Project acronym 3DIMAGE
Project 3D Imaging Across Lengthscales: From Atoms to Grains
Researcher (PI) Paul Anthony Midgley
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "Understanding structure-property relationships across lengthscales is key to the design of functional and structural materials and devices. Moreover, the complexity of modern devices extends to three dimensions and as such 3D characterization is required across those lengthscales to provide a complete understanding and enable improvement in the material’s physical and chemical behaviour. 3D imaging and analysis from the atomic scale through to granular microstructure is proposed through the development of electron tomography using (S)TEM, and ‘dual beam’ SEM-FIB, techniques offering complementary approaches to 3D imaging across lengthscales stretching over 5 orders of magnitude.
We propose to extend tomography to include novel methods to determine atom positions in 3D with approaches incorporating new reconstruction algorithms, image processing and complementary nano-diffraction techniques. At the nanoscale, true 3D nano-metrology of morphology and composition is a key objective of the project, minimizing reconstruction and visualization artefacts. Mapping strain and optical properties in 3D are ambitious and exciting challenges that will yield new information at the nanoscale. Using the SEM-FIB, 3D ‘mesoscale’ structures will be revealed: morphology, crystallography and composition can be mapped simultaneously, with ~5nm resolution and over volumes too large to tackle by (S)TEM and too small for most x-ray techniques. In parallel, we will apply 3D imaging to a wide variety of key materials including heterogeneous catalysts, aerospace alloys, biomaterials, photovoltaic materials, and novel semiconductors.
We will collaborate with many departments in Cambridge and institutes worldwide. The personnel on the proposal will cover all aspects of the tomography proposed using high-end TEMs, including an aberration-corrected Titan, and a Helios dual beam. Importantly, a postdoc is dedicated to developing new algorithms for reconstruction, image and spectral processing."
Summary
"Understanding structure-property relationships across lengthscales is key to the design of functional and structural materials and devices. Moreover, the complexity of modern devices extends to three dimensions and as such 3D characterization is required across those lengthscales to provide a complete understanding and enable improvement in the material’s physical and chemical behaviour. 3D imaging and analysis from the atomic scale through to granular microstructure is proposed through the development of electron tomography using (S)TEM, and ‘dual beam’ SEM-FIB, techniques offering complementary approaches to 3D imaging across lengthscales stretching over 5 orders of magnitude.
We propose to extend tomography to include novel methods to determine atom positions in 3D with approaches incorporating new reconstruction algorithms, image processing and complementary nano-diffraction techniques. At the nanoscale, true 3D nano-metrology of morphology and composition is a key objective of the project, minimizing reconstruction and visualization artefacts. Mapping strain and optical properties in 3D are ambitious and exciting challenges that will yield new information at the nanoscale. Using the SEM-FIB, 3D ‘mesoscale’ structures will be revealed: morphology, crystallography and composition can be mapped simultaneously, with ~5nm resolution and over volumes too large to tackle by (S)TEM and too small for most x-ray techniques. In parallel, we will apply 3D imaging to a wide variety of key materials including heterogeneous catalysts, aerospace alloys, biomaterials, photovoltaic materials, and novel semiconductors.
We will collaborate with many departments in Cambridge and institutes worldwide. The personnel on the proposal will cover all aspects of the tomography proposed using high-end TEMs, including an aberration-corrected Titan, and a Helios dual beam. Importantly, a postdoc is dedicated to developing new algorithms for reconstruction, image and spectral processing."
Max ERC Funding
2 337 330 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym AAS
Project Approximate algebraic structure and applications
Researcher (PI) Ben Green
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This project studies several mathematical topics with a related theme, all of them part of the relatively new discipline known as additive combinatorics.
We look at approximate, or rough, variants of familiar mathematical notions such as group, polynomial or homomorphism. In each case we seek to describe the structure of these approximate objects, and then to give applications of the resulting theorems. This endeavour has already lead to groundbreaking results in the theory of prime numbers, group theory and combinatorial number theory.
Summary
This project studies several mathematical topics with a related theme, all of them part of the relatively new discipline known as additive combinatorics.
We look at approximate, or rough, variants of familiar mathematical notions such as group, polynomial or homomorphism. In each case we seek to describe the structure of these approximate objects, and then to give applications of the resulting theorems. This endeavour has already lead to groundbreaking results in the theory of prime numbers, group theory and combinatorial number theory.
Max ERC Funding
1 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym ACCLAIM
Project Aerosols effects on convective clouds and climate
Researcher (PI) Philip Stier
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Clouds play a key role in the climate system. Small anthropogenic perturbations of the cloud system potentially have large radiative effects. Aerosols perturb the global radiation budget directly, by scattering and absorption, as well as indirectly, by the modification of cloud properties and occurrence. The applicability of traditional conceptual models of indirect aerosol effects to convective clouds is disputed as cloud dynamics complicates the picture.
Strong evidence for numerous aerosol effects on convection has been established in individual disciplines: through remote sensing and in-situ observations as well as by cloud resolving and global modelling. However, a coherent scientific view of the effects of aerosols on convection has yet to be established.
The primary objective of ACCLAIM is to recast the effects of aerosols on convective clouds as basis for improved global estimates of anthropogenic climate effects. Specific objectives include: i) to unravel the governing principles of aerosol effects on convective clouds; ii) provide quantitative constraints on satellite-retrieved relationships between convective clouds and aerosols; and ultimately iii) to enable global climate models to represent the full range of anthropogenic climate perturbations and quantify the climate response to aerosol effects on convective clouds.
I have developed the research strategy of ACCLAIM to overcome disciplinary barriers in this frontier research area and seek five years of funding to establish an interdisciplinary, physics focused, research group consisting of two PostDocs, two PhD students and myself. ACCLAIM will be centred around global aerosol-convection climate modelling studies, complemented by research constraining aerosol-convection interactions through remote sensing and a process focused research strand, advancing fundamental understanding and global model parameterisations through high resolution aerosol-cloud modelling in synergy with in-situ observations.
Summary
Clouds play a key role in the climate system. Small anthropogenic perturbations of the cloud system potentially have large radiative effects. Aerosols perturb the global radiation budget directly, by scattering and absorption, as well as indirectly, by the modification of cloud properties and occurrence. The applicability of traditional conceptual models of indirect aerosol effects to convective clouds is disputed as cloud dynamics complicates the picture.
Strong evidence for numerous aerosol effects on convection has been established in individual disciplines: through remote sensing and in-situ observations as well as by cloud resolving and global modelling. However, a coherent scientific view of the effects of aerosols on convection has yet to be established.
The primary objective of ACCLAIM is to recast the effects of aerosols on convective clouds as basis for improved global estimates of anthropogenic climate effects. Specific objectives include: i) to unravel the governing principles of aerosol effects on convective clouds; ii) provide quantitative constraints on satellite-retrieved relationships between convective clouds and aerosols; and ultimately iii) to enable global climate models to represent the full range of anthropogenic climate perturbations and quantify the climate response to aerosol effects on convective clouds.
I have developed the research strategy of ACCLAIM to overcome disciplinary barriers in this frontier research area and seek five years of funding to establish an interdisciplinary, physics focused, research group consisting of two PostDocs, two PhD students and myself. ACCLAIM will be centred around global aerosol-convection climate modelling studies, complemented by research constraining aerosol-convection interactions through remote sensing and a process focused research strand, advancing fundamental understanding and global model parameterisations through high resolution aerosol-cloud modelling in synergy with in-situ observations.
Max ERC Funding
1 429 243 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-09-01, End date: 2017-02-28
Project acronym AFTERTHEGOLDRUSH
Project Addressing global sustainability challenges by changing perceptions in catalyst design
Researcher (PI) Graham John Hutchings
Host Institution (HI) CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary One of the greatest challenges facing society is the sustainability of resources. At present, a step change in the sustainable use of resources is needed and catalysis lies at the heart of the solution by providing new routes to carbon dioxide mitigation, energy security and water conservation. It is clear that new high efficiency game-changing catalysts are required to meet the challenge. This proposal will focus on excellence in catalyst design by learning from recent step change advances in gold catalysis by challenging perceptions. Intense interest in gold catalysts over the past two decades has accelerated our understanding of gold particle-size effects, gold-support and gold-metal interactions, the interchange between atomic and ionic gold species, and the role of the gold-support interface in creating and maintaining catalytic activity. The field has also driven the development of cutting-edge techniques, particularly in microscopy and transient kinetics, providing detailed structural characterisation on the nano-scale and probing the short-range and often short-lived interactions. By comparison, our understanding of other metal catalysts has remained relatively static.
The proposed programme will engender a step change in the design of supported-metal catalysts, by exploiting the learning and the techniques emerging from gold catalysis. The research will be set out in two themes. In Theme 1 two established key grand challenges will be attacked; namely, energy vectors and greenhouse gas control. Theme 2 will address two new and emerging grand challenges in catalysis namely the effective low temperature activation of primary carbon hydrogen bonds and CO2 utilisation where instead of treating CO2 as a thermodynamic endpoint, the aim will be to re-use it as a feedstock for bulk chemical and fuel production. The legacy of the research will be the development of a new catalyst design approach that will provide a tool box for future catalyst development.
Summary
One of the greatest challenges facing society is the sustainability of resources. At present, a step change in the sustainable use of resources is needed and catalysis lies at the heart of the solution by providing new routes to carbon dioxide mitigation, energy security and water conservation. It is clear that new high efficiency game-changing catalysts are required to meet the challenge. This proposal will focus on excellence in catalyst design by learning from recent step change advances in gold catalysis by challenging perceptions. Intense interest in gold catalysts over the past two decades has accelerated our understanding of gold particle-size effects, gold-support and gold-metal interactions, the interchange between atomic and ionic gold species, and the role of the gold-support interface in creating and maintaining catalytic activity. The field has also driven the development of cutting-edge techniques, particularly in microscopy and transient kinetics, providing detailed structural characterisation on the nano-scale and probing the short-range and often short-lived interactions. By comparison, our understanding of other metal catalysts has remained relatively static.
The proposed programme will engender a step change in the design of supported-metal catalysts, by exploiting the learning and the techniques emerging from gold catalysis. The research will be set out in two themes. In Theme 1 two established key grand challenges will be attacked; namely, energy vectors and greenhouse gas control. Theme 2 will address two new and emerging grand challenges in catalysis namely the effective low temperature activation of primary carbon hydrogen bonds and CO2 utilisation where instead of treating CO2 as a thermodynamic endpoint, the aim will be to re-use it as a feedstock for bulk chemical and fuel production. The legacy of the research will be the development of a new catalyst design approach that will provide a tool box for future catalyst development.
Max ERC Funding
2 279 785 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym AISMA
Project An anthropological investigation of muscular politics in South Asia
Researcher (PI) Lucia Michelutti
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary Over the past decade, the media, international organisations, as well as policy-making bodies have voiced increasing concern about a growing overlap between the criminal and political spheres in South Asia. Many 'criminal politicians' are accused not simply of embezzlement, but of burglary, kidnapping and murder, so that the observed political landscape emerges not only as a 'corrupt', but also a highly violent sphere. This project is a collaborative and cross-national ethnographic study of the criminalisation of politics in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bringing together local-level investigation, surveys and historical analysis, the project will produce comprehensive political ethnographies in sixteen sites across the subcontinent, providing empirical material and theoretical directives for further charting of the virtually unexplored terrain of extra-legal muscular politics in the region. Central to the proposed programme of research are the following interrelated objectives: 1) To further develop the method of collaborative political ethnography by designing, collecting and producing case studies which will allow us to write thematically across sites; 2) To generate policy relevant research in the fields of security, conflict, democracy and development; 3) To produce capability by forging an international network of scholars on issues related to democratisation, violence, crime and support the work and careers of the project's 4 Post-docs. The study capitalises on previous research and skills of the PI in the cross-cultural study of democracy and muscular politics in the global South. All members of the research team have expertise in ethnographic research in the difficult spheres of criminal politics, informal economies, and political violence and are hence well and sometimes uniquely equipped to pursue this challenging research thematic.
Summary
Over the past decade, the media, international organisations, as well as policy-making bodies have voiced increasing concern about a growing overlap between the criminal and political spheres in South Asia. Many 'criminal politicians' are accused not simply of embezzlement, but of burglary, kidnapping and murder, so that the observed political landscape emerges not only as a 'corrupt', but also a highly violent sphere. This project is a collaborative and cross-national ethnographic study of the criminalisation of politics in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bringing together local-level investigation, surveys and historical analysis, the project will produce comprehensive political ethnographies in sixteen sites across the subcontinent, providing empirical material and theoretical directives for further charting of the virtually unexplored terrain of extra-legal muscular politics in the region. Central to the proposed programme of research are the following interrelated objectives: 1) To further develop the method of collaborative political ethnography by designing, collecting and producing case studies which will allow us to write thematically across sites; 2) To generate policy relevant research in the fields of security, conflict, democracy and development; 3) To produce capability by forging an international network of scholars on issues related to democratisation, violence, crime and support the work and careers of the project's 4 Post-docs. The study capitalises on previous research and skills of the PI in the cross-cultural study of democracy and muscular politics in the global South. All members of the research team have expertise in ethnographic research in the difficult spheres of criminal politics, informal economies, and political violence and are hence well and sometimes uniquely equipped to pursue this challenging research thematic.
Max ERC Funding
1 200 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29
Project acronym AMPRO
Project Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices through Novel Processing Paradigms
Researcher (PI) Thomas Anthopoulos
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "I propose a structured multidisciplinary research programme that seeks to combine advanced materials, such as metal oxides and organics, with novel fabrication methods to develop devices for application in: (1) large area electronics, (2) integrated nanoelectronics and (3) sensors. At the heart of this programme lies the development of novel oxide semiconductors. These will be synthesised from solution using precursors. Chemical doping via physical blending will be explored for the tuning of the electronic properties of these compounds. This simple approach will enable the rapid development of a library of materials far beyond those accessible by traditional methods. Oxides will then be combined with inorganic/organic dielectrics to demonstrate low power transistors. Ultimate target for application area (1) is the development of transistors with hole/electron mobilities exceeding 20/200 cm^2/Vs respectively. For application area (2) I will combine the precursor formulations with advanced scanning thermochemical nanolithography. A heated atomic force microscope tip will be used for the local chemical conversion of the precursor to oxide with sub-50 nm resolution. This will enable patterning of nanostructures with desirable shape and size. Sequential patterning of semi/conductive layers combined with SAM dielectrics would enable fabrication of nano-sized devices and circuits. For application area (3), research effort will focus on novel hybrid phototransistors. Use of different light absorbing organic dyes functionalised onto the oxide channel will be explored as a mean for developing high sensitivity phototransistors and full colour sensing arrays. Organic dyes will also be combined with nano-sized transistors to demonstrate integrated nano-scale optoelectronics. The unique combination of bottom-up and top-down strategies adopted in this project will lead to the development of novel high performance devices with a host of existing and new applications."
Summary
"I propose a structured multidisciplinary research programme that seeks to combine advanced materials, such as metal oxides and organics, with novel fabrication methods to develop devices for application in: (1) large area electronics, (2) integrated nanoelectronics and (3) sensors. At the heart of this programme lies the development of novel oxide semiconductors. These will be synthesised from solution using precursors. Chemical doping via physical blending will be explored for the tuning of the electronic properties of these compounds. This simple approach will enable the rapid development of a library of materials far beyond those accessible by traditional methods. Oxides will then be combined with inorganic/organic dielectrics to demonstrate low power transistors. Ultimate target for application area (1) is the development of transistors with hole/electron mobilities exceeding 20/200 cm^2/Vs respectively. For application area (2) I will combine the precursor formulations with advanced scanning thermochemical nanolithography. A heated atomic force microscope tip will be used for the local chemical conversion of the precursor to oxide with sub-50 nm resolution. This will enable patterning of nanostructures with desirable shape and size. Sequential patterning of semi/conductive layers combined with SAM dielectrics would enable fabrication of nano-sized devices and circuits. For application area (3), research effort will focus on novel hybrid phototransistors. Use of different light absorbing organic dyes functionalised onto the oxide channel will be explored as a mean for developing high sensitivity phototransistors and full colour sensing arrays. Organic dyes will also be combined with nano-sized transistors to demonstrate integrated nano-scale optoelectronics. The unique combination of bottom-up and top-down strategies adopted in this project will lead to the development of novel high performance devices with a host of existing and new applications."
Max ERC Funding
1 497 798 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym Arctic Domus
Project Arctic Domestication: Emplacing Human-Animal Relationships in the Circumpolar North
Researcher (PI) David George Anderson
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary This 6-year project aims to co-ordinate field research in each of these fields to elaborate a new model of emplaced human-animal relations evoking recent theoretical concerns of the definition of the person, the attribution of agency, and renewed attention to ‘built environments’. The project will work inductively from empirical observations in seven field sites across the circumpolar Arctic from the Russian Federation, to Fennoscandia, to Canada. The circumpolar Arctic originally provided many of the primary thought experiments for classic models of cultural evolution. It has now again become the focus of powerful debates over the balance between the protection of cultural heritage and the development of natural resources to fuel a future for industrial economies. The human-non-human relationships chosen for study cover the full range of theoretical and political discourse within the sciences today from primary encounters in domination to contemporary bio-technical innovations in farming. The team will transcend typical ‘existential’ models of domination between people and animals by describing complex social settings where more than one species interact with the cultural landscape. The team will also challenge existing definitions between wild and tame by instead examining what links these behaviour types together. Further, the team members will examine how domestication was never a sudden, fleeting intuition but rather a process wherein people and domesticates are sometimes closer and sometimes farther from each other. Finally, the research team, working within the above mentioned literatures, will develop a renewed model – a new way of describing – these relationships which does not necessarily rely upon metaphors of domination, competition, individual struggle, origins, or hybridity. The strength of the team, and the principle investigator, is their demonstrated ability to carry out fieldwork in this often difficult to access region.
Summary
This 6-year project aims to co-ordinate field research in each of these fields to elaborate a new model of emplaced human-animal relations evoking recent theoretical concerns of the definition of the person, the attribution of agency, and renewed attention to ‘built environments’. The project will work inductively from empirical observations in seven field sites across the circumpolar Arctic from the Russian Federation, to Fennoscandia, to Canada. The circumpolar Arctic originally provided many of the primary thought experiments for classic models of cultural evolution. It has now again become the focus of powerful debates over the balance between the protection of cultural heritage and the development of natural resources to fuel a future for industrial economies. The human-non-human relationships chosen for study cover the full range of theoretical and political discourse within the sciences today from primary encounters in domination to contemporary bio-technical innovations in farming. The team will transcend typical ‘existential’ models of domination between people and animals by describing complex social settings where more than one species interact with the cultural landscape. The team will also challenge existing definitions between wild and tame by instead examining what links these behaviour types together. Further, the team members will examine how domestication was never a sudden, fleeting intuition but rather a process wherein people and domesticates are sometimes closer and sometimes farther from each other. Finally, the research team, working within the above mentioned literatures, will develop a renewed model – a new way of describing – these relationships which does not necessarily rely upon metaphors of domination, competition, individual struggle, origins, or hybridity. The strength of the team, and the principle investigator, is their demonstrated ability to carry out fieldwork in this often difficult to access region.
Max ERC Funding
2 497 830 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2018-06-30
Project acronym ASAP
Project Adaptive Security and Privacy
Researcher (PI) Bashar Nuseibeh
Host Institution (HI) THE OPEN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE6, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary With the prevalence of mobile computing devices and the increasing availability of pervasive services, ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp) is a reality for many people. This reality is generating opportunities for people to interact socially in new and richer ways, and to work more effectively in a variety of new environments. More generally, Ubicomp infrastructures – controlled by software – will determine users’ access to critical services.
With these opportunities come higher risks of misuse by malicious agents. Therefore, the role and design of software for managing use and protecting against misuse is critical, and the engineering of software that is both functionally effective while safe guarding user assets from harm is a key challenge. Indeed the very nature of Ubicomp means that software must adapt to the changing needs of users and their environment, and, more critically, to the different threats to users’ security and privacy.
ASAP proposes to radically re-conceptualise software engineering for Ubicomp in ways that are cognisant of the changing functional needs of users, of the changing threats to user assets, and of the changing relationships between them. We propose to deliver adaptive software capabilities for supporting users in managing their privacy requirements, and adaptive software capabilities to deliver secure software that underpin those requirements. A key novelty of our approach is its holistic treatment of security and human behaviour. To achieve this, it draws upon contributions from requirements engineering, security & privacy engineering, and human-computer interaction. Our aim is to contribute to software engineering that empowers and protects Ubicomp users. Underpinning our approach will be the development of representations of security and privacy problem structures that capture user requirements, the context in which those requirements arise, and the adaptive software that aims to meet those requirements.
Summary
With the prevalence of mobile computing devices and the increasing availability of pervasive services, ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp) is a reality for many people. This reality is generating opportunities for people to interact socially in new and richer ways, and to work more effectively in a variety of new environments. More generally, Ubicomp infrastructures – controlled by software – will determine users’ access to critical services.
With these opportunities come higher risks of misuse by malicious agents. Therefore, the role and design of software for managing use and protecting against misuse is critical, and the engineering of software that is both functionally effective while safe guarding user assets from harm is a key challenge. Indeed the very nature of Ubicomp means that software must adapt to the changing needs of users and their environment, and, more critically, to the different threats to users’ security and privacy.
ASAP proposes to radically re-conceptualise software engineering for Ubicomp in ways that are cognisant of the changing functional needs of users, of the changing threats to user assets, and of the changing relationships between them. We propose to deliver adaptive software capabilities for supporting users in managing their privacy requirements, and adaptive software capabilities to deliver secure software that underpin those requirements. A key novelty of our approach is its holistic treatment of security and human behaviour. To achieve this, it draws upon contributions from requirements engineering, security & privacy engineering, and human-computer interaction. Our aim is to contribute to software engineering that empowers and protects Ubicomp users. Underpinning our approach will be the development of representations of security and privacy problem structures that capture user requirements, the context in which those requirements arise, and the adaptive software that aims to meet those requirements.
Max ERC Funding
2 499 041 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30
Project acronym ASCENT
Project Advanced materials and devices for hybrid spin coherent technologies
Researcher (PI) John Julian Larrarte Morton
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The property of spin has been harnessed in an array of revolutionary technologies, from nuclear spins in magnetic resonance imaging to spintronics in magnetic recording media. Nature at its deepest level is quantum mechanical and spins are capable of demonstrating superposition and entanglement, yet such coherent properties have not yet been fully exploited. The exquisite control over materials fabrication and spin control techniques has reached a maturity where spintronics can go beyond purely classical effects and begin to fully exploit these quantum properties. Potential applications range from quantum information processors, including the transmission of quantum information via itinerant electron spins, single microwave photon storage within spin ensembles, and a new generation of sensors exploiting entanglement to yield fundamentally enhanced precision.
The aim of ASCENT is to develop materials and devices in which electron and nuclear spins exhibit long-lived coherent quantum behaviour and interactions which can be harnessed for technological purposes. Specifically, ASCENT will exploit in range of condensed matter systems from molecular materials to silicon-based structures, the possibility of transiently generating and removing electron spins in the vicinity of nuclear spins. The project represents a new and promising direction for the development of coherent interactions between spins in materials, and one which builds upon foundations I have established in my earlier work, often supported by preliminary investigations. Strong interactions with theory throughout this project will provide insights to refine and improve the experiments. In addition to direct applications in quantum technologies, the insights and methodology gained will be fed back into the wider field of spin resonance, including dynamic nuclear polarisation, structural biology and medical imaging.
Summary
The property of spin has been harnessed in an array of revolutionary technologies, from nuclear spins in magnetic resonance imaging to spintronics in magnetic recording media. Nature at its deepest level is quantum mechanical and spins are capable of demonstrating superposition and entanglement, yet such coherent properties have not yet been fully exploited. The exquisite control over materials fabrication and spin control techniques has reached a maturity where spintronics can go beyond purely classical effects and begin to fully exploit these quantum properties. Potential applications range from quantum information processors, including the transmission of quantum information via itinerant electron spins, single microwave photon storage within spin ensembles, and a new generation of sensors exploiting entanglement to yield fundamentally enhanced precision.
The aim of ASCENT is to develop materials and devices in which electron and nuclear spins exhibit long-lived coherent quantum behaviour and interactions which can be harnessed for technological purposes. Specifically, ASCENT will exploit in range of condensed matter systems from molecular materials to silicon-based structures, the possibility of transiently generating and removing electron spins in the vicinity of nuclear spins. The project represents a new and promising direction for the development of coherent interactions between spins in materials, and one which builds upon foundations I have established in my earlier work, often supported by preliminary investigations. Strong interactions with theory throughout this project will provide insights to refine and improve the experiments. In addition to direct applications in quantum technologies, the insights and methodology gained will be fed back into the wider field of spin resonance, including dynamic nuclear polarisation, structural biology and medical imaging.
Max ERC Funding
1 875 550 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym ASTEX
Project Attosecond Science by Transmission and Emission of X-rays
Researcher (PI) Jonathan Philip Marangos
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "This is a programme of advanced research with potential for high scientific impact and applications to areas of great strategic importance such as renewable energy and biomolecular technology. The aim is to develop and apply a combination of cutting-edge tools to observe and understand dynamics in molecules and condensed phase matter with attosecond temporal and nanometre spatial resolutions. The programme, will exploit two new types of measurements that my group have already begun to develop: high harmonic generation (HHG) spectroscopy and attosecond absorption pump-probe spectroscopy, and will apply them to the measurement of attosecond electron dynamics in large molecules and the condensed phase. These methods rely upon the emission and transmission of soft X-ray attosecond fields that make accessible measurement not only of larger molecules in the gas phase but also thin (micron to nanometre) samples in the condensed phase. This is a research project that will open new frontiers both experimentally and theoretically. The challenge of this research is high and will be met by a concerted programme that is well matched to my teams experimental and theoretical expertise in attosecond physics, ultrafast intense-field science, soft X-ray techniques and advanced techniques for creating gaseous and condensed phase samples."
Summary
"This is a programme of advanced research with potential for high scientific impact and applications to areas of great strategic importance such as renewable energy and biomolecular technology. The aim is to develop and apply a combination of cutting-edge tools to observe and understand dynamics in molecules and condensed phase matter with attosecond temporal and nanometre spatial resolutions. The programme, will exploit two new types of measurements that my group have already begun to develop: high harmonic generation (HHG) spectroscopy and attosecond absorption pump-probe spectroscopy, and will apply them to the measurement of attosecond electron dynamics in large molecules and the condensed phase. These methods rely upon the emission and transmission of soft X-ray attosecond fields that make accessible measurement not only of larger molecules in the gas phase but also thin (micron to nanometre) samples in the condensed phase. This is a research project that will open new frontiers both experimentally and theoretically. The challenge of this research is high and will be met by a concerted programme that is well matched to my teams experimental and theoretical expertise in attosecond physics, ultrafast intense-field science, soft X-ray techniques and advanced techniques for creating gaseous and condensed phase samples."
Max ERC Funding
2 344 390 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym BIONET
Project Network Topology Complements Genome as a Source of Biological Information
Researcher (PI) Natasa Przulj
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Genetic sequences have had an enormous impact on our understanding of biology. The expectation is that biological network data will have a similar impact. However, progress is hindered by a lack of sophisticated graph theoretic tools that will mine these large networked datasets.
In recent breakthrough work at the boundary of computer science and biology supported by my USA NSF CAREER award, I developed sensitive network analysis, comparison and embedding tools which demonstrated that protein-protein interaction networks of eukaryotes are best modeled by geometric graphs. Also, they established phenotypically validated, unprecedented link between network topology and biological function and disease. Now I propose to substantially extend these preliminary results and design sensitive and robust network alignment methods that will lead to uncovering unknown biology and evolutionary relationships. The potential ground-breaking impact of such network alignment tools could be parallel to the impact the BLAST family of sequence alignment tools that have revolutionized our understanding of biological systems and therapeutics. Furthermore, I propose to develop additional sophisticated graph theoretic techniques to mine network data and hence complement biological information that can be extracted from sequence. I propose to exploit these new techniques for biological applications in collaboration with experimentalists at Imperial College London: 1. aligning biological networks of species whose genomes are closely related, but that have very different phenotypes, in order to uncover systems-level factors that contribute to pronounced differences; 2. compare and contrast stress response pathways and metabolic pathways in bacteria in a unified systems-level framework and exploit the findings for: (a) bioengineering of micro-organisms for industrial applications (production of bio-fuels, bioremediation, production of biopolymers); (b) biomedical applications.
Summary
Genetic sequences have had an enormous impact on our understanding of biology. The expectation is that biological network data will have a similar impact. However, progress is hindered by a lack of sophisticated graph theoretic tools that will mine these large networked datasets.
In recent breakthrough work at the boundary of computer science and biology supported by my USA NSF CAREER award, I developed sensitive network analysis, comparison and embedding tools which demonstrated that protein-protein interaction networks of eukaryotes are best modeled by geometric graphs. Also, they established phenotypically validated, unprecedented link between network topology and biological function and disease. Now I propose to substantially extend these preliminary results and design sensitive and robust network alignment methods that will lead to uncovering unknown biology and evolutionary relationships. The potential ground-breaking impact of such network alignment tools could be parallel to the impact the BLAST family of sequence alignment tools that have revolutionized our understanding of biological systems and therapeutics. Furthermore, I propose to develop additional sophisticated graph theoretic techniques to mine network data and hence complement biological information that can be extracted from sequence. I propose to exploit these new techniques for biological applications in collaboration with experimentalists at Imperial College London: 1. aligning biological networks of species whose genomes are closely related, but that have very different phenotypes, in order to uncover systems-level factors that contribute to pronounced differences; 2. compare and contrast stress response pathways and metabolic pathways in bacteria in a unified systems-level framework and exploit the findings for: (a) bioengineering of micro-organisms for industrial applications (production of bio-fuels, bioremediation, production of biopolymers); (b) biomedical applications.
Max ERC Funding
1 638 175 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym Bionetworking
Project Bionetworking in Asia – A social science approach to international collaboration, informal exchanges, and responsible innovation in the life sciences
Researcher (PI) Margaret Elizabeth Sleeboom-Faulkner
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary Bio-medical innovation makes a substantial contribution to Western societies and economies. But leading research organisations in the West are increasingly reliant on clinical research conducted beyond the West. Such initiatives are challenged by uncertainties about research quality and therapeutic practices in Asian countries. These only partly justified uncertainties are augmented by unfamiliar conditions. This study examines how to create responsible innovation in the life sciences by looking for ways to overcome existing obstacles to safe, just and ethical international science collaborations.
Building on observations of scientists, managers and patients and supported by Asian language expertise, biology background, and experience with science and technology policy-making, we examine the roles of regional differences and inequalities in the networks used for patient recruitment and international research agreements. Profit-motivated networks in the life sciences also occur underground and at an informal, unregulated level, which we call bionetworking. Bionetworking is a social entrepreneurial activity involving biomedical research, healthcare and patient networks that are maintained by taking advantage of regionally differences in levels of science and technology, healthcare, education and regulatory regimes.
Using novel social-science methods, the project studies two main themes. Theme 1 examines patient recruitment networks for experimental stem cell therapies and cooperation between research and health institutions involving exchanges of patients against other resources. Theme 2 maps and analyses exchanges of biomaterials of human derivation, and forms of ‘ownership’ rights, benefits and burdens associated with their donation, possession, maintenance, and application. Integral analysis of the project nodes incorporates an analysis of public health policy and patient preference in relation to Responsible innovation, Good governance and Global assemblages.
Summary
Bio-medical innovation makes a substantial contribution to Western societies and economies. But leading research organisations in the West are increasingly reliant on clinical research conducted beyond the West. Such initiatives are challenged by uncertainties about research quality and therapeutic practices in Asian countries. These only partly justified uncertainties are augmented by unfamiliar conditions. This study examines how to create responsible innovation in the life sciences by looking for ways to overcome existing obstacles to safe, just and ethical international science collaborations.
Building on observations of scientists, managers and patients and supported by Asian language expertise, biology background, and experience with science and technology policy-making, we examine the roles of regional differences and inequalities in the networks used for patient recruitment and international research agreements. Profit-motivated networks in the life sciences also occur underground and at an informal, unregulated level, which we call bionetworking. Bionetworking is a social entrepreneurial activity involving biomedical research, healthcare and patient networks that are maintained by taking advantage of regionally differences in levels of science and technology, healthcare, education and regulatory regimes.
Using novel social-science methods, the project studies two main themes. Theme 1 examines patient recruitment networks for experimental stem cell therapies and cooperation between research and health institutions involving exchanges of patients against other resources. Theme 2 maps and analyses exchanges of biomaterials of human derivation, and forms of ‘ownership’ rights, benefits and burdens associated with their donation, possession, maintenance, and application. Integral analysis of the project nodes incorporates an analysis of public health policy and patient preference in relation to Responsible innovation, Good governance and Global assemblages.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 711 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31
Project acronym CACH
Project Reconstructing abrupt Changes in Chemistry and Circulation of the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean: Implications for global Climate and deep-water Habitats
Researcher (PI) Laura Frances Robinson
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Ice-core records show that glacials had lower atmospheric pCO2 and cooler temperatures than today and that the last deglaciation was punctuated by large, abrupt millennial-scale climate events. Explaining the mechanism controlling these oscillations remains an outstanding puzzle. The ocean is a key player, and the Atlantic is particularly dynamic as it transports heat, carbon and nutrients across the equator. This project proposes to consolidate my research through a focused study of present and past ocean chemistry in the Equatorial Atlantic and to assess the impact of ocean chemistry on fragile deep-sea ecosystems. Despite decades of research there are distinct gaps in our knowledge of the history of the deep and intermediate ocean. Major hurdles include access to suitable archives, development of geochemical proxies and analyses that are sufficiently precise to test climate hypotheses. Through a combination of ship board field work, modern calibrations and cutting-edge geochemical analyses this project will produce samples and data that address each of these gaps. A particular focus will be on using the skeletons of deep-sea corals. Research using deep-sea corals as climate archives, and indeed research into their habitats, environmental controls and potential threats to their survival are still fields in their infancy. The expense and logistics of working in the deep ocean, the complexity of the ecosystem and the biogeochemistry of the coral skeletons have all proved to be significant challenges. The potential payoffs of high-resolution, dateable archives, however, make the effort worthwhile. There have been no studies that attempt to match up co-located deep-sea coral, seawater and sediment samples in a single program, so this would be the first directed study of its type, and as such promises to provide a substantial step in quantifying the fluxes and transport of mass, heat and nutrients across the equator in the past."
Summary
"Ice-core records show that glacials had lower atmospheric pCO2 and cooler temperatures than today and that the last deglaciation was punctuated by large, abrupt millennial-scale climate events. Explaining the mechanism controlling these oscillations remains an outstanding puzzle. The ocean is a key player, and the Atlantic is particularly dynamic as it transports heat, carbon and nutrients across the equator. This project proposes to consolidate my research through a focused study of present and past ocean chemistry in the Equatorial Atlantic and to assess the impact of ocean chemistry on fragile deep-sea ecosystems. Despite decades of research there are distinct gaps in our knowledge of the history of the deep and intermediate ocean. Major hurdles include access to suitable archives, development of geochemical proxies and analyses that are sufficiently precise to test climate hypotheses. Through a combination of ship board field work, modern calibrations and cutting-edge geochemical analyses this project will produce samples and data that address each of these gaps. A particular focus will be on using the skeletons of deep-sea corals. Research using deep-sea corals as climate archives, and indeed research into their habitats, environmental controls and potential threats to their survival are still fields in their infancy. The expense and logistics of working in the deep ocean, the complexity of the ecosystem and the biogeochemistry of the coral skeletons have all proved to be significant challenges. The potential payoffs of high-resolution, dateable archives, however, make the effort worthwhile. There have been no studies that attempt to match up co-located deep-sea coral, seawater and sediment samples in a single program, so this would be the first directed study of its type, and as such promises to provide a substantial step in quantifying the fluxes and transport of mass, heat and nutrients across the equator in the past."
Max ERC Funding
1 998 833 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym CAPRI
Project Chemical and photochemical dynamics of reactions in solution
Researcher (PI) Andrew John Orr-Ewing
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary Ultrafast laser methods will be employed to examine the dynamics of chemical and photochemical reactions in liquid solutions. By contrasting the solution phase dynamics with those observed for isolated collisions in the gas phase, the fundamental role of solvent on chemical pathways will be explored at a molecular level. The experimental studies will be complemented by computational simulations that explicitly include treatment of the effects of solvent on reaction energy pathways and reactant and product motions.
The research addresses a major challenge in Chemistry to understand the role of solvent on the mechanisms of chemical reactions. Questions that will be examined include how the solvent modifies reaction barriers and other regions of the reaction potential energy surface (PESs), alters the couplings between PESs, most importantly at conical intersections between electronic states, influences and constrains the dynamical stereochemistry of passage through transition states, and dissipates excess product energy.
The experimental strategy will be to obtain absorption spectra of transient species with lifetimes of ~100 fs – 1000 ps using broad bandwidth light sources in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet regions. Time-evolutions of such spectra reveal the formation and decay of short-lived species that might be highly reactive radicals or internally (vibrationally and electronically) excited molecules. The transient species decay by reaction or energy loss to the solvent. Statistical mechanical theories of reactions in solution treat such processes using linear response theory, but the experimental data will challenge this paradigm by seeking evidence for breakdown of the linear response interaction of solvent and solute on short timescales because of microscopic chemical dynamics that perturb the solvent structure. The work will build on our pioneering experiments at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory that prove the feasilbility of the methods.
Summary
Ultrafast laser methods will be employed to examine the dynamics of chemical and photochemical reactions in liquid solutions. By contrasting the solution phase dynamics with those observed for isolated collisions in the gas phase, the fundamental role of solvent on chemical pathways will be explored at a molecular level. The experimental studies will be complemented by computational simulations that explicitly include treatment of the effects of solvent on reaction energy pathways and reactant and product motions.
The research addresses a major challenge in Chemistry to understand the role of solvent on the mechanisms of chemical reactions. Questions that will be examined include how the solvent modifies reaction barriers and other regions of the reaction potential energy surface (PESs), alters the couplings between PESs, most importantly at conical intersections between electronic states, influences and constrains the dynamical stereochemistry of passage through transition states, and dissipates excess product energy.
The experimental strategy will be to obtain absorption spectra of transient species with lifetimes of ~100 fs – 1000 ps using broad bandwidth light sources in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet regions. Time-evolutions of such spectra reveal the formation and decay of short-lived species that might be highly reactive radicals or internally (vibrationally and electronically) excited molecules. The transient species decay by reaction or energy loss to the solvent. Statistical mechanical theories of reactions in solution treat such processes using linear response theory, but the experimental data will challenge this paradigm by seeking evidence for breakdown of the linear response interaction of solvent and solute on short timescales because of microscopic chemical dynamics that perturb the solvent structure. The work will build on our pioneering experiments at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory that prove the feasilbility of the methods.
Max ERC Funding
2 666 684 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31
Project acronym CHAOSNETS
Project "Building Scalable, Secure, and Reliable ""Chaotic"" Wireless Networks"
Researcher (PI) Kyle Andrew Stuart Jamieson
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary As a result of their unplanned, license-free nature, WiFi networks have grown quickly in recent years, giving users unprecedented improvements in wireless access to the Internet. But being “chaotic,” i.e. unplanned, they have grown to be victims of their own success: when eager users set up too many wireless access points in a densely-populated area, the resulting noise and interference hurt everyones throughput and connectivity. Cellular mobile telephone networks are planned carefully, but in order to expand coverage indoors, providers are turning to customer-deployed femtocells, thus incuring the drawbacks of chaotic WiFi networks. We propose a ground-up redesign of chaotic wireless networks, with new architectural contributions focusing on what information the physical layer should pass up to higher layers. We propose a new physical layer interface called SoftAoA that passes angle-of-arrival (AoA) information from the physical layer up to higher layers. Using this expanded physical layer interface, we will first investigate fountain coding and receiver-based rate adaptation methods to improve wireless capacity in the vagaries of the “grey zone” of marginal coverage. Second, we will investigate improvements to security and localization that can be made based on the profiling of incoming packets’ AoA at an access point. Finally, we will investigate how a chaotically-deployed network can mitigate the interference it experiences from networks not under the same administrative control, and manage the interference it causes to those networks. The result will be more scalable, secure, and reliable chaotic wireless networks that play an even more prominent role in our lives.
Summary
As a result of their unplanned, license-free nature, WiFi networks have grown quickly in recent years, giving users unprecedented improvements in wireless access to the Internet. But being “chaotic,” i.e. unplanned, they have grown to be victims of their own success: when eager users set up too many wireless access points in a densely-populated area, the resulting noise and interference hurt everyones throughput and connectivity. Cellular mobile telephone networks are planned carefully, but in order to expand coverage indoors, providers are turning to customer-deployed femtocells, thus incuring the drawbacks of chaotic WiFi networks. We propose a ground-up redesign of chaotic wireless networks, with new architectural contributions focusing on what information the physical layer should pass up to higher layers. We propose a new physical layer interface called SoftAoA that passes angle-of-arrival (AoA) information from the physical layer up to higher layers. Using this expanded physical layer interface, we will first investigate fountain coding and receiver-based rate adaptation methods to improve wireless capacity in the vagaries of the “grey zone” of marginal coverage. Second, we will investigate improvements to security and localization that can be made based on the profiling of incoming packets’ AoA at an access point. Finally, we will investigate how a chaotically-deployed network can mitigate the interference it experiences from networks not under the same administrative control, and manage the interference it causes to those networks. The result will be more scalable, secure, and reliable chaotic wireless networks that play an even more prominent role in our lives.
Max ERC Funding
1 457 675 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym CO2VOLC
Project CO2VOLC: Quantifying the global volcanic CO2 cycle
Researcher (PI) Michael Burton
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Global climate change induced by anthropogenic emissions of CO2 is currently a major issue facing humanity, but uncertainties in the magnitude and rate of climate change remain, and deterministic predictions are beyond our capacity. In this context, the study of how the geochemical carbon cycle established a relatively narrow band of variability in atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last 400 ka is of great interest. However, large uncertainties in both weathering and volcanic CO2 fluxes prevent a truly quantitative assessment of this critical cycle. Measuring the global volcanic CO2 flux, GVFCO2, would allow us to better understand the likely impact large eruptions have had in Earth’s history, and constrain the natural vs. anthropogenic CO2 flux.
We propose a truly innovative project to address head on the problem of determining GVFCO2. We will create new, compact instruments, utilising cutting-edge laser technologies, which will allow us to measure volcanic CO2, H2O, SO2 and HCl fluxes from aircraft. By flying below and through the volcanic plumes created by ~50 active volcanoes (~10% of all active volcanoes) of the Banda-Sunda arc in Indonesia, the majority of which have never been measured before, we will dramatically increase our understanding of GVFCO2 and geochemical cycles for all these species.
Measuring the volcanic emissions from an entire subduction arc is an unprecedented experiment, providing insight into the slab and mantle heterogeneity and volatile mass balance. Perhaps the most important breakthrough that we will pursue will be the determination of the 37Cl/35Cl ratio from HCl emitted from each volcano. This ratio reflects the mantle/slab source proportion, and allows the input rate of volatiles to the mantle to be measured.
The application of innovative new technology we propose here will produce ground-breaking insights into volcanology, isotope and gas geochemistry, volatile cycles, subduction and climate change."
Summary
"Global climate change induced by anthropogenic emissions of CO2 is currently a major issue facing humanity, but uncertainties in the magnitude and rate of climate change remain, and deterministic predictions are beyond our capacity. In this context, the study of how the geochemical carbon cycle established a relatively narrow band of variability in atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last 400 ka is of great interest. However, large uncertainties in both weathering and volcanic CO2 fluxes prevent a truly quantitative assessment of this critical cycle. Measuring the global volcanic CO2 flux, GVFCO2, would allow us to better understand the likely impact large eruptions have had in Earth’s history, and constrain the natural vs. anthropogenic CO2 flux.
We propose a truly innovative project to address head on the problem of determining GVFCO2. We will create new, compact instruments, utilising cutting-edge laser technologies, which will allow us to measure volcanic CO2, H2O, SO2 and HCl fluxes from aircraft. By flying below and through the volcanic plumes created by ~50 active volcanoes (~10% of all active volcanoes) of the Banda-Sunda arc in Indonesia, the majority of which have never been measured before, we will dramatically increase our understanding of GVFCO2 and geochemical cycles for all these species.
Measuring the volcanic emissions from an entire subduction arc is an unprecedented experiment, providing insight into the slab and mantle heterogeneity and volatile mass balance. Perhaps the most important breakthrough that we will pursue will be the determination of the 37Cl/35Cl ratio from HCl emitted from each volcano. This ratio reflects the mantle/slab source proportion, and allows the input rate of volatiles to the mantle to be measured.
The application of innovative new technology we propose here will produce ground-breaking insights into volcanology, isotope and gas geochemistry, volatile cycles, subduction and climate change."
Max ERC Funding
1 721 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym CODITA
Project Cosmic Dust in the Terrestrial Atmosphere
Researcher (PI) John Maurice Campbell Plane
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "This project addresses a fundamental problem – the size of the cosmic dust input to the earth’s atmosphere. Zodiacal cloud observations and spaceborne dust detection indicate a daily input of 100 – 300 tonnes, in agreement with the accumulation rates of cosmic elements (e.g. Ir, Pt) in polar ice cores and deep-sea sediments. In contrast, measurements in the middle atmosphere – by radar, lidar, high-flying aircraft and satellite remote sensing – indicate that the input is only 5 - 50 tonnes. The aim of CODITA is to resolve this huge discrepancy.
There are two reasons why this matters. First, if the upper range of estimates is correct, then vertical transport in the middle atmosphere must be considerably faster than generally believed; whereas if the lower range is correct, then our understanding of dust evolution in the solar system, and transport from the middle atmosphere to the surface, will need substantial revision. Second, cosmic dust particles enter the atmosphere at high speeds and in most cases completely ablate. The resulting metals injected into the atmosphere are involved in a diverse range of phenomena, including: formation of layers of metal atoms and ions; nucleation of noctilucent clouds; impacts on stratospheric aerosols and O3 chemistry (which need to be evaluated against the background of a cooling stratosphere and geo-engineering plans to increase sulphate aerosol); and fertilization of the ocean with bio-available Fe, which has potential climate feedbacks.
CODITA will use laboratory studies to target poorly understood aspects of this problem, such as the nature of the ablation process itself, the formation of meteoric smoke particles, and their role in ice nucleation and the freezing of polar stratospheric clouds. The results will be incorporated into a chemistry-climate model of the whole atmosphere, so that it will be possible, for the first time, to model the effects of cosmic dust self-consistently from the thermosphere to the surface."
Summary
"This project addresses a fundamental problem – the size of the cosmic dust input to the earth’s atmosphere. Zodiacal cloud observations and spaceborne dust detection indicate a daily input of 100 – 300 tonnes, in agreement with the accumulation rates of cosmic elements (e.g. Ir, Pt) in polar ice cores and deep-sea sediments. In contrast, measurements in the middle atmosphere – by radar, lidar, high-flying aircraft and satellite remote sensing – indicate that the input is only 5 - 50 tonnes. The aim of CODITA is to resolve this huge discrepancy.
There are two reasons why this matters. First, if the upper range of estimates is correct, then vertical transport in the middle atmosphere must be considerably faster than generally believed; whereas if the lower range is correct, then our understanding of dust evolution in the solar system, and transport from the middle atmosphere to the surface, will need substantial revision. Second, cosmic dust particles enter the atmosphere at high speeds and in most cases completely ablate. The resulting metals injected into the atmosphere are involved in a diverse range of phenomena, including: formation of layers of metal atoms and ions; nucleation of noctilucent clouds; impacts on stratospheric aerosols and O3 chemistry (which need to be evaluated against the background of a cooling stratosphere and geo-engineering plans to increase sulphate aerosol); and fertilization of the ocean with bio-available Fe, which has potential climate feedbacks.
CODITA will use laboratory studies to target poorly understood aspects of this problem, such as the nature of the ablation process itself, the formation of meteoric smoke particles, and their role in ice nucleation and the freezing of polar stratospheric clouds. The results will be incorporated into a chemistry-climate model of the whole atmosphere, so that it will be possible, for the first time, to model the effects of cosmic dust self-consistently from the thermosphere to the surface."
Max ERC Funding
2 484 369 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym COLORLANDS
Project COLOR Ordering Templated by Hierarchized Supramolecular Porous FlatLANDS
Researcher (PI) Davide Bonifazi
Host Institution (HI) CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The idea of this research project is to take advantage of molecular self-assembly to create a new generation of periodically-organized porous organic materials that, acting as specific molecular hosts, can structurally control the positioning of multiple functional guests on surfaces, opening new horizons toward the understanding and development of rationale protocols for the patterning of unprecedented materials. Taking advantage of a supramolecular approach to engineer extended mono- and two-dimensional organic networks, the ultimate aim of COLORLANDS is to create novel hosting frameworks accommodating in a predetermined fashion organic chromophores and/or fluorophores. For instance, these can be oligophenylenes as blue emitters, cumarines/oligophenylethylenes as green emitters, or perylenebisimides conjugates as red emitters. Depending on their spatial organization, such materials will be the springboard for further technological development in the fields of electroluminescent devices or artificial leafs mimicking natural light harvesting antenna systems. The self-assembly of selected rigid molecular modules alternatively functionalized with complementary connectors (PNA strands) will yield, under equilibrium conditions, one exclusive structural pattern. This will feature controllable (in shape, size and chemical nature) periodic receptor sites, each programmed to selectively accommodate a specific molecular chromophore and/or fluorophore. Particular attention will be given to the design and fundamental understanding of specific orthogonal interactions between the self-assembled receptor sites and the functional molecular guests. This will be achieved through the lateral organic functionalization of the PNA strands with novel orthogonal H-bonding-based recognition motifs. Depending on the ratio between the different receptors, one can tailor the desired emission or absorption colour, virtually enabling unlimited surfing through the color coordinate diagram.
Summary
The idea of this research project is to take advantage of molecular self-assembly to create a new generation of periodically-organized porous organic materials that, acting as specific molecular hosts, can structurally control the positioning of multiple functional guests on surfaces, opening new horizons toward the understanding and development of rationale protocols for the patterning of unprecedented materials. Taking advantage of a supramolecular approach to engineer extended mono- and two-dimensional organic networks, the ultimate aim of COLORLANDS is to create novel hosting frameworks accommodating in a predetermined fashion organic chromophores and/or fluorophores. For instance, these can be oligophenylenes as blue emitters, cumarines/oligophenylethylenes as green emitters, or perylenebisimides conjugates as red emitters. Depending on their spatial organization, such materials will be the springboard for further technological development in the fields of electroluminescent devices or artificial leafs mimicking natural light harvesting antenna systems. The self-assembly of selected rigid molecular modules alternatively functionalized with complementary connectors (PNA strands) will yield, under equilibrium conditions, one exclusive structural pattern. This will feature controllable (in shape, size and chemical nature) periodic receptor sites, each programmed to selectively accommodate a specific molecular chromophore and/or fluorophore. Particular attention will be given to the design and fundamental understanding of specific orthogonal interactions between the self-assembled receptor sites and the functional molecular guests. This will be achieved through the lateral organic functionalization of the PNA strands with novel orthogonal H-bonding-based recognition motifs. Depending on the ratio between the different receptors, one can tailor the desired emission or absorption colour, virtually enabling unlimited surfing through the color coordinate diagram.
Max ERC Funding
1 295 400 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym CONSTEURGLOBGOV
Project The Role and Future of National Constitutions in European and Global Governance
Researcher (PI) Anneli Albi
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary At a time when the discourse on constitutionalism has come to focus on the constitutionalisation processes at the European and global level, this project will turn the spotlight on national constitutions. It embarks on an analysis and rethinking of the role and future of national constitutions in the context where decision-making has increasingly shifted to transnational level. The project will have three objectives. The first objective is concerned with the role of constitutions internally within the state: the project assesses how credible the content of constitutions remains given the realities of European integration. To this end, it will undertake a comprehensive, comparative and issue-based analysis of EU-related amendments in national constitutions. The second objective concerns the role of constitutions externally with regard to European integration. While national constitutions have increasingly been regarded as a manifestation of sovereignty, and therefore representing values that are often viewed as parochial, the project will turn the focus on other values contained in the constitutions, such as protection of rights and the rule of law. It will explore constitutional courts’ judgements articulating the rights and values that mandate upholding at supranational level, and assess the responsiveness of the European Court of Justice with regard to such concerns. The third objective applies experiences from the EU context to the new research area of global governance. The project aims to assess whether the constitutional provisions on international treaties suffice to reflect the sheer extent to which decision-making has shifted to international institutions and global regulatory networks. It will also explore how constitutions could respond to the problems increasingly highlighted in the context of global governance in relation to legitimacy, democratic control, accountability and the rule of law.
Summary
At a time when the discourse on constitutionalism has come to focus on the constitutionalisation processes at the European and global level, this project will turn the spotlight on national constitutions. It embarks on an analysis and rethinking of the role and future of national constitutions in the context where decision-making has increasingly shifted to transnational level. The project will have three objectives. The first objective is concerned with the role of constitutions internally within the state: the project assesses how credible the content of constitutions remains given the realities of European integration. To this end, it will undertake a comprehensive, comparative and issue-based analysis of EU-related amendments in national constitutions. The second objective concerns the role of constitutions externally with regard to European integration. While national constitutions have increasingly been regarded as a manifestation of sovereignty, and therefore representing values that are often viewed as parochial, the project will turn the focus on other values contained in the constitutions, such as protection of rights and the rule of law. It will explore constitutional courts’ judgements articulating the rights and values that mandate upholding at supranational level, and assess the responsiveness of the European Court of Justice with regard to such concerns. The third objective applies experiences from the EU context to the new research area of global governance. The project aims to assess whether the constitutional provisions on international treaties suffice to reflect the sheer extent to which decision-making has shifted to international institutions and global regulatory networks. It will also explore how constitutions could respond to the problems increasingly highlighted in the context of global governance in relation to legitimacy, democratic control, accountability and the rule of law.
Max ERC Funding
1 230 958 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31
Project acronym COrANE
Project Composition and Sources of Atmospheric Organic Aerosol and their Negative Health Effects
Researcher (PI) Markus Kalberer
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Atmospheric aerosol particles are key components of the earth’s climate system and are one of the major air pollution components. In both areas large uncertainties are associated with aerosol effects. The chemical composition is a major parameter determining the effects of aerosols on the climate and their health effects. A major but poorly defined fraction of the aerosol is organic material formed within the atmosphere (so-called Secondary Organic Aerosol, SOA). Only a comprehensive chemical analysis of SOA simulated in laboratory experiments can rigorously identify and quantify SOA sources. However, only a small minority of the SOA mass can be characterized on a molecular level due to fundamental limitations of conventional analytical-chemical techniques. Thus, there is a large uncertainty how accurate current laboratory experiments mimic atmospheric SOA. This uncertainly critically limits our ability to assess the role of aerosols in the climate system, to determine their toxicity and also constrains further improvements of legal limits for ambient particle concentrations.
The main SOA sources will be identified in this project in unprecedented detail by developing novel analytical techniques to characterize SOA comprehensively (mainly ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry). Generation of SOA in improved laboratory experiments and comparison with field samples will help to overcome the long-standing uncertainties described above.
Particle properties responsible for health effects are poorly understood, but oxidizing particle components are likely important in understanding particle-cell interactions. Compound classes in SOA will be quantified, which are potentially damaging biological tissue such as peroxides and radicals, using the strongly improved laboratory conditions to simulate accurately SOA. For these studies new, fast online spectroscopic techniques will be developed to accurately quantify these highly reactive and short-lived particle components.
Summary
Atmospheric aerosol particles are key components of the earth’s climate system and are one of the major air pollution components. In both areas large uncertainties are associated with aerosol effects. The chemical composition is a major parameter determining the effects of aerosols on the climate and their health effects. A major but poorly defined fraction of the aerosol is organic material formed within the atmosphere (so-called Secondary Organic Aerosol, SOA). Only a comprehensive chemical analysis of SOA simulated in laboratory experiments can rigorously identify and quantify SOA sources. However, only a small minority of the SOA mass can be characterized on a molecular level due to fundamental limitations of conventional analytical-chemical techniques. Thus, there is a large uncertainty how accurate current laboratory experiments mimic atmospheric SOA. This uncertainly critically limits our ability to assess the role of aerosols in the climate system, to determine their toxicity and also constrains further improvements of legal limits for ambient particle concentrations.
The main SOA sources will be identified in this project in unprecedented detail by developing novel analytical techniques to characterize SOA comprehensively (mainly ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry). Generation of SOA in improved laboratory experiments and comparison with field samples will help to overcome the long-standing uncertainties described above.
Particle properties responsible for health effects are poorly understood, but oxidizing particle components are likely important in understanding particle-cell interactions. Compound classes in SOA will be quantified, which are potentially damaging biological tissue such as peroxides and radicals, using the strongly improved laboratory conditions to simulate accurately SOA. For these studies new, fast online spectroscopic techniques will be developed to accurately quantify these highly reactive and short-lived particle components.
Max ERC Funding
1 495 851 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym CPROVER
Project Validation of Concurrent Software Across Abstraction Layers
Researcher (PI) Daniel Heinrich Friedrich Kroening
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The cost of software quality assurance (QA) dominates the cost of IT development and maintenance projects. QA is frequently on the critical path to market. Effective software QA is therefore decisive for the competitiveness of numerous industries that rely on IT, and essential for government tasks that rely heavily on IT.
This research programme will provide a pragmatic solution to the most pressing issue in software QA in mainstream software engineering: the use of concurrency. Programmers make use of numerous favors of concurrency in order to achieve better scalability, savings in power, increase reliability, and to boost performance. The need for software that makes diligent use of concurrent computational resources has been exacerbated by power-efficient multi-core CPUs, which are now widely deployed, but still unfertilized due to the lack of appropriate software. Concurrent software is particularly difficult to test, as bugs depend on particular interlavings between the sequential computations. Defects are therefore difficult to reproduce and diagnose, and often elude even very experienced programmers.
We propose to develop new, ground-braking reasoning and testing technology for this kind of software,
with the goal of cutting the staff effort in QA of concurrent effort in half. We will use a tightly integrated combination of scalable and performant testing technology and Model Checking and abstract interpretation engines to prune the search. Every aspect of the research programme is geared towards improving the productivity of the average application programmer. Our theories and reasoning technology will therefore be implemented in a seamless fashion within the existing, well-accepted programming environments Visual Studio and Eclipse, in close collaboration with Microsoft and IBM.
Summary
The cost of software quality assurance (QA) dominates the cost of IT development and maintenance projects. QA is frequently on the critical path to market. Effective software QA is therefore decisive for the competitiveness of numerous industries that rely on IT, and essential for government tasks that rely heavily on IT.
This research programme will provide a pragmatic solution to the most pressing issue in software QA in mainstream software engineering: the use of concurrency. Programmers make use of numerous favors of concurrency in order to achieve better scalability, savings in power, increase reliability, and to boost performance. The need for software that makes diligent use of concurrent computational resources has been exacerbated by power-efficient multi-core CPUs, which are now widely deployed, but still unfertilized due to the lack of appropriate software. Concurrent software is particularly difficult to test, as bugs depend on particular interlavings between the sequential computations. Defects are therefore difficult to reproduce and diagnose, and often elude even very experienced programmers.
We propose to develop new, ground-braking reasoning and testing technology for this kind of software,
with the goal of cutting the staff effort in QA of concurrent effort in half. We will use a tightly integrated combination of scalable and performant testing technology and Model Checking and abstract interpretation engines to prune the search. Every aspect of the research programme is geared towards improving the productivity of the average application programmer. Our theories and reasoning technology will therefore be implemented in a seamless fashion within the existing, well-accepted programming environments Visual Studio and Eclipse, in close collaboration with Microsoft and IBM.
Max ERC Funding
1 368 355 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2017-11-30
Project acronym CRYSYS
Project Crystallisation Systems Engineering – Towards a next generation of intelligent crystallisation systems
Researcher (PI) Zoltan Kalman Nagy
Host Institution (HI) LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The project proposes the development of an intelligent crystallisation system by combining state-of-the-art process analytical technologies and novel model-based and statistical feedback control approaches, to provide a fully integrated and adaptive system for efficient engineering of particulate products. The developed adaptive and robust control approaches will be incorporated in a Crystallisation Process Informatics System, to provide an intelligent decision support system, which triggers the suitable control algorithm taking into account the effect of crystallisation on the downstream processing units and final product properties. In this way crystallisation becomes a key intelligent “process actuator” in the whole production system, that manipulates final properties of the solid product taking into account operational, regulatory and economic constraints of the entire process, opening the way towards novel product engineering approaches. The project will bring the implementation of a new generation of integrated, intensified and intelligent crystallisation systems with drastically improved flexibility, predictability, stability and controllability. The system will be used for detailed evaluation of the current paradigm shift from batch to continuous processes in the pharmaceutical industries. Besides providing a breakthrough in crystallisation science the results could revolutionise the methods in which crystallisation will be designed and controlled in the future, yielding to the development of the emerging research field of Pharmaceutical Systems Engineering, by providing a comprehensive framework for the development of novel integrated pharmaceutical production units and product engineering technologies, for sustainable pharmaceutical production, with the aim of reducing time-to-market and increasing product quality, therefore providing considerable increase in quality of life, for example, by making new products available more quickly and at lower cost.
Summary
The project proposes the development of an intelligent crystallisation system by combining state-of-the-art process analytical technologies and novel model-based and statistical feedback control approaches, to provide a fully integrated and adaptive system for efficient engineering of particulate products. The developed adaptive and robust control approaches will be incorporated in a Crystallisation Process Informatics System, to provide an intelligent decision support system, which triggers the suitable control algorithm taking into account the effect of crystallisation on the downstream processing units and final product properties. In this way crystallisation becomes a key intelligent “process actuator” in the whole production system, that manipulates final properties of the solid product taking into account operational, regulatory and economic constraints of the entire process, opening the way towards novel product engineering approaches. The project will bring the implementation of a new generation of integrated, intensified and intelligent crystallisation systems with drastically improved flexibility, predictability, stability and controllability. The system will be used for detailed evaluation of the current paradigm shift from batch to continuous processes in the pharmaceutical industries. Besides providing a breakthrough in crystallisation science the results could revolutionise the methods in which crystallisation will be designed and controlled in the future, yielding to the development of the emerging research field of Pharmaceutical Systems Engineering, by providing a comprehensive framework for the development of novel integrated pharmaceutical production units and product engineering technologies, for sustainable pharmaceutical production, with the aim of reducing time-to-market and increasing product quality, therefore providing considerable increase in quality of life, for example, by making new products available more quickly and at lower cost.
Max ERC Funding
1 263 702 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-09-01, End date: 2017-08-31
Project acronym DARKFRONTIER
Project Fundamental Physics at the Low Background Frontier
Researcher (PI) Jocelyn Monroe
Host Institution (HI) ROYAL HOLLOWAY AND BEDFORD NEW COLLEGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The nature of dark matter is one of the fundamental questions in physics today. Direct signals for dark matter have remained elusive, indicating that multi-tonne scale detectors are needed to measure large numbers of dark matter interactions, while current efforts are at the 100 kg scale. The foremost challenge is distinguishing dark matter signals from backgrounds, the most uncertain of which are from neutrons. The research objective of this proposal is a world-leading dark matter search with a novel liquid argon (LAr) detector and a new analysis approach to measuring neutron backgrounds in-situ.
The DEAP/CLEAN program of single-phase LAr detectors is a new direction for dark matter searches. It draws on successful, proven approaches of solar neutrino physics to building low-background detectors that scale simply to multi-tonne target masses. Demonstration of this approach by the current 100 kg stage (MiniCLEAN) will break new ground for future experiments. At the 100 tonne scale, such a detector would be a new kind of observatory for fundamental physics at the low background frontier, testing predicted properties of dark matter, neutrinos, supernovae, and stellar evolution. Success depends critically on demonstrating the required background suppression.
This proposal addresses the key challenges of dark matter detection in two new ways, with the novel single-phase effort for multi-tonne scalability, and by developing new methods to overcome neutron backgrounds. The tasks of this proposal are: (i) to develop a measurement of the in-situ neutron background in LAr; (ii) to develop an active neutron veto for in-situ measurement of the cosmogenic neutron background, beginning with a measurement of the flux and energy spectrum in an existing prototype; and, (iii) to lead the dark matter search, using the measured backgrounds. The MiniCLEAN dark matter sensitivity is a factor of 20 beyond current experimental results, with great potential for discovery.
Summary
The nature of dark matter is one of the fundamental questions in physics today. Direct signals for dark matter have remained elusive, indicating that multi-tonne scale detectors are needed to measure large numbers of dark matter interactions, while current efforts are at the 100 kg scale. The foremost challenge is distinguishing dark matter signals from backgrounds, the most uncertain of which are from neutrons. The research objective of this proposal is a world-leading dark matter search with a novel liquid argon (LAr) detector and a new analysis approach to measuring neutron backgrounds in-situ.
The DEAP/CLEAN program of single-phase LAr detectors is a new direction for dark matter searches. It draws on successful, proven approaches of solar neutrino physics to building low-background detectors that scale simply to multi-tonne target masses. Demonstration of this approach by the current 100 kg stage (MiniCLEAN) will break new ground for future experiments. At the 100 tonne scale, such a detector would be a new kind of observatory for fundamental physics at the low background frontier, testing predicted properties of dark matter, neutrinos, supernovae, and stellar evolution. Success depends critically on demonstrating the required background suppression.
This proposal addresses the key challenges of dark matter detection in two new ways, with the novel single-phase effort for multi-tonne scalability, and by developing new methods to overcome neutron backgrounds. The tasks of this proposal are: (i) to develop a measurement of the in-situ neutron background in LAr; (ii) to develop an active neutron veto for in-situ measurement of the cosmogenic neutron background, beginning with a measurement of the flux and energy spectrum in an existing prototype; and, (iii) to lead the dark matter search, using the measured backgrounds. The MiniCLEAN dark matter sensitivity is a factor of 20 beyond current experimental results, with great potential for discovery.
Max ERC Funding
1 063 174 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-09-01, End date: 2017-08-31
Project acronym DEBRIS
Project Debris in extrasolar planetary systems
Researcher (PI) Mark Charles Wyatt
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE9, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This proposal concerns the debris discs of nearby stars; ie, discs of asteroids, comets and dust. Such dust can be imaged, providing clues to the underlying planetary system. Debris images have already predicted planets later confirmed in direct imaging. Most debris lies in cold outer (~100AU) regions of planetary systems, but a growing number of stars have hot dust in regions where terrestrial planets are expected (few AU). This proposal aims learn about the planetary systems of nearby stars through study of their debris discs. Specific focus is on the frontier area of characterisation and modelling of dust within planetary systems, which is important for the design of missions to detect habitable planets, a high priority goal for the next decade. The PI has played a significant role in debris disc studies, and proposes to consolidate an independent research team in Cambridge. The proposal covers 3 studies supported by 3 PDRAs. Specific objectives are: 1) Debris disc observations: Carry out survey for cold debris around unbiased sample of nearest 500 stars with Herschel and SCUBA2. Follow-up bright discs with high resolution imaging using ALMA and JWST to characterise sub-structure from planets and search for dust at multiple radii. Pioneer survey for hot dust using polarisation and interferometry. 2) Debris disc modelling: Develop new model to follow the interplay between collisions, radiation pressure, P-R drag, sublimation, disintegration, and dynamical interactions with planets. Use model to consider nature of small particle halos, resonant ring structures formed by terrestrial planets, and level of cometary dust scattered into inner regions. 3) Debris disc origin: Demonstrate constraints placed on planet formation models through studies of dust from Earth-moon forming impacts, effect of planetesimals on late-stage planetary dynamics, population synthesis explaining planets and debris, constraints on primordial size and stirring of debris.
Summary
This proposal concerns the debris discs of nearby stars; ie, discs of asteroids, comets and dust. Such dust can be imaged, providing clues to the underlying planetary system. Debris images have already predicted planets later confirmed in direct imaging. Most debris lies in cold outer (~100AU) regions of planetary systems, but a growing number of stars have hot dust in regions where terrestrial planets are expected (few AU). This proposal aims learn about the planetary systems of nearby stars through study of their debris discs. Specific focus is on the frontier area of characterisation and modelling of dust within planetary systems, which is important for the design of missions to detect habitable planets, a high priority goal for the next decade. The PI has played a significant role in debris disc studies, and proposes to consolidate an independent research team in Cambridge. The proposal covers 3 studies supported by 3 PDRAs. Specific objectives are: 1) Debris disc observations: Carry out survey for cold debris around unbiased sample of nearest 500 stars with Herschel and SCUBA2. Follow-up bright discs with high resolution imaging using ALMA and JWST to characterise sub-structure from planets and search for dust at multiple radii. Pioneer survey for hot dust using polarisation and interferometry. 2) Debris disc modelling: Develop new model to follow the interplay between collisions, radiation pressure, P-R drag, sublimation, disintegration, and dynamical interactions with planets. Use model to consider nature of small particle halos, resonant ring structures formed by terrestrial planets, and level of cometary dust scattered into inner regions. 3) Debris disc origin: Demonstrate constraints placed on planet formation models through studies of dust from Earth-moon forming impacts, effect of planetesimals on late-stage planetary dynamics, population synthesis explaining planets and debris, constraints on primordial size and stirring of debris.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 920 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym DIAL
Project Diamond Lasers: Revolutionising Laser Engineering
Researcher (PI) Alan John Kemp
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Over the last three years, synthetic single crystal diamond with high optical quality has become available for the first time. The time is thus ripe to exploit this unique material for laser engineering. Building on their pioneering work characterising, modelling and experimentally proving this material, this team will explore novel means to harness its the extraordinary properties – a thermal conductivity that is one to two orders of magnitude greater than conventional solid-state laser materials, an extremely high rigidity, excellent resistance to mechanical stress, a wide transparency window, and very good Raman gain properties. The thermal conductivity of diamond, in particular, has the potential to revolutionise solid-state laser design. To date, the design of a solid-state laser has largely been driven by the need to manage heat – the use of diamond can remove this requirement leading to simpler and more compact designs for high performance lasers. This programme will focus on introducing laser gain to structures based on novel high optical quality diamond. Four principal approaches will be examined:
1. Developing high thermal conductivity hybrid structures by sandwiching thin slices of laser gain material between layers of diamond.
2. Using the high Raman gain in diamond to develop high performance diamond Raman lasers
3. Exploiting optically efficient, room-temperature colour centres in diamond to develop a revolutionary suite of broadly tuneable and ultrafast visible lasers.
4. Exploring the direct doping of diamond with laser ions, building on the rapid recent progress in diamond synthesis.
Encompassing laser physics, materials science and device engineering, this programme will balance risk and reward to help position Europe as the world-leader in laser engineering. The lasers developed will be important tools in vital sectors such as science (e.g. biological imaging), energy (e.g. wind speed sensing) and medicine (e.g. treating vascular lesions).
Summary
Over the last three years, synthetic single crystal diamond with high optical quality has become available for the first time. The time is thus ripe to exploit this unique material for laser engineering. Building on their pioneering work characterising, modelling and experimentally proving this material, this team will explore novel means to harness its the extraordinary properties – a thermal conductivity that is one to two orders of magnitude greater than conventional solid-state laser materials, an extremely high rigidity, excellent resistance to mechanical stress, a wide transparency window, and very good Raman gain properties. The thermal conductivity of diamond, in particular, has the potential to revolutionise solid-state laser design. To date, the design of a solid-state laser has largely been driven by the need to manage heat – the use of diamond can remove this requirement leading to simpler and more compact designs for high performance lasers. This programme will focus on introducing laser gain to structures based on novel high optical quality diamond. Four principal approaches will be examined:
1. Developing high thermal conductivity hybrid structures by sandwiching thin slices of laser gain material between layers of diamond.
2. Using the high Raman gain in diamond to develop high performance diamond Raman lasers
3. Exploiting optically efficient, room-temperature colour centres in diamond to develop a revolutionary suite of broadly tuneable and ultrafast visible lasers.
4. Exploring the direct doping of diamond with laser ions, building on the rapid recent progress in diamond synthesis.
Encompassing laser physics, materials science and device engineering, this programme will balance risk and reward to help position Europe as the world-leader in laser engineering. The lasers developed will be important tools in vital sectors such as science (e.g. biological imaging), energy (e.g. wind speed sensing) and medicine (e.g. treating vascular lesions).
Max ERC Funding
1 479 707 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym DIASPORACONTEST
Project Diasporas and Contested Sovereignty: Transnational Diaspora Mobilization in Europe and Its Impact on Political Proceses in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East
Researcher (PI) Maria Velinova Koinova
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary This groundbreaking multi-methods political science study investigates the transnational mobilization of conflict-generated diasporas in Europe and its impact on polities experiencing contested sovereignty in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Four researchers study how diasporas mobilize when a specific aspect of sovereignty is contested in the original homeland: The PI focuses on the emergence of new states (Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Palestine). The Post-doc focuses on a secessionist movement (Kurdish separatism in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan). The two Ph.D. students focus on challenges to sovereignty stemming from international military intervention (Iraq) and long-term international governance of a weak state (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Since the scholarly field of diasporas and conflicts still lacks theoretical rigor, this study brings a much needed systematization and innovates in several ways. First, it uses a sequential qualitative and quantitative analysis and multi-sited research techniques that have not been utilized so far. Second, the team seeks to develop a typological theory to incorporate in a single framework: 1) diasporic identities, 2) conditions providing political opportunity structures for transnational mobilization, 3) causal mechanisms concatenating in mobilization processes, and 4) transnational diaspora networks, penetrating various local and global institutions. The study further focuses on five levels of analysis: 1) the attitudes of individuals, 2) characteristics of specific groups, 3) five nation-states with different migrant incorporation regimes (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK), 4) supranational EU and global institutions penetrated by diaspora networks, 5) and patterns of mobilization specific to a certain region. The project also conducts a cross-country representative survey across 25 country-groups, creating a much needed quantitative dataset, sensitive both to transnationalism and specific context.
Summary
This groundbreaking multi-methods political science study investigates the transnational mobilization of conflict-generated diasporas in Europe and its impact on polities experiencing contested sovereignty in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Four researchers study how diasporas mobilize when a specific aspect of sovereignty is contested in the original homeland: The PI focuses on the emergence of new states (Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Palestine). The Post-doc focuses on a secessionist movement (Kurdish separatism in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan). The two Ph.D. students focus on challenges to sovereignty stemming from international military intervention (Iraq) and long-term international governance of a weak state (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Since the scholarly field of diasporas and conflicts still lacks theoretical rigor, this study brings a much needed systematization and innovates in several ways. First, it uses a sequential qualitative and quantitative analysis and multi-sited research techniques that have not been utilized so far. Second, the team seeks to develop a typological theory to incorporate in a single framework: 1) diasporic identities, 2) conditions providing political opportunity structures for transnational mobilization, 3) causal mechanisms concatenating in mobilization processes, and 4) transnational diaspora networks, penetrating various local and global institutions. The study further focuses on five levels of analysis: 1) the attitudes of individuals, 2) characteristics of specific groups, 3) five nation-states with different migrant incorporation regimes (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK), 4) supranational EU and global institutions penetrated by diaspora networks, 5) and patterns of mobilization specific to a certain region. The project also conducts a cross-country representative survey across 25 country-groups, creating a much needed quantitative dataset, sensitive both to transnationalism and specific context.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 771 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym DIGT
Project Diffeomorphism Invariant Gauge Theories, Asymptotic Safety and Geometry
Researcher (PI) Kirill Krasnov
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The aim of the proposed research is to develop a new description of gravity in four spacetime dimensions. This will (i) serve as a new tool to investigate the conjecture that four-dimensional quantum gravity may be ultra-violet complete (asymptotically safe); (ii) provide new techniques for the problem of classification of geometric structures on four-manifolds. To this end we shall study a certain large class of diffeomorphism invariant SU(2) gauge theories. The low-energy physics of these theories is known to be indistinguishable from that of general relativity (GR). At high energies, they provide an interesting type of deformations of GR, with the key property that the number of propagating degrees of freedom is the same as in general relativity. To test the asymptotic safety conjecture we shall perform perturbative one-loop computations to determine how these theories are renormalized by quantum corrections and then study the resulting renormalization group flow. The same class of theories will also be used to solve some of fundamental conjectures about the geometric structures on four-manifolds. The most optimistic scenario results will prove the asymptotic safety in four-dimensional quantum gravity and explicitly describe the physics occurring around the ultra-violet fixed point. The impact of this on theoretical physics will be comparable to the impact of the 1973 discovery of asymptotic freedom on the high energy physics. The work on the proposal will involve some of the world leading scientists as collaborators and advisors. The project will be carried out in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Nottingham, one of the major mathematics research centres in the UK. Regular long-term research visits to our group by leading scientists, as well as three meetings planned will establish the PI Nottingham research group as one of the leading European centres in the subject area.
Summary
The aim of the proposed research is to develop a new description of gravity in four spacetime dimensions. This will (i) serve as a new tool to investigate the conjecture that four-dimensional quantum gravity may be ultra-violet complete (asymptotically safe); (ii) provide new techniques for the problem of classification of geometric structures on four-manifolds. To this end we shall study a certain large class of diffeomorphism invariant SU(2) gauge theories. The low-energy physics of these theories is known to be indistinguishable from that of general relativity (GR). At high energies, they provide an interesting type of deformations of GR, with the key property that the number of propagating degrees of freedom is the same as in general relativity. To test the asymptotic safety conjecture we shall perform perturbative one-loop computations to determine how these theories are renormalized by quantum corrections and then study the resulting renormalization group flow. The same class of theories will also be used to solve some of fundamental conjectures about the geometric structures on four-manifolds. The most optimistic scenario results will prove the asymptotic safety in four-dimensional quantum gravity and explicitly describe the physics occurring around the ultra-violet fixed point. The impact of this on theoretical physics will be comparable to the impact of the 1973 discovery of asymptotic freedom on the high energy physics. The work on the proposal will involve some of the world leading scientists as collaborators and advisors. The project will be carried out in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Nottingham, one of the major mathematics research centres in the UK. Regular long-term research visits to our group by leading scientists, as well as three meetings planned will establish the PI Nottingham research group as one of the leading European centres in the subject area.
Max ERC Funding
1 222 830 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym DOS
Project Drugging the Undruggable: Discovery of Protein-Protein Interaction Modulators Using Diversity-Oriented Synthesis
Researcher (PI) David Spring
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This proposal aims to exploit diversity-oriented synthesis in order to lay the scientific and technological foundations for the development of enzyme inhibition by protein-protein interaction (PPI) modulation as a tool for chemical biology and molecular therapeutics. We will deploy diversity-oriented synthesis lead discovery to explore concepts for PPI modulation in important enzyme families. This work will yield new chemical entities with a spectrum of properties directed against candidate macromolecular interactions important in the regulation of enzymes that mediate key biological pathways. The proposed work has the potential to transform current approaches to drug discovery, and to radically extend the repertoire of tools available for chemical biology. It will help to address the problem of identifying small-molecule inhibitors of PPIs, widely accepted to be of major fundamental and practical significance to biomedical science.
Summary
This proposal aims to exploit diversity-oriented synthesis in order to lay the scientific and technological foundations for the development of enzyme inhibition by protein-protein interaction (PPI) modulation as a tool for chemical biology and molecular therapeutics. We will deploy diversity-oriented synthesis lead discovery to explore concepts for PPI modulation in important enzyme families. This work will yield new chemical entities with a spectrum of properties directed against candidate macromolecular interactions important in the regulation of enzymes that mediate key biological pathways. The proposed work has the potential to transform current approaches to drug discovery, and to radically extend the repertoire of tools available for chemical biology. It will help to address the problem of identifying small-molecule inhibitors of PPIs, widely accepted to be of major fundamental and practical significance to biomedical science.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 723 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym ECOGAL
Project Star Formation and the Galactic Ecology
Researcher (PI) Ian Bonnell
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE9, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary We will construct the first self-consistent models of star formation that follow the galactic scale flows
where molecular clouds form yet still resolve the star formation and feedback events down to sub-parsec scales.
By following the full galactic ecology, the life cycle of gas from the interstellar medium into stars and their radiative and kinematic output back into
the galaxy, we will develop a comprehensive theory of star formation. The link between the large-scale dynamics of the galaxy and the
small-scale star formation provides the ground-breaking nature of this proposal.
Star formation produces a wide range
of outcomes in nearby molecular clouds yet on large scales yields star formation rates that are strongly correlated to galactic-scale gas densities.
These observed properties of star forming galaxies have inspired a plethora of theoretical ideas, but until now there has been
no means of testing these analytical theories.
We will use galactic-disc simulations to determine how molecular clouds form through self-gravity, spiral shocks and/or
cloud-cloud collisions. We will use these self-consistent models of molecular clouds to follow the local gravitational collapse to
form individual stars and stellar clusters.
We will include ionisation, stellar winds and supernovae into the ISM to study how feedback can support
or destroy molecular clouds, as well as triggering successive generations of young stars.
We will also conduct Galactic bulge scale simulations to
model how gas flows into, and star formation occurs in, the Galactic centre.
The primary goals of this proposal are to understand what determines the
local and global rates, efficiencies and products of star formation in galaxies, and to develop
a complete theory of star formation that can be applied to galaxy formation and cosmology.
Summary
We will construct the first self-consistent models of star formation that follow the galactic scale flows
where molecular clouds form yet still resolve the star formation and feedback events down to sub-parsec scales.
By following the full galactic ecology, the life cycle of gas from the interstellar medium into stars and their radiative and kinematic output back into
the galaxy, we will develop a comprehensive theory of star formation. The link between the large-scale dynamics of the galaxy and the
small-scale star formation provides the ground-breaking nature of this proposal.
Star formation produces a wide range
of outcomes in nearby molecular clouds yet on large scales yields star formation rates that are strongly correlated to galactic-scale gas densities.
These observed properties of star forming galaxies have inspired a plethora of theoretical ideas, but until now there has been
no means of testing these analytical theories.
We will use galactic-disc simulations to determine how molecular clouds form through self-gravity, spiral shocks and/or
cloud-cloud collisions. We will use these self-consistent models of molecular clouds to follow the local gravitational collapse to
form individual stars and stellar clusters.
We will include ionisation, stellar winds and supernovae into the ISM to study how feedback can support
or destroy molecular clouds, as well as triggering successive generations of young stars.
We will also conduct Galactic bulge scale simulations to
model how gas flows into, and star formation occurs in, the Galactic centre.
The primary goals of this proposal are to understand what determines the
local and global rates, efficiencies and products of star formation in galaxies, and to develop
a complete theory of star formation that can be applied to galaxy formation and cosmology.
Max ERC Funding
2 210 523 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30
Project acronym ECONPUBLIC
Project "Economics in the Public Sphere: USA, UK, France, Brazil and Argentina since 1945"
Researcher (PI) Tiago Jorge Fernandes Da Mata
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary "Media reporting on the economy is never far from controversy. Academic economists and the public regularly find journalists at fault in their interpretation of events and prescription of solutions. Past scholarship has sought to locate the biases of journalists in political and institutional contexts. This project takes a novel approach by studying “economic journalism” as a site for the production of public economic knowledge. The practices of journalists are examined to reveal how they parse competing claims of expertise by academic economists, other social scientists and by laymen. The second half of the twentieth century was witness to increased homogeneity in academic economics and interdependence of national economies, yet the content and style of “economic journalism” has remained distinctive across nations. This project sets out to understand how and why media representation of economic knowledge has remained distinctively different even while the content and style of economics converged internationally. The project aims to understand this differentiation by focusing on three international economic controversies: the reconstruction debate post 1945, the monetary and oil crisis of the 1970s, and the current economic crisis; across five nations: USA, UK, France, Argentina, and Brazil. It combines archival research, oral history, ethnographic observation, content and textual analysis of media, to identify media representations of economic expertise and reveal how they are shaped by historical and cultural contexts. Cultural standards of trust, the history and economics of the media, and the history of economics and social movements explain the emergence of distinct national genres of “economic journalism.” The project offers a original perspective on how public knowledge of the economy is a iterative process engaging journalists, academics and laymen and explores its implications for the possibilities of public support for economic actions and policies."
Summary
"Media reporting on the economy is never far from controversy. Academic economists and the public regularly find journalists at fault in their interpretation of events and prescription of solutions. Past scholarship has sought to locate the biases of journalists in political and institutional contexts. This project takes a novel approach by studying “economic journalism” as a site for the production of public economic knowledge. The practices of journalists are examined to reveal how they parse competing claims of expertise by academic economists, other social scientists and by laymen. The second half of the twentieth century was witness to increased homogeneity in academic economics and interdependence of national economies, yet the content and style of “economic journalism” has remained distinctive across nations. This project sets out to understand how and why media representation of economic knowledge has remained distinctively different even while the content and style of economics converged internationally. The project aims to understand this differentiation by focusing on three international economic controversies: the reconstruction debate post 1945, the monetary and oil crisis of the 1970s, and the current economic crisis; across five nations: USA, UK, France, Argentina, and Brazil. It combines archival research, oral history, ethnographic observation, content and textual analysis of media, to identify media representations of economic expertise and reveal how they are shaped by historical and cultural contexts. Cultural standards of trust, the history and economics of the media, and the history of economics and social movements explain the emergence of distinct national genres of “economic journalism.” The project offers a original perspective on how public knowledge of the economy is a iterative process engaging journalists, academics and laymen and explores its implications for the possibilities of public support for economic actions and policies."
Max ERC Funding
1 458 041 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym EMATTER
Project New materials for energy production and sustainable energy use
Researcher (PI) Stoyan Smoukov
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The proposed research is in the field of nanofiber materials, focusing on the development of functional nanofibers for the complementary purposes of energy production and sustainable energy use. Significant opportunities exist in these areas, stemming from the development of several methods in the last decade for higher capacity nanofiber production, as well as the strategic need to find alternatives to current production of energy and its uses. Nanofibers are expected to bring revolutionary advances to these and many other fields of science and technology, including catalysis, filtration, protein separations, tissue engineering, and flexible electronics. We will work on creating such materials with potential applications in multi-exciton photovoltaics and catalysis for energy production. For sustainable energy use, we will develop bioinspired responsive materials and architectures, which would store energy, release it on demand, and act as life-like, efficient, and autonomous entities. Fundamental questions we will address in the research include: How do we tailor semiconductor band structures, as well as achieve nanoscale morphologies for efficient dissociation of photogenerated excitons? Can we develop general predictive rules for the conditions needed to fabricate nanofibers from any polymer solution by liquid shear processing? Can the molecular crystallinity and porosity be controlled in the fibers? What are the simplest life-like, autonomous devices that could be made with synthetic materials?
This work will include extensive solution-based synthesis, processing, structural and chemical characterization (by optical and electron microscopy, small angle X-rays), physical property measurements (mechanical, optical, electronic), device fabrication and assembly, and computer simulations. Most of the facilities needed for the research are available in Cambridge, and some will be arranged for through external collaborations.
Summary
The proposed research is in the field of nanofiber materials, focusing on the development of functional nanofibers for the complementary purposes of energy production and sustainable energy use. Significant opportunities exist in these areas, stemming from the development of several methods in the last decade for higher capacity nanofiber production, as well as the strategic need to find alternatives to current production of energy and its uses. Nanofibers are expected to bring revolutionary advances to these and many other fields of science and technology, including catalysis, filtration, protein separations, tissue engineering, and flexible electronics. We will work on creating such materials with potential applications in multi-exciton photovoltaics and catalysis for energy production. For sustainable energy use, we will develop bioinspired responsive materials and architectures, which would store energy, release it on demand, and act as life-like, efficient, and autonomous entities. Fundamental questions we will address in the research include: How do we tailor semiconductor band structures, as well as achieve nanoscale morphologies for efficient dissociation of photogenerated excitons? Can we develop general predictive rules for the conditions needed to fabricate nanofibers from any polymer solution by liquid shear processing? Can the molecular crystallinity and porosity be controlled in the fibers? What are the simplest life-like, autonomous devices that could be made with synthetic materials?
This work will include extensive solution-based synthesis, processing, structural and chemical characterization (by optical and electron microscopy, small angle X-rays), physical property measurements (mechanical, optical, electronic), device fabrication and assembly, and computer simulations. Most of the facilities needed for the research are available in Cambridge, and some will be arranged for through external collaborations.
Max ERC Funding
1 963 835 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym ENOLCAT
Project Emulating Nature: Reaction Diversity and Understanding through Asymmetric Catalysis
Researcher (PI) Andrew David Smith
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The remarkable way that Nature prepares complex natural products has always been a source of inspiration to scientists, stimulating the development of new synthetic methods and strategies, as elegantly demonstrated by biomimetic approaches to total synthesis. Similarly, the performance and specificity of enzymes, perfected though evolution, offer ideals of selectivity and specificity that synthetic chemists aspire to. This proposal aims to develop an internationally leading research programme inspired by Nature’s ability to selectively generate diverse products from simple materials with exquisite levels of regio- and enantiocontrol. We aspire to synthetically emulate the elegant behaviour of Nature’s building blocks, such as co-enzyme A, in their ability to generate synthetic diversity (such as polyketides and alkaloids) from a simple and common starting material. Using this blueprint, we intend to selectively control the synthesis of a diverse range of bespoke stereodefined carbo- and heterocycles from readily available starting materials using simple man-made catalysts. We specifically aim to develop new strategies within the field of organic catalysis, focused upon the development of methods for the in situ catalytic generation of chiral ammonium enolates from carboxylic acids and their employment in catalysis. We also propose to develop a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of these processes. In preliminary work we have delineated a simple and efficient approach to this problem by employing chiral isothioureas as asymmetric catalysts, and we aim to build on the insight provided by these studies to develop this powerful concept into a generally applicable synthetic strategy.
Summary
The remarkable way that Nature prepares complex natural products has always been a source of inspiration to scientists, stimulating the development of new synthetic methods and strategies, as elegantly demonstrated by biomimetic approaches to total synthesis. Similarly, the performance and specificity of enzymes, perfected though evolution, offer ideals of selectivity and specificity that synthetic chemists aspire to. This proposal aims to develop an internationally leading research programme inspired by Nature’s ability to selectively generate diverse products from simple materials with exquisite levels of regio- and enantiocontrol. We aspire to synthetically emulate the elegant behaviour of Nature’s building blocks, such as co-enzyme A, in their ability to generate synthetic diversity (such as polyketides and alkaloids) from a simple and common starting material. Using this blueprint, we intend to selectively control the synthesis of a diverse range of bespoke stereodefined carbo- and heterocycles from readily available starting materials using simple man-made catalysts. We specifically aim to develop new strategies within the field of organic catalysis, focused upon the development of methods for the in situ catalytic generation of chiral ammonium enolates from carboxylic acids and their employment in catalysis. We also propose to develop a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of these processes. In preliminary work we have delineated a simple and efficient approach to this problem by employing chiral isothioureas as asymmetric catalysts, and we aim to build on the insight provided by these studies to develop this powerful concept into a generally applicable synthetic strategy.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 005 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym EPIFM
Project Evaluation Practices in Financial Markets
Researcher (PI) Donald Angus Mackenzie
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary EPIFM will be a social-science (rather than, as conventionally, an economic) investigation, by a team bridging science and technology studies (STS), sociology and politics, of how professional participants in financial markets evaluate financial instruments such as shares and bonds. These evaluation practices are crucial to the operation of financial markets (they help determine the activities to which investment capital does and does not flow, and for example played a key role in the genesis of the credit crisis), but surprisingly little is known about them.
EPIFM will study evaluation practices in depth and in their technological and institutional contexts. It will examine differences amongst how different groups of market practitioners conduct evaluation (including patterned differences that we conceptualise provisionally as ‘evaluation cultures’) and will investigate the factors that shape evaluation practices, factors that we expect to include technological change, organisational processes, external regulation and the articulation between monetary evaluation and other ‘orders of worth’. EPIFM’s methodology will predominantly be qualitative, including semi-structured interviewing, fieldwork at finance-industry conferences and training courses, documentary analysis, and – where possible – direct observation of practices. Amongst the phenomena EPIFM will investigate is automated trading, in which evaluation, buying and selling are delegated to (usually ultrafast) computer systems operating without direct human intervention.
By achieving its objectives of understanding the patterning and the shaping of evaluation practices, EPIFM will foster the exciting new specialism of ‘social studies of finance’ and encourage a much-needed broadening and deepening of social-science research on financial markets.
Summary
EPIFM will be a social-science (rather than, as conventionally, an economic) investigation, by a team bridging science and technology studies (STS), sociology and politics, of how professional participants in financial markets evaluate financial instruments such as shares and bonds. These evaluation practices are crucial to the operation of financial markets (they help determine the activities to which investment capital does and does not flow, and for example played a key role in the genesis of the credit crisis), but surprisingly little is known about them.
EPIFM will study evaluation practices in depth and in their technological and institutional contexts. It will examine differences amongst how different groups of market practitioners conduct evaluation (including patterned differences that we conceptualise provisionally as ‘evaluation cultures’) and will investigate the factors that shape evaluation practices, factors that we expect to include technological change, organisational processes, external regulation and the articulation between monetary evaluation and other ‘orders of worth’. EPIFM’s methodology will predominantly be qualitative, including semi-structured interviewing, fieldwork at finance-industry conferences and training courses, documentary analysis, and – where possible – direct observation of practices. Amongst the phenomena EPIFM will investigate is automated trading, in which evaluation, buying and selling are delegated to (usually ultrafast) computer systems operating without direct human intervention.
By achieving its objectives of understanding the patterning and the shaping of evaluation practices, EPIFM will foster the exciting new specialism of ‘social studies of finance’ and encourage a much-needed broadening and deepening of social-science research on financial markets.
Max ERC Funding
2 175 252 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-09-01, End date: 2018-08-31
Project acronym ESig
Project Creating rigorous mathematical and computational tools that can summarise high dimensional data streams in terms of their effects
Researcher (PI) Terence John Lyons
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary The Calculus of differential equations has proved to be a very powerful tool for describing the interrelationships between systems. That understanding has transformed many aspects of our world. This success has now reached an important limitation. As the systems we seek to understand increase in dimension and complexity, oscillatory and complex order information becomes much more important, and on normal computational scales the systems of interest often fail to fit the smooth Newtonian paradigm.
Mathematical tools that go beyond that smooth paradigm, and particularly Ito's extension of calculus to systems that have an additional Brownian component, have proved enormously valuable and have helped raised Stochastic Mathematics to the centre of the subject in a period of little more than 60 years. It has provided some of the most important applications of mathematics (spanning Neuroscience, Finance, Engineering, Image processing) over the second half of the last century.
In the late 1990s a new tool, the theory of rough paths, began to emerge. The mathematical aspects have been developed strongly by probability theorists to describe couplings between systems that are completely outside the Ito framework, by analysts to understand the solutions to certain non-linear vector valued PDEs, by classical analysts interested in the non-linear Fourier transform, and by those desiring to go beyond Monte Carlo techniques by choosing carefully chosen and representative scenarios instead of random ones. Several excellent texts now exist.
Key to this progress has been the combination of new definitions with strong rigorous results that underpin the concepts. The flow is still very active, and new tools, particularly the signature of a path, and the expected signature have a strong mathematical basis (eg. Annals of Math, Jan 2010) and potential as tools in pure and applied mathematics.
This proposal would allow the PI to create the momentum for completely new applications.
Summary
The Calculus of differential equations has proved to be a very powerful tool for describing the interrelationships between systems. That understanding has transformed many aspects of our world. This success has now reached an important limitation. As the systems we seek to understand increase in dimension and complexity, oscillatory and complex order information becomes much more important, and on normal computational scales the systems of interest often fail to fit the smooth Newtonian paradigm.
Mathematical tools that go beyond that smooth paradigm, and particularly Ito's extension of calculus to systems that have an additional Brownian component, have proved enormously valuable and have helped raised Stochastic Mathematics to the centre of the subject in a period of little more than 60 years. It has provided some of the most important applications of mathematics (spanning Neuroscience, Finance, Engineering, Image processing) over the second half of the last century.
In the late 1990s a new tool, the theory of rough paths, began to emerge. The mathematical aspects have been developed strongly by probability theorists to describe couplings between systems that are completely outside the Ito framework, by analysts to understand the solutions to certain non-linear vector valued PDEs, by classical analysts interested in the non-linear Fourier transform, and by those desiring to go beyond Monte Carlo techniques by choosing carefully chosen and representative scenarios instead of random ones. Several excellent texts now exist.
Key to this progress has been the combination of new definitions with strong rigorous results that underpin the concepts. The flow is still very active, and new tools, particularly the signature of a path, and the expected signature have a strong mathematical basis (eg. Annals of Math, Jan 2010) and potential as tools in pure and applied mathematics.
This proposal would allow the PI to create the momentum for completely new applications.
Max ERC Funding
1 814 301 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym FERMILATT
Project Single-atom-resolved detection and manipulation of strongly correlated fermions in an optical lattice
Researcher (PI) Stefan Kuhr
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary I propose to realize single-atom- and spin-resolved in-situ imaging of strongly correlated fermions in an optical lattice. Whereas very recently strongly correlated bosonic systems could be imaged in an optical lattice at the single atom level, an experimental proof of single-site-resolved detection of fermions is still lacking. My project will allow to fully exploit the potential of ultracold atoms as a quantum simulator, especially for the Fermi-Hubbard model, which is a key model in condensed matter physics.
Gaining access to the in-trap atom distribution of the fermionic 40-potassium with single-atom and single-site resolution will allow for a new generation of experiments in the field. Direct observation of individual atoms and analysis of their quantum states and their spatial order in the lattice, including individual defects, are then possible. I will use this novel detection method to characterize, e.g., temperature or entropy distribution of the quantum phases such as fermionic Mott insulators, Band insulators or metallic phases.
Together with the possibility of local spin manipulations, I will investigate the effect of local perturbations on the system by spatially resolving the ensuing dynamical in-trap evolution. In this way, propagation and healing of artificially created defects can be studied. Local scale density modulations such as Friedel and Wigner oscillations of one-dimensional systems with hard boundaries will become observable. The local manipulation of the trapped atoms will be the key to implement novel cooling schemes that can remove regions of high entropy from the system. In this way much colder temperatures can be realized, where antiferromagnetic ordering is setting in. In a harmonic trap, these magnetically ordered phases are predicted to form ring-like structures, which can be ideally characterized by my novel spin-sensitive in-situ imaging techniques.
Summary
I propose to realize single-atom- and spin-resolved in-situ imaging of strongly correlated fermions in an optical lattice. Whereas very recently strongly correlated bosonic systems could be imaged in an optical lattice at the single atom level, an experimental proof of single-site-resolved detection of fermions is still lacking. My project will allow to fully exploit the potential of ultracold atoms as a quantum simulator, especially for the Fermi-Hubbard model, which is a key model in condensed matter physics.
Gaining access to the in-trap atom distribution of the fermionic 40-potassium with single-atom and single-site resolution will allow for a new generation of experiments in the field. Direct observation of individual atoms and analysis of their quantum states and their spatial order in the lattice, including individual defects, are then possible. I will use this novel detection method to characterize, e.g., temperature or entropy distribution of the quantum phases such as fermionic Mott insulators, Band insulators or metallic phases.
Together with the possibility of local spin manipulations, I will investigate the effect of local perturbations on the system by spatially resolving the ensuing dynamical in-trap evolution. In this way, propagation and healing of artificially created defects can be studied. Local scale density modulations such as Friedel and Wigner oscillations of one-dimensional systems with hard boundaries will become observable. The local manipulation of the trapped atoms will be the key to implement novel cooling schemes that can remove regions of high entropy from the system. In this way much colder temperatures can be realized, where antiferromagnetic ordering is setting in. In a harmonic trap, these magnetically ordered phases are predicted to form ring-like structures, which can be ideally characterized by my novel spin-sensitive in-situ imaging techniques.
Max ERC Funding
1 392 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym FUNCOMP
Project Numerical Computation with Functions Instead of Numbers
Researcher (PI) Lloyd Nicholas Trefethen
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "Numerical analysis, scientific computing, and computational science are built on technologies of discretization such as splines, finite differences, and finite elements. Yet for most applications it is ultimately continuous functions that are of scientific interest, and the discretizations are a means to the end of working with them. This project will advance mathematics and algorithms to enable scientists and engineers to compute with functions rather than their discretizations. Such computations will be numerical as opposed to symbolic, for speed and wide applicability, yet will achieve some of the “feel” of symbolic computing. The goal is to do for computing with functions what floating-point arithmetic has done for computing with numbers: to hide away details of discretization from most users, most of the time."
Summary
"Numerical analysis, scientific computing, and computational science are built on technologies of discretization such as splines, finite differences, and finite elements. Yet for most applications it is ultimately continuous functions that are of scientific interest, and the discretizations are a means to the end of working with them. This project will advance mathematics and algorithms to enable scientists and engineers to compute with functions rather than their discretizations. Such computations will be numerical as opposed to symbolic, for speed and wide applicability, yet will achieve some of the “feel” of symbolic computing. The goal is to do for computing with functions what floating-point arithmetic has done for computing with numbers: to hide away details of discretization from most users, most of the time."
Max ERC Funding
1 668 157 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2017-02-28
Project acronym GAUGE-STRING
Project Gauge theory - String theory duality: maximally symmetric case and beyond
Researcher (PI) Arkadi Alexander Tseitline
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary Quantum field theories with local gauge symmetry are building blocks of the modern theory of fundamental interactions between elementary particles. The basic example is Quantum Chromo Dynamics. There is strong evidence that QCD is the correct theory of strong interactions, but it has been difficult to use it to account for many hadronic phenomena which is due to large value of gauge coupling at low energies. Theoretical understanding of gauge theory dynamics at large values of coupling when one cannot use the Feynman diagram perturbation theory is a major problem of physics of strong interactions. Goals include analytic computation of mass spectrum of hadrons, etc. The general aim of this proposal is to develop new theoretical tools to describe strongly coupled gauge theories. Research in the last decade brought strong evidence that connection of gauge theories to string theory should be a key to solution of this problem. Gauge-string duality and, in particular, Anti deSitter / conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence is one of the most active directions of current work in theory of fundamental interactions. A remarkable progress was achieved towards quantitative understanding of this relation in the most symmetric case of maximally supersymmetric gauge theory in flat 4 dimensions dual to superstring theory in curved 10-dimensional AdS5 x S5 space. We propose a detailed study of this duality from the string theory side using world-sheet methods and hidden integrability of the maximally symmetric theory. The goal is to provide a first-principles proof of the duality for the spectrum of states and also to establish its validity at the level of correlation functions of conformal operators. We also plan to extend string-theoretic approach to gauge-string duality to less symmetric cases, corresponding, in particular, to certain non-supersymmetric conformal and n=1 supersymmetric non-conformal planar gauge theories.
Summary
Quantum field theories with local gauge symmetry are building blocks of the modern theory of fundamental interactions between elementary particles. The basic example is Quantum Chromo Dynamics. There is strong evidence that QCD is the correct theory of strong interactions, but it has been difficult to use it to account for many hadronic phenomena which is due to large value of gauge coupling at low energies. Theoretical understanding of gauge theory dynamics at large values of coupling when one cannot use the Feynman diagram perturbation theory is a major problem of physics of strong interactions. Goals include analytic computation of mass spectrum of hadrons, etc. The general aim of this proposal is to develop new theoretical tools to describe strongly coupled gauge theories. Research in the last decade brought strong evidence that connection of gauge theories to string theory should be a key to solution of this problem. Gauge-string duality and, in particular, Anti deSitter / conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence is one of the most active directions of current work in theory of fundamental interactions. A remarkable progress was achieved towards quantitative understanding of this relation in the most symmetric case of maximally supersymmetric gauge theory in flat 4 dimensions dual to superstring theory in curved 10-dimensional AdS5 x S5 space. We propose a detailed study of this duality from the string theory side using world-sheet methods and hidden integrability of the maximally symmetric theory. The goal is to provide a first-principles proof of the duality for the spectrum of states and also to establish its validity at the level of correlation functions of conformal operators. We also plan to extend string-theoretic approach to gauge-string duality to less symmetric cases, corresponding, in particular, to certain non-supersymmetric conformal and n=1 supersymmetric non-conformal planar gauge theories.
Max ERC Funding
1 679 584 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym GEOPV
Project CONFLICT LANDSCAPES & LIFE CYCLES: EXPLORING & PREDICTING AFRICAN POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Researcher (PI) Clionadh Raleigh
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary The central aim of this work is to explain what causes the various types of political violence found within and across African states. In contrast to the widespread view that conflict is confined to a few crisis prone states, new evidence suggests that almost all states are sites of substantial, widespread political insecurity (Raleigh et al. 2010). Civil war accounts for 35% of the conflict across African states; the remaining 65% is composed of communal and political militia violence, rioting, protests and violence against non-combatants outside of a war context. These forms of ‘invisible’ violence often involve state collusion and present a widespread risk to civilians. This proposal takes a holistic approach, looking at all forms of political violence and seeking to explain them within a novel theoretical framework emphasizing two stages of onset indicators, and employing the latest available disaggregated data methodologies for spatial and temporal dynamics. Further, it introduces spatial and scaled approaches, which are the most rigorous and well suited to a comprehensive conflict study, as risks, triggers and dynamics are spatially inscribed and hierarchical. The theoretical contribution of this work is an examination of how insurgency and opposition violence are spatial and political processes that are shaped by the political, economic and social geographies of states. The empirical contributions include an extension of the most comprehensive data on political events (ACLED) and a merging of these disaggregated data with information on local level political, economic, social and environmental conditions throughout Africa. Methodologically, this project is the first to test spatial and temporal forecasting methods on real-time conflict hotspots. Finally, the conclusions of this work have applicability to development agencies, governing bodies and international regimes concerned with the growing threat emanating from failed and failing states.
Summary
The central aim of this work is to explain what causes the various types of political violence found within and across African states. In contrast to the widespread view that conflict is confined to a few crisis prone states, new evidence suggests that almost all states are sites of substantial, widespread political insecurity (Raleigh et al. 2010). Civil war accounts for 35% of the conflict across African states; the remaining 65% is composed of communal and political militia violence, rioting, protests and violence against non-combatants outside of a war context. These forms of ‘invisible’ violence often involve state collusion and present a widespread risk to civilians. This proposal takes a holistic approach, looking at all forms of political violence and seeking to explain them within a novel theoretical framework emphasizing two stages of onset indicators, and employing the latest available disaggregated data methodologies for spatial and temporal dynamics. Further, it introduces spatial and scaled approaches, which are the most rigorous and well suited to a comprehensive conflict study, as risks, triggers and dynamics are spatially inscribed and hierarchical. The theoretical contribution of this work is an examination of how insurgency and opposition violence are spatial and political processes that are shaped by the political, economic and social geographies of states. The empirical contributions include an extension of the most comprehensive data on political events (ACLED) and a merging of these disaggregated data with information on local level political, economic, social and environmental conditions throughout Africa. Methodologically, this project is the first to test spatial and temporal forecasting methods on real-time conflict hotspots. Finally, the conclusions of this work have applicability to development agencies, governing bodies and international regimes concerned with the growing threat emanating from failed and failing states.
Max ERC Funding
1 416 730 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym Graphene and Beyond
Project Theory of Two-Dimensional Materials: Graphene and Beyond
Researcher (PI) Vladimir Falko
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE3, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary This projects aims to explore physics of the new class of materials: atomically thin films of layered crystals. Graphene, because of its extraordinary electronic properties, will be a major focus of this project. In view of application of graphene in electronics, we shall model electronic transport and dynamical properties of devices based upon epitaxial graphene (monolayer and bilayer), graphene deposited on atomically flat substrates, and chemically modified graphene. In the family of graphene, the bilayer allotrope is the less understood, though it has already been discovered to have quite unique electronic properties, and we shall develop theories of the electron-electron correlation effects, quantum transport and quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene. But beyond graphene, we shall also investigate electronic properties of ultrathin films of hexagonal boron nitride on account of its insulating and optical properties, and on account of their use in hybrid devices such as graphene/h-BN based transistors. In parallel, we shall search for new opportunities in the world of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene. For this, we shall model theoretically electronic properties, correlations effects, optical properties, and electronic transport properties of single layers and bilayers of hexagonal transition-metal dichalcogenides with a broad range of composition and ultrathin films of bismuth-based trichalcogenides.
Summary
This projects aims to explore physics of the new class of materials: atomically thin films of layered crystals. Graphene, because of its extraordinary electronic properties, will be a major focus of this project. In view of application of graphene in electronics, we shall model electronic transport and dynamical properties of devices based upon epitaxial graphene (monolayer and bilayer), graphene deposited on atomically flat substrates, and chemically modified graphene. In the family of graphene, the bilayer allotrope is the less understood, though it has already been discovered to have quite unique electronic properties, and we shall develop theories of the electron-electron correlation effects, quantum transport and quantum Hall effect in bilayer graphene. But beyond graphene, we shall also investigate electronic properties of ultrathin films of hexagonal boron nitride on account of its insulating and optical properties, and on account of their use in hybrid devices such as graphene/h-BN based transistors. In parallel, we shall search for new opportunities in the world of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene. For this, we shall model theoretically electronic properties, correlations effects, optical properties, and electronic transport properties of single layers and bilayers of hexagonal transition-metal dichalcogenides with a broad range of composition and ultrathin films of bismuth-based trichalcogenides.
Max ERC Funding
430 271 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2013-10-31
Project acronym GTICO
Project Global traffic in illicit cultural objects: developing knowledge for improving interventions in a transnational criminal market
Researcher (PI) Simon Ross Maclean Mackenzie
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary The research seeks to push the boundaries of our understanding of, and social and legal responses to, trafficking in illicit cultural objects. The global market in illicit cultural objects is a structure of relatively rich consumers at one end of the supply chain (collectors, dealers, museums) and relatively poor looters at the other end, in source countries characterised by high levels of the 'natural resource' of cultural objects and low levels of policing resource to devote to their protection against looting (i.e. usually illegal excavation) and other forms of theft. While there has been some research into the market, compared to other international criminal markets such as the drugs trade, very little is known about the motives and activities of participants in the international trade in illicit cultural objects, their trading norms and routines, the pricing structures and criminal mark-ups, mechanisms of smuggling used in this market in order to avoid detection at customs and by other law enforcement agencies, etc. Even such apparently simple matters as the relative size of the criminal side of the antiquities trade are not currently known. Structures of international, and domestic national, law and regulation have been established in response to the moral concern the illicit trade raises, rather than being based on an evidence-oriented investigation of the practical elements of the trade mentioned. While some of these regulatory efforts have had modest success, for the most part they have been a failure in stopping the illicit trade, which continues today. This research proposal establishes a multi-method and multi-sited programme of research which aims to gather and analyse all available evidence on the trade, produce new measures of size and illicit activity using innovative methodological approaches and new data sources, and conduct ethnographic research into the illicit trade. All these data sources will be used to devise best practice in regulation.
Summary
The research seeks to push the boundaries of our understanding of, and social and legal responses to, trafficking in illicit cultural objects. The global market in illicit cultural objects is a structure of relatively rich consumers at one end of the supply chain (collectors, dealers, museums) and relatively poor looters at the other end, in source countries characterised by high levels of the 'natural resource' of cultural objects and low levels of policing resource to devote to their protection against looting (i.e. usually illegal excavation) and other forms of theft. While there has been some research into the market, compared to other international criminal markets such as the drugs trade, very little is known about the motives and activities of participants in the international trade in illicit cultural objects, their trading norms and routines, the pricing structures and criminal mark-ups, mechanisms of smuggling used in this market in order to avoid detection at customs and by other law enforcement agencies, etc. Even such apparently simple matters as the relative size of the criminal side of the antiquities trade are not currently known. Structures of international, and domestic national, law and regulation have been established in response to the moral concern the illicit trade raises, rather than being based on an evidence-oriented investigation of the practical elements of the trade mentioned. While some of these regulatory efforts have had modest success, for the most part they have been a failure in stopping the illicit trade, which continues today. This research proposal establishes a multi-method and multi-sited programme of research which aims to gather and analyse all available evidence on the trade, produce new measures of size and illicit activity using innovative methodological approaches and new data sources, and conduct ethnographic research into the illicit trade. All these data sources will be used to devise best practice in regulation.
Max ERC Funding
989 772 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2016-01-31
Project acronym HFAKT
Project Homogeneous Flows and their Application in Kinetic Theory
Researcher (PI) Jens Marklof
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "Since the pioneering work of Maxwell and Boltzmann in the 1860s and 1870s, a major challenge in mathematical physics has been the derivation of macroscopic evolution equations from the fundamental microscopic laws of classical or quantum mechanics. The key idea of the present proposal is to introduce a renormalization technique that will provide a new route to attack some of the most important questions in the kinetic theory of gases. This technique uses the ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous spaces (homogeneous flows for short), and builds on my recent breakthrough in the case of the Lorentz gas (in joint with Andreas Strömbergsson, Uppsala). The key feature of the proposed approach is measure rigidity, a deep and powerful technical tool that has so far mainly seen success in solving long-standing problems in number theory and quantum chaos. The arguments developed in this proposal are not only interesting from a rigorous mathematical viewpoint, but also yield a heuristic mechanism for finding previously unknown kinetic transport equations that incorporate the effects of long-range order in microscopic particle distributions. This project joins together two distinct research fields, kinetic theory and the ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous spaces. If successful, the proposed research will constitute a significant breakthrough in the subject."
Summary
"Since the pioneering work of Maxwell and Boltzmann in the 1860s and 1870s, a major challenge in mathematical physics has been the derivation of macroscopic evolution equations from the fundamental microscopic laws of classical or quantum mechanics. The key idea of the present proposal is to introduce a renormalization technique that will provide a new route to attack some of the most important questions in the kinetic theory of gases. This technique uses the ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous spaces (homogeneous flows for short), and builds on my recent breakthrough in the case of the Lorentz gas (in joint with Andreas Strömbergsson, Uppsala). The key feature of the proposed approach is measure rigidity, a deep and powerful technical tool that has so far mainly seen success in solving long-standing problems in number theory and quantum chaos. The arguments developed in this proposal are not only interesting from a rigorous mathematical viewpoint, but also yield a heuristic mechanism for finding previously unknown kinetic transport equations that incorporate the effects of long-range order in microscopic particle distributions. This project joins together two distinct research fields, kinetic theory and the ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous spaces. If successful, the proposed research will constitute a significant breakthrough in the subject."
Max ERC Funding
1 339 620 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym HIDGR
Project Higher dimensional general relativity: explicit solutions and the classification and stability of black holes
Researcher (PI) Harvey Stephen Reall
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Higher-dimensional General Relativity (GR) is well-motivated by string theory e.g. via the gauge/gravity correspondence or scenarios that predict black hole production at the Large Hadron Collider. In this proposal it is regarded as a self-contained mathematical subject that extends conventional 4d GR. It is known that higher-dimensional GR exhibits qualitative differences from 4d GR, especially for black holes,
e.g. there exist ""black ring"" solutions describing rotating, donut-shaped black holes. It is likely that there are many other interesting solutions. This project will investigate the following topics in higher-dimensional GR: 1. Methods for obtaining explicit solutions of the Einstein equation, especially those based on algebraic classification of the Weyl tensor; 2. Classical stability of black holes; 3. Classification of black hole
solutions: What data is required to specify uniquely black hole solutions? What are the allowed topologies and symmetries of black holes?"
Summary
"Higher-dimensional General Relativity (GR) is well-motivated by string theory e.g. via the gauge/gravity correspondence or scenarios that predict black hole production at the Large Hadron Collider. In this proposal it is regarded as a self-contained mathematical subject that extends conventional 4d GR. It is known that higher-dimensional GR exhibits qualitative differences from 4d GR, especially for black holes,
e.g. there exist ""black ring"" solutions describing rotating, donut-shaped black holes. It is likely that there are many other interesting solutions. This project will investigate the following topics in higher-dimensional GR: 1. Methods for obtaining explicit solutions of the Einstein equation, especially those based on algebraic classification of the Weyl tensor; 2. Classical stability of black holes; 3. Classification of black hole
solutions: What data is required to specify uniquely black hole solutions? What are the allowed topologies and symmetries of black holes?"
Max ERC Funding
1 337 044 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym HUMGENSIZE
Project Cellular pathways determining growth and human brain size
Researcher (PI) Andrew Peter Jackson
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2011-StG_20101109
Summary The greatest differences between mammals are size. As well, the large evolutionary expansion of the cerebral cortex is a defining feature humans. Despite this, much remains to be learnt about the developmental and evolutionary factors controlling organ and organism size. This is in marked contrast to the exquisite detail in which developmental patterning has been defined in model organisms. The identification of genes for human disorders of extreme growth failure (microcephalic primordial dwarfism) provides a means to gain new insights into the regulation of human brain and body size. I have identified eight genes regulating cerebral cortex volume and organism size, all of which encode fundamental components of cell machinery regulating cell division. This proposal aims to ascertain the genes causing the other 85% of primordial dwarfism, and define their cellular and developmental functions. The central hypothesis for the proposed work is that such primordial dwarfism and microcephaly genes are components of common cellular pathway(s) relevant to organ and organism growth. I propose to pursue complementary approaches involving human disease gene identification, cell biology studies, and model organisms, to address this hypothesis and further define the pathogenesis of these conditions. These cross-disciplinary studies will contribute to our understanding of vertebrate growth regulation and help us understand how the human brain evolved. They may provide insights into neural stem cell division relevant to brain repair. Finally and not least, regulation of DNA replication, centrosome function and DNA damage response signalling are key cellular processes perturbed in many important human diseases, from developmental disorders to cancer.
Summary
The greatest differences between mammals are size. As well, the large evolutionary expansion of the cerebral cortex is a defining feature humans. Despite this, much remains to be learnt about the developmental and evolutionary factors controlling organ and organism size. This is in marked contrast to the exquisite detail in which developmental patterning has been defined in model organisms. The identification of genes for human disorders of extreme growth failure (microcephalic primordial dwarfism) provides a means to gain new insights into the regulation of human brain and body size. I have identified eight genes regulating cerebral cortex volume and organism size, all of which encode fundamental components of cell machinery regulating cell division. This proposal aims to ascertain the genes causing the other 85% of primordial dwarfism, and define their cellular and developmental functions. The central hypothesis for the proposed work is that such primordial dwarfism and microcephaly genes are components of common cellular pathway(s) relevant to organ and organism growth. I propose to pursue complementary approaches involving human disease gene identification, cell biology studies, and model organisms, to address this hypothesis and further define the pathogenesis of these conditions. These cross-disciplinary studies will contribute to our understanding of vertebrate growth regulation and help us understand how the human brain evolved. They may provide insights into neural stem cell division relevant to brain repair. Finally and not least, regulation of DNA replication, centrosome function and DNA damage response signalling are key cellular processes perturbed in many important human diseases, from developmental disorders to cancer.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 666 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-11-01, End date: 2018-07-31
Project acronym Hybrids
Project Hybrid Semiconductors: Design Principles and Material Applications
Researcher (PI) Aron Walsh
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BATH
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Materials chemistry is generally focused on inorganic or organic systems, and their combination is an emerging area with many exploratory experimental studies. Self-assembling hybrid organic-inorganic networks offer immense potential for functionalising material properties for a wide scope of applications including solar cells, solid-state lighting, gas sensors and transparent conductors. The flexibility of combining two distinct material classes into a single system provides an almost infinite number of chemical and structural possibilities, but there is currently no systematic approach established for designing new compositions and configurations that match the criteria required for technological applications, e.g. high chemical stability and low electrical resistivity.
Modern computational chemistry approaches enable the accurate prediction of the structural and electronic properties of materials at an atomistic scale. This project will apply state-of-the-art simulation techniques to: (i) Develop design principles for forming hybrid solids and tuning their physicochemical properties; (ii) Construct and characterise prototypal material systems tailored for technological applications.
The project will develop fundamental design rules for hybrid systems: the effects of functional groups and network dimensionality will be assessed in relation to the pertinent material properties. The rules can then be applied to construct prototypes for optoelectronic applications, with the candidates being tested through an established experimental collaboration. These challenging goals will require a combination of bulk, surface and excited-state calculations, using both classical and electronic structure simulation techniques, which draw directly from my previous experiences, and will utilise the existing high-performance computing infrastructure in the UK. The principal outcome of the project will be to enhance our understanding of this new field of materials science.
Summary
Materials chemistry is generally focused on inorganic or organic systems, and their combination is an emerging area with many exploratory experimental studies. Self-assembling hybrid organic-inorganic networks offer immense potential for functionalising material properties for a wide scope of applications including solar cells, solid-state lighting, gas sensors and transparent conductors. The flexibility of combining two distinct material classes into a single system provides an almost infinite number of chemical and structural possibilities, but there is currently no systematic approach established for designing new compositions and configurations that match the criteria required for technological applications, e.g. high chemical stability and low electrical resistivity.
Modern computational chemistry approaches enable the accurate prediction of the structural and electronic properties of materials at an atomistic scale. This project will apply state-of-the-art simulation techniques to: (i) Develop design principles for forming hybrid solids and tuning their physicochemical properties; (ii) Construct and characterise prototypal material systems tailored for technological applications.
The project will develop fundamental design rules for hybrid systems: the effects of functional groups and network dimensionality will be assessed in relation to the pertinent material properties. The rules can then be applied to construct prototypes for optoelectronic applications, with the candidates being tested through an established experimental collaboration. These challenging goals will require a combination of bulk, surface and excited-state calculations, using both classical and electronic structure simulation techniques, which draw directly from my previous experiences, and will utilise the existing high-performance computing infrastructure in the UK. The principal outcome of the project will be to enhance our understanding of this new field of materials science.
Max ERC Funding
996 374 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym HYPER
Project Hybrid Photovoltaic Energy Relays
Researcher (PI) Henry James Snaith
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells promise to be a major contributor to our future energy supply, and the current silicon and thin film photovoltaic industry is growing at a fast rate (25 to 80% pa). Despite this however, only 10 to 20 GW of the total 15TW global energy demand is met by PV generated power. The ramping up in production and affordable global uptake of solar energy requires a significant reduction in materials and manufacture costs and furthermore, a solar industry on the TW scale must be based on abundant and preferably non-toxic materials. The challenge facing the photovoltaic industry is cost effectiveness through much lower embodied energy. Plastic electronics and solution-processable inorganic semiconductors can revolutionise this industry due to their ease of processing (low embodied energy), but a significant increase in performance is required. To enable this jump in performance in a timely manner, incremental improvements and optimisations (evolutionary approaches) are unlikely to provide sufficiently rapid advances and a paradigm shift, such as that described in this project, is thus required. HYPER is lead by Henry Snaith, a prominent young scientist developing hybrid and organic based solar cells. The project will create a new series of hybrid solar cells, based on photoactive semiconductor nanocrystals and light absorbing polymer semiconductors. At the core of the research is the synthesis of new semiconductor and metallic nanostructures, combined with device development and advanced spectroscopic characterisation. The central operational principle to be developed is long range energy transfer of photoexcitons from the bulk of the semiconductors to the charge generating material interfaces, maximising charge generation in these thin film composites Combined with this, advanced photonic structuring of the photoactive layers, and the introduction of nano-plasmonic light harvesting components will represent a new paradigm for hybrid solar cells.
Summary
Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells promise to be a major contributor to our future energy supply, and the current silicon and thin film photovoltaic industry is growing at a fast rate (25 to 80% pa). Despite this however, only 10 to 20 GW of the total 15TW global energy demand is met by PV generated power. The ramping up in production and affordable global uptake of solar energy requires a significant reduction in materials and manufacture costs and furthermore, a solar industry on the TW scale must be based on abundant and preferably non-toxic materials. The challenge facing the photovoltaic industry is cost effectiveness through much lower embodied energy. Plastic electronics and solution-processable inorganic semiconductors can revolutionise this industry due to their ease of processing (low embodied energy), but a significant increase in performance is required. To enable this jump in performance in a timely manner, incremental improvements and optimisations (evolutionary approaches) are unlikely to provide sufficiently rapid advances and a paradigm shift, such as that described in this project, is thus required. HYPER is lead by Henry Snaith, a prominent young scientist developing hybrid and organic based solar cells. The project will create a new series of hybrid solar cells, based on photoactive semiconductor nanocrystals and light absorbing polymer semiconductors. At the core of the research is the synthesis of new semiconductor and metallic nanostructures, combined with device development and advanced spectroscopic characterisation. The central operational principle to be developed is long range energy transfer of photoexcitons from the bulk of the semiconductors to the charge generating material interfaces, maximising charge generation in these thin film composites Combined with this, advanced photonic structuring of the photoactive layers, and the introduction of nano-plasmonic light harvesting components will represent a new paradigm for hybrid solar cells.
Max ERC Funding
1 870 337 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym HYPERSINGLET
Project Hyperpolarized Singlet NMR
Researcher (PI) Malcolm Levitt
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the most widely used spectroscopic tool in the physical sciences. Techniques are now available that provide experimental access to hyperpolarized molecules, in which NMR signals are enhanced by up to 5 orders of magnitude, with potentially revolutionary implications. However, the lifetime of the hyperpolarized state is usually limited by the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time, called T1, and which is typically in the range of a few seconds to about 1 minute. The range of applications accessible to hyperpolarized NMR is restricted by the need to use the hyperpolarized substance within this short timescale. In this proposal, we aim to extend the lifetime of hyperpolarized substances by exploiting a phenomenon first described in our laboratory - namely the exceptional lifetime of nuclear singlet states. These are quantum superposition states of nuclear spin pairs which are protected against many common relaxation mechanisms, with experimentally demonstrated lifetimes of up to 25 minutes. We will (i) identify, design and synthesize substances that support nuclear spin states with especially long lifetimes; (ii) design and demonstrate methodology for hyperpolarizing long-lived nuclear singlet states; (iii) perform test-of-principle experiments showing enhanced NMR imaging of flow and diffusion using hyperpolarized nuclear singlet states, in contexts emulating those found in clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); (iv) design and demonstrate experiments and molecular systems that allow the hyperpolarized singlet order to be transformed into magnetization of strongly magnetic nuclei such as protons, with benefits to the signal strength and to the spatial resolution. In summary we will bridge the gap between the high promise of long-lived nuclear singlet states and the world of real applications, with an emphasis on demonstrating the feasibility of real-world in vivo NMR and MRI applications.
Summary
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is the most widely used spectroscopic tool in the physical sciences. Techniques are now available that provide experimental access to hyperpolarized molecules, in which NMR signals are enhanced by up to 5 orders of magnitude, with potentially revolutionary implications. However, the lifetime of the hyperpolarized state is usually limited by the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time, called T1, and which is typically in the range of a few seconds to about 1 minute. The range of applications accessible to hyperpolarized NMR is restricted by the need to use the hyperpolarized substance within this short timescale. In this proposal, we aim to extend the lifetime of hyperpolarized substances by exploiting a phenomenon first described in our laboratory - namely the exceptional lifetime of nuclear singlet states. These are quantum superposition states of nuclear spin pairs which are protected against many common relaxation mechanisms, with experimentally demonstrated lifetimes of up to 25 minutes. We will (i) identify, design and synthesize substances that support nuclear spin states with especially long lifetimes; (ii) design and demonstrate methodology for hyperpolarizing long-lived nuclear singlet states; (iii) perform test-of-principle experiments showing enhanced NMR imaging of flow and diffusion using hyperpolarized nuclear singlet states, in contexts emulating those found in clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); (iv) design and demonstrate experiments and molecular systems that allow the hyperpolarized singlet order to be transformed into magnetization of strongly magnetic nuclei such as protons, with benefits to the signal strength and to the spatial resolution. In summary we will bridge the gap between the high promise of long-lived nuclear singlet states and the world of real applications, with an emphasis on demonstrating the feasibility of real-world in vivo NMR and MRI applications.
Max ERC Funding
2 877 583 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2016-07-31
Project acronym IMCOLMAT
Project Impurities in Colloidal Materials - tuning the properties of crystals, powders and glasses
Researcher (PI) Roel Petrus Angela Dullens
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary We aim to establish an multidisciplinary research programme that is focussed on the underlying structural and dynamical processes which determine the intimate relation between impurities and material properties. We propose to exploit the advantages of colloidal model systems and study the impact of impurities on the structural and dynamical properties of crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous colloidal solids using a combination of state-of-the art fast confocal microscopy and three-dimensional holographic optical laser tweezers. We plan to achieve control over the subtle interplay between glass formation and crystallisation by the tuned addition of impurities. We envisage that our approach will not only offer a direct entry into key mechanisms like impurity drag, but will also allow us to directly and quantitatively measure the central forces at play such as the Zener pinning force. We also aim to study the glass transition from a completely new point of view by tuning the structure using impurities and subsequently ‘freezing-in’ part of the system using holographic optical tweezing. This approach could lead to the determination of a thermodynamic signature of the glass transition, which would put the glass transition in a completely new perspective. In addition, we will investigate the relation between the presence of impurities and the (micro)mechanical properties of doped colloidal materials using (micro)rheological techniques. This ambitious project opens up a huge range of exciting possibilities to gain deep and fundamental understanding of the relation between the (micro)mechanical properties of glasses, polycrystals and crystals and the presence of impurities; a prerequisiute for exploiting these effects in tailoring the properties of materials.
Summary
We aim to establish an multidisciplinary research programme that is focussed on the underlying structural and dynamical processes which determine the intimate relation between impurities and material properties. We propose to exploit the advantages of colloidal model systems and study the impact of impurities on the structural and dynamical properties of crystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous colloidal solids using a combination of state-of-the art fast confocal microscopy and three-dimensional holographic optical laser tweezers. We plan to achieve control over the subtle interplay between glass formation and crystallisation by the tuned addition of impurities. We envisage that our approach will not only offer a direct entry into key mechanisms like impurity drag, but will also allow us to directly and quantitatively measure the central forces at play such as the Zener pinning force. We also aim to study the glass transition from a completely new point of view by tuning the structure using impurities and subsequently ‘freezing-in’ part of the system using holographic optical tweezing. This approach could lead to the determination of a thermodynamic signature of the glass transition, which would put the glass transition in a completely new perspective. In addition, we will investigate the relation between the presence of impurities and the (micro)mechanical properties of doped colloidal materials using (micro)rheological techniques. This ambitious project opens up a huge range of exciting possibilities to gain deep and fundamental understanding of the relation between the (micro)mechanical properties of glasses, polycrystals and crystals and the presence of impurities; a prerequisiute for exploiting these effects in tailoring the properties of materials.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 979 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym INSITUNANO
Project In-situ metrology for the controlled growth and interfacing of nanomaterials
Researcher (PI) Stephan Hofmann
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This proposal will use novel in-situ metrology to probe the atomic level mechanisms that govern the growth and device behaviour of nanomaterials in realistic process environments. We focus on the catalytic chemical vapour deposition of carbon nanotubes, graphene, Si/Ge nanowires and related heterostructures. The application potential for these nanostructures is large, but currently limited by insufficient control of growth. We propose to use a range of complementary in-situ probes, including environmental transmission electron microscopy, high-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and in-situ Raman spectroscopy, to significantly advance the understanding of their growth mechanisms. We see these nanomaterials as model systems to advance the fundamental understanding of phase behaviour, nucleation and interface dynamics in nanoscale systems, which is the key to future materials design. Deeper insights into these phenomena are also crucial to understand the behaviour of nanomaterials under device operation conditions. We propose to address critical performance parameters of nano-structured Si-based anodes for Li ion batteries by in-situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and in-situ XRD methods under repeated Li cycling in an operational battery. We further propose to study the morphological origins of the collective adhesive and mechanical properties of carbon nanotube forests by in-situ scanning electron microscopy as basis for the design of biomimetic, functional dry adhesives and compliant interconnect structures.
Summary
This proposal will use novel in-situ metrology to probe the atomic level mechanisms that govern the growth and device behaviour of nanomaterials in realistic process environments. We focus on the catalytic chemical vapour deposition of carbon nanotubes, graphene, Si/Ge nanowires and related heterostructures. The application potential for these nanostructures is large, but currently limited by insufficient control of growth. We propose to use a range of complementary in-situ probes, including environmental transmission electron microscopy, high-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) and in-situ Raman spectroscopy, to significantly advance the understanding of their growth mechanisms. We see these nanomaterials as model systems to advance the fundamental understanding of phase behaviour, nucleation and interface dynamics in nanoscale systems, which is the key to future materials design. Deeper insights into these phenomena are also crucial to understand the behaviour of nanomaterials under device operation conditions. We propose to address critical performance parameters of nano-structured Si-based anodes for Li ion batteries by in-situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and in-situ XRD methods under repeated Li cycling in an operational battery. We further propose to study the morphological origins of the collective adhesive and mechanical properties of carbon nanotube forests by in-situ scanning electron microscopy as basis for the design of biomimetic, functional dry adhesives and compliant interconnect structures.
Max ERC Funding
1 367 834 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2016-11-30
Project acronym INTERACT
Project Interactive Systems Involving Multi-point Surfaces, Haptics and true-3D displays
Researcher (PI) Sriram Subramanian
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The grand challenge of this project is to 1) develop integrated multi-point surfaces that include multiple touch points, multiple haptic feedback on fingers (and tangible objects on the surface) and reconfigurable ‘true-3D’ content for a ‘walk-up and use’ scenario; 2) identify interaction design principles and visualization techniques to support users around such surfaces and 3) demonstrate the added value of this multi-point surface by integrating this within the workflow of stem-cell researchers to demonstrate that better visual and mechanical characterization of biological processes is achievable with our system.
The knowledge generated can be applied to a wide range of applications from entertainment and education to medical and life-sciences. For example, with our proposed system students can collaborate around an interactive table to feel plant textures and human organs while visualizing them in 3D while discussing with fellow students to allow for a very rich learning experience.
Summary
The grand challenge of this project is to 1) develop integrated multi-point surfaces that include multiple touch points, multiple haptic feedback on fingers (and tangible objects on the surface) and reconfigurable ‘true-3D’ content for a ‘walk-up and use’ scenario; 2) identify interaction design principles and visualization techniques to support users around such surfaces and 3) demonstrate the added value of this multi-point surface by integrating this within the workflow of stem-cell researchers to demonstrate that better visual and mechanical characterization of biological processes is achievable with our system.
The knowledge generated can be applied to a wide range of applications from entertainment and education to medical and life-sciences. For example, with our proposed system students can collaborate around an interactive table to feel plant textures and human organs while visualizing them in 3D while discussing with fellow students to allow for a very rich learning experience.
Max ERC Funding
1 419 636 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym INTERSOLAR
Project Rectifying interfaces for solar driven fuel synthesis
Researcher (PI) James Robert Durrant
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE5, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary There is rapidly growing interest in the science required to enable the conversion of solar energy into molecular fuels, motivated both by the need to develop a renewable, globally scalable transportation fuel strategy and the need to address the intermittency limitations of solar electrical power generation. Rapid progress is being made in the fabrication of inorganic, low cost, nanostructured photoelectrodes which utilise visible irradiation for such fuel syntheses, including water photolysis and CO2 photoreduction. However the efficiency of low cost photoelectrodes remains modest, due significantly to electron / hole recombination in the photoelectrode competing effectively with interfacial photochemistry. I propose to address this limitation by the use of multilayer interfaces designed to achieve enhanced uni-directional (i.e.: rectifying) charge separation, building directly from the extensive lessons I have learnt from my studies addressing an analogous challenge in dye sensitized solar cells. A key focus will be on the functionalisation of photoelectrodes with molecular and/or inorganic multi-electron catalysts to enhance the specificity and efficiency of the photoelectrode for fuel synthesis, exploiting recent, rapid advances in the syntheses of such catalysts. The use of rectifying interfaces is essential for the encorporation of such catalysts onto photoelectrodes, enabling the accumulation of multiple oxidations on the catalyst without this accumulation resulting in enhanced recombination losses. The proposal will undertake the assembly of such multilayer photoelectrodes, utlilising state of the art photoelectrode and catalyst materials, and the functional characterisation of these photoelectrodes, including measurement of interfacial electron transfer dynamics, with the aim of developing materials design rules which will enable systematic optimisation of photoelectrode function for efficient solar driven fuel synthesis.
Summary
There is rapidly growing interest in the science required to enable the conversion of solar energy into molecular fuels, motivated both by the need to develop a renewable, globally scalable transportation fuel strategy and the need to address the intermittency limitations of solar electrical power generation. Rapid progress is being made in the fabrication of inorganic, low cost, nanostructured photoelectrodes which utilise visible irradiation for such fuel syntheses, including water photolysis and CO2 photoreduction. However the efficiency of low cost photoelectrodes remains modest, due significantly to electron / hole recombination in the photoelectrode competing effectively with interfacial photochemistry. I propose to address this limitation by the use of multilayer interfaces designed to achieve enhanced uni-directional (i.e.: rectifying) charge separation, building directly from the extensive lessons I have learnt from my studies addressing an analogous challenge in dye sensitized solar cells. A key focus will be on the functionalisation of photoelectrodes with molecular and/or inorganic multi-electron catalysts to enhance the specificity and efficiency of the photoelectrode for fuel synthesis, exploiting recent, rapid advances in the syntheses of such catalysts. The use of rectifying interfaces is essential for the encorporation of such catalysts onto photoelectrodes, enabling the accumulation of multiple oxidations on the catalyst without this accumulation resulting in enhanced recombination losses. The proposal will undertake the assembly of such multilayer photoelectrodes, utlilising state of the art photoelectrode and catalyst materials, and the functional characterisation of these photoelectrodes, including measurement of interfacial electron transfer dynamics, with the aim of developing materials design rules which will enable systematic optimisation of photoelectrode function for efficient solar driven fuel synthesis.
Max ERC Funding
1 800 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2018-03-31
Project acronym ISMAGiC
Project Ice ages, Sea level, and Magmatism: Coupled oscillations
Researcher (PI) Richard Foa Katz
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary There is widespread recognition of the connectivity of different components of the Earth system, but many of these connections have not been studied. This is certainly true of connections between climate and the solid Earth. A thorough understanding of the climatic variations recorded in the geologic record cannot be obtained by studying climate in isolation from the solid Earth, and a complete understanding of the volcanic record requires consideration of the effects of climate variation. This is a proposal to investigate the coupling between climate and the solid Earth, and hence to better understand climate history and its impact on volcanism. The proposed work will use computational models of two-phase magma/mantle dynamics and petrology to explore links between glacial cycles and mid-ocean ridge volcanism. Glacial cycles redistribute water between the oceans and continents, changing sea level and hence varying the load on mid-ocean ridges. Melting beneath ridges responds to pressure changes, and should produce observable variation in crustal thickness and concentration of incompatible elements. Carbon dioxide is one such incompatible element, and pressure-induced variations in out-gassing rate from the mid-ocean ridge system to the climate system may provide the negative feedback that gives rise to glacial oscillations. The plausibility of this hypothesis depends on details of the response functions of the coupled systems. The proposed research group will develop a set of independent but synergistic projects that employ computational simulation to assess these responses, make testable geochemical and geophysical predictions, and validate models against observational data. This investigation has the potential to transform our understanding of mid-ocean ridge volcanism and of Quaternary ice ages.
Summary
There is widespread recognition of the connectivity of different components of the Earth system, but many of these connections have not been studied. This is certainly true of connections between climate and the solid Earth. A thorough understanding of the climatic variations recorded in the geologic record cannot be obtained by studying climate in isolation from the solid Earth, and a complete understanding of the volcanic record requires consideration of the effects of climate variation. This is a proposal to investigate the coupling between climate and the solid Earth, and hence to better understand climate history and its impact on volcanism. The proposed work will use computational models of two-phase magma/mantle dynamics and petrology to explore links between glacial cycles and mid-ocean ridge volcanism. Glacial cycles redistribute water between the oceans and continents, changing sea level and hence varying the load on mid-ocean ridges. Melting beneath ridges responds to pressure changes, and should produce observable variation in crustal thickness and concentration of incompatible elements. Carbon dioxide is one such incompatible element, and pressure-induced variations in out-gassing rate from the mid-ocean ridge system to the climate system may provide the negative feedback that gives rise to glacial oscillations. The plausibility of this hypothesis depends on details of the response functions of the coupled systems. The proposed research group will develop a set of independent but synergistic projects that employ computational simulation to assess these responses, make testable geochemical and geophysical predictions, and validate models against observational data. This investigation has the potential to transform our understanding of mid-ocean ridge volcanism and of Quaternary ice ages.
Max ERC Funding
1 358 793 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym KNOWING_EACH_OTHER
Project Knowing each other: everyday religious encounters, social identities and tolerance in southwest Nigeria
Researcher (PI) (Margrit) Insa Nolte
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary This research investigates the role of religious difference and encounter by focusing on the multi-religious and notably tolerant Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria. Drawing on a large-scale ethnographic survey on the everyday lives of Muslims, Christians and traditionalists as well as field and archival work produced and collected by a Nigerian/UK-based research team under my leadership, the proposed research will explore the importance of religious difference for the constitution of important social identities as well as the establishment of practices of tolerance in one of Africa’s largest ethnic groups (more than 30 million Yoruba speakers). Through its Yoruba case study, the planned programme maps out the new field of ‘everyday religious encounter’. It will do so by
(1) determining the incidence of bi- and multi-religious constellations including Muslims, Christians and traditionalists in contemporary marriages, families/ lineages, and in other contexts,
(2) exploring the way in which religious differences and encounters structure the experiences, perceptions and behaviours of Yoruba individuals in their everyday social identities as men and women as well as members of different generations, and through life and family histories,
(3) reflecting on the way in which the attitudes and practices of everyday life contribute to the high level of religious tolerance among adherents of different religions in Yorubaland,
(4) developing, and refining in comparative debates, an understanding of the broader issues and theoretical relationships between the constitution of social identities and religious tolerance, and
(5) initiating a paradigm shift in the theoretical and practical understanding of religious tolerance, both in Nigeria and in other countries in which religious difference is politicised, including Europe.
Summary
This research investigates the role of religious difference and encounter by focusing on the multi-religious and notably tolerant Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria. Drawing on a large-scale ethnographic survey on the everyday lives of Muslims, Christians and traditionalists as well as field and archival work produced and collected by a Nigerian/UK-based research team under my leadership, the proposed research will explore the importance of religious difference for the constitution of important social identities as well as the establishment of practices of tolerance in one of Africa’s largest ethnic groups (more than 30 million Yoruba speakers). Through its Yoruba case study, the planned programme maps out the new field of ‘everyday religious encounter’. It will do so by
(1) determining the incidence of bi- and multi-religious constellations including Muslims, Christians and traditionalists in contemporary marriages, families/ lineages, and in other contexts,
(2) exploring the way in which religious differences and encounters structure the experiences, perceptions and behaviours of Yoruba individuals in their everyday social identities as men and women as well as members of different generations, and through life and family histories,
(3) reflecting on the way in which the attitudes and practices of everyday life contribute to the high level of religious tolerance among adherents of different religions in Yorubaland,
(4) developing, and refining in comparative debates, an understanding of the broader issues and theoretical relationships between the constitution of social identities and religious tolerance, and
(5) initiating a paradigm shift in the theoretical and practical understanding of religious tolerance, both in Nigeria and in other countries in which religious difference is politicised, including Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 520 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-07-31
Project acronym LOCALSTAR
Project Modelling star formation in the local universe
Researcher (PI) Clare Dobbs
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE9, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The goal of this proposal is to revolutionize our understanding of star formation in nearby galaxies, using numerical simulations. Traditionally, research in star formation has considered the contraction of a giant molecular cloud (GMC), or more commonly a star forming core, under gravity. However there has been relatively little research on molecular clouds themselves, even though they provide the initial conditions for star formation, and thus determine the main assumptions for theories of star formation. The proposed research will focus on the scales of giant molecular clouds, the clouds of molecular hydrogen (H2) where most star formation takes place in nearby galaxies. These objects link galactic scale physics with the small scale physics of star formation. Only now are the computational resources becoming available to study the interstellar medium (ISM) numerically on galactic scales, and model the complex processes involved in GMC and star formation. Simultaneously observational programs (e.g. ALMA, Herschel, CARMA) are starting to resolve GMCs in nearby galaxies. Our research will involve performing calculations on scales from individual GMCs to interacting galaxies, and comparing to forthcoming observations to answer some of the most fundamental questions in star formation, such as why star formation is inefficient, how do GMCs form and what are their lifetimes.
Summary
The goal of this proposal is to revolutionize our understanding of star formation in nearby galaxies, using numerical simulations. Traditionally, research in star formation has considered the contraction of a giant molecular cloud (GMC), or more commonly a star forming core, under gravity. However there has been relatively little research on molecular clouds themselves, even though they provide the initial conditions for star formation, and thus determine the main assumptions for theories of star formation. The proposed research will focus on the scales of giant molecular clouds, the clouds of molecular hydrogen (H2) where most star formation takes place in nearby galaxies. These objects link galactic scale physics with the small scale physics of star formation. Only now are the computational resources becoming available to study the interstellar medium (ISM) numerically on galactic scales, and model the complex processes involved in GMC and star formation. Simultaneously observational programs (e.g. ALMA, Herschel, CARMA) are starting to resolve GMCs in nearby galaxies. Our research will involve performing calculations on scales from individual GMCs to interacting galaxies, and comparing to forthcoming observations to answer some of the most fundamental questions in star formation, such as why star formation is inefficient, how do GMCs form and what are their lifetimes.
Max ERC Funding
1 169 586 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym LocalStructure
Project Local Structure of Sets, Measures and Currents
Researcher (PI) David Preiss
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary The objective of this research proposal is to develop new methods to answer a number of fundamental questions generated by the recent development of modern analysis. The questions we are interested in are specifically related to the study of local structure of sets and functions in the classical Euclidean setting, in infinite dimensional Banach spaces and in the modern setting of analysis on metric spaces. The main areas of study will be:
(a) Structure of null sets and representation of (singular) measures, one of the key motivations being the differentiability of Lipschitz functions in finite dimensional spaces.
(b) Nonlinear geometric functional analysis, with particular attention to the differentiability of Lipschitz functions in infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces and Banach spaces with separable dual.
(c) Foundations of analysis on metric spaces, the key problems here being representation results for Lipschitz differentiability spaces and spaces satisfying the Poincar\'e inequality.
(d) Uniqueness of tangent structure in various settings, where the ultimate goal is to contribute to the fundamental problem whether minimal surfaces (in their geometric measure theoretic model as area minimizing integral currents) have a unique behaviour close to any point.
Summary
The objective of this research proposal is to develop new methods to answer a number of fundamental questions generated by the recent development of modern analysis. The questions we are interested in are specifically related to the study of local structure of sets and functions in the classical Euclidean setting, in infinite dimensional Banach spaces and in the modern setting of analysis on metric spaces. The main areas of study will be:
(a) Structure of null sets and representation of (singular) measures, one of the key motivations being the differentiability of Lipschitz functions in finite dimensional spaces.
(b) Nonlinear geometric functional analysis, with particular attention to the differentiability of Lipschitz functions in infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces and Banach spaces with separable dual.
(c) Foundations of analysis on metric spaces, the key problems here being representation results for Lipschitz differentiability spaces and spaces satisfying the Poincar\'e inequality.
(d) Uniqueness of tangent structure in various settings, where the ultimate goal is to contribute to the fundamental problem whether minimal surfaces (in their geometric measure theoretic model as area minimizing integral currents) have a unique behaviour close to any point.
Max ERC Funding
2 068 147 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym MACONS
Project A multi-microscopy approach to the characterisation of Nitride semiconductors (MACONS)
Researcher (PI) Rachel Angharad Oliver
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "The commercial market for electronic and optoelectronic devices based on nitride semiconductors is growing extremely fast, but the fundamental science underlying these devices is lagging behind. This proposal aims to explore the vital link between structure and properties in nitride materials, in order to reveal the limitations of current devices and to pave the way for new, improved technology. The key strategy of the proposal is to combine multiple microscopy techniques to develop a comprehensive understanding of nanostructures and defects in the nitrides, and to link these discoveries to nanoscale measurements of the optical and electrical properties. This will require a synergy of different techniques, from techniques commonly used on metals (such as atom-probe tomography) to techniques which focus exclusively on semiconductors (such as scanning capacitance microscopy). It will also require the development of new approaches to the application of these techniques, to allow the same nanoscale regions of material to be assessed in multiple microscopes, so that the structure and composition of a specific nanostructure may be linked directly and unambiguously to its electrical and optical properties. Overall, the aim is to provide a much more complete picture of nitride materials science than has ever previously been achieved, and to apply this new understanding to engineering improved materials for nitride optoelectronic devices."
Summary
"The commercial market for electronic and optoelectronic devices based on nitride semiconductors is growing extremely fast, but the fundamental science underlying these devices is lagging behind. This proposal aims to explore the vital link between structure and properties in nitride materials, in order to reveal the limitations of current devices and to pave the way for new, improved technology. The key strategy of the proposal is to combine multiple microscopy techniques to develop a comprehensive understanding of nanostructures and defects in the nitrides, and to link these discoveries to nanoscale measurements of the optical and electrical properties. This will require a synergy of different techniques, from techniques commonly used on metals (such as atom-probe tomography) to techniques which focus exclusively on semiconductors (such as scanning capacitance microscopy). It will also require the development of new approaches to the application of these techniques, to allow the same nanoscale regions of material to be assessed in multiple microscopes, so that the structure and composition of a specific nanostructure may be linked directly and unambiguously to its electrical and optical properties. Overall, the aim is to provide a much more complete picture of nitride materials science than has ever previously been achieved, and to apply this new understanding to engineering improved materials for nitride optoelectronic devices."
Max ERC Funding
1 371 894 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2017-08-31
Project acronym MAINCHEM
Project Non-Classical Main Group Chemistry; Supramolecular Chemistry and Catalysis
Researcher (PI) Dominic Wright
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE5, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary The classical view of the periodic table suggests, in particular, that there are distinct boundaries between the chemistries of s-block, p-block and d-block elements stemming from the availability and type of valence orbitals present and fundamental properties such as electronegativity. Yet this long-excepted, text-book view can provide a barrier to progress in a number of key chemical areas because it prevents us thinking about the true picture, that there is more commonly a continuum of structural and reactivity properties which overlap large segments of the periodic table. This proposal seeks to move through these barriers by establishing fundamental and practical applications of p-block element chemistry in supramolecular chemistry (the classical domain of carbon chemistry) and catalysis (the classical domain of transition metals).The broad theme of the proposed project is to study non-classical aspects of main group chemistry. This takes the form of two major components which span the non-metallic and metallic areas of the p-block, (i) the development of systematic approaches for the building of macromolecular inorganic systems and their application in host-guest, gas storage and separation, and (ii) the applications of p-block metals in a broad spectrum of stoichiometric and catalytic bond-forming reactions.
Summary
The classical view of the periodic table suggests, in particular, that there are distinct boundaries between the chemistries of s-block, p-block and d-block elements stemming from the availability and type of valence orbitals present and fundamental properties such as electronegativity. Yet this long-excepted, text-book view can provide a barrier to progress in a number of key chemical areas because it prevents us thinking about the true picture, that there is more commonly a continuum of structural and reactivity properties which overlap large segments of the periodic table. This proposal seeks to move through these barriers by establishing fundamental and practical applications of p-block element chemistry in supramolecular chemistry (the classical domain of carbon chemistry) and catalysis (the classical domain of transition metals).The broad theme of the proposed project is to study non-classical aspects of main group chemistry. This takes the form of two major components which span the non-metallic and metallic areas of the p-block, (i) the development of systematic approaches for the building of macromolecular inorganic systems and their application in host-guest, gas storage and separation, and (ii) the applications of p-block metals in a broad spectrum of stoichiometric and catalytic bond-forming reactions.
Max ERC Funding
1 485 429 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym MAKEITSIMPLE
Project Make it simple: towards a new era for organic synthesis
Researcher (PI) Igor Larrosa Guerrero
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Organic synthesis has undeniably made tremendous progress over the past two centuries. Nevertheless, our ability to efficiently synthesise molecules is mostly limited to targets of low structural complexity. Traditional synthetic strategies require the presence of reactive functional groups that are used as handles for further functionalisation. This requirement is one of the factors dramatically enhancing the difficulty of syntheses. The last two decades have seen the emergence of a more straightforward alternative: the direct functionalisation of C-H bonds. Through this strategy the typically inert C-H bonds, ubiquitous in organic molecules, can be activated by transition metal catalysts and subsequently functionalised. This approach has allowed us to dream of a future where any organic molecule could be synthesised in a direct manner by simply replacing the C-H bonds of a substrate with the required functionalities, as if building a ball-and-stick molecular model with our hands. The development of a full set of C-H functionalisation methodologies will impact on all applied areas, such as the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and new materials. Furthermore, their atom efficiency and low waste generation ensures a privileged position among the green chemistry methods.
For this strategy to succeed, numerous challenges are still to be overcome. In this research proposal we aim at addressing one of them: the C-H functionalisation of aromatic compounds. We will build up a toolkit of complementary methodologies to functionalise aromatic C-H bonds under mild conditions (energy efficient), with broad functional group tolerance (general), and with absolute control of the regioselectivity. By the end of the five years we aim to have developed a robust general methodology allowing the coupling of any two arenes via double C-H bond activation.
Summary
Organic synthesis has undeniably made tremendous progress over the past two centuries. Nevertheless, our ability to efficiently synthesise molecules is mostly limited to targets of low structural complexity. Traditional synthetic strategies require the presence of reactive functional groups that are used as handles for further functionalisation. This requirement is one of the factors dramatically enhancing the difficulty of syntheses. The last two decades have seen the emergence of a more straightforward alternative: the direct functionalisation of C-H bonds. Through this strategy the typically inert C-H bonds, ubiquitous in organic molecules, can be activated by transition metal catalysts and subsequently functionalised. This approach has allowed us to dream of a future where any organic molecule could be synthesised in a direct manner by simply replacing the C-H bonds of a substrate with the required functionalities, as if building a ball-and-stick molecular model with our hands. The development of a full set of C-H functionalisation methodologies will impact on all applied areas, such as the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and new materials. Furthermore, their atom efficiency and low waste generation ensures a privileged position among the green chemistry methods.
For this strategy to succeed, numerous challenges are still to be overcome. In this research proposal we aim at addressing one of them: the C-H functionalisation of aromatic compounds. We will build up a toolkit of complementary methodologies to functionalise aromatic C-H bonds under mild conditions (energy efficient), with broad functional group tolerance (general), and with absolute control of the regioselectivity. By the end of the five years we aim to have developed a robust general methodology allowing the coupling of any two arenes via double C-H bond activation.
Max ERC Funding
1 493 855 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym MASE
Project Modelling the Archaean Subduction Environment
Researcher (PI) Jeroen Van Hunen
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Today, subduction dominates the Earth’s appearance: it drives plate tectonics, and plays a dominant role in continental crust formation. If and how subduction operated 2.5-4 billion years ago, in the Archaean, is debated, primarily on the basis of the sparse Archaean geological record. It seems likely that some form of subduction occurred at least by the late Archaean, but may well have looked different from today’s. A proper understanding of this Archaean ‘subduction’ is essential, since so many processes are likely to depend on it.
Observations of the geological (mostly isotope-geochemical) record have provided an invaluable window to peer into the Archaean world. But inferred Archaean geodynamics from these observations are non-unique. Various models fit the same data within uncertainty, and often lack a firm physical basis. To overcome these shortcomings, I propose a novel, forward approach of predicting synthetic geochemical fingerprints from numerical, geodynamically consistent physical models, and comparing those with geochemical observations. This will be used to constrain and better understand the two most pressing questions in Earth sciences: How did plate tectonics evolve, and how did continents form? In particular, this project aims to:
1) assess quantitatively the geodynamical and geochemical viability of intermittent plate tectonics;
2) test the various proposed models for the formation of Archaean continental crust;
Comparison of calculated synthetic geochemistry (e.g. Re-Os data, rare-Earth element data) from geodynamical models with available datasets will provide powerful diagnostics to distinguish viable models.
In addition, this work will also directly relevant for the evolution of the Earth’s surface, and to the differences with the other terrestrial planets. Finally, there are potential economic benefits, since the world’s largest mineral deposits (e.g. gold) occur in Archaean terrains and have been associated to subduction."
Summary
"Today, subduction dominates the Earth’s appearance: it drives plate tectonics, and plays a dominant role in continental crust formation. If and how subduction operated 2.5-4 billion years ago, in the Archaean, is debated, primarily on the basis of the sparse Archaean geological record. It seems likely that some form of subduction occurred at least by the late Archaean, but may well have looked different from today’s. A proper understanding of this Archaean ‘subduction’ is essential, since so many processes are likely to depend on it.
Observations of the geological (mostly isotope-geochemical) record have provided an invaluable window to peer into the Archaean world. But inferred Archaean geodynamics from these observations are non-unique. Various models fit the same data within uncertainty, and often lack a firm physical basis. To overcome these shortcomings, I propose a novel, forward approach of predicting synthetic geochemical fingerprints from numerical, geodynamically consistent physical models, and comparing those with geochemical observations. This will be used to constrain and better understand the two most pressing questions in Earth sciences: How did plate tectonics evolve, and how did continents form? In particular, this project aims to:
1) assess quantitatively the geodynamical and geochemical viability of intermittent plate tectonics;
2) test the various proposed models for the formation of Archaean continental crust;
Comparison of calculated synthetic geochemistry (e.g. Re-Os data, rare-Earth element data) from geodynamical models with available datasets will provide powerful diagnostics to distinguish viable models.
In addition, this work will also directly relevant for the evolution of the Earth’s surface, and to the differences with the other terrestrial planets. Finally, there are potential economic benefits, since the world’s largest mineral deposits (e.g. gold) occur in Archaean terrains and have been associated to subduction."
Max ERC Funding
1 490 738 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym MATKIT
Project Mathematical Aspects of Kinetic Theory
Researcher (PI) Clément Mouhot
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "The main goal of the project is to reach a better mathematical understanding of the (integro)-partial differential equations from kinetic theory, in particular their qualitative and asymptotic behavior, derivation from many particle systems, and singular limits. Although various evolution problems from physics shall be considered, the paradigmatic ones are the Boltzmann equation for gas dynamics and the Vlasov-Poisson equation for plasmas and galactic dynamics.
The methodology is focused on the developement of conceptual tools and mathematical techniques. It shall put therefore the emphasize on the structures common to several problems, with a view to their possible application to other fields of mathematical analysis. The methodology is also characterized by the search, whenever possible, of constructive quantitative methods of proofs, and by the attention payed to the qualitative meaning of the mathematical results obtained for physics.
The tasks related to the general goal of the project are organized into the following four parts:
I. Space-independent kinetic equations for describing microscopic interactions (Cauchy problem for long-ranged interactions, granular gases and self-similarity).
II. Transport equations and phase mixing (Landau damping for Vlasov equations, inviscid damping for 2-dimensional incompressible fluids).
III. How transport and collisions mix: hypocoercivity (spectral and stability analysis of hypocoercive collisional operators according to the local equilibrium space and the geometry of confinement).
IV. Derivation of kinetic equations (mean-field and Boltzmann-Grad limits by semigroup approach).
I have been involved in many recent progresses related to these aspects and I aim at constructing a team around me in order to achieve these tasks and objectives. Kinetic theory is developing a growing rate, and the construction of such a team in Europe would be timely."
Summary
"The main goal of the project is to reach a better mathematical understanding of the (integro)-partial differential equations from kinetic theory, in particular their qualitative and asymptotic behavior, derivation from many particle systems, and singular limits. Although various evolution problems from physics shall be considered, the paradigmatic ones are the Boltzmann equation for gas dynamics and the Vlasov-Poisson equation for plasmas and galactic dynamics.
The methodology is focused on the developement of conceptual tools and mathematical techniques. It shall put therefore the emphasize on the structures common to several problems, with a view to their possible application to other fields of mathematical analysis. The methodology is also characterized by the search, whenever possible, of constructive quantitative methods of proofs, and by the attention payed to the qualitative meaning of the mathematical results obtained for physics.
The tasks related to the general goal of the project are organized into the following four parts:
I. Space-independent kinetic equations for describing microscopic interactions (Cauchy problem for long-ranged interactions, granular gases and self-similarity).
II. Transport equations and phase mixing (Landau damping for Vlasov equations, inviscid damping for 2-dimensional incompressible fluids).
III. How transport and collisions mix: hypocoercivity (spectral and stability analysis of hypocoercive collisional operators according to the local equilibrium space and the geometry of confinement).
IV. Derivation of kinetic equations (mean-field and Boltzmann-Grad limits by semigroup approach).
I have been involved in many recent progresses related to these aspects and I aim at constructing a team around me in order to achieve these tasks and objectives. Kinetic theory is developing a growing rate, and the construction of such a team in Europe would be timely."
Max ERC Funding
1 150 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-09-01, End date: 2016-08-31
Project acronym MEViC
Project Molecular engineering of virus-like carriers
Researcher (PI) Giuseppe Battaglia
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary In the last 5 years I have been working on the study of nanoscopic vesicles formed by the assembly in water of amphiphilic block copolymers. These polymer vesicles also known as polymersomes can be designed with size, topology and morphology similar to natural viruses. The synthetic nature of copolymers allows the design of interfaces with various classes of biochemically-active functional groups. This, in combination with precise control over the molecular architecture, determines the degree of order in self-organizing polymeric materials. Such bio-inspired ‘bottom-up’ supramolecular design principles can offer outstanding advantages in engineering structures at a molecular level, using the same long–studied principles of biological molecules. It is self-evident that the highly biocompatible nature of these new amphiphilic copolymer assemblies augurs well for biomedical applications. Indeed, related polymeric micelles and vesicles have already been reported and studied as delivery systems for drugs, gene, and image contrast agents. Herein I propose to engineer new generations of polymersomes whose size, topology, surface chemistry is exquisitely controlled by supramolecular interactions with the aim to control their bioactivity and explore new ways to target specific biological sites via multi-fictionalisation and steric controlled binding. This will be achieved by a balanced combination of novel physico-chemical techniques with tailor-made biological evaluation based on state-of-the-art cell culture methods as well as in vitro and in vivo high content screening. My long-term aim is to set-up new design principles for nanoparticles for biomedical applications together with a thorough biomedical fast screening that will enable safe and fast translation into the clinic as well as benchmarking nanotoxicological methodologies.
Summary
In the last 5 years I have been working on the study of nanoscopic vesicles formed by the assembly in water of amphiphilic block copolymers. These polymer vesicles also known as polymersomes can be designed with size, topology and morphology similar to natural viruses. The synthetic nature of copolymers allows the design of interfaces with various classes of biochemically-active functional groups. This, in combination with precise control over the molecular architecture, determines the degree of order in self-organizing polymeric materials. Such bio-inspired ‘bottom-up’ supramolecular design principles can offer outstanding advantages in engineering structures at a molecular level, using the same long–studied principles of biological molecules. It is self-evident that the highly biocompatible nature of these new amphiphilic copolymer assemblies augurs well for biomedical applications. Indeed, related polymeric micelles and vesicles have already been reported and studied as delivery systems for drugs, gene, and image contrast agents. Herein I propose to engineer new generations of polymersomes whose size, topology, surface chemistry is exquisitely controlled by supramolecular interactions with the aim to control their bioactivity and explore new ways to target specific biological sites via multi-fictionalisation and steric controlled binding. This will be achieved by a balanced combination of novel physico-chemical techniques with tailor-made biological evaluation based on state-of-the-art cell culture methods as well as in vitro and in vivo high content screening. My long-term aim is to set-up new design principles for nanoparticles for biomedical applications together with a thorough biomedical fast screening that will enable safe and fast translation into the clinic as well as benchmarking nanotoxicological methodologies.
Max ERC Funding
1 643 736 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym MiCE
Project Microflow in Complex Environments
Researcher (PI) Julia Mary Yeomans
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE3, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary We will study the way in which the hydrodynamics of simple, complex and active fluids is affected by their environment, in particular by patterned surfaces and by confinement. We shall concentrate on micron and nanometric length scales where surfaces are often key in controlling fluid behaviour. The work is driven by current rapid and exciting advances in fabricating micropatterned substrates and by new experimental techniques probing the flow properties of fluids at these scales. Our work will be primarily computational and theoretical, but with an experimental component within Oxford, and with close experimental links to several groups internationally.
The systems we will concentrate on are:
1. simple fluids at micropatterned substrates: We aim to understand interface pinning, particularly on anisotropic surfaces, and superhydrophobic hydrodynamics. The knowledge will be used to help design devices, such as displays and condensers that exploit fluid-surface interactions at the mesoscale.
2. complex fluids in confinement and at patterned substrates: We shall concentrate on the f-d virus as a highly monodisperse system of colloidal rods which shows lyotropic liquid crystalline ordering. A close collaboration between experiment and simulation will investigate the interplay between elasticity, surface anchoring, flow, topological defects and interface instabilities.
3. active fluids at surfaces: Our aim is to understand low Reynolds number swimming in the vicinity of rough surfaces and in confined systems such as microchannels and fluid drops. Microswimmers provide an experimentally and theoretically accessible example of non-equilibrium statistical physics and have a range of striking behaviours, including clustering, low Reynolds number turbulence and anomalous flow field statistics, that remain exciting challenges.
Summary
We will study the way in which the hydrodynamics of simple, complex and active fluids is affected by their environment, in particular by patterned surfaces and by confinement. We shall concentrate on micron and nanometric length scales where surfaces are often key in controlling fluid behaviour. The work is driven by current rapid and exciting advances in fabricating micropatterned substrates and by new experimental techniques probing the flow properties of fluids at these scales. Our work will be primarily computational and theoretical, but with an experimental component within Oxford, and with close experimental links to several groups internationally.
The systems we will concentrate on are:
1. simple fluids at micropatterned substrates: We aim to understand interface pinning, particularly on anisotropic surfaces, and superhydrophobic hydrodynamics. The knowledge will be used to help design devices, such as displays and condensers that exploit fluid-surface interactions at the mesoscale.
2. complex fluids in confinement and at patterned substrates: We shall concentrate on the f-d virus as a highly monodisperse system of colloidal rods which shows lyotropic liquid crystalline ordering. A close collaboration between experiment and simulation will investigate the interplay between elasticity, surface anchoring, flow, topological defects and interface instabilities.
3. active fluids at surfaces: Our aim is to understand low Reynolds number swimming in the vicinity of rough surfaces and in confined systems such as microchannels and fluid drops. Microswimmers provide an experimentally and theoretically accessible example of non-equilibrium statistical physics and have a range of striking behaviours, including clustering, low Reynolds number turbulence and anomalous flow field statistics, that remain exciting challenges.
Max ERC Funding
1 583 887 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym MIXMETAPPS
Project Tailoring Mixed-Metal Chemistry for Frontier Synthetic and Catalytic Applications
Researcher (PI) Eva Hevia
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Designed to meet many of the colossal challenges facing synthetic and organometallic chemists as demanded by current societal, environmental and economic issues, this project will accelerate the development of a innovative mixed-metal chemistry, which combines two metals with markedly different polarities in the same molecule. Initially polar Mg and non-polar Zn “hybrids” will be developed followed by other metal pairs. These hybrids will exhibit a unique chemistry distinct to those of their parent monometallic compounds. Building on our recent pioneering work in this area (PNAS 2010, JACS 2010) that uses a tried and tested metal-structural-inorganic approach that allows rationale design of tailor-made mixed-metal reagents, this novel and ambitious research programme will deliver new chemo- and regioselective organobimetallic reagents designed as transformational tools for a broad spectrum of fundamentally important chemical reactions (deprotonation, metal-halogen exchange, alkylation, reduction, electrophilic amination, cross-couplings, etc), used every day in academia and industry. Catalytic, using cheap environmentally benign inorganic salts as catalysts, as well as stoichiometric advances will be made. Mixed-metal reagents will also be pioneered in Green Chemistry, by screening their reactivity using green solvents (e.g., 2-methyltetrahydrofuran) and ultimately, the holy grail, using water, which would inspire a synthetic revolution. Bulky ligand supported mixed-metal reagents will be constructed to activate organic heterocyclic molecules towards novel cascade reactions. Incorporating transition metals and lanthanides to this hybrid methodology will expand even more their opportunities in synthesis towards the development of hybrid catalysts for cross-coupling reactions as an alternative to expensive Pd and Ni methodologies. The award of an ERC Starting Grant will help the PI to consolidate her research team and propel her to an internationally-leading status.
Summary
Designed to meet many of the colossal challenges facing synthetic and organometallic chemists as demanded by current societal, environmental and economic issues, this project will accelerate the development of a innovative mixed-metal chemistry, which combines two metals with markedly different polarities in the same molecule. Initially polar Mg and non-polar Zn “hybrids” will be developed followed by other metal pairs. These hybrids will exhibit a unique chemistry distinct to those of their parent monometallic compounds. Building on our recent pioneering work in this area (PNAS 2010, JACS 2010) that uses a tried and tested metal-structural-inorganic approach that allows rationale design of tailor-made mixed-metal reagents, this novel and ambitious research programme will deliver new chemo- and regioselective organobimetallic reagents designed as transformational tools for a broad spectrum of fundamentally important chemical reactions (deprotonation, metal-halogen exchange, alkylation, reduction, electrophilic amination, cross-couplings, etc), used every day in academia and industry. Catalytic, using cheap environmentally benign inorganic salts as catalysts, as well as stoichiometric advances will be made. Mixed-metal reagents will also be pioneered in Green Chemistry, by screening their reactivity using green solvents (e.g., 2-methyltetrahydrofuran) and ultimately, the holy grail, using water, which would inspire a synthetic revolution. Bulky ligand supported mixed-metal reagents will be constructed to activate organic heterocyclic molecules towards novel cascade reactions. Incorporating transition metals and lanthanides to this hybrid methodology will expand even more their opportunities in synthesis towards the development of hybrid catalysts for cross-coupling reactions as an alternative to expensive Pd and Ni methodologies. The award of an ERC Starting Grant will help the PI to consolidate her research team and propel her to an internationally-leading status.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 180 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym MOLTENEARTH
Project Fluid Silicates at Extreme Conditions and the Magma Ocean
Researcher (PI) Lars Peter Stixrude
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary Partial melting of silicates dominates the chemical evolution of Earth today and was even more important in Earth’s earlier history. The Earth may have begun in a completely molten state, a global magma ocean, with silicate liquid extending from a dense silicate atmosphere to the boundary with the iron-rich core at a pressure of 140 GPa. Deep melt may exist in the Earth today, and the magma ocean may have left signatures of its presence. However, these signals are still uninterpretable because of a lack of basic knowledge of the behavior of fluid silicates at extreme conditions: very little is known of the physics and chemistry of fluid silicates beyond the conditions of ongoing shallow magma genesis (<3 GPa). We propose to solve this problem by constructing a comprehensive thermodynamic model (HeFESTo) of multi-component silicate melting, vaporization, and reaction with iron, and the physical properties of liquid and vapor phases over the entire pressure-temperature range relevant to Earth, including impacts and early Earth processes. To help constrain the thermodynamic model, we will perform new first principles quantum mechanical simulations in the range of pressure, temperature, composition relevant to the early Earth that have not yet been explored by experiment or theory. Simulations will include key homogeneous and heterogeneous systems of fluid silicates in liquid, vapor, supercritical, and solid forms, including simulations of pure phases, and phase coexistence. We expect HeFESTo to change our views of magma ocean evolution and lead to new scenarios of Earth’s earliest evolution. What these scenarios might be is impossible to predict as they will be shaped by still unknown aspects of the physics and chemistry of silicate liquids at extreme conditions, which the MoltenEarth project aims to discover.
Summary
Partial melting of silicates dominates the chemical evolution of Earth today and was even more important in Earth’s earlier history. The Earth may have begun in a completely molten state, a global magma ocean, with silicate liquid extending from a dense silicate atmosphere to the boundary with the iron-rich core at a pressure of 140 GPa. Deep melt may exist in the Earth today, and the magma ocean may have left signatures of its presence. However, these signals are still uninterpretable because of a lack of basic knowledge of the behavior of fluid silicates at extreme conditions: very little is known of the physics and chemistry of fluid silicates beyond the conditions of ongoing shallow magma genesis (<3 GPa). We propose to solve this problem by constructing a comprehensive thermodynamic model (HeFESTo) of multi-component silicate melting, vaporization, and reaction with iron, and the physical properties of liquid and vapor phases over the entire pressure-temperature range relevant to Earth, including impacts and early Earth processes. To help constrain the thermodynamic model, we will perform new first principles quantum mechanical simulations in the range of pressure, temperature, composition relevant to the early Earth that have not yet been explored by experiment or theory. Simulations will include key homogeneous and heterogeneous systems of fluid silicates in liquid, vapor, supercritical, and solid forms, including simulations of pure phases, and phase coexistence. We expect HeFESTo to change our views of magma ocean evolution and lead to new scenarios of Earth’s earliest evolution. What these scenarios might be is impossible to predict as they will be shaped by still unknown aspects of the physics and chemistry of silicate liquids at extreme conditions, which the MoltenEarth project aims to discover.
Max ERC Funding
2 498 891 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2018-01-31
Project acronym NANOMOL
Project From Nano Test Tube to Nano Reactor: Visualisation, Manipulation and Synthesis of Molecules at Nanoscale
Researcher (PI) Andrey Nikolaevich Khlobystov
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary High aspect ratio (quasi-1D) nanostructures have potential to revolutionise the way we use, make and study molecules. This ambitious project is designed to enable characterisation and manipulation of molecules at a single-molecule level, visualisation of mechanisms of chemical reactions in real space and time, and synthesis of molecules within nano-sized containers. Understanding interactions of molecules with nanostructures of different types (nanofibres, nanotubes) and different chemical composition (carbon, bron nitride, titanium dioxide) forms a fundamental core of this project, as the 1D nanomaterials will serve as structural and functional bridges between the molecular world and the macro world. This project opens up new broad horizon for molecular disciplines, such as organic chemistry, molecular physics and the science of nanomaterials. Molecules possessing optical (polyaromatic hydrocarbons, complexes of transition metals and lanthanides), magnetic (single-molecule magnets, free radicals) or redox (metallocenes, molecular wires, tetrathiafulvalene) properties wired to 1D nanostructures will be delivered for next generation of electronic devices, harnessing functional properties of individual molecules for a variety of applications ranging from ultrasensors to quantum information processors. This project will help to establish a precise control of geometries and orientations of extended molecular arrays urgently needed for nano-device applications. Understanding of how molecules interact with 1D nanostructures and how they react with each other when confined within nano-reactors will give a new powerful set of tools to control the direction, selectivity and kinetics of chemical reactions. Methodology of molecular confinement at the nanoscale developed in this project will offer new opportunities for preparative synthetic chemistry of the XXI century leading to high-value isomerically and enantiomerically pure products that cannot be synthesised otherwise.
Summary
High aspect ratio (quasi-1D) nanostructures have potential to revolutionise the way we use, make and study molecules. This ambitious project is designed to enable characterisation and manipulation of molecules at a single-molecule level, visualisation of mechanisms of chemical reactions in real space and time, and synthesis of molecules within nano-sized containers. Understanding interactions of molecules with nanostructures of different types (nanofibres, nanotubes) and different chemical composition (carbon, bron nitride, titanium dioxide) forms a fundamental core of this project, as the 1D nanomaterials will serve as structural and functional bridges between the molecular world and the macro world. This project opens up new broad horizon for molecular disciplines, such as organic chemistry, molecular physics and the science of nanomaterials. Molecules possessing optical (polyaromatic hydrocarbons, complexes of transition metals and lanthanides), magnetic (single-molecule magnets, free radicals) or redox (metallocenes, molecular wires, tetrathiafulvalene) properties wired to 1D nanostructures will be delivered for next generation of electronic devices, harnessing functional properties of individual molecules for a variety of applications ranging from ultrasensors to quantum information processors. This project will help to establish a precise control of geometries and orientations of extended molecular arrays urgently needed for nano-device applications. Understanding of how molecules interact with 1D nanostructures and how they react with each other when confined within nano-reactors will give a new powerful set of tools to control the direction, selectivity and kinetics of chemical reactions. Methodology of molecular confinement at the nanoscale developed in this project will offer new opportunities for preparative synthetic chemistry of the XXI century leading to high-value isomerically and enantiomerically pure products that cannot be synthesised otherwise.
Max ERC Funding
1 446 108 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2016-11-30
Project acronym NANOP
Project Nanoporous Membranes for High Throughput Rare Event Bio-analysis
Researcher (PI) Joshua Edel
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE4, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary A novel analytical platform is proposed to detect and identify DNA at low concentration in a high throughput manner at the single molecule level.
The potential impact of this research is significant and will result in single molecule detection becoming a mainstream tool within the medical diagnostics and analytical communities. 'Rare event' detection plays an important role in the early detection of illnesses and disease (e.g. cancers and bacterial infections). Using analytical technologies that exist today it is almost impossible to detect a single DNA strand within a standard blood sample (of a few mLs) within a reasonable time frame. The technology that will be developed within the current project will allow for such detection to be performed both rapidly and efficiently. If successful, the core technology described will become a mainstream analytical tool that will be of significant benefit within biomedical laboratories, hospitals, and clinics around the world.
Specifically, chemical and semiconductor processing methods will be developed to define a novel approach to high throughput DNA quantification at the single molecule level. This innovative technology will function by introducing biological samples in micro- and nanofluidic chips and using electric fields to direct DNA strands through nanometre-sized pores on a membrane. Detection and sizing of the individual DNA strands (labelled with fluorophores) is then accomplished using confocal fluorescence spectroscopy.
This new approach to high-throughput, single molecule DNA analysis harnesses the strengths of both analytical spectroscopy and silicon fabrication technology to allow the creation of hybrid devices in which molecular quantification can be realized. I expect this work to have major impact and open up new possibilities for nano-analytical tools in the chemical and biological sciences.
Summary
A novel analytical platform is proposed to detect and identify DNA at low concentration in a high throughput manner at the single molecule level.
The potential impact of this research is significant and will result in single molecule detection becoming a mainstream tool within the medical diagnostics and analytical communities. 'Rare event' detection plays an important role in the early detection of illnesses and disease (e.g. cancers and bacterial infections). Using analytical technologies that exist today it is almost impossible to detect a single DNA strand within a standard blood sample (of a few mLs) within a reasonable time frame. The technology that will be developed within the current project will allow for such detection to be performed both rapidly and efficiently. If successful, the core technology described will become a mainstream analytical tool that will be of significant benefit within biomedical laboratories, hospitals, and clinics around the world.
Specifically, chemical and semiconductor processing methods will be developed to define a novel approach to high throughput DNA quantification at the single molecule level. This innovative technology will function by introducing biological samples in micro- and nanofluidic chips and using electric fields to direct DNA strands through nanometre-sized pores on a membrane. Detection and sizing of the individual DNA strands (labelled with fluorophores) is then accomplished using confocal fluorescence spectroscopy.
This new approach to high-throughput, single molecule DNA analysis harnesses the strengths of both analytical spectroscopy and silicon fabrication technology to allow the creation of hybrid devices in which molecular quantification can be realized. I expect this work to have major impact and open up new possibilities for nano-analytical tools in the chemical and biological sciences.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 620 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym NANOSTRUCTURE
Project Solving the nanostructure problem: Understanding, exploiting and designing functional disordered materials
Researcher (PI) Andrew Leslie Goodwin
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Many materials of fundamental importance possess structures that do not exhibit long-range periodicity. The absence of Bragg reflections in the diffraction patterns of these materials precludes the use of traditional crystallographic techniques as a means of determining their atomic-scale structures. Yet it is clear that these materials do possess well-defined local structure on the nanometre scale; moreover it is often this local structure that is implicated in the particular physical properties of interest. For this reason, the development of systematic information-based methodologies for the determination of local structure in disordered materials remains one of the key challenges in modern structural science; this is sometimes referred to as the “nanostructure problem”. This proposal addresses this issue by aiming (i) to develop robust methodologies for determining nano-scale structure in amorphous and highly-disordered systems, with an emphasis on laboratory-based techniques, (ii) then to use these techniques to develop structural models that will help address key scientific questions in a broad range of fields, and (iii) to apply the intuition gained to design new materials that exploit disorder to yield next-generation materials with desirable functionalities.
Summary
Many materials of fundamental importance possess structures that do not exhibit long-range periodicity. The absence of Bragg reflections in the diffraction patterns of these materials precludes the use of traditional crystallographic techniques as a means of determining their atomic-scale structures. Yet it is clear that these materials do possess well-defined local structure on the nanometre scale; moreover it is often this local structure that is implicated in the particular physical properties of interest. For this reason, the development of systematic information-based methodologies for the determination of local structure in disordered materials remains one of the key challenges in modern structural science; this is sometimes referred to as the “nanostructure problem”. This proposal addresses this issue by aiming (i) to develop robust methodologies for determining nano-scale structure in amorphous and highly-disordered systems, with an emphasis on laboratory-based techniques, (ii) then to use these techniques to develop structural models that will help address key scientific questions in a broad range of fields, and (iii) to apply the intuition gained to design new materials that exploit disorder to yield next-generation materials with desirable functionalities.
Max ERC Funding
1 694 608 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym NEDFOQ
Project Non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum fluids in one dimension
Researcher (PI) Vadim Cheianov
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This research proposal addresses non-equilibrium processes occurring in one-dimensional quantum fluids. The interest to this area has surged in recent years due to the rapid development of fabrication and measurement techniques in nanophysics and physics of ultra-cold atomic gases. Nanoelectronics devices (such as quantum point contacts, nanotubes and organic nanowires) and ultracold gases in elongated optical traps are the experimental systems where one-dimensional quantum fluids are encountered. While the main focus of nanoelectronics has always been on the electrical and spin transport, with only limited access to other aspects of non-equilibrium dynamics, the amazing degree of control over atomic systems has transformed the physics of one-dimensional fluids into a rapidly expanding universe of non-equilibrium phenomena. Quantum quenches, explosions and collisions of atomic clouds, diffusion and drift of quantum impurities, motion and decay of solitary waves have been observed and mapped in real time measurements. The fundamental value of the research in this direction lies in the strongly correlated nature of one-dimensional quantum systems, which makes their kinetic theory a largely unexplored territory. For these systems, the application of traditional tools of the kinetic theory, such as the Boltzmann collision integral and non-linear equations of hydrodinamics meets with serious conceptual difficulties. Indeed, it is usually impossible to represent the low-energy excitations of a one-dimensional system as a collection of weakly interacting quasiparticles. It is also impossible to consistently quantize non-linear hydrodynamcis within the standard framework of perturbative quantum field theory. The main goal of this project is to develop methods bypassing these difficulties and to formulate a theoretical framework suitable for the description of non-equilibrium phenomena in one dimension.
Summary
This research proposal addresses non-equilibrium processes occurring in one-dimensional quantum fluids. The interest to this area has surged in recent years due to the rapid development of fabrication and measurement techniques in nanophysics and physics of ultra-cold atomic gases. Nanoelectronics devices (such as quantum point contacts, nanotubes and organic nanowires) and ultracold gases in elongated optical traps are the experimental systems where one-dimensional quantum fluids are encountered. While the main focus of nanoelectronics has always been on the electrical and spin transport, with only limited access to other aspects of non-equilibrium dynamics, the amazing degree of control over atomic systems has transformed the physics of one-dimensional fluids into a rapidly expanding universe of non-equilibrium phenomena. Quantum quenches, explosions and collisions of atomic clouds, diffusion and drift of quantum impurities, motion and decay of solitary waves have been observed and mapped in real time measurements. The fundamental value of the research in this direction lies in the strongly correlated nature of one-dimensional quantum systems, which makes their kinetic theory a largely unexplored territory. For these systems, the application of traditional tools of the kinetic theory, such as the Boltzmann collision integral and non-linear equations of hydrodinamics meets with serious conceptual difficulties. Indeed, it is usually impossible to represent the low-energy excitations of a one-dimensional system as a collection of weakly interacting quasiparticles. It is also impossible to consistently quantize non-linear hydrodynamcis within the standard framework of perturbative quantum field theory. The main goal of this project is to develop methods bypassing these difficulties and to formulate a theoretical framework suitable for the description of non-equilibrium phenomena in one dimension.
Max ERC Funding
679 640 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym NESS
Project Listening to the Future: Next-generation Sound Synthesis
through Simulation
Researcher (PI) Stefan Bilbao
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This proposal is concerned with simulation-based approaches to sound synthesis, in the interest of generating very high quality synthetic sound of a natural acoustic character—partly to emulate real instruments, but also to explore classes of sounds which cannot be produced using conventional synthesis methods, or acoustic instruments. A further goal is to introduce such physical modelling synthesis methods definitively into the world of electronic music, virtual environments, and to the greater public.
Target systems to be studied and simulated include: highly nonlinear acoustic systems (brass instruments, and percussion based on plate and shell vibration; electromechanical instruments; full 3D acoustic spaces; embedding of instruments within 3D spaces in order to achieve fully virtual and spatialized audio; and finally modular connections of systems in order to allow the eventual user, a composer, an instrument design environment. Such complex systems, including strong nonlinear effects, have never before seen a rigorous exploration from a numerical synthesis perspective. This proposed project is of an interdisciplinary nature, and rooted in music, numerical analysis, time-domain simulation, and high-performance computing.
Work will be carried out at various levels: a) theoretical work and time domain algorithm design, with special attention paid to the appropriate choice of model, efficiency and real time operation, and various issues critical in audio, including: adequate perceptual rendering of system responses at audio sample rates; aliasing; robust algorithm design, ensuring numerical stability under highly nonlinear conditions; and modular constructions. b) large-scale parallel implementations on multicore processors and general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), and c) experimental testing through collaborative work with established composers of electronic music, leading to performances original multichanel and fully synthetic music.
Summary
This proposal is concerned with simulation-based approaches to sound synthesis, in the interest of generating very high quality synthetic sound of a natural acoustic character—partly to emulate real instruments, but also to explore classes of sounds which cannot be produced using conventional synthesis methods, or acoustic instruments. A further goal is to introduce such physical modelling synthesis methods definitively into the world of electronic music, virtual environments, and to the greater public.
Target systems to be studied and simulated include: highly nonlinear acoustic systems (brass instruments, and percussion based on plate and shell vibration; electromechanical instruments; full 3D acoustic spaces; embedding of instruments within 3D spaces in order to achieve fully virtual and spatialized audio; and finally modular connections of systems in order to allow the eventual user, a composer, an instrument design environment. Such complex systems, including strong nonlinear effects, have never before seen a rigorous exploration from a numerical synthesis perspective. This proposed project is of an interdisciplinary nature, and rooted in music, numerical analysis, time-domain simulation, and high-performance computing.
Work will be carried out at various levels: a) theoretical work and time domain algorithm design, with special attention paid to the appropriate choice of model, efficiency and real time operation, and various issues critical in audio, including: adequate perceptual rendering of system responses at audio sample rates; aliasing; robust algorithm design, ensuring numerical stability under highly nonlinear conditions; and modular constructions. b) large-scale parallel implementations on multicore processors and general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), and c) experimental testing through collaborative work with established composers of electronic music, leading to performances original multichanel and fully synthetic music.
Max ERC Funding
1 477 477 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym neutrinoSNO+
Project Probing fundamental properties of the neutrino at the SNO+ Experiment
Researcher (PI) Jeanne Rachel Wilson
Host Institution (HI) QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary I propose a comprehensive programme of research on SNO+, a multi-purpose
neutrino experiment that has the capacity to push forward the frontier of our knowledge in both neutrino and solar physics by addressing a wide range of physics topics. There are three main goals:
A) To extend our understanding of neutrino oscillations by studying the suppression of low energy solar electron neutrino flux components.
B) To address discrepancies in solar models by publishing the world's first measurement of neutrino fluxes from the CNO-cycle interactions in the Sun.
And C) To contribute to the search for neutrino-less double beta decay, the so-called 'golden channel' for testing the fundamental nature of the neutrino and the absolute neutrino mass scale.
The neutrino survival probabilities and CNO spectra will be extracted simultaneously in a novel approach to the solar analysis that will capitalize on theoretical correlations between the different flux components. Similar techniques will be applied to the double beta analysis allowing for a fully correlated treatment of all backgrounds and systematic uncertainties.
Given the huge potential impact of these measurements, it is imperative that we maximise the physics reach of the SNO+ experiment and ensure the credibility of all results through detailed calibration and modelling to attain a complete understanding of the detector response to both the neutrino signals and inevitable background contributions. In addition to the above analysis goals, this proposal focuses on two key areas - a detailed charcterisation of the detector optical response through calibration measurements and detailed simulations and the development of an electron calibration source to confirm our
understanding of the detector response to electron signals across a broad energy range. Both of these unique contributions should significantly enhance the accuracy and credibility of all SNO+ physics measurements.
Summary
I propose a comprehensive programme of research on SNO+, a multi-purpose
neutrino experiment that has the capacity to push forward the frontier of our knowledge in both neutrino and solar physics by addressing a wide range of physics topics. There are three main goals:
A) To extend our understanding of neutrino oscillations by studying the suppression of low energy solar electron neutrino flux components.
B) To address discrepancies in solar models by publishing the world's first measurement of neutrino fluxes from the CNO-cycle interactions in the Sun.
And C) To contribute to the search for neutrino-less double beta decay, the so-called 'golden channel' for testing the fundamental nature of the neutrino and the absolute neutrino mass scale.
The neutrino survival probabilities and CNO spectra will be extracted simultaneously in a novel approach to the solar analysis that will capitalize on theoretical correlations between the different flux components. Similar techniques will be applied to the double beta analysis allowing for a fully correlated treatment of all backgrounds and systematic uncertainties.
Given the huge potential impact of these measurements, it is imperative that we maximise the physics reach of the SNO+ experiment and ensure the credibility of all results through detailed calibration and modelling to attain a complete understanding of the detector response to both the neutrino signals and inevitable background contributions. In addition to the above analysis goals, this proposal focuses on two key areas - a detailed charcterisation of the detector optical response through calibration measurements and detailed simulations and the development of an electron calibration source to confirm our
understanding of the detector response to electron signals across a broad energy range. Both of these unique contributions should significantly enhance the accuracy and credibility of all SNO+ physics measurements.
Max ERC Funding
1 345 472 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2017-06-30
Project acronym NEWPHYSICSHPC
Project Unraveling new physics on high-performance computers
Researcher (PI) Andreas Juettner
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Quarks are bound together by the strong nuclear force as described by QCD. Due to confinement quarks and gluons are not detected in experiments but particles which are complicated bound states. Simulations allow for relating the bound state properties to those of the underlying quarks. The calculation is performed by constructing a discrete four dimensional space-time lattice and then solving the QCD equations of motion on high performance computers (e.g. graphics cards cluster or IBM BG/Q at Edinburgh)
New physics will be discovered in terms of discrepancies between Standard Model (SM) predictions and experimental measurements.
A hint for a discrepancy between theory and experiment and therefore new physics exists for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. I will implement a new approach to its computation which will provide reliable predictions from first principles and which will substantiate or rebut the apparent tension. Also, my newly developed method for analytically predicting contributions (quark-disconnected diagrams) to the muon anomalous moment which are very hard to compute numerically will be extended to other processes relevant for understanding non-perturbative physics (e.g. K->pi pi) and for SM-tests (neutron EDM).
The LHCb experiment at CERN, Switzerland, has recently started taking data for processes that are particularly sensitive to new physics. To interpret the experimental data one needs theory-predictions that can only be provided by lattice QCD. Here properties of flavor-changing neutral current decays of particles containing one b-quark and one light quark will be computed.
Next to a large scale simulation of K->pi decays, algorithms will be developed and cut-off effects computed analytically in order to reduce the uncertainty in the lattice computation of Vus, an element of the CKM-matrix.
An UV-fixed point in the non-linear sigma model will be searched with lattice simulations on graphics cards.
Summary
Quarks are bound together by the strong nuclear force as described by QCD. Due to confinement quarks and gluons are not detected in experiments but particles which are complicated bound states. Simulations allow for relating the bound state properties to those of the underlying quarks. The calculation is performed by constructing a discrete four dimensional space-time lattice and then solving the QCD equations of motion on high performance computers (e.g. graphics cards cluster or IBM BG/Q at Edinburgh)
New physics will be discovered in terms of discrepancies between Standard Model (SM) predictions and experimental measurements.
A hint for a discrepancy between theory and experiment and therefore new physics exists for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. I will implement a new approach to its computation which will provide reliable predictions from first principles and which will substantiate or rebut the apparent tension. Also, my newly developed method for analytically predicting contributions (quark-disconnected diagrams) to the muon anomalous moment which are very hard to compute numerically will be extended to other processes relevant for understanding non-perturbative physics (e.g. K->pi pi) and for SM-tests (neutron EDM).
The LHCb experiment at CERN, Switzerland, has recently started taking data for processes that are particularly sensitive to new physics. To interpret the experimental data one needs theory-predictions that can only be provided by lattice QCD. Here properties of flavor-changing neutral current decays of particles containing one b-quark and one light quark will be computed.
Next to a large scale simulation of K->pi decays, algorithms will be developed and cut-off effects computed analytically in order to reduce the uncertainty in the lattice computation of Vus, an element of the CKM-matrix.
An UV-fixed point in the non-linear sigma model will be searched with lattice simulations on graphics cards.
Max ERC Funding
977 571 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30
Project acronym NEWSITES
Project New Sites of Legal Consciousness: a case study of UK advice agencies
Researcher (PI) Morag Mcdermont
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary This research investigates ways in which third sector advice agencies are becoming new sites for the emergence of legal consciousness, bringing together theoretical perspectives on social policy and the sociology of translation with legal consciousness methods. It will develop understandings of legal consciousness as not simply individual practices (a form of ‘legal capability’) but as the potential for collective, political action through cultural practices of institutions that mediate between citizens and the formal institutions and practices of law. Advice agencies rather than professional lawyers are becoming key actors in legal arenas, particularly for citizens with precarious relationships to rights. Such organisations perform multiple roles. Through casework they translate complex legal structures, opening doors to enable citizens to pursue their own rights. Casework then allows agencies to see into the lives of ‘ordinary people’, forming the basis for interventions in social policy. Through re-presenting personal grievances of multiple clients as matters of public concern, they can illuminate ways in which policies and practices of powerful institutions create injustices, how mechanisms meant to enable access to justice can instead throw up barriers to justice. The research is an in-depth study of the institutional practices of UK advice organisations. It focuses principally on Citizens Advice, the leading UK advice organisation, now part of European and international networks of citizens advice services. Through case studies it will investigate ways in which advice agencies can transform people’s subjective experience of law into objective understandings of everyday injustices, thus creating a dialogue which empowers citizens and governmental processes. A study of the most long-established of the citizens advice organisations can provide a window for European policy makers and legislators through which they can understand better the social action of law.
Summary
This research investigates ways in which third sector advice agencies are becoming new sites for the emergence of legal consciousness, bringing together theoretical perspectives on social policy and the sociology of translation with legal consciousness methods. It will develop understandings of legal consciousness as not simply individual practices (a form of ‘legal capability’) but as the potential for collective, political action through cultural practices of institutions that mediate between citizens and the formal institutions and practices of law. Advice agencies rather than professional lawyers are becoming key actors in legal arenas, particularly for citizens with precarious relationships to rights. Such organisations perform multiple roles. Through casework they translate complex legal structures, opening doors to enable citizens to pursue their own rights. Casework then allows agencies to see into the lives of ‘ordinary people’, forming the basis for interventions in social policy. Through re-presenting personal grievances of multiple clients as matters of public concern, they can illuminate ways in which policies and practices of powerful institutions create injustices, how mechanisms meant to enable access to justice can instead throw up barriers to justice. The research is an in-depth study of the institutional practices of UK advice organisations. It focuses principally on Citizens Advice, the leading UK advice organisation, now part of European and international networks of citizens advice services. Through case studies it will investigate ways in which advice agencies can transform people’s subjective experience of law into objective understandings of everyday injustices, thus creating a dialogue which empowers citizens and governmental processes. A study of the most long-established of the citizens advice organisations can provide a window for European policy makers and legislators through which they can understand better the social action of law.
Max ERC Funding
1 029 298 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31
Project acronym NLST
Project Nonlocality in space and time
Researcher (PI) Sandu Popescu
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary Quantum mechanics is our most successful theory of nature. Yet more than eight decades after its inception there is a general agreement that a deep and intuitive understanding of it is still missing; we know how to compute quantum effects but we clearly do not have the full story. Even to this day, surprising and even paradoxical quantum effects continue to be frequently discovered. They are paradoxical only because our understanding of quantum behaviour is not yet good enough to have anticipated them.
However, for the first time there are glimmers of hope. It is the main thesis of this project that what makes quantum mechanics so counterintuitive is the fact that it is nonlocal.
One nonlocal phenomenon, namely Bell-type nonlocality, is at present investigated intensively. It is by now universally accepted that it holds at least part of the key to truly understanding quantum behaviour.
However, it is the main point of this project that there exist two other types of nonlocality, namely dynamic nonlocality and nonlocality in time. Dynamic nonlocality is the nonlocality of the quantum equations of motion, discovered in the context of the Aharanov-Bohm effect. Nonlocality in time is the ability to impose independent initial and final boundary conditions on the evolution of a quantum system. In contrast to Bell-type nonlocality, these two other types of nonlocality have received far less attention. Research into temporal-nonlocality (pre- and post-selection) has been evolving slowly over the last twenty years, whilst dynamical nonlocality has been virtually untouched. I believe that only by understanding all three types of nonlocality can the key to quantum behaviour be found.
This project will develop an intensive research program on dynamical and temporal nonlocality whilst pursuing a vigorous investigation into the many fundamental open questions related to Bell-type nonlocality.
Summary
Quantum mechanics is our most successful theory of nature. Yet more than eight decades after its inception there is a general agreement that a deep and intuitive understanding of it is still missing; we know how to compute quantum effects but we clearly do not have the full story. Even to this day, surprising and even paradoxical quantum effects continue to be frequently discovered. They are paradoxical only because our understanding of quantum behaviour is not yet good enough to have anticipated them.
However, for the first time there are glimmers of hope. It is the main thesis of this project that what makes quantum mechanics so counterintuitive is the fact that it is nonlocal.
One nonlocal phenomenon, namely Bell-type nonlocality, is at present investigated intensively. It is by now universally accepted that it holds at least part of the key to truly understanding quantum behaviour.
However, it is the main point of this project that there exist two other types of nonlocality, namely dynamic nonlocality and nonlocality in time. Dynamic nonlocality is the nonlocality of the quantum equations of motion, discovered in the context of the Aharanov-Bohm effect. Nonlocality in time is the ability to impose independent initial and final boundary conditions on the evolution of a quantum system. In contrast to Bell-type nonlocality, these two other types of nonlocality have received far less attention. Research into temporal-nonlocality (pre- and post-selection) has been evolving slowly over the last twenty years, whilst dynamical nonlocality has been virtually untouched. I believe that only by understanding all three types of nonlocality can the key to quantum behaviour be found.
This project will develop an intensive research program on dynamical and temporal nonlocality whilst pursuing a vigorous investigation into the many fundamental open questions related to Bell-type nonlocality.
Max ERC Funding
1 664 126 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28
Project acronym OASIS
Project Organic/inorganic hybrids for solution-processable photonic structures
Researcher (PI) Natalie Stingelin
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The realisation that modulated light pulses can be confined over long distances with minimum losses within a structure that comprises a controlled spatial distribution of the refractive index n – as, e.g. in optical fibres – has, without doubt, underpinned the telecommunications revolution witnessed during the 20th century. The refractive index n, quantifying how light propagates in a given medium, has as a consequence become one of the most important materials properties in designing photonics products. The other key information for most optical and photonic applications is to know how much light is absorbed by a material. This is described by the extinction coefficient κ. There is, though, an apparent lack of solution-processable systems of κ close to 0 (i.e. are transparent) whilst n can be manipulated over a broad window – a bottleneck that has rendered fabrication of a range of optical structures impracticable, if not impossible. Here we address this issue and advance versatile, solution-processable polymer/inorganic hybrids whose refractive index n can be tuned over a wide range without compromising their transparency nor processability.
The programme will develop in three directions: i) the design of novel, solution-processable molecular hybrids; ii) the development of (nano-)fabrication technologies for the deposition and/or patterning of such hybrids; and iii) extension of the range of currently explored photonic crystals to entirely new optical devices.
Hence, we have identified a clear need for new materials with increased optical functionalities, and novel concepts and approaches that will allow simple fabrication of structures to light. Key objective for the proposed programme thus is to advance new hybrids, develop a deeper understanding of key structure-property interrelationships of inorganic/organic hybrids and develop novel photonic architectures.
Summary
The realisation that modulated light pulses can be confined over long distances with minimum losses within a structure that comprises a controlled spatial distribution of the refractive index n – as, e.g. in optical fibres – has, without doubt, underpinned the telecommunications revolution witnessed during the 20th century. The refractive index n, quantifying how light propagates in a given medium, has as a consequence become one of the most important materials properties in designing photonics products. The other key information for most optical and photonic applications is to know how much light is absorbed by a material. This is described by the extinction coefficient κ. There is, though, an apparent lack of solution-processable systems of κ close to 0 (i.e. are transparent) whilst n can be manipulated over a broad window – a bottleneck that has rendered fabrication of a range of optical structures impracticable, if not impossible. Here we address this issue and advance versatile, solution-processable polymer/inorganic hybrids whose refractive index n can be tuned over a wide range without compromising their transparency nor processability.
The programme will develop in three directions: i) the design of novel, solution-processable molecular hybrids; ii) the development of (nano-)fabrication technologies for the deposition and/or patterning of such hybrids; and iii) extension of the range of currently explored photonic crystals to entirely new optical devices.
Hence, we have identified a clear need for new materials with increased optical functionalities, and novel concepts and approaches that will allow simple fabrication of structures to light. Key objective for the proposed programme thus is to advance new hybrids, develop a deeper understanding of key structure-property interrelationships of inorganic/organic hybrids and develop novel photonic architectures.
Max ERC Funding
1 242 478 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2016-09-30
Project acronym OPTIMAX
Project Optimal Imaging with Present and Future Coherent X-ray Sources
Researcher (PI) Pierre Thibault
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The rapid development of high-brilliance X-ray sources in the last decade has opened the way to extremely powerful imaging modalities. Third generation synchrotron sources and newly built X-ray free-electron lasers offer a very high flux and can produce X-ray beams with excellent coherence properties. Imaging techniques that rely on the coherence of the incoming field can give access to phase contrast signal, known to be much stronger than absorption in the hard X-ray regime, and even make possible lensless imaging, thus offering the potential for very high-resolutions. To make the most of X-ray's high penetration power, it is best to combine these novel imaging approaches with computed tomography to achieve high-resolution, high-sensitivity 3D imaging.
The goal of this project is to break new ground in coherence-based imaging primarily through new developments in data analysis techniques. My group will work on a variety of novel or improved reconstruction approaches that will push the potential of these methods to their limit in resolution, sensitivity and usability, an objective well summarized by the term ``optimal imaging'' in the title of this proposal.
The main sub-projects described in this proposal are: (1) developing, improving and validating ptychographic reconstruction methods; (2) combining tomography and ptychography, and applying it to life and materials science samples; (3) developing efficient and robust tomographic reconstruction algorithms for grating interferometer imaging; and (4) implementing efficient data-analysis pipe-lines for future X-ray free-electron laser experiments.
Summary
The rapid development of high-brilliance X-ray sources in the last decade has opened the way to extremely powerful imaging modalities. Third generation synchrotron sources and newly built X-ray free-electron lasers offer a very high flux and can produce X-ray beams with excellent coherence properties. Imaging techniques that rely on the coherence of the incoming field can give access to phase contrast signal, known to be much stronger than absorption in the hard X-ray regime, and even make possible lensless imaging, thus offering the potential for very high-resolutions. To make the most of X-ray's high penetration power, it is best to combine these novel imaging approaches with computed tomography to achieve high-resolution, high-sensitivity 3D imaging.
The goal of this project is to break new ground in coherence-based imaging primarily through new developments in data analysis techniques. My group will work on a variety of novel or improved reconstruction approaches that will push the potential of these methods to their limit in resolution, sensitivity and usability, an objective well summarized by the term ``optimal imaging'' in the title of this proposal.
The main sub-projects described in this proposal are: (1) developing, improving and validating ptychographic reconstruction methods; (2) combining tomography and ptychography, and applying it to life and materials science samples; (3) developing efficient and robust tomographic reconstruction algorithms for grating interferometer imaging; and (4) implementing efficient data-analysis pipe-lines for future X-ray free-electron laser experiments.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 918 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2017-10-31
Project acronym PESM
Project Towards the Prototype Probabilistic Earth-System Model for Climate Prediction
Researcher (PI) Timothy Noel Palmer
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary A programme of research is described which will revolutionise the mathematical formulation of comprehensive Earth-System models, potentially leading to a step-change improvement in the reliability of our predictions of climate change, both globally and regionally. This programme of research is intended to make climate simulations more consistent both with the multi-scale nature of climate, and with related scaling symmetries of the partial differential equations which govern climate. This will be achieved by moving away from the traditional deterministic approach to the closure problem in computational fluid dynamics, and towards a more novel description of physical processes near and below the truncation scale of climate models, using contemporary nonlinear stochastic-dynamic mathematics. A detailed technical account of how this will be achieved in given in the full proposal. Leveraged on the proposer's many contacts in Europe and around the world, the aim of the proposed research is to produce the world's first Probabilistic Earth System Model. The consequences are enormous: a comprehensive climate model with reduced biases against observations, a model which will be capable of producing estimates of uncertainty in its own predictions, and a model which can make use of emerging energy-efficient probabilistic processor hardware. key to practical success as we approach the era of the exascale supercomputer. The development of the prototype Probabilistic Earth-System Model will open a new era of international scientific collaboration on climate model development, and has the potential to influence climate policy, on mitigation, adaptation and on geoengineering, a the highest governmental and intergovernmental levels.
Summary
A programme of research is described which will revolutionise the mathematical formulation of comprehensive Earth-System models, potentially leading to a step-change improvement in the reliability of our predictions of climate change, both globally and regionally. This programme of research is intended to make climate simulations more consistent both with the multi-scale nature of climate, and with related scaling symmetries of the partial differential equations which govern climate. This will be achieved by moving away from the traditional deterministic approach to the closure problem in computational fluid dynamics, and towards a more novel description of physical processes near and below the truncation scale of climate models, using contemporary nonlinear stochastic-dynamic mathematics. A detailed technical account of how this will be achieved in given in the full proposal. Leveraged on the proposer's many contacts in Europe and around the world, the aim of the proposed research is to produce the world's first Probabilistic Earth System Model. The consequences are enormous: a comprehensive climate model with reduced biases against observations, a model which will be capable of producing estimates of uncertainty in its own predictions, and a model which can make use of emerging energy-efficient probabilistic processor hardware. key to practical success as we approach the era of the exascale supercomputer. The development of the prototype Probabilistic Earth-System Model will open a new era of international scientific collaboration on climate model development, and has the potential to influence climate policy, on mitigation, adaptation and on geoengineering, a the highest governmental and intergovernmental levels.
Max ERC Funding
2 137 014 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-07-31
Project acronym PFPMWC
Project Probing fundamental physics with multi-wavelength cosmology
Researcher (PI) Michael Brown
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE9, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) combined with the large-scale distribution of galaxies have defined a standard cosmological model. This model is a remarkable fit to the observations but also raises profound questions - we do not know how the initial conditions were imprinted in the early Universe, nor do we know the nature of the dark energy. In this proposal, I request funds to set up a new cosmology data analysis team at the University of Manchester to tackle these issues. Over the next five years, my team will pursue a program of work intended to have a large impact on two hugely important fields of observational cosmology which are uniquely suited to answering these questions --- the polarisation of the microwave background and weak gravitational lensing. The former is the most powerful way to probe the early Universe while the latter is potentially the most sensitive probe of dark energy. Building on the innovative methods I developed for the QUaD experiment, I will apply new analysis techniques to mitigate systematics and maximise the science return from current and future CMB polarisation experiments including the Planck satellite, the ground-based QUIJOTE experiment and phase 2 of the ground-based QUIET experiment. In the field of weak lensing, I will perform pioneering radio lensing analyses with forthcoming instruments including the Square Kilometre Array pathfinders, e-MERLIN and MeerKAT. One particularly novel idea which I will develop is the use of polarisation information to reduce noise and to minimise contamination from the intrinsic alignment of galaxies in radio lensing analyses. The research described in this proposal will allow my team to establish an international leadership position in both CMB polarisation and radio weak lensing research in advance of a possible CMB polarisation satellite mission and the commissioning of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope towards the latter part of this decade."
Summary
"Recent measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) combined with the large-scale distribution of galaxies have defined a standard cosmological model. This model is a remarkable fit to the observations but also raises profound questions - we do not know how the initial conditions were imprinted in the early Universe, nor do we know the nature of the dark energy. In this proposal, I request funds to set up a new cosmology data analysis team at the University of Manchester to tackle these issues. Over the next five years, my team will pursue a program of work intended to have a large impact on two hugely important fields of observational cosmology which are uniquely suited to answering these questions --- the polarisation of the microwave background and weak gravitational lensing. The former is the most powerful way to probe the early Universe while the latter is potentially the most sensitive probe of dark energy. Building on the innovative methods I developed for the QUaD experiment, I will apply new analysis techniques to mitigate systematics and maximise the science return from current and future CMB polarisation experiments including the Planck satellite, the ground-based QUIJOTE experiment and phase 2 of the ground-based QUIET experiment. In the field of weak lensing, I will perform pioneering radio lensing analyses with forthcoming instruments including the Square Kilometre Array pathfinders, e-MERLIN and MeerKAT. One particularly novel idea which I will develop is the use of polarisation information to reduce noise and to minimise contamination from the intrinsic alignment of galaxies in radio lensing analyses. The research described in this proposal will allow my team to establish an international leadership position in both CMB polarisation and radio weak lensing research in advance of a possible CMB polarisation satellite mission and the commissioning of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope towards the latter part of this decade."
Max ERC Funding
1 424 269 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym Plio-ESS
Project Pliocene Constraints on Earth System Sensitivity
Researcher (PI) Alan Michael Haywood
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE10, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The magnitude of long-term global temperature rise due to an increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is a question of relevance to policy makers and society. Previous studies have addressed this issue on the basis of the equilibrium response of the climate system due to fast feedbacks such as clouds and sea ice-albedo, often referred to as Climate Sensitivity. Plio-ESS will use the new concept of Earth System Sensitivity that additionally includes slow feedbacks such as those derived from changes in the major ice sheets and vegetation distribution. This has the potential to revolutionise the scientific debate on anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and climate stabilisation targets. The aim of the project is to produce a robust estimate of the Earth System Sensitivity using the last interval in Earth history when CO2 was at modern or near future levels – the mid-Pliocene Warm Period. Using a combined modelling and geological data approach, Plio-ESS will integrate reconstructions of mid-Pliocene vegetation and ice sheets into climate and Earth system models. In this context Plio-ESS will push the frontier of palaeoclimatology by using state-of-the-art models which will enable the importance of resolution, improved model physics and the inclusion of additional Earth System components on model estimates of Earth System Sensitivity to be identified. Ensembles of experiments exploring the plausible range in model boundary conditions and physics will also quantify the uncertainty on estimates of Earth System Sensitivity. The outcome of the project will be a rigorous estimate of Earth System Sensitivity, which can be used by climate scientists and policy makers in defining stabilisation targets for greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.
Summary
The magnitude of long-term global temperature rise due to an increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is a question of relevance to policy makers and society. Previous studies have addressed this issue on the basis of the equilibrium response of the climate system due to fast feedbacks such as clouds and sea ice-albedo, often referred to as Climate Sensitivity. Plio-ESS will use the new concept of Earth System Sensitivity that additionally includes slow feedbacks such as those derived from changes in the major ice sheets and vegetation distribution. This has the potential to revolutionise the scientific debate on anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and climate stabilisation targets. The aim of the project is to produce a robust estimate of the Earth System Sensitivity using the last interval in Earth history when CO2 was at modern or near future levels – the mid-Pliocene Warm Period. Using a combined modelling and geological data approach, Plio-ESS will integrate reconstructions of mid-Pliocene vegetation and ice sheets into climate and Earth system models. In this context Plio-ESS will push the frontier of palaeoclimatology by using state-of-the-art models which will enable the importance of resolution, improved model physics and the inclusion of additional Earth System components on model estimates of Earth System Sensitivity to be identified. Ensembles of experiments exploring the plausible range in model boundary conditions and physics will also quantify the uncertainty on estimates of Earth System Sensitivity. The outcome of the project will be a rigorous estimate of Earth System Sensitivity, which can be used by climate scientists and policy makers in defining stabilisation targets for greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.
Max ERC Funding
1 419 968 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2016-11-30
Project acronym PPHPI
Project Physical principles in host-pathogen interactions
Researcher (PI) Robert Endres
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2011-StG_20101109
Summary "In recent breakthrough publications, I developed quantitative models of accurate chemo-sensing in biological cells, as well as obtained important insights into how cells engulf and eat other cells and particles. The novelty of these works is the merging of the natural sciences of physics and biology for discovering general, overarching principles in biology. Now I propose to bring my research to a new level by tackling host-pathogen interactions, irrespective of established disciplinary boundaries.
While individual signalling pathways are often well characterised in different cell types, an integrative view is largely missing. For instance, the chemical environments of pathogens are generally uncharacterised such as occurring in complex bacterial communities in an host organism. Furthermore, the strategies of how our immune cells sense and hunt their bacterial prey remain unknown. Specifically, how do they sense minute chemical signatures left by bacteria? Once an immune cell encounters a bacterium, what are the determinants of successful engulfment and destruction of the pathogen? To address these questions, I will investigate how bacteria perceive their environment with cell-surface receptors, including what chemical stimuli and gradients their sensory systems have adapted to by evolution. I will identify the strategies of cells for achieving highly accurate sensing, and study the dependence of engulfment on bacterial cell shape, stiffness, and ligand density. Answering these questions is of fundamental importance since it would identify how infections arise, spread and are cleared, with pharmaceutical applications in near sight.
To conduct this research, the ERC Starting Grant would allow me, by assembling a cutting-edge and creative research team, to consolidate my research interests into one major stream for maximal impact. I would finally establish myself as an independent researcher, who delivers predictive and quantitative biology in Europe."
Summary
"In recent breakthrough publications, I developed quantitative models of accurate chemo-sensing in biological cells, as well as obtained important insights into how cells engulf and eat other cells and particles. The novelty of these works is the merging of the natural sciences of physics and biology for discovering general, overarching principles in biology. Now I propose to bring my research to a new level by tackling host-pathogen interactions, irrespective of established disciplinary boundaries.
While individual signalling pathways are often well characterised in different cell types, an integrative view is largely missing. For instance, the chemical environments of pathogens are generally uncharacterised such as occurring in complex bacterial communities in an host organism. Furthermore, the strategies of how our immune cells sense and hunt their bacterial prey remain unknown. Specifically, how do they sense minute chemical signatures left by bacteria? Once an immune cell encounters a bacterium, what are the determinants of successful engulfment and destruction of the pathogen? To address these questions, I will investigate how bacteria perceive their environment with cell-surface receptors, including what chemical stimuli and gradients their sensory systems have adapted to by evolution. I will identify the strategies of cells for achieving highly accurate sensing, and study the dependence of engulfment on bacterial cell shape, stiffness, and ligand density. Answering these questions is of fundamental importance since it would identify how infections arise, spread and are cleared, with pharmaceutical applications in near sight.
To conduct this research, the ERC Starting Grant would allow me, by assembling a cutting-edge and creative research team, to consolidate my research interests into one major stream for maximal impact. I would finally establish myself as an independent researcher, who delivers predictive and quantitative biology in Europe."
Max ERC Funding
1 343 230 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym PSC and LMCF
Project Positive Scalar Curvature and Lagrangian Mean Curvature Flow
Researcher (PI) Andre Da Silva Graça Arroja Neves
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE1, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The interplay between Geometry and Analysis has been among the most fruitful mathematical ideas in recent years, the most obvious example being Perelman's proof of Poincare' conjecture. The goal of this proposal is to establish a research group that will make significant progress in the following two distinct problems.
Scalar Curvature: A classical theorem in Riemannian Geometry states that nonnegative scalar curvature metrics which are flat outside a compact set must be Euclidean. The equivalent problem for positive scalar curvature is known as the Min-Oo conjecture and, after being checked in many particular cases, was recently disproven by myself and coauthors. I plan to prove optimal results relating positive scalar curvature and area of minimal surfaces. I also plan to show that these manifolds admit an infinite number of minimal surfaces (Yau's conjecture). My approach consists of studying min-max methods in order to obtain existence of higher-index minimal surfaces.
Mean curvature flow: An hard open problem consists in determining which Lagrangians in a Calabi-Yau admit a minimal Lagrangian (SLag) in their isotopy class and a complete answer would have a strong impact in Algebraic Geometry and Mirror Symmetry. A well known approach consists in deforming a given Lagrangian in the direction of its mean curvature and hope to show convergence to a SLag. The difficulty with this method is that finite-time singularities can occur.
I plan to study the regularity theory for this flow and show singularities have codimension two. This would be the ground stage to continue the flow past the singular time. My approach consists in classifying the possible parabolic blow-ups and find monotone quantities which will rule out non SLag blow-ups.
Summary
The interplay between Geometry and Analysis has been among the most fruitful mathematical ideas in recent years, the most obvious example being Perelman's proof of Poincare' conjecture. The goal of this proposal is to establish a research group that will make significant progress in the following two distinct problems.
Scalar Curvature: A classical theorem in Riemannian Geometry states that nonnegative scalar curvature metrics which are flat outside a compact set must be Euclidean. The equivalent problem for positive scalar curvature is known as the Min-Oo conjecture and, after being checked in many particular cases, was recently disproven by myself and coauthors. I plan to prove optimal results relating positive scalar curvature and area of minimal surfaces. I also plan to show that these manifolds admit an infinite number of minimal surfaces (Yau's conjecture). My approach consists of studying min-max methods in order to obtain existence of higher-index minimal surfaces.
Mean curvature flow: An hard open problem consists in determining which Lagrangians in a Calabi-Yau admit a minimal Lagrangian (SLag) in their isotopy class and a complete answer would have a strong impact in Algebraic Geometry and Mirror Symmetry. A well known approach consists in deforming a given Lagrangian in the direction of its mean curvature and hope to show convergence to a SLag. The difficulty with this method is that finite-time singularities can occur.
I plan to study the regularity theory for this flow and show singularities have codimension two. This would be the ground stage to continue the flow past the singular time. My approach consists in classifying the possible parabolic blow-ups and find monotone quantities which will rule out non SLag blow-ups.
Max ERC Funding
1 100 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym QUANTESS
Project Quantitative Analysis of Textual Data for Social Sciences
Researcher (PI) Kenneth Richard Benoit
Host Institution (HI) LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary QUANTESS would develop innovative methods for the quantitative analysis of textual data in the social sciences. These methods would be sharply distinguished by more traditional content analysis schemes for analyzing texts – whether computer-assisted or not – by their explicit treatment of words as pure data, from which inductive statistical procedures may be used to estimate latent traits. Besides unlocking features of the texts not possible through interpretative methods, the “text as data” approach also allows rapid analysis of huge volumes of text in any language, providing a means for researchers to deal with the ubiquitous textual data now available. Existing statistical methods for textual data analysis exist, but these are still primitive in their development, relying on untested assumptions and unproven applicability, based on only short “proof-of-concept” demonstrations. In addition, there exists no single book-length work explaining the field of textual data analysis for the social sciences. Finally, software tools for applying textual data analysis techniques, particularly the advanced scaling models, are poorly maintained and documented and not accessible to users lacking a high degree of programming ability. QUANTESS would deliver on all three fronts: methodological innovation, dissemination of knowledge uniting all existing knowledge in a graduate-level text (plus a website, short courses, and instructional materials including videos), and creation of powerful yet accessible free software to be used for all analysis from the project and the resulting books and articles.
Summary
QUANTESS would develop innovative methods for the quantitative analysis of textual data in the social sciences. These methods would be sharply distinguished by more traditional content analysis schemes for analyzing texts – whether computer-assisted or not – by their explicit treatment of words as pure data, from which inductive statistical procedures may be used to estimate latent traits. Besides unlocking features of the texts not possible through interpretative methods, the “text as data” approach also allows rapid analysis of huge volumes of text in any language, providing a means for researchers to deal with the ubiquitous textual data now available. Existing statistical methods for textual data analysis exist, but these are still primitive in their development, relying on untested assumptions and unproven applicability, based on only short “proof-of-concept” demonstrations. In addition, there exists no single book-length work explaining the field of textual data analysis for the social sciences. Finally, software tools for applying textual data analysis techniques, particularly the advanced scaling models, are poorly maintained and documented and not accessible to users lacking a high degree of programming ability. QUANTESS would deliver on all three fronts: methodological innovation, dissemination of knowledge uniting all existing knowledge in a graduate-level text (plus a website, short courses, and instructional materials including videos), and creation of powerful yet accessible free software to be used for all analysis from the project and the resulting books and articles.
Max ERC Funding
1 357 920 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym RACE
Project Reasoning About Computational Economies
Researcher (PI) Michael John Wooldridge
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE6, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary The aim of this project is to develop, apply, and evaluate RACE: a robust and practical model checking tool for use in the formal specification, verification, and analysis of computational economies – computer systems in which system components are assumed to have their own goals/preferences about the overall behaviour of the system, and where these system components are assumed to behave selfishly and strategically in the furtherance of their goals/preferences. The key deliverables of the project will of course include the RACE system itself, and in addition: new formalisms for representing and reasoning about computational economies, suitable for use in the RACE system and elsewhere; theoretical results (e.g., complexity analyses, axiom systems, . . . ) relating to the use of these formalisms; new algorithms and data structures for the verification and analysis of computational economies; and a library of case studies, demonstrating the use of RACE in a variety of settings. The project is both timely and essential. It is timely because computer networks populated by multiple self-interested computational entities are increasingly the reality of computing in the 21st century, and as a consequence, research in this area has witnessed a huge explosion of interest recently. It is essential because current formalisms, tools, and techniques for the specification, analysis, and verification of systems were not intended for, and are not appropriate for, this emerging reality. The project will build on two decades of enormously influential research by the PI, who is among the most highly cited researchers in computer science and artificial intelligence today.
Summary
The aim of this project is to develop, apply, and evaluate RACE: a robust and practical model checking tool for use in the formal specification, verification, and analysis of computational economies – computer systems in which system components are assumed to have their own goals/preferences about the overall behaviour of the system, and where these system components are assumed to behave selfishly and strategically in the furtherance of their goals/preferences. The key deliverables of the project will of course include the RACE system itself, and in addition: new formalisms for representing and reasoning about computational economies, suitable for use in the RACE system and elsewhere; theoretical results (e.g., complexity analyses, axiom systems, . . . ) relating to the use of these formalisms; new algorithms and data structures for the verification and analysis of computational economies; and a library of case studies, demonstrating the use of RACE in a variety of settings. The project is both timely and essential. It is timely because computer networks populated by multiple self-interested computational entities are increasingly the reality of computing in the 21st century, and as a consequence, research in this area has witnessed a huge explosion of interest recently. It is essential because current formalisms, tools, and techniques for the specification, analysis, and verification of systems were not intended for, and are not appropriate for, this emerging reality. The project will build on two decades of enormously influential research by the PI, who is among the most highly cited researchers in computer science and artificial intelligence today.
Max ERC Funding
2 129 617 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2018-05-31
Project acronym RAPT
Project Is Religion Special? Reformulating Secularism and Religion in Legal and Contemporary Theory
Researcher (PI) Cecile Laborde
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary RAPT (Religion And Political Theory) aims to re-assess the foundations of the special nature of religion in legal and political theory, by reference to the growing body of multi-disciplinary literature about post secularism. Its main research question is: how can the special status of religion in secular politics and law be explained and justified?
In western politics and law, religion has a special status. On the one hand, there is supposed to be a unique separation between the state and religion; and, on the other hand, the state gives special protection to religious beliefs and organizations qua religious. The religious neutrality of the state and respect for freedom of religion are the two salient features of the relationship between religion, law and politics.
What is rarely noted is that these features rely on a distinctive understanding of religion, born out of the particular trajectory of western secularisation. One upshot of long-standing, protracted struggles between religious and political authorities is that, in western society at least, religion is seen as importantly and relevantly distinct from other spheres of human and social life. So, instead of presenting the problem in a simplistically dichotomous fashion (‘secular’ versus ‘religious’ or ‘post-secular’), RAPT sees religion itself as the contested term in the debate between secularism and its critics.
The central hypothesis of RAPT is that the ‘specialness’ of religion is defensible in light of important political and legal ideals, but that it needs to be substantially modified and refined in response to philosophical, anthropological, historical, political and sociological post-secular critiques.
To demonstrate this, RAPT is divided into three complementary projects: A Typology of the Political-Legal Construction of Religion; An Analytical Assessment of the Post-Secular Critique and A Normative Reformulation of Secularity and Religion.
Summary
RAPT (Religion And Political Theory) aims to re-assess the foundations of the special nature of religion in legal and political theory, by reference to the growing body of multi-disciplinary literature about post secularism. Its main research question is: how can the special status of religion in secular politics and law be explained and justified?
In western politics and law, religion has a special status. On the one hand, there is supposed to be a unique separation between the state and religion; and, on the other hand, the state gives special protection to religious beliefs and organizations qua religious. The religious neutrality of the state and respect for freedom of religion are the two salient features of the relationship between religion, law and politics.
What is rarely noted is that these features rely on a distinctive understanding of religion, born out of the particular trajectory of western secularisation. One upshot of long-standing, protracted struggles between religious and political authorities is that, in western society at least, religion is seen as importantly and relevantly distinct from other spheres of human and social life. So, instead of presenting the problem in a simplistically dichotomous fashion (‘secular’ versus ‘religious’ or ‘post-secular’), RAPT sees religion itself as the contested term in the debate between secularism and its critics.
The central hypothesis of RAPT is that the ‘specialness’ of religion is defensible in light of important political and legal ideals, but that it needs to be substantially modified and refined in response to philosophical, anthropological, historical, political and sociological post-secular critiques.
To demonstrate this, RAPT is divided into three complementary projects: A Typology of the Political-Legal Construction of Religion; An Analytical Assessment of the Post-Secular Critique and A Normative Reformulation of Secularity and Religion.
Max ERC Funding
1 200 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym RECOSAMP
Project Sampling and Reconstruction driven by Sparsity Models with Applications in Sensor Networks and Neuroscience
Researcher (PI) Pier Luigi Dragotti
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The problem of reconstructing or estimating partially observed or
sampled signals is animportant one that finds application
in many areas of signal processing and communications. Traditional
acquisition and reconstruction approaches are heavily influences by
classical Shannon sampling theory which gives an exact sampling
and interpolation formula for bandlimited signals. Recently, the
emerging theory of sparse sampling has challenged the way
we think about signal acquisition and has demonstrated that, by
using more sophisticated signal models, it is possible to break away
from the need to sample signals at the Nyquist rate.
The insight that
sub-Nyquist sampling can, under some circumstances, allow perfect
reconstruction is revolutionizing signal processing, communications
and inverse problems.
Given the
ubiquity of the sampling process, the implications of these new
research developments are far reaching.
This project is based on the applicant's recent work on the sampling
of sparse continuous-time signals and aims to extend the existing theory to include more
general signal models that are closer to the physical
characteristics of real data, to explore new domains where sparsity
and sampling can be effectively used and to provide a set
of new fast algorithms with clear and predictable performance.
As
part of this work, he will also consider timely important problems
such as the localization of diffusive sources in sensor networks and
the analysis of neuronal signals of the brain. He will, for the
first time, pose these as sparse sampling problems and in this way
he expects to develop technologies with a step change in
performance.
Summary
The problem of reconstructing or estimating partially observed or
sampled signals is animportant one that finds application
in many areas of signal processing and communications. Traditional
acquisition and reconstruction approaches are heavily influences by
classical Shannon sampling theory which gives an exact sampling
and interpolation formula for bandlimited signals. Recently, the
emerging theory of sparse sampling has challenged the way
we think about signal acquisition and has demonstrated that, by
using more sophisticated signal models, it is possible to break away
from the need to sample signals at the Nyquist rate.
The insight that
sub-Nyquist sampling can, under some circumstances, allow perfect
reconstruction is revolutionizing signal processing, communications
and inverse problems.
Given the
ubiquity of the sampling process, the implications of these new
research developments are far reaching.
This project is based on the applicant's recent work on the sampling
of sparse continuous-time signals and aims to extend the existing theory to include more
general signal models that are closer to the physical
characteristics of real data, to explore new domains where sparsity
and sampling can be effectively used and to provide a set
of new fast algorithms with clear and predictable performance.
As
part of this work, he will also consider timely important problems
such as the localization of diffusive sources in sensor networks and
the analysis of neuronal signals of the brain. He will, for the
first time, pose these as sparse sampling problems and in this way
he expects to develop technologies with a step change in
performance.
Max ERC Funding
1 451 162 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym REGVARMHC
Project Genetic and epigenetic determinants of allele-specific gene expression in the human Major Histocompatibility Complex
Researcher (PI) Julian Charles Knight
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2011-StG_20101109
Summary The overall aim of this proposal is to understand how individual genetic and epigenetic variation in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) on chromosome 6p21 may determine susceptibility to autoimmune, infectious and inflammatory disease. The human MHC is a paradigm for genomics, showing remarkable polymorphism and striking association with disease, but causal genetic variants remain largely unresolved. The identification of specific disease risk variants is particularly challenging in the MHC due to the extent of genetic diversity now recognised, the complexity of coinheritance between genetic markers and the difficulty of resolving specific regulatory variants modulating gene expression. We have previously established the importance of allele-specific gene expression in the MHC at specific loci including the TNF, HSP70 and HLA-DRB1 genes. We now propose a comprehensive global analysis for the MHC addressing the following specific objectives: (1) to define allele-specific transcription across the classical MHC for disease associated haplotypes in specific peripheral blood cells using RNA sequencing; (2) to compliment this by identifying allelic differences in gene regulation at the level of chromatin structure and histone modifications; (3) to resolve DNA sequence variants associated with differences in MHC gene expression by quantitative trait mapping in healthy volunteers; (4) to investigate the extent and consequences of allele-specific DNA methylation in the MHC; (5) to functionally characterise specific gene loci showing evidence of allele-specific gene expression in the context of reported disease associations. The proposal is scientifically ambitious, using cutting edge genomic technologies to address in innovative ways a major roadblock in this field of scientific research. The work is of significant translational importance as we apply genomic medicine to improve care for the individual patient and advance our understanding of disease pathogenesis.
Summary
The overall aim of this proposal is to understand how individual genetic and epigenetic variation in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) on chromosome 6p21 may determine susceptibility to autoimmune, infectious and inflammatory disease. The human MHC is a paradigm for genomics, showing remarkable polymorphism and striking association with disease, but causal genetic variants remain largely unresolved. The identification of specific disease risk variants is particularly challenging in the MHC due to the extent of genetic diversity now recognised, the complexity of coinheritance between genetic markers and the difficulty of resolving specific regulatory variants modulating gene expression. We have previously established the importance of allele-specific gene expression in the MHC at specific loci including the TNF, HSP70 and HLA-DRB1 genes. We now propose a comprehensive global analysis for the MHC addressing the following specific objectives: (1) to define allele-specific transcription across the classical MHC for disease associated haplotypes in specific peripheral blood cells using RNA sequencing; (2) to compliment this by identifying allelic differences in gene regulation at the level of chromatin structure and histone modifications; (3) to resolve DNA sequence variants associated with differences in MHC gene expression by quantitative trait mapping in healthy volunteers; (4) to investigate the extent and consequences of allele-specific DNA methylation in the MHC; (5) to functionally characterise specific gene loci showing evidence of allele-specific gene expression in the context of reported disease associations. The proposal is scientifically ambitious, using cutting edge genomic technologies to address in innovative ways a major roadblock in this field of scientific research. The work is of significant translational importance as we apply genomic medicine to improve care for the individual patient and advance our understanding of disease pathogenesis.
Max ERC Funding
1 496 899 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym REMNANTS
Project Living With Remnants: Politics, Materiality and Subjectivity in the Aftermath of Past Atrocities in Turkey
Researcher (PI) Yael Navaro-Yashin
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary The proposed project aims to study 'remnants' from past atrocities in contemporary Turkey and its associated migrant and diaspora communities elsewhere. 'Remnants' are conceptualized as multiplex phenomena which have an enduring effect in the after-life of persons and communities which were once associated with them. These may be material remains in the form of houses, temples, and other forms of built and spatial structure once used and inhabited by communities that were displaced, deported, ethnically cleansed, or exterminated. They may also be immaterial affects, in the form of memory or the imagination as associated with past atrocities, such as accounts of haunting and/or loss in the aftermath of violence. 'Remnants' figure in subjective worlds in embodied forms, where contemporary inhabitants of Turkey have begun to claim Armenian, Greek, or Kurdish ancestry. They are also 'political' insofar as they constitute the context for ongoing inter-communitarian relations in and outside Turkey, relations which sometimes take 'legal' and 'economic' forms. This project proposes to ethnographically study 'remnants' in Turkey and its diaspora communities at a time when Turkey is being challenged to face its past of mass atrocities. We propose to actualize this research by focusing on four key city-sites (Tunceli-Elazig, Mardin, Diyarbakir-Batman, and Antakya) in Turkey's under-studied south and south Eastern regions, relevant from the point of view of the mass atrocities targeting Armenians, Assyrian-Syriacs, Alevis, Kurds and other local communities which this project aims to focus on. The project will be composed of four ethnographic sub-projects in these sites and their respective diasporas outside Turkey (Syria, Cyprus, Germany, Sweden) composed of migrants, deportees, survivors, or refugees from the sites of mass atrocity. The project will employ innovative methodologies in ethnographic and archival research in addressing the aftermath of violence in Turkey.
Summary
The proposed project aims to study 'remnants' from past atrocities in contemporary Turkey and its associated migrant and diaspora communities elsewhere. 'Remnants' are conceptualized as multiplex phenomena which have an enduring effect in the after-life of persons and communities which were once associated with them. These may be material remains in the form of houses, temples, and other forms of built and spatial structure once used and inhabited by communities that were displaced, deported, ethnically cleansed, or exterminated. They may also be immaterial affects, in the form of memory or the imagination as associated with past atrocities, such as accounts of haunting and/or loss in the aftermath of violence. 'Remnants' figure in subjective worlds in embodied forms, where contemporary inhabitants of Turkey have begun to claim Armenian, Greek, or Kurdish ancestry. They are also 'political' insofar as they constitute the context for ongoing inter-communitarian relations in and outside Turkey, relations which sometimes take 'legal' and 'economic' forms. This project proposes to ethnographically study 'remnants' in Turkey and its diaspora communities at a time when Turkey is being challenged to face its past of mass atrocities. We propose to actualize this research by focusing on four key city-sites (Tunceli-Elazig, Mardin, Diyarbakir-Batman, and Antakya) in Turkey's under-studied south and south Eastern regions, relevant from the point of view of the mass atrocities targeting Armenians, Assyrian-Syriacs, Alevis, Kurds and other local communities which this project aims to focus on. The project will be composed of four ethnographic sub-projects in these sites and their respective diasporas outside Turkey (Syria, Cyprus, Germany, Sweden) composed of migrants, deportees, survivors, or refugees from the sites of mass atrocity. The project will employ innovative methodologies in ethnographic and archival research in addressing the aftermath of violence in Turkey.
Max ERC Funding
1 398 013 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym REPLENICHE
Project Cell cycle regulation of ES cell identity and reprogramming potential
Researcher (PI) Amanda Fisher
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110310
Summary Pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) and germ (EG) cells differ from other stem cells in several respects. They display a characteristically ‘compressed’ cell cycle in which G1 is shortened, contain a high proportion of cells in DNA synthesis (S)-phase and lack several cell cycle checkpoints. This unusual cell cycle signature is important for maintaining their identity since cell cycle arrest, or lengthening, results in irreversible differentiation, and somatic cells assume this unusual signature when successfully reprogrammed.
We have shown that ES and EG cells rapidly convert somatic cells towards pluripotency in transient heterokaryons, and this can be enhanced by genetic modification or using ES cells enriched at G2-phase. On the other hand, mouse epiblast stem (EpiS) and ES cells that lack specific repressor activities (such as Polycomb) although pluripotent, do notdominantly convert somatic cells and show increased doubling times. To determine the importance of cell cycle control for pluripotent self-renewal, we have optimised elutriation to allow the isolation of ES, EG and EpiS cells at progressive stages of the cell cycle. Pilot studies show changes in the levels of modified histones as ES cells transit the cell cycle, and increased levels of specific reprogramming factors during G2-phase. We will extend these analyses genome wide (using ChIP and RNA Seq, and high throughput proteomics) and use fluorescent microscopy to document changes in chromatin dynamics during ES cell cycle, and during somatic cell reprogramming. This will be achieved using novel micro-fluidic approaches to generate heterokaryons between ES, EG, EpiS and lymphocytes. The importance of cell cycle stage and its relevance during early events in successful reprogramming will be tested in heterokaryon and hybrid assays using conditional mutant cells, RNAi-based approaches and cell cycle inhibitors to block critical components.
Summary
Pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) and germ (EG) cells differ from other stem cells in several respects. They display a characteristically ‘compressed’ cell cycle in which G1 is shortened, contain a high proportion of cells in DNA synthesis (S)-phase and lack several cell cycle checkpoints. This unusual cell cycle signature is important for maintaining their identity since cell cycle arrest, or lengthening, results in irreversible differentiation, and somatic cells assume this unusual signature when successfully reprogrammed.
We have shown that ES and EG cells rapidly convert somatic cells towards pluripotency in transient heterokaryons, and this can be enhanced by genetic modification or using ES cells enriched at G2-phase. On the other hand, mouse epiblast stem (EpiS) and ES cells that lack specific repressor activities (such as Polycomb) although pluripotent, do notdominantly convert somatic cells and show increased doubling times. To determine the importance of cell cycle control for pluripotent self-renewal, we have optimised elutriation to allow the isolation of ES, EG and EpiS cells at progressive stages of the cell cycle. Pilot studies show changes in the levels of modified histones as ES cells transit the cell cycle, and increased levels of specific reprogramming factors during G2-phase. We will extend these analyses genome wide (using ChIP and RNA Seq, and high throughput proteomics) and use fluorescent microscopy to document changes in chromatin dynamics during ES cell cycle, and during somatic cell reprogramming. This will be achieved using novel micro-fluidic approaches to generate heterokaryons between ES, EG, EpiS and lymphocytes. The importance of cell cycle stage and its relevance during early events in successful reprogramming will be tested in heterokaryon and hybrid assays using conditional mutant cells, RNAi-based approaches and cell cycle inhibitors to block critical components.
Max ERC Funding
2 038 170 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym RFMIFICS
Project RF-enhanced Microprocessing for Fine Chemicals Synthesis using Catalysts Supported on Magnetic Nanoparticles
Researcher (PI) Evgeny Rebrov
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary This proposal aims at further strengthening the current line of the applicant’s research in the area of nontraditional energy sources and structured reactors. Novel and challenging reactor concepts and technologies are proposed for newly emerging liquid phase catalytic processes for, amongst others, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals synthesis. Catalytic processes in the liquid phase are crucial in the manufacturing of fine and specialty chemicals. It is widely accepted that the activity of a solid catalyst suspended in a liquid phase can benefit greatly from the use of smaller catalyst particles to avoid mass-transfer limitations. However, the difficulties in recovering small particles from the reaction mixture severely circumvent their industrial applications. To overcome the above drawbacks, the separation of suspended magnetic catalyst bodies from the liquid system using an external magnetic field is proposed. Functionalized magnetic bimetallic nanoparticles are leading candidates for catalytic applications as a vector for magnetic guidance. Their appclication will provide reactors and processes for synthetic routes and high-value added products with optimal space-time yields, minimum waste production, minimum energy consumption, and minimum operating costs. Two novel reactor concepts are proposed in this ERC starting grant program with the aim to develop and demonstrate continuous flow reactors, viz. (1) the RF-heated reactor where catalytically active magnetic nanoparticles are hold in the reactor by an external magnetic field while being heated, and (2) the micro-flow through reactor for magnetic NP manipulation, where mixing in laminar flow is improved by quadrupolar actuation created by a quadrupolar micro magnet arrangement along the channel.
Summary
This proposal aims at further strengthening the current line of the applicant’s research in the area of nontraditional energy sources and structured reactors. Novel and challenging reactor concepts and technologies are proposed for newly emerging liquid phase catalytic processes for, amongst others, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals synthesis. Catalytic processes in the liquid phase are crucial in the manufacturing of fine and specialty chemicals. It is widely accepted that the activity of a solid catalyst suspended in a liquid phase can benefit greatly from the use of smaller catalyst particles to avoid mass-transfer limitations. However, the difficulties in recovering small particles from the reaction mixture severely circumvent their industrial applications. To overcome the above drawbacks, the separation of suspended magnetic catalyst bodies from the liquid system using an external magnetic field is proposed. Functionalized magnetic bimetallic nanoparticles are leading candidates for catalytic applications as a vector for magnetic guidance. Their appclication will provide reactors and processes for synthetic routes and high-value added products with optimal space-time yields, minimum waste production, minimum energy consumption, and minimum operating costs. Two novel reactor concepts are proposed in this ERC starting grant program with the aim to develop and demonstrate continuous flow reactors, viz. (1) the RF-heated reactor where catalytically active magnetic nanoparticles are hold in the reactor by an external magnetic field while being heated, and (2) the micro-flow through reactor for magnetic NP manipulation, where mixing in laminar flow is improved by quadrupolar actuation created by a quadrupolar micro magnet arrangement along the channel.
Max ERC Funding
1 242 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-09-01, End date: 2015-12-31
Project acronym RheoActive
Project Geometry, instability and activity in complex and biological fluids
Researcher (PI) Suzanne Fielding
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE3, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Within the research area of soft condensed matter physics, this proposal concerns the remarkable flow (rheological) behaviour of complex fluids such as polymers, colloids and emulsions; and of
biologically active suspensions such as swarms of bacteria or sperm, and the cytoskeletal matrix of the biological cell. A unifying concept in two closely related research themes is the way
non-equilibrium dynamics underlies the rheological behaviour of these fluids. Theme I concerns non-equilibrium phase transitions induced by an externally applied flow. It addresses the challenge of predicting the onset, characteristics and implications of these transitions in the complicated flow geometries that arise experimentally and industrially: focusing on the two key issues that will form the basis of practical rheological prediction, by addressing the key concepts of underlying physics. The first concerns the way in which geometrical confinement can lead to a rich interplay between three dimensional (3D) phase transitions in the fluid bulk, and 2D surface transitions at the hard walls of the flow device. The second concerns instabilities in extensional (stretching) flows and how they interact with transitions in shearing flows, aiming to develop a unified understanding of both, and how they interact. Theme II turns to biological suspensions that exist in strongly non-equilibrium regimes due internal activity such as bacterial swimming. While much progress has been made predicting rules for single-swimmer propulsion, and emergent phenomena of many swimmers collectively, most work to date has been in a simple (Newtonian) suspending fluid. This is a major shortcoming: most biological swimming occurs in complex polymeric fluids. My aim is to forge a physical understanding of biological activity in these complex fluid environments. Emergent phenomena include banded and turbulent flows, with an obvious link to Theme I, and an overall aim is to cross fertilise concepts between the Themes.
Summary
Within the research area of soft condensed matter physics, this proposal concerns the remarkable flow (rheological) behaviour of complex fluids such as polymers, colloids and emulsions; and of
biologically active suspensions such as swarms of bacteria or sperm, and the cytoskeletal matrix of the biological cell. A unifying concept in two closely related research themes is the way
non-equilibrium dynamics underlies the rheological behaviour of these fluids. Theme I concerns non-equilibrium phase transitions induced by an externally applied flow. It addresses the challenge of predicting the onset, characteristics and implications of these transitions in the complicated flow geometries that arise experimentally and industrially: focusing on the two key issues that will form the basis of practical rheological prediction, by addressing the key concepts of underlying physics. The first concerns the way in which geometrical confinement can lead to a rich interplay between three dimensional (3D) phase transitions in the fluid bulk, and 2D surface transitions at the hard walls of the flow device. The second concerns instabilities in extensional (stretching) flows and how they interact with transitions in shearing flows, aiming to develop a unified understanding of both, and how they interact. Theme II turns to biological suspensions that exist in strongly non-equilibrium regimes due internal activity such as bacterial swimming. While much progress has been made predicting rules for single-swimmer propulsion, and emergent phenomena of many swimmers collectively, most work to date has been in a simple (Newtonian) suspending fluid. This is a major shortcoming: most biological swimming occurs in complex polymeric fluids. My aim is to forge a physical understanding of biological activity in these complex fluid environments. Emergent phenomena include banded and turbulent flows, with an obvious link to Theme I, and an overall aim is to cross fertilise concepts between the Themes.
Max ERC Funding
1 460 342 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
Project acronym SCS
Project Strongly Coupled Systems
Researcher (PI) David Mark Tong
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE2, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary Strongly coupled systems comprise some of the most difficult and important problems in physics, from high temperature superconductivity, to quantum chromodynamics, to gravity at the Planck scale. Understanding even the most basic questions about these systems --- such as the phase structure or the relevant degrees of freedom --- remains a challenge. It is necessary to introduce new, imaginative techniques to tackle these problems.
In the past decade, several new ideas have emerged from research in string theory. While string theory is often paraded as a “theory of everything”, a less trumpeted facet is the way in which is gives new perspectives to study more down to earth systems, in particular the strongly coupled phases of quantum field theories.
The goal of this project is to develop these techniques to extract information about strongly coupled quantum field theories, both relativistic and non-relativistic, including theories at conformal points and those with a mass gap. The focus is on the application of gauge/gravity duality to new arenas. However, we will also explore the constraints imposed by supersymmetry on non-relativistic systems. These results will be important for communities interested in quantum field theory, string theory, and condensed matter physics.
Summary
Strongly coupled systems comprise some of the most difficult and important problems in physics, from high temperature superconductivity, to quantum chromodynamics, to gravity at the Planck scale. Understanding even the most basic questions about these systems --- such as the phase structure or the relevant degrees of freedom --- remains a challenge. It is necessary to introduce new, imaginative techniques to tackle these problems.
In the past decade, several new ideas have emerged from research in string theory. While string theory is often paraded as a “theory of everything”, a less trumpeted facet is the way in which is gives new perspectives to study more down to earth systems, in particular the strongly coupled phases of quantum field theories.
The goal of this project is to develop these techniques to extract information about strongly coupled quantum field theories, both relativistic and non-relativistic, including theories at conformal points and those with a mass gap. The focus is on the application of gauge/gravity duality to new arenas. However, we will also explore the constraints imposed by supersymmetry on non-relativistic systems. These results will be important for communities interested in quantum field theory, string theory, and condensed matter physics.
Max ERC Funding
1 271 623 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-10-01, End date: 2017-09-30
Project acronym SEPI
Project Sequencing population isolates to find complex trait loci
Researcher (PI) Eleftheria Zeggini
Host Institution (HI) GENOME RESEARCH LIMITED
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS2, ERC-2011-StG_20101109
Summary "Genome-wide association studies of complex traits have identified many common variant associations, but a substantial heritability gap remains. The field is shifting towards the study of low frequency and rare variants, hypothesised to have larger effects. The study of these variants can be empowered by focusing on isolated populations, in which rare variants may have increased in frequency and linkage disequilibrium tends to be extended. This work will focus on three isolated populations, each with information on a wide array of anthropometric, cardiometabolic, biochemical, haematological and diet-related traits. Anogia is a mountainous village on the island of Crete with high levels of longevity; the Pomak villages are a set of religiously isolated mountainous villages in the North of Greece and Korcula is an isolated Adriatic Sea island, all with high levels of cardiometabolic and psychiatric disease. 1,000 to 1,500 individuals from each of these populations will be typed on genome-wide chips before the start of this project. Sequencing is very efficient in isolated populations, because variants found in a few samples will be shared by others, supporting accurate imputation. We will whole-genome sequence 200 individuals from each of these populations and will access all variation down to 1% frequency and ~40% of variants with frequency 0.1% to 1% for the first time. We will impute identified variants into the full set of genome-wide typed samples, and will test for association with the collected traits, initially focusing on cardiometabolic phenotypes. We will validate associations by direct genotyping in the discovery set and will seek replication in further isolated and outbred populations. Using cutting-edge high-throughput sequencing technologies and novel analytical tools, this work is uniquely poised to usher in the new era of next-generation genetic studies and identify robust associations with disease-related complex traits."
Summary
"Genome-wide association studies of complex traits have identified many common variant associations, but a substantial heritability gap remains. The field is shifting towards the study of low frequency and rare variants, hypothesised to have larger effects. The study of these variants can be empowered by focusing on isolated populations, in which rare variants may have increased in frequency and linkage disequilibrium tends to be extended. This work will focus on three isolated populations, each with information on a wide array of anthropometric, cardiometabolic, biochemical, haematological and diet-related traits. Anogia is a mountainous village on the island of Crete with high levels of longevity; the Pomak villages are a set of religiously isolated mountainous villages in the North of Greece and Korcula is an isolated Adriatic Sea island, all with high levels of cardiometabolic and psychiatric disease. 1,000 to 1,500 individuals from each of these populations will be typed on genome-wide chips before the start of this project. Sequencing is very efficient in isolated populations, because variants found in a few samples will be shared by others, supporting accurate imputation. We will whole-genome sequence 200 individuals from each of these populations and will access all variation down to 1% frequency and ~40% of variants with frequency 0.1% to 1% for the first time. We will impute identified variants into the full set of genome-wide typed samples, and will test for association with the collected traits, initially focusing on cardiometabolic phenotypes. We will validate associations by direct genotyping in the discovery set and will seek replication in further isolated and outbred populations. Using cutting-edge high-throughput sequencing technologies and novel analytical tools, this work is uniquely poised to usher in the new era of next-generation genetic studies and identify robust associations with disease-related complex traits."
Max ERC Funding
1 477 932 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym SOCIALCHANGEHEALTH
Project Health Effects of Social Change in Gender, Work & Family: Life Course Evidence from Great Britain
Researcher (PI) Anne Marie Mcmunn
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary Immense changes in work and family lives of men and women are well-documented, but their relationship with health and wellbeing remains unclear. The aim of this study is to use data from four longitudinal British birth cohort studies to assess the health impact of social change in women's and men's work-family life courses, for both the women and the men themselves, but also for their children and partner's. Generational changes in these relationships will also be investigated as biographies diversify over time.
The objectives of the study are:
1. To characterise cohort differences in women's and men's participation in paid work, unpaid domestic work and family forms in Britain using longitudinal typologies.
2. To examine gender differences in relationships between work-family typologies and health and whether these relationships differ by cohort.
3. To investigate whether relationships between work-family typologies and health vary by socioeconomic position for men and women in different cohorts.
4. To examine the effects of changing work and family patterns on children's emotional and physical development.
5. To investigate the extent to which changing relationships between work-family typologies and health are mediated by changes in the social relations of gender.
State-of-the-art contributions will be four-fold:
1. The inclusion of biological measures of health, in addition to measures of perceived health, to examine the interface between the social (gender) and biological (sex) in national, longitudinal population studies.
2. The use of life course data across cohorts to examine generation and gender differences in the health effects of increasing individualization.
3. Investigating the health effects of social change within families, focusing on health effects among men and children in addition to women.
4. The application of sociological theory to quanitative social epidemiology.
Summary
Immense changes in work and family lives of men and women are well-documented, but their relationship with health and wellbeing remains unclear. The aim of this study is to use data from four longitudinal British birth cohort studies to assess the health impact of social change in women's and men's work-family life courses, for both the women and the men themselves, but also for their children and partner's. Generational changes in these relationships will also be investigated as biographies diversify over time.
The objectives of the study are:
1. To characterise cohort differences in women's and men's participation in paid work, unpaid domestic work and family forms in Britain using longitudinal typologies.
2. To examine gender differences in relationships between work-family typologies and health and whether these relationships differ by cohort.
3. To investigate whether relationships between work-family typologies and health vary by socioeconomic position for men and women in different cohorts.
4. To examine the effects of changing work and family patterns on children's emotional and physical development.
5. To investigate the extent to which changing relationships between work-family typologies and health are mediated by changes in the social relations of gender.
State-of-the-art contributions will be four-fold:
1. The inclusion of biological measures of health, in addition to measures of perceived health, to examine the interface between the social (gender) and biological (sex) in national, longitudinal population studies.
2. The use of life course data across cohorts to examine generation and gender differences in the health effects of increasing individualization.
3. Investigating the health effects of social change within families, focusing on health effects among men and children in addition to women.
4. The application of sociological theory to quanitative social epidemiology.
Max ERC Funding
681 582 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31
Project acronym SOCNET
Project SOCIAL NETWORK SITES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Researcher (PI) Daniel Malcolm Stuart Miller
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary The last few years have witnessed an explosive increase in the use of social networking sites. Today there are over 500 million on Facebook, and 100 million on QQ - the Chinese equivalent, as well as Orkut and Twitter. The primary purpose of this research project is to determine the nature of these sites and assess the challenge they represent to assumptions at the core of social science with regard to the decline in social relations, including the degree to which these sites have been appropriated to alleviate the negative impact of this decline. It will also focus on trends including the shift to older and less affluent users, and key consequences such as the impact on migrants and on separated families which rely on such communications. It will assess recent academic debates regarding the consequence of social networks for political action and activism, the nature of privacy and the public domain. But the research method is holistic and the seven proposed books will include a general re-thinking of core social science theory in the light of this phenomenon as well as monographs on more specific trends in usage and an overall assessment of social and welfare implications. Research has mainly been on the earlier users, mainly college students and focused on the US. But recent trends suggest future growth in older populations and in middle income regions such as Brazil and Turkey. The research consists of 15 months intensive ethnographic participation and observation, appropriate given the intimate nature of these communications. There will be seven ethnographies all based in small town sites. Some aimed at demographic breadth in China, India, Brazil and Turkey others at depth in Romania, Trinidad and the UK. The study will also include long term online participation in the social networking sites themselves with 150 informants from each country. The intensity of ethnographic depth will be matched by a commitment to comparative analysis and generalisation.
Summary
The last few years have witnessed an explosive increase in the use of social networking sites. Today there are over 500 million on Facebook, and 100 million on QQ - the Chinese equivalent, as well as Orkut and Twitter. The primary purpose of this research project is to determine the nature of these sites and assess the challenge they represent to assumptions at the core of social science with regard to the decline in social relations, including the degree to which these sites have been appropriated to alleviate the negative impact of this decline. It will also focus on trends including the shift to older and less affluent users, and key consequences such as the impact on migrants and on separated families which rely on such communications. It will assess recent academic debates regarding the consequence of social networks for political action and activism, the nature of privacy and the public domain. But the research method is holistic and the seven proposed books will include a general re-thinking of core social science theory in the light of this phenomenon as well as monographs on more specific trends in usage and an overall assessment of social and welfare implications. Research has mainly been on the earlier users, mainly college students and focused on the US. But recent trends suggest future growth in older populations and in middle income regions such as Brazil and Turkey. The research consists of 15 months intensive ethnographic participation and observation, appropriate given the intimate nature of these communications. There will be seven ethnographies all based in small town sites. Some aimed at demographic breadth in China, India, Brazil and Turkey others at depth in Romania, Trinidad and the UK. The study will also include long term online participation in the social networking sites themselves with 150 informants from each country. The intensity of ethnographic depth will be matched by a commitment to comparative analysis and generalisation.
Max ERC Funding
2 475 376 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym SOLLIQ
Project Mathematics of solid and liquid crystals
Researcher (PI) John Macleod Ball
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE1, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary The project combines two closely related themes in which nonlinear analysis addresses central issues of material behaviour. The first is the prediction and analysis of microstructure arising from solid phase transformations in alloys. Such microstructure largely determines the macroscopic properties of the material, but the prediction of its morphology remains poorly understood, and is related to deep unsolved problems in the calculus of variations. The aim is to make advances in this area using appropriate static and dynamic continuum models of nonlinear elasticity type, thus helping to create a predictive theory. The second theme is to develop the mathematical theory of the Landau - de Gennes theory of liquid crystals, in which the distribution of molecular orientations is described by a matrix order parameter. Regarded by physicists as a theory of choice for liquid crystals, the Landau - de Gennes model has been little studied by mathematicians. The aim is to understand more about its validity and properties of solutions, with potential gains for the prediction of the behaviour of new generations of liquid crystal displays.
Linking and underpinning the two themes are common mathematical and conceptual challenges, such as understanding the existence and singularities of minimizers in the multi-dimensional calculus of variations, the approach to equilibrium of thermomechanical systems, and the passage from atomic and molecular to continuum descriptions of materials. An expectation of the project is that the simultaneous study of problems from the two themes will lead both to new understanding of these fundamental scientific questions and to beneficial cross-fertilization between the themes.
Summary
The project combines two closely related themes in which nonlinear analysis addresses central issues of material behaviour. The first is the prediction and analysis of microstructure arising from solid phase transformations in alloys. Such microstructure largely determines the macroscopic properties of the material, but the prediction of its morphology remains poorly understood, and is related to deep unsolved problems in the calculus of variations. The aim is to make advances in this area using appropriate static and dynamic continuum models of nonlinear elasticity type, thus helping to create a predictive theory. The second theme is to develop the mathematical theory of the Landau - de Gennes theory of liquid crystals, in which the distribution of molecular orientations is described by a matrix order parameter. Regarded by physicists as a theory of choice for liquid crystals, the Landau - de Gennes model has been little studied by mathematicians. The aim is to understand more about its validity and properties of solutions, with potential gains for the prediction of the behaviour of new generations of liquid crystal displays.
Linking and underpinning the two themes are common mathematical and conceptual challenges, such as understanding the existence and singularities of minimizers in the multi-dimensional calculus of variations, the approach to equilibrium of thermomechanical systems, and the passage from atomic and molecular to continuum descriptions of materials. An expectation of the project is that the simultaneous study of problems from the two themes will lead both to new understanding of these fundamental scientific questions and to beneficial cross-fertilization between the themes.
Max ERC Funding
2 006 998 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2018-03-31
Project acronym SUPERSPIN
Project Triplet supercurrents and superconducting spintronics
Researcher (PI) Mark Giffard Blamire
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE3, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "In almost all superconductors the pairs of electrons which carry the charge are in the so-called “singlet” state in which the quantum spin of the two electrons is antiparallel. There are only a few known compounds which show so-called p-wave superconductivity in which the electron spins within a pair are parallel and hence in a “triplet” state.
During the past five years there has been increasing evidence that proximity coupling between singlet superconductors and ferromagnets can sometimes generate triplet pairs within the ferromagnet - the evidence being that supercurrents can be passed through ferromagnetic materials over length scales which are simply too large for singlet pairs to survive. Earlier this year, in parallel with two other international groups, we made a breakthrough in demonstrating how this triplet state can be created in a controlled way. Together, the results have opened the way for a rich new field of triplet superconductivity in which the potential ability of a supercurrent to carry spin can be allied with standard spin electronics (""spintronics"").
In this project we will build on our lead in this field and to explore how triplet currents can be controlled by magnetic elements within a device so that the spin supercurrent can be directly measured. As well as demonstrating superconducting spintronic devices, this project also aims to investigate the potential of creating artificial p-wave superconductors by exploiting materials which are predicted to have a favourable p-wave coupling but which are not themselves superconductors. The results from this programme will inevitably stimulate the broader scientific community interested in unconventional superconductivity and spintronics and pave the way for important new research fields."
Summary
"In almost all superconductors the pairs of electrons which carry the charge are in the so-called “singlet” state in which the quantum spin of the two electrons is antiparallel. There are only a few known compounds which show so-called p-wave superconductivity in which the electron spins within a pair are parallel and hence in a “triplet” state.
During the past five years there has been increasing evidence that proximity coupling between singlet superconductors and ferromagnets can sometimes generate triplet pairs within the ferromagnet - the evidence being that supercurrents can be passed through ferromagnetic materials over length scales which are simply too large for singlet pairs to survive. Earlier this year, in parallel with two other international groups, we made a breakthrough in demonstrating how this triplet state can be created in a controlled way. Together, the results have opened the way for a rich new field of triplet superconductivity in which the potential ability of a supercurrent to carry spin can be allied with standard spin electronics (""spintronics"").
In this project we will build on our lead in this field and to explore how triplet currents can be controlled by magnetic elements within a device so that the spin supercurrent can be directly measured. As well as demonstrating superconducting spintronic devices, this project also aims to investigate the potential of creating artificial p-wave superconductors by exploiting materials which are predicted to have a favourable p-wave coupling but which are not themselves superconductors. The results from this programme will inevitably stimulate the broader scientific community interested in unconventional superconductivity and spintronics and pave the way for important new research fields."
Max ERC Funding
1 822 084 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-03-01, End date: 2017-02-28
Project acronym T-FORCES
Project Tropical forests in the changing earth system
Researcher (PI) Oliver Phillips
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE10, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary The ambition of this proposal is to determine, from the ground up, the changing role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle. The scientific objectives are: (1) Determine the trajectory of change in remaining tropical forests, (2) Unravel the drivers of change, (3) Gauge the sensitivity of forests to the climate change threat, and (4) Scale the findings to the present and future earth system.
The 5-yr interdisciplinary research project led by Oliver Phillips will construct a Pan-Tropical Observatory of Forest Function, using this to reveal the transient and long-term forest response to global change. In Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America, T-FORCES will direct long-term on-the-ground observations of forest dynamics, and integrate them with complementary approaches including high frequency measurement of the climate-sensitivities of different components of the carbon cycle, and full analysis of forest climate, landscape, and ecology. The huge scale of the tropical forest biome will be used to develop a series of natural experiments:
*Within continents, gradients of climate, soil, and disturbance will be sampled to explore current, transient responses and to scale-up in space and time.
*Six elevational gradients will provide replicates to reveal the equilibrium sensitivities of tropical carbon cycle processes to temperature.
*By working across four tropical continents each provides independent tests to distinguish between change drivers that may be regional (eg Amazon drought) or global (eg CO2 fertilisation) in nature.
T-FORCES will transform scientific understanding of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle, by revealing the key patterns, impacts and processes so far, the threat to forests from global change, and the risk that forests will magnify those changes. The Pan-Tropical Observatory of Forest Function will provide the global science community with the baseline and framework to investigate the processes involved throughout our century.
Summary
The ambition of this proposal is to determine, from the ground up, the changing role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle. The scientific objectives are: (1) Determine the trajectory of change in remaining tropical forests, (2) Unravel the drivers of change, (3) Gauge the sensitivity of forests to the climate change threat, and (4) Scale the findings to the present and future earth system.
The 5-yr interdisciplinary research project led by Oliver Phillips will construct a Pan-Tropical Observatory of Forest Function, using this to reveal the transient and long-term forest response to global change. In Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America, T-FORCES will direct long-term on-the-ground observations of forest dynamics, and integrate them with complementary approaches including high frequency measurement of the climate-sensitivities of different components of the carbon cycle, and full analysis of forest climate, landscape, and ecology. The huge scale of the tropical forest biome will be used to develop a series of natural experiments:
*Within continents, gradients of climate, soil, and disturbance will be sampled to explore current, transient responses and to scale-up in space and time.
*Six elevational gradients will provide replicates to reveal the equilibrium sensitivities of tropical carbon cycle processes to temperature.
*By working across four tropical continents each provides independent tests to distinguish between change drivers that may be regional (eg Amazon drought) or global (eg CO2 fertilisation) in nature.
T-FORCES will transform scientific understanding of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle, by revealing the key patterns, impacts and processes so far, the threat to forests from global change, and the risk that forests will magnify those changes. The Pan-Tropical Observatory of Forest Function will provide the global science community with the baseline and framework to investigate the processes involved throughout our century.
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-07-01, End date: 2018-06-30
Project acronym TESTDE
Project Testing the Dark Energy Paradigm and Measuring Neutrino Mass with the Dark Energy Survey
Researcher (PI) Ofer Lahav
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE9, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary One of the greatest mysteries in the whole of science is that 75% of the Universe appears to be made of an enigmatic ‘Dark Energy’. A further 21% of the Universe is made from invisible ‘Cold Dark Matter’ that can only be detected through its gravitational effects, with the ordinary atomic matter making up only 4% of the total cosmic budget. These discoveries require a shift in our perception. I play leadership roles in several large surveys, in particular the $40M international Dark Energy Survey (DES), where I coordinate the entire science programme, with 200 scientists from 5 countries. DES will have its first light in October 2011, with observing from 2012 to 2017. I propose three Themes, which are interlinked: (1) Modelling the cross-talk of DES probes and a feasibility study for a spectroscopic follow-up (DESpec) which will allow testing modified General Relativity models as alternatives to Dark Energy; (2) Attempting for the first time to measure the as yet unknown neutrino mass from DES, including novel modelling of the non-linear power spectrum; and (3) Follow up of an intriguing excess in galaxy clustering on large scales we recently detected in our home-grown MegaZ-LRG sample, and developing new approaches to photometric redshifts. The research is interdisciplinary since it is connected to statistical methods as well as to High Energy Physics. The techniques developed will also be used for many other projects, including the ongoing Hubble Space Telescope CLASH survey of clusters and the planned ESA Euclid space mission. At this stage of my career, after founding the Cosmology area at University College London and playing a key role in setting up DES, I wish to focus on creative research to exploit DES with the help of four Post-docs. I believe this work will significantly influence the next paradigm shift in Cosmology, and it will make a major contribution to Cosmology in Europe.
Summary
One of the greatest mysteries in the whole of science is that 75% of the Universe appears to be made of an enigmatic ‘Dark Energy’. A further 21% of the Universe is made from invisible ‘Cold Dark Matter’ that can only be detected through its gravitational effects, with the ordinary atomic matter making up only 4% of the total cosmic budget. These discoveries require a shift in our perception. I play leadership roles in several large surveys, in particular the $40M international Dark Energy Survey (DES), where I coordinate the entire science programme, with 200 scientists from 5 countries. DES will have its first light in October 2011, with observing from 2012 to 2017. I propose three Themes, which are interlinked: (1) Modelling the cross-talk of DES probes and a feasibility study for a spectroscopic follow-up (DESpec) which will allow testing modified General Relativity models as alternatives to Dark Energy; (2) Attempting for the first time to measure the as yet unknown neutrino mass from DES, including novel modelling of the non-linear power spectrum; and (3) Follow up of an intriguing excess in galaxy clustering on large scales we recently detected in our home-grown MegaZ-LRG sample, and developing new approaches to photometric redshifts. The research is interdisciplinary since it is connected to statistical methods as well as to High Energy Physics. The techniques developed will also be used for many other projects, including the ongoing Hubble Space Telescope CLASH survey of clusters and the planned ESA Euclid space mission. At this stage of my career, after founding the Cosmology area at University College London and playing a key role in setting up DES, I wish to focus on creative research to exploit DES with the help of four Post-docs. I believe this work will significantly influence the next paradigm shift in Cosmology, and it will make a major contribution to Cosmology in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
2 416 388 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2018-04-30
Project acronym TORCH
Project A large-area detector for precision time-of-flight measurements
Researcher (PI) Neville Harnew
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "We propose to construct and prototype an innovative high-precision time-of-flight system suitable for large areas, up to tens of square metres. The TORCH (Time Of internally Reflected CHerenkov light) detector provides a time-of-flight measurement from the imaging of photons emitted in a 1 cm thick quartz radiator, based on the Cherenkov principle. The photons propagate by total internal reflection to the edge of the quartz plane and are then focused onto an array of Micro-Channel Plate (MCP) photon detectors at the periphery of the detector. A timing resolution of 15 ps per particle can be achieved over a flight distance of 10 m. This will allow particle identification in the challenging intermediate momentum region, up to 20 GeV/c. The TORCH detector is highly compact, and the technique will have wide-ranging use in particle and nuclear physics experiments, and especially those where space is at a premium.
The work involves a number of ground-breaking and challenging techniques. We will develop ultra-fast Micro-Channel Plate (MCP) photon detectors that can survive for several years in high radiation environments. The MCPs will be procured in industry to our specification with customized active area and granularity. We will also develop state-of-the-art electronics to read out the MCPs with picosecond precision. Photon imaging will be achieved with milliradian resolution over the large optical volume of the TORCH.
Whilst the TORCH detector has its primary application in the field of particle physics, the MCP and optical developments will also have applications in space physics, nuclear physics, as well as medical imaging."
Summary
"We propose to construct and prototype an innovative high-precision time-of-flight system suitable for large areas, up to tens of square metres. The TORCH (Time Of internally Reflected CHerenkov light) detector provides a time-of-flight measurement from the imaging of photons emitted in a 1 cm thick quartz radiator, based on the Cherenkov principle. The photons propagate by total internal reflection to the edge of the quartz plane and are then focused onto an array of Micro-Channel Plate (MCP) photon detectors at the periphery of the detector. A timing resolution of 15 ps per particle can be achieved over a flight distance of 10 m. This will allow particle identification in the challenging intermediate momentum region, up to 20 GeV/c. The TORCH detector is highly compact, and the technique will have wide-ranging use in particle and nuclear physics experiments, and especially those where space is at a premium.
The work involves a number of ground-breaking and challenging techniques. We will develop ultra-fast Micro-Channel Plate (MCP) photon detectors that can survive for several years in high radiation environments. The MCPs will be procured in industry to our specification with customized active area and granularity. We will also develop state-of-the-art electronics to read out the MCPs with picosecond precision. Photon imaging will be achieved with milliradian resolution over the large optical volume of the TORCH.
Whilst the TORCH detector has its primary application in the field of particle physics, the MCP and optical developments will also have applications in space physics, nuclear physics, as well as medical imaging."
Max ERC Funding
2 696 243 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym UIC
Project Understanding Institutional Change: A Gender Perspective
Researcher (PI) Georgina Waylen
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary "What are the gender dynamics of institutional change? Changing institutions is a fundamental part of the task of lessening gender inequality and yet the gender dynamics of institutional change are still poorly understood. Feminist scholars have long been interested in how to achieve the social, economic and political changes that will lessen inequality. Huge changes in some women's social and economic status have occurred in many part of the world in the last fifty years. Nonetheless multiple and intersecting unequal power relations as well as male domination remain commonplace in many institutional arenas – including judicial and political systems - despite measures such as quotas and equality legislation. Improving our understanding of institutional change is therefore a key undertaking for feminist, if not all, social science as well as a public policy priority. Crucially this institutional analysis will provide an important meso level link between the (sometimes unhelpful) overarching analyses of macro structures such as patriarchy and the more micro-level analysis of the actions and strategies of individual actors and groups that have often predominated. Such an approach will allow scholars to develop better explanatory frameworks while at the same time maintaining historical and contextual specificity. The programme will open new research agendas that systematically investigate how institutional change is gendered, why some forms of change appear more successful than others and how and why informal institutions operate in gendered ways. The outcomes will be of use to both academics and practitioners who want to ensure that gender equity concerns can be more effectively embedded in institutions and processes of institutional design and reform."
Summary
"What are the gender dynamics of institutional change? Changing institutions is a fundamental part of the task of lessening gender inequality and yet the gender dynamics of institutional change are still poorly understood. Feminist scholars have long been interested in how to achieve the social, economic and political changes that will lessen inequality. Huge changes in some women's social and economic status have occurred in many part of the world in the last fifty years. Nonetheless multiple and intersecting unequal power relations as well as male domination remain commonplace in many institutional arenas – including judicial and political systems - despite measures such as quotas and equality legislation. Improving our understanding of institutional change is therefore a key undertaking for feminist, if not all, social science as well as a public policy priority. Crucially this institutional analysis will provide an important meso level link between the (sometimes unhelpful) overarching analyses of macro structures such as patriarchy and the more micro-level analysis of the actions and strategies of individual actors and groups that have often predominated. Such an approach will allow scholars to develop better explanatory frameworks while at the same time maintaining historical and contextual specificity. The programme will open new research agendas that systematically investigate how institutional change is gendered, why some forms of change appear more successful than others and how and why informal institutions operate in gendered ways. The outcomes will be of use to both academics and practitioners who want to ensure that gender equity concerns can be more effectively embedded in institutions and processes of institutional design and reform."
Max ERC Funding
2 166 090 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-06-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym ULTRAS
Project Ultra-luminous supernovae : understanding their nature and cosmic evolution
Researcher (PI) Stephen Smartt
Host Institution (HI) THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE9, ERC-2011-ADG_20110209
Summary "Until the last few years, all of the exploding stars in the Universe were thought to be of two types : core-collapse of a massive star or thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf. The advent of wide-field synoptic sky surveys has opened up a new parameter space which allows very large volumes of the Universe to be searched for explosive stars. A new class of ""ultra-luminous"" supernovae have been discovered that challenge our physical understanding. These optical transients are typically 20-100 times brighter than normal supernovae and the physical mechanism that produces their huge luminosity is not well understood. A proportion of them may be “pair-instability” supernovae, which have been predicted only to exist in the early Universe and result from the evolution of Population III metal free stars. The existence of this ultra-luminous population of explosions in the nearby Universe is now certain, but what their nature is and what fraction really are “pair-instability” supernovae remains to be determined. The Pan-STARRS is a novel wide-field synoptic telescope survey which sweeps the sky to find moving objects and optical transients. I have secured leadership roles in the survey which will allow me to quantify this population of ultra-luminous supernovae at low and high redshift and to uncover their true nature. This will pave the way for searching for them at the highest redshifts with future space missions, possibly pushing into the era of reonization at z ~ 6, and determining whether the first supernovae in the Universe can be observed. Theoretical calculations for the number of Population III supernovae (from the first stars) have predicted low numbers of detections. The recent surprising discovery that these pair-instability supernovae may exist in the local Universe, and appear confined to low-metallicity galaxies, could potentially alter these predictions dramatically."
Summary
"Until the last few years, all of the exploding stars in the Universe were thought to be of two types : core-collapse of a massive star or thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf. The advent of wide-field synoptic sky surveys has opened up a new parameter space which allows very large volumes of the Universe to be searched for explosive stars. A new class of ""ultra-luminous"" supernovae have been discovered that challenge our physical understanding. These optical transients are typically 20-100 times brighter than normal supernovae and the physical mechanism that produces their huge luminosity is not well understood. A proportion of them may be “pair-instability” supernovae, which have been predicted only to exist in the early Universe and result from the evolution of Population III metal free stars. The existence of this ultra-luminous population of explosions in the nearby Universe is now certain, but what their nature is and what fraction really are “pair-instability” supernovae remains to be determined. The Pan-STARRS is a novel wide-field synoptic telescope survey which sweeps the sky to find moving objects and optical transients. I have secured leadership roles in the survey which will allow me to quantify this population of ultra-luminous supernovae at low and high redshift and to uncover their true nature. This will pave the way for searching for them at the highest redshifts with future space missions, possibly pushing into the era of reonization at z ~ 6, and determining whether the first supernovae in the Universe can be observed. Theoretical calculations for the number of Population III supernovae (from the first stars) have predicted low numbers of detections. The recent surprising discovery that these pair-instability supernovae may exist in the local Universe, and appear confined to low-metallicity galaxies, could potentially alter these predictions dramatically."
Max ERC Funding
2 315 044 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-04-01, End date: 2017-03-31
Project acronym WBT
Project Finding order to harness chaos: A new approach to understanding and controlling high Reynolds-number wall-bounded turbulence
Researcher (PI) Bharathram Ganapathisubramani
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE8, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary The enormous impact and significance of high Reynolds-number wall-bounded turbulence in various applications ranging from transportation and energy generation systems to meteorology and oceanography cannot be understated. However, almost all existing ideas in modelling and controlling wall-bounded turbulence are based on our limited understanding of low Reynolds-number flows. In higher Reynolds-numbers, we simply assume the existence of mutual independence of the large-scales located farther away from the wall from the small-scales near the wall and vice-versa. However, this notion of independence is incorrect. In fact, multiscale interactions between large- and small-scales play a significant role in various turbulent transport processes in practical situations. Consequently, our predictive models and control schemes that cannot account for or take advantage of these interactions have very limited success. Therefore, the central question posed in this research project is: What is the physics of scale interactions at higher Reynolds-numbers and how do we take advantage of it?
The aim is to explore the essence of scale interactions and develop fundamental understanding by performing novel experiments in high Reynolds-number boundary layers. New control methodologies based upon the existence of interactions between large- and small-scales will be devised and applied to reduce skin-friction drag. Additionally, unconventional, yet highly innovative experiments will be devised to ``simulate'' essential aspects of high Reynolds-number scale interactions in a controlled laboratory environment. State-of-the-art laser diagnostics techniques including tomographic PIV and multiple-plane PIV will be performed together with other methods such as hot-wire/laser anemometry to study the physics of scale interactions in these flows. The ultimate goal is to develop new initiatives aimed at predicting and controlling wall-bounded flows in order to meet current and future challenges.
Summary
The enormous impact and significance of high Reynolds-number wall-bounded turbulence in various applications ranging from transportation and energy generation systems to meteorology and oceanography cannot be understated. However, almost all existing ideas in modelling and controlling wall-bounded turbulence are based on our limited understanding of low Reynolds-number flows. In higher Reynolds-numbers, we simply assume the existence of mutual independence of the large-scales located farther away from the wall from the small-scales near the wall and vice-versa. However, this notion of independence is incorrect. In fact, multiscale interactions between large- and small-scales play a significant role in various turbulent transport processes in practical situations. Consequently, our predictive models and control schemes that cannot account for or take advantage of these interactions have very limited success. Therefore, the central question posed in this research project is: What is the physics of scale interactions at higher Reynolds-numbers and how do we take advantage of it?
The aim is to explore the essence of scale interactions and develop fundamental understanding by performing novel experiments in high Reynolds-number boundary layers. New control methodologies based upon the existence of interactions between large- and small-scales will be devised and applied to reduce skin-friction drag. Additionally, unconventional, yet highly innovative experiments will be devised to ``simulate'' essential aspects of high Reynolds-number scale interactions in a controlled laboratory environment. State-of-the-art laser diagnostics techniques including tomographic PIV and multiple-plane PIV will be performed together with other methods such as hot-wire/laser anemometry to study the physics of scale interactions in these flows. The ultimate goal is to develop new initiatives aimed at predicting and controlling wall-bounded flows in order to meet current and future challenges.
Max ERC Funding
1 486 500 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
