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LTP Climate, environment and environmentally friendly energy

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Oceans and coastal areas

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Den geopolitiske situasjonen i Europa endret seg dramatisk med Russlands invasjon av Ukraina, og forårsaket umiddelbart bekymring for sikkerheten til europeisk energiinfrastruktur. Etter sabotasjen mot Nord Stream-rørledningene og observasjoner av uidentifiserte droner rundt norske olje- og gassinstallasjoner til havs, har det blitt et mål å sikre sikkerheten til petroleumsinfrastruktur. En rekke internasjonale, statlige og bedriftsaktører må nå samarbeide for å koordinere innsatsen for å sikre kritisk petroleumsinfrastruktur.

Koordinering og samarbeid mellom vidt forskjellige aktører rundt felles problemer viser seg ofte å være utfordrende. INTERSECT utforsker hvordan det institusjonelle miljøet rundt petroleumsinfrastrukturen kan samarbeide om sikkerhetsstyring. Til grunn for prosjektet ligger antakelsen om at tilstrekkelig sikkerhetsstyring må omfatte flere styringsnivå og en rekke aktører. INTERSECT analyserer utfordringer og muligheter for sikkerhetsstyring mellom flere analysenivå; internasjonalt nivå, nasjonalt nivå, og sektor- og industrinivå. Prosjektet vil her studere samspillet og samarbeidet mellom aktører på ulike nivå, inkludert NATO, norske statlige institusjoner, tilsynsmyndigheter og petroleumsselskaper. Fokus vil ligge på å identifisere og overvinne samarbeidsbarrierer.

Staten er ansvarlig for nasjonal sikkerhet, men selskaper eier petroleumsinfrastrukturen. Ved analyse av industrinivået er bedriftsinterne forhold og tilpasningsevne sentralt. Petroleumsselskapene er rettet mot sikkerhet (safety), ikke først og fremst sikring (security), og de nye omstendighetene tvinger selskapene til å rette mer oppmerksomhet mot "security". INTERSECT utforsker bedriftsinterne løsninger i samarbeid med nøkkelbedrifter i norsk sektor, og analyserer også bedrifters roller i sikkerhetspolitikken kritisk.

INTERSECT er et tverrfaglig samfunnsvitenskapelig prosjekt som bygger på disiplinene statsvitenskap, organisasjonssosiologi og samfunnssikkerhet.

The geopolitical situation following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put a premium on the security of petroleum infrastructures. The changed geopolitical context represents a sudden and significant shift in the framework conditions for the petroleum sector's risk governance model. The shift involves 1) a more influential international dimension in the petroleum sector’s risk governance, and 2) changes in the intersections between safety and security, at different societal levels. These shifts, and how to deal with them, are the points of departure for INTERSECT.

The stronger international dimension involves a new regulatory and supervisory landscape where state security regulations (the Security Act) enter a field where risk governance has traditionally been based on strong sectoral-industrial risk regulation. The new geopolitical situation, and the corresponding changes in the regulatory framework conditions, challenge the sector’s institutional logic and the division of labour between safety and security regulators and supervisory agencies. Changes in power structures, roles and responsibilities emerge, and trigger a need for coordination and collaboration to be able to align matters of safety and security into comprehensive risk governance. The changes also challenge companies’ structures, cultures and practices for risk management.

INTERSECT responds to an industrial and societal need to detect and understand the conditions for constructing adequate security risk governance around petroleum infrastructure. Assuming that adequate security governance must be multi-level and multi-actor, INTERSECT studies coordination and collaboration between actors at different governance levels, from the international, through the state to the company level. INTERSECT explores challenges and opportunities for security governance, seeking to identify and overcome collaborative barriers, including the alignment and collaboration between safety and security professionals.

New geopolitics and the interaction between safety and security in petroleum risk governance

Klimaendringer sammen med fiskepress er allerede kjent for å være en viktig trussel mot hav og marine ressurser. I et miljø i endring trengs det mer kunnskap om konsekvensene av disse menneskeskapte stressorene på fiskers reproduksjonsbiologi og avkom, berettiget av den grunnleggende relevansen til disse livsstadiene for at fiskebestander skal kunne tilpasse seg disse stressorene. Våre foreløpige data har vist fascinerende og underutforskede, atypiske reproduksjonsmønstre hos nordøstatlantisk torsk som dagens kunnskap ikke kan forklare. Disse endringene i reproduksjonssyklusen, som potensielt er relatert til forhøyede temperaturer, kan føre til forskyvning av gytesesongen fra vår til høst. Under de pågående klimaendringene forventes det at forekomsten av disse atypiske fenomenene vil kunne øke hos atlantisk torsk. Konsekvensene av slike endringer på reproduksjonssuksess og avkom er imidlertid ukjent. Prosjektet er utformet for å undersøke potensielle menneskeskapte effekter av klimaendringer (dvs. temperatur) og fiskerier på torskens reproduksjonsbiologi og fysiologi, med spesielt fokus på om disse stressfaktorene forårsaker de observerte atypiske reproduksjonsmønstrene, og effektene dette har på avkommet. Ved å kombinere eksperimentelle, laboratorie- og feltstudier vil flere bestander av den ikoniske Atlantiske torsken bli undersøkt og resultater vil bli sammenlignet med andre fiskearter som Atlantisk hyse og sild, som har ulike vekst- og reproduksjonsegenskaper. Økt forståelse av effekter fra havoppvarming og fiskerier på fiskers biologi er avgjørende for å kunne evaluere økosystemkomponentenes sårbarhet for slike påkjenninger. Gjennom å utforske disse prosessene i Atlantisk torsk, har ANTHROCOD-prosjektet som mål å svare på spørsmål som danner grunnlaget for beslutninger om nåværende og fremtidig forvaltning av torskebestandene.

Climate change together with fishing pressure is already known to be an important threat to oceans and marine resources. In the context of a changing environment, consequences of these anthropogenic stressors on fish reproductive biology and offspring require further study, warranted by the fundamental relevance of these life stages for the population to be able to adapt to these stressors. Indeed, our preliminary data highlighted fascinating and underexplored atypical reproductive patterns in Northeast Atlantic cod that the current knowledge cannot explain. These changes in reproductive cycle, potentially related to elevated temperatures, could result in shifts in spawning season from spring to autumn. Under the ongoing climate change, the occurrence of these atypical phenomena in Atlantic cod would be expected to increase. However, the consequences of these changes on reproductive and offspring performance are unknown. The proposed project is designed to explore the potential anthropogenic impacts of climate change (i.e., temperature) and fisheries on male and female Atlantic cod reproductive biology and physiology, in particular examining if these stressors are drivers of the atypical patterns observed, and the consequences on offspring. By combining experimental, laboratory and field studies, several stocks across different latitudes of the iconic Atlantic cod will be investigated and findings will be compared to species presenting different life-history traits, the Atlantic haddock, and herring. Understanding ocean warming and fisheries effects on fish biology is decisive for assessing the vulnerability of ecosystem components to such pressures. Therefore, by exploring these processes in Atlantic cod, ANTHROCOD project will address questions of the highest priority from the perspective of phenological implications, but also of high ecological relevance involving key principles that form the basis for decisions about current, and future management of cod stocks.

Anthropogenic impacts of climate change and fisheries on reproductive and offspring performance of high-latitude marine fishes

Kystområder med høy folketetthet er uten sidestykke i frontlinjen for konsekvensene av klimaendringer. En av de mest sårbare kystlinjene i India er kysten til staten Kerala, som også er den tettest befolkede kystsonen langs landets vestkyst. Prosjektet C3-eKerala er en indo-norsk, tverrfaglig innsats (forskere, politikere og samfunns-/borgervitenskapelige eksperter) for å vurdere effektene av klimaendringer på Keralas marine kystøkosystem. Resultatene vil støtte utvikling og implementering av relevante planer for skadebegrensning gjennom Keralas statlige handlingsplan for klimaendringer 2023-2030. C3-eKerala vil undersøke i detalj de klimarelaterte endringene i havnivå og bølge-klima og dets kaskadeeffekter på strandlinjeendringer, sensitive økosystemer som mangrover og sjøgress, og dynamikken og intensiteten til skadelig algeoppblomstring (HAB). C3-eKerala vil bruke en tverrfaglig tilnærming, inkludert integrert bruk av satellittsensorsynergi, in-situ observasjoner, statistisk og numerisk modellering sammen med toppmoderne maskinlæringsmetoder. Vi vil bruke den oppnådde kunnskapen til å forutsi årlige strandlinjeposisjoner frem til 2050, lage et interaktivt kart som foreslår restaureringssteder for sjøgress, og varsle HAB-hendelser langs Kerala-kysten. Vi vil kommunisere prosjektresultatene direkte til kystsamfunnene og valgte beslutningstakere via en rekke offentlige møter og workshops. I samarbeid med Kerala State Disaster Management Authority gjør vi vitenskapen om til handlingsplaner som tar opp klimaendringer for kystsamfunn. Sammen vil vi utvikle strategier for å dempe og tilpasse oss de endrede forholdene, for å øke motstandskraften til sårbare kystsamfunn. Oppsummert fremmer C3-eKerala forståelsen og motstandskraften til Keralas kystbefolkning overfor klimapåvirkninger via en omfattende tilnærming – vitenskapelig forskning, modellering, teknologisk integrering og samfunnsengasjement.

Coastal areas with high population density are in the frontline of the unprecedented impacts of climate change. India, one of the top-most densely populated nations of the world has highly vulnerable coastal areas subjected to climate change. Of many in India, one of the most vulnerable is the coast of Kerala state (total length, 593 km) which is also the most densely populated coastal zone  in the entire South India (tropical Latitudes lower than 20N). Urban settlement, industrial as well as port establishments in the Kerala coast reside within 25 km to the shore and hence most of the socio-economic exchanges happen here. The project C3-eKerala is an Indo-Norwegian, transdisciplinary (scientists, policy maker and social/citizen science experts) effort to assess the impact of climate change on the marine coastal ecosystem of Kerala, which will support the development and implementation of relevant mitigation plans through the Kerala state action plan on climate change 2023-2030.
Using a multidisciplinary approach including the integrated use of satellite sensor synergy, in-situ observations, statistical and numerical modeling together with state-of-the-art machine learning methods, we attribute the impact of climate change on the coastal sea level and ocean waves via changes in the winds and ocean warming, map the observed shoreline changes along the Kerala coast and to predict future coastal shoreline changes and inundations, assess the impact on the structure and functioning of the vulnerable coastal ecosystems like mangroves and seagrass, and understand the impact of climate change induced ocean variability in triggering the Harmful algal blooms. All results obtained are further transferred to the policy makers and the societal stakeholders.

Climate Change impact on the marine Coastal ecosystem of Kerala (C3-eKerala)

Epoksyresiner er en gruppe kjemikalier med bred bruk i bygg- og beleggapplikasjoner. Selv om de allerede bidrar til bærekraft ved å beskytte og utvide levetiden til blant annet offshoreinstallasjoner, skip, biler, fly og husholdningsapparater, er de nesten utelukkende laget fra fossile ressurser og basert på giftige forbindelser som kan utgjøre en trussel mot miljøet og helse. Mer bærekraftige og tryggere alternativer til konvensjonell epoksy med lignende ytelse som deres originale motparter er derfor etterspurt.
Samarbeidsprosjektet NordiCoats adresserer behovet for en grønn omstilling i kjemikalie- og materialsektoren ved å utvikle mer bærekraftige epoksybindemidler ved en unik kombinasjon av bioteknologi, nanoteknologi og kjemiske syntesemetoder, som fører til nye trygge og bærekraftige biobaserte epoksyforbindelser og resiner med unike egenskaper, mulig resirkulerbarhet, og redusert energiforbruk. De beste nye epoksyresinene vil bli vurdert som bindemidler i høyytelsesbelegg for den maritime sektoren.
NordiCoats implementeres av et konsortium av fire forskningspartnere i aktivt samarbeid med fire industrielle partnere, som med sin komplementære kompetanse og bidrag til prosjektet vil bane vei for nye, mer bærekraftige epoksyprodukter for en mengde ulike bruksområder og markeder.

Epoxy resins represent a highly developed group of chemicals with a broad use in building and coating applications. Although they in high-performance coatings already contribute to sustainability, e.g., by protecting and expanding lifetime of offshore installations, ships, cars, aircraft, and household appliances, etc., they are almost exclusively derived from fossil resources and based on toxic compounds that can pose a threat to the environment and health. More sustainable and safer alternatives to conventional epoxy with similar performances as their original counterparts are therefore in high demand.
The collaborative project NordiCoats addresses the need for a green transition in the chemicals and materials sector by assembling an innovative platform for the development of more sustainable epoxy binders by a highly interdisciplinary approach. Advanced biotechnology methods are applied to produce microbial oils and biopolymers from lignocellulosic sugars, and biorefinery by-products are sourced and upgraded to assemble a set of base compounds for subsequent upgrading. The base compounds are chemically and/or enzymatically activated and combined with advanced nanotechnology, in order to generate new bio-based epoxy compounds and resins with unique properties, possible recyclability, and reduced energy consumption. These new epoxies are then subjected to functional tests, accompanied by safety, environmental, and economic assessments, providing feedback for further material improvement in the project. Ultimately, the best new epoxy resins will be evaluated as binder additives or substitutes in high-performance coatings for the maritime sector. 
NordiCoats is implemented by a consortium of four research partners in active collaboration with four industrial partners, who with their complementary competences and contributions along the entire value chain will pave the way for new, more sustainable epoxy products for a plethora of different applications and markets.

New bio-based epoxy compounds for high performance applications  (NordiCoats)

Applications of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing the maritime industry. Such applications are evident in digital transformation in maritime industry, analysis of automatic identification system (AIS) data, optimization of energy efficiency of vessels, and various predictive analytics.  The University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) is one of the universities in Norway with a dedicated maritime department. USN is also located at the Oslo fjord maritime cluster with several maritime industry players in proximity. 

This conference will host scholars and industry players in the Oslo fjord maritime cluster and also be open to international scholars and industry players. The conference will host presentations and discussions on  the latest research in big data and AI applications in maritime contexts including marine engineering, navigation, maritime education, and shipping and logistics.      

This conference will serve as a meeting place of maritime scholars and industry. This will facilitate transfer of latest knowledge of big data and AI application in the maritime context among national and international maritime scholars and industry people. Along with renowned maritime scholars, since industry people from several renowned maritime companies such as Kongsberg and DNV are expected to attend and present at the conference, this conference will advance the state-of-the-art knowledge.     

The event will be organized as a two day conference scheduled for  08.02 -09.02.2024. The conference program will include 2 keynote speakers and 3 parallel sessions with two presentation tracks in each session (total 6 sessions).

Next Generation Smart Shipping and Navigation Conference

Geostyring, dvs. evnen til å finjustere brønnposisjonering i sanntid, øker brønnverdien og reduserer risiko. Geostyring er avgjørende for petroleumsbrønner, og aktuelt for andre operasjoner som geotermiske prosjekter, horisontalboring av brønner og tunneler, samt CO2-lagringsbrønner. Nåværende geostyringsbeslutninger bygger på rask manuell tolkning av sanntidsdata med hensyn til modeller, geologi og tilknyttet usikkerhet. Men, ifølge Rassenfoss (2022, SPE JPT) har personen ansvarlig for geostyring svært begrenset tid til å tolke innkommende data, langt mindre å vurdere usikkerheten.
 
Avanserte ensemble-metoder er kjernen i lukket-løkke reservoarstyring (EnCLRM), den nye standarden for automatisk optimalisering av petroleumsfelt under usikkerheten. EnCLRM er dessverre ikke rask nok for geostyring i sanntidsoperasjoner pga. kompleksiteten i geomodellering. Dette kan løses med nye generativt nettverks (GN) geomodeller som "lærer geologi" før boreoperasjon og har ytelse på under ett sekund. GN-geomodellene vil muliggjøre sanntids data-assimilering og gi støtte til beslutninger. DISTINGUISH vil utvikle disse teknologiene i en geostyringsarbeidsflyt. Prosjektet introduserer ny tankegang ved å erstatte "deteksjonsdybde" med "prediksjonsavstand" og sannsynlighetsbetinget beslutningsstøtte.
 
Vi planlegger tidlig testing med data fra operasjonelle felt. Vi vil inkludere fremtidige teknologibrukere for å akselerere adopsjon av arbeidsflyten. DISTINGUISH håndterer utfordringer knyttet til brønnplassering som påpekt i "Olje og gass for det 21. århundre" maskinlæringsrapporten. Ifølge rapporten vil bedre brønnplassering føre til oppdagelser på den norske kontinentalsokkelen, gi økt netto nåverdi fra boring og betydelig redusere CO2-utslipp.

The ability to fine-tune well positioning in real-time through geosteering increases the potential value of wells and minimizes risks. Geosteering is essential for petroleum and penetrates other types of drilling, including geothermal projects, civil wells and tunnels, and soon CO2 storage wells. Currently, geosteering decisions rely on fast-paced manual interpretation of real-time data, which needs to consider pre-job modeling, geological setting, and embedded uncertainties. “Given the pace of drilling, the person in charge of geosteering is hard-pressed just to interpret the incoming data, much less contemplating the uncertainty in it” (Rassenfoss, 2022, SPE JPT). Following the newest trends in the industry geosteering workflow of the future shall capture and update uncertainty in an ensemble of geomodels.

The most advanced ensemble methods are the core of closed-loop reservoir management (EnCLRM), the new standard for optimizing the development of petroleum fields. However, EnCLRM is not fast enough for real-time operations due to the involved geomodelling complexity. We plan to remove this complexity by creating new Generative-Network (GN) geomodels. GN-geomodels “learn geology” before the operation and have sub-second performance. They unlock next-generation data assimilation and new predictive decision-support AI. DISTINGUISH will develop these technologies and combine them into the “geosteering workflow of the future.” It proposes a new way of thinking substituting “depth of detection” with “distance of prediction” and probabilistic decision support. 

We plan early testing on field data and with future technology users to accelerate adoption. DISTINGUISH addresses research challenges related to well placement from an Oil-&-Gas-21 machine-learning report. According to the report, better well placement may lead to additional discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, an increased net present value from drilling, and significant CO2 emission reductions.

DISTINGUISH: Decision support using neural networks to predict geological uncertainties when geosteering

MOCHyS har som mål å forstå hvilken rolle og påvirkning mikroorganismer kan ha på hydrogen, som lagres i undergrunnen. MOCHyS adresserer spesifikt muligheten for å bruke eksisterende gassreservoarer som hydrogen-lager. Disse porøse reservoarene er det rikelig av på norsk kontinentalsokkel. De har en rekke kjemiske og fysiske egenskaper (spesifikt saltholdighet, temperatur, trykk) og et mangfold av mikrobielt liv. Det er et kjent faktum at mange av disse reservoarene huser forskjellige mikroorganismer og at hydrogen er en perfekt energibærer for mikrobiell metabolisme. 
MOCHyS vil jobbe med å få mer kunnskap om hvilke typer mikrober som vil være aktive aktører ved underjordisk hydrogenlagring og om alle potensielle lokasjoner vil bli påvirket av mikrobiell aktivitet. De nye resultatene vil være avgjørende for fremtidens hydrogenøkonomi og beslutningstakere for å realistisk evaluere lagringssteder, utvikle screeningskriterier og spesifikke overvåkingsverktøy. 
Å utvikle Norges energisystem i en bærekraftig retning krever en rekke innovative energisystemløsninger for å sikre tilstrekkelig og stabil energiforsyning over tid. Mange fornybare energisystemer bruker "Power-to- Gas"-teknologier, som bruker fornybar elektrisitet til å produsere hydrogen. For å ha en sikker forsyning av hydrogen gjennom hele året, er det viktig å ha fleksible, storskala energilagringsløsninger for å balansere forventede svingninger i energiproduksjon og -etterspørsel. Underjordisk lagring er foreslått som en gunstig løsning for mellom- til langtidslagring, på grunn av de store tilgjengelige volumene. 
Nøkkelspørsmålet i underjordisk hydrogenlagring vi ønsker å svare på er: Når undergrunns mikrobene er i kontakt med det injiserte hydrogenet, vil de begynne å konsumere det?

Developing Norway’s energy system in a sustainable direction requires a variety of innovative energy system solutions to secure sufficient and stable energy supply over time. Many renewable energy systems utilize “Power-to-Gas” technologies, which use renewable electricity to produce hydrogen (H2). To have a secure supply for H2 throughout the year, it is essential to have flexible, large-scale energy storage solutions to balance expected fluctuations of electricity-production and -demand. Underground/subsurface storage has been proposed as a favourable solution for mid-to long-term storage, due to the large available volumes. The proposed project addresses specifically the option of using existing gas reservoirs as H2 storage sites. These porous reservoirs are abundant on the Norwegian Continental Shelf having a variety of chemical and physical properties (specifically salinity, temperature, pressure) and a variety of microbial life. It is a known fact that many of these reservoirs harbour diverse microbial communities and that H2 is not only a perfect energy carrier for human industry but also for microbial metabolisms. The key question in underground H2 storage we want to answer is: When the subsurface microbes are in contact with the injected H2, will they start consuming it? This would entail not only H2 loss (economic loss) but also could trigger subsequent mechanisms like H2S formation and loss of hydraulic properties. Our ambition is that our findings will be the first to generate knowledge on the question as to whether and which kind of microbes will be active players during H2 underground storage and whether all potential sites will be affected by microbial related risks like H2S formation. The novel results will be essential for our and other industry stakeholders and decision makers to realistically estimate operational risks of the storage sites, develop screening criteria and specific monitoring tools.

Microbiological Opportunities and Challenges of Hydrogen Underground Storage

Prosjektet har som mål å bidra til løsninger på bærekraftsutfordringer i lakseoppdrettsindustrien. For at lakseproduksjonen i Norge skal kunne øke på en bærekraftig måte, må man finne løsninger på problemer knyttet til for eksempel dødelighet som følge av sykdommer, og genetisk påvirkning hos villaks fra rømt oppdrettslaks. Viktige verktøy i denne sammenheng vil være selektiv avl med fokus på sykdomsresistens, og generering av steril produksjonsfisk. Foreløpig er fremgangen begrenset av laksens lange generasjonstid, kompleksiteten ved å selektere for flere egenskaper, og den tekniske utfordringen med å avle genetisk steril laks. I dette prosjektet skal vi kombinere in vitro kultivering av kjønnsceller fra Atlantisk laks med surrogati for å etablere et verktøy bestående av protokoller spesifikt for denne arten, som kan tas i bruk i industrien som en del av avlsprogrammene for å akselerere genetisk forbedring av viktige egenskaper. Protokoller vil bli etablert for akkumulering, optimalisering og genredigering av kjønnsceller i tredimensjonale cellekultursystemer, kryopreservering og transplantasjon av slike celler gjennom surrogati, for å kunne videreføre utvalgte genetiske egenskaper til neste generasjon. En kombinasjon av disse teknologiene har et stort potensial for å bidra til mer effektiv selektering og oppskalert produksjon av viktige genetiske egenskaper.

The project aims to address sustainability challenges in the Norwegian Atlantic salmon farming industry. To ensure a sustainable growth in the industry, issues such as high mortality caused by diseases, and genetic introgression from farmed escapees to wild populations, need to be solved. Selective breeding for disease resistance, and developing sterile production fish, are important for addressing these challenges. However, progress is limited by the long generation time of salmon, the complexity of targeting multiple traits in the breeding goal, and the technical challenge of breeding genetically sterile salmon. Here, we will combine in vitro propagation of salmon germ cells in combination with surrogate broodstock technology to establish a toolbox of salmon-specific protocols that can be applied by the industry to accelerate the genetic improvement of key production traits, and to develop sterile production animals. Protocols will be developed for germ cell enrichment, propagation and gene editing in three-dimensional cell culture systems, germ cell cryopreservation and transplantation into sterile surrogates that will carry the donor-derived selected traits to the next generation. Combining these technologies is a powerful addition to existing breeding programs, allowing more efficient selection and upscaled production of key genetic traits to overcome sustainability challenges.

Accelerated genetic improvement of key traits in farmed Atlantic salmon via transplantation of in vitro propagated germline stem cells

Blekkspruter er fasinerende dyr og med deres unike kroppsfasong, forseggjorte nervesystem og avanserte adferd, kan de enkelt tilpasse seg til komplekse miljøer, overliste predatorer og konkurrere om mat mot store virveldyr.  Tilpasningsdyktigheten kommer av at de er utrolige sansespesialister som bruker de sugekoppkledde armene sine som sanseorgan for å føle seg frem, eller rettere sagt, smake seg frem i områder som ikke er tilgjengelige for tradisjonelle sanser som synet. Hver arm inneholder ikke bare tusenvis av sanseceller som kan oppfatte kjemisk og mekanisk informasjon, men de har også uavhengige ganglier, som fungerer som «mini-hjerner» og disse tillater armen å intergrere perifere signaler slik at armen kan handle selvstendig uten at hjernen bearbeider dem. 
 
I dette prosjektet skal vi utnytte disse mini-hjernene som forenklede nervekretsmodeller, sammen med den nylig oppdagede blekksprut-kjemotaktile reseptorfamilien (CRs) som et robust  modellsystem for å bygge bro mellom fundamentale prinsipper for hvordan kjemiske signaler oppfattes, filtreres og kodes i hjernen, med organismens tilpasning. 

Kjemisk kommunikasjon brukes i flerfoldige komplekse adferder i marine miljø; det inkluderer mikrohabitatseleksjon, navigasjon over store havområder, predasjon og søken etter en make. Dyr har derfor et bredt spekter av cellulære og molekylære tilpasninger som tillater dem å oppdage, filtrere og prosessere relevant kjemisk informasjon fra deres spesifikke økologiske nisje. Å sammenligne to blekksprutarter med helt forskjellige livsstiler og anatomi vil gjøre det mulig for oss å gi et solid kunnskapsgrunnlag om kjemosensoriske prosesser i akvatiske miljø, og studere hvordan kjemisk koding skjer. Da kan vi begynne å forstå hvordan disse prosessene forvrenges av forurensing og hvilke potensialer blekkspruter har til å tilpasse seg et miljø i endring.

The ability to detect and process salient sensory information from complex and ever-changing environments is crucial to an organism’s survival. Chemical communication is used in a variety of complex behaviors in marine environments, that include microhabitat selection, navigation across large ocean basins, predation, and mate location and animals exhibit a broad range of cellular and molecular adaptations that enable them to detect, filter and process relevant chemical information from their specific ecological niche.
Here I propose to leverage a sensory specialist and the recently discovered octopus chemotactile receptor family (CRs) as a powerful model system to bridge fundamental principles of how single proteins transduce and filter chemical signals based on their environmental and cellular context with organismal adaptation. We will perform comparative analysis of octopus protein sequence to learn about functional domains of these proteins and pair this approach with the characterization of cellular properties and neuronal coding across octopus species. The results will provide a foundational basis to study chemical signaling among aquatic organisms. This foundation can then be extended so understand which chemical molecules are employed as info chemicals in species specific environments and how chemical coding might be distorted by environmental pollution. We will use an interdisciplinary approach, that spans from protein structure function analysis over single cell electrophysiology to nervous system coding and natural products identification to further the knowledge in marine invertebrate chemosensation. The project will provide a solid basis of knowledge about these processes in a sensory specialist- a unique opportunity that enables insights into the vast mechanisms of aquatic chemosensation that cannot be easily studied in other systems.

A sucker for taste – Octopus chemotactile sense as a model for molecular evolution and ecological adaptations in marine chemosensory systems

Forestill deg en verden der vi trygt kan lagre karbonutslipp eller hydrogen i brønner etter at de har tjent sitt primære formål. Dette er visjonen bak WELLFATE-prosjektet, som søker å kaste lys over de komplekse underjordiske prosessene rundt borehull. Den norske kontinentalsokkelen, en omfattende petroleumsprovins med nesten 7000 brønner, har løftet om å omdanne uttømte reservoarer til karbonlagring og redusere globale utslipp. Imidlertid har det oppstått bekymringer angående integriteten til disse brønnene, noe som kan ha alvorlige miljø- og klimakonsekvenser. WELLFATE-prosjektet søker å fylle hullene i vår forståelse ved å karakterisere brønnene som lekker gjennom direkte observasjoner og tilgjengelige data. Dessuten vil en observatorium på sjøbunnen bli utplassert for å overvåke utslipp i et helt år. Denne omfattende strategien vil hjelpe oss med å forstå hvilke lekkarsjeveier fluider tar i berggrunnen, identifisere opprinnelsen til disse fluidene, finne ut når lekkasjen starter, og relatere denne dynamikken til brønnkonfigurasjon og geologi. Konsekvensene av WELLFATE-prosjektet er betydelige. Det legger veien for retningslinjer og beste praksis for å optimalisere nedstengingsprosedyrer for brønner og tidlige boringstrategier for å forhindre problemer i økologisk sensitive områder. Til syvende og sist har det som mål å tilby løsninger for å redusere lekkasje fra allerede problematiske brønner. WELLFATE er mer enn bare en vitenskapelig innsats; det er en vei mot bærekraftig havforvaltning. Ved å forhindre at uttømte felt lekker og dermed gjøre dem egnet for CO2-lagring, harmonerer prosjektet med Norges utslippsmål for 2050. Videre posisjonerer WELLFATE Norge som et senter for kunnskap om ren og bærekraftig energi, og støtter teknologisk innovasjon gjennom forskning. Dette er et skritt mot en renere, tryggere og mer bærekraftig fremtid.

The Norwegian Continental Shelf is a vast petroleum province pierced by nearly 7,000 wells, either plugged and abandoned or heading for decommissioning in the next decades. Suspected leakage is raising concerns about potential implications for the environment and for repurposing depleted reservoirs for permanent carbon storage. However, the current scarcity of direct observations and samples at leaky wells limits our confidence in the mapping of emission fluxes, fingerprinting the origin of the methane, and ultimately prevents us from correlating geology and well design to a risk of leakage. The project WELLFATE aims to understand the processes of fluid migration near wells, which is crucial to achieving sustainability of marine resources from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), particularly when planning to repurpose depleted reservoirs for carbon storage to reduce global emissions. Our multidisciplinary approach is to characterize leaky well sites by integrating direct seafloor observations, geophysical, geochemical, and geological data with well configuration and P&A data. In addition, we will deploy a seabed observatory to monitor emission rates and variations over a full year. This strategy will allow us to interpret fluid migration pathways confidently, define the origin of the fluids, date the onset of leakage, and relate the system's dynamics with well configuration and geology to identify critical wells and predict possible leakage locations with the help of state-of-the-art fluid flow simulations. Ultimately, the project results can be used to develop guidelines and best practices to optimize well-decommissioning protocols and/or implement early drilling strategies to prevent lateral fracturing in sensitive sedimentary units and propose possible solutions to mitigate already leaking P&A wells.

Understanding Fluid Migration Processes at Offshore Well Sites | WELLFATE

REMEDY: Reduserte CO2 utslipp og bedre energieffektivitet på NCS

Midlene fra PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum fordelt på år

Midlene fra PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum fordelt på fylker

Midlene fra PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum fordelt på fagområde

Chief Scientist

Ensemble-based closed-loop reservoir management systems (CLRM) are now the standard modeling tool for developing and managing oil reservoirs. REMEDY aims to take a significant step towards reaching the industry's 2030 and 2050 climate goals on NCS by developing CLRM workflows and methods for reducing energy use and CO2 emissions during field development and production.

REMEDY will extend a traditional CLRM to an ensemble reservoir-emission-management workflow. In a CLRM, we mutually combine theoretical understanding represented by models with information from observations while accounting for uncertainties to make optimal decisions. We apply history-matching tools to keep a reservoir model up to date. After that, we use the up-to-date model in an optimization algorithm to update the optimal production strategy while including emission constraints. The recursive use of the resulting production data in the history-matching algorithm to further improve the model closes the loop.

REMEDY addresses the development of ensemble methods for history matching, optimization, and decision support under uncertainty. We use the decision-driven CLRM workflow to optimize the decision alternatives over the ensemble of history-matched geological models and evaluate each alternative's expected outcome. 

The project results will be ensemble-based decision methods and workflows that allow for more efficient sub-surface data processing and application to field development and reservoir production when accounting for requirements of reduced greenhouse-gasses emissions.

REMEDY: Reduced Emissions and Improved Energy Efficiency on the NCS

Polar Night/Midnight Sun: A history of sleep and time in the Arctic, 1800-1900

Sleep is universal to the human experience. A core element of our daily (circadian) rhythms, sleep is a biological and a cultural phenomenon. When we sleep, how we feel about sleep, and what we deem as normal varies with place and time. The new science of chronobiology is demonstrating that the daily rhythms of sleep and wake, eat and fast, have far reaching consequences for our physical and mental health. Understanding this embodied time can provide a new perspective on the everyday experience of people in the past and open up larger questions about time and society.   This interdisciplinary project takes its start in the history of time and sleep and proposes to use an analysis of embodied rhythms to provide new perspectives on the history of Arctic exploration. European visitors to the Arctic in the nineteenth century experienced it as a timeless space where the seasonal fluctuations in light quite literally turned day to night. The Polar Night and the Midnight Sun challenged the crews emotionally and physically as disordered sleeping and irregular eating threatened physical and mental health. At the same time, the unpredictable magnetism of the North Pole frustrated attempts to overcome the Arctic 'timescape' with the tools of European science.   PNMS is innovative in its subject area and its methodology. This project combines the tools of historical research with the insights of Henri Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to attend to bodily rhythms in the past in new and exciting ways. Following Lefebvre's influential methodological lens, I propose to combine work on nineteenth century European sources with a contemporary rhythmanalysis, travelling to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle to observe the changing rhythms of residents in the bright summer and dark winter. This action brings together the insights of the history of science, environmental humanities, temporality studies, and feminist studies of emotion to gain new perspective on the Arctic landscape and its rhythms.

Does standardization matter? Evaluating the potential of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for reducing employment discrimination faced by immigrants.

Around 57 million people in Europe are foreign-born. Developing strategies for inclusive growth and devising actions to promote immigrant integration through non-discrimination are among Europe’s current priorities. This project will evaluate if the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), which is used to standardize host country language requirements for different professions throughout Europe, can serve as an effective tool to reduce hiring discrimination against immigrants. Employers have been shown to discriminate against immigrant applicants based on language-related bias, which can be reduced when language requirements are specified in CEFR terms. Based on a novel design that combines real-world variation in the inclusion of CEFR requirements in job ads with a factorial survey experiment and in-depth interviews among employers, the project will address three objectives: 1) Examining if the inclusion of CEFR requirements reduces differential treatment of immigrant applicants on aggregate; 2) Identifying labor market areas and ethnic groups that benefit most from the introduction of CEFR requirements; 3) Assessing the current implementation of CEFR requirements in relation to uninformed or inadequate use. Results and the collected data set will be distributed among the scientific community (open access), among the general public (science fairs) and among employers and county governors (webinars, roundtable discussions) and can serve as a stepping-stone for developing comprehensive and adequate language requirements for different professions at the (inter)national level. The projects unites expert researchers in sociolinguistics and language test development with an early career researcher (ecr), specializing in immigrant integration and language-based discrimination into an interdisciplinary team. This will provide impactful training to the ecr, who will benefit from methodological training, project management experience, and network ties.

On-Antenna Multi-Analyte Biochemical Sensing (ASense)

Lab-on-chip (LOC) devices are useful for manipulating, analyzing, and interacting with small samples in a wide range of applications. Wireless LOC devices have been developed for remote and distributed analysis purposes where wired measurements are not feasible or cost-effective. The devices consist of a miniaturized array of biochemical sensors connected to a low-power radio transceiver. The current trend in wireless LOC devices is to miniaturize the sizes, lower the power consumption, and increase the processor capacity while driving down costs which are rapidly approaching their practical and theoretical limits. These raise the need for a new design to support the future sustainability of these devices to facilitate the current and upcoming massive deployments for use in various applications. Triggered by this, the project explores the revolutionary secondary use of the wireless antenna for multi-analyte active sensing purposes by deploying case-tailored sensing nanomaterials on the antenna surfaces current spots with each targeting a specific analyte using a Molecular Imprinting Polymer (MIP) layer grown above a highly conductive 2D transduction nanomaterial layer. The idea is to move the complexity from the wireless LOC to the computation of the gateway station, where signal processing and machine learning techniques are employed to remotely sense the targeted analytes. This is done by detecting changes on the radiation characteristics of the antenna caused by the applied sensing materials. The idea of using the antenna as a multi-analyte active sensor is an absolute novelty. If successful, the approach will have a huge contribution in reducing the hardware complexity of standard wireless LOC devices by at least 50% (no need to sensor integrated circuits, microcontrollers, and their associated power consumption), resulting in more than doubling their battery lifetime due to less power consumption, making large-scale mass deployment economically feasible.

Connecting Resonances: A decolonial intervention into Sound Studies by listening to the Global South

The proposed project intends to create a fertile entry point into the history, practice and aesthetics of sound media in South Asia as a key area of the Global South, aiming to understand the unique auditory cultures and sonic sensibility of this under-explored area in the light of the transcultural confluence between Global North and South. Such new knowledge fundamentally shifts the perspectives in sound studies and in a global media art history with a decolonial approach of co-listening and exploring medial reciprocity. Mentored by leading sound scholar and theorist Prof. Brandon LaBelle at the University of Bergen, and working with other institutional partners in Norway and internationally, the project re-examines a fundamental issue in the studies of modernity and globalisation concerned with media cultural encounters and technological transmissions between Global North and South as a two-way process of postcolonial confluence. The project is a first of its kind to research an ignored area of sound studies by putting South Asian sound and media scholars, artists and practitioners on the international platform, making their work exposed to the wider global audience for a much-needed critical engagement and equity in scholarship. The project benefits the large pool of practitioners active in South Asia, whose work has often been neglected in the Eurocentric field of critical media studies and media art history. The project makes a sustained attempt to assess their work toward a new decolonial theory of sound media in the form of a book and other outputs, aiming to address a number of critical issues in sound studies.

Escape from upheavals: evolutionary potential of migratory plasticity facing climate changes

Critical ambitions in evolutionary ecology are to understand how wild species will respond to climatic and environmental upheavals caused by anthropogenic impacts. Populations are postulated to respond to changing environments through phenotypic plasticity or micro-evolution in situ, or by moving elsewhere. Yet, the ways in which these responses could interact, potentially generating rapid micro-evolution of plasticity in movements, have scarcely been considered. Hence, full responses of mobile populations to rapid environmental changes cannot yet be predicted, impeding population management.  In PLASTMIG I will break new ground in the nascent field of Evolutionary Movement Ecology by providing first estimates of: 1) Environmentally-induced plasticity in seasonal migration, thereby bringing new insight on environmental sensitivity of movement underlying population dynamics and distributions. 2) Quantitative genetic variation underlying such plasticity, hence providing new understanding of the potential for rapid micro-evolution of environmentally-induced movements.  I will achieve these ambitious objectives by extending and applying advanced quantitative genetic statistical analyses to an exceptional multi-year dataset on free-living European shags. Available data comprise year-round field observations and pedigrees for numerous migrant and resident individuals experiencing varying environments, allowing quantification of all key effects. I will work in a leading international Centre of Excellence, ensuring outstanding scientific and career developments.  PLASTMIG will thereby achieve the threefold challenge to have important scientific impact by providing new conceptual and methodological advances linking evolutionary and movement ecology; crucial societal impacts by laying key foundations for innovative conservation strategies for migrant species; and personal impacts through exceptional career training making me a leading international researcher.

Synthesis and Utilization of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for more sustainable and durable cementitious composites

The current project purposes to produce ultra-high performance concrete, especially at early age, and also to further reduce cement consumption using novel nanotechnology techniques. Due to the fact that concrete is the most important building material and also one of the largest sources of air pollution, it is necessary to improve its performance. The slow process of increasing the strength of concrete and barriers to the use of nanomaterials justify the need to use new technology. To achieve this, using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been considered due to their high chemical activity and suitable dispersibility. In this study using MSNs in concrete will be dealt with for the first time. MSNs are synthesized and optimized in this study and then will be used in different amounts in cement composites to examine the micro structure, durability and mechanical properties. The methodology of the project is divided into three section: 1- Synthesizing and investigating MSNs 2- Examining the properties of cement paste containing MSNs 3- Investigating of properties of concrete containing MSN and doing LCA. Conducting the project in KU Leuven with its global facilities, working with prof. Ozlem, and also interdisciplinary nature of this study, will give the applicant this opportunity to be trained in different terms including becoming familiar with equipment, synthesizing, analyzing the micro structure of concrete, and managing project. These help him to fill his research gap. Furthermore, given the two-way science interaction nature of this project, it can open a new research path at KU Leuven. Considering the applicant’s current experience in concrete and the experience he will gain in this project, it is expected that he will become an independent scientist in concrete chemistry at academia or industry. The output of the project can lead to the production of sustainable products in line with EU policies, reduce project time and improve the performance of concrete.

INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATIONS AND COLLECTIVE RESPONSES TO GIG WORK AMONG MEDICAL DOCTORS

MD GIG examines the transition to digital service provision in the public services by exploring the rise of the "online doctor" that provide consultations between doctor-patient via app-based mobile phone technology. The aim is to explore digitalization of healthcare from a worker perspective to highlight the preconditions that give rise to gig work in the healthcare sector and explore the potential consequences at different scales. Whereas before all patients had go to a primary care center on appointment during office hours, today patients can have a consult with a doctor on-demand at any time and from anywhere. Medical work's entry into the platform economy, where work is reshaped into "gigs" that workers perform where and when they want, is developing parallel to organizational and economic restructuring of the healthcare system towards more marketization and private-public partnerships. The project sets out to understand the individual motivations for doctors to take up work in digital doctor platforms through in-depth interviews to produce narratives based in the MDs own experiences, to explore the approach of the trade unions and medical associations to digital doctor platforms through expert-interviews with high level union employees to document their hopes, fears and strategies regarding changing labour markets and working conditions, and to analyse the role of digital doctor platforms in public healthcare restructuring to produce a political economy of digital healthcare in Europe.

Homological Invariants of Deformations of Groups and Algebras

The pervasive role of algebraic topology in mathematics is proof of the powerful effects that homological invariants produce in the development of the discipline. Extending these techniques beyond the category of topological spaces, in order to include "quantized" systems arising from dynamical systems and (quantum) groups, is going to be extremely useful to make fast progress in these fields. The framework of operator algebras and noncommutative geometry is extremely well-suited for these developments and has already been applied with some success. The goal of this proposal is to further develop these homological techniques by supporting them with novel methods based on triangulated categories, homotopy theory, and index theory. The research problems tackled in this Action are deeply related to important topics which attracted a great deal of interest in the mathematical community. For example, we study the celebrated Baum-Connes conjecture (for both groupoids and quantum groups) through a relatively unexplored perspective and relate it to the computation of K-theoretic and homological invariants for notable dynamical systems (e.g., Smale's Axiom A diffeomorphisms). This research will provide mathematicians with both conceptually new approaches and powerful computational tools. Some of these results are relevant not only for pure mathematics, but also for solid-state physics and quantum information theory. This Action will take us one step closer to the solution of significant problems or the formulation of more and more refined research questions. This fellowship will allow V. Proietti to work under the supervision of M. Yamashita (a world-class expert on quantum groups) at the University of Oslo (a leading institution in operator algebras). It will expand the fellow's technical expertise and integrate it with essential management, administrative, and dissemination skills which will help V. Proietti reach a position of professional maturity.

We propose to create an attractive future-oriented postdoctoral programme – Physics for Future (P4F) – with a carefully designed combination of advanced scientific, transferable and soft skill training. In two calls and in an open transparent, merit-based, equitable selection process we will recruit 60 postdoctoral fellows to join the Institute of Physics (FZU) of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The scientific scope of the programme is defined by the fundamental areas of research pursued at FZU: Particle and Theoretical Physics, Condensed matter, Solid State Physics, Optics, Laser and Plasma Physics. With sustainable research and development in mind we have identified three broadly defined domains – Materials for Society, Matter under Extreme Conditions and Emerging tools leading to a strong synergy among these research fields. With its interdisciplinary and intersectoral aspects and embedded outlook towards new tools & technologies – such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and advanced computing – P4F aims to further strengthen the European knowledge capital, and thus contribute to the generation of frontier science; facilitate the R&D-industry discourse and interaction; accelerate innovation; and, importantly, contribute to the career development of the future leaders in the field of physics, who will be able to address and solve the needs of society in the perspective of global sustainable development. We will educate a new generation of physicists fluent in interaction with industry and ready to face future societal challenges. In this effort, FZU joins forces with 16 national and 36 international academic and 20 non-academic partners, 72 in total. This wide network has been crafted to specifically foster deep interdisciplinary thinking and promote knowledge exchange between academia and industry, with the aim of creating a stronger impact on both society and economy.

Physics For Future

Machine learning the microbiome for identification of novel antimicrobial peptides

Abuse and overuse of antibiotics has led to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is a major global health concern. In the EU, there are around 30,000 AMR-related deaths per year, and the incidence of AMR is on the rise; experts have predicted a loss of 10 million lives by 2050. One of the reasons to find alternatives to tackle this grave and complicated health challenge is that only very few antibiotics are discovered and those in the pipeline do not have the ability to circumvent AMR development in microbes. Thus, there is a need for discovery of novel antimicrobial agents that can take the place of conventional antibiotics. In comparison to conventional antibiotics, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) especially bacteriocins, are effective in rapidly eradicating microbes, thereby reducing AMR-related issues. Hence, the proposed project aims to identify ideal AMPs that can eradicate pathogens and reduce the emergence of AMR. The approach will be to mine the sequences of the most dominant commensal genomes to identify suitable candidate AMPs. The identified AMPs will be stored in an online catalogue which can be leveraged by researchers working in the same field. Furthermore, the anti-pathogenic ability of the selected AMPs will be confirmed through in-vitro techniques followed by studying their AMR developing propensity. Additionally, genes leading to AMR will be identified and knocked out to study the effect on AMR. Furthermore, the synergistic activity of the identified AMPs along with antibiotics will also be studied. These objectives will be achieved by using advanced computational and machine learning techniques followed by in-vitro techniques. The project will lead to discovery of AMPs with least AMR developing propensity and will also provide information about putative AMPs that can be developed   along with Toscana Life Sciences (TLS) Foundation (industrial placement) to explore their therapeutic potential.

A Conceptual History of 'Tradition' in the Modern Arab World: Egypt and Greater Syria in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Tradition is a key analytical concept in the study of Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East in western academia. In late 19th and early 20th-century  discourses, the concept elicited negative connotations, such as stagnation, backwardness, and irrationality. In recent decades,  scholars revised these earlier conceptions of tradition, foregrounding the ability of a tradition to adapt and change.  This reformulated understanding of tradition undergirds Talal Asad’s theorization of Islam as a “discursive tradition,” an analytical approach that has dominated the field of Islamic studies.  Yet in Arabic, there is no single equivalent to the Anglophone concept “tradition.” Indeed, several distinct Arabic terms, including taqlid, turath, sunna, naql, and others, are often equated with “tradition,” even though their usages, histories, political mobilizations, temporalities, counter-concepts and affective valences differ from each other as well as from the Anglophone concept. In this action, I will conduct a diachronic and synchronic analysis of the semantic network of Arabic concepts often equated with the Anglophone concept “tradition” in Egypt and Greater Syria in the 19th and 20th centuries. The methodology for this action includes the close reading of Arabic texts representative of major intellectual and ideological currents in the modern Arab and Muslim world, as well as quantitative analyses that chart the distribution and frequency of these concepts in Arabic periodicals and other salient texts in the same period. The larger aim of the project is to integrate the experiences and worldviews reflected in Arabic concepts into the analytical vocabulary that structures the study of Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East in western academia.

Mobile Worlds: empowering third cultures for sustainable and inclusive mobility

The overall goal of MobileWorlds is to explore pathways to better integrate socio-cultural diversity into today's institutions, so they may better deal with contemporary challenges of sustainable mobility and societal inequalities. Such pathways are sought by engaging explicitly with third culture experiences to identify concrete diverse imaginaries and allowing these to feed into equally diverse solutions that can realistically be implemented. Third cultures are unique cultures that emerge from contact with different home and contextual cultures during the formative years of an individual. These third cultures are increasingly common in a globalising world, and may have important repercussions for imaginaries for sustainable and just mobility futures. As such, they provide promising sources for pathways that integrate socio-cultural diversity into today's institutions. Bergen, Norway and Porto, Portugal are known for cultural diversity and advancement in sustainable mobility. Combined, they provide both a Northern and a Southern European perspective and a particularly interesting context within which to research this subject. MobileWorlds delineates four key objectives: (1) To solidify and expand the concept of third cultures, (2) To develop methods and methodologies that encourage artistic engagement of all ages and socio-cultural groups in mobility planning, (3) To engage communities in mobility planning through arts-based events and activities, and (4) To support my future career development through arts-based research and engagement training and expanding academic and artistic networks and experience. The hands-on experience and training will help to accomplish my career goals securing an Assistant Professor position in the field of Mobility Planning or working in public engagement for an NGO promoting sustainable mobility. With such a position I hope to contribute to improve the sustainability and justice of the world through diverse and inclusive approaches.

Modelling nanoparticle transport in the extracellular matrix: improving drug delivery with ultrasounds

Cancer is the second most important cause of death in Europe, with an estimated 2.27 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths in 2020. The prerequisite for a successful medicinal therapy is that the drug reaches its target and that toxicity towards healthy tissue is limited, however the systemic injection of drugs leads to less than 1 % of the drugs accumulating in solid tumours. Relying on the permeability of the blood vessel in cancer tumours, the encapsulation of drugs in nanoparticles (NPs) constitutes a promising approach for cancer treatment. However, the homogeneous distribution of NPs in the tumour tissue remains a challenge. To reach all cells in the tumour the NPs must cross the extracellular matrix (ECM), a major component of solid tumours consisting mainly of a network of collagen fibres embedded in a hydrophilic gel of proteoglycans. Together, they limit the diffusion of drugs across the tumour. Focused UltraSound (FUS) exposure has been reported to improve the delivery of NPs to tumour cells. FUS induces acoustic radiation force and cavitation that can lead to microstreaming or shock waves but the underlying mechanism(s) for the improved transport are not well understood. Successful delivery depends on many factors including the pathology, structure and composition of the diseased tissue, the characteristics of the NPs, and the exposure parameters of the FUS, making it a complex problem difficult to solve using an experimental approach. In this project, we will use molecular modelling to identify correlations between the molecular details of NPs and ECM, and FUS exposure parameters with NP transport across the ECM, creating a predictive model for FUS delivery of NPs and drugs to diseased tissue. The model, validated by experimental data, will contribute to the design of personalized medicine for improved NP-based drug delivery.

Ontological Bridges for Climate Change Mitigation in Maasailand

“Ontological Bridge-building for Climate Change Mitigation in Maasailand” (OBCCMM) is a multidisciplinary project that builds bridges across clashing climate ontologies in Maasailand in Tanzania. This holistic project integrates indigenous knowledge and climate science that is negotiated through ecotheological frameworks. The collaboratively developed core values and learning outcomes are worked into curricula components four target research groups. This project leverages existing educational and societal systems of the church with trusted local leaders for educating and equipping with the best practices of climate change mitigation in Maasailand.  This project grows out of recent research that demonstrates a “cognitive dissonance” [clash] between the climate ontologies within the scientific messaging and the traditional Maasai worldview (de Wit, 2020). Thus, the Tanzanian governmental efforts in climate change prevention education are not effective among Maasai, a very traditional people group numbering around two million people in mostly northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, East Africa (de Wit, 2018). However, as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is an established basic model of the church providing a strategic role in bridging the cognitive dissonance chasm between the science and a skeptical people group, resulting in effective outcomes (Watt et al., 2009). This project expands the current research; builds upon the previous church-based pedagogy models; integrates indigenous knowledge; collaboratively curates core values and learning outcomes; champions women as the core of the societal structures; and develops innovative pedagogical dissemination with robust analysis of results in order to measure and determine best practices of climate change mitigation in Maasailand.  As the local church made a difference in the health of the people regarding HIV/AIDS, the local church can make a difference in the health of the environment.

Rationally-designed Turbo reagents for Innovative Organometallics

This project aims to study the structure, dynamics, and reactivity of prominent alkali and alkaline-earth organometallics species by ab initio and multi-scale computational approaches. Main group organometallic compounds are cheap and mostly non-toxic; therefore, they are appealing to industrial processes and are employed today in an ever-growing list of reactions, including drug synthesis or fertilizer manufacturing. In fact, little is known about their molecular structures in solution and the mechanisms by which they react, hampering the development of more efficient reagents or experimental conditions. This is due to their highly fluxional nature, yielding a diversity of structures in fast equilibria controlled by the solvent. Ab initio molecular dynamics offers the best way to investigate these systems, as demonstrated by recent studies unveiling the structure of a pure Grignard reagent and its reaction with carbonyl substrates in a THF solution (Peltzer et al, JACS 2020). This project expands the horizon over considerably more challenging and intriguing members of the Grignard family, formed by mixing metals species or solvents, which show unexplained synergistic effects on reactivity and selectivity. First, the project will characterize the structures and reactivity (Mg-C bond formation) of mixed Mg/Li turbo-Grignard and turbo-Hauser reagents in solvent. Then, attention will be drawn on the recently discovered remarkable synergy produced by running the Grignard reaction in non-miscible mixture of organic and green deep eutectic solvents. By understanding the role of the mixed solvents for these reactions, the project aims to open the route for the design of cheaper and environmentally friendly experimental conditions. The project, carried out in collaboration with an international experimental leader will have a great positive impact on the applicant's career identifying him as one of the key players in the development of green efficient main group chemistry.

Machine learning for Sciences and Humanities

SMASH is a brand-new training and research programme to be co-funded by the Slovenian Ministry of Science, Education & Sport. The Beneficiary, the University of Nova Gorica, is a research-focused university, situated at the Italian border, that boasts a 51:49 female:male ratio among its 200+ staff. The programme is designed to enhance the career prospects of outstanding post-docs from around the world, while strengthening Europe's human capital in R&I.  Fifty talented individuals will be hired by five of Slovenia’s leading institutions, allowing them to expand their own research ideas based on access to the data-science potential of the Vega  HPC supercomputer, the first such facility of the EU’s €-multi-billion HPC initiative. With a diverse group of Associated Partners, including top SMEs from Slovenia and the EU as well as world-leading institutions like UC Berkeley, SMASH will form a close-knit community with a single unifying concept: the use of cutting-edge data science to answer some of the world’s most challenging questions. These include predictions related to the impacts of climate change, the development of personalised medicine, finding answers to fundamental questions about our Universe and digging deep into the fundamentals of language and how we communicate.  SMASH will guarantee a recruitment process based on openness, transparency, impartiality and equality, and will ensure neutrality by giving all selection power to external experts, setting an example for the region. Top-level training in applications of machine learning, that is one of today’s most transferable skills, will be complemented by rich soft-skill training opportunities, developed  in collaboration with some of the world’s best experts, including CERN's Learning Hub. The impact of the programme will be felt for decades, both in the local research landscape and across Europe as the researchers take their skills to pursue their careers on the strength of their successes in SMASH.

Robust and data-Efficient Learning for Industrial Control

Increasing energy and resource efficiency in industrial systems is key to decrease harmful emissions by 90% by 2050. Reaching the environmental targets requires a holistic approach to how resources and energy are delivered to the industry by means of distribution networks, such as heat networks, electricity networks, or gas transport networks. I will devise new control strategies that ensure robust operation of distribution networks while ensuring safety and satisfaction of environmental objectives.  The environmental performance of the whole system hinges on the performance of distribution networks. Optimal control of such networks is complex due to timescales, from milliseconds to ensure safe operation of pumps or generators, to days or months to include environmental goals, spatial complexity, uncertainty related to varying operating conditions, incomplete information available, and limited computational power. Existing control frameworks are usually application specific and have limited use in large-scale systems. In the project, I will advance theory in data analytics and optimisation, and build on my industrial experience to develop operating strategies for distribution networks that will enable safe implementation and reaching the environmental targets.  There is a potential in integrating machine learning in control design to overcome the complexity while satisfying safety constraints, as shown in robotics and automotive industry. However, IPCC indicated that "The key challenge for making an assessment of the industry sector is the diversity in practices, which results in uncertainty, lack of comparability, incompleteness, and quality of data available in the public domain on process and technology specific energy use and costs". The research question I will address in this project is if and how incorporating data-driven learning in design of control algorithms leads to improved environmental performance and safe operation of large-scale industrial networks.

MAXIMIZING THE TAX REVENUES FROM THE AUTOMATIC FINANCIAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION EXCHANGE SYSTEM

Tax evasion represents a pervasive phenomenon and a substantial portion can be attributable to income held abroad. The general consensus at global level is that cross-border tax evasion can be fought effectively by further increasing information exchange between countries. Anecdotal evidence suggests that introducing a system for the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) is extremely costly. Yet, we lack a direct assessment of the related benefits. TAXFAIR aims to analyze the effectiveness of the AEOI system to mobilize tax revenues and to determine the characteristics of an AEOI system that maximizes tax revenue extraction. Specifically, 1. I will create a high-quality novel dataset based on administrative data on Norwegian residents and a dataset containing institutional information on locally implemented AEOI systems; 2. I will apply state-of-the-art regression models to the administrative dataset to quantify the tax revenue recovered from the introduction of a AEOI system; 3. By combining the institutional information dataset and the administrative dataset, I will empirically analyze the traits that maximize the tax revenues recovered from the local AEOI systems. Overall, TAXFAIR will provide a knowledge based framework for governments and policymakers which will allow them to increase the monetary resources highly needed for financing the recovery from the massive negative economic shock induced by the COVID19 pandemic.   While working on the action, I will develop new methodological skills (especially on machine learning), cross-sectorial skills (through the research stay at the IMF), stronger communication skills (by presenting at international conferences and via video clips), and further teaching and organizational skills (especially by organizing a case study competition joint with the industry). Overall, the MSCA fellowship will undoubtedly jump-start my career allowing me to emerge as an independent researcher with multiple attractive career pathways.

Development of Cost-Effective Process for Phyco-Remediation of Dairy Wastewater and Valorization of Algal Biomass for Production of Biofuel and Biochemical: A Sustainable Approach towards Bio-Refinery

Currently, Dairy Wastewater (DW) is seen as a major global problem, difficult and expensive to treat and potentially very harmful to the environment as it contains high amounts of organic and inorganic content. The current treatment methods (physicochemical and conventional) are energy-intensive and don’t sufficiently remove the nutrients. But, with the high amount that is produced worldwide: 0.2-10 L wastewater/ L of milk processed; this is potentially a valuable resource that, if utilized appropriately, can provide high-value green chemicals and biofuel. Therefore, a new cost-effective method for the treatment of DW along with the generation of valuable biomass needs to be developed.  In this context, AlgalBB proposes the concept of biorefinery for the substantive treatment of DW via microalgae, coupled with biodiesel and bio-succinic acid (SA) production. These objectives will be pursued through 1) The designing of a microalgae consortia that can remediate DW to achieve a zero-waste process and generate lipid/carbohydrate-rich algal biomass; 2) The green synthesis of magnetic nanocatalyst for developing a low-cost, efficient method for in-situ transesterification for wet algal biomass to produce biodiesel; 3) Development of multienzyme magnetic nanocatalyst for efficient enzymatic hydrolysis to recover fermentable sugars from algal biomass; 4) Immobilization of fermentative bacteria for fermentation of sugars into SA. The interdisciplinary AlgalBB will apply cutting edge biology tools to complete the aforesaid objectives. AlgalBB adopts a circular economy approach that directly addresses clean water, clean energy; actions established by the EU Horizon Work Programme and will support the competitiveness of European biorefineries. The acquisition of transferable skills through AlgalBB will increase my employability in industry and especially in academia, allowing me to establish myself as an independent researcher and reach a professor position within 5-10 years.

A data-driven framework towards sustainable reuse of decommissioned petroleum platforms as support structures for wind energy production

Seeking offshore green energy sources with the lowest possible cost and carbon footprint, while avoiding any additional oceanic waste, is currently a major challenge. Scientists have been warning about the increase in the number of decommissioned platforms and their potential negative impact on the environment. On the other hand, the transition from fossil to green energy has become a necessity if we are to reduce the consequences of climate change. This means that more petroleum platforms will be decommissioned in the near future. DeP2WIND is an innovative project that deals with these important problems by proposing a mapping framework for the reuse of decommissioned platforms as support structures for wind turbines. The project will address the safety and maintenance of these steel structures and how to save on the excessive installation costs of wind turbines. The project will take a novel interdisciplinary and mixed reliability, optimisation and data-driven approach. Based on an assessment of the state of the decommissioned platforms as regards corrosion and fatigue, the optimum maintenance and repair actions and a suitable design for wind turbines, different outcomes will be investigated using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The fellow will benefit from the expertise of the Structural Engineering Research Group at the Department of Civil Engineering and Energy Technology at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. Building on the fellow’s previous work and skills in both structural engineering, machine learning-based modelling and reliability research, the project activities will further develop the fellow’s professional and academic maturity. Furthermore, the results will have a key impact on the advancement of multiple academic disciplines, contribute to the EU’s green deal and UN policies, and help to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, by providing affordable and clean energy and improving the quality of marine life.

Waste to Worth: A green solution for waste concrete powder and incinerator bottom ash reinforced by CO2 capturing in concrete

The world's population is growing continuously-and the waste generation is too. In 2019, 1052 M tonnes of the total EU waste generated was landfilled, 30% of which was from the construction sector, in particular waste concrete, and municipal incinerator bottom ash (IBA). Proper management of these wastes is one of the most important responsibilities to provide a healthy environment for future generations. Moreover, reducing CO2 emission to at least 55% below 1990 levels by 2030 is a must to reach a carbon-free society aligned with the European Green Deal. Hence, the proposed project aims to utilize waste concrete powder (WCP) and IBA as alternative materials to cement, and thereby convert these solid wastes into worth. This also helps to satisfy the cement demand in the construction industry as a massive CO2 emitter. The main objectives of W2WGCO2 are, to treat the WCP and IBA by CO2 capturing from emitted flue gas of cement plant, to manufacture the cementitious composite (CC) from carbonated WCP and carbonated IBA, and to study the performance of the CC in the green concrete application. This proposal involves extensive training of the researcher on the carbonation treatment method and green concrete technology in the host (NTNU) and advanced characterization of the carbonated wastes in the academic secondment (IETcc-CSIC). Life cycle assessment of carbonated solid wastes and green concrete products will also be studied to highlight the environmental impacts of the proposed project. In addition to the environmental benefits, the success of the project will boost both research and complementary skills of the researcher, including learning new experimental and analysis methods, communication, teaching and supervision skills, writing EU patent and ERC funding. Also, the expected results will be published in high-impact journals which improve the profile of the researcher and makes her a competitive person in the field of "sustainable and green building materials".

Music as an invitation: liveness in digital piano performances through participating audiences

This research investigates participation in digital musical performances as a way to enhance a sense of liveness - i.e., the feeling of being connected to other people. For the last 18 months, digital concerts have become the norm due to the restrictions on social interaction during the pandemic. Yet such digital events often challenge the relationship between performer and audience by compromising the experience of liveness. Using Participatory Action Research methods, I will work with women and girls to collaboratively create online piano performances where I am the main performer.  Audience feedback and my own reflections as the performer, supported by literature review, will inform knowledge about the intensification of the relational and affective aspects of the music experience and its impact on the sense of liveness. My dual expertise as a musician (pianist) and qualitative researcher are essential here, as they allow me to undertake research both on and through the topic. By focusing research on audiences of women and girls I aim to address the specific lack of opportunities for these groups and challenge the traditional obstacles to participation in classical music. In this way the project will contribute to positive change towards more inclusive music practices for the post-pandemic and digitalised world. Research outputs will be a series of digital concerts which will be streamed via YouTube and music festivals, reflective short essays, two articles to be published in peer-reviewed journals, a technical handbook, and a book of personal reflections integrating researcher and audience perspectives. This research aims to innovate through applying ideas and methods from areas such as music performance, digital technologies, participatory arts, and gender studies. This project will enable me with skills and competencies to become an innovative and socially engaged performer and academic who is a leader in my field and an inspiration for future generations.

Investigation of affective input during object encoding in the perirhinal cortex

In our everyday life, we ascribe certain emotional value to some objects. More specifically, we ascribe a valence to some objects, which is the degree to which something can be pleasurable or averse, leading to an emotional response when we interact or remember them. In the act of learning and remembering an object, the brain executes a complex set of operations, integrating multiple sensory inputs (vision, smell, touch, sound, etc.) and the corresponding valence of the object to generate a unique mental representation, used to recognize and distinguish one object from another. This is known as object encoding. There is plenty of evidence linking the activity of the main hubs of emotional information processing (Amygdalar nuclei) and object encoding in the brain (perirhinal cortex), but a precise description of how notions of valence are incorporated during object encoding, have not been investigated, in part due to the technical challenges involved. EmotionObjectCoding will make use of Neuropixel, a powerful and new technology, enabling for the first time, the recording of population-level activity with high temporal resolution.  This approach will be complemented with in vitro electrophysiological and optogenetic tools, providing a precise description of the neural circuits involved in the incorporation of valence during object encoding. Taken together, these innovative methods, will provide the groundwork for developing new hypothesis for the role of affective input during object encoding. Furthermore, this project will contribute to create a clearer picture about how our emotional well-being affects other important cognitive processes such as learning and potentially, disorders such as PTSD and Alzheimer’s disease.

The impact of SA signaling in CWI impairment and downstream factors

The plant cell wall (CW) is a crucial defense layer surrounding plants cells. CW composition and structure are directly associated with environmental stresses and biomass production. Cell Wall Integrity (CWI) maintenance is a crucial key player responsible for monitoring and maintaining plant CW composition and structure under biotic and abiotic stresses. Thus, the new knowledge and understanding of the CWI machinery have enormous potential to increase crop production and develop new highly adaptive crop species. The CWI maintenance mechanism involves receptor-like kinases and ion channels in the plasma membrane, which perceive signals arising from CWI impairment and modulate downstream signaling cascades, leading to changes in cytoskeleton organization, phytohormone production (ABA, SA, JA, and ethylene), gene expression, and cell wall composition/structure. I will use my expertise in signaling transduction pathways and combine them with the knowledge and skill used host lab on CWI signaling pathways to determine the mechanism regulating SA responses and downstream factors of plant cells in CWI impairments. Therefore, my project aims to discover transcriptional regulators mediating the response to impairment of primary cell wall integrity and characterize signal transduction elements controlling SA induction and modulating SA-controlled responses. I will share the results with the scientific community and the public using social networks, attending international conferences, and publish research outcomes in a high-impact scientific journal in an open-access format. This project will form the foundation of my future career as a researcher, and the project results can be used to increase crop production and develop new highly adaptive crop species.

Guiding glioblastoma treatments by decrypting tumor biomechanics via Magnetic Resonance Elastography.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and deadly type of primary brain tumour, carrying a dire prognosis with a median survival of 14.6 months for patients undergoing standard treatments. The causes of poor clinical prognosis are late diagnosis, diffuse infiltration, pseudo necrosis, high neovascularization and resistance to therapy.  In principle, drugs can reach the tumors via the vascular system, but the tumor microenvironment plays the role of an antagonist to any efficient drug delivery whereby reducing treatment efficacy. Recent treatments combine chemotherapy with drugs which aim at re-normalising the tumor microenvironment by releasing the mechanical pressure and/or by reducing the angiogenesis. However, there are yet no imaging biomarkers clinically available which can disentangle the different effects of the therapy on the components of the TME. This hinders patient management in particular dosage.  GLIOBID project aim at disentangling the therapy impact on tissue integrity and pressure from the modulation of tumour vasculature by quantifying tissue rheology with magnetic resonance Elastography (MRE). This imaging breakthrough will allow to assess the effect of treatments on the main target – the tumor - and the pathways to reach it – the vessels and the tumour microenvironment - providing a unique guidance to tailor combined therapies based on component-specific biomarkers. GLIOBID will involve the main experts in the field of imaging and cancer biology, creating a highly multidisciplinary and eminently clinical environment. This together with the complementary expertise of researcher and hosting institutions will provide the best conditions for decrypting the complexity of the problem and find approaches translatable to the clinical routine. GLIOBID will potentially allow a paradigm shift from the current TREAT-THEN-OBSERVE approach to an OBSERVE-THUS-TREAT approach.

Single-Chip Integration of MEMS Micropumps with Optical Waveguides for Laser Absorption Spectroscopy

Microbiological research is concerned with studies of microbial gas consumption and production, which is tightly linked to natural greenhouse gas emissions, but also sinks. Currently, such studies require large and expensive instrumentation like gas chromatography systems, which also sacrifice the sample during each measurement. This affects the conditions of the sample, and yields unsatisfactory temporal resolution due to the need for sample handling. In this project, I propose to leverage the latest advances in MEMS and nanophotonics to develop the first chip platform integrating optical waveguides with micropumps, which will facilitate tuneable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) under vacuum and in closed valume without sacrificing the sample gas. With the addition of lasers and light detectors, it will enable inexpensive, low weight, portable devices for real-time, in situ trace gas detection. Such device will not only impact microbiological research, but also sensor networks much needed e.g., in cities for controlling the air quality.

The European Social Science Genetics Network (ESSGN) brings together seven academic beneficiaries with a shared interest in social science genetics, i.e., in incorporating genetic information to improve our understanding of age-old questions in the social sciences, such as the origins of inequality, the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate, and the extent to which the interplay between environments and genes is important in shaping individuals’ lives. The consortium consists of an interdisciplinary group of academics, as well as seven non-academic partners committed to using data science to address inequalities in life chances. There is an urgent need for training in social science genetics due to recent technological advances in genetics, the intricacies of using genetic data, and the growing availability of such data in surveys traditionally studied by social scientists. Our aim is to train the next generation of social scientists in the responsible and technically correct use of genetic data and in objective communication about what can and cannot be learned from working with genetic data in the social sciences.   The project will go beyond the state-of-the-art (i) by using Europe’s most comprehensive multigenerational databases to separate direct genetic effects from parental genetic and socio-economic factors that shape the rearing environment; and (ii) by exploiting the large toolbox of causal inference methods used in econometrics and statistics to estimate the extent to which environments causally protect individuals with genetic disadvantages. We will (1) analyse to what extent genetic (‘nature’) and environmental (‘nurture’) factors contribute to equality of opportunity and intergenerational mobility, and (2) establish how nature and nurture jointly shape inequalities in life chances. As such, our programme of research provides novel and exciting opportunities to social scientists to deepen our understanding of how inequalities in life chances are shaped.

European Social Science Genetics Network

State-dependent cloud phase feedbacks: enhancing understanding and assessing global effects

The ways in which clouds change with global warming remain elusive, as are the associated cloud-climate feedbacks that govern most of the spread in climate sensitivity simulated by current Earth System Models. This uncertainty in turn limits society's ability to take necessary action to avoid dangerous climate change. Despite considerable research progress in recent decades, additional complexities have been uncovered that further add to the uncertainty. For example, the understanding that many cloud-climate feedbacks change with time, due to their dependence on warming levels or patterns, is relatively recent. Cloud thermodynamic phase changes are the root cause of some of this state-dependence, and new research has revealed that these feedbacks could shift Earth's climate into a state that is more sensitive to greenhouse gas forcing than at present. Understanding and quantifying this state-dependence is therefore critically important, but such progress will require deep understanding of processes on a range of scales, from the microphysics that control cloud phase to large-scale impacts on climate. Furthermore, it has become evident that different cloud-climate feedback regimes are governed by different processes with their own unique state dependence that must be investigated separately. Therefore, the overall objective of STEP-CHANGE is to understand and quantify feedbacks associated with cloud phase changes, including their state-dependence, for three distinct cloud regimes in the following regions: the Arctic, the Tropical deep convective region, and the Southern Hemisphere storm tracks. This will be achieved through a bold and innovative research strategy which includes aircraft measurements, lab experiments, space-borne remote sensing, and a hierarchy of numerical model simulations. STEP-CHANGE builds on recent discoveries and innovations within the PIs research group, and is motivated by key knowledge gaps identified in recent IPCC assessment reports.

Tools4Teams: Research Training to Design and Implement Tools Supporting Safe Teamwork in Healthcare

There is a large body of evidence demonstrating that effective teamwork by healthcare teams is crucial to maintain safe and effective patient care in complex care contexts. Complexity of healthcare is rapidly increasing due to technological innovation, increasing healthcare specialisation and decentralisation of care provision. Teams urgently need innovative tools that support team interactions to augment their situation awareness of and responsiveness to complex healthcare situations. Both in centralized acute care settings and in decentralized chronic care settings there is an urgent need to deeper understand team performance in complex situations and to apply this knowledge in the design and implementation of innovative tools in training and real-time application.   Tools4Teams aims to establish a European training network to prepare the next generation of teamwork experts to contribute to the next step in safe and effective care. Tools4Teams brings together expertise from social and technical sciences, human centred design, education, and clinical specialties alongside non-academic partners from technological business, healthcare, and education to reach both scientific and societal impact.  Tools4Teams recognizes and builds upon the transformative opportunities created by the application of behavioural sciences methodologies in healthcare and extend it with human centred design of tools as to impact upon the most challenging problems in research and delivery of safe and effective care. Mixed-methods designs will be applied to advance the scientific knowledge on evidence-based training and tools:  1. to support team interaction processes; 2. to integrate patient involvement in teamwork; 3. to support multiple team performance; 4. to facilitate innovative training (i.e. virtual and augmented reality).  This research has practical implications for healthcare as a whole and will benefit clinician teams and the patients for whom they care.  

Combination therapy for the treatment of metastatic melanoma using magnetic nanoparticles

Metastatic melanoma is a hard-to-treat disease and it remains as one of the most worrisome cancer. There is an urgent need to improve the current therapies (chemotherapy, radiotherapy) that have a limited efficacy. A single therapy is not efficient to tackle metastatic melanoma and a combination of therapies is thus emerging as a necessity to efficiently eradicate all cancer cells. Recently, the development of immunotherapies has shown promises, in particular chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells. Nevertheless, the physical barriers represented by cellular and non-cellular components of the tumor microenvironment combined to the abnormal tumor vasculature and high interstitial fluid pressure, hamper an efficient tumour infiltration of CAR-T cells. In this context, thanks to a network of 18 partners (including 10 non-academic partners), MELOMANES aims to train doctoral researchers for the development of a combined therapy exploiting the properties of magnetic nanoparticles to induce damage on the tumor microenvironment by magnetic and optic hyperthermia in order to facilitate the infiltration of CAR-T cells. This therapeutic approach combining hyperthermia and immunotherapy is versatile, as it could be also applied to other types of solid tumors. Research and transferable training of the doctoral researchers will be performed in a highly interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and international environment. In addition to acquiring skills related to the research project, they will be trained also in open science, communication and dissemination, responsible research and innovation, circular economy, ethics, data management, entrepreneurship, marketing, intellectual property, and gender dimension in research. Their competences will be validated through certification and qualification examination, allowing a new generation of highly skilled doctoral researchers to emerge with a high-level training in particular in the multidisciplinary field of nanomedicine.

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