Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique, Rue De L'universite   Paris Cedex 07, France
Coordinated by INRA, AgreenSkills has as its strategic goal to reinforce the European leadership in agricultural science by promoting international mobility of researchers both in and out of Europe. By joining the efforts of Research and Higher Education Institutions involved in collaboration with European states, OECD nations and developing countries, AgreenSkills is designed to bring to researchers the widest possible choice of international mobility. To reach this goal, rather than increasing the number of fellowships, the objectives of AgreenSkills are to attract talents and boost high-potential scientists by providing attractive fellowships, increasing hosting capacity, improving application and selection processes, improving scientific mentoring, and enhancing career development. AgreenSkills will rely on the concept of individual mobility, meaning applicants will be able to freely choose their topic, their hosting structure as well as their supervisor. AgreenSkills will support in-coming and out-going mobility provided return takes place within one to two years, the period of time deemed necessary for scientific production, competences and skills sharing, and the establishment of long-lasting collaboration. AgreenSkills will enable talented scientists to identify the most suitable laboratories for their research project through prior resume and project analyses. As reactivity and flexibility are key factors for the success of the programme, AgreenSkills will fully exploit the autonomy given to the Agreenium organisations, to only handle the preliminary stage aimed at connecting applying fellows and projects to suitable laboratories, the recruitment processes themselves being left to the different Agreenium members following their own rules.

Fundacio Institut De Recerca De L'hospital Universitari Vall D'hebron, Passeig Vall D'hebron   Barcelona, Spain
The INCOMED programme promotes 10 postdoctoral fellowships in all areas of biomedicine and clinical medicine at the Research Institute Vall dHebron (IR-HUVH). This is an incoming mobility programme taht promotes training and career development that complies with the concept of individual trans-national mobility. It is addressed to experienced researchers capable of developing a competitive research project and based on the merit of the candidates. INCOMED will publish two calls offering 5 fellowships in each call. Each fellowship will have a duration of two years. Eligible candidates will be invited for interviews and the will freely decide the research topic, destination and research group. Succesful candidates will be asked to sign an employment contract that follows national legislation in Spain and a set of guidelines of good practice at IR-HUVH. INCOMED fellows will have supervised training in the laboratory of their choice and will have career development via a set of activities that includes direct management of the postdoctoral committee at IR-HUVH, active participation at international meetings and mentoring of PhD students. The expected impact of INCOMED in the the European Research Area is the implementation of a tool that allows experienced researchers to obtain professional training and career development in biomedicine and clinical medicine in a leading European University Hospital and Research Centre.

Universite De Lausanne., Quartier Unil-centre Bâtiment Unicentre   Lausanne, Switzerland
I propose to take first steps towards understanding the evolutionary processes that shape gene regulation in primates, and in particular, to study the mechanisms of regulatory change in humans and our close evolutionary relatives. By using RNA sequencing, I propose to study and compare gene expression phenotypes in multiple tissues and across species at unprecedented resolution, as well as to characterize exon usage and alternative splicing patterns. Subsequently, by using a combination of genomic approaches that will allow me to characterize histone modification marks and methylation profiles at genome-wide scale, I propose to move beyond simple inter-species comparisons of gene expression levels to the study of underlying regulatory mechanisms such as chromatin state and epigenetic markers. At the conclusion of this work I will have high-resolution gene expression data, methylation state, and histone modification profiles from a set of five tissues from multiple human, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque individuals. These data will allow me to explore conserved inter-tissue regulatory differences, as well as to identify genes and pathways whose regulation evolved under natural selection in primates. In addition, my data will allow me to determine the mechanisms that explain, at least in part, regulatory differences between the species.

Gas accretion and galactic winds are two of the most important and poorly understood ingredients of models for the formation and evolution of galaxies. We propose to take advantage of two unique opportunities to embark on a multi-disciplinary program to advance our understanding of the circumgalactic medium (CGM). We will use MUSE, a massive optical integral field spectrograph that we helped to develop and that will be commissioned on the VLT in 2012, to study the CGM in both absorption and emission. We will use 200 hours of guaranteed time to carry out deep redshift surveys of fields centred on bright z3.5 and z5 QSOs. This will yield hundreds of faint galaxies (mainly Ly± emitters) within 250 kpc of the lines of sight to the background QSOs, an order of magnitude increase compared to the best existing sample (bright, z2.3 galaxies). This will allow us to map the CGM in absorption in 3-D using HI and metal lines and to identify, for the first time, the counterparts to most metal absorbers. MUSE will also enable us to detect Ly± emission from the denser CGM (also using another 300 hours of guaranteed time targeting deep HST fields) and thus to directly explore its connection with galaxies and QSO absorbers. We will use the new supercomputer of the Virgo consortium to carry out cosmological hydro simulations that contain 1-2 orders of magnitude more resolution elements than the largest existing (spatially adaptive) runs. We will use the results of our previous work to guide our choice of parameters in order to obtain a better match to the observed mass function of galaxies. In parallel, we will carry out a complementary program of zoomed simulations of individual galaxies. These will have the physics and resolution to include a cold gas phase and hence to bypass much of the "subgrid" physics used in the cosmological runs. Both types of simulations will be used to study the physics of gas flows around galaxies and to guide the interpretation of our observations.

Univerzita Komenskeho V Bratislave, Safarikovo Nam   Bratislava 16, Slovakia
Methods for systems and software engineering have steadily improved, but are being outrun by rapidly increasing system complexity. Much of this complexity is caused by the increasing parallelism (concurrency) and ubiquity (embeddedness) of systems. In this project, called ConAn (for CONcurrency ANalysis), we focus on design and analysis methods for concurrent software. Concurrent programming is the area of software development where even experts make subtle programming errors. Furthermore, concurrent programs are difficult to debug and test, because their behaviour is nondeterministic and therefore irreproducible. We will focus on three specific areas: first, we will develop a verification tool for concurrent data structure implementations. Second, we will leverage the verification models and algorithms to develop synthesis methods for concurrent programs which are correct by construction. Third, we will develop a more quantitative analysis based on a flexible performance model for concurrent programs which is suitable for formal analysis of programs, as well as theory, algorithms and tools based on this model. The model will allow us to make the output of the verification tool more informative and to synthesize concurrent programs with better performance.

The goal of the current proposal is to provide a new empirical foundation to our knowledge of sound patterns that are statistically underrepresented (typologically rare) in the world's languages. Typologically rare patterns have been claimed to be more difficult to produce and perceive, and more prone to undergo sound change. Yet this claim is controversial: others maintain that due to the stabilizing force of grammar and learning, within a language, all sound patterns are equally entrenched. Understanding the status and the origins of typologically rare patterns remains one of the most profound challenges in linguistics, phonetics, as much as in psychology and cognitive science. There is, however, an insufficient empirical knowledge of the status of typologically rare patterns in languages that have stabilized these patterns in their synchronic grammars. Whether typologically rare phonotactic patterns can be shown to be relatively less entrenched within a speaker's grammar is an open empirical question and will be the major research focus of this proposal. Based on several languages (Germanic, Slavic, Kartvelian) the current proposal investigates how the licensing of typologically rare phonotactic patterns (reverse sonority clusters, syllabic consonants) interacts with language particular characteristics of articulatory implementation (the coordination of articulator motion in space and time). The detailed production studies are complemented by imitation experiments that allow us to assess whether typologically rare patterns show greater plasticity through language use. The results will make a significant contribution to our understanding of the perception-production link in speech, language typology and sound change, and the reciprocal relationship between cognitive and physical forces in spoken language.

Eraberrikuntzan Eta Ezagutzan Adituak Diren Pertsonen Mugikorteasuna Sustatzeko Elkartea, Parque Technologico De Bizkaia -laga Bidea Edif 804 300   Derio-bizkaia, Spain
The B-MOB project objective is to provide the researchers the opportunity to deepen and widen their skills, by increasing their transnational mobility, adding different and complementary research competences at an advanced level, reinforcing their own professional maturity and experience. The project also wants to pave the way to make the research profession more attractive and interesting for young researchers. The project aims to exploit synergies between Community actions and those at Regional/National level, in order to increase their numerical and qualitative impact (in terms of supported researchers) and in order to combat research fragmentation. Moreover, this project will enable Biscay to reinforce its scientific capacity, by strengthening our networks abroad and reaching an adequate number of researchers, assuring the development of the research activities and of the economic growth of Biscay and of Europe, and thus, contributing actively to the ERA. The programme comprises three complementary actions, which will give researchers the opportunity to develop, while working at high-level research institutions of Biscay and worldwide, a project fitting their individual needs; to benefit from advantageous working conditions and all of the necessary benefits for this new step of their career. These three actions are: -Support the integration of experienced researchers in Biscay -Support to the linking of external collaborators who participate in innovative projects in Biscay -Support for the training of qualified people abroad, with a return phase to Biscay Bizkaia:xede presents this project for additional support by the Marie Curie Programme. The association has been created in 2004 with the purpose of developing an integral territorial strategy of talent management and has partnerships with universities, technological centres, and large companies located in the region of Bilbao (Spain). Since 2008, Bizkaia:xede is a Local Contact Point to Euraxess.

When interstellar clouds collapse to form new stars and planets, the surrounding gas and dust become part of the infalling envelopes and rotating disks, thus providing the basic material from which new solar systems are made. Instrumentation to probe the physics and chemistry in low-mass star-forming regions has so far lacked spatial resolution. I propose here an integrated observational-modeling-laboratory program to survey protostars and disks on the relevant scales of 1-50 AU where planet formation takes place. The observations are centered on new data coming from the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), and the analysis includes unique new data from key programs on Herschel, Spitzer and VLT that I am (co-)leading. The combination of millimeter and infrared data allows the full range of temperatures from 10-2000 K in star- and planet- forming regions to be probed, for both gas and solids. The molecular line data are used as diagnostics of physical parameters (such as UV field, cosmic ray ionization rate, kinematics, mixing, shock strength, grain growth, gas/dust ratios) as well as to follow the chemistry of water and complex organic molecules from cores to disks, which ultimately may be delivered to terrestrial planets. The implications for the history of volatile material in our own solar systen and exo-planetary atmospheres will be assessed by comparing models and data with cometary taxonomy and, ultimately, feeding them into planet population synthesis models. Altogether, this program will bring the link between interstellar chemistry and solar system and exo-planetary research to a new level. The project will train four PhD students in a truly interdisciplinary environment in which they are exposed to all aspects of molecular astrophysics and have access to ample ALMA expertise, and it will prepare two postdocs for future faculty positions.

This project aims to explore the fundamental question in computer science and mathematics regarding what computational problems can feasibly be solved on a computer. More specifically, we want to study algorithms for proving logic formulas as well as impossibility results for this problem. Proving formulas in propositional logic is a problem of immense importance both theoretically and practically. On the one hand, this computational task is believed to be intractable in general, and deciding whether this is so is one of the famous million dollar Millennium Problems (the P vs NP problem). On the other hand, today automated theorem provers, or so-called SAT solvers, are routinely used to solve large-scale real-world problem instances with even millions of variables. This contrasts to that there are also known small example formulas with just hundreds of variables that cause even state-of-the-art SAT solvers to stumble. The main objectives of our project are as follows: (1) Understand what makes formulas hard or easy in practice by building and studying better theoretical models of the proof systems underlying SAT solvers, and testing the predictions of these models against empirical data. (2) Gain theoretical insights into other crucial issues in SAT solving such as memory management and parallelization. (3) Explore the possibility of basing SAT solvers on stronger proof systems than are currently being used. (4) Clarify the theoretical limitations of such enhanced SAT solvers by studying the corresponding proof systems, which are currently poorly understood. We see great opportunities for fruitful interplay between the fields of proof complexity and SAT solving in this area, as well as between theoretical results and practical implementations. We believe that resolving the questions posed by this project could potentially have a major impact in theoretical computer science, and in the longer term in more applied areas of computer science and mathematics.

Existing institutional theory, including political economics and contract theory, convincingly show that institutional details have large impacts on economic and policy outcomes. Once this is recognized, it follows that contracts should depend on the organisational design of the institution to which the contract is offered. Stage 1 of Project Gine aims at characterising optimal contracts as a function of this design. Stage 2 develops a framework for endogenising and characterising the optimal institutional design. At Stage 3, sets of institutions are endogenised at the same time, where the design of one is an optimal response to the designs of the others. This outcome is referred to as a general institutional equilibrium. Such a theory or methodological framework has several immensely important applications. Development aid contracts should carefully account for the political structure in the recipient country; otherwise the effect of aid may surprise and be counterproductive. The major application motivating this study, however, is environmental policy. Not only must the optimal environmental policy be conditioned on political economy forces; it must also be a function of institutional details, such as the political system. This can explain why the choice of instrument differs across political systems, and why politicians often prefer standards rather than economic instruments. Furthermore, we still do not have a good knowledge of how to design effective and implementable international environmental treaties. The optimal treaty design as well as the best choice of policy instrument must take into account that certain institutions (e.g., interest groups, firm structures, and perhaps even local governance) respond endogenously to these policies.

The University Of Warwick, Kirby Corner Road - University House   Coventry, United Kingdom
The aim of this proposal is to establish close research interaction and collaboration between the key EU and non-EU research groups involved in the research of the Sun in the radio band; qualitatively advance our knowledge of the physical processes operating in the solar atmosphere, the basic mechanisms responsible for its evolution and dynamics and its effect on the Earth; provide younger researchers with extensive training in relevant research techniques and with universal transferable skills. The participating teams are either actively involved or host world-leading upcoming solar observational facilities CSRH, SSRT and ALMA, hence the additional aim of the project is the preparation to their successful exploitation, development of relevant theory and data analysis tools. The research and training aims are to be achieved through the systematic research staff and knowledge exchange and joint research efforts exploiting existing data and facilities, and preparing the future world-class partnership in exploitation of the upcoming facilities. The network we intend to build consists of 7 (4 EU and 3 non-EU) internationally recognised and respected research teams with high level of expertise in the fields that are complimentary and crucial for the proposed research: solar radio instrumentation, data analysis, plasma physics of the microwave emission, magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) theory and simulations, and leadership or direct involvement in the upcoming facilities. The teams represent three EU member states (Czech Republic, Poland and the United Kingdom) and two eligible non-EU states (China and Russia), hence an additional benefit of the proposed collaboration is the intensification of the research links between EU and BRIC countries. The proposed collaboration is expected to develop into a long-standing international partnership.

Prostate cancer causes over 1/4 of new cancer cases and 1/10 of cancer deaths in western males. Efficient methods for early treatment are available. Many lives could therefore be saved by early cancer detection, but this is not viable due to the inadequacy of the available non-invasive diagnostics. Systematic biopsy is the only reliable detection technique, but it is hampered by high costs and causes serious discomfort and health risks because of its invasiveness. Moreover, precise cancer localization is not possible, impeding the use of available focal treatments. This research will push the frontiers of prostate cancer diagnostics by a revolutionary method for localization of cancer angiogenesis (micro-vascular growth). Different from all methods for angiogenesis imaging, invariably based on the assessment of blood perfusion, I aim at quantifying the local dispersion dynamics of an intravascular tracer. Dispersion is the spreading process of the tracer within the vasculature, which I firmly believe to correlate much better than perfusion with microvascular architectures and, therefore, with cancer angiogenesis. The assessment of local dispersion is challenging and will be pursued through an intravenous injection of an ultrasound contrast bolus and novel spatiotemporal analysis of the bolus passage through the prostate circulation, measured by three-dimensional ultrasound imaging. If successful, the proposed method will represent a breakthrough for early noninvasive and accurate prostate cancer localization, precise focal treatment, and treatment follow-up, with strong potential for use for other types of cancers, such as breast cancer. Moreover, this method will facilitate further groundbreaking research in the therapeutic control of angiogenesis in several pathologies. This exciting research builds on my multidisciplinary expertise in ultrasound contrast dilution methods and on consistent and successful collaborations with leading clinical and industrial partners.

Although many advances have been made in the mechatronics and computational hardware of artificial hands, the state of the art appears to be only marginally closer to a satisfactory functional approximation of the human hand than it was twenty years ago. In my analysis, the main reasons for this are not merely techni-cal, but invest some fundamental issues in the understanding of the organization and control of hands, and ultimately the lack of a theory to guide us in the search for a principled approach to taming the complexity of hands. In this project, I propose to contribute to the development of the fundamental elements of such a theory, and bring them to fruition in functional engineered devices. I expect to be able to break through the rather slowly moving front of the state of the art because of the combination of two crucial, recent innovations. The first pillar, and the prime theoretical enabler for this program, is an approach to the description of the organi-zation of the hand sensorimotor system in terms of geometric constraints, or synergies: correlations in redun-dant hand mobility (motor synergies), correlations in redundant cutaneous and kinaesthetic receptor readings (multi-cue integration), and overall sensorimotor control synergies. Elements of such theories have emerged recently in neurosciences, but their exploitation in the sciences of the artificial is an enormous potential barely touched upon till now. The second pillar, providing the new technology needed to build simpler and more effective artificial hands, is the understanding of the role of variable impedance actuation in embodying intelligent grasping and manipulation behaviours in humans, and the availability of a new generation of robot muscles, i.e. actuators capable of tuning their impedance to adapt to the environment and the task. These ideas will be pursued in close collaboration with specialists in related domains of neuroscience and robotics.

In the present foundations are ascribed a central role in overcoming social and political problems, be it in the field of social welfare or the sponsorship of science and the arts. But they were also in the past always an indicator of the condition of a society and lend themselves to deducing its overall structure. In a historical perspective they permit an intercultural comparison because there is evidence of the phenomenon of the foundation, while not on a continual basis, in all advanced civilizations. The project intends to carry out a comparative investigation of foundations of the medieval millenium (from approximately 500 to 1500 CE) in European Latin and Greek Orthodox Christianity, in Judaism, Islam and in pluri-religious India and of their mutual relations while making use of the ideas of modern global history. It will therefore also involve questions of cultural transfer or cross-cultural interaction. Under the leadership of the submitter five experts from the fields of Medieval, Byzantine, Jewish, Islamic or Ottoman and Indian studies will compile an "Encyclopedia of Foundations in the Medieval Millenium", in which articles written collaboratively will depict the forms, objectives, legal structures, endowments of the foundations and historical changes taking place within them, taking into consideration their religio-historical background (esp. end time concepts) and their respective historical context. The planned project is built upon pilot projects working on this issue, while a publishing company has already secured the rights for the publication of such an encyclopedia (also online). On completion of the project the submitter will also present a monograph on foundations in the Middle Ages as "total social phenomenon" (M. Mauss) in an universal history perspective.

My group will explore the undeveloped field of penetration of non-thermal plasma into porous structures. Porous materials are an exciting class of materials with a wide range of applications. However, given the narrow dimensions of the porous network, modifying in a homogeneous way an entire porous material is a challenging task. This project is based on the use of non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasmas for an effective internal surface modification of 3D porous structures. To make plasma technology reach this desired level of controlled penetration into porous structures, a far better understanding of the penetration of chemical active species into porous structures is required. Therefore, my project envisages a thorough study of the interactions between a non-thermal plasma and a second phase, the second phase being a porous substrate. Through diagnostics of the process-relevant plasma parameters and a quantitative analysis of the plasma-induced effects, the knowledge on the physics and chemistry of such hybrid plasma systems will be enhanced and, in most cases, newly founded. My group will start exploring this exciting field by focussing on three cornerstone research lines. Firstly, I will develop new plasma reactor concepts enabling effective plasma penetration. Secondly, these newly developed plasma reactors will be employed for the internal surface modification of porous biodegradable polyester scaffolds used in tissue engineering. Thirdly, besides the development of biomedical implants, the possibilities for the design of functional porous textiles and advanced filter materials will also be explored. Realisation of these three cornerstones would result in a major breakthrough in their specific field which makes this proposal inherently a relatively high risk/very high gain proposal. I therefore strongly believe that my research program will open a whole new window of opportunities for porous materials with a large impact on science and society.

University Of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane   Leeds, United Kingdom
The MINSC Initial Training Network (ITN) is comprised of partners from first-rate universities and high-level industrial partners located in the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Norway, and Italy. The prime aims of this network is to provide research and training opportunities to a new generation of young fellows in fundamental and collaborative research projects related to the nucleation and growth of a series of relevant scale mineral systems in the absence or presence of inhibitors agents. The training will combine molecular level research with studies linked to clear industrial processes at the field-level. The ultimate goal is to better understand one of the highly relevant problems in oil, geothermal and food industrial processes: pipe clogging and surface corrosion by mineral scale precipitates during production. To achieve this, the network will combine training of early stage and experienced researchers in state-of-the-art techniques of mineral formation and characterization both in laboratory and industrial settings with research objectives that aim at quantifying the nucleation and growth of several mineral systems: carbonates, sulphates/sulphides, oxalates and silicates. Scaling can often be retarded via inhibitors but their role in affecting rates of formation of these minerals in solution, on surfaces as well as in real-world industrial settings (i.e., pipes, cores etc.) are unknown. We will determine these rates in laboratory experiments and implement and test these novel findings directly in industrial power plant systems. The prime industrially-driven science goal is twofold (a) to better understand what leads to the precipitation of a series of mineral scales causing a massive decrease in efficiency and increased cost for industrial processes (i.e., oil and gas production, geothermal energy, beer) and (b) to develop processes/inhibitors that can help mitigate and / or prevent scale formation in such environments.

The University Of Birmingham, Edgbaston   Birmingham, United Kingdom
Adaptive interactions with the environment depend on sophisticated brain plasticity mechanisms at multiple levels: from single neurons to large-scale brain networks. Traditionally, the study of plasticity has been fragmented into sensory, motor or decision-related circuits. However, translating brain plasticity findings to brain repair requires an understanding of the interactions between these circuits. Our aim is to integrate this study of learning and plasticity to promote wellbeing and advance healthcare interventions. We take a multidisciplinary approach, synthesising methods from physiology, cellular neurobiology, pharmacology, brain imaging, behavioural science and computational modelling to reveal plasticity at multiple scales (cellular, structural and functional). We will test how learning modifies sensory representations, perceptual decisions and motor outputs. Further, we will examine brain reorganisation and long-term plasticity in cases of congenital or acquired sensory and motor deficits. Our approach requires the coordinated efforts of international research leaders who work in top Universities and market-leading companies. This research training environment will deliver a cohort of young researchers experienced in transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries to deliver deeper insight into brain plasticity. Further, ABCs approach of cementing interactions between sectors into the training programme means that our ESRs will have the skills necessary to move between sectors and can maximise the translation of their findings for human health and wellbeing. The work has impact in assistive technology, education and rehabilitation and expert recognition systems. The involvement of private sector companies, and a pronounced focus on translational aspects within the networks activities (i.e. at all training events), will enhance European capacities for brain plasticity research and its applications.

Karlsruher Institut Fuer Technologie, Kaiserstrasse   Karlsruhe, Germany
Enhanced transnational access to large research infrastructures in Europe and in China is offered to allow the optimal use of the resources in the extremely complex field of severe accident analysis for the existing power plants. This research involves very substantial human and financial resources and, in general, the research field is too wide to allow investigation of all phenomena by any national programme. To optimise the use of the resources, the collaboration between nuclear utilities, industry groups, research centres and safety authorities, at both European and Chinese levels is very important. This is precisely the main objective of the ALISA project, which aims to provide these resources and to facilitate this collaboration by providing large scale experimental platforms in Europe and in China for transnational access. Large-scale facilities offered for access in the project are designed to resolve the most important remaining severe accident safety issues, ranked with high or medium priority by the SARP group for SARNET NoE. These issues are coolability of a degraded core, corium coolability in the RPV, possible melt dispersion to the reactor cavity, molten corium concrete interaction and hydrogen mixing and combustion in the containment. The major aspect is to understand how these events affect the safety of existing reactors and how to deduce soundly-based accident management procedures. Activities within the ALISA project will focus on the large scale experiments under prototypical conditions addressing the remaining R&D issues on severe accident management in light water reactors. ALISA offers a unique opportunity for all parties to get involved in the networks and activities supporting safety of existing and advanced reactors and it allows European and Chinese researches to work together as equal partners so as to arrive at a wider common safety culture.

This proposal outlines a cutting-edge five year project which will push the frontiers of colour category research, and will resonate throughout the cognitive and social sciences. Humans can discriminate millions of colours (Zeki, 1993), yet language refers to colour using a number of discrete categories (e.g., red, green, blue). These colour categories are also present in thought (e.g., in colour judgements / memory). There has been considerable multidisciplinary research into the origin of colour categories and how colour categories in thought and language relate. However, major theoretical challenges remain. The CATEGORIES project, led by Franklin, will tackle these crucial challenges with the aim of establishing a new theoretical framework for the field. So far, Franklin has made a major contribution to the field by providing converging evidence that infants categorise colour. The CATEGORIES project will investigate new ground-breaking questions on the relationship of these pre-linguistic colour categories to the worlds colour lexicons, using a diverse range of methods (e.g., infant testing, computational simulations, psychophysics). The project also aims to resolve the long standing debate about the impact of colour terms on perception (e.g., Whorf, 1956), pioneering a Neuro-Whorfian approach to the debate. This approach will use neuro-physiological methods to firmly establish the extent to which speakers of different languages see colour differently. The new questions, approaches, data and theory provided by the CATEGORIES project, will lead to major advances in colour category research. The project will also lead to major advances on issues that are fundamental to understanding the complexity of the human mind (e.g., the interaction of language and thought; how the brain categorises the visual world), having impact across multiple disciplines (e.g., cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, psychology), as well as practical application.

I recently proposed a model that helps explain the presence of p53 mutations and genomic instability in human cancers (Nature, 2005; Nature 2006; Science 2008). The key features of this model are that oncogenes induce DNA replication stress, which in turn leads to DNA double-strand breaks, genomic instability and p53-induced senescence or apoptosis. This model is relevant for almost all cancer types and explains the spectrum of mutations being reported in thousands of human cancers by the cancer sequencing consortia. In this project, I propose to take the next logical steps that follow from my discovery. Specifically, I propose the following objectives: 1. Elucidate the mechanisms by which oncogenes induce DNA replication stress. Oncogene-induced genomic deletions map within very large actively transcribed genes. Accordingly, I hypothesize that oncogenes and transcription synergistically disrupt pre-replicative complexes resulting in large genomic regions that have a low density of replication initiation events. To test this hypothesis, I propose to introduce by site-directed homologous recombination a transcription termination sequence at the beginning of very large gene and determine whether it remains sensitive to oncogene-induced genomic instability. Genome-wide transcription and DNA replication patterns will also be examined in cells that are sensitive to oncogene-induced DNA replication stress (most somatic cells and cell lines) and cells that are resistant (induced pluripotent stem cells). 2. Identify and characterize genes necessary for proliferation of cells with oncogene-induced DNA replication stress. Using high throughput siRNA screens we will identify genes, whose depletion inhibits proliferation of cells with oncogene-induced DNA replication stress, without affecting normal cells. We will explore the function of these genes using molecular biology, structural biology and genetic approaches. Some promising candidates have already been identified.

It is the longterm objective of NOLIMITS to develop a unique technology, that will provide combined electronic and photonic functionality in a single chip and that will overcome the scale and speed limits in todays photonic integration technology. Our dream is a technology that will be in every laptop and that will contain photonic interconnects and small but ultrafast and ultra low power photonic processors on top of an electronic IC, that contains the large scale but lower speed memory and control functions. While this is a very ambitious and longterm objective, it is the aim of NOLIMITS to demonstrate the potential of InP Membranes on Silicon (IMOS) for realising this goal up to a level that large companies can be interested in the largescale development of the technology. We believe that this can be done by 5 PhD students and postdocs that will be funded from this project, in close cooperation with three PhD students that are presently working on IMOSrelated technology. NOLIMITS will address the following challenges in two subprojects: Providing proof of concept for integration of a full set of basic photonic components in IMOS technology on top of a CMOS chip which contains advanced electronic functionality. Developing and demonstrating the technology for an application where the combination of photonics and electronics brings additional functionality. Integration of plasmonic lasers in IMOS technology and demonstrating THz switching speeds with very low switching powers, that allow for application in ultrafast digital photonic signal processors with up to 1 million lasers. If successful, NOLIMITS will provide a powerful technology for integrating photonics and electronics at a complexity level that exceeds todays photonic technology by more than three orders. Such a technology will create a whole field of new application and will become a gamechanger in the world of photonic integrated circuits.

The objective of this research proposal is to develop new methods to answer a number of fundamental questions generated by the recent development of modern analysis. The questions we are interested in are specifically related to the study of local structure of sets and functions in the classical Euclidean setting, in infinite dimensional Banach spaces and in the modern setting of analysis on metric spaces. The main areas of study will be: (a) Structure of null sets and representation of (singular) measures, one of the key motivations being the differentiability of Lipschitz functions in finite dimensional spaces. (b) Nonlinear geometric functional analysis, with particular attention to the differentiability of Lipschitz functions in infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces and Banach spaces with separable dual. (c) Foundations of analysis on metric spaces, the key problems here being representation results for Lipschitz differentiability spaces and spaces satisfying the Poincare inequality. (d) Uniqueness of tangent structure in various settings, where the ultimate goal is to contribute to the fundamental problem whether minimal surfaces (in their geometric measure theoretic model as area minimizing integral currents) have a unique behaviour close to any point.

Our ambition is to probe the strength of second phases in multiphase metal alloys and composites, meaning of hard particles added to strengthen a metal, or alternatively of brittle inclusions that weaken it. Such phases are ubiquitous in structural metals; yet not much is known of the microstructural features that govern their strength. The underlying hypothesis of this project is that defects that limit the strength of such hard second phases can be identified and then altered by processing. Motivations for this enquiry stem from our previous research on metal composites, coupled with the fact that modern methods of nanoscale mechanical characterization now make such a quest feasible. Operationally, we plan to apply and extend nanomechanical testing to probe the strength of micrometric, irregularly shaped, hard particles currently used to strengthen metals. We aim to test such particles whole, and also for their local internal properties. Testing will rely on focused ion beam machining and adapted mechanical nanoprobing. These techniques will be combined to probe, using nanoindentation and original testing procedures, local and global strength values for hard second phase particles. Materials systems to be investigated are: (i) ceramic particles for the reinforcement of metal composites; (ii) silicon in aluminium, (iii) cementite and MC carbides in steel. Defects limiting the strength of these hard brittle phases suggested by nanoscopic mechanical testing will be identified using in-depth microstructural characterization, by electron microscopy notably, of both virgin and tested particles. The data will be supplemented by mechanical testing of macroscopic samples containing the hard particles in question. Processing routes will be explored, towards identification of strategies by which the strength of such second phases can be improved to improve, in turn, the performance of several important engineering materials.

Deutsches Zentrum Fuer Luft - Und Raumfahrt Ev, Linder Hoehe   Koeln, Germany
In June 2008 the Space National Contact Points (NCPs) from 33 EU member states and FP7 associated countries started COSMOS, the Cooperation Of Space NCPs as a Means to Optimise Services. NCP networks had been established in other themes already, like IDEALIST, and proved a suitable instrument to interlink according NCPs. This led to added benefit e. g. through new services like specific partner search activities and a project website providing useful information not just for clients of the project partner countries but for everybody interested. Through this and through joint trainings and experience exchange the partners eased access to NCP working knowledge and skills. Thus it was especially supporting less experienced NCPs. But also NCPs with several responsibilities profited a lot being short in their available time for the particular NCP field. In summary such projects for the first time allowed having joint trainings and staff exchange and organising joint information days on open thematic calls as international matchmaking opportunities. Such activities lead to improved and more balanced overall quality of NCP services. Through this they finally aim at raising the average quality level of project proposals. COSMOS was the first networking activity for Space NCPs. It also became a success considering the above mentioned objectives of NCP networks. Through the practical experience the partners further on learned a lot about effective exchanges, joint activities, needs and about each other. COSMOS+ builds on this experience and goes further in strengthening the NCPs capacity building and maximising the quality of their services for the Space clients all over Europe and beyond.

We will construct the first self-consistent models of star formation that follow the galactic scale flows where molecular clouds form yet still resolve the star formation and feedback events down to sub-parsec scales. By following the full galactic ecology, the life cycle of gas from the interstellar medium into stars and their radiative and kinematic output back into the galaxy, we will develop a comprehensive theory of star formation. The link between the large-scale dynamics of the galaxy and the small-scale star formation provides the ground-breaking nature of this proposal. Star formation produces a wide range of outcomes in nearby molecular clouds yet on large scales yields star formation rates that are strongly correlated to galactic-scale gas densities. These observed properties of star forming galaxies have inspired a plethora of theoretical ideas, but until now there has been no means of testing these analytical theories. We will use galactic-disc simulations to determine how molecular clouds form through self-gravity, spiral shocks and/or cloud-cloud collisions. We will use these self-consistent models of molecular clouds to follow the local gravitational collapse to form individual stars and stellar clusters. We will include ionisation, stellar winds and supernovae into the ISM to study how feedback can support or destroy molecular clouds, as well as triggering successive generations of young stars. We will also conduct Galactic bulge scale simulations to model how gas flows into, and star formation occurs in, the Galactic centre. The primary goals of this proposal are to understand what determines the local and global rates, efficiencies and products of star formation in galaxies, and to develop a complete theory of star formation that can be applied to galaxy formation and cosmology.

Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona, Campus Uab -bellaterra-   Cerdanyola Del Valles, Spain
ENTITLE will train 17 researchers in the emerging supra-disciplinary field of Political Ecology, giving them the theoretical, analytical and complementary skills that will make them employable in jobs related to environmental policy analysis and advocacy. Research and training are framed around five key cluster sub-programmes concerned with the analysis of: environmental conflicts; environmental movements; natural disasters; changes in the commons; and environmental justice and democracy. Research is based on a series of empirical-based investigations of a geographically and thematically diverse set of case-studies. The researchers of the network will collaborate to offer a theoretical and methodological framework for the empirical research and will synthesise the results of the individual cases in a series of publishable outputs. Research will be action and policy-oriented culminating in a series of Action and Policy Briefs targeting civil society organizations and policy-makers. Training includes an integrated curriculum of local and intensive network courses, summer schools, secondments and training through work. Researchers will be seconded to and recruited by one SME and two NGO partners of the project, building bridges between academia and practice. ENTITLE builds on an on-going collaboration in training between the participating institutions, manifested in a series of successful summer schools. It brings together some of the world's top scholars in the field and overcomes the fragmentation of existing political ecological research in Europe, offering a critical mass of research and training. It is integrated with a number of related FP7 research projects, and builds on a network of reliable and capable partners with considerable experience in EU project management. The researchers trained in the network will be employable in academia, public administration, NGOs and the consultancy sector.

Queen Mary And Westfield College, University Of London, Mile End Road   London, United Kingdom
The principal strategic objective of INTERCROSSING is the cultivation of a new type of young researcher to deal with challenges of exploiting the latest Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies individuals with rigorous training in three disciplines hardly ever found together any one young scientist: population genetics, informatics and statistics. The need for this supra-disciplinary combination of skills reflects the extraordinary new demands produced by technologies that allow us to sequence whole genomes, and to quantify their regulation and expression in many samples from the same species in multiple locations. This torrent of data overwhelms current computational, genetic and statistical approaches for distinguishing the biologically relevant patterns from the background noise. The consortium behind INTERCROSSING including five universities and seven SMEs spanning nine EU countries are all using the NGS technologies, but have found the recruitment of appropriate Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) a major obstacle to building on their innovations. This fundamental shortage in the EU research community is slowing the scientific and industrial exploitation of these groundbreaking new data streams; the shortage of key talent occurs worldwide, and has attracted major investment in other regions (e.g. at the Beijing Genome Institute). A combination of industrial and academic partners will deliver training courses equipping the ESRs to traverse the barriers between these disciplines. Taught courses will provide practical experience of NGS data acquisition, computational methods, model-based statistical inference and population genetics. These skills will allow the ESRs to implement state-of-the art methods to the new data. The ESRs will also be trained in a suit of research skills to deploy this understanding across the industrial and academic sectors, and will be employed in a project in which they move between the sectors.

This proposal concerns simulations for correlated fermionic quantum systems where strong quantum effects give rise to a plethora of fascinating phenomena and new methodological developments are needed for their understanding. Ultracold Fermi gases in optical lattices provide a unique opportunity: being simpler and more controlled and tuneable than condensed matter material they are not only ideal experimental realizations of correlated fermions but also provide an excellent testing ground for numerical simulation methods. Over the past years we have developed new algorithmic approaches, including continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods and diagrammatic Monte Carlo methods for fermionic simulations. These new methods provide performance improvements of many orders of magnitude compared to previous state of the art methods. In this project we will further develop these algorithms and implement them on new massively parallel petaflop supercomputers. This will enable reliable simulations of correlated fermionic quantum systems, such as single and multi-band Hubbard models first in cold atomic gases, and later in realistic models for materials. A second line of research will be the development of Kohn-Sham density-functional theory (DFT) for ultracold atomic gases. DFT based on density functional for the electron gas is the main workhorse for materials simulation, but it is challenging to apply it to the strongly correlated regime. With a DFT method for atomic gases we will, on the one hand, be able to solve challenging problems in ultracold gases. On the other hand and maybe even more important will be the ability to use cold gases to improve hybrid functionals for the strongly correlated regime. This will form a strong link between ultracold gases and materials science, stronger than the Hubbard model that is the focus of attention at the moment.

The current pressures on the major industrial players have necessitated a more urgent push for increased productivity, process efficiency, and waste reduction; i.e. process intensification. Future sizable improvements in these entrenched industrial processes will require either completely novel production technologies, fundamental analysis/modeling methods, or a combination of both. This proposal aims to approach this challenge by using multiscale modeling and experimentation on three fronts: (1) detailed analysis of industrial processes to generate new fundamental chemical understanding, (2) multiscale modeling and evaluation of high-volume chemical processes using a multiscale approach and fundamental chemical understanding, and (3) show the practical applicability of the multiscale approach and use it to critically examine novel technologies in the context of industrial processes. The novel technology portion of this proposal will be focused around a class known as rotating bed reactors in a static geometry (RBR-SG). We will investigate three processes that could benefit from RBR-SG technology: (1) fast pyrolysis of biomass, (2) gasification of biomass, and (3) short contact time catalytic partial oxidation of light hydrocarbons. Experimental reactor and kinetic work and validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of the process mentioned above will be used. We will construct two RBR-SG units; heat transfer, adsorption, and pyrolysis gas/solid experiments will be performed in one, while non-reacting flow tests will be performed in the other with other phase combinations. Detailed kinetic models will provide novel insights into the reaction dynamics and impact other research and technologies. The combination of kinetic and CFD models will clearly demonstrate the benefits of a multiscale approach, will definitively identify the process(es) benefitting most from RBR-SG technology, and will enable a first design of the RBR-SG based on our results.

One of the greatest mysteries in the whole of science is that 75% of the Universe appears to be made of an enigmatic Dark Energy. A further 21% of the Universe is made from invisible Cold Dark Matter that can only be detected through its gravitational effects, with the ordinary atomic matter making up only 4% of the total cosmic budget. These discoveries require a shift in our perception. I play leadership roles in several large surveys, in particular the 40M international Dark Energy Survey (DES), where I coordinate the entire science programme, with 200 scientists from 5 countries. DES will have its first light in October 2011, with observing from 2012 to 2017. I propose three Themes, which are interlinked: (1) Modelling the cross-talk of DES probes and a feasibility study for a spectroscopic follow-up (DESpec) which will allow testing modified General Relativity models as alternatives to Dark Energy; (2) Attempting for the first time to measure the as yet unknown neutrino mass from DES, including novel modelling of the non-linear power spectrum; and (3) Follow up of an intriguing excess in galaxy clustering on large scales we recently detected in our home-grown MegaZ-LRG sample, and developing new approaches to photometric redshifts. The research is interdisciplinary since it is connected to statistical methods as well as to High Energy Physics. The techniques developed will also be used for many other projects, including the ongoing Hubble Space Telescope CLASH survey of clusters and the planned ESA Euclid space mission. At this stage of my career, after founding the Cosmology area at University College London and playing a key role in setting up DES, I wish to focus on creative research to exploit DES with the help of four Post-docs. I believe this work will significantly influence the next paradigm shift in Cosmology, and it will make a major contribution to Cosmology in Europe.

This project examines the effects of political institutions on the ability of political parties and interest organizations to resolve distributional conflicts that prevent governments from adopting policies that would increase overall welfare. The three specific objectives of the project are: (1) To develop a new theoretical analysis of the problem of reform capacity, generating testable propositions about the conditional effects of political institutions on the ability of governments to adopt policies that would, at least in principle, make everyone better off (especially when such policies are associated with distributional conflicts among political parties and interest groups). (2) To collect pooled time series data on policy reforms in selected policy areas, and to analyze these data with statistical methods, in order to test the theoretical propositions. (3) To analyze qualitative evidence on decision-making processes in the same set of policy areas, in order to increase the understanding of the causal mechanisms by which institutions influence the reform capacity of governments, and to suggest new hypotheses for future research. The main contribution of the project is that it will develop a new account of the relationship between institutions and reform capacity, offering an alternative to the dominant theoretical approach to institutions in contemporary political science: the veto player approach. According to veto player models, institutionalized power sharing (that is, having many veto players) limits the set of policy changes that are feasible at any given point in time, rendering governments less decisive than they would be if power were concentrated in a smaller number of political parties and institutions. This project, in contrast, is based on the idea that power sharing may enable governments to do things they would not otherwise be able to do.

The University Of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge   Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Gas separations on offshore platforms are of increasing importance for the purification of natural gas and for the separation of CO2 used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Separations based on nano-porous materials, adsorption and membranes will be the method of choice for applications on floating platforms, where liquid solvents cannot be used due to problems arising from the tilting and rolling of the moving platforms. Developing effective materials and efficient process technologies for gas separations at high pressure plays a key role in the economic exploitation of offshore resources. Both Brazil and the EU have large vested interests in this field: Brazil has important offshore gas reservoirs situated where the seabed is too deep for a fixed platform, while EOR will be widely exploited in the North Sea. The proposed project will involve exchanges among three universities that are already conducting world-class research on materials and adsorption and membrane processes, thereby bringing together expertise on different aspects of the gas separation technology. The exchange of researchers will reinforce the links already established between the EU and Brazil, leading to further collaboration and joint proposals. In particular, the synergy between the research groups in the three institutions will give rise to technological breakthroughs that will also have applications in other fields. The project includes exchange of both early stage and experienced researchers to exploit fully the knowledge transfer for a total of 120 person-months exchanges. 23 experienced researchers will be seconded to a different institution. Early career researchers will spend a longer period of time in the partner institution in order to broaden their research knowledge and to experience a different social and cultural environment. The project will involve 12 PhD students, who will have the opportunity to perform part of their research abroad in one of the partner institutes.

Quarks are bound together by the strong nuclear force as described by QCD. Due to confinement quarks and gluons are not detected in experiments but particles which are complicated bound states. Simulations allow for relating the bound state properties to those of the underlying quarks. The calculation is performed by constructing a discrete four dimensional space-time lattice and then solving the QCD equations of motion on high performance computers (e.g. graphics cards cluster or IBM BG/Q at Edinburgh) New physics will be discovered in terms of discrepancies between Standard Model (SM) predictions and experimental measurements. A hint for a discrepancy between theory and experiment and therefore new physics exists for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. I will implement a new approach to its computation which will provide reliable predictions from first principles and which will substantiate or rebut the apparent tension. Also, my newly developed method for analytically predicting contributions (quark-disconnected diagrams) to the muon anomalous moment which are very hard to compute numerically will be extended to other processes relevant for understanding non-perturbative physics (e.g. K->pi pi) and for SM-tests (neutron EDM). The LHCb experiment at CERN, Switzerland, has recently started taking data for processes that are particularly sensitive to new physics. To interpret the experimental data one needs theory-predictions that can only be provided by lattice QCD. Here properties of flavor-changing neutral current decays of particles containing one b-quark and one light quark will be computed. Next to a large scale simulation of K->pi decays, algorithms will be developed and cut-off effects computed analytically in order to reduce the uncertainty in the lattice computation of Vus, an element of the CKM-matrix. An UV-fixed point in the non-linear sigma model will be searched with lattice simulations on graphics cards.

University Of National And World Economy, Studentski Christo Botev   Sofia, Bulgaria
Local Production Systems (LPS) could be characterized in different ways, thus their definition is neither simple, nor unified task. One of the most popular definitions is the one given by Local Production & Innovation Systems Research Network territorial union of economic, political and social actors, whose efforts are focused on a specific group of interrelated activities. LPS have strong impact on regional development. To this end, LPS establishment and functioning in the EU member states and in third countries are subject to intensive research and discussed in different strategic documents. As of the 90s of the last century LPS in EU(15) are in a process of constant development while in the new EU MS and in third countries they are still in the initial phase. The world economic and financial crisis further attracted the attention of the researchers to LPS establishment and functioning. FOLPSEC aims at deepening the theoretical studies on LPS and to encourage their practical implementation as an approach for world crisis overcoming. It has the following objectives: 1. To exchange knowledge on research approaches in studying LPS and to make recommendations for EU good practices implementation in the conditions of economic crisis; 2. To share partners results on LPS functioning concerning economical and social regional acceleration and regional disparities relative overcoming; 3. To make use of knowledge gained and good practices identified for research and teaching purposes at all partner institutions; 4. To establish long-term research cooperation between EU and Third countries and to strengthen research partnerships. In order to achieve our goal we created a network of partner institutions located in EU(27) member states (Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia) and in Eligible Third Countries (Russia and Ukraine).

The primary goal of the project is to obtain an understanding of geometric and dynamical properties of moduli spaces and mapping class groups. For a mapping class group of a surface of finite type, we are interested in subgroups, in particular in the trace fields of Veech groups beyond the case of genus 2. Convex compact surface subgroups are word hyperbolic surface-by-surface groups, and we aim at clarifying whether or not such groups exist. Fine asymptotics of the distribution of periodic orbits for the Teichmuller flow on strata of quadratic or abelian differentials can be related to dynamical zeta functions. A Borel conjugacy of the Teichmuller flow on the moduli space of quadratic differentials into the Weil-Petersson flow will be used to analyze dynamical properties of the Weil-Petersson flow. The handlebody is a finitely presented subgroup of the mapping class group which however is not quasi-isometrically embedded. A new geometric model for the group will be used towards obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the geometry of this group, in particular with respect to calculating the Dehn function and quasi-isometric rigidigy. A similar geometric model for the outer automorphism group of the free group may yield hyperbolicity of the electrified sphere graph on which this group acts by simplicial automorphisms...

Timing is everything in ecology, and because plants provide the foundation for most land-based food webs, the timing of their activities profoundly orchestrates the majority of ecological interactions. Most photosynthetic and growth processes are under circadian control, but many additional processes--approximately 30-40% of all genesare under circadian control, and yet the Darwinian fitness impact of being in synch with the environment has not been systematically studied for any organism. We have developed a toolbox for a native tobacco plant, Nicotiana attenuata, that allows us to ask the plant which genes, proteins or metabolites are regulated in particular plant-mediated ecological interactions; identify the genes that matter for a given interaction; silence or ectopically express these genes, and conduct field releases with the transformed plants at a nature preserve in the Great Basin Desert to rigorously test hypotheses of gene function. By taking advantage of both our understanding of what it takes for this plant to survive in nature, and the procedures established to disentangle the skein of subtle interactions that determine its performance, we will systematically examine the importance of synchronous entrained endogenous rhythms at all life stages: longevity in the seed bank, germination, rosette growth, elongation, flowering and senescence. Specifically, we propose to silence a key components (starting with NaTOC1) of the plants endogenous clock to shorten the plants circadian rhythm, both constitutively and with strong dexamethasone-inducible promoters, at all life stages. With a combination of real-time phenotype imaging, metabolite and transcriptome analysis, and ecological know-how, the research will reveal how plants adjust their physiologies to the ever-changing panoply of environmental stresses with which they must cope; by creating arrhythmic plants, we will understand why so many processes are under circadian control.

The phenotypic differences between individual organisms can often be ascribed to underlying genetic and environmental variation. However, even genetically identical organisms in homogenous environments vary, suggesting that randomness in developmental processes such as gene expression may also generate diversity. My laboratory has intensively studied stochastic gene expression in microbial systems and more recently started to apply these concepts to multicellular organisms and stem cells. One of the major lessons learned from our work and others is that microbial systems tend to exploit stochastic gene expression by introducing phenotypic diversity into the population. However it is an open question whether stochastic gene expression benefits or hinders decision-making by cells in a developing embryo. On the one hand, the gene expression patterns of different cells during metazoan development must be aligned either to ensure proper tissue formation or maintain a coordinated timing of developmental events. This suggests that stochastic fluctuations in gene expression may be controlled or their effects may be buffered under normal conditions. On the other hand, stem cells might use fluctuations to prime differentiation. A stem cell might continuously fluctuate between different primed states each biased towards a different germ layer fate. As soon as an external differentiation signal appears the cell would rapidly differentiate towards the fate that was stochastically selected. The overarching goal of this proposal is to the understand how stochastic gene expression is controlled, or utilized, during development and stem cell differentiation using the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans and murine embryonic stem cells as experimental model systems. To obtain this goal we will use a combination of quantitative experiments, theoretical and computational approaches, and the development of novel technology.

This proposal aims to constrain the late accretion history of the Earth and the differentiation of the earliest silicate reservoirs in planets. Highly siderophile elements (HSE) constrain the late accretion of material onto the Earth; a process that potentially delivered water to Earth. During core formation, HSE strongly partition into metal. Once core formation ceases, newly accreted HSE-rich material will significantly contribute to the HSE budget of the Earth's mantle. The HSE are more abundant in the Earth's mantle than predicted from low temperature partitioning experiments and feature nearly chondritic relative abundances. This implies a significant late accretion of chondritic material (the late veneer). This idea is challenged by high pressure/temperature experiments indicating that the HSE were left in the behind in the mantle during core formation, thereby calling into question the late veneer. To address this issue, I propose the setup of new isotopic tracers and utilize (i) nucleosynthetic anomalies and (ii) stable isotope systematic of the HSE to determine the origin of HSE in the Earth's mantle. Unravelling this issue is a major advance in understanding planetary accretion. Formation of the earliest silicate reservoirs probably occurred contemporary to late accretion. Global differentiation in terrestrial silicate reservoirs may have taken place within the first 30 million years of the Earths formation based on Sm-Nd isotope data. This timing has been debated on various grounds. The 92Nb-92Zr decay system is a potentially powerful chronometer to further constrain this issue. Its usefulness, however, has been hindered by uncertainties of the initial 92Nb abundance in the solar system. I propose to obtain unequivocal evidence from old differentiated meteorites to settle this debate. The results will have implications for understanding early silicate differentiation on asteroids and - depending on the initial 92Nb abundance - the Earth and Mars.

Mercator Ocean Societe Civile, Rue Hermes/ Parc Technologique Du Canal   Ramonville Saint Agne, France
The main objective of the MyOcean2 project will be to operate a rigorous, robust and sustainable Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting component of the GMES Marine Service (OMF/GMS) delivering ocean physical state and ecosystem information to intermediate and downstream users in the areas of marine safety, marine resources, marine and coastal environment and climate, seasonal and weather forecasting. This is highly consistent with the objective of the FP7 Space Work Programme to support a European Space Policy focusing on applications such as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), with benefits for citizens, but also other space foundation areas for the competitiveness of the European space industry. In the period from April 2012 to September 2014, MyOcean2 will ensure a controlled continuation and extension of the services and systems already implemented in MyOcean, a previous funded FP7 project that has advanced the pre-operational marine service capabilities by conducting the necessary research and development. To enable the move to full operations as of 2014, MyOcean2 is targeting the prototype operations, and developing the necessary management and coordination environment, to provide GMES users with continuous access to the GMES service products, as well as the interfaces necessary to benefit from independent R&D activities. MyOcean2 will produce and deliver services based upon the common-denominator ocean state variables that are required to help meet the needs for information of those responsible for environmental and civil security policy making, assessment and implementation. MyOcean2 is also expected to have a significant impact on the emergence of a technically robust and sustainable GMES service infrastructure in Europe and significantly contribute to the environmental information base allowing Europe to independently evaluate its policy responses in a reliable and timely manner

The Concurrency Made Easy project is an attempt to achieve a conceptual breakthrough on the most daunting challenge in information technology today: mastering concurrency. Concurrency, once a specialized technique for experts, is forcing itself onto the entire IT community because of a disruptive phenomenon: the end of Moores law as we know it. Increases in performance can no longer happen through raw hardware speed, but only through concurrency, as in multicore architectures. Concurrency is also critical for networking, cloud computing and the progress of natural sciences. Software support for these advances lags, mired in concepts from the 1960s such as semaphores. Existing formal models are hard to apply in practice. Incremental progress is not sufficient; neither are techniques that place the burden on programmers, who cannot all be expected to become concurrency experts. The CME project attempts a major shift on the side of the supporting technology: languages, formal models, verification techniques. The core idea of the CME project is to make concurrency easy for programmers, by building on established ideas of modern programming methodology (object technology, Design by Contract) shifting the concurrency difficulties to the internals of the model and implementation. The project includes the following elements: 1. Sound conceptual model for concurrency. The starting point is the influential previous work of the PI: concepts of object-oriented design, particularly Design by Contract, and the SCOOP concurrency model. 2. Reference implementation, integrated into an IDE. 3. Performance analysis. 4. Theory and formal basis, including full semantics. 5. Proof techniques, compatible with proof techniques for the sequential part. 6. Complementary verification techniques such as concurrent testing. 7. Library of concurrency components and examples. 8. Publication, including a major textbook on concurrency.

We propose to build a two-dimensional (2D) discrete quantum simulator based on ensembles of ultracold neutral atoms. In this system all degrees of freedom will be controlled at the quantum limit: the number and positions of the atoms, as well as their internal (qubit) and vibrational states. The dynamics is implemented by discrete steps of spin-dependent transport combined with controlled cold collisions of the atoms. Although numerous theoretical studies have considered this architecture as the most promising route to quantum simulation, it has not yet been realized experimentally in all essential aspects. This simulator allows us to study dynamical properties of single-particle and many-body systems in engineered 2D environments. In single particle discrete systems, also known as quantum walks, we plan to investigate transport properties connected to graphene-like Dirac points, and localization phenomena associated with disorder. In the many-particle setting we will realize 2D cluster states as needed for measurement-based quantum computation, as well as simple quantum cellular automata.

Universitaet Bremen, Bibliothekstrasse   Bremen, Germany
Private tenancy law is existentially affecting the daily lives of European citizens, as about one third of them depend on rental housing. That notwithstanding, it constitutes a nearly blank space in comparative and European law. This is due to its national character, its political nature and its embeddedness in widely diverging national housing policies, which ultimately reflect different welfare state models. At the same time, however, different parts of EU law and policy do affect tenancy law significantly, albeit indirectly. Thus, EU social policy against poverty and social exclusion extends to selected issues of housing policy. EU non-discrimination rules extend to the provision of housing, and several consumer law directives apply to tenancy contracts, too. Moreover, if the Common Frame of Reference were one day to develop into an optional instrument, tenancy law issues now regulated by national general contract law might be covered as well - though without any legislator having co-ordinated the ensuing juxtaposition of European contract law and national tenancy regulation. Against this background, this project sets out to provide the first large-scale comparative and European law survey of tenancy law. In a first step, it analyses national tenancy laws and their embeddedness in, and effects on, national housing policies and markets. In a second step, the effect of EU legislation on national housing policy in general and national tenancy law in particular will be analysed in a comparative perspective. In a third step, a proposal for a better co-ordinating role of the EU in tenancy law and housing policy, in particular through an OMC process developing common principles of good tenancy regulation, will be designed. This research matches well several priorities of the Stockholm programme given tenancy laws intimate relation to social human rights and a system of law and justice working for the benefit of European citizens, in particular vulnerable groups.

This is a programme of advanced research with potential for high scientific impact and applications to areas of great strategic importance such as renewable energy and bio-molecular technology. The aim is to develop and apply a combination of cutting-edge tools to observe and understand dynamics in molecules and condensed phase matter with atto-second temporal and nanometre spatial resolutions. The programme, will exploit two new types of measurements that my group have already begun to develop: high harmonic generation (HHG) spectroscopy and atto-second absorption pump-probe spectroscopy, and will apply them to the measurement of atto-second electron dynamics in large molecules and the condensed phase. These methods rely upon the emission and transmission of soft X-ray atto-second fields that make accessible measurement not only of larger molecules in the gas phase but also thin (micron to nanometre) samples in the condensed phase. This is a research project that will open new frontiers both experimentally and theoretically. The challenge of this research is high and will be met by a concerted programme that is well matched to my teams experimental and theoretical expertise in atto-second physics, ultrafast intense-field science, soft X-ray techniques and advanced techniques for creating gaseous and condensed phase samples.

Universidad Autonoma De Madrid, Calle Einstein, Ciudad Univ Cantoblanco Rectorado   Madrid, Spain
Neutrinos and dark matter are the most abundant particles in the universe and yet they remained unnoticed -invisible- for a long time, due to their tenuous couplings to the ordinary matter we are composed of. Neutrino masses inferred from neutrino oscillations and the existence of dark matter constitute the first evidence ever of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. A wide experimental program focused on the properties of both type of particles is imminent and major breakthroughs are expected soon. The road to build the New Standard Model of particle physics is open: the theory must encompass the nature and properties of neutrinos and dark matter, besides those of ordinary matter. The mission of INVISIBLES ITN is to form the new generation of young researchers which will accomplish this task. It will focus on neutrino and dark matter phenomenology and their connection, with the indispensable link to experiment and a deep understanding of theoretical and astroparticle issues. It will be the first transnational program on these topics, exploiting the capital investment in new experimental facilities and overcoming the fragmentation of the research effort. INVISIBLES ITN is uniquely placed to achieve its goal: i) World-leadership in all relevant scientific areas; ii) A novel multidisciplinary approach fostering the neutrino-dark matter synergy; iii) In addition to theorists, inclusion of key experimentalists; theory-experiment cross training is a unique characteristic of this ITN; iv) Outstanding training record; v) CERN, Fermilab, XENON and SuperKamiokande -the four major experimental players- as partners; vi) Partnership with the world-leader research-related industry and cutting-edge technology transfer; vii) Strong outreach and communication program, with two dedicated companies; viii) Top-quality expertise from emergent countries; ix) Optimal in gender balance and role models, with over 60% female and mostly junior international leaders as coordinators.

The University Of Birmingham, Edgbaston   Birmingham, United Kingdom
The most prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases of humans are complex disorders of multifactorial aetiology influenced by genes, the environment and their interactions. Periodontitis (PD) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are two such chronic inflammatory diseases associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and have recently shown to have a bi-directional association. Moreover, the prevalence of both increases substantially with age, and given both the Europe-wide ageing population and the impact of both diseases upon the economy, health and quality of life, it is clear that novel and more cost effective approaches to management are urgently required. A key research goal of this project is to improve understanding of the pathogenesis of RA and PD and their inter-relationships, through the study of common risk factors linked to the activation of host and bacterial derived protein citrullination, which subsequently generates pro-inflammatory auto-antigens in the joints and periodontal tissues. Our vision is that enhanced biological understanding in this area will inform the future development of new approaches to disease prevention, early diagnosis and novel therapies. RAPID aims to provide a significant contribution to this by establishing a first class, dynamic training network of 12 partners and 5 associated partners for early career researchers who will be able to advance chronic inflammatory disease research by working across sectors and disciplines. The network is an interdisciplinary cooperative of medical and dental clinicians, epidemiologists, bio-scientists, industrial scientists, media and commercialization specialists. The aim of the Training Programme is to increase the knowledge base and experience of trainees in the different research areas and to develop their transferable skills for future careers in industry or academia, whilst advancing the field through new discovery.

Science Foundation Ireland Sfi, Wilton Park House Wilton Place   Dublin 2, Ireland
The SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG) Programme provides an opportunity for excellent early-career-stage investigators to carry out independent research in the fields of science and engineering that underpin biotechnology, information and communications technology, and sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies. The award also provides funding for a postgraduate student, who will be primarily supervised by the Starting Investigator (SI). The SI will work with an associated mentor, who will provide the necessary support and infrastructure for the project to take place.

Universite De Perpignan, Avenue Paul Alduy   Perpignan, France
The subject of the project is the magnetodynamics of single-domain ferromagnetic nanoparticles driven by strong ac magnetic fields. The phenomenon of prime interest here is dynamic magnetic hysteresis (DMH). The main important applications of DMH are (i) magnetic moment switching (under pulsed fields) in magnetic data storage and (ii) heat generation in magnetically induced hyperthermia (medical as well as other applications). Nowdays local magnetic hyperthermia is one of the most promising approaches in addition to chemical and radiological methods for cancer treatment. Unfortunately, the progress is hampered by the lack of reliable understanding of the laws governing the interplay between internal (magnetic relaxation) and external (viscous dissipation due to mechanical rotation) losses and their joint effect on heat generation. There also exists a "no-man land" between two limiting frameworks: (i) natural (intrinsic) magnetic resonance where the magnetic moment precession is due to the internal field and (ii) the standard (Zeeman) magnetic resonance where the main factor in the precession is dominated by a strong external field while the internal field is merely a perturbation. In the second case, substantial increase in the absorption can be achieved which is important for hyperthermia. We are going to study magnetodynamics and energy absorption in solid and liquid suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles by developing analytical and numerical techniques for treating effects of dissipation to the surrounding heat bath in DMH. The results obtained from analytical and numerical solutions of the Gilbert-Landau-LIfshitz equation augmented by a random field term will be compared with available experimental observations.

Partial melting of silicates dominates the chemical evolution of Earth today and was even more important in Earths earlier history. The Earth may have begun in a completely molten state, a global magma ocean, with silicate liquid extending from a dense silicate atmosphere to the boundary with the iron-rich core at a pressure of 140 GPa. Deep melt may exist in the Earth today, and the magma ocean may have left signatures of its presence. However, these signals are still uninterpretable because of a lack of basic knowledge of the behaviour of fluid silicates at extreme conditions: very little is known of the physics and chemistry of fluid silicates beyond the conditions of ongoing shallow magma genesis (

Making accurate predictions is a crucial factor in many systems (such as in modelling energy consumption, power load forecasting, traffic networks, process industry, environmental modelling, biomedicine, brain-machine interfaces) for cost savings, efficiency, health, safety and organizational purposes. In this proposal we aim at realizing a new generation of more advanced black-box modelling techniques for estimating predictive models from measured data. We will study different optimization modelling frameworks in order to obtain improved black-box modelling approaches. This will be done by specifying models through constrained optimization problems by studying different candidate core models (parametric models, support vector machines and kernel methods) together with additional sets of constraints and regularization mechanisms. Different candidate mathematical frameworks will be considered with models that possess primal and (Lagrange) dual model representations, functional analysis in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, operator splitting and optimization in Banach spaces. Several aspects that are relevant to black-box models will be studied including incorporation of prior knowledge, structured dynamical systems, tensorial data representations, interpretability and sparsity, and general purpose optimization algorithms. The methods should be suitable for handling larger data sets and high dimensional input spaces. The final goal is also to realize a next generation software tool (including symbolic generation of models and handling different supervised and unsupervised learning tasks, static and dynamic systems) that can be generically applied to data from different application areas. The proposal A-DATADRIVE-B aims at getting end-users connected to the more advanced methods through a user-friendly data-driven black-box modelling tool. The methods and tool will be tested in connection to several real-life applications.

Despite our great expressive skills, we humans lack an easy way of communicating the 3D shapes we imagine, and even more so when it comes to dynamic shapes. Over centuries humans used drawing and sculpture to convey shapes. These tools require significant expertise and time investment, especially if one aims to describe complex or dynamic shapes. With the advent of virtual environments one would expect digital modeling to replace these traditional tools. Unfortunately, conventional techniques in the area have failed, since even trained computer artists still create with traditional media and only use the computer to reproduce already designed content. Could digital media be turned into a tool, even more expressive and simpler to use than a pen, to convey and refine both static and dynamic 3D shapes? This is the goal of this project. Achieving it will make shape design directly possible in virtual form, from early drafting to progressive refinement and finalization of an idea. To this end, models for shape and motion need to be totally rethought from a user-centered perspective. Specifically, we propose the new paradigm of responsive 3D shapes a novel representation separating morphology from isometric embedding to define high-level, dynamic 3D content that takes form, is refined, moves and deforms based on user intent, expressed through intuitive interaction gestures. Scientifically, while the problem we address belongs to Computer Graphics, it calls for a new convergence with Geometry, Simulation and Human Computer Interaction. In terms of impact, the resulting expressive virtual pen for 3D content will not only serve the needs of artists, but also of scientists and engineers willing to refine their thoughts by interacting with prototypes of their objects of study, educators and media aiming at quickly conveying their ideas, as well as anyone willing to communicate a 3D shape. This project thus opens up new horizons for science, technology and society.