Project acronym ADDICTION
Project Beyond the Genetics of Addiction
Researcher (PI) Jacqueline Mignon Vink
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary My proposal seeks to explain the complex interplay between genetic and environmental causes of individual variation in substance use and the risk for abuse. Substance use is common. Substances like nicotine and cannabis have well-known negative health consequences, while alcohol and caffeine use may be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on quantity and frequency of use. Twin studies (including my own) demonstrated that both heritable and environmental factors play a role.
My proposal on substance use (nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and caffeine) is organized around several key objectives: 1. To unravel the complex contribution of genetic and environmental factors to substance use by using extended twin family designs; 2. To identify and confirm genes and gene networks involved in substance use by using DNA-variant data; 3. To explore gene expression patterns with RNA data in substance users versus non-users; 4. To investigate biomarkers in substance users versus non-users using blood or urine; 5. To unravel relation between substance use and health by linking twin-family data to national medical databases.
To realize these aims I will use the extensive resources of the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR); including both the longitudinal phenotype database and the biological samples. I have been involved in data collection, coordination of data collection and analyzing NTR data since 1999. With my comprehensive experience in data collection, data analyses and my knowledge in the field of behavior genetics and addiction research I will be able to successfully lead this cutting-edge project. Additional data crucial for the project will be collected by my team. Large samples will be available for this study and state-of-the art methods will be used to analyze the data. All together, my project will offer powerful approaches to unravel the complex interaction between genetic and environmental causes of individual differences in substance use and the risk for abuse.
Summary
My proposal seeks to explain the complex interplay between genetic and environmental causes of individual variation in substance use and the risk for abuse. Substance use is common. Substances like nicotine and cannabis have well-known negative health consequences, while alcohol and caffeine use may be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on quantity and frequency of use. Twin studies (including my own) demonstrated that both heritable and environmental factors play a role.
My proposal on substance use (nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and caffeine) is organized around several key objectives: 1. To unravel the complex contribution of genetic and environmental factors to substance use by using extended twin family designs; 2. To identify and confirm genes and gene networks involved in substance use by using DNA-variant data; 3. To explore gene expression patterns with RNA data in substance users versus non-users; 4. To investigate biomarkers in substance users versus non-users using blood or urine; 5. To unravel relation between substance use and health by linking twin-family data to national medical databases.
To realize these aims I will use the extensive resources of the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR); including both the longitudinal phenotype database and the biological samples. I have been involved in data collection, coordination of data collection and analyzing NTR data since 1999. With my comprehensive experience in data collection, data analyses and my knowledge in the field of behavior genetics and addiction research I will be able to successfully lead this cutting-edge project. Additional data crucial for the project will be collected by my team. Large samples will be available for this study and state-of-the art methods will be used to analyze the data. All together, my project will offer powerful approaches to unravel the complex interaction between genetic and environmental causes of individual differences in substance use and the risk for abuse.
Max ERC Funding
1 491 964 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym AFFORDS-HIGHER
Project Skilled Intentionality for 'Higher' Embodied Cognition: Joining forces with a field of affordances in flux
Researcher (PI) Dirk Willem Rietveld
Host Institution (HI) ACADEMISCH MEDISCH CENTRUM BIJ DE UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary In many situations experts act adequately, yet without deliberation. Architects e.g, immediately sense opportunities offered by the site of a new project. One could label these manifestations of expert intuition as ‘higher-level’ cognition, but still these experts act unreflectively. The aim of my project is to develop the Skilled Intentionality Framework (SIF), a new conceptual framework for the field of embodied/enactive cognitive science (Chemero, 2009; Thompson, 2007). I argue that affordances - possibilities for action provided by our surroundings - are highly significant in cases of unreflective and reflective ‘higher’ cognition. Skilled Intentionality is skilled coordination with multiple affordances simultaneously.
The two central ideas behind this proposal are (a) that episodes of skilled ‘higher’ cognition can be understood as responsiveness to affordances for ‘higher’ cognition and (b) that our surroundings are highly resourceful and contribute to skillful action and cognition in a far more fundamental way than is generally acknowledged. I use embedded philosophical research in a particular practice of architecture to shed new light on the ways in which affordances for ‘higher’ cognition support creative imagination, anticipation, explicit planning and self-reflection.
The Skilled Intentionality Framework is groundbreaking in relating findings established at several complementary levels of analysis: philosophy/phenomenology, ecological psychology, affective science and neurodynamics.
Empirical findings thought to be exclusively valid for everyday unreflective action can now be used to explain skilled ‘higher’ cognition as well. Moreover, SIF brings both the context and the social back into cognitive science. I will show SIF’s relevance for Friston’s work on the anticipating brain, and apply it in the domain of architecture and public health. SIF will radically widen the scope of the increasingly influential field of embodied cognitive science.
Summary
In many situations experts act adequately, yet without deliberation. Architects e.g, immediately sense opportunities offered by the site of a new project. One could label these manifestations of expert intuition as ‘higher-level’ cognition, but still these experts act unreflectively. The aim of my project is to develop the Skilled Intentionality Framework (SIF), a new conceptual framework for the field of embodied/enactive cognitive science (Chemero, 2009; Thompson, 2007). I argue that affordances - possibilities for action provided by our surroundings - are highly significant in cases of unreflective and reflective ‘higher’ cognition. Skilled Intentionality is skilled coordination with multiple affordances simultaneously.
The two central ideas behind this proposal are (a) that episodes of skilled ‘higher’ cognition can be understood as responsiveness to affordances for ‘higher’ cognition and (b) that our surroundings are highly resourceful and contribute to skillful action and cognition in a far more fundamental way than is generally acknowledged. I use embedded philosophical research in a particular practice of architecture to shed new light on the ways in which affordances for ‘higher’ cognition support creative imagination, anticipation, explicit planning and self-reflection.
The Skilled Intentionality Framework is groundbreaking in relating findings established at several complementary levels of analysis: philosophy/phenomenology, ecological psychology, affective science and neurodynamics.
Empirical findings thought to be exclusively valid for everyday unreflective action can now be used to explain skilled ‘higher’ cognition as well. Moreover, SIF brings both the context and the social back into cognitive science. I will show SIF’s relevance for Friston’s work on the anticipating brain, and apply it in the domain of architecture and public health. SIF will radically widen the scope of the increasingly influential field of embodied cognitive science.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 850 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym aidsocpro
Project Aiding Social Protection: the political economy of externally financing social policy in developing countries
Researcher (PI) Andrew Martin Fischer
Host Institution (HI) ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2014-STG
Summary This research proposal explores the political economy of international development assistance (aid) directed towards social expenditures, examined through the lens of a particular financial quandary that has been ignored in the literature despite having important economic and political repercussions. The quandary is that aid cannot be directly spent on expenditures denominated in domestic currency. Instead, aid needs to be first converted into domestic currency whereas the foreign exchange provided is used for other purposes, resulting in a process prone to complex politics regarding domestic monetary policy and spending commitments.
The implications require a serious rethink of many of the accepted premises in the political economy of aid and related literatures.
It is urgent to engage in this rethinking given tensions between two dynamics in the current global political economy: a tightening financial cycle facing developing countries versus an increasing emphasis in international development agendas of directing aid towards social expenditures. The financial quandary might exacerbate these tensions, restricting recipient government policy space despite donor commitments of respecting national ownership.
The proposed research examines these implications through the emerging social protection agenda among donors, which serves as an ideal policy case given that social protection expenditures are almost entirely based on domestic currency. This will be researched through a mixed-method comparative case study of six developing countries, combining quantitative analysis of balance of payments and financing constraints with qualitative process tracing based on elite interviews and documentary research. The objective is to re-orient our thinking on these issues for a deeper appreciation of the systemic political and economic challenges facing global redistribution towards poorer countries, particularly with respect to the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals.
Summary
This research proposal explores the political economy of international development assistance (aid) directed towards social expenditures, examined through the lens of a particular financial quandary that has been ignored in the literature despite having important economic and political repercussions. The quandary is that aid cannot be directly spent on expenditures denominated in domestic currency. Instead, aid needs to be first converted into domestic currency whereas the foreign exchange provided is used for other purposes, resulting in a process prone to complex politics regarding domestic monetary policy and spending commitments.
The implications require a serious rethink of many of the accepted premises in the political economy of aid and related literatures.
It is urgent to engage in this rethinking given tensions between two dynamics in the current global political economy: a tightening financial cycle facing developing countries versus an increasing emphasis in international development agendas of directing aid towards social expenditures. The financial quandary might exacerbate these tensions, restricting recipient government policy space despite donor commitments of respecting national ownership.
The proposed research examines these implications through the emerging social protection agenda among donors, which serves as an ideal policy case given that social protection expenditures are almost entirely based on domestic currency. This will be researched through a mixed-method comparative case study of six developing countries, combining quantitative analysis of balance of payments and financing constraints with qualitative process tracing based on elite interviews and documentary research. The objective is to re-orient our thinking on these issues for a deeper appreciation of the systemic political and economic challenges facing global redistribution towards poorer countries, particularly with respect to the forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals.
Max ERC Funding
1 459 529 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-05-01, End date: 2020-04-30
Project acronym AIDSRIGHTS
Project "Rights, Responsibilities, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: Global Impact on Moral and Political Subjectivity"
Researcher (PI) Jarrett Zigon
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary "This project will undertake a transnational, multi-sited ethnographic study of moral and political subjectivity in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs from the perspective of socio-cultural anthropology. The main research question is: what kinds of politico-moral persons are constituted in institutional contexts that combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to health, and how these kinds of subjectivities relate to local, national, and global forms of the politico-moral represented in health policies? In particular, this research will be carried out in Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali), South Africa (Western Cape), USA (New York City), and various locations throughout Eastern Europe in HIV/AIDS programs and institutions that increasingly combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to treatment and prevention. This project is the first anthropological research on health governance done on a global scale. Until now most anthropological studies have focused on one health program in one location without simultaneously studying similar processes in comparable contexts in other parts of the world. In contrast, this project will take a global perspective on the relationship between health issues, morality, and governance by doing transnational multi-sited research. This project will significantly contribute to the current anthropological focus on bio-citizenship and push it in new directions, resulting in a new anthropological theory of global bio-political governance and global politico-moral subjectivities. This theory will describe and explain recent transnational processes of shaping particular kinds of politico-moral subjectivities through health initiatives. By doing research in comparable world areas this project will significantly contribute to the development of a theory of politico-moral governance with global reach."
Summary
"This project will undertake a transnational, multi-sited ethnographic study of moral and political subjectivity in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs from the perspective of socio-cultural anthropology. The main research question is: what kinds of politico-moral persons are constituted in institutional contexts that combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to health, and how these kinds of subjectivities relate to local, national, and global forms of the politico-moral represented in health policies? In particular, this research will be carried out in Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali), South Africa (Western Cape), USA (New York City), and various locations throughout Eastern Europe in HIV/AIDS programs and institutions that increasingly combine human rights and personal responsibility approaches to treatment and prevention. This project is the first anthropological research on health governance done on a global scale. Until now most anthropological studies have focused on one health program in one location without simultaneously studying similar processes in comparable contexts in other parts of the world. In contrast, this project will take a global perspective on the relationship between health issues, morality, and governance by doing transnational multi-sited research. This project will significantly contribute to the current anthropological focus on bio-citizenship and push it in new directions, resulting in a new anthropological theory of global bio-political governance and global politico-moral subjectivities. This theory will describe and explain recent transnational processes of shaping particular kinds of politico-moral subjectivities through health initiatives. By doing research in comparable world areas this project will significantly contribute to the development of a theory of politico-moral governance with global reach."
Max ERC Funding
1 499 370 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-05-01, End date: 2017-04-30
Project acronym AMORE
Project A distributional MOdel of Reference to Entities
Researcher (PI) Gemma BOLEDA TORRENT
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2016-STG
Summary "When I asked my seven-year-old daughter ""Who is the boy in your class who was also new in school last year, like you?"", she instantly replied ""Daniel"", using the descriptive content in my utterance to identify an entity in the real world and refer to it. The ability to use language to refer to reality is crucial for humans, and yet it is very difficult to model. AMORE breaks new ground in Computational Linguistics, Linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence by developing a model of linguistic reference to entities implemented as a computational system that can learn its own representations from data.
This interdisciplinary project builds on two complementary semantic traditions: 1) Formal semantics, a symbolic approach that can delimit and track linguistic referents, but does not adequately match them with the descriptive content of linguistic expressions; 2) Distributional semantics, which can handle descriptive content but does not associate it to individuated referents. AMORE synthesizes the two approaches into a unified, scalable model of reference that operates with individuated referents and links them to referential expressions characterized by rich descriptive content. The model is a distributed (neural network) version of a formal semantic framework that is furthermore able to integrate perceptual (visual) and linguistic information about entities. We test it extensively in referential tasks that require matching noun phrases (“the Medicine student”, “the white cat”) with entity representations extracted from text and images.
AMORE advances our scientific understanding of language and its computational modeling, and contributes to the far-reaching debate between symbolic and distributed approaches to cognition with an integrative proposal. I am in a privileged position to carry out this integration, since I have contributed top research in both distributional and formal semantics.
"
Summary
"When I asked my seven-year-old daughter ""Who is the boy in your class who was also new in school last year, like you?"", she instantly replied ""Daniel"", using the descriptive content in my utterance to identify an entity in the real world and refer to it. The ability to use language to refer to reality is crucial for humans, and yet it is very difficult to model. AMORE breaks new ground in Computational Linguistics, Linguistics, and Artificial Intelligence by developing a model of linguistic reference to entities implemented as a computational system that can learn its own representations from data.
This interdisciplinary project builds on two complementary semantic traditions: 1) Formal semantics, a symbolic approach that can delimit and track linguistic referents, but does not adequately match them with the descriptive content of linguistic expressions; 2) Distributional semantics, which can handle descriptive content but does not associate it to individuated referents. AMORE synthesizes the two approaches into a unified, scalable model of reference that operates with individuated referents and links them to referential expressions characterized by rich descriptive content. The model is a distributed (neural network) version of a formal semantic framework that is furthermore able to integrate perceptual (visual) and linguistic information about entities. We test it extensively in referential tasks that require matching noun phrases (“the Medicine student”, “the white cat”) with entity representations extracted from text and images.
AMORE advances our scientific understanding of language and its computational modeling, and contributes to the far-reaching debate between symbolic and distributed approaches to cognition with an integrative proposal. I am in a privileged position to carry out this integration, since I have contributed top research in both distributional and formal semantics.
"
Max ERC Funding
1 499 805 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-02-01, End date: 2022-01-31
Project acronym AngioGenesHD
Project Epistasis analysis of angiogenes with high cellular definition
Researcher (PI) Rui Miguel Dos Santos Benedito
Host Institution (HI) CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONESCARDIOVASCULARES CARLOS III (F.S.P.)
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS4, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Blood and lymphatic vessels have been the subject of intense investigation due to their important role in cancer development and in cardiovascular diseases. The significant advance in the methods used to modify and analyse gene function have allowed us to obtain a much better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of the biology of blood vessels. However, there are two key aspects that significantly diminish our capacity to understand the function of gene networks and their intersections in vivo. One is the long time that is usually required to generate a given double mutant vertebrate tissue, and the other is the lack of single-cell genetic and phenotypic resolution. We have recently performed an in vivo comparative transcriptome analysis of highly angiogenic endothelial cells experiencing different VEGF and Notch signalling levels. These are two of the most important molecular mechanisms required for the adequate differentiation, proliferation and sprouting of endothelial cells. Using the information generated from this analysis, the overall aim of the proposed project is to characterize the vascular function of some of the previously identified genes and determine how they functionally interact with these two signalling pathways. We propose to use novel inducible genetic tools that will allow us to generate a spatially and temporally regulated fluorescent cell mosaic matrix for quantitative analysis. This will enable us to analyse with unprecedented speed and resolution the function of several different genes simultaneously, during vascular development, homeostasis or associated diseases. Understanding the genetic epistatic interactions that control the differentiation and behaviour of endothelial cells, in different contexts, and with high cellular definition, has the potential to unveil new mechanisms with high biological and therapeutic relevance.
Summary
Blood and lymphatic vessels have been the subject of intense investigation due to their important role in cancer development and in cardiovascular diseases. The significant advance in the methods used to modify and analyse gene function have allowed us to obtain a much better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of the biology of blood vessels. However, there are two key aspects that significantly diminish our capacity to understand the function of gene networks and their intersections in vivo. One is the long time that is usually required to generate a given double mutant vertebrate tissue, and the other is the lack of single-cell genetic and phenotypic resolution. We have recently performed an in vivo comparative transcriptome analysis of highly angiogenic endothelial cells experiencing different VEGF and Notch signalling levels. These are two of the most important molecular mechanisms required for the adequate differentiation, proliferation and sprouting of endothelial cells. Using the information generated from this analysis, the overall aim of the proposed project is to characterize the vascular function of some of the previously identified genes and determine how they functionally interact with these two signalling pathways. We propose to use novel inducible genetic tools that will allow us to generate a spatially and temporally regulated fluorescent cell mosaic matrix for quantitative analysis. This will enable us to analyse with unprecedented speed and resolution the function of several different genes simultaneously, during vascular development, homeostasis or associated diseases. Understanding the genetic epistatic interactions that control the differentiation and behaviour of endothelial cells, in different contexts, and with high cellular definition, has the potential to unveil new mechanisms with high biological and therapeutic relevance.
Max ERC Funding
1 481 375 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-03-01, End date: 2020-02-29
Project acronym AP-1-FUN
Project AP-1 (Fos/Jun) Functions in Physiology and Disease
Researcher (PI) Erwin F. Wagner
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACION CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES ONCOLOGICAS CARLOS III
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS4, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Our research interests lie in breaking new ground in studying mechanism-based functions of AP-1 (Fos/Jun) in vivo with the aim of obtaining a more global perspective on AP-1 in human physiology and disease/cancer. The unresolved issues regarding the AP-1 subunit composition will be tackled biochemically and genetically in various cell types including bone, liver and skin, the primary organs affected by altered AP-1 activity. I plan to utilize the knowledge gained on AP-1 functions in the mouse and transfer it to human disease. The opportunities here lie in exploiting the knowledge of AP-1 target genes and utilizing this information to interfere with pathways involved in normal physiology and disease/cancer. The past investigations revealed that the functions of AP-1 are an essential node at the crossroads between life and death in different cellular systems. I plan to further exploit our findings and concentrate on utilising better mouse models to define these connections. The emphasis will be on identifying molecular signatures and potential treatments in models for cancer, inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. Exploring genetically modified stem cell-based therapies in murine and human cells is an ongoing challenge I would like to meet in the forthcoming years at the CNIO. In addition, the mouse models will be used for mechanism-driven therapeutic strategies and these studies will be undertaken in collaboration with the Experimental Therapeutics Division and the service units such as the tumor bank. The project proposal is divided into 6 Goals (see also Figure 1): Some are a logical continuation based on previous work with completely new aspects (Goal 1-2), some focussing on in depth molecular analyses of disease models with innovative and unconventional concepts, such as for inflammation and cancer, psoriasis and fibrosis (Goal 3-5). A final section is devoted to mouse and human ES cells and their impact for regenerative medicine in bone diseases and cancer.
Summary
Our research interests lie in breaking new ground in studying mechanism-based functions of AP-1 (Fos/Jun) in vivo with the aim of obtaining a more global perspective on AP-1 in human physiology and disease/cancer. The unresolved issues regarding the AP-1 subunit composition will be tackled biochemically and genetically in various cell types including bone, liver and skin, the primary organs affected by altered AP-1 activity. I plan to utilize the knowledge gained on AP-1 functions in the mouse and transfer it to human disease. The opportunities here lie in exploiting the knowledge of AP-1 target genes and utilizing this information to interfere with pathways involved in normal physiology and disease/cancer. The past investigations revealed that the functions of AP-1 are an essential node at the crossroads between life and death in different cellular systems. I plan to further exploit our findings and concentrate on utilising better mouse models to define these connections. The emphasis will be on identifying molecular signatures and potential treatments in models for cancer, inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. Exploring genetically modified stem cell-based therapies in murine and human cells is an ongoing challenge I would like to meet in the forthcoming years at the CNIO. In addition, the mouse models will be used for mechanism-driven therapeutic strategies and these studies will be undertaken in collaboration with the Experimental Therapeutics Division and the service units such as the tumor bank. The project proposal is divided into 6 Goals (see also Figure 1): Some are a logical continuation based on previous work with completely new aspects (Goal 1-2), some focussing on in depth molecular analyses of disease models with innovative and unconventional concepts, such as for inflammation and cancer, psoriasis and fibrosis (Goal 3-5). A final section is devoted to mouse and human ES cells and their impact for regenerative medicine in bone diseases and cancer.
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31
Project acronym APOLOGY
Project Political Apologies across Cultures
Researcher (PI) Juliëtte Schaafsma
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT BRABANT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH2, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary In the past decades, there has been a considerable rise in the number of apologies offered by states for injustices and human rights violations. Among transitional justice scholars, there is significant debate about how useful such apologies are. Whereas some have applauded these gestures as an important step in peacemaking processes, others have argued that they may not fit in all cultures and may even be a risky tool for peacemaking. Unfortunately, theorizing and research in the field of transitional justice is still in its infancy and has not systematically addressed questions of cross-cultural variability yet. So, at present, we do not know whether political apologies are a universally viable way to restore justice and harmony. My project addresses this challenge. Using an innovative, interdisciplinary, and multi-method approach with in-depth interviews, (experimental) surveys, and content analyses of apologies, I analyze whether there are universals in how political apologies are valued, expressed, and interpreted or whether this varies as a function of cross-cultural differences in key values (collectivism and individualism) and norms (face and honor). Based on these findings, I build a theoretical framework that will fundamentally advance our understanding of the potential value and role of apologies in transitional justice processes. This project breaks new ground because it is the first to take the difficult step to collect cross-cultural data to examine whether key assumptions regarding political apologies hold across cultures. It is also the first in this area to use a multi-method approach, which makes it possible to take into account the complex reality of political apologies. Combining insights from transitional justice, cross-cultural psychology and anthropology, this project places theorizing on transitional justice on a much firmer footing and paves the way to more cross-culturally valid models to restore justice and promote reconciliation.
Summary
In the past decades, there has been a considerable rise in the number of apologies offered by states for injustices and human rights violations. Among transitional justice scholars, there is significant debate about how useful such apologies are. Whereas some have applauded these gestures as an important step in peacemaking processes, others have argued that they may not fit in all cultures and may even be a risky tool for peacemaking. Unfortunately, theorizing and research in the field of transitional justice is still in its infancy and has not systematically addressed questions of cross-cultural variability yet. So, at present, we do not know whether political apologies are a universally viable way to restore justice and harmony. My project addresses this challenge. Using an innovative, interdisciplinary, and multi-method approach with in-depth interviews, (experimental) surveys, and content analyses of apologies, I analyze whether there are universals in how political apologies are valued, expressed, and interpreted or whether this varies as a function of cross-cultural differences in key values (collectivism and individualism) and norms (face and honor). Based on these findings, I build a theoretical framework that will fundamentally advance our understanding of the potential value and role of apologies in transitional justice processes. This project breaks new ground because it is the first to take the difficult step to collect cross-cultural data to examine whether key assumptions regarding political apologies hold across cultures. It is also the first in this area to use a multi-method approach, which makes it possible to take into account the complex reality of political apologies. Combining insights from transitional justice, cross-cultural psychology and anthropology, this project places theorizing on transitional justice on a much firmer footing and paves the way to more cross-culturally valid models to restore justice and promote reconciliation.
Max ERC Funding
1 917 713 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym ASICA
Project New constraints on the Amazonian carbon balance from airborne observations of the stable isotopes of CO2
Researcher (PI) Wouter Peters
Host Institution (HI) WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Severe droughts in Amazonia in 2005 and 2010 caused widespread loss of carbon from the terrestrial biosphere. This loss, almost twice the annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the EU, suggests a large sensitivity of the Amazonian carbon balance to a predicted more intense drought regime in the next decades. This is a dangerous inference though, as there is no scientific consensus on the most basic metrics of Amazonian carbon exchange: the gross primary production (GPP) and its response to moisture deficits in the soil and atmosphere. Measuring them on scales that span the whole Amazon forest was thus far impossible, but in this project I aim to deliver the first observation-based estimate of pan-Amazonian GPP and its drought induced variations.
My program builds on two recent breakthroughs in our use of stable isotopes (13C, 17O, 18O) in atmospheric CO2: (1) Our discovery that observed δ¹³C in CO2 in the atmosphere is a quantitative measure for vegetation water-use efficiency over millions of square kilometers, integrating the drought response of individual plants. (2) The possibility to precisely measure the relative ratios of 18O/16O and 17O/16O in CO2, called Δ17O. Anomalous Δ17O values are present in air coming down from the stratosphere, but this anomaly is removed upon contact of CO2 with leaf water inside plant stomata. Hence, observed Δ17O values depend directly on the magnitude of GPP. Both δ¹³C and Δ17O measurements are scarce over the Amazon-basin, and I propose more than 7000 new measurements leveraging an established aircraft monitoring program in Brazil. Quantitative interpretation of these observations will break new ground in our use of stable isotopes to understand climate variations, and is facilitated by our renowned numerical modeling system “CarbonTracker”. My program will answer two burning question in carbon cycle science today: (a) What is the magnitude of GPP in Amazonia? And (b) How does it vary over different intensities of drought?
Summary
Severe droughts in Amazonia in 2005 and 2010 caused widespread loss of carbon from the terrestrial biosphere. This loss, almost twice the annual fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the EU, suggests a large sensitivity of the Amazonian carbon balance to a predicted more intense drought regime in the next decades. This is a dangerous inference though, as there is no scientific consensus on the most basic metrics of Amazonian carbon exchange: the gross primary production (GPP) and its response to moisture deficits in the soil and atmosphere. Measuring them on scales that span the whole Amazon forest was thus far impossible, but in this project I aim to deliver the first observation-based estimate of pan-Amazonian GPP and its drought induced variations.
My program builds on two recent breakthroughs in our use of stable isotopes (13C, 17O, 18O) in atmospheric CO2: (1) Our discovery that observed δ¹³C in CO2 in the atmosphere is a quantitative measure for vegetation water-use efficiency over millions of square kilometers, integrating the drought response of individual plants. (2) The possibility to precisely measure the relative ratios of 18O/16O and 17O/16O in CO2, called Δ17O. Anomalous Δ17O values are present in air coming down from the stratosphere, but this anomaly is removed upon contact of CO2 with leaf water inside plant stomata. Hence, observed Δ17O values depend directly on the magnitude of GPP. Both δ¹³C and Δ17O measurements are scarce over the Amazon-basin, and I propose more than 7000 new measurements leveraging an established aircraft monitoring program in Brazil. Quantitative interpretation of these observations will break new ground in our use of stable isotopes to understand climate variations, and is facilitated by our renowned numerical modeling system “CarbonTracker”. My program will answer two burning question in carbon cycle science today: (a) What is the magnitude of GPP in Amazonia? And (b) How does it vary over different intensities of drought?
Max ERC Funding
2 269 689 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym ATUNE
Project Attenuation Tomography Using Novel observations of Earth's free oscillations
Researcher (PI) Arwen Fedora Deuss
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE10, ERC-2015-CoG
Summary Tectonic phenomena at the Earth's surface, like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes,are driven by convection deep in the mantle. Seismic tomography has been very successful in elucidating the Earth's internal velocity structure. However, seismic velocity is insufficient to obtain robust estimates of temperature and composition, and make direct links with mantle convection. Thus, fundamental questions remain unanswered: Do subducting slabs bring water into the lower mantle? Are the large low-shear velocity provinces under the Pacific and Africa mainly thermal or compositional? Is there any partial melt or water near the mantle transition zone or core mantle boundary?
Seismic attenuation, or loss of energy, is key to mapping melt, water and temperature variations, and answering these questions. Unfortunately, attenuation has only been imaged using short- and intermediate-period seismic data, showing little similarity even for the upper mantle and no reliable lower mantle models exist. The aim of ATUNE is to develop novel full-spectrum techniques and apply them to Earth's long period free oscillations to observe global-scale regional variations in seismic attenuation from the lithosphere to the core mantle boundary. Scattering and focussing - problematic for shorter period techniques - are easily included using cross-coupling (or resonance) between free oscillations not requiring approximations. The recent occurrence of large earthquakes, increase in computer power and my world-leading expertise in free oscillations now make it possible to increase the frequency dependence of attenuation to a much wider frequency band, allowing us to distinguish between scattering (redistribution of energy) versus intrinsic attenuation. ATUNE will deliver the first ever full-waveform global tomographic model of 3D attenuation variations in the lower mantle, providing essential constraints on melt, water and temperature for understanding the complex dynamics of our planet.
Summary
Tectonic phenomena at the Earth's surface, like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes,are driven by convection deep in the mantle. Seismic tomography has been very successful in elucidating the Earth's internal velocity structure. However, seismic velocity is insufficient to obtain robust estimates of temperature and composition, and make direct links with mantle convection. Thus, fundamental questions remain unanswered: Do subducting slabs bring water into the lower mantle? Are the large low-shear velocity provinces under the Pacific and Africa mainly thermal or compositional? Is there any partial melt or water near the mantle transition zone or core mantle boundary?
Seismic attenuation, or loss of energy, is key to mapping melt, water and temperature variations, and answering these questions. Unfortunately, attenuation has only been imaged using short- and intermediate-period seismic data, showing little similarity even for the upper mantle and no reliable lower mantle models exist. The aim of ATUNE is to develop novel full-spectrum techniques and apply them to Earth's long period free oscillations to observe global-scale regional variations in seismic attenuation from the lithosphere to the core mantle boundary. Scattering and focussing - problematic for shorter period techniques - are easily included using cross-coupling (or resonance) between free oscillations not requiring approximations. The recent occurrence of large earthquakes, increase in computer power and my world-leading expertise in free oscillations now make it possible to increase the frequency dependence of attenuation to a much wider frequency band, allowing us to distinguish between scattering (redistribution of energy) versus intrinsic attenuation. ATUNE will deliver the first ever full-waveform global tomographic model of 3D attenuation variations in the lower mantle, providing essential constraints on melt, water and temperature for understanding the complex dynamics of our planet.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-06-01, End date: 2021-05-31
