ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

Long-term studies of free-living vertebrate populations have proved a rich resource for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes, because individuals’ life histories can be measured by tracking them from birth/hatching through to death. In recent years the ‘animal model’ has been applied to pedigreed long-term study populations with great success, dramatically advancing our understanding of quantitative genetic parameters such as heritabilities, genetic correlations and plasticities of traits that are relevant to microevolutionary responses to environmental change. Unfortunately, quantitative genetic approaches have one major drawback – they cannot identify the actual genes responsible for genetic variation. Therefore, it is impossible to link evolutionary responses to a changing environment to molecular genetic variation, making our picture of the process incomplete. Many of the best long-term studies have been conducted in passerine birds. Unfortunately genomics resources are only available for two model avian species, and are absent for bird species that are studied in the wild. I will fill this gap by exploiting recent advances in genomics technology to sequence the entire transcriptome of the longest running study of wild birds – the great tit population in Wytham Woods, Oxford. Having identified most of the sequence variation in the great tit transcriptome, I will then genotype all birds for whom phenotype records and blood samples are available This will be, by far, the largest phenotype-genotype dataset of any free-living vertebrate population. I will then use gene mapping techniques to identify genes and genomic regions responsible for variation in a number of key traits such as lifetime recruitment, clutch size and breeding/laying date. This will result in a greater understanding, at the molecular level, how microevolutionary change can arise (or be constrained).

1 560 770 €

Start date: 2008-10-01, End date: 2014-06-30

Multiferroics (i.e. materials where ferroelectricity and magnetism coexist) are presently drawing enormous interests, due to their technologically-relevant multifunctional character and to the astoundingly rich playground for fundamental condensed-matter physics they constitute. Here, we put forward several concepts on how to break inversion symmetry and achieve sizable ferroelectricity in collinear magnets; our approach is corroborated via first-principles calculations as tools to quantitatively estimate relevant ferroelectric and magnetic properties as well as to reveal ab-initio the main mechanisms behind the dipolar and magnetic orders. In closer detail, we focus on the interplay between ferroelectricity and electronic degrees of freedom in magnets, i.e. on those cases where spin- or orbital- or charge-ordering can be the driving force for a spontaneous polarization to develop. Antiferromagnetism will be considered as a primary mechanism for lifting inversion symmetry; however, the effects of charge disproportionation and orbital ordering will also be studied by examining a wide class of materials, including ortho-manganites with E-type spin-arrangement, non-E-type antiferromagnets, nickelates, etc. Finally, as an example of materials-design accessible to our ab-initio approach, we use “chemistry” to break inversion symmetry by artificially constructing an oxide superlattice and propose a way to switch, via an electric field, from antiferromagnetism to ferrimagnetism. To our knowledge, the link between electronic degrees of freedom and ferroelectricity in collinear magnets is an almost totally unexplored field by ab-initio methods; indeed, its clear understanding and optimization would lead to a scientific breakthrough in the multiferroics area. Technologically, it would pave the way to materials design of magnetic ferroelectrics with properties persisting above room temperature and, therefore, to a novel generation of electrically-controlled spintronic devices

684 000 €

Start date: 2008-05-01, End date: 2012-04-30

COMOSYEL aims at designing complex nanometric and molecular systems to process electronic or optical information from the macroscopic to the molecular scale. It proposes two specific, unconventional approaches to molecular electronics and plasmonics and the development of two multidisciplinary technical toolkits, one in bio-inspired chemistry and one in surface nanopatterning by liquid nanodispensing that will support the first two topics, and eventually become a part of the team's culture for future research developments. (1) Graphene-based nanoelectronics is an experimental implementation of mono-molecular electronics concept using graphene to bridge the macroscopic world to the molecular scale. This topic aims at encoding and processing electronic information in a single complex molecular system in order to achieve complex logic functions. (2) Self-assembled nanoplasmonics aims at developing a molecular plasmonics concept. Here, complex networks of sub-20nm crystalline metallic nanoparticle chains are produced and interfaced to convert photons to plasmons and ultimately confine, enhance and route light energy from a conventional light source to an arbitrary chromophore on a substrate. (3) Bio-inspired nanomaterials chemistry will be the main synthetic tool to produce new multifunctional nanostructured materials able to address and collect information from/to the macroscopic world to/from the single molecule level. Both morphogenesis and self-assembly will be explored to better control size and shape of nano-objects and the topology of higher-order architectures. (4) Liquid nanodispensing is a promising tool to interface nanosized/molecular sized systems with both lithographically produced host structures and individual molecular systems. A nanoscale liquid dispensing technique derived from AFM combines resolution and versatility and will be pushed to its extreme to master the deposition of nanoobjects onto a substrate or a precise modification of surfaces.

1 439 712 €

Start date: 2008-08-01, End date: 2013-12-31

Sociotechnical transitions are important to address environmental problems. The present literature focuses on green options that break through and replace existing sociotechnical regimes. The project turns the analytical focus upside down, seeing the destabilisation and decline of existing regimes as the key to transitions. Regimes refer to the rules (knowledge base, belief system, mission, strategic orientation) shared by incumbent actors in an industry. Destabilisation results from increasing external pressures (economic, normative, regulatory) and eroding commitment of actors to regime rules. Research questions are: 1 To what degree have regimes in transport, energy and agriculture destabilised in the last 30 years, as a result of environmental pressures? 2 What kind of process is regime destabilisation and how should it be conceptualised for environmental problems? Which mechanisms are important and how do they interact? The project develops a theoretical perspective, combining insights from neo-institutional theory, STS, evolutionary economics. A phase-based pattern and three propositions are advanced. To investigate destabilisation, the project uses case studies as research strategy, which is appropriate for tracing complex processes such as changing beliefs and identities, fuzzy network boundaries, and many interacting (external) factors. Two PhD projects do four longitudinal case studies about destabilisation. Cases are selected with regard to the phase-based pattern and propositions. One case (decline of domestic coal) went though all phases. Another case (destabilisation of pig farming) has progressed far into the last phase. Coal in electricity and the car regime are less far in the phase-pattern, and probably less destabilised. The PI integrates findings from PhD projects, providing general answers to research questions. He also elaborates the inter-disciplinary perspective, and addresses the possibilities for sustainability transitions.

907 114 €

Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2012-11-30