Project acronym AFIRMATIVE
Project Acoustic-Flow Interaction Models for Advancing Thermoacoustic Instability prediction in Very low Emission combustors
Researcher (PI) Aimee MORGANS
Host Institution (HI) IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Gas turbines are an essential ingredient in the long-term energy and aviation mix. They are flexible, offer fast start-up and the ability to burn renewable-generated fuels. However, they generate NOx emissions, which cause air pollution and damage human health, and reducing these is an air quality imperative. A major hurdle to this is that lean premixed combustion, essential for further NOx emission reductions, is highly susceptible to thermoacoustic instability. This is caused by a two-way coupling between unsteady combustion and acoustic waves, and the resulting large pressure oscillations can cause severe mechanical damage. Computational methods for predicting thermoacoustic instability, fast and accurate enough to be used as part of the industrial design process, are urgently needed.
The only computational methods with the prospect of being fast enough are those based on coupled treatment of the acoustic waves and unsteady combustion. These exploit the amenity of the acoustic waves to analytical modelling, allowing costly simulations to be directed only at the more complex flame. They show real promise: my group recently demonstrated the first accurate coupled predictions for lab-scale combustors. The method does not yet extend to industrial combustors, the more complex flow-fields in these rendering current acoustic models overly-simplistic. I propose to comprehensively overhaul acoustic models across the entirety of the combustor, accounting for real and important acoustic-flow interactions. These new models will offer the breakthrough prospect of extending efficient, accurate predictive capability to industrial combustors, which has a real chance of facilitating future, instability free, very low NOx gas turbines.
Summary
Gas turbines are an essential ingredient in the long-term energy and aviation mix. They are flexible, offer fast start-up and the ability to burn renewable-generated fuels. However, they generate NOx emissions, which cause air pollution and damage human health, and reducing these is an air quality imperative. A major hurdle to this is that lean premixed combustion, essential for further NOx emission reductions, is highly susceptible to thermoacoustic instability. This is caused by a two-way coupling between unsteady combustion and acoustic waves, and the resulting large pressure oscillations can cause severe mechanical damage. Computational methods for predicting thermoacoustic instability, fast and accurate enough to be used as part of the industrial design process, are urgently needed.
The only computational methods with the prospect of being fast enough are those based on coupled treatment of the acoustic waves and unsteady combustion. These exploit the amenity of the acoustic waves to analytical modelling, allowing costly simulations to be directed only at the more complex flame. They show real promise: my group recently demonstrated the first accurate coupled predictions for lab-scale combustors. The method does not yet extend to industrial combustors, the more complex flow-fields in these rendering current acoustic models overly-simplistic. I propose to comprehensively overhaul acoustic models across the entirety of the combustor, accounting for real and important acoustic-flow interactions. These new models will offer the breakthrough prospect of extending efficient, accurate predictive capability to industrial combustors, which has a real chance of facilitating future, instability free, very low NOx gas turbines.
Max ERC Funding
1 985 288 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31
Project acronym CIRCOMMUNICATION
Project Deciphering molecular pathways of circadian clock communication
Researcher (PI) gad ASHER
Host Institution (HI) WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Country Israel
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS1, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The overarching objective of this interdisciplinary project is to elucidate mechanisms through which billions of individual clocks in the body communicate with each other and tick in harmony. The mammalian circadian timing system consists of a master clock in the brain and subsidiary oscillators in almost every cell of the body. Since these clocks anticipate environmental changes and function together to orchestrate daily physiology and behavior their temporal synchronization is critical.
Our recent finding that oxygen serves as a resetting cue for circadian clocks points towards the unprecedented involvement of blood gases as time signals. We will apply cutting edge continuous physiological measurements in freely moving animals, alongside biochemical/molecular biology approaches and advanced cell culture setup to determine the molecular role of oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH in circadian clock communication and function.
The intricate nature of the mammalian circadian system demands the presence of communication mechanisms between clocks throughout the body at multiple levels. While previous studies primarily addressed the role of the master clock in resetting peripheral clocks, our knowledge regarding the communication among clocks between and within peripheral organs is rudimentary. We will reconstruct the mammalian circadian system from the bottom up, sequentially restoring clocks in peripheral tissues of a non-rhythmic animal to (i) obtain a system-view of the peripheral circadian communication network; and (ii) study novel tissue-derived circadian communication mechanisms.
This integrative proposal addresses fundamental aspects of circadian biology. It is expected to unravel the circadian communication network and shed light on how billions of clocks in the body function in unison. Its impact extends beyond circadian rhythms and bears great potential for research on communication between cells/tissues in various fields of biology.
Summary
The overarching objective of this interdisciplinary project is to elucidate mechanisms through which billions of individual clocks in the body communicate with each other and tick in harmony. The mammalian circadian timing system consists of a master clock in the brain and subsidiary oscillators in almost every cell of the body. Since these clocks anticipate environmental changes and function together to orchestrate daily physiology and behavior their temporal synchronization is critical.
Our recent finding that oxygen serves as a resetting cue for circadian clocks points towards the unprecedented involvement of blood gases as time signals. We will apply cutting edge continuous physiological measurements in freely moving animals, alongside biochemical/molecular biology approaches and advanced cell culture setup to determine the molecular role of oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH in circadian clock communication and function.
The intricate nature of the mammalian circadian system demands the presence of communication mechanisms between clocks throughout the body at multiple levels. While previous studies primarily addressed the role of the master clock in resetting peripheral clocks, our knowledge regarding the communication among clocks between and within peripheral organs is rudimentary. We will reconstruct the mammalian circadian system from the bottom up, sequentially restoring clocks in peripheral tissues of a non-rhythmic animal to (i) obtain a system-view of the peripheral circadian communication network; and (ii) study novel tissue-derived circadian communication mechanisms.
This integrative proposal addresses fundamental aspects of circadian biology. It is expected to unravel the circadian communication network and shed light on how billions of clocks in the body function in unison. Its impact extends beyond circadian rhythms and bears great potential for research on communication between cells/tissues in various fields of biology.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28
Project acronym EMPCONSFIN
Project Empirical Analyses of Markets for Consumer Financial Products and their Effects
Researcher (PI) Alessandro GAVAZZA
Host Institution (HI) LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH1, ERC-2017-COG
Summary This proposal presents three broad projects on information frictions in households' credit markets and on the
consequences of these frictions for durable good markets. Specifically, an influential theoretical literature in
information economics has shown that borrowing constraints can arise in equilibrium when borrowers and
lenders have asymmetric information about borrowers' risks. Hence, the first project aims to provide the first
empirical analyses of markets (i.e., demand and supply) with asymmetric information and nonexclusive
trades---i.e., markets in which households can purchase multiple insurance contracts, such as in life
insurance markets, or can open multiple credit lines, such as in credit card markets. The second project aims
to study recent regulations of fees and prices in markets for consumer financial products, such as mortgages,
that could have the unintended consequences of increasing households' cost of credit and, thus, of tightening
their borrowing constraints. Finally, the third project aims to study the role of borrowing constraints in
durable goods markets, with a special focus on car markets during the Great Recession.
All these projects aim to develop and estimate structural models using data from different markets. I further
plan to use the estimated structural parameters to perform counterfactual policy analyses in each of the
specific markets analyzed in these projects.
Summary
This proposal presents three broad projects on information frictions in households' credit markets and on the
consequences of these frictions for durable good markets. Specifically, an influential theoretical literature in
information economics has shown that borrowing constraints can arise in equilibrium when borrowers and
lenders have asymmetric information about borrowers' risks. Hence, the first project aims to provide the first
empirical analyses of markets (i.e., demand and supply) with asymmetric information and nonexclusive
trades---i.e., markets in which households can purchase multiple insurance contracts, such as in life
insurance markets, or can open multiple credit lines, such as in credit card markets. The second project aims
to study recent regulations of fees and prices in markets for consumer financial products, such as mortgages,
that could have the unintended consequences of increasing households' cost of credit and, thus, of tightening
their borrowing constraints. Finally, the third project aims to study the role of borrowing constraints in
durable goods markets, with a special focus on car markets during the Great Recession.
All these projects aim to develop and estimate structural models using data from different markets. I further
plan to use the estimated structural parameters to perform counterfactual policy analyses in each of the
specific markets analyzed in these projects.
Max ERC Funding
1 550 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31
Project acronym ICC
Project Institutions in Consumer Credit
Researcher (PI) Daniel Alberto PARAVISINI MAGGI
Host Institution (HI) LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH1, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Whether (and why) the market for consumer credit is inefficient is still an open question with important implications for household well-being. The research in this proposal will study sources of inefficiencies in two burgeoning consumer credit institutions: high-cost credit and on-line marketplaces. Each institution serves borrowers on opposite ends of the wealth and credit risk spectrum. Thus, they provide an ideal laboratory for studying the wide range of economic frictions that shape the access and price of credit for households. Despite growing attention from academics and severe scrutiny by policymakers, the economic and social impact of both institutions are yet not well understood.
The first stream of projects in the proposal is aimed at providing new evidence on the trade-offs involved in the use of high-cost credit. High-cost credit, such as Payday loans, is often the only source of funding for poor households. Alleviating liquidity shortages with high-cost credit may have negative long term consequences for financial health, an effect often attributed to borrower self-control problems. In the first project of the stream I use data from a Payday lender in the U.K. to explore a new channel for this effect—reputation—that does not rely on borrower irrationality. The second project combines data from 21 police forces in the U.K. to evaluate the social consequences of high-cost credit through the lens of criminal behavior.
The second stream of projects characterizes previously unexplored sources of adverse selection in credit markets, with substantive positive and normative implications. Using data from the largest on-line marketplace in the U.S., I aim to demonstrate how asymmetric information distorts maturity choice, and how information gathering by the lender can drive away low-risk borrowers. The final project of this stream will use previously unavailable data to produce the first comprehensive characterization of on-line credit marketplaces worldwide.
Summary
Whether (and why) the market for consumer credit is inefficient is still an open question with important implications for household well-being. The research in this proposal will study sources of inefficiencies in two burgeoning consumer credit institutions: high-cost credit and on-line marketplaces. Each institution serves borrowers on opposite ends of the wealth and credit risk spectrum. Thus, they provide an ideal laboratory for studying the wide range of economic frictions that shape the access and price of credit for households. Despite growing attention from academics and severe scrutiny by policymakers, the economic and social impact of both institutions are yet not well understood.
The first stream of projects in the proposal is aimed at providing new evidence on the trade-offs involved in the use of high-cost credit. High-cost credit, such as Payday loans, is often the only source of funding for poor households. Alleviating liquidity shortages with high-cost credit may have negative long term consequences for financial health, an effect often attributed to borrower self-control problems. In the first project of the stream I use data from a Payday lender in the U.K. to explore a new channel for this effect—reputation—that does not rely on borrower irrationality. The second project combines data from 21 police forces in the U.K. to evaluate the social consequences of high-cost credit through the lens of criminal behavior.
The second stream of projects characterizes previously unexplored sources of adverse selection in credit markets, with substantive positive and normative implications. Using data from the largest on-line marketplace in the U.S., I aim to demonstrate how asymmetric information distorts maturity choice, and how information gathering by the lender can drive away low-risk borrowers. The final project of this stream will use previously unavailable data to produce the first comprehensive characterization of on-line credit marketplaces worldwide.
Max ERC Funding
1 017 851 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-08-01, End date: 2021-07-31
Project acronym NEW_ABC
Project New issues in the Analysis of Business Cycles
Researcher (PI) Paolo SURICO
Host Institution (HI) LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH1, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The last decade had seen an increasing recognition that financial markets play a key role over the business cycle. Still, there have not been many detailed, systematic, empirical investigations on the consumption, employment and investment effects of the interaction between macroeconomic policies and the evolving structure of credit markets. This proposal aims to develop a research agenda over the next five years that combines insights from disaggregated data sets --which are either newly available or I propose to construct-- on (i) mortgage originations, (ii) the supply of household financial products and (iii) firms’ debt originations, with the development of theoretical frameworks that introduce credit supply and demand heterogeneity in the analyses of consumption and investment decisions.
Three features of this proposal make it of potentially high impact. On the empirical side, the analysis of existing and novel detailed households’, firms’ and lenders’ data sets will allow us to identify new stylized facts on the transmission of monetary policy to real activity through financial markets (and leverage and asset prices in particular). On the theoretical side, these stylized facts will be used to develop and discriminate among competing channels of macroeconomic policy transmission. Finally, the regularity highlighted in both the empirical and theoretical analyses will inform the public debate on the design of future monetary and macro-prudential policy interventions.Each project (i)-(iv) describes an overall theme, which is expected to have several ramifications in terms of publishable papers, policy reports and possibly dissertation contents for PhD student(s).
Summary
The last decade had seen an increasing recognition that financial markets play a key role over the business cycle. Still, there have not been many detailed, systematic, empirical investigations on the consumption, employment and investment effects of the interaction between macroeconomic policies and the evolving structure of credit markets. This proposal aims to develop a research agenda over the next five years that combines insights from disaggregated data sets --which are either newly available or I propose to construct-- on (i) mortgage originations, (ii) the supply of household financial products and (iii) firms’ debt originations, with the development of theoretical frameworks that introduce credit supply and demand heterogeneity in the analyses of consumption and investment decisions.
Three features of this proposal make it of potentially high impact. On the empirical side, the analysis of existing and novel detailed households’, firms’ and lenders’ data sets will allow us to identify new stylized facts on the transmission of monetary policy to real activity through financial markets (and leverage and asset prices in particular). On the theoretical side, these stylized facts will be used to develop and discriminate among competing channels of macroeconomic policy transmission. Finally, the regularity highlighted in both the empirical and theoretical analyses will inform the public debate on the design of future monetary and macro-prudential policy interventions.Each project (i)-(iv) describes an overall theme, which is expected to have several ramifications in terms of publishable papers, policy reports and possibly dissertation contents for PhD student(s).
Max ERC Funding
1 135 940 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-08-01, End date: 2021-07-31
Project acronym ORDINARY
Project The Political Economy of African Development. Ethnicity, Nation, and History
Researcher (PI) Elias PAPAIOANNOU
Host Institution (HI) LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH1, ERC-2017-COG
Summary This proposal aims to measure, document, and understand the historical origins of contemporary African inequality that has a strong ethnic component. The focus is on the interplay of the nation and the ethnicity that co-evolve, sometimes violently and sometimes peacefully across the continent. The proposal consists of four closely related projects.
The first project develops a large database portraying the evolution of inequality and intergenerational mobility in education covering the full post-independence period using census data from many countries. Decomposing inequality and mobility in education into a between-ethnicity and a within-ethnicity component, it provides an autopsy of the cross-country, cross-region, and dynamic patterns. Then it examines the mechanisms linking inequality with well-being, employing a plethora of geo-referenced micro data.
The second project extends widely-used anthropological maps and cross-cultural data on pre-colonial Africa to examine the legacy of deeply-rooted ethnic-specific institutional and economic traits on development. The project aims exploring the key mechanisms and examining exactly which aspects of statehood (courts, land rights, bureaucracy) matter for development.
The third project assesses the impact of colonial “divide-and-rule” strategies and ethnic-based favouritism/discrimination on contemporary African political economy. To this end it compiles an original database of ethnic power relations during colonization and then examines whether ethnic political power and inequality post-independence is related to the differential treatment of ethnicities from the colonial administration.
The fourth project assesses the long-run development impact of colonial concessions to private corporations and their main features (e.g., forced labour, violence, method of extraction), compiling a pan-African dataset covering all concessions and applying state-of-the-art econometric techniques to establish causal relationships.
Summary
This proposal aims to measure, document, and understand the historical origins of contemporary African inequality that has a strong ethnic component. The focus is on the interplay of the nation and the ethnicity that co-evolve, sometimes violently and sometimes peacefully across the continent. The proposal consists of four closely related projects.
The first project develops a large database portraying the evolution of inequality and intergenerational mobility in education covering the full post-independence period using census data from many countries. Decomposing inequality and mobility in education into a between-ethnicity and a within-ethnicity component, it provides an autopsy of the cross-country, cross-region, and dynamic patterns. Then it examines the mechanisms linking inequality with well-being, employing a plethora of geo-referenced micro data.
The second project extends widely-used anthropological maps and cross-cultural data on pre-colonial Africa to examine the legacy of deeply-rooted ethnic-specific institutional and economic traits on development. The project aims exploring the key mechanisms and examining exactly which aspects of statehood (courts, land rights, bureaucracy) matter for development.
The third project assesses the impact of colonial “divide-and-rule” strategies and ethnic-based favouritism/discrimination on contemporary African political economy. To this end it compiles an original database of ethnic power relations during colonization and then examines whether ethnic political power and inequality post-independence is related to the differential treatment of ethnicities from the colonial administration.
The fourth project assesses the long-run development impact of colonial concessions to private corporations and their main features (e.g., forced labour, violence, method of extraction), compiling a pan-African dataset covering all concessions and applying state-of-the-art econometric techniques to establish causal relationships.
Max ERC Funding
1 555 679 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-08-01, End date: 2022-07-31
Project acronym PROMOFS
Project Nanoengineering and Processing of Metal-Organic Framework Composites for Photonic Sensors
Researcher (PI) Jin-Chong TAN
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Country United Kingdom
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE8, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The project is in the field of nanoporous materials engineering, focusing on the discovery, characterisation and application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as an innovative platform to afford disruptive photonics sensing technology. Compared to the traditional material options (e.g. metal oxides and nitrides), MOFs offer several key advantages. The vast inorganic-organic (hybrid) structural diversity of MOFs implies a huge prospect to tune the desirable physical and chemical properties for engineering bespoke applications. Their 3D crystalline framework meant there is long-range periodicity, translating into continuous pathways to facilitate energy transfer and transport mechanisms. Significantly, the nanoscale pores within MOFs can be used as a vessel to host functional guests, in this context: to confine light-emitting complexes and emissive molecules creating unconventional Guest@MOF photoluminescent systems. Having established the project feasibility through pilot studies and further demonstrated the promising potential to fabricate photonic sensors, it is timely to address the outstanding challenges in this nascent field:-
(1) To establish facile processing of new Guest@MOF photonic materials and composite systems, utilising in-situ nanoscale confinement strategy in conjunction with supramolecular processing method.
(2) To characterise photophysical and photochemical properties controlling the performance of Guest@MOF systems, and, to understand fundamental mechanisms at the nanoscale.
(3) To employ ab-initio computational modelling to gain deeper insights into host-guest interactions, and, to predict structure-property relations informing the design of customised materials.
(4) To innovate in materials patterning technology for versatile materials-to-device manufacturing processes.
(5) To apply Guest@MOF materials in nanoengineering of tuneable photonics sensors.
(6) To quantify and enhance stability of Guest@MOF materials central to practical applications.
Summary
The project is in the field of nanoporous materials engineering, focusing on the discovery, characterisation and application of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as an innovative platform to afford disruptive photonics sensing technology. Compared to the traditional material options (e.g. metal oxides and nitrides), MOFs offer several key advantages. The vast inorganic-organic (hybrid) structural diversity of MOFs implies a huge prospect to tune the desirable physical and chemical properties for engineering bespoke applications. Their 3D crystalline framework meant there is long-range periodicity, translating into continuous pathways to facilitate energy transfer and transport mechanisms. Significantly, the nanoscale pores within MOFs can be used as a vessel to host functional guests, in this context: to confine light-emitting complexes and emissive molecules creating unconventional Guest@MOF photoluminescent systems. Having established the project feasibility through pilot studies and further demonstrated the promising potential to fabricate photonic sensors, it is timely to address the outstanding challenges in this nascent field:-
(1) To establish facile processing of new Guest@MOF photonic materials and composite systems, utilising in-situ nanoscale confinement strategy in conjunction with supramolecular processing method.
(2) To characterise photophysical and photochemical properties controlling the performance of Guest@MOF systems, and, to understand fundamental mechanisms at the nanoscale.
(3) To employ ab-initio computational modelling to gain deeper insights into host-guest interactions, and, to predict structure-property relations informing the design of customised materials.
(4) To innovate in materials patterning technology for versatile materials-to-device manufacturing processes.
(5) To apply Guest@MOF materials in nanoengineering of tuneable photonics sensors.
(6) To quantify and enhance stability of Guest@MOF materials central to practical applications.
Max ERC Funding
2 431 911 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31
