ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Evolution of marine algae over the last 60 million years has resulted in a fundamental change in the efficiency of biological carbon pump and shift from communities dominated by calcifying algae (like coccolithophorids) to siliceous diatoms and major size class changes among these groups. The inferred shift in atmospheric CO2 over this time period has been suggested as an important selective pressure on some of these responses, including diatom adaptation to lower atmospheric CO2 concentrations via use of the C4 photosynthetic pathway, and trends towards smaller coccolithophorid cell sizes in response to greater C limitation. If current trends continue, future changes in atmospheric CO2 from anthropogenic activities are likely to reach levels last seen in the Eocene by the end of the next century; such changes will also be accompanied by ocean acidification and changes in stratification. Evidence suggests that modern calcifying algae and diatoms may employ a range of carbon acquisition strategies (such as active carbon concentrating mechanisms) according to the pH and carbon speciation of the seawater in which they live. However calcifying populations from 60 million years ago apparently had a single or less diverse array of carbon acquisition strategies. In this project we thus seek to 1) to identify and calibrate novel fossil indicators for adaptation and evolution in carbon acquisition strategies in eukaryotic algae in response to past changes in the carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2, and 2) apply these indicators to establish the nature and timing of changes in carbon acquisition strategies by algae over the past 60 million years.

1 774 875 €

Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30

Conceptual representations of objects and events lie at the heart of our mental lives; they enable us to interpret the world, express our thoughts and form the basis for our interactions. From a cognitive perspective, there is increasing interest in distributed accounts of conceptual representations, in which concepts are comprised of smaller elements of meaning (features), with variation in the types of features and their inter-relationships determining a concept s structure. Although interest in how the brain represents and processes concepts has flourished with the advent of modern neuroimaging technologies, cognitive and neural approaches are not well integrated. While both focus on concrete concepts or visual objects cognitive accounts focus on their meaning whereas neural accounts focus on their visual properties. The research proposed here aims to bridge this gap by addressing the central issue of how the brain processes visual objects as meaningful entities; how perception becomes conception. It does so by combining a cognitive theory of semantic representations the Conceptual Structure Account - with a neural account of hierarchical object processing in the ventral stream to generate predictions about how perceptual and conceptual processes are constructed. This combination of cognitive and neural theories, together with the use of multi-modal imaging methods, provides the essential basis for understanding how the brain transforms visual inputs into meaningful object representations. In fMRI and MEG studies, we directly test for differential effects of conceptual and perceptual variables along the ventral stream, examining specific cognitive claims for how conceptual structure guides and structures these fundamental processes of object recognition.

2 111 581 €

Start date: 2010-05-01, End date: 2015-09-30

The aim of this project is to provide through an innovative critical edition the first comprehensive interpretation of some physical, epistemological, ethical and rhetorical works by key figures of Hellenistic philosophy like Epicurus, Chrysippus and Philodemus. These works, totally lost in the manuscript tradition, are preserved exclusively in the carbonised papyrus rolls found since 1752 at Herculaneum and are either totally unpublished or were published only partially between the XIX and the XX century. Even when they were edited, this was done with very precarious methods. In particular, the previuos editors did not usually read the original papyri themselves and even when this was the case, they could not dispose of any modern technology for doing this successfully. In order to overcome these problems the candidate plans for each work: a) to reconstruct with pioneering mathematical techniques the relative and absolute sequence of the papyrus fragments in the original bookroll; b) to read and transcribe the original text by means of last-generation fiber-optic microscopes and with the help of digital multispectral images (MSI); c) to make a thorough textual constitution with a new editorial system and a complete translation; d) to provide an extensive philosophical introduction and commentary containing a wide-ranging interpretation which highlights the specific contribution given by each work in the mainstream of the philosophical discussion of the Hellenistic age; e) to supply a DVD including an interactive edition of the critical text with direct links to all the relevant papyrological documentation (MSI, old apographs, archive documents) and a virtual reconstruction of the original papyrus roll.

900 000 €

Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2014-09-30

Keeping our behavior adapted to an ever changing environment requires that we constantly adjust information processing. Such adaptation is often considered to require control processes. Adaptive mechanisms can react to an encountered challenge in the environment (reactive control), or can anticipate such potential problems in order to avoid them (proactive control ). The goals of the present project are to better 1) characterize the interplay between pro and reactive control, 2) understand how such control mechanisms are recruited and 3) describe how they alter information processing to optimize behavior. Experimental psychology experiments inducing cognitive conflict (for example the Stroop task), will be used, augmented with several psychophysiological measures, such as High Resolution EEG and Magnetoencephalography (MEG), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and fMRI. One current critical question is to sort out behavioral adaptation effect due to control, from the ones independent of control. One original aspect of this project will be to compare spontaneous behavioral adaptation to situations in which control is explicitly recruited. Second, subliminal incorrect response activation will be tracked thanks to electromyographic recording. EEG/MEG recordings, coupled with appropriate topographic and source localization techniques, will reveal the precise spatio-temporal flow of cognitive control. With TMS, thanks to a NeuroNavigation device, it will be possible to test this spatio-temporal flow, by transiently interrupting the normal information processing of delimited brain areas. One technical challenge of this project will be to record and detect subliminal incorrect muscular activations during fMRI acquisition. The possibility to detect such incorrect activations in fMRI will allow to remove several confounding factors in fMRI experiments, and to better understand how such incorrect activations are detected, stopped and corrected in a split second.

1 997 020 €

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

Reconstruction of methane flux from lakes: development and application of a new approach

1 554 000 €

Start date: 2009-12-01, End date: 2014-11-30

In the context of global change and ocean response to climatic and anthropogenic forcing, it is critical to improve our understanding of biologically mediated carbon fluxes and to reduce the uncertainties in their estimates. At the root of much of the present uncertainty in carbon budget is the scarcity of data. Based on state-of-the-art remotely-operated techniques of observation (profiling floats and satellite) and bio-optical modelling, REMOCEAN aims at addressing the causes of variability in the so-called biological oceanic pump in key oceanic areas: (1) the North Atlantic (especially Labrador Sea, Irminger Sea, Iceland basin), which despite representing only 1.4% of the ocean s area, accounts for about 20% of the global ocean carbon sink; (2) the sub-tropical gyres of the Atlantic and Pacific for which, although they represent ~ 60% of the ocean surface, the contribution to oceanic carbon cycle is still a matter of debate. The scientific objectives of REMOCEAN will be implemented along four main activities. " Development of profiling floats to measure oceanic variables essential for the characterization of phytoplankton dynamics and related carbon fluxes. " Deployment of these floats in the four sub-tropical gyres of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and in the North Atlantic to conduct a totally automated investigation of biogeochemical cycles in these areas over a continuum of temporal scale and over a period of 3-4 years. " Development of parameterisations linking surface biogeochemical properties to their vertical distribution in the ocean interior, and ultimately development of 3D fields of these properties by combining float and satellite data. " Estimation of carbon fluxes by combining these fields with bio-optical modelling including retrospective analyses thanks to satellite data archives. A large part (~2 M¬) of the requested budget will be dedicated to the development, the acquisition and the functioning of the floats.

3 322 000 €

Start date: 2010-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31

The current financial crisis testifies that the sophisticated risk management models used by large financial institutions are inadequate. The main objective of this research project is to analyze the sources of this failure and to develop sound conceptual principles for founding new risk management methods for financial institutions. In spite of the wide use of sophisticated risk management models by the majority of large firms, the conceptual foundations for them are weak. Most of them rely on the assumption that financial markets always function well. The few theoretical models that incorporate endogenous financial frictions use contract theoretic tools but they are static or two period models. Such models cannot generate really testable implications, or provide quantitatively reasonable policy recommendations. Another strand of the theoretical literature has developed diffusion models for modelling the financial behaviour of corporations in continuous time. However this literature is mathematically oriented and makes very strong assumptions, without clear justifications. Our objective is to combine these two approaches and construct testable dynamic models with endogenous financial frictions. These models are to be simple enough that they can provide reasonable policy recommendations, with a particular attention to banks and insurance companies. By adapting the general model of corporate risk management in a dynamic set-up to the specificities of financial intermediaries, we will develop a model of risk management for the financial sector. Implications will be derived for prudential regulation of financial intermediaries and the organisation of supervision, with a particular attention to the prevention and management of future financial crises.

1 440 000 €

Start date: 2010-03-01, End date: 2016-02-29

The general theme of this research proposal involves random walks and percolation theory. The research proposal aims at exploring in depth the surprising links between on the one hand a class of problems directly pertaining to random walks (in particular related to disconnection, or the creation of large vacant components and separating interfaces), and on the other hand questions pertaining to a non-conventional model of percolation based on random interlacements. Traditional methods of percolation typically do not apply to this model. The present research program if successfull ought to uncover new paradigms and lead to the development of new methods.

583 092 €

Start date: 2010-04-01, End date: 2014-03-31

"Discrete structures appear throughout mathematics not only as approximations to continuous objects, but also as mathematical objects of their own right. The ""right"" discrete models should have analogous theory to the continuous limit, but often more transparent, more interesting structure, it ""tells you more"". The proposed project has the agenda to connect, and make substantial progress in, a number of interesting, but rather diverse instances for this, including - Convex Polytopes as models for linear, semi-definite and non-linear optimization problems, - Polyhedral Surfaces as models for differential geometry, including questions of (discrete) integrability, - Structured meshes as the ""right"" discrete structures for solving systems of partial differential equations with quality guarantees, - Triangulation models as they appear as models for space in quantum gravity. In this simultaneous treatment of these topics we hope to capture connections and identify analogous and parallel structures in different parts of mathematics. This is a theory proposal, but a number of the core topics are suggested by applied research, as done e.g. in the framework of the Berlin DFG Research Center MATHEON in Berlin. It will connect to, and rely on, other major structured research groups in Berlin, such as the ""Polyhedral Surfaces"" DFG Research Group, and the Research Training Group led by the PI. In collaboration between individuals and groups with diverse mathematical expertise in Berlin, throughout Europe and beyond we are set to establish an additional ""theory backbone""; for applied research in Berlin."

1 854 400 €

Start date: 2010-07-01, End date: 2015-06-30

From the introduction of the spinning wheel to England during the later Middle Ages to its eclipse by the powered spinning machine early in the nineteenth century, hand-spun yarn was vital to the success of the textile industries that dominated English manufacturing. Indeed, hand spinning of wool, flax and ultimately cotton became the principal income-generating activity pursued by women. For many of those women, it was also an essential means of furnishing their own families with textiles. Yet the history of spinning in the period has never been the subject of a major study in its own right. Spinning in the Era of the Spinning Wheel aims to rectify this anomaly. Its objective is to provide a comprehensive history of hand spinning in England between 1400 and 1800 that approaches the subject from the whole range of relevant perspectives, treating it as a practice that was at one and the same time material, technological, economic, commercial, legal, cultural, gendered, and global. This will involve an approach that is multi-disciplinary, embracing historical, literary, legal, technological and scientific approaches.

823 150 €

Start date: 2010-06-01, End date: 2015-05-31

Very recently, it has been claimed that the Bayesian paradigm has revolutionized statistical thinking in numerous fields of research, as a considerable amount of novel Bayesian statistical models and estimation algorithms have gained popularity among scientists. Despite of the evident success of the Bayesian approach, there are also many research problems where the computational challenges have so far proven to be too exhaustive to promote wide-spread use of the state-of-the-art Bayesian methodology. In particular, due to significant advances in measurement technologies, e.g. in molecular biology, a constant need for analyzing and modeling very large and complex data sets has emerged on a wide scale during the past decade. Such needs are even anticipated to rapidly increase in near future with the current technological advances. The prevailing situation is therefore somewhat paradoxical, as the theoretical superiority of the Bayesian paradigm as an uncertainty handling framework is widely acknowledged, yet it can be unable to provide practically applicable solutions to complex scientific problems. To resolve this issue, the research project will have a focus on stochastic computational and modeling strategies to develop methods that overcome problems associated with the analysis of highly complex data sets. With these methods we aim to be able to solve a multitude of statistical learning problems for data sets which cannot yet be reliably handled in practice by any of the existing Bayesian tools. Our approaches will build upon recent advances in Bayesian predictive modeling and adaptive stochastic Monte Carlo computation, to create a novel family of parallel interacting learning algorithms. Several significant statistical modeling problems will be considered to demonstrate the potential of the developed methods. Our goal is also to provide implementations of some of the algorithms as freely available software packages to benefit concretely the scientific community.

550 000 €

Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31

This proposal describes a multi-scale research project investigating the social, cultural and political issues relating to governance and Indigenous Peoples. Recent international mobilization has led to a major shift, culminating in the adoption by the UN of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in 2007. This highly symbolic and moral document is expected to induce changes and to combat discrimination. Indigenous peoples have acquired visibility, as models of sustainability and for their ecological knowledge. Yet their place in constitutional orders, their participation in decision-making, and their development practices have not been consistently studied. Crucial issues include their emergence as political actors, the role of transnational networks, and convergences in two sectors of global concern - human rights and the environment. The UNDRIP opens room to consider the various modalities of self-determination. A comparative approach will help get rid of simple dichotomies, while putting at the centre of the scientific debate the modernization of the Western discourse and the post-colonial theories. With the PI, a team will study the changes that international norms induce through the development of programs, EU initiatives too, and the response at local levels. The research will focus on arenas in which indigenous communities are confronted by modern policies: education, land management, political representation, legal systems and the expression of culture. 10 comparative studies will be undertaken, in Southern Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania. Key findings will be discussed through thematic and regional workshops; dissemination done through seminars and publications. The UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues has repeatedly requested the academic sector to provide analysis on the translation of universal discourses to situated practices. However, to date, no such research has been done on a comparative scale

2 090 280 €

Start date: 2010-06-01, End date: 2015-11-30

The present project addresses numerical analysis and algorithmic realization of sparse, adaptive tensor product discretizations of partial differential equations (PDEs) in high dimensions with stochastic data. The aim of the project is to develop mathematically founded adaptive algorithms which are based on sparse tensorization of hierarchic Riesz bases or frames. These will be hierarchic multilevel bases in the physical domain, either Finite Element wavelet type bases or hierarchical, multilevel bases. In the parameter domains corresponding either to random inputs or to phase spaces in transport problems, spectral type representations of ``polynomial chaos'' type shall be employed. Mathematical aim is to analyzed for a classes of elliptic and parabolic PDEs on high or possibly infinite dimensional parameter spaces adaptive, deterministic and dimension independent solution methods with convergence rates superior to those afforded by Monte Carlo Methods, in terms of accuracy vs. complexity. Algorithmic work will address design of data structures with minimal overhead for the efficient realization of the sparse tensor approximations. Applications include space-time adaptive solvers for elliptic, parabolic and certain parametric hyperbolic PDEs, nonlinear approximate spectral representations of nonstationary random fields, scale-resolving solvers of elliptic and parabolic problems with multiple scales with complexity independent of the number of scales, and sparse, adaptive numerical solvers for parametric transport problems. The project will be in collaboration with coworkers in France, Germany, UK, The Netherlands. The project involves mentoring postdocs and predocs who will be actively involved in all aspects of the research, as well as a teaching component.

1 349 564 €

Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31

Project summary: The project develops an integrative symbolic-dynamical framework for gaining a fundamental understanding of the relation between qualitative spoken language form, also known as phonological form, and the continuous speech movements and acoustics in which this form is realized. The empirical domain is syllables. The syllable is a central unit of spoken language, mediating between lower-level properties of individual sounds and higher-level prosody. In its first aim, the proposed research develops modelling methods for rigorously evaluating the relation between theoretically posited syllabic parses and experimental data, from Arabic and English, acquired with the new 3D EMA device. In a second aim, formal analytical methods are developed for understanding the relation between posited abstract phonological organization and its measurable phonetic indices. Using a combined symbolic-dynamical approach, the analytical component fully embraces the task of relating continuous data and qualitative theory, a fundamental problem in present day cognitive science. As a consequence, the project enables a system-level, quantitative understanding of how categorical organizational principles of linguistic systems may be supported by or emerge from statistical properties of the lower-levels in which linguistic form is conveyed. The interdisciplinary theoretical, experimental and mathematical approach proposed here has not been attempted before for spoken language. The outcome would be a unified explanatory framework for linguistic competence, experimental data and statistics. The project’s significance and relevance to the “Ideas” program lies in the centrality of the core problem it addresses for the language and mind frontier. In linguistics and cognitive science, a fundamental challenge has been the lack of a formal substrate for dealing with the duality of the symbolic and the continuous. The development of an integrative framework for exploring the relation between qualitative phonological form and continuous data will open up new perspectives for researching both language and the human mind. In addition, the proposed research has significant potential long-term benefits for language development, impairment and reading. Because syllabic organization is language-specific and because we know that this organization conditions the timing of articulatory movements, syllables provide a key construct for studying the link between articulatory timing and linguistic ability in both healthy and patient populations.

1 120 705 €

Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2016-11-30

We focus on understanding norms, behavioral traits, and institutions that can promote cooperation in societies of strangers. Many economic interactions in modern societies are among anonymous individuals who meet occasionally and do not know each others' history. While cooperation in social dilemma situations among partners is easier to achieve, this project aims to understand what makes mutually advantageous transactions possible among strangers. We employ a rigorous theoretical approach to define issues and design experimental studies. This project is articulated into three parts. Part one aims to measure the norms of cooperation among strangers absent any formal institution. Part two assesses the impact of specific monitoring, communication, commitment, and other institutions in promoting cooperation. Part three focuses on the role of money as a special type of institution in the promotion of cooperation. Expected contributions will be in areas that include economics, political science, sociology, management and organizational behavior. The research proposed will advance the understanding of the role of economic and legal institutions in anonymous economies, of the nature of social capital, and what can prevent conflict in organizations. It may lead to new insights into policy-related issues such as unemployment, financial markets, and economic governance.

769 090 €

Start date: 2010-02-01, End date: 2014-07-31

The fabrication of textiles is one of the oldest cultural technologies. The objective of the proposed interdisciplinary research project is to investigate the historical meanings and functions of the textile medium in art and architecture from the Middle Ages to the present. The exploration of this specific art medium should result in a historical theory or iconology of the textile. The project focussed on the textile discourse engages in a new, complex, and challenging field of research situated between art and architectural history and within cultural and visual studies, involving also other disciplines such as literary studies and social history. Moreover, it aims at connecting the two scientific cultures of the universities and museums, and it draws transdisciplinary expertise from contemporary art. The framework of the project can be described by seven interconnected subject areas which are dedicated to specific questions and which share categories of objects such as figurative tapestries, installation art, literary texts, or architectural materials. This requires a variety of instrumental methods ranging from gender studies to textual analysis, from iconography to anthropological approaches. Two postdoctoral researchers and one doctoral candidate will work on a topic related to one or more of the subject areas. The team s aim is to perform basic research in an innovative and contemporary field, independently of traditional institutional constraints, in order to contribute to the establishment of the history of textile art as an academic discipline and to the advancement of art and architectural history towards a general history of images, media, and artefacts.

686 000 €

Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2013-08-31

The overall effectiveness at which the underlying talent resources in an economy are utilized is an important determinant of long-run economic growth and well-being. Recent work has shown that the processes through which talent is discovered and revealed in the economy are likely to suffer from market imperfections that are analogous to problems that have been for long been understood in the context of private provision of job training and education, resulting in not just reduced economic efficiency but also contributing to income inequality. The first basic question is what is the role of talent rents in explaining income inequality? In a static world where all information about talent is known, such talent rents would merely be compensation to a scarce factor of production. However, when the discovery of talent is subject to market imperfections then income differences that ostensibly look like talent rents are partly due to inefficient information rents. This raises the second and novel question, about whether and to what extent observed income differences are due to inefficient rents to information about talent that masquerade as talent rents. I also plan to investigate how technological change has impacted the distribution of talent rents via its effect on the discovery/revelation process of talent. The larger goal of the project is to help understand the economy-wide implications of institutions and policies that govern the discovery and allocation of talent in the economy. Better understanding could also point the way towards improved policy interventions.

1 003 440 €

Start date: 2009-10-01, End date: 2015-03-31

The project brings global perspectives and interdisciplinary methods to bear on histories of industrialization, consumer and material culture. It investigates the key connector that transformed the early modern world: the long-distance trade between Asia and Europe in material goods and culture. That trade stimulated Europe s consumer and industrial revolutions, re-orientating the Asian trading world to European priorities. The twenty-first century sees a new Asian ascendancy: Europe has lost those manufacturing catalysts of textiles, ceramics and metal goods back to Asia. This project seeks to understand Europe s new challenge of Asia by charting the history of that first global shift between the pre-modern and modern worlds. Europe s pursuit of quality goods in the 17th and 18th Centuries turned a pre-modern encounter with precious and exotic ornaments into a modern globally-organized trade in Asian export ware. But ironically the result was Europe s industrialization and China s and India s displacement as the world s manufacturer. The project compares Europe s trade with India in high quality textiles with its trade with China in porcelain using the records of Europe s East India companies and major museum collections of export-ware objects. The PI will research the English East India Company together with a PhD student, and lead three postdoctoral fellows in comparative case studies on other European companies, especially the Dutch, the French and Scandinavian companies. The research is groundbreaking in bringing the study of traded products, material cultures and consumption into economic and global history, and in making economic history relevant to wider cultural history. It has the vision of a history over a long time period and wide European and Asian comparisons and connections.

1 544 667 €

Start date: 2010-09-01, End date: 2014-08-31

The project aims at advancing the analysis of the contemporary plurality of societal self-understandings and related institutional structures of polities in the current global context. It will analyze these self-understandings against the background of the historical trajectories as sequences of socio-political transformations of those societies. The analysis of multiple forms of modernity is the major challenge to current social and political theory and comparative-historical and political sociology. Scholars tend to either underestimate variation and succumb to ideas of global trends of neo-modernization or overestimate historical continuities and provide some culturalist explanation of civilizational difference. In this light, the objectives are: - to complement the prevalent institutional analysis of modernity with an interpretative approach that focuses on societal self-understandings, and to elaborate an understanding of how novel such interpretations emerge and how they contribute to reshaping institutions; - to disentangle the overly complex concept of modernity into components that are empirically analyzable in terms of both commonalities shared by all modern societies and differences that are due to the variety of possible interpretations of modernity; - to analyze two selected non-European societies South Africa and Brazil in terms of their specific articulations of these components of modernity and their historical transformations; - to confront prior analyses of European modernity with the new analyses of non-European modernities with a view to laying empirically rich foundations for a global sociology that recognizes the specificity of the European trajectory of modernity but does not confuse it with a model or a unique interpretation.

2 373 364 €

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

My research project TRUST aims at looking at the links between culture of cooperation, economics and institutions, with causality running in both directions. The first step is to assess the causal effect of cooperation on economic decisions and happiness. Social attitudes such as trust seems a prerequisite to expand economic exchanges, in particular in modern societies characterized by the increased complexity of information and relations with anonymous others. Cooperative beliefs might also directly affect happiness by reducing the feelings of risks that humans have to cope with in modern societies. The second step of my research is to look conversely at the effect of economic policies on social attitudes. I will assess the effect of human resources management and welfare state policies on cooperation within organizations and the society. I propose cutting-edge methods to carry on this research agenda. First, I will track social and economic attitudes on the cyberspace by using a Medialab. The development of new communications technologies has triggered a revolution in the social traces that citizens leave simply by using digital technologies. The available data reservoirs on the web are colossal and can provide a new way to relate self-reported social and economic attitudes. I will also provide to the civil society new instruments of reflexivity on the state of social and economic cooperation. Second, I will introduce the new tools of randomized experiments in the sphere of social sciences to estimate the impact of economic policies on social attitudes. I will run these experiments in the context of the management of human resources to understand how inequalities and organizational structure can influence cooperative attitudes.

988 376 €

Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-07-31

Europe s economic development in the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, continues to fascinate scholars. In recent debates, institutionalised forms of collective action have been put forward as a key feature of Europe s precocious development. This project examines that connection between institutions and economic development in detail. It also harks back to the origins of such institutions, teasing out the impact of changing family patterns that emerged in Western Europe in the Late Middle Ages, which are often described as the European Marriage Pattern . Together with such factors as the absence of a strong state, and a helpful legal framework, the weakening of family relations may have created opportunities for other, non-kin social organisations to emerge, explaining the strength of institutions for collective action in this part of the world. Interactions between economic growth, marriage patterns and collective action institutions will be examined on several levels. A European wide-analysis, using specific indicators for institutional development and demographic patterns, should help clarify our understanding of their temporal and geographical co-evolution. Regulations for several types of collective action institutions will be analysed for Western Europe and Southern Europe to study the impact of household constitution and marriage patterns on institutional arrangements. A third level of the project, to be subdivided in an urban and a rural study, will look into the application of such regulations in everyday practices, through the analysis of several case-studies of guilds, commons and beguinages in the Low Countries. Finally, a sub-project is will promote dissemination and exchange of the project s data among the wider academic community. Several events will be organised to stimulate debates about the topics raised by the project.

1 199 721 €

Start date: 2010-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31

Recent analysis of radar-depth sounder data has shown that many areas of the Greenland ice sheet have melt water under the base. The extent of the wet base and distribution of melt water are poorly known. Also lakes under the ice have not been discovered in contrast with those in Antarctica. The effect of the water beneath the ice, however, is well documented: it lubricates the bed and removes the friction between the basal ice and underlying bedrock. The ice with a wet bed flows faster, reacts rapidly to changes in climate and the basal-melt water contributes to the fresh-water supply to the ocean from the Greenland ice sheet. The primary objectives of the project are to map melt water extent of the Greenland ice sheet and its impact by tracing internal layers and analyzing bedrock returns from airborne radio-echo sounding data, and use mapping results in conjunction with ice-sheet and hydrostatic models for the movement of the basal water to predict the ice-sheet s response to climate change. The information derived from deep ice-cores that reach the bed will be used to constrain models. We will also study the basal material (dust, DNA and microbiological material) and bedrock properties from the deep-ice core sites. This will add a further dimension to the study and provide opportunities to look for life under the ice and constrain the age of the Greenland ice sheet. The proposed research is a high risk project because of the difficulty in accessing basal conditions under 3-km of ice with a potential for high payoff science. The team will consist of scientists and engineers with expertise in the palaeoclimate, radar sounding and signal processing, and ice-sheet models.

2 499 999 €

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