ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The goals are 1. To develop a scale assessing the diversity of active ageing with four dimensions that are ability (what people can do), activity (what people do do), ambition (what are the valued activities that people want to do), and autonomy (how satisfied people are with the opportunity to do valued activities); 2. To examine health and physical and psychological functioning as the determinants and social and build environment, resilience and personal skills as modifiers of active ageing; 3. To develop a multicomponent sustainable intervention aiming to promote active ageing (methods: counselling, information technology, help from volunteers); 4. To test the feasibility and effectiveness on the intervention; and 5. To study cohort effects on the phenotypes on the pathway to active ageing. “If You Can Measure It, You Can Change It.” Active ageing assessment needs conceptual progress, which I propose to do. A quantifiable scale will be developed that captures the diversity of active ageing stemming from the WHO definition of active ageing as the process of optimizing opportunities for health and participation in the society for all people in line with their needs, goals and capacities as they age. I will collect cross-sectional data (N=1000, ages 75, 80 and 85 years) and model the pathway to active ageing with state-of-the art statistical methods. By doing this I will create novel knowledge on preconditions for active ageing. The collected cohort data will be compared to a pre-existing cohort data that was collected 25 years ago to obtain knowledge about changes over time in functioning of older people. A randomized controlled trial (N=200) will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the envisioned intervention promoting active ageing through participation. The project will regenerate ageing research by launching a novel scale, by training young scientists, by creating new concepts and theory development and by producing evidence for active ageing promotion

2 044 364 €

Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31

Atmospheric aerosol particles and trace gases affect the quality of our life in many ways (e.g. health effects, changes in climate and hydrological cycle). Trace gases and atmospheric aerosols are tightly connected via physical, chemical, meteorological and biological processes occurring in the atmosphere and at the atmosphere-biosphere interface. One important phenomenon is atmospheric aerosol formation, which involves the production of nanometer-size particles by nucleation and their growth to detectable sizes. The main scientific objectives of this project are 1) to quantify the mechanisms responsible for atmospheric new particle formation and 2) to find out how important this process is for the behaviour of the global aerosol system and, ultimately, for the whole climate system. Our scientific plan is designed as a research chain that aims to advance our understanding of climate and air quality through a series of connected activities. We start from molecular simulations and laboratory measurements to understand nucleation and aerosol thermodynamic processes. We measure nanoparticles and atmospheric clusters at 15-20 sites all around the world using state of the art instrumentation and study feedbacks and interactions between climate and biosphere. With these atmospheric boundary layer studies we form a link to regional-scale processes and further to global-scale phenomena. In order to be able to simulate global climate and air quality, the most recent progress on this chain of processes must be compiled, integrated and implemented in Climate Change and Air Quality numerical models via novel parameterizations.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31

Plate tectonics characterises the complex and dynamic evolution of the outer shell of the Earth in terms of rigid plates. These tectonic plates overlie and interact with the Earth's mantle, which is slowly convecting owing to energy released by the decay of radioactive nuclides in the Earth's interior. Even though links between mantle convection and plate tectonics are becoming more evident, notably through subsurface tomographic images, advances in mineral physics and improved absolute plate motion reference frames, there is still no generally accepted mechanism that consistently explains plate tectonics and mantle convection in one framework. We will integrate plate tectonics into mantle dynamics and develop a theory that explains plate motions quantitatively and dynamically. This requires consistent and detailed reconstructions of plate motions through time (Objective 1). A new model of plate kinematics will be linked to the mantle with the aid of a new global reference frame based on moving hotspots and on palaeomagnetic data. The global reference frame will be corrected for true polar wander in order to develop a global plate motion reference frame with respect to the mantle back to Pangea (ca. 320 million years) and possibly Gondwana assembly (ca. 550 million years). The resulting plate reconstructions will constitute the input to subduction models that are meant to test the consistency between the reference frame and subduction histories. The final outcome will be a novel global subduction reference frame, to be used to unravel links between the surface and deep Earth (Objective 2).

2 499 010 €

Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30

The Earth's climate system contains a highly complex interplay of numerous components, such as atmospheric greenhouse gases, ice sheets, and ocean circulation. Due to nonlinearities and feedbacks, changes to the system can result in rapid transitions to radically different climate states. In light of rising greenhouse gas levels there is an urgent need to better understand climate at such tipping points. Reconstructions of profound climate changes in the past provide crucial insight into our climate system and help to predict future changes. However, all proxies we use to reconstruct past climate depend on assumptions that are in addition increasingly uncertain back in time. A new kind of temperature proxy, the carbonate ‘clumped isotope’ thermometer, has great potential to overcome these obstacles. The proxy relies on thermodynamic principles, taking advantage of the temperature-dependence of the binding strength between different isotopes of carbon and oxygen, which makes it independent of other variables. Yet, widespread application of this technique in paleoceanography is currently prevented by the required large sample amounts, which are difficult to obtain from ocean sediments. If applied to the minute carbonate shells preserved in the sediments, this proxy would allow robust reconstructions of past temperatures in the surface and deep ocean, as well as global ice volume, far back in time. Here I propose to considerably decrease sample amount requirements of clumped isotope thermometry, building on recent successful modifications of the method and ideas for further analytical improvements. This will enable my group and me to thoroughly ground-truth the proxy for application in paleoceanography and for the first time apply it to aspects of past climate change across major climate transitions in the past, where clumped isotope thermometry can immediately contribute to solving long-standing first-order questions and allow for major progress in the field.

1 877 209 €

Start date: 2015-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31