academically disregarded – region. Its effort to integrate a context that is usually compartmentalized, as well as to put together a group of researchers generally “isolated” in their particular areas of expertise, geographies, or nations, should also be valued. The project’s results should enable the different contexts under study to be integrated into the wider maps of current scientific research, providing, at the same time a dissemination of its outputs to an extended audience.
Summary
This project proposes an analysis of the reconfigurations established in the socio-political vocabulary of the western Saharan region – southern Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania – from the “post-empire” to the contemporary period. The project should produce an analysis of 1) the social and political structures shared in the region, 2) the local variations of those structures, based on case studies, 3) their specific configurations, based on social markers such as gender, age, and class, 4) the use of those structures in different historical periods. All these will be under theoretical and ethnographic scrutiny in order to achieve its main goal: 5) to understand the recent articulation of the social and political structures of the Western Saharan region, with broader and often exogenous political vocabularies.
The methodology used in this project is based on readings associated with different social sciences, with a particular focus on anthropology, history, and political science. The members of the research team, with experience and linguistic competence in the different geographies involved in this project, are expected to conduct original field enquiries, enabling a significant enhancement of the theoretical and ethnographic knowledge associated with this region.
The project’s main goal is to analyse the types of interplay established between pre-modern socio-political traditions and contemporary political expression and activism, in a particularly sensitive – and academically disregarded – region. Its effort to integrate a context that is usually compartmentalized, as well as to put together a group of researchers generally “isolated” in their particular areas of expertise, geographies, or nations, should also be valued. The project’s results should enable the different contexts under study to be integrated into the wider maps of current scientific research, providing, at the same time a dissemination of its outputs to an extended audience.
Max ERC Funding
1 192 144 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-04-01, End date: 2021-03-31
Project acronym COMPCON
Project Competition under (niche) construction
Researcher (PI) Sara NEWBERY RAPOSO DE MAGALHÃES
Host Institution (HI) FCIENCIAS.ID - ASSOCIACAO PARA A INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO DE CIENCIAS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS8, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Interspecific competition is arguably the best interaction to address how individual trait variation and eco-evolutionary feedbacks shape species distributions and trait evolution, due to its indirect effects via the shared resource. However, a clear understanding of such feedbacks is only possible if each contributing factor can be manipulated independently. With COMPCON, we will address how individual variation, niche width, niche construction and the presence of competitors shape species distributions and trait evolution, using a system amenable to manipulation of all these variables. The system is composed of two spider mite species, Tetranychus urticae and T. ludeni, that up- and down-regulate plant defences (i.e., negative and positive niche construction, respectively). Tomato mutant plants with low defences will be used as an environment in which niche construction is not expressed. Furthermore, tomato plants will be grown under different cadmium concentrations, allowing quantitative variation of available niches. Using isogenic lines, we will measure individual variation in niche width, niche construction and competitive ability. Different combinations of lines will then be used to test key predictions of recent theory on how such variation affects coexistence with competitors. Subsequently, mite populations will evolve in environments with either one or more potential niches, in plants where niche construction is possible or not, and in presence or absence of competitors (coevolving or not). We will test how these selection pressures affect niche width, niche construction and competitive ability, as well as plant damage. Finally, we will re-derive isogenic lines from these treatments, to test how evolution under different scenarios affects individual variation in niche width.
COMPCON will shed new light on the role of competition in shaping eco-evolutionary communities, with bearings on disciplines ranging from macro-ecology to evolutionary genetics
Summary
Interspecific competition is arguably the best interaction to address how individual trait variation and eco-evolutionary feedbacks shape species distributions and trait evolution, due to its indirect effects via the shared resource. However, a clear understanding of such feedbacks is only possible if each contributing factor can be manipulated independently. With COMPCON, we will address how individual variation, niche width, niche construction and the presence of competitors shape species distributions and trait evolution, using a system amenable to manipulation of all these variables. The system is composed of two spider mite species, Tetranychus urticae and T. ludeni, that up- and down-regulate plant defences (i.e., negative and positive niche construction, respectively). Tomato mutant plants with low defences will be used as an environment in which niche construction is not expressed. Furthermore, tomato plants will be grown under different cadmium concentrations, allowing quantitative variation of available niches. Using isogenic lines, we will measure individual variation in niche width, niche construction and competitive ability. Different combinations of lines will then be used to test key predictions of recent theory on how such variation affects coexistence with competitors. Subsequently, mite populations will evolve in environments with either one or more potential niches, in plants where niche construction is possible or not, and in presence or absence of competitors (coevolving or not). We will test how these selection pressures affect niche width, niche construction and competitive ability, as well as plant damage. Finally, we will re-derive isogenic lines from these treatments, to test how evolution under different scenarios affects individual variation in niche width.
COMPCON will shed new light on the role of competition in shaping eco-evolutionary communities, with bearings on disciplines ranging from macro-ecology to evolutionary genetics
Max ERC Funding
1 999 275 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2022-04-30
Project acronym DYBHO
Project The dynamics of black holes: testing the limits of Einstein's theory
Researcher (PI) Vitor Manuel Dos Santos Cardoso
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2010-StG_20091028
Summary From astrophysics to high-energy physics and quantum gravity, black holes (BHs) have acquired an ever increasing role in fundamental physics, and are now part of the terminology of many important branches of theoretical and observational physics. It has been established that supermassive BHs lurk at the center of many galaxies and provide fertile ground for stellar growth and evolution. Millions of stellar-mass BHs populate the galaxies, and power violent processes such as gamma-ray bursts, etc. In high-energy physics, the gauge/gravity duality has created a powerful framework for the study of strongly coupled gauge theories and found applications in connection with the experimental program on heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, among many others. As emphasized by Maldacena and Witten, BHs play a special role in the correspondence: confinement in QCD may be related via the Hawking-Page phase transition to BHs in anti-de Sitter (AdS).
Given the central role that BHs have been claiming in physics, a major task for theoreticians
is to understand processes in which they are involved. With the advent of techniques to evolve BH spacetimes numerically, the field is undergoing a phase transition from a promising branch of general relativity to one of the most exciting fields in 21st century research that will open up unprecedented opportunities to expand and test our understanding of fundamental physics and the universe.
This project aims at evolving numerically BHs in generic backgrounds, in a fully non-linear framework. We intend to generalize all the machinery developed in the last 30 years for asymptotically flat, (3+1) dimensional spacetimes to other geometries and field equations.
This allows a number of fundamental questions to be tackled, from tests of the cosmic censorship to an understanding of the stability and phase diagrams of these objects and
how different field equations can impact on gravitational-wave emission
Summary
From astrophysics to high-energy physics and quantum gravity, black holes (BHs) have acquired an ever increasing role in fundamental physics, and are now part of the terminology of many important branches of theoretical and observational physics. It has been established that supermassive BHs lurk at the center of many galaxies and provide fertile ground for stellar growth and evolution. Millions of stellar-mass BHs populate the galaxies, and power violent processes such as gamma-ray bursts, etc. In high-energy physics, the gauge/gravity duality has created a powerful framework for the study of strongly coupled gauge theories and found applications in connection with the experimental program on heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, among many others. As emphasized by Maldacena and Witten, BHs play a special role in the correspondence: confinement in QCD may be related via the Hawking-Page phase transition to BHs in anti-de Sitter (AdS).
Given the central role that BHs have been claiming in physics, a major task for theoreticians
is to understand processes in which they are involved. With the advent of techniques to evolve BH spacetimes numerically, the field is undergoing a phase transition from a promising branch of general relativity to one of the most exciting fields in 21st century research that will open up unprecedented opportunities to expand and test our understanding of fundamental physics and the universe.
This project aims at evolving numerically BHs in generic backgrounds, in a fully non-linear framework. We intend to generalize all the machinery developed in the last 30 years for asymptotically flat, (3+1) dimensional spacetimes to other geometries and field equations.
This allows a number of fundamental questions to be tackled, from tests of the cosmic censorship to an understanding of the stability and phase diagrams of these objects and
how different field equations can impact on gravitational-wave emission
Max ERC Funding
915 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30
Project acronym ECOADAPT
Project Microbial adaptation within ecosystems
Researcher (PI) Isabel Antunes Mendes Gordo
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACAO CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2010-StG_20091118
Summary All natural populations are constantly subject to new mutations, and frequently face new environments, to which they adapt. Knowledge of the genetics of adaptation should provide the centerpiece of a unified theory of evolution. Despite its extreme importance, the process of adaptation is far from being understood. How does the shape of distribution of fitness effects of mutations depend on the environment? What is the importance of epistasis in adaptive evolution? are still open questions. While empirical observations on advantageous mutations are extremely difficult, recent technical advances allow us to start tackling these questions with an unprecedented accuracy. Here we will combine different methods in a novel powerful marker system to track adaptive mutations as they become incorporated into bacterial populations adapting to different environments and as they fix. Interestingly theory suggest that some generalities may underlie the process of adaptation and that ecology may be important in the dynamics and statistical laws of adaptation. Experimental evolution with bacteria presents us with the opportunity to directly measure key parameters and to test theoretical predictions about the genetic basis of adaptive evolution in increasingly complex ecosystems. As Dobzansky pointed out The greater the diversity of inhabitants in a territory, the more adaptive opportunities exist in it. The main goal of this research project is to measure rates and effects of adaptive mutations, as well as patterns of epistasis amongst beneficial mutations in environments with different strengths of abiotic versus biotic interactions.
Summary
All natural populations are constantly subject to new mutations, and frequently face new environments, to which they adapt. Knowledge of the genetics of adaptation should provide the centerpiece of a unified theory of evolution. Despite its extreme importance, the process of adaptation is far from being understood. How does the shape of distribution of fitness effects of mutations depend on the environment? What is the importance of epistasis in adaptive evolution? are still open questions. While empirical observations on advantageous mutations are extremely difficult, recent technical advances allow us to start tackling these questions with an unprecedented accuracy. Here we will combine different methods in a novel powerful marker system to track adaptive mutations as they become incorporated into bacterial populations adapting to different environments and as they fix. Interestingly theory suggest that some generalities may underlie the process of adaptation and that ecology may be important in the dynamics and statistical laws of adaptation. Experimental evolution with bacteria presents us with the opportunity to directly measure key parameters and to test theoretical predictions about the genetic basis of adaptive evolution in increasingly complex ecosystems. As Dobzansky pointed out The greater the diversity of inhabitants in a territory, the more adaptive opportunities exist in it. The main goal of this research project is to measure rates and effects of adaptive mutations, as well as patterns of epistasis amongst beneficial mutations in environments with different strengths of abiotic versus biotic interactions.
Max ERC Funding
1 167 600 €
Duration
Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30
Project acronym FIT2GO
Project A toolbox for fitness landscapes in evolution
Researcher (PI) Claudia BANK
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACAO CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS8, ERC-2018-STG
Summary A major challenge in evolutionary biology is to quantify the processes and mechanisms by which populations adapt to new environments. In particular, the role of epistasis, which is the genetic-background dependent effect of mutations, and the constraints it imposes on adaptation, has been contentious for decades. This question can be approached using the concept of a fitness landscape: a map of genotypes or phenotypes to fitness, which dictates the dynamics and the possible paths towards increased reproductive success. This analogy has inspired a large body of theoretical work, in which various models of fitness landscapes have been proposed and analysed. Only recently, novel experimental approaches and advances in sequencing technologies have provided us with large empirical fitness landscapes at impressive resolution, which call for the evaluation of the related theory.
The aim of this proposal is to build on the theory of fitness landscapes to quantify epistasis across levels of biological organization and across environments, and to study its impact on the population genetics of adaptation and hybridization. Each work package involves classical theoretical modelling, statistical inference and method development, and data analysis and interpretation; a combination of approaches for which my research group has strong expertise. In addition, we will perform experimental evolution in Escherichia coli and influenza to test hypotheses related to the change of fitness effects across environments, and to adaptation by means of highly epistatic mutations. We will specifically apply our methods to evaluate the potential for predicting routes to drug resistance in pathogens. The long-term goal lies in the development of a modeling and inference framework that utilizes fitness landscape theory to infer the ecological history of a genome, which may ultimately allow for a prediction of its future adaptive potential.
Summary
A major challenge in evolutionary biology is to quantify the processes and mechanisms by which populations adapt to new environments. In particular, the role of epistasis, which is the genetic-background dependent effect of mutations, and the constraints it imposes on adaptation, has been contentious for decades. This question can be approached using the concept of a fitness landscape: a map of genotypes or phenotypes to fitness, which dictates the dynamics and the possible paths towards increased reproductive success. This analogy has inspired a large body of theoretical work, in which various models of fitness landscapes have been proposed and analysed. Only recently, novel experimental approaches and advances in sequencing technologies have provided us with large empirical fitness landscapes at impressive resolution, which call for the evaluation of the related theory.
The aim of this proposal is to build on the theory of fitness landscapes to quantify epistasis across levels of biological organization and across environments, and to study its impact on the population genetics of adaptation and hybridization. Each work package involves classical theoretical modelling, statistical inference and method development, and data analysis and interpretation; a combination of approaches for which my research group has strong expertise. In addition, we will perform experimental evolution in Escherichia coli and influenza to test hypotheses related to the change of fitness effects across environments, and to adaptation by means of highly epistatic mutations. We will specifically apply our methods to evaluate the potential for predicting routes to drug resistance in pathogens. The long-term goal lies in the development of a modeling and inference framework that utilizes fitness landscape theory to infer the ecological history of a genome, which may ultimately allow for a prediction of its future adaptive potential.
Max ERC Funding
1 366 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-03-01, End date: 2024-02-29
Project acronym InPairs
Project In Silico Pair Plasmas: from ultra intense lasers to relativistic astrophysics in the laboratory
Researcher (PI) Luís Miguel DE OLIVEIRA E SILVA
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary How do extreme electromagnetic fields modify the dynamics of matter? Will quantum electrodynamics effects be important at the focus of an ultra intense laser? How are the magnetospheres of compact stellar remnants formed, and can we capture the physics of these environments in the laboratory? These are all longstanding questions with an overarching connection to extreme plasma physics.
Electron-positron pair plasmas are pervasive in all these scenarios. Highly nonlinear phenomena such as QED processes, magnetogenesis, radiation, field dynamics in complex geometries, and particle acceleration, are all linked with the collective dynamics of pair plasmas through mechanisms that remain poorly understood.
Building on our state-of-the-art models, on the availability of enormous computational power, and on our recent transformative discoveries on ab initio modelling of plasmas under extreme conditions, the time is ripe to answer these questions in silico. InPairs aims to understand the multidimensional dynamics of electron-positron plasmas under extreme laboratory and astrophysical fields, to determine the signatures of the radiative processes on pair plasmas, and to identify the physics of the magnetospheres of compact stellar remnants, focusing on the electrodynamics of pulsars, that can be mimicked in laboratory experiments using ultra high intensity lasers and charged particle beams.
This proposal relies on massively parallel simulations to bridge the gap, for the first time, between the pair plasma creation mechanisms, the collective multidimensional microphysics, and their global dynamics in complex geometries associated with laboratory and astrophysical systems. Emphasis will be given to detectable signatures e.g. radiation and accelerated particles, with the ultimate goal of solving some of the central questions in extreme plasma physics, thus opening new connections between computational studies, laboratory experiments, and relativistic plasma astrophysics.
Summary
How do extreme electromagnetic fields modify the dynamics of matter? Will quantum electrodynamics effects be important at the focus of an ultra intense laser? How are the magnetospheres of compact stellar remnants formed, and can we capture the physics of these environments in the laboratory? These are all longstanding questions with an overarching connection to extreme plasma physics.
Electron-positron pair plasmas are pervasive in all these scenarios. Highly nonlinear phenomena such as QED processes, magnetogenesis, radiation, field dynamics in complex geometries, and particle acceleration, are all linked with the collective dynamics of pair plasmas through mechanisms that remain poorly understood.
Building on our state-of-the-art models, on the availability of enormous computational power, and on our recent transformative discoveries on ab initio modelling of plasmas under extreme conditions, the time is ripe to answer these questions in silico. InPairs aims to understand the multidimensional dynamics of electron-positron plasmas under extreme laboratory and astrophysical fields, to determine the signatures of the radiative processes on pair plasmas, and to identify the physics of the magnetospheres of compact stellar remnants, focusing on the electrodynamics of pulsars, that can be mimicked in laboratory experiments using ultra high intensity lasers and charged particle beams.
This proposal relies on massively parallel simulations to bridge the gap, for the first time, between the pair plasma creation mechanisms, the collective multidimensional microphysics, and their global dynamics in complex geometries associated with laboratory and astrophysical systems. Emphasis will be given to detectable signatures e.g. radiation and accelerated particles, with the ultimate goal of solving some of the central questions in extreme plasma physics, thus opening new connections between computational studies, laboratory experiments, and relativistic plasma astrophysics.
Max ERC Funding
1 951 124 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym MaGRaTh
Project Matter and strong-field gravity: New frontiers in Einstein’s theory
Researcher (PI) VITOR MANUEL DOS SANTOS CARDOSO
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE2, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Gravity is the weakest but the most intriguing fundamental interaction in the Universe. In the last decades a formidable intellectual effort has shown that the full-fledged geometric nature of gravity offers much more than a beautiful description and understanding of all stellar and galactic. In the quest for the ultimate theory of gravity, new and spectacular connections between high-energy physics, astrophysics, cosmology and theoretical physics have emerged. Triggered by breakthroughs at the observational, experimental and conceptual levels, strong gravity physics is experiencing a Golden Age, making it one of the most active fields of research of the 21st century.
My group in Lisbon has been involved in groundbreaking research into the nature of strong-field effects in curved spacetime with applications in various fields, thus establishing international leadership in the field. This proposal aims at understanding,
via perturbative techniques and full-blown nonlinear evolutions, the strong-field regime of gravity, and includes challenging nonlinear evolutions describing gravitational collapse, compact binary inspirals and collisions in the presence of fundamental fields. The proposed programme will significantly advance our knowledge of Einstein's field equations and their role in fundamental questions (e.g. cosmic censorship, hoop conjecture, spacetime stability, no hair theorems), but also its interplay with high energy, astro and particle physics (testing the precise nature of the interaction between compact objects and matter --such as dark matter candidates or accretion disks-- and its imprint on gravitational wave emission, understanding gravitational-led turbulence,etc).
This is a cross-cutting and multidisciplinary program with an impact on our understanding of gravity at all scales, on our perception of black hole-powered phenomena and on gravitational-wave and particle physics.
Summary
Gravity is the weakest but the most intriguing fundamental interaction in the Universe. In the last decades a formidable intellectual effort has shown that the full-fledged geometric nature of gravity offers much more than a beautiful description and understanding of all stellar and galactic. In the quest for the ultimate theory of gravity, new and spectacular connections between high-energy physics, astrophysics, cosmology and theoretical physics have emerged. Triggered by breakthroughs at the observational, experimental and conceptual levels, strong gravity physics is experiencing a Golden Age, making it one of the most active fields of research of the 21st century.
My group in Lisbon has been involved in groundbreaking research into the nature of strong-field effects in curved spacetime with applications in various fields, thus establishing international leadership in the field. This proposal aims at understanding,
via perturbative techniques and full-blown nonlinear evolutions, the strong-field regime of gravity, and includes challenging nonlinear evolutions describing gravitational collapse, compact binary inspirals and collisions in the presence of fundamental fields. The proposed programme will significantly advance our knowledge of Einstein's field equations and their role in fundamental questions (e.g. cosmic censorship, hoop conjecture, spacetime stability, no hair theorems), but also its interplay with high energy, astro and particle physics (testing the precise nature of the interaction between compact objects and matter --such as dark matter candidates or accretion disks-- and its imprint on gravitational wave emission, understanding gravitational-led turbulence,etc).
This is a cross-cutting and multidisciplinary program with an impact on our understanding of gravity at all scales, on our perception of black hole-powered phenomena and on gravitational-wave and particle physics.
Max ERC Funding
1 588 817 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-12-01, End date: 2020-11-30
Project acronym MEMOIRS
Project Children of Empires and European Postmemories
Researcher (PI) Maria Margarida DE SA CALAFATE RIBEIRO
Host Institution (HI) CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary MEMOIRS focuses on the intergenerational memories of the children and grandchildren of those involved in the decolonization processes of colonies held by France, Portugal and Belgium. Through interviews of this second and third generation, and a comparative analysis of the cultures influenced by the postmemory of the colonial wars and the end of empire, Europe's postcolonial heritage will be reinterrogated, and a new understanding of the contemporary continent will be developed. At the heart of the project is a desire to comprehend the effects of Europe's postimperial diversity through postmemories of colonial praxis.
The project is interdisciplinary, bringing together specialists from literary and cultural studies, history, sociology and migration studies. MEMOIRS aims to maximize the impact of its findings through broad web, open-access publications and an itinerant artistic exhibit that captures multiple aspects of the representations of postmemory, and fosters a meaningful North-South dialogue.
Summary
MEMOIRS focuses on the intergenerational memories of the children and grandchildren of those involved in the decolonization processes of colonies held by France, Portugal and Belgium. Through interviews of this second and third generation, and a comparative analysis of the cultures influenced by the postmemory of the colonial wars and the end of empire, Europe's postcolonial heritage will be reinterrogated, and a new understanding of the contemporary continent will be developed. At the heart of the project is a desire to comprehend the effects of Europe's postimperial diversity through postmemories of colonial praxis.
The project is interdisciplinary, bringing together specialists from literary and cultural studies, history, sociology and migration studies. MEMOIRS aims to maximize the impact of its findings through broad web, open-access publications and an itinerant artistic exhibit that captures multiple aspects of the representations of postmemory, and fosters a meaningful North-South dialogue.
Max ERC Funding
1 982 475 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-11-01, End date: 2020-10-31
Project acronym P.S.
Project Post Scriptum: A Digital Archive of Ordinary Writings (Early Modern Portugal and Spain)
Researcher (PI) Maria Rita Braga Marquilhas
Host Institution (HI) Faculdade de letras da Universidade de Lisboa
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH5, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary The project P.S. proposes to build up a campaign of systematic collection, edition and historical-linguistic study of personal letters written in the Early Modern Ages (17th to early 19th century) in Portugal and Spain. The documents in question are original epistolary writings made by servants, children, wives, lovers, thieves, soldiers, artisans, priests, political fighters, and many other types of social agents whose paths were crossed by the prosecuting ways of the Inquisition and the civil courts, two institutions that used to seize personal correspondence as instrumental proof. Since the documents are accompanied by the ‘sociological interviews’ carried out by inquisitors and judges, they allow researchers a well-contextualized study of traditional communities in their inter-personal modes of relation. The sources’ texts contain very frequently an (almost) oral rhetoric through which emotions were expressed, commonsense was stated, non-orthodox beliefs were confessed and trivial incidents were narrated. Until now, it has been difficult to discover more than thin samples of this Early Modern ‘popular’ discourse. The P.S. project will not only assemble a large collection of it, but it will also match its philological treatment – an online digital edition following Textual Criticism standards – with the cultural and linguistic study of its contents.
Summary
The project P.S. proposes to build up a campaign of systematic collection, edition and historical-linguistic study of personal letters written in the Early Modern Ages (17th to early 19th century) in Portugal and Spain. The documents in question are original epistolary writings made by servants, children, wives, lovers, thieves, soldiers, artisans, priests, political fighters, and many other types of social agents whose paths were crossed by the prosecuting ways of the Inquisition and the civil courts, two institutions that used to seize personal correspondence as instrumental proof. Since the documents are accompanied by the ‘sociological interviews’ carried out by inquisitors and judges, they allow researchers a well-contextualized study of traditional communities in their inter-personal modes of relation. The sources’ texts contain very frequently an (almost) oral rhetoric through which emotions were expressed, commonsense was stated, non-orthodox beliefs were confessed and trivial incidents were narrated. Until now, it has been difficult to discover more than thin samples of this Early Modern ‘popular’ discourse. The P.S. project will not only assemble a large collection of it, but it will also match its philological treatment – an online digital edition following Textual Criticism standards – with the cultural and linguistic study of its contents.
Max ERC Funding
1 815 857 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym POLITICS
Project The politics of anti-racism in Europe and Latin America: knowledge production, decision-making and collective struggles
Researcher (PI) Silvia RODRIGUEZ MAESO
Host Institution (HI) CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2016-COG
Summary The main objective of POLITICS is to innovate knowledge on anti-racism that brings about a greater understanding of how historically rooted injustices are being challenged by institutions and grassroots movements. Considering the centrality and mutual influence of Europe and Latin America in the global processes of racial formation, POLITICS will develop an inter-disciplinary and comprehensive approach towards two core goals: (a) the analysis of processes of knowledge production about ‘race’ and (anti-)racism in the spheres of (inter)national governmental politics, State universities and grassroots movements; (b) the examination of diverse paths of denunciation and collective mobilisation against everyday racism concerning police practice and representations in the mass media.
POLITICS embraces a multilevel analysis and information-oriented selection of case-studies in three interrelated research streams: (i) Global, regional and state-sponsored political frameworks and public policies; (ii) Cultures of scholarship and the study of racism and (post)colonialism at State universities; (iii) Tackling everyday racism: processes of denunciation, political mobilisation and case-law concerning police practice, and racist representations in the media and mass media. The research challenges the shortcomings of evaluative comparisons and the selection of research contexts enables interrogating the relations between the global, national and local levels. They include the Organisation of American States, the European Union and national and local politics in Brazil, Peru, Portugal and Spain. Qualitative research and data collection engage with race critical theories, critical discourse analysis and participatory methods that consider power/knowledge at their core.
POLITICS will unravel the configuration of different notions of dignity, justice and equality resulting from anti-racist struggles and policy interventions and their significance for envisaging decolonial horizons.
Summary
The main objective of POLITICS is to innovate knowledge on anti-racism that brings about a greater understanding of how historically rooted injustices are being challenged by institutions and grassroots movements. Considering the centrality and mutual influence of Europe and Latin America in the global processes of racial formation, POLITICS will develop an inter-disciplinary and comprehensive approach towards two core goals: (a) the analysis of processes of knowledge production about ‘race’ and (anti-)racism in the spheres of (inter)national governmental politics, State universities and grassroots movements; (b) the examination of diverse paths of denunciation and collective mobilisation against everyday racism concerning police practice and representations in the mass media.
POLITICS embraces a multilevel analysis and information-oriented selection of case-studies in three interrelated research streams: (i) Global, regional and state-sponsored political frameworks and public policies; (ii) Cultures of scholarship and the study of racism and (post)colonialism at State universities; (iii) Tackling everyday racism: processes of denunciation, political mobilisation and case-law concerning police practice, and racist representations in the media and mass media. The research challenges the shortcomings of evaluative comparisons and the selection of research contexts enables interrogating the relations between the global, national and local levels. They include the Organisation of American States, the European Union and national and local politics in Brazil, Peru, Portugal and Spain. Qualitative research and data collection engage with race critical theories, critical discourse analysis and participatory methods that consider power/knowledge at their core.
POLITICS will unravel the configuration of different notions of dignity, justice and equality resulting from anti-racist struggles and policy interventions and their significance for envisaging decolonial horizons.
Max ERC Funding
1 915 381 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31
Project acronym ReSEED
Project Rescuing seeds’ heritage: engaging in a new framework of agriculture and innovation since the 18th century
Researcher (PI) Maria Dulce ALVES FREIRE
Host Institution (HI) INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS SOCIAIS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Humanity is facing a huge challenge: how to feed a growing population in a sustainable way? Scientists from different fields are looking for answers and ReSEED aims to assist such endeavours. Solutions depend on one key issue: seeds. We can have appropriate soil, climate or technologies, however without proper seeds it is impossible to guarantee food production. As historiography has given little attention to the role of seed varieties, there are many gaps in scientific knowledge. I argue that long-term historical analysis is critical to provide the best answers to current questions. ReSEED examines the changing connections between seeds, environment and human action, the triangle that has always underpinned agriculture, since the 18th century. The main objectives are as follows. 1) To map geographical changes in local crop distribution, paying attention to the new seeds made available by Columbian Exchange. 2) To outline which were the social networks supporting the circulation and cultivation of edible seed varieties, and at later date, checking how they articulated with state services. 3) To identify human factors that contribute to reducing, increasing, maintaining or restoring regional agro-biodiversity. 4) To assess the impacts of national and international decisions on local management of the triangle, mainly on farmers’ innovation. 5) To re-examine the long-term dynamics behind various European agricultural modernization itineraries. Based on innovative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methodologies, I build robust empirical research on the case of Iberian Peninsula in connection to empires, which allows thorough comparisons with other regions in Europe and beyond. ReSEED promotes strategies for win-win environmental/society outcomes, linking edible seeds to places and to innovations needed for food production. This is crucial to better understand how historical experiences can contribute to create solutions that ensure sustainable futures.
Summary
Humanity is facing a huge challenge: how to feed a growing population in a sustainable way? Scientists from different fields are looking for answers and ReSEED aims to assist such endeavours. Solutions depend on one key issue: seeds. We can have appropriate soil, climate or technologies, however without proper seeds it is impossible to guarantee food production. As historiography has given little attention to the role of seed varieties, there are many gaps in scientific knowledge. I argue that long-term historical analysis is critical to provide the best answers to current questions. ReSEED examines the changing connections between seeds, environment and human action, the triangle that has always underpinned agriculture, since the 18th century. The main objectives are as follows. 1) To map geographical changes in local crop distribution, paying attention to the new seeds made available by Columbian Exchange. 2) To outline which were the social networks supporting the circulation and cultivation of edible seed varieties, and at later date, checking how they articulated with state services. 3) To identify human factors that contribute to reducing, increasing, maintaining or restoring regional agro-biodiversity. 4) To assess the impacts of national and international decisions on local management of the triangle, mainly on farmers’ innovation. 5) To re-examine the long-term dynamics behind various European agricultural modernization itineraries. Based on innovative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methodologies, I build robust empirical research on the case of Iberian Peninsula in connection to empires, which allows thorough comparisons with other regions in Europe and beyond. ReSEED promotes strategies for win-win environmental/society outcomes, linking edible seeds to places and to innovations needed for food production. This is crucial to better understand how historical experiences can contribute to create solutions that ensure sustainable futures.
Max ERC Funding
1 467 727 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-11-01, End date: 2023-10-31
