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Up to €1.5M over 5 years. From the 2027 calls you can apply any time within 10 years of your PhD.
7461 funded projects indexed from OpenAlex and CORDIS
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- DE×37
- GB×16
- BE×10
- ES×7
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7,461 awards recorded, 2007 to 2027, across 37 countries.
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNRS×397
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften Ev×176
- The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge×121
- The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford×121
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem×110
- Tel Aviv University×108
- University College London×105
- Weizmann Institute of Science×97
2027
COSMO-SBI: a Simulation-Based Inference Framework for Multi-Probe Cosmology
AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS · ES · €1,495,830
Key open questions in cosmology can be addressed by studying the evolution of the Universe’s structure as a function of scale and time using various observational probes. Traditional methods rely on two-point statistics (e.g., the power spectrum) of cosmological observables and theory-based modeling. In recent years, I have pioneered alternative methods: I developed and applied to weak lensing data a simulation-based inference (SBI) framework to estimate parameter posteriors using simulations. T
2026
Charting Cosmic Dawn: The impact of primordial matter on galaxy assembly and reionization
DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET · DK · €1,364,518
Within the first billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe transitioned from the cosmic ``dark ages'' to a phase dominated by luminous structures: the first stars and galaxies formed, and the intergalactic medium became reionized. These transitions are fundamentally governed by primordial neutral hydrogen (HI), which both serves as fuel for star formation and impedes the escape of ionizing photons. However, due to the observational challenges of detecting HI in emission in the early Univers
Electroactive organic cations for chiral hybrid perovskites: combining efficient charge carrier transport with strong chiroptical activity
UNIVERSITEIT HASSELT · BE · €1,724,803
Combining the unique optical properties of chiral materials, such as the selective absorption or emission of circularly polarized light (CPL), with optoelectronics opens up the emerging domain of chiroptoelectronics, with strong long-term potential in technologies as varied as displays, imaging, computing, and water splitting. CPL detection is especially important for enhancing contrast in bioimaging, increasing data density in optical communication, and improving environmental monitoring. Howev
The Tropics on the Window Sill: Domesticating the Global Environment (1850s to 1930)
BERGISCHE UNIVERSITAET WUPPERTAL · DE · €1,484,553
The nineteenth century saw an unprecedented transfer of plants around the globe. In this context, the emergence of a specific form of plant cultivation – namely that of tropical and subtropical houseplants – has received remarkably little scholarly attention, despite the significant role that houseplants played in shaping modern European conceptions of nature. As important components of domestic environments, they heavily influenced Europe’s socio-environmental relationship with the rest of the
Development of an untargeted spatial omics approach with molecular spatial resolution
ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE · CH · €1,846,805
The next frontier in the life sciences is to map not only the composition but also the spatial organization of entire transcriptomes, genomes, and proteomes at molecular resolution. Existing approaches either achieve high resolution without scalability, scalability without resolution, or breadth without unbiased detection. Targeted methods such as MERFISH, seqFISH+, or FLASH-PAINT rely on affinity reagents and remain blind to unknown molecules, while untargeted approaches such as Light-Seq or DB
Polarity-Inverted Nitrogen: Construction of Reactive Multiply-Bonded Functional Groups and Their Utilization
LUNDS UNIVERSITET · SE · €1,500,000
With N-VERT, I introduce a broad-ranging concept to incorporate polarity-inverted nitrogen fragments in elusive multiple-bonded structures. Controlling bonding-interactions of nitrogen is a key societal enterprise, with ammonia fixation alone consuming 1-2% of the World’s annual energy output. Whereas classic reactions of nitrogen are generally dictated by its high electronegativity and strong triple bond, I propose to construct nitrogen-based multiple bonds using a class of metal scaffolds wher
Breaking Barriers in Code-Based Cryptography: Cryptanalysis of Decoding, Equivalence and Algebraic Structure
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · DE · €1,455,856
By 2035, national security agencies worldwide, led by NIST and its European counterparts, plan to phase out today’s public-key cryptosystems, requiring a rapid transition to quantum-resistant alternatives. Code-based cryptography is among the most promising candidates, relying on hard problems from algebraic coding theory. Several such proposals were submitted to the NIST post-quantum standardization call, with HQC and Classic McEliece selected for standardization by the US and Germany, respecti
DIgital Supramolecular Chemistry (DISC): Enabling the design of functional dynamic covalent libraries through chemistry automation and machine learning
UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM · GB · €2,109,332
Nature's most advanced machinery, from enzymes to ribosomes, relies on the precise self-assembly of multiple components, where complex function emerges from a balance of dynamic covalent and non-covalent interactions. Synthetic chemistry has struggled to engineer such systems, as the fundamental design rules governing molecular recognition and self-organisation remain largely unknown. Our central hypothesis is that digital supramolecular chemistry (DISC) – combining autonomous physical measureme
AI-Powered Causal Analysis of Scientific Experiments
INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AUSTRIA · AT · €1,499,077
The number of storks and newborn babies in a country are correlated, but neither causes the other. Uncovering which correlations signal an underlying causal relationship is a fundamental step in science, requiring the analysis of ever increasing amounts of raw, high-dimensional, temporal data. This creates an urgent need for computational aids by machine learning systems. Unfortunately, off-the-shelf models fail to draw causal conclusions, as they make predictions only using correlations. Even
Geometry in mixed chromatic characteristic
KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · DK · €1,499,655
This project proposes a new theory of higher algebraic geometry that unifies and extends derived and spectral algebraic geometry. Using this theory we will shed new light on p-adic cohomology theories such as syntomic cohomology, prismatic cohomology and localized algebraic K-theory. Within this theory we will construct an integral model of the telescopic sphere spectrum that carries rich information about ambidexterity and galois theory in an accessible way. Building on this we will then provid
Moduli of v-vector bundles
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER · DE · €1,499,950
This project builds on very recent advances in p-adic cohomology theories to devise novel approaches to fundamental questions about the arithmetic algebraic geometry of varieties over p-adic fields. Our key object of study are v-vector bundles, which are emerging as a new category of coefficients of central importance to p-adic Hodge theory. They have already played a pivotal role in my recent proof of the p-adic Simpson correspondence in higher dimension, as well as its new geometric formulatio
4D Heart-on-a-chip: Modeling circadian rhythms in the human heart to study cardiac (patho)physiology and advance therapy
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY · IL · €2,880,000
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Growing evidence shows that circadian rhythms profoundly shape cardiac health, governing the timing and severity of cardiac events, influencing drug efficacy, and, when chronically disrupted (e.g., in shift work, sleep disorders, or jet lag), markedly increasing disease risk. Yet, the mechanisms by which they regulate the human heart remain unknown, as current knowledge relies largely on animal models with limited translational rele
Decoding the genomic basis of the first fungus farmers: the attine ants
KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · DK · €1,499,952
Ants are fascinating organisms well known for their highly organized societies. Their ancestor underwent a major evolutionary transition from solitary life to superorganismal colonies, with obligate reproductive division of labour between queens and workers. Notably, the attine ants pioneered agriculture around 66 million years ago by cultivating fungus for food, predating human farming by tens of millions of years. This partnership gave rise to four agricultural systems, including the leafcutte
Nanoscale Mapping of Structure and Chemistry at Electrified Solid-Liquid Interfaces
UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK · AT · €1,455,458
Electrochemical interfaces are three-dimensional nanoscale landscapes where the arrangement of atoms, molecules, and ions dictates the efficiency and selectivity of energy conversion and storage reactions. In fuel cells, electrolyzers, and batteries, however, this nanoscale complexity remains largely hidden. Conventional methods average over large areas, masking critical variations in surface structure, solvent organization, and active site chemistry. Understanding this interfacial complexity is
Transducer Antenna for a Noiseless Gravitational Observatory
UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA · IT · €1,499,312
TANGO aims to pioneer the ultimate platform for High-Frequency Gravitational Wave (HFGW) detection,opening an unexplored observational window in the 100 kHz–10 MHz band. This regime, wherecosmology and particle physics converge, offers the potential to unveil new physics beyond the StandardModel.Building on the MAGE and BAUSCIA experiments, TANGO introduces a radically new detection paradigm:an array of piezoelectric Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators parametrically coupled to superconductingmi
Astrocytic exhaustion underlies chronic progression in autoimmune inflammation of the central nervous system
KLINIKUM DER TECHNISCHEN UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN (TUM KLINIKUM) · DE · €1,638,843
Progressive disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) remains an unmet clinical challenge, largely resistant to current immunomodulatory therapies targeting acute inflammation. AXhaustMS addresses a fundamental gap by investigating astrocytic exhaustion as a novel cellular mechanism underlying chronic progression in autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. I hypothesize that astrocytes, key regulators of CNS homeostasis, enter a dysfunctional “exhaustion” state driven by chronic bystand
Advancing Polynomial and Logical Approaches for Trusted Automated Reasoning over Integrated Systems
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN · AT · €1,499,436
In today's digital world, the correctness of systems is notoptional; it is essential. From hardware circuits in medical devices andaircraft to cryptographic protocols securing our data, the systems thatunderpin society demand absolute precision down to the level of individualbits. Formal verification employs rigorous mathematical techniques and logicalreasoning to guarantee that such systems behave exactly as intended.A wide range of central verification tasks, including proving the correctnesso
NEutrino flavor Plasma: TUrbuleNt evolution in astrophysical Explosions
GRAN SASSO SCIENCE INSTITUTE · IT · €1,495,750
This project will develop a first-principles wave-kinetic theory of collective flavor conversions (CFCs), recasting them as a form of flavor turbulence in the neutrino plasma of supernovae and neutron star mergers. In these transients, neutrinos are the dominant energy carriers, and their flavor composition directly impacts energy deposition and nucleosynthesis. Deep in the core, neutrinos interact via the coherent weak field they source, triggering CFCs that can reshape the explosion mechanism
Customizing Metal Component Properties by Predictive Hybrid Processing
RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN · DE · €1,499,845
Europe faces a pressing need to conserve resources, requiring new ways to repair, refurbish, and remanufacture components efficiently. In the future, hybrid processing techniques that combine metal 3D printing with traditional manufacturing could make it possible to repair components by integrating sequential material melting, reshaping, and property finalization where needed. Yet, fundamental questions are still unsolved. This is because such hybrid processes magnify complexities due to phenome
Robust and reliable low-rank approximation and dimension reduction with COlumn subset SElection
UNIVERSITA DI PISA · IT · €1,362,108
Modern science and technology generate massive datasets, from genomic profiles to social networks and sensor recordings. To extract knowledge, we need to reduce their dimension without losing interpretability: the Column Subset Selection Problem (CSSP) tackles this problem by choosing a small set of representative columns from a matrix that retain the essential structure of the data. All other columns can be written, approximately, as a linear combination of the few chosen representative columns
Functional Regulation Of membrane proteiNs Through Enzymatic cleavAge
LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR PFLANZENBIOCHEMIE · DE · €1,482,876
The plant plasma membrane is a dynamic hub for nutrient uptake, pathogen detection, and stress signalling, anchored by surface receptors. In animals, proteolytic cleavage of membrane proteins is a major regulatory mechanism in immunity, but its role in plants remains largely unexplored. FRONTERA tackles this critical gap by asking: How does proteolytic regulation control plant plasma-membrane receptor function and plant immune responses?We will combine chemoproteomics, cell biology, protease bio
Decoding Antiviral Restriction, Immune Modulation, and Risk Assessment of Influenza A Viruses.
UNIVERSITAETSKLINIKUM FREIBURG · DE · €1,457,575
Influenza A viruses (IAVs) originating from wild waterfowl reservoirs are zoonotic pathogens that pose a constant public health threat. Human spill-over infections occur directly from birds or indirectly through intermediate mammalian hosts and are typically confined to individuals. However, viruses with pandemic potential occasionally emerge, if they overcome the human species barriers. The human innate immune restriction factor Mx1 (known as MxA) is a key interspecies barrier. Previous studies
New Users of Minoritised Languages as Writers and Cultural Agents
UNIVERZITA KARLOVA · CZ · €1,499,950
In a globalised world, minoritised languages face increasing pressures, and the number of traditional native speakers often continues to decline despite supportive policies and community efforts. As a result, individuals often referred to as ‘learners’ play a vital role in the survival of these languages. To date, there has been no in-depth, comparative, historical assessment of culturally active ‘new users’—individuals who deliberately learned a minoritised language and contributed to its prese
Reaching AI Projections Trustworthy for Unseen Rainfall Extremes
UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN · NO · €1,500,000
RAPTURE addresses a critical and timely challenge: how can we simulate extreme rainfall on the kilometre-scale under conditions we have never seen, in a trustworthy way? Overcoming this challenge is vital for understanding the dynamics and impacts of localised extreme rainfall (LXR) in a future, warmer world. Two approaches now offer practical paths forward: regional models that can resolve convective rainfall and computationally-efficient machine-learning rainfall emulators.Models we can trust
Fields of Education as New Drivers of Health Inequalities
OTTO-FRIEDRICH-UNIVERSITAET BAMBERG · DE · €1,498,715
Education provides people with skills and resources that are important for many aspects of life, including health. Yet, despite substantial educational expansion, health inequalities remain a persistent challenge. The project FIELDS starts from the idea that in mass education systems, where more people attain higher levels of education, it is not only important how much education people have, but also what kind they choose. For instance, whether someone studies law, nursing, or engineering can s
From Algorithms to Cells: The Neurophysiology of Emotional States
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY · IL · €2,498,812
Emotional states such as aggression and fear are vital for survival and mental health, yet we still lack clear, causal rules for how the brain builds, sustains, and reads them out. I propose that emotional states are generated by algorithms represented as stable patterns of population activity in specific brain circuits. Inputs, neuromodulators, and body signals tune the strength and duration of the emotional state, and downstream pathways read these population patterns to guide actions.I will t
3D imaging of information processing in live tissues
THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · GB · €1,600,833
Tissues must coordinate multicellular actions with stimuli to function and to respond to their environment. The gain of tissue coordination is associated with development and the converse is true for disease. To study tissue coordination and responses, it would be powerful to directly image how information flows from stimuli, through patterns of cell states, to tissue responses. However, the complexity of animal tissues has made it difficult to interrogate all these levels of information-process
Understanding how the host immunity, the microbiome and environmental stressors shape the ecology and evolution of horizontal transmissible cancers in marine bivalves.
MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · DE · €2,006,562
Horizontal transmissible cancers can be passed from one individual to another through malignant cancer cell lines. Such cancers induce leukemia-like cancer in marine bivalves, termed bivalve transmissible neoplasia (BTN). While most BTN lineages are confined to a single host species, some are able to infect multiple species, as demonstrated by my previous work. Host immunity is a known central gatekeeper against BTN, but additional factors have a role in cancer progression, including the host mi
Symbiont Induced Mechanisms of Speciation
MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · DE · €1,500,000
Microbial symbionts are ubiquitous in eukaryotes, playing a major role in the evolution of their hosts not only by contributing to the diversification of immunity traits or microbiome-supplemented digestion but also to the origin of new species itself. Among the most enigmatic symbiont-induced mechanisms are those that directly modify mating behavior in animals, ultimately leading to reproductive isolation through changes in the host’s courtship or mate choice. Indeed, how microbes alter mating
Lasso Peptides as Versatile Scaffolds for Peptide Engineering
UNIVERSITAT ZURICH · CH · €1,720,443
The rise of antimicrobial resistance and the limits of conventional therapeutics call for new molecular scaffolds with high stability, specificity, and tunable function. Cyclic peptides offer this potential, combining protein-like binding with small-molecule stability. Among them, lasso peptides stand out for their knotted topology, which confers exceptional resistance to proteolytic degradation and enables diverse biological activities. Produced by many organisms as natural defense molecules, t
DARK-PEP: Mapping the Human Peptidome: Genetic Variability and GPCR Signaling
KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · DK · €1,500,000
Peptide hormones are central regulators of human physiology, controlling processes from metabolism and appetite to stress and reproduction. They act mainly through G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs), which are also key drug targets. Yet still 100 GPCRs remain “orphans” with no known endogenous activator. This highlights a major knowledge gap: undiscovered peptide hormones and receptor–ligand pairs likely exist but have eluded current detection methods. At the same time, genetic variability in p
Beyond the Hydrogen Leak: Advancing Understanding of Ignition and Flame Propagation to Inform Mitigation Strategies
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DARMSTADT · DE · €1,498,627
Hydrogen (H2) is a cornerstone of energy decarbonization and a key enabler for hard-to-abate indus-trial sectors. However, this vision is challenged by major safety concerns arising from its extremely low ignition energy, wide flammability range, and high explosion propensity. External ignition and flame propagation following an unforeseen high-pressure H2 leak can lead to catastrophic injury and damage. Progress in understanding these phenomena was hindered by a twofold experimental limitation:
The Geometric Nature of Deformable Object Manipulation
KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN · SE · €1,500,000
Manipulating deformable objects, such as cables, garments, bags, sponges, or food items, is an essential and recurring part of human daily routines. We interact with such objects with seamless ease, usually unaware of the complex perception, planning, and control machinery naturally provided by our brain and body to do so. In contrast, the ability to robustly manipulate deformable objects remains a critical frontier in robotics, often being considered as one of the most important challenges in r
On-chip quadratic soliton mode-locking in the ultraviolet, visible, and mid-infrared
UNIVERSITEIT GENT · BE · €2,124,625
In VISIR, I will develop the first fully integrated and electrically driven source of broadband optical frequency combs in the ultraviolet (UV), visible, and mid-infrared (MIR) regions, sustained by ultrashort pulses. A train of identical pulses with a well-defined period corresponds, in the frequency domain, to thousands of sharp, equally spaced spectral components: an optical frequency comb (OFC). They enable the measurement of optical frequencies with unparalleled precision, a discovery for w
Immune cell states as building blocks of the plant immune system
THE SAINSBURY LABORATORY · GB · €1,499,992
ImmuneCellStates is a high-risk/high-gain project to redefine the framework of plant immunity, positioning immune cell states as its fundamental building blocks. Unlike mammals, plants lack specialized immune cells. Instead, individual cells, normally dedicated to non-immune functions, transition their states through diverse mechanisms to engage in defense during pathogen attack. My recent work combining single-cell multiomics and spatial transcriptomics revealed that plants flexibly deploy mole
Molecular sociology and functional compartmentalization of the archaeal relatives of eukaryotes
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY · DE · €2,046,786
Eukaryotes originate from an endosymbiotic merger between the mitochondrial ancestor and an Asgard archaeon, but the topology of this interaction remains unclear. Intriguingly, first analyses of the ultrastructure of Asgard archaea uncovered eukaryotic hallmark features, such as an actin and microtubule cytoskeleton, as well as a unique morphology with extended protrusions connected to genome-containing cell bodies.I hypothesize that - despite the lack of membrane-bound compartments - the comple
Deciphering Biomacromolecular Heterogeneity by Single Molecule Mass Spectrometry
KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · DK · €2,343,073
Virus-like particles, nucleic acids, and other biomacromolecular assemblies have shown promise as vaccine platforms, gene therapy vectors, and more. The molecular composition of these contemporary medicines can be incredibly complicated, with a combinatorial explosion of possible variants (e.g. covalent modifications, isoform substitutions, cargo loads, etc.), that together produce an immense degree of chemical heterogeneity. This is further exacerbated by downstream interactions (e.g. receptors
Synthesizing Traditional and Reuse Approaches to Space
UNIVERZITA KARLOVA · CZ · €1,465,625
Space is a fundamental computational resource both in theory and practice. We focus on a novel paradigm, which the PI recently named reusing space, centered on a counter-intuitive fact: space can be a powerful resource even while already in use. We study the relationship between two central questions:Q1. What is the power of memory as a computational resource?Q2. What is the power of full memory as a computational resource?Until recently, there has been limited interplay between these two approa
Exact Aspects of Complexity Theory
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY · IL · €1,500,000
The classical definition of efficient algorithms as those running in poly-time is long recognized as insufficient. In the era of big data, for example, a linear-time algorithm can be deemed feasible in situations where a quadratic one is not. On the other end of the spectrum, even modest improvements to the base of the exponent in an exp-time algorithm can dramatically expand the range of problem instances for which a solution remains viable.This research aims to refine complexity theory by deve
Interfacial flow tracing for gas-liquid mass transfer processes
HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM DRESDEN-ROSSENDORF EV · DE · €2,148,250
Seeing is believing - but until now, flow at gas-liquid interfaces has remained invisible. While Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has revolutionized the study of bulk flow, no equivalent technique exists for interfaces. Conventional tracer particles accumulate at the interface and disturb the flow, leaving hydrodynamics and mass transfer poorly understood. This is a critical gap, as the behaviour at interfaces heavily impacts mass transfer in chemical, bioprocess, and environmental systems. Surf
Forests’ Response to Prolonged Droughts
AALBORG UNIVERSITET · DK · €1,499,790
Rising temperatures and prolonged droughts are intensifying vegetation water stress, tree mortality, and wildfires. Earth science still lacks a direct, consistent, and globally scalable framework to monitor vegetation water stress. Existing approaches and early warning systems rely on indirect proxies to estimate forest thresholds and risks. A direct and global view is urgently needed to address Science Questions (SQs): (1) Where and how does forest water stress emerge across biomes and climate
Corporate Science Communication (COSCOM): Risks, Opportunities, Interventions
LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · DE · €1,499,250
Research-intensive firms are increasingly influential actors in science communication. Companies like Ericsson, Sanofi, or Siemens disseminate science-related content via websites, reports, or social media. Such “corporate science communication” (COSCOM) can foster public engagement with science and innovation, but commercial incentives also create risks: companies may engage in “sciencewashing”—misrepresenting or exaggerating scientific evidence—which can fuel scepticism toward industry science
Labor Market Structure and the Foundations of Productivity
NORGES HANDELSHOYSKOLE · NO · €1,500,000
FOUNDATIONS investigates how labor productivity emerges and evolves through the interactions between workers, firms, and places under different market structures. It develops a unified framework linking human capital, firm behavior, and agglomeration through the lens of labor market competition and market power. The project asks how workers choose employers and acquire skills, how firms select into and compete across labor markets, and how workplaces transform individual capabilities into collec
Regulatory Attenuation: Local Non-Application Erodes EU Environmental Objectives
UNIVERSIDADE DA CORUNA · ES · €1,499,687
Despite the ambitions of the EU Green Deal, many environmental directives lose effectiveness long before reaching local practice. The problem is not only political or administrative, but structural: obligations often become inapplicable due to poor transposition, procedural gaps, or institutional mismatches. Yet current scholarship largely assumes that once adopted, a directive remains legally binding throughout the governance chain.ENACT addresses Regulatory Attenuation by tracing how EU enviro
Rethinking Drug Response in Leishmania: Identifying the Genomic Determinants of Persistence
JULIUS-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAT WURZBURG · DE · €1,499,936
Drug resistance (DR) in Leishmania is a growing clinical challenge, yet often viewed too simplistically, overlooking the diversity of drug responses and survival strategies. Drug sensitivity (DS) and persistence are among these neglected responses, though essential for optimizing treatment: DS and DR reveal collateral sensitivities, while persistence, a dormant, slow- or non-growing drug response state, could drive treatment relapse. This means persistence enables survival during therapy and reg
Energy-based Learning of Complex Dynamical Systems
RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN · NL · €1,499,620
As digital computing approaches its limits, a paradigm shift is needed to push the boundaries of computation. Neuromorphic computing, an analog computing paradigm inspired by the human brain, offers a promising alternative. Implementing mathematical models such as artificial neural networks directly in neuromorphic hardware holds tremendous potential: it can drastically reduce energy consumption while enabling faster inference when compared to digital architectures. Yet, a major bottleneck is th
Soficity, Undecidability and Quantum Information Theory
TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY · IL · €1,500,000
Sofic groups, defined by Gromov and Weiss, are those finitely generated groups with a Cayley graph that can be approximated by finite graphs. The following is a major open problem: Are all groups sofic? A main goal of this proposal is to resolve this in the negative, namely prove the existence of non-sofic groups. The reason why sofic groups received so much attention in the last couple of decades is that various fundamental problems which are open for general groups can be proved in this class.
Luminophores Containing Carbon in Place of Metal
USTAV ANORGANICKE CHEMIE AV CR VVI · CZ · €1,498,722
There is an apparent discrepancy between the photoluminescent performance of heavy metal-based luminophores and their all-organic counterparts. While the former have long dominated optoelectronic and light conversion applications, the latter often lack suitable excited-state dynamics, particularly in processes involving triplet states. This remains a major limitation of luminophores composed of light elements, which are otherwise potential cost-efficient and sustainable alternatives to heavy met
2025
Watts in my ear? Unravelling the power source of mammalian hearing.
UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID · ES · €1,923,556
We are creatures of sensation, with hundreds of millions of photoreceptors, millions more for touch, smell, and taste. Yet, in each ear, only 16000 hair cells allow us to hear from a whisper to a thunderclap, operating at frequencies that make vision seem slow. How do hair cells achieve this? They must be doing something different—and different by orders of magnitude.Since the ‘50s, scientists realized that ears amplify sounds through an active process. Its most striking evidence is that ears em
Brain-Aligned Language Models for Long-Range Language Understanding and Neuroscientific Insight
MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · DE · €1,494,075
The BrainAlign project aims to revolutionize next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) models by aligning them closely with the way the human brain understands language. While AI systems for language understanding and generation have undergone much progress in recent years thanks to language models, these systems still face significant challenges, such as understanding human intent. Moreover, the successes have mostly stemmed from tremendous increases in model size, and continuing this trend
Terrorism, race and embodied security: Unpacking the matrix of contemporary counterterrorism
UNIVERSITAT LUZERN · CH · €1,496,562
Practices and policies of counterterrorism (CT) have been criticised for killing innocent civilians, challenging the rule of law, infringing on civil liberties and silencing political dissent. As the “War on Terror” intensifies in the Middle East, scholarly scrutiny of the broader impacts of CT has be-come more pressing than ever.However, scholarship on CT remains inchoate. It struggles to provide measurable evidence of how CT instruments (i.e., laws and policies) operate in practice (gap 1), fa
Perturbation-based Phosphoproteomics to Study Drug Response Heterogeneity
UNIVERSITATSKLINIKUM JENA · DE · €1,491,735
Every tumor is a distinct disease entity, characterized by a unique cellular and molecular profile specific to each individual patient, resulting in varying responses to targeted therapies. Genomics technologies currently pioneer personalized medicine approaches to match patients to optimal therapies, yet most therapeutics aim to alter the activity of proteins rather than genes. At the same time, understanding of the functional consequences of genetic aberrations on drug action has remained elus
The organizational principles of human entorhinal cortex and their contributions to episodic memory
NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU · NO · €1,604,633
Episodic memory critically depends on the brain regions located in the medial temporal lobe. Anatomical studies in rodents and monkeys that studied the interactions between the hippocampus, the entorhinal cortex and the rest of the brain, positioned the entorhinal cortex as a key region mediating almost all interactions between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain. These anatomical studies were the provenance of a mechanistic model of episodic memory - the dual stream model. Over the last t
Advancing syphilis control: elucidating novel dynamics for vaccine target discovery
LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE ROYAL CHARTER · GB · €1,430,237
Treponema pallidum (TP), the causative agent of syphilis, along with other pathogenic spirochetes, forms a distinct evolutionary clade with unique features including periplasmic endo-flagella, minimal genomes, and outer membranes lacking lipopolysaccharides. These features enable TP to navigate viscous environments, breach biological barriers, and evade host immune responses, leading to severe diseases affecting over 7 million people globally each year. While vaccine development is vital to cont
Pioneering High-performance Orbital Engines with Non-steady Innovative ACCeleration
SCUOLA SUPERIORE DI STUDI UNIVERSITARI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO S ANNA · IT · €1,660,691
Over the last decades Electric Propulsion (EP) has emerged as a transformative technology in space mobility, offering significant advantages and enabling ambitious new missions. Thanks to their high exhaust velocity and fuel efficiency, EP systems have fostered the miniaturization of space assets, catalysing the rise of the New Space era.EP devices generate thrust by converting electrical energy into kinetic energy of a propellant exhausted from the spacecraft. State-of-the-art technologies, suc
Innovative CAR immune cell communities to break solid tumor barriers
UNIVERSITAT ZURICH · CH · €1,498,153
Glioblastoma is the most common and most aggressive primary brain tumor in adults. It is paradigmatic for many incurable, poorly immunologic solid tumors that desperately need more effective therapies. Cellular immunotherapies with engineered immune cells expressing synthetic chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) to recognize cancer cells have great therapeutic potential. However, significant barriers related to cell manufacturing, immune cell migration and activation in the tumor environment and fai
Postcolonial Perspectives on Citizenship and Belonging in Former European Colonial Powers
CY CERGY PARIS UNIVERSITE · FR · €1,499,450
Decades after decolonisation, uncertainties surrounding the possession of the former colonial power’s nationality and struggles for citizenship rights among postcolonial migrants and their descendants remain pressing issues in Europe. Sitting at the crossroads between citizenship and migration studies, colonial and postcolonial history and legal consciousness studies, POSTCOLCIT breaks new ground as the first comprehensive, comparative and longitudinal study exploring the relationships between f
Single-cell OMICS-informed in vitro models of human development
GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET · SE · €1,500,000
From immunotherapy to restoring neural function in Parkinson’s disease, cell-based therapies are shaping medicine. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) could be an invaluable resource, given their unlimited in vitro self-renewal and ability to differentiate into any cell-type. However, in vitro hPSC-derived cells show defective performance in transplantation assays. Using the long-sought in vitro production of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) as a model, I propose a strategy to assess and rectify
Making the Queers Visible: Partisanship and Support among Sexual and Gender Minorities in Eastern and Western Europe
JOHANNES GUTENBERG-UNIVERSITAT MAINZ · DE · €1,499,541
Although sexual and gender minorities, often collectively referred to as LGBTQ*, constitute at least 10 percent of Western societies – with increasing representation among younger age cohorts – the influence of sexual and gender identity on political behaviour remains underexplored. Only a few case studies on the US, Canada, and a few Western European states have empirically demonstrated the significance of LGBTQ* mobilisation for party competition. The absence of comprehensive cross-country dat
How do criminals communicate and organise across cultures?
THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · GB · €1,499,458
The repression of organised criminal groups (OCGs) in a country can lead to a paradoxical outcome: their expansion abroad. In Japan, intensified actions against the yakuza, Japan's OCGs, over the past fifteen years have resulted not only in a reduction of formal membership, but also in a strategic exploration of opportunities beyond national borders. The yakuza's established trade networks in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China are well-documented, and recent reports indicate the emergence of branch of
Robust Econometrics of Games in IO
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON · GB · €1,477,651
REGIO develops advanced econometric methods to identify and estimate economic fundamentals in games played by firms, addressing a broad spectrum of real-world industrial organization scenarios. These methods bridge critical gaps where existing techniques fall short and provide a disciplined framework to relax less credible assumptions about firm behavior and the game environment, enabling researchers to draw robust empirical conclusions. Their effectiveness is demonstrated through applications,
Identity-Error: How Social Self-Evidencing Exposes Vulnerability to Falsehoods and Conspiracy Beliefs
UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK · IE · €1,499,093
Understanding how people discern the “truthfulness” of information is of fundamental importance to science. However, the complexity of dynamic information processing in social environments has made it convenient to “silo” research at different levels of analysis (neurological, psychological, social). To overcome this, we need end-to-end modeling that explains when and why people are vulnerable to falsehoods and mistruth.IDENTITY-ERROR pursues a new methodological framework that integrates a soci
next-Generation Handling of Optical Stray-light in Telescopes
UNIVERSITE DE LIEGE · BE · €1,963,750
In the ever-evolving realm of space instrumentation, the quest for excellence is endless. Scientists tirelessly pursue optical instruments that can capture the universe in unparalleled clarity. Over the years, instruments have improved through the introduction of innovative design concepts and manufacturing techniques, as well as with the use of better detectors. However, for the most demanding applications, stray light (SL) increasingly emerges as the primary limiting factor. SL must be minimiz
Geometry-driven self-organisation in active living matter
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY · DE · €1,473,000
Living materials process information through their physical degrees of freedom, enabling autonomous functions beyond the capabilities of electronic systems. For example, a migrating cell uses its own shape dynamics to navigate through complex environments and decide which way to go. Yet, the principles underlying such physical information processing have not been identified due to the complexity inherent to problems involving fluctuating dynamic boundaries, and the need for a multidisciplinary a
Reconstructing Scribal Vernacular Practices. Coptic Correspondence and Vernacular Scribal Practices in Late Antique and Early Islamic Egypt.
RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG · DE · €1,499,945
RSVP aims at reassembling the rich world of scribal practices in Coptic letter writing between the 4th and 11th centuries CE. It offers an ambitious reconstruction of epistolographers’ habits, networks, and cultural identities when Coptic was the vernacular Egyptian language employed alongside official idioms (Greek and Arabic).Using a multidisciplinary approach combining paleography, digital humanities, and sociolinguistic analysis, RSVP will analyze for the first time a corpus of over 5000 Cop
The right to give rights. Welfare professionals as guardians of undocumented migrants’ human rights.
MALMO UNIVERSITET · SE · €1,499,837
Undocumented migrants’ rights are under pressure in Europe today and migration control is increasingly deputized across different societal actors. Several decades ago, Hannah Arendt pointed out that universalistic understandings of human rights have little to offer noncitizens. Inspired by her, researchers have suggested that the foundation for undocumented migrants’ human rights instead can be found in the right-claims and contestations of migrants themselves. However, little attention has been
Insubordinate Finance? The postcolonial politics of financial centers in the Global South
INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT · FR · €1,896,000
Cities in the global North have served for centuries as the command-and-control centers of global finance. They have long determined the unequal access to credit and often harsh conditions of debt repayment for people, businesses, and states across the world. This control has maintained colonial power inequalities that many scholars now characterize as 'international financial subordination'. Yet in recent years, an increasing number of officials, citizens, and professionals across the Global So
Socio-Economic Metabolism PATHways for sustainable metal cYcles
UNIVERSITAT BAYREUTH · DE · €1,500,000
SEMPATHY aims to develop and apply a multi-material, mass balance-consistent, composition-aware, and process simulation-based method called Material Pathway Analysis to provide the basis for modelling, simulating, and optimising sustainable global material cycles for technology metals. SEMPATHY addresses the urgent challenge of global metal cycles not being closed and the environmental impacts of metal production and processing becoming more relevant globally. At the same time, global demand for
Archaeological Robotics for Mapping and Investigating Shipwrecks in the Arctic
NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU · NO · €1,949,705
In the waters around Svalbard there are more than a thousand undiscovered shipwrecks from the early whaling period on the seabed. With the environmental changes rapidly happening in the Arctic, this presumably well-preserved underwater cultural heritage may be under threat. ARCHEOROBOTICS aims to develop methods for autonomous robots to find and investigate these wrecks and secure the invaluable human and ecological history they represent before it is too late. ARCHEOROBOTICS is divided into fiv
Ecological Entanglements and Biodiversity in Late Medieval Northern Europe, 1400-1600
UNIVERSITEIT GENT · BE · €1,500,000
ECOLENT develops a new conceptual-methodological framework to study the impact of ecological entanglements, interconnections between different regions, on biodiversity in a historical context. It will do so by using the late medieval Hanseatic League as a case study. This merchant association bought food products and raw materials in Scandinavia and the Baltic, and exchanged them for manufactured goods in the urbanised Low Countries and England. In this way, they created both economic and ecolog
Learning from Experience and Agency in Displacement (LEAD): Building a Refugee-led Approach to Displacement Justice
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · GB · €1,579,270
Both in political and academic conversations, refugees are often spoken about but rarely spoken to. Refugees, of course, often discuss displacement justice with their own communities in response to their personal experiences and expertise, and with charities and agencies with whom they interact. But politicians, policymakers, and philosophers alike do not often have experience of displacement and fail to include those who do. Because of this, philosophers lack the resources to develop a fully co
StrUcture PREserving Methods on Unstructured grids for continuum Mechanics
UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA · ES · €1,500,000
SUPREMUM aims to develop and theoretically study innovative structure-preserving (SP) numerical methods to solve challenging non-linear hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDE) modelling continuum mechanics. The ultimate groundbreaking goal consists on devising the first existing numerical methods simultaneously verifying at the discrete level all structural properties of the continuous models: provable thermodynamical compatibility, so that the systems satisfy an extra conservation law f
Geometry and Rigidity in the Complex Plane and in Surfaces
ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS · GR · €1,265,125
The main objective of the proposal is to develop novel methods for the study of the quasiconformal geometry of metric surfaces and of subsets of the complex plane.Geometry of metric surfaces: The uniformization problem asks for conditions on a fractal metric space so that it can be transformed to a smooth space with a well-behaved transformation that preserves the geometry. In joint work with Romney the PI has resolved a major open problem and proved a general quasiconformal uniformization resul
Spatiotemporal models of tissue patterning and cellular commitment during embryonic development
MAX DELBRUECK CENTRUM FUER MOLEKULARE MEDIZIN IN DER HELMHOLTZ-GEMEINSCHAFT (MDC) · DE · €1,498,683
One of the most remarkable processes in biology is how animals develop from a single fertilized egg within a short time of rapid growth and an explosion in spatial and cellular diversity. Embryonic development is highly deterministic and consistent among different embryos and conserved across species. Astonishingly, embryos reuse the same signaling pathways in diverse developmental contexts to robustly pattern tissues. The advent of single-cell genomics in the last decade has allowed to chart th
Where the wild things were: how the rise of farming changed human-wildlife relationships
UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN · NL · €1,500,000
WILDERFARM explores the significant changes in human-wildlife relationships that occurred with the rise of farming in western Europe between 6000 and 2000 BCE. Up until now, research on this period has focused strongly on the domestication of animals and plants and the emergence of the new relationship between humans and domesticates. WILDERFARM shifts the perspective, examining how farmers renegotiated the age-old relationship with wild animals and how the rise of farming and its activities, su
Predicting the Future of Island Biodiversity: Integrating Traits to Decipher Species Turnover Dynamics
MARTIN-LUTHER-UNIVERSITAT HALLE-WITTENBERG · DE · €1,499,805
Global change is altering vegetation, with climate zones shifting poleward and species distributions changing. Rising sea levels, land-use change, and invasive species further modify natural vegetation, leading to the reassembly of native communities. However, the rates and patterns of community changes across different vegetation types, along with their consequences for biodiversity, remain unclear. This proposal explores the effects of global change on coastal islands and mainland habitat frag
Frozen in time – Unravelling Younger Dryas climate variability, environmental dynamics and their impact on human recolonization in Western Europe
UNIVERSITEIT GENT · BE · €1,557,358
The Late Glacial period, at the end of the Pleistocene, is marked by dynamic climatic and environmental changes. During this time, hunter-gatherers gradually recolonized Western Europe after a retreat of several millennia, representing a pivotal phase in the region’s population history. However, during the final climatic cooling of the Late Glacial, known as the Younger Dryas (ca. 12,850 to 11,650 cal BP; YD), the number of archaeological sites drastically reduced, raising questions about popula
The gravitational S-matrix: from theory to experiment
INSTITUT DES HAUTES ETUDES SCIENTIFIQUES · FR · €1,498,875
Recent insights into the gravitational S-matrix, which describes the scattering of gravitating particles, have lead to a breakthrough in the perturbative understanding of the two-body problem in General Relativity, with direct relevance to gravitational wave physics. Such advances have been enabled by the methods of scattering amplitudes and effective field theory, originally developed in the context of particle and collider physics. Despite recent progress, a formalism to extract the dynamics
Lysosomal lipid logistics
MEDIZINISCHE UNIVERSITAT INNSBRUCK · AT · €1,497,278
Lysosomes are the central degradative organelle of all cells and function as logistic centres of cellular metabolite flux. Their dysregulation underlies ~70 monogenetic lysosomal storage disorders, metabolic syndromes, neurodegenerative maladies, and aging, thus affecting an ever-growing portion of the human population. A frequent denominator in these pathophysiological conditions is the deposition of lipids and lipid metabolites in the lysosomal lumen which leads to the accumulation of dysfunct
Digital Welfare Borders: The effects of Artificial Intelligence in Migrants’ Access to Welfare
QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON · GB · €1,499,763
DigiWeB is the first study of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is merging welfare systems and migration management. Governments are increasingly relying on AI to make decisions about who gets welfare benefits. This is important because AI combines large amounts of data and makes predictions based on risk factors, which can be discriminatory, especially against marginalized migrants.DigiWeB takes a broad, interdisciplinary approach and makes four contributions: 1. It pushes the frontiers of resea
Unravelling early dinosaur success through fossil digestive contents and trophic dynamics
UPPSALA UNIVERSITET · SE · €1,500,000
The early radiation of dinosaurs, spanning approximately 30 million years from their emergence to dominance of terrestrial ecosystems, remains a complex and poorly understood evolutionary event. While previous studies have focused mainly on phylogenetic aspects, less attention has been given to the ecological dynamics that drove their success. This project aims to fill that gap by employing a novel, multidisciplinary approach to investigate the early evolution of dinosaurs through the lens of th
Foundations of Delay Doppler Communications and Sensing
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLIN · DE · €1,499,586
Integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) is listed as one of the six primary usage scenarios in the forthcoming 6th Generation (6G) network. However, the current wireless infrastructures are far away from meeting the 6G key performance indicators (KPIs) of both sensing and communications. 6G requires a 1.5 to 3 times growth in spectral efficiency compared to 5G, and significant improvements in sensing ability. These stringent requirements cannot be met by the current physical-layer waveform.
Large-Scale Structure of Entanglement
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ UNIVERSITAET HANNOVER · DE · €1,499,297
Entanglement is the key resource for quantum information processing. Its study has revolutionized our understanding of condensed matter, quantum fields and even quantum gravity.One of the most fascinating insights is the connection between the classification of topological phases of matter and long-range entanglement.This project will explore a novel aspect of entanglement in ground states of quantum many-body systems:their large-scale structure of entanglement (LSSE), describing those entanglem
Elucidating molecular principles of RNA phage-host interaction
HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR INFEKTIONSFORSCHUNG GMBH · DE · €1,500,000
Bacterial viruses called phages are highly diverse predators with multifaceted life cycles. Recent major breakthroughs in phage biology brought phages back into the spotlight, highlighting their tremendous potential in basic and applied research. For instance, bacterial immune systems were shown to be the origin of human innate immune systems and there was significant progress in developing phages into therapeutics to treat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.However, this recent renaissanc
Hypothalamic cell changes during menopause: the neuroendocrine origin of its metabolic alterations
UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA · ES · €1,498,325
Women health is heavily impacted by menopause, and specifically, metabolic alterations increase their prevalence compared to the pre-menopause stage. Among them, body weight increase associated with abdominal adiposity, augmented risk of metabolic syndrome accompanied with dyslipidemia, worsening of insulin resistance coupled to type 2 diabetes and reduced bone density which favors osteoporosis are commonly associated with this women’s period of life.The hypothalamus is a key brain area controll
STEPS: Biomechanical simulations of hominin locomotion across complex terrains
THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · GB · €1,499,522
Human bipedalism is a rare and distinct form of locomotion, unlike that of any other animal. Despite its uniqueness, its evolutionary origins and ecological significance remain elusive. By walking on two legs, early hominins not only freed their hands to hold, manufacture, and use stone tools, but also gained the ability to interact with the environment in new ways, driving innovations in social structure, diet, and survival strategies. This ultimately led to the success of Homo, our genus, whic
Leaky-wave focused Ultrasound through Metamaterial ENgineering (LUMEN)
POLITECNICO DI MILANO · IT · €1,499,967
Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) is a promising non-invasive technology capable of targeting specific brain regions to treat, among others, movement disorders such as essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease tremor. Yet, its effectiveness is currently limited by the excitation of leaky Lamb waves, which radiate energy at arbitrary angles in the brain, causing undesired aberrations. To mitigate these effects, the state-of-the-art technology for tFUS relies on patient-tailored aberration com
Psychiatric partitions: the politics of mental illness in states of collapse
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER · GB · €1,499,832
Psychiatric Partitions will transform our understanding of the relationship between politics and psychiatry in the twentieth century. Through its distinctive focus on the global phenomenon of partition – the practice of dividing and redistributing territory, population, and sovereignty – since the First World War, it will contribute the first systematic account of how questions around mental health and psychiatry mattered in these times of acute political and social crisis spanning decades and c
Single Cell PTSD: Novel Target Identification
RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG · DE · €1,403,931
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating psychiatric disease triggered by severe psychological trauma, affecting 4% of the global population - a prevalence projected to rise due to ongoing conflicts like the war in Ukraine and the looming threat of climate change. Despite its widespread impact, we lack effective treatments of PTSD, placing a significant burden on individuals and society.Previous PTSD research was hindered by limitations such as bulk tissue analyses, a lack of epige
Universality in the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang class
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH · GB · €1,402,866
This proposal aims to solve central open problems in the study of the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) class as well as develop new tools to study its models.The KPZ class consists of a large set of models, sharing common microscopic dynamical features and aiming at modeling the physical phenomena of random growth interfaces. The two main goals in my proposal are1) Show that the KPZ-scaling is universal in a large family of non-integrable models in the KPZ class.It is believed that models in the KPZ
Atomically thin semiconductors for complementary field effect transistors
THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · GB · €1,936,780
Atomically thin body (ATB) semiconductors such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) hold tremendous promise for scaling modern electronics because their ultra-thin channel provides excellent gate electrostatics. Major semiconductor companies and international roadmaps for devices and systems have cited ATB TMDs for sub-1-nm semiconductor technologies beyond 2030. ATOMS will focus on developing ultra-scaled complementary field effect transistors (CFETs) based on ATB semiconductors, offering
Establishing a Spatio-Temporal Language for Scene Representation
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT NURNBERG · DE · €1,563,730
We have recently experienced a boost in AI as the performance of ChatGPT-like large language models has matured from a purely scientific endeavor to deployment in various businesses and real-world applications. Also in computer vision, we have seen tremendous gains that were enabled by scaling to large models trained on vast corpuses of data in an unsupervised fashion. Language is symbolic and can inform about abstract properties and relationships, while vision without human labels does not mode
Remote control of multiple cell functions through multi-stimuli-responsive nanoparticle assemblies
FUNDACION PARA LA INVESTIGACION DE MALAGA EN BIOMEDICINA Y SALUD · ES · €1,740,080
CELL-NANO-REMOTE aims to achieve flexible, remote control over therapeutic cell behaviour. In previous work in optogenetics and magnetogenetics, only partial remote cell control has been attained using light or magnetic fields as triggers. Furthermore, these approaches are generally limited to single cell responses, typically influencing one particular gene, receptor, or ion channel. In contrast, CELL-NANO-REMOTE seeks to obtain independent control over various cell functions without cross-activ
Disentangling self-paced from cued action initiation in the motor thalamus
FUNDACAO D. ANNA DE SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD · PT · €1,499,768
The initiation of movement, whether triggered by an internal (self-paced) or external stimulus (cued), relies on complex neural circuitry involving the pre-motor and motor cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum, midbrain, and thalamus. The motor thalamus (mThal) integrates inputs from these structures to orchestrate the shift of cortical activity from a preparatory into an execution mode, resulting in action initiation. However, it is unclear whether the activity in the mThal that releases the motor
Solidarity Lost in Implementation? Social Mobility and Belief in Meritocracy Shaped by School Choice Policies.
TALLINN UNIVERSITY · EE · €1,494,660
Educational choices shape futures, influence life chances, and are among the most significant factors in social mobility. Despite political and academic consensus on avoiding early selection, inequalities in educational opportunities are on the rise, even in systems that aim for equity or discourage parental choice. Paradoxically, the belief that today’s educational opportunities are meritocratically earned is growing, reducing the demand for inclusive education.EDUMERIT aims to explain the poli
Centrosome Reduction: The elusive culprit behind unexplained male infertility?
VIB VZW · BE · €2,000,000
Worldwide, 17% of couples are affected by infertility, with studies showing a steady decline in sperm quality over recent decades. One in three cases remain unexplained, often marked by a sudden loss of the early embryo due to erroneous cell division, and are therefore hard to treat. Case studies link early embryonic loss to defects in the sperm centrosome, a paternally inherited organelle essential for the embryo's first cell division. Unfortunately, a mechanistic understanding of sperm centros
Greek in the West: language communities, migration and the transformation of society in western Europe, 300–700 CE
THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL · GB · €1,440,137
This project reconstructs the place of Greek in the sociolinguistic landscape of western Europe during Late Antiquity (300–700 CE). Integrating textual and epigraphic evidence, it will trace the evolving use and knowledge of Greek in literary and political culture, religion, and daily life. This period witnessed transformations that would change the shape of European history: the rise of Christianity, the fragmentation of the western Roman empire, the introduction of new political and economic i
Navigating volatility in different welfare state contexts
UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN · BE · €1,841,705
Income targeting has permeated social policy design in European welfare states, in order to boost their efficiency and effectiveness. Yet real-life examples of integrated income-targeted schemes highlight the shortcomings of an overly technocratic view. Social policy research needs to analyse how policy design interacts with the month-to-month income variability experienced by households, and the strategies they develop to cope with and navigate this volatility.VOLARE disentangles the relationsh
Potential impact of sea level rise related salinization on lowland tropical coastal peatlands
GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAT GOTTINGEN STIFTUNG OFFENTLICHEN RECHTS · DE · €1,966,888
Sea level rise (SLR) poses risks of flooding and salinization to coastal ecosystems. At present, research on SLR impacts still heavily focuses on saline ecosystems (e.g., mangroves, saltmarshes), despite the impact of salinization being particularly dire for freshwater ecosystems. Southeast (SE) Asian coastal peatlands are freshwater wetlands playing important role in tackling the triple planetary crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Mainly located in low-lying coastal plains
Dielectric Electro-Active-Polymer-driven Elastocaloric machines for a new generation of cooling systems
UNIVERSITAT DES SAARLANDES · DE · €1,499,500
While the global demand for cooling is rising exponentially with growing data center capacities and space cooling demands in highly populated regions (China, India, Indonesia), there is no alternative to inefficient and environmentally harmful vapor-compression systems. The search for more efficient and sustainable cooling solutions has drawn attention to novel solid-state cooling technologies like magneto-, elasto-, or electrocalorics. Specifically, elastocalorics (EC) research is showing promi
Function, role, and control of gigantic bacterial roll
UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES · BE · €1,499,568
R-bodies are probably the largest organised intracellular proteinaceous structures in bacteria. They adopt a roll-like structure that occupies almost the entire cellular volume. Upon acidification, R-bodies extend telescopically up to 20 micrometres. First discovered in endosymbiotic bacteria, they were proposed to eliminate symbiont-free hosts, however their mechanism of toxicity remained unexplored. In addition, structures of similar composition and activity form ejectile defence organelles in
Rituals in combatant-to-civilian transformation
INSTITUTT FOR FREDSFORSKNING · NO · €1,499,981
In 2023, the number of conflicts reached its highest level since 1946, making it one of the most violent years on record. Many of these conflicts were recurring, suggesting that efforts to reintegrate ex-combatants from non-state groups have largely been unsuccessful. While most research on reintegration has focused on its economic and political aspects, it has overlooked the role and impact of one of the most universal activities in human social life: rituals.The overall objective of Com2Civ is
Quantitative Quantum Matter Analysis
LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN · DE · €1,499,190
The assumption that the plain vanilla single-band Hubbard model captures the relevant physics of the cuprate materials has been a key motivation for a host of numerical work and quantum simulation experiments. Recent numerical advances challenge this assumption and raise the pressing question: which minimal model can be used to understand quantum materials exhibiting unconventional superconductivity? However, extracting the relevant Hamiltonian of real materials is a formidable challenge and us
The impact of climate on cooperation
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · GB · €2,268,675.09
Understanding how cooperation evolves is a major cross-disciplinary research ambition. Recently, in biology, a new picture of cooperation has begun to come into focus, due to a series of global analyses collating decades of natural history observations across animals. Excitingly, in mammals, birds, and insects, global mapping projects have revealed that the distribution of animal cooperation is linked to climatic factors, including aridity and unpredictable rainfall. These findings have establis
Synergistic Agent for General Medical AI
UNIVERSITAETSKLINIKUM AACHEN · DE · €1,500,000
Artificial intelligence (AI) holds immense potential for revolutionizing radiology by enhancing diagnostic accuracy, efficiency, and personalized patient care. However, current AI applications are limited to only specialized taskArtificial intelligence (AI) holds immense potential for revolutionizing radiology by enhancing diagnostic accuracy, efficiency, and personalized patient care. However, current AI applications are limited to only specialized tasks, thus failing to capture the complexity
Simulating Other Minds in Autism
KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET · SE · €1,500,000
The mere presence of another person automatically triggers powerful processes of belief computation in our brains. This spontaneous and well-established Theory of Mind (ToM) ability is considered vital for efficient social interactions. Yet, we still know little about the mechanisms allowing the brain to automatically, and without apparent mental effort, keep track of who is believing what. I argue that the role of modeling others’ attention is an overlooked and a key factor in this process. I p
Reverse salinity energy harvesting-assisted electromembrane system for metal ion fractionation and hydrogen production from battery waste
POLITECHNIKA WROCLAWSKA · PL · €1,500,000
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have revolutionised daily life and automation, but recovering them poses challenges due to the toxic, multi-component mixtures produced during acidic leaching. Here, we propose a novel method for selectively fractionating metal ions from battery waste and hydrogen production powered by salinity gradient differences that occur when two solutions with different concentrations are mixed. To achieve this, we employ reverse electrodialysis (RED). The RED process selective
The Ethics of Synthetic Data in the Age of Machine Learning and AI
UNIVERSITY OF YORK · GB · €1,248,460
SYNDATA develops a novel approach to understanding the ethical consequences of synthetic data for contemporary societies. Machine learning algorithms and AI models such as Gemini and GPT-4 are increasingly used to generate data (called ‘synthetic data’), which is in turn used to train other algorithmic models. This is leading to transformations in social and political life, because synthetic data embody a promise to address an array of ethical challenges associated with AI, such as the lack of e
Genome editing of noncoding regions to map sequence-function relationships at scale
THE FRANCIS CRICK INSTITUTE LIMITED · GB · €1,499,511
Deciphering how genetic variants lead to disease can advance precision diagnostics and mechanistically informed therapies. Yet, our ability to link variants in the human genome’s vast noncoding regions to phenotypic consequences is highly limited. This stems largely from a lack of experimental evidence on individual variants’ functional effects. Here, we propose to develop and deploy a suite of new genome editing methods to generate functional data for noncoding variants at unprecedented scale.F
Electrified CO2 Capture using HiGee Vortex Reactors
UNIVERSITEIT GENT · BE · €1,499,375
The fossil fuel-driven chemical industry is notorious for its massive CO2 emissions and energy consumption, demanding an urgent shift toward cleaner, more efficient technologies, with CO2 capture as a critical component. Existing gas-liquid reactive absorption/solvent regeneration technologies, relying on bulky packed columns or motor-driven rotating packed beds, fall short due to transport limitations and scale-up challenges. e-CAPTURE seeks to revolutionize the field with a scalable and electr
Quantum Enhanced Sensing with Trapped ions for Atomic Parity Violation
STICHTING VU · NL · €1,968,875
The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics classifies the known particles and describes their non-gravitational interactions extremely well. However, it fails to provide answers to various big open questions, such as the origin of dark matter. The QuEST project aims to break new ground in fundamental physics by probing the electroweak (EW) sector of the SM. The weak force is the only fundamental interaction that is known to break spatial mirror symmetry known as parity. In atomic systems, parit
Gut Influences on Brain and Mind
DEUTSCHES INSTITUT FUER ERNAEHRUNGSFORSCHUNG POTSDAM REHBRUECKE · DE · €1,499,980
A “gut feeling” is an intuition arising without conscious reasoning. This idiom reflects a profound biological truth: the gut is directly connected to subcortical systems that regulate arousal, mood, and behavior. However, brain-body theories often overlook these connections and their influence on arousal, a key mechanism through which the gut affects cognition. Moreover, we lack a detailed understanding of how different time scales of gut activity -from rapid contractions (seconds to minutes) t
Mapping and Conceptualizing a Legal Framework for Maternal Rights during Pregnancy, Birth, and Early Motherhood (MaMas)
ROSKILDE UNIVERSITET · DK · €1,499,955
Many mothers in Western Europe experience some distress during the times of pregnancy, birth and postpartum, a period called “matrescence”. Although health, social and welfare laws offer some protection and accommodation to women during matrescence, the approach is fragmented and incomplete. The law has yet to address issues such as early pregnancy loss, obstetric violence, and the “motherhood penalty” at work. These experiences have been under-explored and under-theorised in law and feminist le
Unlocking Hidden History: The Sami in Swedish Farming Areas
UMEA UNIVERSITET · SE · €1,234,258
The Sami, the indigenous population of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and parts of Russia, are usually perceived as a reindeer-herding, nomadic people living in barren mountains and forests. However, the Sami have also for a long time been a part of farming societies dominated by other ethnicities. Despite some research on the “Parish Sami” of Central Sweden, this part of rural history is generally ignored.The SESAME project aims to unlock hidden history and deliver the first comprehensive study of th
Generative Polymer Informatics
UNIVERSITAT BAYREUTH · DE · €1,498,891
Embarking on a transformative journey, this groundbreaking research proposal unveils generative polymer informatics (genPI)-a revolutionary paradigm that leverages the unprecedented capabilities of transformer-based artificial intelligence to catapult polymer discovery, design, and development into a new era. In a time when sustainable and advanced materials are more crucial than ever, genPI aims to overcome key challenges in polymer science by exploring vast chemical spaces, accurately predict
Studying Imaginative Otherworlds: Chinese Fantasy Fiction, Literary Politics, and Media Creativity
ALBERT-LUDWIGS-UNIVERSITAET FREIBURG · DE · €1,419,850
Fantasy fiction is one of the most understudied areas in in the field of contemporary Chinese literature, a gap that is particularly striking given the current popularity of genres such as Eastern fantasy, science fiction, and silk punk. Over the past two decades, Chinese fantasy fiction has undergone both a quantitative surge and a qualitative transformation, evolving from a niche youth subculture into a fixture of everyday cultural life. The popularity of fantasy fiction reflects not only its
Neuronal dynamics of learning and memory in the mammillary body
UNIVERSITAETSMEDIZIN GOETTINGEN - GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAET GOETTINGEN - STIFTUNG OEFFENTLICHEN RECHTS · DE · €1,492,673
At the heart of our individual personalities lie our memories – be it our first time riding a bike, the school graduation ceremony, or yesterday’s football match. Yet, it is estimated that in the coming decades up to 150 million people worldwide will suffer from dementia. To tackle this surge and identify therapeutic interventions, a thorough understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying long-term memory storage is necessary. Research in humans and rodents has identified the hippocampus as
DIPOLAR fermionic SuperFluidity
UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA · ES · €1,915,505
Strongly correlated systems give rise to fascinating emergent phenomena, such as high-temperature and topological superconductivity. Due to the complexity of those materials, understanding the underlying microscopic mechanisms is very challenging. While ultracold Fermi gases have emerged as a model system to investigate strongly interacting systems, they have primarily focused on local and short-range interactions. This proposal aims to overcome these limitations and pioneer the quantum simulat
From streetlight to starlight: How light pollution disrupts insect orientation and alters habitat connectivity
CARL VON OSSIETZKY UNIVERSITAET OLDENBURG · DE · €1,499,511
The widespread use of artificial lighting has drastically changed night skies across the globe, creating a specific threat to nocturnal species: light pollution. Recently, light pollution has been identified as one driver of insect decline. Among nocturnal insects, moths are particularly important as they serve as both key pollinators and food source, providing essential ecosystem functions. To mitigate the effects of light pollution, a comprehensive understanding of moth orientation is essentia
How The Emotions of Politicians Explain their Representative Behavior
UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN · BE · €1,498,730
TEMPER sheds new light on the representative behavior of individual politicians by addressing an overlooked driver of that behavior: their emotions. What makes politicians decide to be responsive to public opinion signals at some occasions, but not at others? And how do politicians go about communicating their viewpoints, sometimes using very emotional or uncivil language, and at other times not? Whereas extant research has been preoccupied with studying the cognitive, strategic reasons that pol
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