Project acronym GLOBTAXGOV
Project A New Model of Global Governance in International Tax Law Making
Researcher (PI) Irma Johanna MOSQUERA VALDERRAMA
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2017-STG
Summary The overall aim of this research project is to assess the feasibility and legitimacy of the current model of global tax governance and the role of the OECD and EU in international tax lawmaking. Unlike the former OECD projects that only provide for exchange of information between countries, in the BEPS Project, the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, the EU state aid investigations and the EU External Strategy, the OECD and the EU focus on substantive issues that when implemented will change the international tax architecture of developed and developing countries. These initiatives aim to ensure that governments engage in fair competition and that multinationals pay their fair share. Even though these objectives are legitimate, these developments raise the questions what is the role of the OECD and the EU in global tax governance? and under what conditions can the model of global tax governance be feasible and legitimate for both developed and developing countries? These initiatives have generated tensions between developed and developed countries and between EU and third (non-EU) countries. The tensions between countries call for the articulation of a new framework of global tax governance that is legitimate and based on considerations of fairness for all countries participating.
Against this background, my project will first assess the feasibility of the legal transplant of the BEPS minimum standards into the tax systems of 12 countries of research by asking three sub-questions (i) why are these countries participating in the BEPS Project? (ii) how will the BEPS minimum standards be transplanted into the tax system of these countries? and (iii) how can the differences in tax systems and tax cultures of these countries influence the content of these minimum standards? Thereafter, the conditions for the legitimacy of the role of the OECD and the EU will be provided in light of the theories of legitimacy and governance.
Summary
The overall aim of this research project is to assess the feasibility and legitimacy of the current model of global tax governance and the role of the OECD and EU in international tax lawmaking. Unlike the former OECD projects that only provide for exchange of information between countries, in the BEPS Project, the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive, the EU state aid investigations and the EU External Strategy, the OECD and the EU focus on substantive issues that when implemented will change the international tax architecture of developed and developing countries. These initiatives aim to ensure that governments engage in fair competition and that multinationals pay their fair share. Even though these objectives are legitimate, these developments raise the questions what is the role of the OECD and the EU in global tax governance? and under what conditions can the model of global tax governance be feasible and legitimate for both developed and developing countries? These initiatives have generated tensions between developed and developed countries and between EU and third (non-EU) countries. The tensions between countries call for the articulation of a new framework of global tax governance that is legitimate and based on considerations of fairness for all countries participating.
Against this background, my project will first assess the feasibility of the legal transplant of the BEPS minimum standards into the tax systems of 12 countries of research by asking three sub-questions (i) why are these countries participating in the BEPS Project? (ii) how will the BEPS minimum standards be transplanted into the tax system of these countries? and (iii) how can the differences in tax systems and tax cultures of these countries influence the content of these minimum standards? Thereafter, the conditions for the legitimacy of the role of the OECD and the EU will be provided in light of the theories of legitimacy and governance.
Max ERC Funding
1 384 750 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym GlycoEdit
Project New Chemical Tools for Precision Glycotherapy
Researcher (PI) Thomas BOLTJE
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Glycosylation, the expression of carbohydrate structures on proteins and lipids, is found in all the domains of life. The collection of all glycans found on a cell is called the “glycome” which is information rich and a key player in a plethora of physiological and pathological processes. The information that the glycome holds can be written, read and erased by glycosyltransferases, lectins and glycosidases, respectively. The immense structural complexity and the fact that glycan biosynthesis is not under direct genetic control makes it very difficult to study the glycome.
The glycosylation pattern of cancer cells is very different from that of healthy cells. It is still unclear whether aberrant glycosylation of cancer cells is a cause or consequence of tumorigenesis but it is associated with aggressive and invasive forms of cancer and hence poor prognosis. Malignant glycans are directly involved in a number of mechanisms that suppress the immune response, increase migration and extravasation (metastasis), block apoptosis and increase resistance to chemotherapy.
The aim of this proposal is develop new glycomimetics that can be used to edit the glycome of cancer cells to target such evasive mechanisms. Using combinations of new glycan based inhibitors, a coordinated attack on the cancer glycome can be carried out which is expected to severely cripple the cancers ability to grow and metastasize. This will make the tumor more susceptible to immune mediated killing which may be further enhanced in combination with other anti-cancer strategies.
To minimize systemic side effects, new methods for the local delivery/activation of glycan inhibitors will be developed. The developed methods are expected to have a much broader than just cancer alone since the studied mechanisms are also associated with autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease.
Summary
Glycosylation, the expression of carbohydrate structures on proteins and lipids, is found in all the domains of life. The collection of all glycans found on a cell is called the “glycome” which is information rich and a key player in a plethora of physiological and pathological processes. The information that the glycome holds can be written, read and erased by glycosyltransferases, lectins and glycosidases, respectively. The immense structural complexity and the fact that glycan biosynthesis is not under direct genetic control makes it very difficult to study the glycome.
The glycosylation pattern of cancer cells is very different from that of healthy cells. It is still unclear whether aberrant glycosylation of cancer cells is a cause or consequence of tumorigenesis but it is associated with aggressive and invasive forms of cancer and hence poor prognosis. Malignant glycans are directly involved in a number of mechanisms that suppress the immune response, increase migration and extravasation (metastasis), block apoptosis and increase resistance to chemotherapy.
The aim of this proposal is develop new glycomimetics that can be used to edit the glycome of cancer cells to target such evasive mechanisms. Using combinations of new glycan based inhibitors, a coordinated attack on the cancer glycome can be carried out which is expected to severely cripple the cancers ability to grow and metastasize. This will make the tumor more susceptible to immune mediated killing which may be further enhanced in combination with other anti-cancer strategies.
To minimize systemic side effects, new methods for the local delivery/activation of glycan inhibitors will be developed. The developed methods are expected to have a much broader than just cancer alone since the studied mechanisms are also associated with autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-11-01, End date: 2022-10-31
Project acronym HelpUS
Project Pioneering focused Ultrasounds as a new non-invasive deep brain stimulation for a causal investigation of empathy related brain processes in moral learning and decision making
Researcher (PI) Valeria GAZZOLA
Host Institution (HI) KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2017-STG
Summary The success of humans depends on their ability to cooperate. Cooperation requires learning to avoid actions that harm others and select those that balance benefits for self and others. Reinforcement leaning captures how individuals learn to optimize benefits for themselves, by associating actions and outcomes for the self. The social context requires to incorporate outcomes for others into that equation by transforming them into the currency used to value our own outcomes. Research on empathy, by suggesting that we transform the emotions of others into neural representation of how we would feel in their stead, provides testable mechanistic hypotheses of how we do that. The painful facial expression of our friend after we kick him would be transformed into the pain we would feel when kicked, associating kicking with negative value, thereby motivating us to stop kicking. Testing this hypothesis would require altering brain activity in the anterior insula and cingulate involved in this process, and showing that these changes alter decision making. Because current tools in humans cannot selectively modulate activity in these deeper regions we however remain frustratingly powerless to do so. Here we will develop a brand new method using ultrasounds to modulate brain activity at any depth to brake down this barrier. Using fmri, we will measure vicarious activity and compare it with computational models. This will push our understanding of our social nature to a new computational level, and pave the way to a more causal understanding of prosociality that can inform successful interventions for so far untreatable antisocial disorders. More generally deep brain stimulation via US, and the understanding of how US modulate brain activity, will unleash affective neuroscience to noninvasively explore what had remained beyond our reach: the causal relationship between deeper (limbic) structures and behavior and cognition.
Summary
The success of humans depends on their ability to cooperate. Cooperation requires learning to avoid actions that harm others and select those that balance benefits for self and others. Reinforcement leaning captures how individuals learn to optimize benefits for themselves, by associating actions and outcomes for the self. The social context requires to incorporate outcomes for others into that equation by transforming them into the currency used to value our own outcomes. Research on empathy, by suggesting that we transform the emotions of others into neural representation of how we would feel in their stead, provides testable mechanistic hypotheses of how we do that. The painful facial expression of our friend after we kick him would be transformed into the pain we would feel when kicked, associating kicking with negative value, thereby motivating us to stop kicking. Testing this hypothesis would require altering brain activity in the anterior insula and cingulate involved in this process, and showing that these changes alter decision making. Because current tools in humans cannot selectively modulate activity in these deeper regions we however remain frustratingly powerless to do so. Here we will develop a brand new method using ultrasounds to modulate brain activity at any depth to brake down this barrier. Using fmri, we will measure vicarious activity and compare it with computational models. This will push our understanding of our social nature to a new computational level, and pave the way to a more causal understanding of prosociality that can inform successful interventions for so far untreatable antisocial disorders. More generally deep brain stimulation via US, and the understanding of how US modulate brain activity, will unleash affective neuroscience to noninvasively explore what had remained beyond our reach: the causal relationship between deeper (limbic) structures and behavior and cognition.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-07-01, End date: 2023-06-30
Project acronym INFRAGLOB
Project AFRICA's ‘INFRASTRUCTURE GLOBALITIES’: Rethinking the Political Geographies of Economic Hubs from the Global South
Researcher (PI) Jana HOENKE
Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Power beyond the state is most prevalent in economic infrastructure hubs with high technology and multiple global actors. Here, investors from emerging powers challenge traditional theory and practice. Chinese and Brazilian companies are now the most important bilateral investors in Africa. They apply existing rules and practices, and introduce new practices of governance and business-society relations that compete with Western norms. But their impact is not properly understood in theories of transnational governance.
This project will rethink transnational governance by focusing on the margins of international relations to explain how models and experiences of actors from the Global South redefine the governance of economic hubs. Seemingly in the margins of international political economy, and neglected in International Relations, in Africa new forms of power and governance are invented and tested. Here states are weaker and experiments with multiple non-state actors and modes of governance tolerated. The fringes of theory-building in the discipline, the hubs of transnational economic infrastructure, and everyday practices of cross-border management can be theorized as arenas of the production, contestation and change of transnational governance.
INFRAGLOB combines analysing the ideas driving Chinese and Brazilian management of large-scale port and mining projects with multi-sited ethnographic research of exemplary cases in Mozambique and Tanzania, establishing how these concepts are enacted, negotiated and disregarded in practice. It rethinks publics by mapping controversies that connect Africa, Brazil and China, and establishes how interactions and frictions between diverse practitioners and standards change broader transnational governance of business-community relations and security.
‘Infrastructure globalities’ will provide a unique understanding of how the Global South changes practices of governance and business-society relations in a multipolar world.
Summary
Power beyond the state is most prevalent in economic infrastructure hubs with high technology and multiple global actors. Here, investors from emerging powers challenge traditional theory and practice. Chinese and Brazilian companies are now the most important bilateral investors in Africa. They apply existing rules and practices, and introduce new practices of governance and business-society relations that compete with Western norms. But their impact is not properly understood in theories of transnational governance.
This project will rethink transnational governance by focusing on the margins of international relations to explain how models and experiences of actors from the Global South redefine the governance of economic hubs. Seemingly in the margins of international political economy, and neglected in International Relations, in Africa new forms of power and governance are invented and tested. Here states are weaker and experiments with multiple non-state actors and modes of governance tolerated. The fringes of theory-building in the discipline, the hubs of transnational economic infrastructure, and everyday practices of cross-border management can be theorized as arenas of the production, contestation and change of transnational governance.
INFRAGLOB combines analysing the ideas driving Chinese and Brazilian management of large-scale port and mining projects with multi-sited ethnographic research of exemplary cases in Mozambique and Tanzania, establishing how these concepts are enacted, negotiated and disregarded in practice. It rethinks publics by mapping controversies that connect Africa, Brazil and China, and establishes how interactions and frictions between diverse practitioners and standards change broader transnational governance of business-community relations and security.
‘Infrastructure globalities’ will provide a unique understanding of how the Global South changes practices of governance and business-society relations in a multipolar world.
Max ERC Funding
1 495 909 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-03-01, End date: 2023-02-28
Project acronym INTRANSITION
Project Development of Identity and Relationships during Transitions in Adolescence
Researcher (PI) Susannne BRANJE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2017-COG
Summary A key developmental task in adolescence is the development of identity, which coincides with development of autonomy in close relationships. The INTRANSITION project aims to examine how development of identity and autonomy affect each other during adolescence. The project will advance the field by examining intra-individual (or within-person, as opposed to inter-individual or between-person) processes of change in identity and autonomy. This is crucial as inter-individual processes are not related or translatable to intra-individual processes. Often theories are examined by comparing adolescents to other adolescents, whereas the theoretical question focuses on understanding developmental changes within adolescents. To this end I will apply innovative intra-individual techniques to analyze development of identity and autonomy at different time scales: real-time moment-to-moment behavior, interactions across hours and days, and long-term development. In five interrelated work packages, I will examine development of adolescent identity and autonomy by putting the individual back in development. Work package 1 focuses on short-term intra-individual developmental processes of identity and autonomy. Work package 2 examines how developmental transitions affect intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Work package 3 will focus on how person-environment interactions moderate intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Work package 4 will examine emotional and behavioral variability in intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Work package 5 addresses gene-environment interactions and epigenetic processes in intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Together, these work packages will offer a better understanding of the short-term and long-term intra-individual developmental processes of identity and autonomy during transitional periods, thereby allowing to better understand how these changes take place within individuals.
Summary
A key developmental task in adolescence is the development of identity, which coincides with development of autonomy in close relationships. The INTRANSITION project aims to examine how development of identity and autonomy affect each other during adolescence. The project will advance the field by examining intra-individual (or within-person, as opposed to inter-individual or between-person) processes of change in identity and autonomy. This is crucial as inter-individual processes are not related or translatable to intra-individual processes. Often theories are examined by comparing adolescents to other adolescents, whereas the theoretical question focuses on understanding developmental changes within adolescents. To this end I will apply innovative intra-individual techniques to analyze development of identity and autonomy at different time scales: real-time moment-to-moment behavior, interactions across hours and days, and long-term development. In five interrelated work packages, I will examine development of adolescent identity and autonomy by putting the individual back in development. Work package 1 focuses on short-term intra-individual developmental processes of identity and autonomy. Work package 2 examines how developmental transitions affect intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Work package 3 will focus on how person-environment interactions moderate intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Work package 4 will examine emotional and behavioral variability in intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Work package 5 addresses gene-environment interactions and epigenetic processes in intra-individual development of identity and autonomy. Together, these work packages will offer a better understanding of the short-term and long-term intra-individual developmental processes of identity and autonomy during transitional periods, thereby allowing to better understand how these changes take place within individuals.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 960 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym LACOPAROM
Project Lewis acid promoted copper catalysis to functionalise and dearomatise arenes
Researcher (PI) Syuzanna HARUTYUNYAN
Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE5, ERC-2017-COG
Summary Aromatic compounds are cheap and readily available, making them ideal starting materials for the synthesis of chiral alicyclic compounds, important synthetic building blocks for both natural product synthesis and drug discovery. However, general strategies for efficient, catalytic dearomatisation of aromatics are lacking.
This proposal aims to fill this gap by developing general asymmetric methods for dearomatisation reactions of both electron-rich and electron-deficient aromatics. It relies on an innovative approach based on LA activation of the arenes, followed by copper catalyzed carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, with a special focus on environmentally benign and cost-effective processes.
To achieve the overall aim of the proposed project, the research program is composed of four distinct but complementary research lines aiming at catalytic asymmetric dearomatisation/carbon-carbon bond forming reactions using:
- Electron-deficient carbonyl substituted arenes
- Pyridines and other N-containing heteroarenes
- Phenols and anilines and fused analogues
- Benzylic aromatic systems
The remarkable and novel feature of this strategy is that it enables for the first time selective catalytic asymmetric dearomatisations of various classes of aromatic substrates following a general, unified concept. Furthermore, since sequential bond constructions take place in a single synthetic operation, a rapid increase of molecular complexity can be achieved at greatly reduced cost and increased atom-efficiency, thereby contributing to a more sustainable future. Consequently, there is huge potential for this strategy to become an invaluable instrument to access a wide variety of chiral carbocyclic compounds and I anticipate it will have a significant impact in the field of organic synthesis.
Summary
Aromatic compounds are cheap and readily available, making them ideal starting materials for the synthesis of chiral alicyclic compounds, important synthetic building blocks for both natural product synthesis and drug discovery. However, general strategies for efficient, catalytic dearomatisation of aromatics are lacking.
This proposal aims to fill this gap by developing general asymmetric methods for dearomatisation reactions of both electron-rich and electron-deficient aromatics. It relies on an innovative approach based on LA activation of the arenes, followed by copper catalyzed carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, with a special focus on environmentally benign and cost-effective processes.
To achieve the overall aim of the proposed project, the research program is composed of four distinct but complementary research lines aiming at catalytic asymmetric dearomatisation/carbon-carbon bond forming reactions using:
- Electron-deficient carbonyl substituted arenes
- Pyridines and other N-containing heteroarenes
- Phenols and anilines and fused analogues
- Benzylic aromatic systems
The remarkable and novel feature of this strategy is that it enables for the first time selective catalytic asymmetric dearomatisations of various classes of aromatic substrates following a general, unified concept. Furthermore, since sequential bond constructions take place in a single synthetic operation, a rapid increase of molecular complexity can be achieved at greatly reduced cost and increased atom-efficiency, thereby contributing to a more sustainable future. Consequently, there is huge potential for this strategy to become an invaluable instrument to access a wide variety of chiral carbocyclic compounds and I anticipate it will have a significant impact in the field of organic synthesis.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 398 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym LUDEME
Project The Digital Ludeme Project: Modelling the Evolution of Traditional Games
Researcher (PI) Cameron BROWNE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The development of games goes hand in hand with the development of human culture. Games offer a rich window of insight into our cultural past, but early examples were rarely documented and our understanding of them is incomplete. While there has been considerable historical research into games and their use as tools of cultural analysis, much is based on the interpretation of partial evidence with little mathematical analysis. This project will use modern computational techniques to help fill these gaps in our knowledge empirically.
I will represent games as structured sets of ludemes (units of game-related information), which will allow the full range of traditional strategy games to be modelled in a single software system for the first time. This system will not only model and play games, but will evaluate reconstructions for quality and authenticity, and automatically improve them where possible. This will lay the foundations for a new field of study called digital archaeoludology, which will involve addressing technical challenges that could yield significant benefits in their own right, particularly in artificial intelligence.
The ludemic model reveals innate mathematical relationships between games, allowing phylogenetic analysis. This provides a mechanism for creating a family tree/network of traditional games, which could reveal missing links and allow ancestral state reconstruction to shed light on the gaps in our partial knowledge. Locating ludemes culturally provides a mechanism for creating interactive maps that chart the transmission of mathematical ideas across cultures through play. This project seeks to bridge the gap between historical and computational studies of games, to provide greater insight into our understanding of them as cultural artefacts, and to pioneer new tools and techniques for their continued analysis. The aim is to restore and preserve our intangible cultural heritage (of game playing) through the tangible evidence available.
Summary
The development of games goes hand in hand with the development of human culture. Games offer a rich window of insight into our cultural past, but early examples were rarely documented and our understanding of them is incomplete. While there has been considerable historical research into games and their use as tools of cultural analysis, much is based on the interpretation of partial evidence with little mathematical analysis. This project will use modern computational techniques to help fill these gaps in our knowledge empirically.
I will represent games as structured sets of ludemes (units of game-related information), which will allow the full range of traditional strategy games to be modelled in a single software system for the first time. This system will not only model and play games, but will evaluate reconstructions for quality and authenticity, and automatically improve them where possible. This will lay the foundations for a new field of study called digital archaeoludology, which will involve addressing technical challenges that could yield significant benefits in their own right, particularly in artificial intelligence.
The ludemic model reveals innate mathematical relationships between games, allowing phylogenetic analysis. This provides a mechanism for creating a family tree/network of traditional games, which could reveal missing links and allow ancestral state reconstruction to shed light on the gaps in our partial knowledge. Locating ludemes culturally provides a mechanism for creating interactive maps that chart the transmission of mathematical ideas across cultures through play. This project seeks to bridge the gap between historical and computational studies of games, to provide greater insight into our understanding of them as cultural artefacts, and to pioneer new tools and techniques for their continued analysis. The aim is to restore and preserve our intangible cultural heritage (of game playing) through the tangible evidence available.
Max ERC Funding
1 997 244 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31
Project acronym Morpheus
Project Morphogenesis of photo-mechanized molecular materials
Researcher (PI) Nathalie Hélène Katsonis
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT TWENTE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE5, ERC-2017-COG
Summary The sophistication reached by organic chemistry has enabled the design and synthesis of a wide range of dynamic molecules that display controlled shape changes with an ever-increasing refinement. However, amplifying these molecular-scale dynamics to support shape-transformation in a broad range of macroscopic functions remains a key challenge.
To address this challenge, I draw inspiration from living materials where molecular machines maintain out of equilibrium states by ingenious coupling with their anisotropic supramolecular environment, and ultimately promote the appearance of emergent properties on higher levels of organization.
The aim of Morpheus is to develop shape-shifting materials and shape-generating photochemical systems by amplifying the motion of molecular machines over increasing length scales, towards the emergence of cohesive shape transformation in artificial tissue-like materials.
We will (i) develop motorized materials by coupling light-driven molecular motors to liquid crystals and pre-program photoreaction-diffusion processes to achieve continuous motion; (ii) combine microfluidics with the anisotropic response of liquid crystal elastomers to create a library of shape-shifting bubbles and shells that undergo pre-programmed shape modification under irradiation with light; (iii) promote adhesion between units of mechanized matter, while preserving their original shape-shifting and shape-generating properties; and (iv) assemble tissue-like morphing materials from large cohesive networks of shape-shifting micro-spheres.
This project will lay the scientific foundation for a new and multidisciplinary approach towards shape-generating molecular materials. It will yield unprecedented examples of emergent dynamics, provide simple models to untangle the underpinnings of mechanical transduction in nature, and contribute to developing new paradigms for the design of active matter.
Summary
The sophistication reached by organic chemistry has enabled the design and synthesis of a wide range of dynamic molecules that display controlled shape changes with an ever-increasing refinement. However, amplifying these molecular-scale dynamics to support shape-transformation in a broad range of macroscopic functions remains a key challenge.
To address this challenge, I draw inspiration from living materials where molecular machines maintain out of equilibrium states by ingenious coupling with their anisotropic supramolecular environment, and ultimately promote the appearance of emergent properties on higher levels of organization.
The aim of Morpheus is to develop shape-shifting materials and shape-generating photochemical systems by amplifying the motion of molecular machines over increasing length scales, towards the emergence of cohesive shape transformation in artificial tissue-like materials.
We will (i) develop motorized materials by coupling light-driven molecular motors to liquid crystals and pre-program photoreaction-diffusion processes to achieve continuous motion; (ii) combine microfluidics with the anisotropic response of liquid crystal elastomers to create a library of shape-shifting bubbles and shells that undergo pre-programmed shape modification under irradiation with light; (iii) promote adhesion between units of mechanized matter, while preserving their original shape-shifting and shape-generating properties; and (iv) assemble tissue-like morphing materials from large cohesive networks of shape-shifting micro-spheres.
This project will lay the scientific foundation for a new and multidisciplinary approach towards shape-generating molecular materials. It will yield unprecedented examples of emergent dynamics, provide simple models to untangle the underpinnings of mechanical transduction in nature, and contribute to developing new paradigms for the design of active matter.
Max ERC Funding
2 000 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-09-01, End date: 2023-08-31
Project acronym NANOSTORM
Project Design of Nanomaterials for Targeted Therapies Guided by Super Resolution Imaging
Researcher (PI) Lorenzo ALBERTAZZI
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE5, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Nanomaterials revolutionized the field of targeted cancer therapies introducing innovative approaches towards the molecular recognition of diseased cells. However, despite the large investments in nanotechnology-based drug delivery the translation into clinical applications is still unsatisfactory and up to date there are no actively-targeted materials approved for clinical use. One of the main reasons is the lack of knowledge about the behaviour of nanostructures in the biological environment that makes the rational design of effective drug delivery carriers extremely challenging.
NANOSTORM proposes the use of an innovative optical imaging technique such as super resolution microscopy to visualize and understand the molecular interactions of nanomaterials with their cellular targets in unprecedented detail. We recently reported for the first time the ability of Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) to image self-assembled synthetic materials in vitro with nanometric resolution. NANOSTORM aims to bring this to the next level, using STORM to unveil the structure-activity relations of therapeutic nanomaterials in the biological environment at the single molecule level. The knowledge arising from this investigation will provide novel design principles for the next generation of nanomaterials for targeted therapies. In particular, in the framework of NANOSTORM novel nanomaterials for the targeted treatment of prostate cancer will be synthesized and evaluated.
This interdisciplinary research program will advance our understanding of nanostructures for targeted drug delivery and guide the formulation of novel materials for cancer therapy.
Summary
Nanomaterials revolutionized the field of targeted cancer therapies introducing innovative approaches towards the molecular recognition of diseased cells. However, despite the large investments in nanotechnology-based drug delivery the translation into clinical applications is still unsatisfactory and up to date there are no actively-targeted materials approved for clinical use. One of the main reasons is the lack of knowledge about the behaviour of nanostructures in the biological environment that makes the rational design of effective drug delivery carriers extremely challenging.
NANOSTORM proposes the use of an innovative optical imaging technique such as super resolution microscopy to visualize and understand the molecular interactions of nanomaterials with their cellular targets in unprecedented detail. We recently reported for the first time the ability of Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy (STORM) to image self-assembled synthetic materials in vitro with nanometric resolution. NANOSTORM aims to bring this to the next level, using STORM to unveil the structure-activity relations of therapeutic nanomaterials in the biological environment at the single molecule level. The knowledge arising from this investigation will provide novel design principles for the next generation of nanomaterials for targeted therapies. In particular, in the framework of NANOSTORM novel nanomaterials for the targeted treatment of prostate cancer will be synthesized and evaluated.
This interdisciplinary research program will advance our understanding of nanostructures for targeted drug delivery and guide the formulation of novel materials for cancer therapy.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 588 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
Project acronym PLABOR
Project Platform Labor: Digital transformations of work and livelihood in post-welfare societies
Researcher (PI) Niels VAN DOORN
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG
Summary Digital platforms like Uber and Airbnb are transforming how people work, create and share value, and sustain themselves in their everyday lives. As such, platforms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous as new institutional actors that redraw relations between civil society, the market, and the state. Yet, as many scholars have shown, such relations have historically been shaped by pervasive gender, class, and racial subordination. It is therefore crucial to ask to what extent platforms, as new sites of capital accumulation, governance, and norm-making, remediate existing inequalities and if/how they also generate new vulnerabilities or tools for empowerment. Accordingly, this research project aims to determine how digital platforms are reconfiguring the gendered, classed, and racialized organization of labor and social reproduction in post-welfare societies. To achieve this aim, three objectives have to be met:
• determining how on-demand labor platforms distribute new opportunities and vulnerabilities for workers along gender, class, and racial lines;
• determining how digital platforms create new solutions and challenges for the gendered, classed, and racialized problem of social reproduction in post-welfare societies;
• determining which policy and legal issues arise when labor and social reproduction are increasingly organized through platforms and identifying ways to tackle these issues.
These objectives will be met through a cross-national comparative study that examines how platforms operate in three quickly growing and distinct tech hubs: Amsterdam, Berlin, and New York City. To organize this transatlantic study an innovative research platform will be developed and implemented, which enables (1) participatory research, (2) international scholarly collaboration and stakeholder engagement, and (3) the dissemination and discussion of research findings. The participatory research will combine ethnography and methods from software studies.
Summary
Digital platforms like Uber and Airbnb are transforming how people work, create and share value, and sustain themselves in their everyday lives. As such, platforms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous as new institutional actors that redraw relations between civil society, the market, and the state. Yet, as many scholars have shown, such relations have historically been shaped by pervasive gender, class, and racial subordination. It is therefore crucial to ask to what extent platforms, as new sites of capital accumulation, governance, and norm-making, remediate existing inequalities and if/how they also generate new vulnerabilities or tools for empowerment. Accordingly, this research project aims to determine how digital platforms are reconfiguring the gendered, classed, and racialized organization of labor and social reproduction in post-welfare societies. To achieve this aim, three objectives have to be met:
• determining how on-demand labor platforms distribute new opportunities and vulnerabilities for workers along gender, class, and racial lines;
• determining how digital platforms create new solutions and challenges for the gendered, classed, and racialized problem of social reproduction in post-welfare societies;
• determining which policy and legal issues arise when labor and social reproduction are increasingly organized through platforms and identifying ways to tackle these issues.
These objectives will be met through a cross-national comparative study that examines how platforms operate in three quickly growing and distinct tech hubs: Amsterdam, Berlin, and New York City. To organize this transatlantic study an innovative research platform will be developed and implemented, which enables (1) participatory research, (2) international scholarly collaboration and stakeholder engagement, and (3) the dissemination and discussion of research findings. The participatory research will combine ethnography and methods from software studies.
Max ERC Funding
1 403 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-02-01, End date: 2023-01-31
