EU Research Spring 2022

EU Research Spring 2022

UNITED IN DIVERSITY European Commission considers scientific sanctions on Russia

Brain scan of dying man shows life flashing before their eyes

European Commission research chief Jean-Eric Paquet on fixing Horizon

First woman to be cured of HIV using stem cell transplant

Disseminating the latest research from around Europe and Horizon 2020 Follow EU Research on www.twitter.com/EU_RESEARCH

Editor’s N S

omething that came out of researching into the Metaverse for this edition, was that with disruptive digital social platforms, you can never be sure how technology will be used, whatever the intention of the creators. Meta came under scrutiny after scandals when it transpired that some female users who entered the immersive 3D environment of the Metaverse’s plaza, had their avatars sexually assaulted.

As we get closer to a complete digital other world and realistic alternative reality, the dangers from unscrupulous people become even more intense and brutal than we have witnessed on the internet. It’s true that any technology that hinges around remote user social interaction will attract abusers and criminal intentions.

Authorities and regulators are still slow, when it comes to the digital world, to catch up on punitive measures and the accountability of users. It’s even slower at knowing how to handle the technology giants that create such world-spanning and world-changing technologies. The European Union has expressed concern about the lack of self-policing by technology giants and is proposing rules to try to better protect human rights online. With the virtual reality worlds of the Metaverse, whilst we’re opening a whole new domain of possibilities, we are also opening a whole new pandora’s box.

As a seasoned editor and journalist, Richard Forsyth has been reporting on numerous aspects of European scientific research for over 10 years.

He has written for many titles including ERCIM’s publication, CSP Today, Sustainable Development magazine, eStrategies magazine and remains a prevalent contributor to the UK business press. He also works in Public Relations for businesses to help them communicate their services effectively to industry and consumers.

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Preventative measures need bolstering and reporting needs to be easy. People hide behind the veil that digital platforms provide them and by default, with the Metaverse an avatar can be nothing more than a disguise, an unreal version of an individual to live out a darker existence.

As the lines between digital and real-life blur, with virtual and augmented reality devices networked, the one thing we can count on is that, like the internet, scratch a little under the shiny varnish and you’ll reveal the malice of people who want to vent their abuse in these largely consequence-free spaces.

Hope you enjoy the issue.

Richard Forsyth Editor

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Contents 28

CURSOR

Researchers in the CURSOR project are developing robots and sensors to help first responders to natural disasters work effectively without putting more lives at risk, as Tiina Ristmäe explains.

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EU Research takes a closer look at the latest news and technical breakthroughs from across the European research landscape.

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Research News

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Why did Hadrian seek to establish a more equal relationship between Romans and conquered peoples in the Empire? This question lies at the heart of Dr Felix K Maier’s research.

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DRIVE Manipulating autophagy could represent an effective way of treating a wide range of diseases, a topic central to the work of the DRIVE initial training network (ITN) project, as Professor Fulvio Reggiori explains.

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The potential consequences of unintended artificial selection on population fitness Professor Claus Wedekind and his colleagues are investigating whether natural populations of salmonids have the evolutionary potential to adapt to the presence of different stressors in their environment.

Bessarion and Byzantine Culture in public perception during the late 15th century The Byzantine Empire is still commonly perceived as being somehow alien to Europe culture.

The philosopher Bessarion expanded on the importance of Byzantine cultural heritage in his work In Calumniatorem Platonis, as Dr Sergei Mariev explains.

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The CARES project brings together partners to develop remote emission sensing instruments, which could in the long run help improve air quality in cities, as the coordinator Åke Sjödin explains.

Saving the Future with Seeds Seed banks, that collect, preserve and research seeds from all around the world may provide the ultimate backup plan for our food security, natural resources and rewilding projects during the challenging times ahead. Richard Forsyth asks Dr Aisyah Faruk, Conservation Partnership Coordinator at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, about the bank’s vital work in preservation.

Imperium as a sea

TURNkey Researchers in the TURNkey project are developing new systems to warn that an earthquake is imminent and help stakeholders respond effectively, as Ivan Van Bever and Johannes Schweitzer explain.

CARES

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PERFORMING LIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC Professor Germán Toro Pérez is looking at classical music pieces composed over the last three decades, developing a performance practice database that provides valuable insights into performance practice today.

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PLATFORM DISCOURSES What are the discourses through which major tech platforms like Google, Facebook and Airbnb ask for our trust? This question is central to Dr Niels Niessen’s work in the Platform Discourses project.

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FX Trading Volume and Illiquidity We spoke to Professor Angelo Ranaldo about why it is important to study liquidity in conjunction with asset prices, just as a doctor should consider both blood and nerves for a comprehensive diagnosis.

EU Research

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How do entrepreneurs build the networks they need and leverage their existing networks? As Dr Anne ter Wal explains, the answer lies in shifting our attention from studying networks to studying networking.

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SCIENTIFICALLY VALIDATED DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS Dr Pedro Cardoso-Leite tells us about his research into which features of video games help improve cognitive performance, which could then inform the development of new games designed to boost learning capacity.

TECNIOspring PLUS Bolstered by a mature research ecosystem in Catalonia, TECNIOspring PLUS provided a means for talented researchers to develop applied research projects, nurturing innovation for industries.

The project has been a catalyst for technology transfer and for building careers in R&D.

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Non-randomness in Morphological Diversity: A Computational Approach Based on Multilingual Corpora We spoke to Dr Tanja Samardzic and Dr Ximena Gutierrez about their work in developing a quantifiable and reproducible way of describing languages with the aid of text data, which will help map linguistic diversity.

Reflexive Decision and Game Theory We spoke to Professor Wolfgang Spohn about his work in reexamining basic normative questions about rationality, which could shift the normative reference point for empirical research.

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How could the Metaverse change our lives?

The Metaverse is a concept, born from science fiction, of connected environments based within virtual reality. The fact that the Metaverse is in development and pitched as the next major social network, means we need to look at the big questions around what impacts it will have on the way we interact, behave and how we choose to use it as a tool.

By Richard Forsyth.

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EDITORIAL

N4I_CLUSTERS

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SmartFAN There are many potential applications of smart materials . Researchers in the SmartFAN project developed innovative components with new functionalities exploiting smart materials, as Professor Costas Charitidis explained.

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RESEARCH

NEWS

The EU Research team take a look at current events in the scientific news

European Commission research chief says improvements to Horizon Europe will happen Jean-Eric Paquet confirmed the Commission is working on finetuning the next set of calls for 2023 and 2024.

EU research chief Jean-Eric Paquet confirmed the European Commission is preparing to tweak the next set of Horizon Europe work programmes which will outline the calls for 2023 and 2024, as he reacted to criticism from researchers on the first year of the programme. Responding to the complaints about lack of clarity on how to fill out Horizon’s exhaustive application forms, Paquet said the Commission is working to revamp the electronic platform but noted it won’t happen overnight. “We are busy in working on the electronic application forms to be able within that to provide guidance on every single step,” said Paquet.

After the first year of Horizon Europe there was widespread criticism from around the research community. While researchers generally support the programme’s objectives, many point to a lack of guidance on how to fill out application forms, the need for more transparency in how the Commission distributes work programmes, and frustration among researchers that many calls are too broad and demanding. Drawing on the lessons from the first year, Paquet promised the Commission will rehash the focus on research policy in calls and increase links between the different parts of the programme, including connecting big collaborative research projects with the work of the industrial partnerships.

In a separate statement EU research commissioner Mariya Gabriel said the Commission is also preparing guidance on lump sum funding for applicants ahead of 2022 calls. “The transition to lump sum requires clear guidance, good communication to remove any uncertainties among applicants, and that’s why the necessary guidance to this end is in the pipeline and will be released in time before the first lump sum calls open in 2022,” Gabriel said.

The Commission announced plans to extend the lump sum pilot in the Horizon Europe research programme last year, but the announcement was met with scepticism by the research community which called the move ‘premature’. Gabriel assured listeners that lump sum funding would not be applied ‘overnight’ but rather progressively to reduce bureaucracy and make the programme more attractive to newcomers and small companies that struggle with the current paperworkheavy reporting requirements.

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Jean-Eric Paquet © European Union, 2021

Mariya Gabriel © European Union, 2021

Responding to Paquet, European research experts welcomed Horizon Europe but argued more can be done by the EU to churn out innovations faster, and compete with US and China. Jacques Volckmann, vice president for R&D at Sanofi, French healthcare company, gave the programme a seven out of ten, noting that the EU should learn from the US how to scale up innovation. He said that Horizon Europe has all the rights tool but is missing the agility its competitors boast.

He looked to the European Commission’s new pandemic preparedness mechanism, the new European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), whose first €1.3 billion work plan for 2022 was revealed today, as an example of Europe moving in the right direction but noted its success will be conditional on understanding the needs in terms of technologies and targets, and funding innovation at scale, which means learning to share the risk with industry. “We need to learn from the US to share the risk at scale,” said Volckmann. Looking to the National Institutes of Health in the US, he noted Europe’s R&I programmes must be more agile. “Clearly, the agility that they have there is missing.”

Håkon Haugli, chief executive of the agency Innovation Norway, was more positive about the Commission’s way of pushing green and digital innovation, congratulating the reinforced emphasis of scaling up. “From our side, we think the increased emphasis on impact but also commercialisation and scaling is much wanted and much needed in Europe,” said Haugli, who gave Horizon Europe the highest rating of the group, eight out of ten. He hopes to see the successes of the European response to the COVID-19 pandemic to be translated into other areas in terms of scalability.

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Brussels considers scientific sanctions on Russia Discussion under way on Russia’s removal from Horizon Europe following Putin’s decision to recognise breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as sovereign states.

Discussions are underway in Brussels over whether Russia should be cut out of future Horizon Europe projects after president Vladimir Putin recognised two separatist-held parts of Ukraine as sovereign states and requested permission from parliament to send in troops on a mission. Two member state representatives have said that Horizon Europe participation could potentially be used as a sanctions weapon against Russia, although this remains to be fully discussed, and research does not appear to be part of a first wave of measures being debated by the EU today.

But these representatives and other research leaders stress that scientific cooperation is still seen as a key bridge between Russia and Europe even when wider relations are at their darkest point for decades. “My first reaction would certainly not be ‘let’s kick out Russia from Horizon Europe’,” said Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of the League of European Research Universities. “Just like for the other countries, let’s not politicise research and research collaboration.” During Horizon 2020, which ran from 2014-2020, Russian researchers took part in over 200 projects, picking up more than €14 million of EU funding. This is a relatively small scale of participation, amounting to around 0.4% of all grants.

Still, such research collaboration has been held up as an important diplomatic link between Europe and Russia during increasingly frosty relations. In 2019, MEPs voted to renew a science cooperation agreement with Russia, citing it as one positive area of ties following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Russia is also involved in a range of big European research infrastructure projects, such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble. In addition, 2020 saw the start of a

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Horizon 2020 EU-funded project to “develop and produce cuttingedge novelty technologies for Russian megascience projects and their European research and innovation partners” – dubbed CREMLIN for short.

The announcement follows other policy initiatives in Canada and the US, amongst other countries, aimed at tightening security on research collaborations to prevent sensitive technologies being leaked to China or other countries that pose a high security risk. Canada now requires researchers to include a security risk assessment form in grant applications involving cooperation with foreign companies, after a government intelligence report found that foreign spies are targeting Canadian universities.

Australia has also included a similar risk assessment form in grant applications. In the US, the government has found researchers at several prominent universities were illegally hiding ties to Chinese institutions, while the UK government is also offering security advice to universities. The Commission says it decided to put together a guidebook after several member states raised security concerns related to their research and innovation investments.

The Commission hopes the guidelines will mean EU member states, universities and research institutes will be better protected against technology espionage, while they continue working with international partners on common projects. Member states looked to the Commission to draw up the guidelines because researchers and innovators are often unable to detect foreign powers interfering with research or stealing their intellectual property.

Some organisations, particularly in smaller countries, “Do not have the means, the awareness or the capacity to deal with this issue,” the senior official said.

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Vitamin D supplements proven to reduce risk of autoimmune disease Study of older adults is ‘first direct evidence’ of protection against rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, other conditions.

Vitamin D supplements really do prevent people developing an autoimmune disease, at least for those over 50, in a study providing the first evidence of a causal link between the two. Previous studies on the effect of vitamin D on autoimmune conditions have looked at vitamin D levels in those with an autoimmune disease or in those who go on to develop one. Other studies have hinted at the supplement’s beneficial effects on the immune system. “We know vitamin D does all kinds of wonderful things for the immune system in animal studies,” says Karen Costenbader at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “But we have never proven before that giving vitamin D can prevent autoimmune disease.”

This revealed that a dose of 2000 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day reduced the development of autoimmune disease by 22 per cent, compared with the placebo. This is a larger dose than the standard 400 IU recommended by health organisations such as the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Costenbader and her colleagues randomly split nearly 26,000 people in the US who were 50 or over into two groups, giving them either vitamin D supplements or a placebo. “The great thing about randomised trials is they really answer the question of causation,” says Costenbader. The team tracked the participants for around five years to measure the development of autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune thyroid disease and psoriasis.

Costenbader now advises her patients to take 2000 IU of vitamin D a day, if they are the right age and it is safe for them to do so.

However, she doesn’t recommend this for everyone. “You should tell your doctor if you start a supplement,” she says. “There could be reasons you shouldn’t take them.” The researchers are now extending the trial to see how long the benefits last and hope to start a new trial in younger people. “I’m very excited and really quite bowled over by these results,” says Costenbader.

It is unclear how vitamin D prevents autoimmune disease, but we know it is processed in the body to produce an active form that can alter the behaviour of immune cells. “There are tonnes of potential mechanisms,” says Costenbader. “It could be that vitamin D helps the immune system to distinguish between self [normal body tissue] and non-self [such as disease-causing microbes], or that it helps to decrease inflammatory responses to self.”

First ever recording of dying brain suggests life does flash before your eyes

Scientists accidentally record the most complex human organ as it shuts down - providing an insight into what might happen in the moments before we die.

A study, published in Frontiers In Aging Neuroscience, focused on an 87-year-old man being treated for epilepsy. The man was hooked up to an electroencephalogram, which records brain activity, when he had a sudden heart attack and died. But the electroencephalogram continued recording his brain activity, including during the 15 minutes around his death.

Scientists saw that, in the 30 seconds either side of the man’s final heartbeat, there was an increase in a certain type of brain wave.

These brain waves - gamma waves - are associated with more sophisticated cognitive functions and are especially active when we are concentrating, dreaming and meditating, as well as retrieving memories and processing information. The recorded brain waves - known as gamma oscillations - suggest that, as we die, we experience the same neural activity as during dreaming, recalling memories, or meditating.

It raises the question of whether our lives really do “flash before our eyes” in our final moments.

“Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events

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just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences,” said the University of Louisville’s Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, the lead author of the study, in a press release. This not only gives insight into an enigmatic and frightening moment that all of us will experience eventually, but could even offer better understanding of the “timing of organ donation,” Zemmar added. “These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends,” the doctor said. Of course, there are some big caveats. For one, the paper only looked at a single case. The patient also had a history of seizures and brain swelling, which could impact the findings.

However, past research into the brain activity of dying rats also showed similar gamma activity. That could suggest that this is a natural occurrence across numerous species. Zemmar added that while more research is needed, the insights gathered from the patient can actually offer a bit of hope and closure to families who are dealing with the death of a loved one. “Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives,” Zemmar said.

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US Woman cured of HIV after stem cell transplant

Photo by National Cancer Institute

The novel treatment using umbilical cord blood could help dozens of people with both HIV and aggressive cancers.

A patient in the United States with the disease leukemia has become the first woman to be cured of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The patient received stem cells from a donor.

Stem cells are special cells that can become any kind of cell in the body. The donor was naturally resistant to HIV, researchers told reporters Tuesday. The woman has been described as a 64-year-old woman of mixed race. Her case was presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver, Colorado.

It is the first case involving the use of blood from the umbilical cord. The umbilical cord connects a pregnant mother to her fetus.

Use of umbilical blood is a somewhat new method. Doctors are considering making the treatment available to more people. The woman had been receiving the umbilical cord blood to treat her leukemia. Leukemia is a cancer that starts in blood-forming cells in bones. Since receiving the treatment, the woman has been in remission. She has been free of HIV for 14 months. She has not needed HIV treatments known as antiretroviral therapy.

The two earlier cases in which patients were cured happened in males who had received adult stem cells. Adult stem cells are often used in bone marrow transplants. “This is now the third report of a cure in this setting, and the first in a woman living with HIV,” said

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Sharon Lewin in a statement. She is soon to be the head of the International AIDS Society. The woman’s case is part of a larger study led by Dr. Yvonne Bryson of the University of California Los Angeles, and Dr. Deborah Persaud of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. It is being financially supported by the U.S. government.

The study aims to follow 25 people with HIV who receive a transplant with stem cells taken from umbilical cord blood for the treatment of cancer and other serious conditions. Patients in the study first receive treatment to destroy cancerous cells.

Doctors then transplant stem cells from individuals with a genetic mutation which makes them resistant to HIV. Scientists believe the patients receiving the transplant will develop an immune system resistant to HIV. Lewin said bone marrow transplants do not cure most people living with HIV. But she said the report “confirms that a cure for HIV is possible and further strengthens using gene therapy” as an effective way to cure HIV. The study suggests that an important part of the treatment’s success was using HIV-resistant cells. “Taken together, these three cases of a cure post stem cell transplant all help” in discovering the parts of the transplant that were important to a cure, Lewin said.

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Astronomers Discover a Strange new Star

Artist’s impression of a rare kind of stellar merger event between two white dwarf stars. Credit: Nicole Reindl

These stars appear to have surfaces covered in carbon and oxygen, implying that they are still burning helium.

German astronomers have discovered a new type of star, and exactly how these weird white dwarfs came to be remains a mystery. The stars are covered in a layer of “ash” that’s usually produced by burning helium, indicating they may have formed through collisions between other stars. When stars in a certain mass range run out of fuel and explode, they leave behind a dense core that can no longer undergo fusion. This remnant, called a white dwarf, slowly cools to the background temperature of the universe over the next few trillion years.

But now, astronomers have discovered two white dwarfs that don’t quite fit the usual description. White dwarfs have atmospheres dominated by hydrogen or helium, but these new ones have surprisingly high amounts of carbon and oxygen in their atmospheres – rather than the usual trace amounts if anything, the team detected concentrations of both elements that were as high as 20 percent.

Intriguingly, carbon and oxygen are the “ashes” produced when stars burn helium, something that white dwarfs are supposed to have long finished doing. Even more puzzling is that these new stars are hotter and wider than most white dwarfs, indicating that they may still be burning helium in their cores. “Normally we expect stars with these surface compositions to have already finished burning helium in their cores, and to be on their way

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to becoming white dwarfs,” said Professor Klaus Werner, lead researcher on the team. “These new stars are a severe challenge to our understanding of stellar evolution.”

The researchers do have a hypothesis for how the strange new stars were born. Pairs of white dwarfs in close binary systems can sometimes pull each other in closer together until they collide, forming a new object. If the compositions of each original white dwarf were just right, the end result could be the new stars seen here. “Usually, white dwarf mergers do not lead to the formation of stars enriched in carbon and oxygen,” said Dr. Miller Bertolami, lead author of the study. “But we believe that, for binary systems formed with very specific masses, a carbon- and oxygen-rich white dwarf might be disrupted and end up on top of a helium-rich one, leading to the formation of these stars.”

Even so, the model doesn’t explain all the observed features of these new stars. The team says that more work will need to be done to investigate their origin. These aren’t the only perplexing white dwarfs out there. Other recent studies have found white dwarfs with ring systems, white dwarf pulsars, and a particularly bizarre one that’s somehow burning bright in infrared but not visible light. The research was published in two studies, both appearing in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Hadrian – the Emperor who took a different path Emperor Hadrian ruled the Roman Empire between 117-138 AD. His reign is of great interest to scholars as he seems to have sought to establish a more equal relationship between Romans and conquered peoples in the Empire. Why did Hadrian do this? Was it for idealistic or pragmatic reasons? This question lies at the heart of Dr Felix K Maier’s research in a new DFG-backed project.

Publius Aelius Hadrianus was emperor of the Roman Empire between 117-138 AD, and he travelled widely during his reign to the outer reaches of the realm, visiting almost every province. While many of his predecessors also travelled to different parts of the Empire, they typically did so if there was a need for their presence during times of conflict; Hadrian had a different approach. “He visited nearly all the regions of the Empire, even during times of peace,” says Dr Felix K Maier, an assistant professor at the University of Würzburg. But Hadrian’s travel record was not the only thing that distinguished him. This Roman Emperor also differed from his predecessors in several other ways, for example in the coins that he commissioned during his reign. “Roman Emperors usually made coins that made it very clear to the viewer that the Romans were the victors, and that the defeated people had been conquered,” explains Dr Maier. “Hadrian broke with this tradition of promoting a clear hierarchy between Rome and the conquered provinces. On his coins, he shakes hands with the conquered people or he is shown raising up a female personification of a province.”

Hadrian’s approach to architecture also differed from previous Roman Emperors.

While victory in the Dacian wars under his immediate predecessor Trajan was commemorated in Rome with a monumental column mainly showing the Romans inflicting violence and pain on the conquered peoples, Hadrian came up with a completely different iconography. “He continues to promote the idea that the conquered populations are other people and ‘barbarians’, but he softens the message. The message now is: ‘We are all living in the Empire and we are different people, but our relationship is not mainly characterised by war’,” outlines Dr Maier.

This transformation is reflected in the monuments and buildings that were erected during Hadrian’s reign. “Take for example the common reliefs which depict the conquered provinces with the usual female personifications. In contrast to the traditional representation which portrayed conquered people in a mourning or miserable gesture, in Hadrian’s reign, the non-Romans are shown in a relaxed posture, and indeed they sometimes have weapons in their hands. Such a depiction does not show a deep-rooted antagonism,

but rather conveys to the audience that the provinces are defending the Empire as well,” says Dr Maier. “The conquered non-Roman inhabitants of the Empire do not appear – as was usually the case – as fierce, brutal and detestable enemies. They are still considered barbarians but their relationship to the Empire is now different to what previous generations thought of them.” In line with this, Hadrian also made hybrid complexes, combining Greek, Roman and Egyptian styles in temples for example.

Although architectural styles had been mixed before, Hadrian pushed this hybridity to a much greater extent than his predecessors.

The Romans and the conquered The question then is: why did Hadrian adopt this approach? Why did he want to establish a more equal relationship between Romans and the conquered peoples within the Empire?

And why – through his travels and the other measures he took – was he so keen on showing that the Empire was a hybrid community?

Dr Maier is investigating this fascinating problem in a new DFG-funded project. In his research, Dr Maier is looking at the underlying motivations behind Hadrian’s approach to the conquered peoples within the Empire.

“From an idealistic point of view, it might be argued that Hadrian wanted to promote the idea of a universal empire which is a place for everyone, and that everyone should feel Ruins from the ancient Roman town Palmyra (picture from 2010), a hybrid spot in the Roman Empire with Roman, Greek and Near Eastern cultural influences.

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Bust of Emperor Hadrian - The Arch of Hadrian at Athens, mixing Roman and Greek architectural elements - Mummy of a Greek youth from Egypt, combining Greek, Roman and Egyptian identities.

themselves to be a Roman, or at least as a part of the Roman Empire, even if they did not have Roman citizenship,” he outlines.

An alternative hypothesis, which is not incompatible with the idealistic perspective, is that Hadrian was being more conciliatory to people in the provinces to prevent a climate of rebellion fomenting.

There were, of course, social elites who cooperated with the Romans and became members of the administrative part of the Empire, while some non-Romans enrolled into the Roman army and – after at least 25 years of

For his part, Dr Maier believes Hadrian was a pragmatic ruler, who combined idealism with an awareness of practical issues and the wider context, such as the geographical extent of the Empire at the time.

From this perspective, Dr Maier wants to cast new light on another aspect of Hadrian’s reign – his affinity to Greek culture. As Hadrian wore a beard in the Greek fashion and was famous for his deep interest in Greek literature and philosophy, many scholars have considered these interests to be rooted in personal affection. But Hadrian’s passion for other

Roman coins depicting the traditional motif (Romans dominating the conquered people).

military service – gained Roman citizenship. But there were many local populations which had lived with the perception that they had been defeated by the Romans and so were not part of the Empire, which may have led to unrest.

In reconstructing Hadrian’s motivations, Dr Maier is considering whether Hadrian may have realised that he had to do something to avert such a scenario, rather than being motivated by more idealistic visions. “Maybe Hadrian felt he had to break with the traditionally hierarchical relationship between Romans and non-Romans, between the dominant and the conquered. So, in this situation he would have wanted to show that Rome was actually a power for everyone,” he says.

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a move which attracted criticism from some quarters. “He was attacked by some senators, while other senators were quite grateful because they knew that the Roman Empire would be over-stretched if it was too large,” explains Dr Maier. A larger Empire meant more administrative and logistical strain, and while the Roman Empire was in general pretty stable during Hadrian’s reign, this may have masked unrest in some areas to a certain degree. “The Romans had military, technical and logistical superiority which helped to maintain stability.

However, this perspective neglects more hidden Roman coin depicting Hadrian greeting the female personification of a province.

cultures – not only that of the Hellenistic East – might have had other roots, and might have been inextricably linked with his new policy.

Empire expansion However, there is more to Dr Maier’s project than investigating the possible motivations of Hadrian. The outlined evidence leads to wider consequences and Hadrian’s efforts to unify the Empire might also have been a reaction to another development. Under Hadrian’s predecessor Trajan, the Empire had massively expanded, but it was clear that the newly acquired territories could not realistically be held in the long-term. Hadrian therefore reduced the Roman territory to more realistic borders,

dynamics, such as the views of the subjugated people living in the Empire,” says Dr Maier. “We have to shift our attention more to those who are barely visible in the sources – that is the non-Romans – and to other forms of resistance than violent uprisings or revolts.”

It is very difficult for historians to reconstruct the prevailing attitudes and opinions among defeated people, as the ‘winners’ in history usually dominate the discourse in the extant sources. This particularly applies for premodern times.

Therefore, Dr Maier draws upon theories and models from Sociology and Political Sciences.

One of them is the concept of ‘hybridity and mimicry’ which was analyzed by the Indian-

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English scholar and critical theorist Homi K Bhabha in his book The Location of Culture.

While Bhabha mainly developed his concept with reference to the British Empire, Dr Maier believes his ideas – to a certain extent – still hold relevance to the analysis of conquered people in the Roman Empire. “Some of the defeated people behaved very indifferently to their rulers, while other groups and individuals tried to relocate their historical and cultural identity in the contemporary ruling constellation,” he outlines.

Such reactions relate to the concept of acculturation, where people adapt to the prevailing cultural and social norms, a process which affected power relations between the Romans and the subjugated people. This is where Bhabha’s hybridity and mimicry come into play to reveal a paradox, but also a powerful effect of colonisation: “The colonised adopted the coloniser’s way of life and tried to imitate it. According to Bhabha, through this mimicry the coloniser’s selfimage gets repeatedly undermined and the identity of the rulers as well, as the colonial discourse that legitimised their power was destabilised,” explains Dr Maier.

What exactly does this mean? And how does this relate to the Romans?

There were increased levels of immigration of non-Romans to Rome from around the middle of the 1st century AD, as well as a higher degree of mobility throughout the Roman Empire, leading to the mixing of cultures. The foreign presence in Rome for example is described by ancient authors Juvenal or Martial. In their texts, they make fun of those Romans who are bewildered

is a constant mixing of cultures in the Empire and new, hybrid identities are shaped continuously.

So you can’t hold to the old, traditional Roman ideas of what is Roman and what is not,” explains Dr Maier. “He wanted to show that the Empire is more than the disconnected identities of the conquerors and the defeated peoples. This is why he changed the traditional iconography of Romans and non-Romans. And with his travels, he symbolically showed that the Empire is everywhere, not just in Rome.”

Such policy is reflected in many of the measures he took, even the construction of Hadrian’s wall, which marked the northern boundary of Roman Britain. While a wall of course excludes some people, Dr Maier says Hadrian’s wall also made it clear that the southern part belonged to the Empire. “Walls – until today – have particular significance as spaces, they have an assertive meaning and are dialogic in the sense that they negotiate civic identities. Hadrian’s Wall figured as another expression of the emperor’s focus on a more unified Roman identity, projected through the construction of new buildings and monuments throughout the cities of the Roman empire during the reign of Hadrian.”

Loyalty to the Roman Empire did not mean that local identities had to be erased however, and Hadrian was very much aware that every identity is multi-faceted, combining many different elements. This was reflected in his outlook and the way he ruled, believes Dr Maier. “There is evidence that Hadrian fostered local identities as much as the ‘global’ Roman identity of all inhabitants of the Roman Empire.

As a historian, I want to gain deeper insights

I want to understand the often paradoxical dynamics of identities in a multicultural empire and to stimulate discussion about hidden aspects of social interactions that we have not properly understood. by hybrid identities, by Greek or Syrian elites who took on a ‘Roman’ appearance or by Roman senators who favoured the Greek way of life. “Established ideas of what was supposed to be Roman, or Greek, or non-Roman, were constantly changing,” says Dr Maier. Traditional ideas of Romanitas were undermined and ‘Being Roman’ could become something different from what it was considered to be previously. Thus, hybridity and mimicry, blurring established boundaries, also subverted the classic binary discourse of the conquering Romans and the conquered non-Romans.

Hadrian developed his new policies and approach to the conquered people in the Empire against this background . “He realised that there

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UNIFYING THE ROMAN EMPIRE Hadrian’s approach to new Roman identities.

Project Objectives

The project examines identities in the Roman empire by looking at discourses or ideologies through which an individual sense of self was expressed at around 100 AD. This study also analyses the reasons why the Roman emperor Hadrian established an imperial discourse that did not conceive the relation between Romans and nonRomans as conquerors and conquered but rather promoted the idea of a more equal relationship.

Project Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project number 384930366

Contact Details

Project Director, Dr. Felix K. Maier Heisenberg-Stipendiat an der Universität Würzburg Institut für Geschichte Lehrstuhl für Alte Geschichte Residenzplatz 2, Tor A (Südflügel) 97070 Würzburg T: +49 931 35830906 E: felix.maier@uni-wuerzburg.de W: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5578-723X : https://twitter.com/fkmaier Dr Felix K Maier

Project Director Dr Felix K Maier is holder of the Heisenberg fellowship at chair for Ancient History at the University of Würzburg (Germany). His main research areas are Greek and Roman historiography, identities in the Roman Empire and imperial representation in Late Antiquity.

into what motivated Hadrian to act in the way that he did,” he outlines. The different strands of research will be brought together in a book which Dr Maier is currently working on, which he hopes will help encourage debate about Hadrian. “But Hadrian’s motivations are just the start. I want to understand the often paradoxical dynamics of identities in a multicultural empire and to stimulate discussion about hidden aspects of social interactions that we have not properly understood. Although Hadrian’s times are completely different to our times, there are some important questions which relate to today’s world in which mechanisms of social and political distinction also lead to open or concealed conflicts,” he says.

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Behind our cells’ recycling system Autophagy can be thought of as a cell’s internal recycling system, through which damaged or unnecessary components are destroyed and their basic constituents recycled. Manipulating this system could represent an effective way of treating a wide range of diseases, a topic central to the work of the DRIVE initial training network (ITN) project, as Professor Fulvio Reggiori explains.

The cells in our body have an internal system called autophagy to remove components that the cell doesn’t want, components which may be unnecessary, damaged or potentially harmful. In a way, autophagy can be thought of as analogous to the role played by recycling trucks in removing domestic waste. “A recycling truck will pass and take the rubbish that you leave outside your house to a plant where some things will be dismounted and recycled. In a cell, these components are taken to the lysosome, the cell’s plant, by autophagy,” says Professor Fulvio Reggiori, coordinator of the DRIVE project.

When problems develop with autophagy, damaged components may be left behind in a cell, which can have wider health consequences. “What may happen in a cell when autophagy goes wrong is that you may have damaged mitochondria or other dysfunctional organelles, which can then be cytotoxic,” explains Professor Reggiori.

The common theme across these different sub-projects is a focus on autophagy, with the wider aim of translating research advances into improved treatment, which must be built on a detailed understanding of the system itself. While autophagy has been known about for a long time, understanding of it was limited until around 20 years ago. “People could observe autophagy, but nobody could follow it or manipulate it, because the genes involved were not known,” explains Professor Reggiori. It was not until the end of the ‘90s that autophagy-related (ATG) genes were identified, which represented a major breakthrough in the field, and researchers discovered that autophagy is conserved in all eukaryotic organisms. “Researchers devised screens in baker’s yeast to identify the genes that, when mutated, were blocking autophagy,” outlines Professor Reggiori. “As soon as they identified these genes, they saw that the rest of the eukaryotes have homologues of these genes.”

the truck to recognise the different types of rubbish, such as dysfunctional mitochondria, or bacteria, or other things that are damaged in a cell,” he explains. The truck has to be able to identify the components that the cell doesn’t want. “A cell needs a system which recognises what the cell does not want. And sometimes that’s a bacterium, sometimes a mitochondria, and sometimes something else,” outlines Professor Reggiori.

Some researchers are looking at how autophagy works, to try and understand it and investigate how you can modulate it. Some are also looking at how it goes wrong.

The DRIVE project An effective and reliable means of manipulating autophagy could open up new possibilities in the treatment of a variety of conditions, including certain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases, a topic at the heart of the DRIVE project. There are 15 early stage researchers (ESRs) working on different sub-projects in DRIVE, a Marie SkłodowskaCurie innovative training network (ITN) that brings together partners from across Europe, aiming to both build a deeper understanding of mechanism of autophagy and translate this into therapeutic developments. “Some of the ESRs are looking at how autophagy works, to try and understand it and investigate how you can modulate it. Some are also looking at how it goes wrong,” continues Professor Reggiori. “ESRs in the project are also looking at diseases caused by mutations of genes involved in autophagy.”

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A core set of approximately 20 ATG genes comprise the core machinery of autophagy, which are highly conserved across species and organisms. While other genes involved in the process have been identified, they have more peripheral roles, says Professor Reggiori. “The ATG genes, the core machinery, generate the truck that passes by. Other ATG genes have been found to be able to allow

The ESRs of DRIVE

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The wider aim here is to manipulate autophagy in certain ways, an idea which holds rich potential as a way to improve the treatment of a variety of conditions. This idea has shown a degree of promise in the treatment of certain types of muscular dystrophy and neurodegenerative diseases for example, where the aim is to remove or eliminate specific structures of a cell, like protein aggregates or dysfunctional organelles. “The idea in these cases is to activate autophagy, or enhance it,” says Professor Reggiori. Manipulating autophagy also holds potential as a way of treating cancer, yet Professor Reggiori says the approach here would be different. “Cancer cells need nutrients and to protect themselves from

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damage caused by anticancer treatments.

They use autophagy to survive. So in the case of cancer, you want to inhibit autophagy,” he explains. “There are already trials. Typically it’s much easier to find an inhibitor – a molecule that blocks the function of enzymes – than it is to find drugs that activate a protein.”

Numerous pharmaceutical companies have the knowledge, expertise and financial power to develop effective inhibitors, but further fundamental research is required for the development especially of activators, which is where DRIVE plays a role. One project Professor Reggiori is supervising involves looking at the role of autophagy in regulating cell metabolism. “Autophagy, per

se, is part of the metabolism – it degrades cell’s constituents, and for example out of proteins, you get amino-acids. These aminoacids are then recycled to make new proteins, or they can be used as a source of energy,” he explains. A cell without energy dies, and under stress conditions the cell partially eats itself (this is where the word autophagy originates from), to keep essential activity going, much like in the body as a whole. “Your brain always needs to be active – some other parts can stop working for a time to preserve energy – and it’s similar in cells,” continues Professor Reggiori. “You degrade parts of your cells to provide the energy to keep the essential functions of the cell active.”

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DRIVE

Translational research

Driving next generation autophagy researchers towards translation

Project Main Objective

The goal of DRIVE was to train through research 15 early stage scientists (ESRs) on applied autophagy research. Ultimately, DRIVE has the ambition to foster the European-wide growth of applied and translational autophagy research, and accelerate the establishment of clinical-grade solutions for the benefit of millions of patients.

Project Funding

This project is receiving funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Innovative Training Networks (ITN) Call: H2020-MSCA-ITN-2017.

Overall budget€ 3 890 064,96

Project Partners

• University Medical Center Groningen, NL (ESR1 and ESR15) • Institut Necker Enfants-Malades, Paris, F (ESR2) • University of Turku, FI (ESR3) • The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, IS (ESR4) • University of Oslo, N (ESR5) • Medical Center – University of Freiburg, D (ESR6) • Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), E (ESR7 and ESR13) • Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, D (ESR8) • The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, UK (ESR9) • Kings College London, UK (ESR10) • Anaxomics Biotech SL, Barcelona, E (ESR11) • Fraunhofer IME ScreeningPort, Hambourg, D (ESR12) • Adjuvantis SAS, Lyon, F (ESR14)

Contact Details

Fulvio Reggiori, Prof. Ph.D Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University Medical Center Groningen T: +31 50 361 6163 E: f.m.reggiori@umcg.nl W: http://bscs.umcg.nl/en/groups/ reggiorigroup/

This changes the metabolism of the cell, a topic which Professor Reggiori and his colleague are investigating in the project, while there are also sub-projects on a variety of other topics. While each of the ESRs within DRIVE are working on a specific, highly specialised research project, Professor Reggiori says they also gain a deeper awareness of challenges in the drug development process. “The students have gained knowledge of all the different phases in translational research, the entire drug development pipeline. But they specialised in autophagy,” he explains.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has limited the amount of time the ESRs could spend at other laboratories or with the project’s associated partners, they have been able to build strong bonds both with their peers and supervisors. “The students are all pulling in the same direction and they met in the first year of the project, while they also have a connection with the different supervisors,” says Professor Reggiori.

These connections will stand the ESRs in good stead for their future careers, whether that lies in academia, the commercial sector, or somewhere else entirely. As an

ITN, the project has focused primarily on training students and investigating how research advances can be translated into therapeutic improvements. “We want the students to have the ability to enter industry with the competencies they need to work in drug discovery,” outlines Professor Reggiori. Whatever direction they choose to take, the skills the ESRs have gained and the connections they have established in the project will be very beneficial, believes Professor Reggiori.

“They will have a network of people who they can turn to for help, support and collaboration, to ask questions about certain assays and biomarkers, which is invaluable,” he says.

The project partners have also established strong collaborative relationships, and Professor Reggiori says there is interest in establishing a successor project. “We’ve had preliminary discussions. We would like to continue and to push it more towards translation - maybe we could look to narrow the research focus,” he continues.

“Maybe by combining our different types of expertise, we can establish a new ITN where we focus on solving, or challenging one or two specific diseases.”

DRIVE Early Stage Researchers

Prof. Fulvio Reggiori PhD

Fulvio Reggiori studied biochemistry at University of Fribourg (CH), where he also obtained his PhD in Biochemistry. Subsequently, he had postdoctoral experiences at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK), and the Life Sciences Institute of the University of Michigan (USA).

As an independent researcher, he was first at University Medical Center Utrecht (NL) and then at the University Medical Center Groningen(NL).

His research interests are connected with the mechanism and functions of autophagy.

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There were fifteen early stage researchers (ESRs) in DRIVE (https://drive-autophagy. eu/), working on a wide variety of projects, from fundamental research on autophagy, to investigations into the physiological aspects of autophagy, through to the development of treatments for specific conditions. The ESRs were hosted by project beneficiaries from across Europe, with the shared goal of moving autophagy research towards translation.

These projects can be divided into four major areas characterizing translational research. Four of the projects (ESRs 1, 5, 6 and 15) were investigating fundamental aspects of autophagy by studying the mechanism underlying this pathway, while three were centered on the physiological aspects of autophagy, namely its specific roles in determined cells and tissues (ESRs 7, 8 and 9). One project (ESR 7), for example, involved looking at autophagy in the development of the retina, research which

holds wider relevance to our understanding of glaucoma.

A further four projects (ESRs 2, 3, 4 and 10) were about autophagy in a pathological context, with researchers using models to gain deeper insights into defects in autophagy that lead to specific diseases.

This included mouse models for hereditary spastic paraparesis (SPG49) and the VICI syndrome, two pathologies associated with dysfunctional autophagy.

Finally, there were also four projects in DRIVE (ESRs 11, 12, 13 and 14) in which the aim was to develop improved treatments, with researchers looking to find modulators for autophagy and also mitophagy, the selective type of autophagy involved in the turnover of dysfunctional or superfluous mitochondria.

With this broad scope, researchers ultimately aim to bring the prospect of improved treatments based on autophagy a step closer.

EU Research

Understanding the legacy of the Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire lasted for more than 1,000 years and left a considerable legacy, yet it is still commonly perceived as being somehow alien to Europe culture. The philosopher Bessarion defended the work of Plato and expanded on the importance of Byzantine cultural heritage in his work In Calumniatorem Platonis, as PD Dr Sergei Mariev explains.

The Roman Empire

was divided into Eastern and Western parts under the emperor Theodosius, who ruled between 379-395 AD. While by the end of the 5th century the Western part of the Empire had ceased to exist as an economic unit and military power, the Eastern part – also known as the Byzantine Empire – thrived for many years, until the capital city was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. “The Byzantine Empire can be thought of as starting in the 4th century, around 325-330, with the founding of Constantinople by Constantin the Great.

In 1453 Byzantine power ceased to exist, in a political sense,” says PD Dr Sergei Mariev, a researcher at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. While the Byzantine Empire – or Byzantium – contributed much to Europe’s cultural heritage, it is still often perceived as being somehow alien or foreign, an issue PD Dr Mariev is investigating in a new DFG-funded research project. “The Byzantine Empire ceased to exist in the 15th century,” he outlines. “Byzantine culture was essentially assimilated into European culture during the 15th century, and became part of our common European heritage.”

Against the slanderer of Plato This process by which ideas spread from the Byzantine East to the Latin West forms the wider backdrop to PD Dr Mariev’s project, in which he is looking specifically at the work of Bessarion, a philosopher and Cardinal of the Catholic Church who helped explain the importance of Byzantine cultural heritage during the 15th century. One of Bessarion’s most important works was In Calumniatorem Platonis (Against the Slanderer of Plato), which started as a response to George of Trebizond’s Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis, a book which contained some harsh judgments on Plato. “George of Trebizond was a translator. He was also a teacher of rhetoric, a businessman, and an adventurer,” outlines PD Dr Mariev. However, his translations into Greek did not satisfy his critics, including Bessarion, who as a Platonist subsequently wrote In Calumniatorem Platonis (ICP), which was initially planned

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Bessarion as St. Agustine in a painting „Vision of St. Agustine“ (1508) by Vittore Carpaccio.

as a response to George of Trebizond’s work before it later broadened out. “In the course of Bessarion’s work on the ICP it ceased to be a reply to George of Trebizond, and it became about explaining to the West the importance of Byzantine philosophical traditions,” explains PD Dr Mariev.

philosophical traditions to the West over six books. “It’s very important that Bessarion took a text from a student of Thomas Aquinus, who is a pillar of Western theology,” stresses PD Dr Mariev. “His strategy was to show that Platonic philosophy and tradition from Byzantium – which George of Trebizond

While George of Trebizond warned the West about the dangers of Platonic philosophy, Bessarion tried to show that those warnings were nonsense, and that Platonic philosophical tradition from Byzantium was in fact a great enrichment.

The Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis consisted of three books, and Bessarion’s initial intention was to respond to each. However, at some point over the ten years or so in which Bessarion worked on the ICP before its publication in 1469, he decided to include some additional material from his friend Giovanni Gatti, who was a supporter and student of Thomas Aquinus. “He inserted that material into the book, and re-worked the entire structure,” says PD Dr Mariev.

This is the point that marks the transition from the ICP being a response to George of Trebizond to a treatise that explains Byzantine

viewed as dangerous – was in fact not as unknown in the West as it seemed. This is because in many cases Western theologians – like Thomas Aquinus – used the same sources, arguments and models as available in Byzantine traditions.”

As a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Bessarion was pointing out that Byzantine ideas were already known in the West and formed part of many Western thinkers’ and theologians’ frame of reference, whether they were aware of it or not. Bessarion’s work helped highlight the origins of these traditions.

“Bessarion was in effect saying; ‘We can show

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that these traditions come from the East’,” outlines PD Dr Mariev. This is a powerful argument in terms of highlighting the wider importance of Byzantine cultural heritage and the manuscripts in which it is described, which PD Dr Mariev and his colleagues study in the original Greek. “As Byzantinists we are the keepers of those Byzantine traditions, of those sources. It is very important to us to study and read Greek,” he says. “That was also Bessarion’s intention – he wanted to stimulate his Western colleagues and encourage them to read the sources in Greek.

To Bessarion, it was obvious that you should read the texts in the original language, then you would understand them better.”

This is not always obvious to others however, and persuading people to look at a manuscript in the original language is no easy task. Bessarion encouraged scholars to read manuscripts in the original language, and his efforts bore fruit after his lifetime, says PD Dr Mariev. “Henri Estienne (1528-

1598) published an edition of Plato with the Greek text and the Latin translation side by side in 1578. Bessarion prepared the ground for this by making the case that reading the text in Greek is inherently valuable. He made the point that it is imperative to read Plato in the original Greek,” he outlines. As a scholar of Byzantium, PD Dr Mariev is now producing critical editions of all six books of the ICP in both Latin and Greek. “Bessarion started with three books, then the book by Giovanni Gatti was inserted. The fifth book was the word-forword commentary of George of Trebizond’s translation of Platonic “Laws” into Latin.

This is where he explained, in Latin, what George of Trebizond’s translation missed in the original Greek,” he continues. “In the fifth book, he demonstrates the inability of George of Trebizond to produce an adequate Latin translation of Plato.”

A critical edition of the sixth book has recently been published, while research continues into other aspects of Bessarion’s

work to help Byzantine philosophical heritage gain wider acceptance in the West. While Bessarion corrected inaccuracies in George of Trebizond’s translation, PD Dr Mariev says he also had a wider goal. “He wanted Western scholars – his colleagues – to see the value of Byzantine philosophical heritage,” he says. This point is central to the conflict between Bessarion and George of Trebizond.

“While George of Trebizond warned the West about the dangers of Platonic philosophy from Byzantium, Bessarion tried to show that those warnings were nonsense, and that Platonic traditions from Byzantium were in fact a great enrichment,” explains PD Dr Mariev. “Bessarion’s aim was to preserve Byzantine culture, and to make sure that it was well-received in the West. During his life he wrote and published the ICP, and he also donated around 1,000 Greek and Latin manuscripts to the city of Venice.”

This collection was intended to be accessible to everybody who wished to study those

First folio of the manuscript Gr. Z. 198 (744) containing the final Greek version of In Calumniatorem Platonis with the coat of arms of Bessarion in the manuscript reading room of the Marciana Libarary.

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EU Research

BESSARION AND BYZANTINE CULTURE Bessarion and Byzantine Culture in public perception during the late 15th century

Project Objectives

The project focuses on the main philosophical work of Bessarion (1408-1472), the “In Calumniatorem Platonis” (ICP). The primary objective is to prepare and publish a full critical edition of both Greek and Latin versions of all six books of the ICP. The project also aims to paint a comprehensive picture of the efforts of Bessarion and members of his scholarly circle to explain the value of Byzantine cultural heritage for the West to a learned audience in Italy during the late 15th century. The project is financed through the Heisenberg Programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and hosted by the Institute of Byzantine Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany.

Project Funding

Heisenberg-Programm of the DFG

Project Partners

• Leibniz ScienceCampus, Mainz • Biblioteca Marciana, Venice • University of Albany, the State University of New York

Contact Details

Principal Investigator, PD Dr Sergei Mariev Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz 55099 Mainz, GERMANY T: +49 163 8466200 E: bessarion-dfg-projekt@uni-mainz.de W: https://byzantinistik.geschichte.unimainz.de/forschung/bessarion-projekt/ PD Dr Sergei Mariev Folio 112r of the manuscript Gr. Z. 526 (776) containing excerpts from Platonic „Laws“ made by Bessarion himself.

manuscripts, and it is today housed in the Biblioteca Marciana, a public library located in St Mark’s Square in Venice. Bessarion himself was a Cardinal and was almost elected Pope, and PD Dr Mariev says he also had cultural ambitions. “He wanted to make sure that Byzantine cultural heritage continued to live in the West. It wasn’t just a small part or piece of Byzantine culture that he wanted to defend, rather he saw himself as its patron in Europe in general. He owned the largest library of Byzantine texts in existence, and wrote a book that explained the importance of the Byzantine philosophical tradition to the West,” he says. With the invention of the printing press, it was possible for Bessarion’s writings to reach a wider audience, and Bessarion was keen to harness the power of this technology.

“The technology was already used in printing the Latin version, and Bessarion was very interested in the dissemination of his work as widely as possible,” continues PD Dr Mariev.

“We don’t know exactly how many copies

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were printed, but the numbers were impressive for the 15th century.”

The book was intended primarily for a learned audience rather than the wider public, as a high level of knowledge is required to understand it, and this remains the case for scholars today. Now PD Dr Mariev aims to bring his research on the ICP to a wider audience, and he is holding an exhibition in the Marciana library this Summer, during the International Congress of Byzantine Studies in Venice. “This will be quite a large event, with more than 2,000 Byzantinists from all parts of the world attending. There will be several exhibitions, one of which I’ve created – it is dedicated to the history of the ICP, presented through the series of manuscripts that are preserved in the Marciana library,” he says.

“There will be an exhibition of Bessarion’s manuscripts, along with a presentation of the history of scholarship on this book, its reception in subsequent centuries, and the scholarly work on it as well.”

PD Dr Sergei Mariev has venia legendi in Byzantine Studies at the JGU University of Mainz. He studied Classics, Byzantine Studies and Latin Philology of the Middle Ages at the universities in the USA and in Germany and has been Assistant, Associate and Visiting professor at several European universities. He is the author of more than 30 publications on Byzantine historical literature, aesthetics, philosophy, cultural history and the history of ideas in Byzantium.

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Saving the Future with Seeds The world’s plant species are under sustained threat and biodiversity is being lost at a rate that has defined the times as an extinction era. Seed banks, that collect, preserve and research seeds from all around the world may provide the ultimate backup plan for our food security, natural resources and rewilding projects during the challenging times ahead. Richard Forsyth asks Dr Aisyah Faruk, Conservation Partnership Coordinator at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, about the bank’s vital work in preservation.

EU Research: Is the seed bank now more important than ever as we lose biodiversity? Are you saving plant species from extinction?

Dr Alsyah Faruk: Seed banking has always been an important aspect of plant conservation. Throughout human history, people have saved seeds of crops and culturally important plants, but in recent years, we have found that seed banking is increasingly becoming a key tool to mitigate against the loss of wild species and overall biodiversity.

With two in five plant species now estimated to be at risk of extinction, we need to utilise all the tools we have to ensure this rather grim prediction doesn’t hold true.

EUR: What are the rarest seeds you have? Do you have examples of seeds that really are precious to preserve?

Dr Faruk: We hold seeds from 190 countries. They have been collected from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from sea level to over 5000 metres above mean sea level (masl), and from pretty much every habitat between these extremes. The rarest seeds that we hold is hard to define – we do hold seeds from eight species that are now extinct in the wild, making them very rare indeed. We have focused on collecting seeds from threatened species, and those from useful plants – that could be related to crops, medicinal plants, fibre and fuel plants, culturally important species etc.

Some of our collections are from species newly described for science e.g. Ternstroemia guineensis from the Southern Kounounkan Platear in Guinea where 169 mature shrubs and trees were encountered, or Spathoglottis jetsuniae found on limestone outcrops in Bhutan.

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“With two in five plant species now estimated to be at risk of extinction, we need to utilise all the tools we have to ensure this rather grim prediction doesn’t hold true.”

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“Some are from very ancient species e.g. Wollemia nobilis (Wollemi pine) which has survived since the time of the dinosaurs, or Pinus longaeva (Bristlecone pine) which includes the oldest tree on Earth, Methuselah, more than 4800 years old.”

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Some are from very ancient species e.g. Wollemia nobilis (Wollemi pine) which has survived since the time of the dinosaurs, or Pinus longaeva (Bristlecone pine) which includes the oldest tree on Earth, Methuselah, more than 4800 years old. We hold some symbolic collections, for example, seeds provided by Green Legacy Hiroshima from trees that survived the atomic bomb dropped on the city in the Second World War. All of the seeds we hold are really precious to preserve and you never know when the collection that came in today will be needed to help restore an ecosystem, or to help provide solutions to global challenges such as food security. As we work with wild species, many of the plants that we conserve have never been studied. Our seed collections can be used for research, to increase our understanding of the properties of the plant that help it survive in its environment, or that generate traits of use to humans.

EUR: Are seeds regularly extracted for emergency use when crops fail and for bio-engineering?

Dr Faruk: Depending on the agreement with the donating organisation, the collection at the MSB is indeed extracted for a

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variety of uses. For example, Marasmodes undulata is a shrub in the daisy family, it is classified as Critically Endangered as it is only known from one site. At last monitoring, only three plants were present and funding was received from the Mohamed Bin Zayd Species Conservation Fund (MBZSCF) to help save this species from extinction. Tragically the site was then burned, leaving no plants in the wild. However, seeds from this species had been stored at the MSB in the UK. Seeds were sent back to South Africa where they were sown and monitored for germination. They did germinate, and the plants are now being grown at both Kirstenbosch and Stellenbosch botanic gardens. The project aims to restore the site where an additional 22 threatened species also occur. Numerous field trips have taken place to collect seeds and cutting material. They will be used to restore degraded sections of the site and to create awareness with the community around the project.

EUR: What is the most common reason seeds are stored with you?

Dr Faruk: Each donating organisation is unique and so is our relationship with them, making the reasons behind each batch of seeds sent, different from one another. However, the most common reason seeds are stored with us is as a duplicate collection, a safeguard or insurance policy in case anything happens to the original collection, which is typically kept in the country of origin. Every donating organisation has a say on how they would like their seeds to be treated, what the seeds can or can’t be used for, and by whom.

There are some species where their seeds are not suitable for conventional seed banking, which are known as ‘recalcitrant’ seeds.

Many tropical species, like dipterocarps, and even some temperate species, like oaks, have recalcitrant seeds, which makes them very difficult to conserve long-term. The preservation of these seeds typically requires the use of cryopreservation, which can be difficult to maintain for some seed banks. Looking into the future, we want to ensure that no species is left unprotected, so we will be working to enhance our capability to conserve some of these difficult to bank species.

EUR: Do you think seed banks could save the world one day?

Dr Faruk: I think so. In recent years more people are witnessing the devastating effects of climate change, from severe droughts and floods heavily impacting food security in many parts of the world, and thereby contributing towards greater political and economic instability. One way of building in resilience into our current food system is to use crop wild relatives (CWRs). CWRs are wild relatives of plants that hold a greater genetic diversity than their domesticated cousins. These have the potential to build adaptive traits against an increasingly changing environment, battle disease and/or increase productivity and nutrition. Unfortunately, despite the potential of CWRs, they are underused and many are threatened in the same way other wild species are. The MSB and our global partnership led the collecting and conservation

“We have barely scratched the surface on the potential of plants to humanity. Not only those with direct uses, like food and medicines, but plants that function as key to maintaining healthy ecosystems, and those that promote greater wellbeing.”

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phase of the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change project, a 10 year project funded by the Norwegian Government, aiming to collect and conserve wild plant relatives of 29 important crop plants to build resilience into the global food system in the face of a changing climate. Collectively, we have banked approximately 4,000 collections of 200 species of crop wild relatives. Seeds are despatched to pre-breeding institutions around the world to be used in trait analysis, growing experiments and seed production.

We have barely scratched the surface on the potential of plants to humanity. Not only those with direct uses, like food and medicines, but plants that function as key to maintaining healthy ecosystems, and those that promote greater wellbeing. Seeds that are currently in seed banks, or are targeted for collection in the coming years, could hold the key to preserving life and the livelihood of many communities across the world.

EUR: You are the biggest seed bank in the world. Can you give me some stats on what that means?

Dr Faruk: For wild species yes, we have around 97,599 collections of seeds from 190 different countries and territories.

This is made up of approximately 40,017 different plant species from 6,146 genera and 350 plant families (numbers extracted on 30th December 2021).

EUR: Can you describe the seed bank and what it’s like to work there?

Dr Faruk: The MSB is a built for purpose seed bank opened in 2000 and houses an underground seed vault that is floodproof, bomb-proof, radiationproof and has the capacity to hold up to three quarters of the world’s flora.

It has cleaning and research laboratories that the general public can view behind glass, so it is definitely worth a visit if you would like to learn more about what we do and see the seed bank staff in action!

However, the MSB is much more than just a building. It also represents a global network for biodiversity conservation, with over 260 partnerships with institutions from 97 countries and territories across Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Partners range from universities and botanic gardens, to government institutions and more. Since 2013, we’ve helped with the development of seven new, international seed banks, where facilities vary from basic to state of the art. Crucial to our work is to provide a platform of knowledge exchange, giving access to key resources and training on conserving seeds of wild plant species globally. Additionally, the partnership is at the heart of what we do, so a lot goes into supporting them in conserving their unique plant species diversity. So, day-to-day work can be extremely varied, from being in front of the computer delivering training to participants across Australasia, to collecting seeds with partners in the mountains of Georgia, to receiving a batch of seeds from partners in Spain at the MSB and troubleshooting key equipment in Armenia.

Thank you to Dr Aisyah Faruk and Heather McLeod for your support with this feature.

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The human factor on natural selection Artificial selection can be unintended, where human activities have affected wild populations in ways that were not foreseen. Professor Claus Wedekind and his colleagues are investigating whether natural populations of salmonids have the evolutionary potential to adapt to the presence of different stressors in their environment.

Artificial selection has long been used by humans to breed crops and animals like cows, sheep and fish with specific traits that will then be passed on to the next generation, traits which may make them more attractive to consumers. Alongside intended artificial selection, there are also cases of unintended artificial selection, where human activities have affected wild populations in ways that were not anticipated. “For example, there is selection by pollution or climate change, or by non-random harvesting. Lots of human activities can create new forms of selection on natural populations,” explains Claus Wedekind, a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Lausanne. In his research, Professor Wedekind is studying the evolution of natural populations in today’s environments, which are very much influenced by human activities.

“If human activities lead to pollution in a river for example, and the fish in this river have genetically-based differences in their tolerance towards the pollution, then we predict that the pollution will change the allele frequencies in that fish population over time,” he outlines.

Allele frequency This will lead to evolution, which can be broadly summarised as change in allele frequency over time, a topic which lies at Freshly caught whitefish (Coregonus suidteri).

the heart of Professor Wedekind’s work as the lead of an SNF-funded research project.

One question that Professor Wedekind and his colleagues in the project are studying is whether a given population of fish has the potential to adapt to a changing environment.

“We study fish in Switzerland which belong to the salmonid family, such as grayling and brown trout,” he says. This work involves studying natural populations of fish through a combination of field observations and laboratory experiments, with the aim of building a fuller picture of how they are

We want to see whether the change in allele frequencies can be somehow linked to the level stressors. This is about quantitative genetics. changing. “We sample breeding fish from the wild, so males and females from the spawning location. We measure their phenotypes and take a tissue sample to study their genetics then we use their gametes - their eggs and sperm - for in vitro fertilization.

It’s fairly easy to collect eggs and sperm,” explains Professor Wedekind. “Then we do experimental breeding. We take a sample of these families, bring them to the laboratory, and test them for their stress tolerance under very controlled experimental conditions.”

Setting the gill nets.

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The aim here is to expose the fish to certain things that have been identified as relevant, such as the drugs that are regularly found in streams and rivers in Switzerland. One prominent example is ethinylestradiol, a synthetic oestrogen that’s used in contraceptive pills and is known to be toxic to fish; it cannot be broken down by wastewater treatment plants so it can seep into ecosystems. “Ethinylestradiol is a stressor, a pollutant that has been around for sixty years – and here we can test whether we see signs of adaptation to it in certain fish populations,” outlines Professor Wedekind.

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The fish are exposed to ecologically relevant concentrations of ethinylestradiol and other drugs, essentially replicating natural conditions in the laboratory. “We consider everything that we believe could be ecologically relevant, such as changes in temperature. We test these factors in the laboratory on a sub-set of the family at concentrations or levels that have this ecological relevance,” continues Professor Wedekind. “The rest of the family is raised by wildlife managers in hatcheries, and then released into the wild at different stages.”

Juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta).

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This typically happens when the fish are very young larvae, then they are subsequently monitored. If they are caught by fishermen in the wild later on in their lives, their genetic background can be reconstructed. “When we take a tissue sample of a fish, we can assign the fish to its mother and father using DNA fingerprinting,” explains Professor Wedekind. In the course of the project around half a million brown trout and half a million grayling have been released, and while the majority will die, some will survive and be caught, from which Professor Wedekind hopes to gain fresh insights. “With the genetic assignment, we can ask which father and which mother has the most reproductive success under the situation they face. How successful are they? Then we can link that to the stress tolerance that we’ve measured in the laboratory - we can test whether what we measured in the lab accurately represents what happens in nature,” he says. “We want to see whether the change in allele frequencies can be somehow linked to the level of stressors. This is about quantitative genetics.”

Evolutionary potential The primary focus here is to see whether populations have the evolutionary potential to adapt to the presence of various stressors. The toxicity of ethinylestradiol has been measured in the laboratory, and it has been found that even very small amounts have detrimental effects.

“We exposed an embryo to just a picogram (10-12 of a gram) of ethinylestradiol and we could see that this reduced growth. It didn’t kill the embryo, but it reduced growth,” outlines Professor Wedekind. The concentrations of this toxin are highest close to wastewater treatment plants, an issue that Professor Wedekind has taken into account in his research. “We’ve compared fish populations that live close to Adult brown trout in the photo box.

Stripping eggs from a brown trout.

wastewater treatment plants to fish populations that live in lakes and are not really exposed to ethinylestradiol at all,” he explains. “We would predict that if populations have adapted to this stressor, then those fish that live closest to wastewater treatment plants would have become better at dealing with the toxicity. We would not expect fish that live further away to have evolved a tolerance to ethinylestradiol.”

Evidence gathered so far in the project supports this hypothesis, with Professor Wedekind and his colleagues testing predictions based on several different evolution scenarios. River-dwelling fish such as grayling and brown trout show a higher tolerance to ethinylestradiol than lakedwelling species like lake char and different whitefish species that are not exposed to the same extent. “We also find that there is genetic variations in tolerance in these populations that are not exposed to the stressor,” says Professor Wedekind. Genetic variation has not been found in river-dwelling fish, which means that at the moment these populations don’t have the potential to adapt to ethylinstradiol. “We believe that they had that potential in the past, but it has been lost over the last six decades, although we need more data to prove that,” continues Preparing a full-factorial breeding experiment, with eggs (orange mass) of 5 females and sperm (white drops) of 5 males in all 25 possible combinations. Addition of water will activate the sperm and fertilisation will happen.

Sampling fin tissue for later genotyping.

Professor Wedekind. “At the moment we predict that in river-dwelling fish, you would not see genetic variation for tolerance to ethylinstradiol because evolution has happened and used up the genetic variation.”

The data gathered in the project could be used to quantitatively estimate the key parameters of evolutionary models, which would then enable scientists to produce quantitative estimates of future scenarios. The main intention with this research is to build a deeper understanding of how natural populations are changing, yet Professor Wedekind says it also holds relevance for wildlife managers. “We’re doing basic research, to produce knowledge for the textbooks of the future on the one hand, but also to support wildlife management,” he outlines. Salmonids are typically keystone species that largely define the ecosystems they inhabit, while they also The last juvenile brown trout of many that were sampled from the wild.

Lake Hallwil and the Swiss Alps.

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THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES The potential consequences of unintended artificial selection on population fitness: combining laboratory experiments with large-scale field studies on salmonids

Project Objectives

The project combines observations (mostly long-term monitoring) with molecular genetics, modelling, and experimental research on various salmonid fish. The main aim is to better understand unintended artificial selection (e.g. by size-selective fishing, pollution, and changed natural and sexual selection in supportive breeding) and how it influences the evolution and the long-term survival of wild populations.

Project Funding

The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, with additional support from the Aargau Lottery Fond.

Project Partners

The project profits from collaborations with many other laboratories and is a close collaboration with various cantons, especially Bern and Aargau, several fishing organizations, and professional fishermen.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Claus Wedekind Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

T: +41 21 692 42 50 E: claus.wedekind@unil.ch W: https://www.unil.ch/dee/wedekind-group Claus Wedekind

Claus Wedekind is an evolutionary ecologist with strong interests in sexual selection, conservation, and cooperation among unrelated individuals. He did his Ph.D in 1994 at the University of Bern, and later worked as research fellow or lecturer at the Universities of Bern, Edinburgh, Utah, Harvard, Zürich, and the EAWAGETH, and has been professor at the University of Lausanne since 2006.

hold wider significance. “They are typically quite economically important, because anglers and fishermen target them. They are also culturally important – there is a lot of concern about the decline of many of these populations,” explains Professor Wedekind. “So we get lots of support from the Swiss cantons. They collaborate with us and want to understand what is happening to their populations, and what could be done to halt the decline.”

Sexual selection A further topic that Professor Wedekind is addressing in his research is the potential of sexual selection for population fitness. In many wild species, parents compete for access to mating partners; however, large numbers of fish are produced in hatcheries and therefore have parents that did not choose each other, now Professor Wedekind is looking into the consequences of this. “Should we worry about the genetics of the next generation that has been produced by this random mating?” he asks. With random mating, the offspring survival rate in a laboratory experiment under given stressor conditions was shown to be about 85 percent, but this increased when the female had the opportunity to choose between different males. “If we assume that the female always knows which male would be best for her offspring, then giving them the choice between two males would increase offspring survival rates by 5 percent points, which means mortality would decrease by one third (from 15% to 10%),” outlines Professor Wedekind.

A pattern emerges that the more males the females could choose from, the higher the potential benefit of their choice. The question then arises of whether females are able to identify the best males; one signal of genetic quality in whitefish is the strength of their A whitefish prepared for morphometry.

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tubercles, little structures on the skin. “Tubercles are only developed for the breeding season, and after it they immediately fall off. Males differ in the strength of these tubercles,” says Professor Wedekind. The use of a 3D scanner enables his team to measure the volume of these tubercles, and that can then be linked to offspring survival rates. “It might be expected that males with larger tubercles are genetically better, and that females would pick them. We have found a lot of evidence that this is indeed the case but it’s more complicated than that,” he continues. “We’ve also seen evidence of different male strategies in signalling – some males seem to signal very honestly and others don’t. Nevertheless, there is a clear potential for breeding tubercles to signal genetic quality.”

These are just a few of the questions that Professor Wedekind is investigating, with research ongoing into a number of different areas, including adaptation to climate change and the evolutionary consequences of exploitation. While much of this research has been conducted on salmonids, Professor Wedekind says it holds relevance to wild populations more generally. “We are using the salmonids as a model to study general questions about evolution and population management.

If you can demonstrate in one population that by allowing females to choose males, you would increase offspring survival, then you have good reason to believe that the principle could be relevant for many other species,” he says. The project’s findings on sexual selection also have wider implications. “We have sexual selection in plants and I think there’s no example of a species without any form of sexual selection. So by studying the potential of sexual selection in one species, we learn a lot about the potential of sexual selection in general,” concludes Professor Wedekind.

The field lab on a winter morning.

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Image by Angelo Giordano from Pixabay

L’Aquila earthquake in Italy, 2009.

New systems for effective earthquake response Earthquakes are among the most devastating of natural disasters, often causing fatalities and leading to enormous economic losses. Researchers in the TURNkey project are developing new systems to warn that an earthquake is imminent and help stakeholders respond effectively, as Ivan Van Bever and Johannes Schweitzer explain.

An earthquake can have a devastating impact on the affected area, often causing fatalities, damaging infrastructure and leading to enormous economic losses.

Researchers in the TURNkey project aim to help boost earthquake resilience by rapidly providing reliable information to key stakeholders. “In this we differentiate between two phases. The earthquake early warning phase is really about rapidly sending reliable information to all the different stakeholders, such as civil protection organisations, first responders and critical infrastructure providers. We aim to provide information to those stakeholders, who can then distribute information to citizens and the general public,” outlines Ivan van Bever, the TURNkey Project Manager.

The second of the two phases is about enabling stakeholders to respond rapidly and effectively to an earthquake by identifying which areas have been particularly badly affected. The project consortium itself brings

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together 21 partners from across Europe with the goal of developing a cloud-based platform to help mitigate the impact of earthquakes, and Van Bever says the views of stakeholders are an important consideration in development. “Interviews have been conducted with stakeholders over the three years of the project, and they are being used for what is called a participatory action research cycle,” he outlines. This involves going back and forth to those stakeholders over several rounds of feedback to identify what functionalities would be of interest to them. “We’ve tested the platform against those same functionalities and features,” outlines Van Bever.

TURNkey project This platform is built on analysis of historical earthquakes, as well as data from several other sources, including information gathered from a number of sites across Europe with widely varying earthquake hazard levels.

There are records of earthquakes in Europe dating back 1,000s of years, while there are also more than 100 years of instrumental observations, representing a valuable source of information for Johannes Schweitzer, the TURNkey Project Coordinator. “We are using this information to evaluate earthquake risk,” he explains. “We can also analyse geodetic information to identify where there are movements in the earth’s crust, leading to a higher risk of earthquakes.”

There are a number of other sources of data in the project, such as over 150 seismometers installed in six different locations across Europe to complement the existing seismic networks and provide additional coverage.

The idea here is to cover areas with different earthquake hazard levels. “We have testbeds in Italy, Greece, Romania and the French Pyrenees, areas which are known to have a high risk of earthquakes. We also have a testbed in Iceland, which is a volcanic and seismically active area,” says Van Bever.

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Another testbed is located in a region of the Netherlands where there is no natural seismicity, but rather the seismicity is induced by gas exploitation. “This is a huge on-shore gas field near Groningen. This gas field has been exploited for about 50 years, which has led to some seismic activity,” outlines Van Bever.

Researchers aim to use data from these different sources to develop a platform which can provide prior warning of the most destructive seismic waves to stakeholders, who can then take the appropriate action.

A lot of attention in research is focused on optimising various different algorithms to identify the location of the source of seismic waves and accurately forecast the degree of shaking they cause, now the objective is to bring these various different strands of investigation together. “The aim of the project was really to try to put all this together at a European level, in a single platform, that can handle the different phases of an earthquake,” outlines Van Bever. There are eight different workpackages in the project, and a lot of effort has been devoted to effective coordination.

“Our goal is to have a single product at the end,” stresses Schweitzer.

P-waves and S-waves This platform takes full account of the different types of waves that occur during an earthquake. One type of seismic wave radiated by an earthquake has relatively low amplitudes but travels relatively fast (P-waves – primary waves), while another type has larger amplitudes but travels slower (S-waves – secondary waves). “We try to use the available information to identify when a big wave is coming and provide an early warning. The P-waves come first, but the subsequent S-waves are usually the most destructive,” says Schweitzer. Both types of waves come from the same source, now researchers are analysing the relationship between them. “So if you first detect the P-waves, you can locate the event and estimate the magnitude. Then you can possibly send an alert, somewhere between 5-10 seconds before the wave reaches a specific area,” explains Van Bever An early warning on even this kind of timescale can help civil authorities to protect key infrastructure, and so it’s important to present information about seismic waves in a clear way. While researchers have explored using maps, the stakeholders are in general looking for something simpler. “With a sound or visual alarm, they can start sending out fire trucks from a depot, or people out into the field,” says Van Bever. The possibility of

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The principle cycle of an earthquake crisis and the pillars of the TURNkey project: Operational Earthquake Forecasting (OEF), Earthquake Early Warning (EEW), Rapid Response to Earthquakes (RRE).

aftershocks is also a major consideration in conducting rescue and recovery missions after an earthquake, an issue researchers in the project are addressing. “There are some mathematical models to describe how aftershocks become smaller over time. We are using these models in TURNkey to warn people working in rescue and recovery about

algorithm to perform a particular function, it’s relatively easy to exchange it for the existing algorithm,” explains Schweitzer. The system overall brings together many different elements which have been developed over recent decades, alongside some ground-breaking new technologies. “Some very new methodologies have been developed during the project, such

The earthquake early

warning phase is really about rapidly sending reliable information to all the different stakeholders, such as civil protection organisations, first responders and critical infrastructure providers. when they need to be particularly careful,” outlines Schweitzer.

A final meeting is planned for April this year at which the project’s research will be presented to stakeholders, giving them an opportunity to learn about the TURNkey system and what it can do. The system itself has been built in a highly modular way, so that it’s relatively easy to update. “If there is a new, highly effective

as the new generation decision support system, based on a new methodology using multicriteria analysis. This supports stakeholders in taking decisions,” says Van Bever.

This is just one of the methodologies that is planned for implementation in the platform, which is designed to provide early warning of an earthquake and also help stakeholders deal with the aftermath. While a lot of progress has

Photograph from the TURNkey Project Kick-off meeting in 2019.

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The map shows the seismic hazard for Europe as estimated by the EC FP7-Project SHARE and the location of the six testbeds of the TURNkey project.

TURNkey Towards more Earthquake-resilient Urban Societies through a Multi-sensor-based Information System enabling Earthquake Forecasting, Early Warning and Rapid Response actions

Project Objectives

TURNkey is a European research and innovation project that is working towards more earthquake resilient societies. The focus of TURNkey during the three-year project period is to assist stakeholders in different risk mitigation actions before, during, and after a damaging earthquake. To achieve this, TURNkey brings together a strong multidisciplinary team of experts from 21 partner institutions covering 10 EU countries.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 821046.

Project Partners

https://earthquake-turnkey.eu/the-turnkeyconsortium/

Contact Details

Dr. Johannes Schweitzer NORSAR E: Johannes.schweitzer@norsar.no W: https://earthquake-turnkey.eu

Johannes Schweitzer

Ivan Van Bever

Ivan Van Bever has a MSc in Geology from ENSG (Ecole Nationale Superieure de Geologie). After graduating in 2012 he moved to Norway and worked as a geoscientist with seismic data analysis and modeling for the offshore industry before joining NORSAR as Project Manager for the TURNkey project.

been made the platform is not yet ready for practical application, with Van Bever saying the aim is to reach technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or 6 by the end of the project. “It wouldn’t be software that could be sold to businesses, institutions or other stakeholders. But it should be a functioning prototype that we can demonstrate,” he outlines. This prototype will be demonstrated to stakeholders at the planned final meeting. “We will run through the scenario of an earthquake and show how we can detect it with our instruments. Then we will show how it sends a warning, and the information sent to first responders out in the field,” says Van Bever.

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Further research will be required to develop a product that can be applied in the practical context, and both Van Bever and Schweitzer are keen to explore the possibility of a successor project. It is not possible to iron out every glitch within the limited timeframe of the TURNkey project, so the focus is more on developing a functioning prototype, which would represent solid foundations for further research. “We can show in principle that the system works in the project, but more work is required to really get it ready for actual application,” says Schweitzer.

Johannes Schweitzer is geophysicist with a PhD (1990) from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany.

Since 1997, he works as seismologist at NORSAR and in addition since 2016 he is adjacent Associate Prof. at the University of Oslo. Johannes Schweitzer is the TURNkey Project Coordinator.

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Sensors and robots to aid emergency response

Emergency response teams have to work rapidly to locate survivors in the aftermath of a natural disaster like an earthquake or flood, yet the environment may remain very dangerous. Researchers in the CURSOR project are developing robots and sensors to help first responders work effectively without putting more lives at risk, as Tiina Ristmäe explains.

A natural disaster

like a flood or earthquake can have a devastating impact on the area affected, and it can be difficult for emergency response teams to rapidly locate survivors without putting more lives at risk. Drones and robots hold great potential in these terms, but these technologies are not yet widely used in emergency response, a major motivating factor behind the work of the CURSOR project. “The equipment available to many relief organisations is often not as modern as we would like,” says Tiina Ristmäe, the coordinator of the project.

The project consortium brings together 17 partners from across Europe and Japan with the shared goal of developing technologies to be used in the period after the initial response, when maybe local authorities ask for further assistance and support. “International teams arrive when the country or region affected requests further help. These teams have standardised training and their equipment is more or less similar,” continues Ristmäe.

Search and rescue The first task for these teams is typically to search for survivors and rescue them as rapidly as possible. Drones play an important role here, helping teams assess the damage to buildings for example and evaluate the overall situation, from which they can then develop more detailed plans. “Drones help to accelerate search and rescue,” says Ristmäe. The focus in the project

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Transport drone carrying SMURF dummies, set up at a field test, SMURF. @ CURSOR project.

is on developing robotic components, including SMURFs (Soft, Miniaturised, Underground Robotic Finders), which are designed for deployment in emergency response situations either manually by first responders or using special transport drones (based on a combination of commercially available and newly developed components). “A transport drone deploys the SMURFs on a rubble pile, for example from a collapsed building, and releases them from a maximum height of 1 metre. So, the drone has to come down close to the rubble, but it doesn’t have to land,” explains Ristmäe.

“The robots are released, and then they start to move around in the rubble. They can navigate autonomously, or by an operator.”

A pile of rubble is a very dangerous environment for first responders, with the risk of aftershocks that could lead to further collapses. The main task for these robots in this type of situation is to act as the eyes and ears of first responders, providing information to handheld devices, and they are equipped with several sensors to help locate survivors. “We have a heat sensor, a thermal camera, and it’s also possible to have a live video picture and an audio connection,” says Ristmäe. Another important part of the project’s work involves developing a sniffer, which Ristmäe describes as essentially an artificial nose. “The aim is that the sniffer is able to smell what are called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which everybody releases,” she outlines. “The sniffer detects

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these compounds, and then the information will be transmitted to a first responder. They will transmit a probability that there is somebody alive in a particular location.”

The sniffer is integrated into the robot, and has been trained to recognise these compounds that are released by humans from breath, urine or sweat. Before developing the sniffer, Ristmäe and her colleagues investigated what kinds of volatile chemical components the human body releases, components which could then be recognised by a sniffer. “This volatile ‘signature’ gives a probability that there is a human being there,” she says. A robot can distinguish between deceased and alive people, while the audio/visual connection also helps in terms of understanding the extent of injuries to people and identifying whether there are any other casualties close by. “This is something that we don’t have right now. Rescue dogs are very valuable in emergency response, but they also have a lot of limitations,” continues Ristmäe. “In the project we aim to provide first responders with additional options.”

also causes the collapse of buildings,” she says.

“However, we’re not looking to validate this within the scope of the CURSOR project.”

The priority at this stage is to develop the system, with researchers developing an open architecture system, so that different tools developed in the project can be used in combination with other technologies. The ultimate aim here is to develop tools that will help emergency response teams work more effectively, and Ristmäe says the views and feedback of end-users help guide research.

“We are doing very hands-on testing, although the technology is not fully mature.

We want the first responders to be able to play around with the technology, provide their feedback and validate it,” she outlines.

“The technology has been developed to respond to the problems end-users face.”

This technology is not yet ready to be applied in emergency response, however significant progress has been made over the course of the project. The CURSOR solutions have a technology readiness level

A transport drone deploys the SMURFs on a rubble pile, for example from a collapsed building, and releases them from a maximum height of 1 metre. So, the drone has to come down close to the rubble, but it doesn’t have to land.

Toolbox of options There is no single technology that can be used in every environment or situation, so the aim in the project is rather to provide a kind of toolbox, giving first responders different options suitable for the specific challenges they face. These tools are designed to complement rather than replace existing technologies.

“Search dogs will remain, as will geophones and other technologies. Every component has its own purpose,” stresses Ristmäe. The test scenario in the project is an earthquake, yet Ristmäe says the technology could also be applied in the aftermath of other natural disasters, such as a landslide for example. “We believe that these robots could be used in different scenarios. For example, a landslide Setting up SMURFs at a field test @ CURSOR project.

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(TRL) of somewhere between 6 and 7, and Ristmäe is hoping to build further on these foundations. ”It makes sense to have a successor project and concentrate on a few of the components. One very interesting outcome from CURSOR is the heatmap,” she outlines. Currently first responders receive different layers of information from various sensors, including the SMURFs, drones and geophones; this heatmap allows them to select the information they need to make a decision at a particular point, which Ristmäe says is highly valuable. “Decisions are always made by the first responders, and never by technology,” she stresses. “We want to provide information to first responders to support their decision-making.”

CURSOR Accelerating Search and Rescue operations Project Objectives

CURSOR project is a European and Japanese research initiative to develop a Search & Rescue Kit using drones, miniaturized robots, and advanced sensors to accelerate SaR operations. It will devise these novel technologies to speed up the detection of survivors trapped in collapsed buildings and to improve the working conditions of first responders.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 832790 and from the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

Project Partners

German Federal Agency for Technical Relief THW (Project coordinator) • Entente pour la Forêt Méditerranéenne Valabre • Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service MFRA • Service Départemental d’Incendie et de Secours de la Savoie SDIS73 • Hellenic Rescue Team of Attica HRTA • Institute of Communication and Computer Systems ICCS (Technical and Scientific Coordinator) • Tohoku University Tohoku • SINTEF Digital SINTEF • Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives CEA • The University of Manchester UNIMAN • EXUS • Astrial GmbH, ASTRIAL • International Security Competence Centre GmbH ISCC • Trilateral Research Ltd TRI • German Institute for Standardisation DIN • ARTTIC Innovation GmbH AI (Project office) • ARTTIC S.A.S. ART

Contact Details

Tiina Ristmäe Project Coordinator at CURSOR T: +49 228 9401936 E: tiina.ristmaee@thw.de W: https://www.cursor-project.eu Karin Rosenits-Seilmeier Dissemination Manager at CURSOR T: +49 89 248830342 E: rosenits@arttic-innovation.de W: https://www.cursor-project.eu Tiina Ristmäe

Tiina Ristmäe is coordinator of the CURSOR project and a senior researcher at THW. She leads the project with her considerable experience with developing innovative technologies with strong end-users involvement.

First Responders at field test @ CURSOR project.

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Emission measurement equipment set-up at the RDW test track in Lelystad, NL.

Demonstration measurements in the city of Krakow, Poland.

Demonstration measurements in the city of Milan, Italy.

Testing emissions levels out on the road The dieselgate scandal highlighted the need for reliable methods of monitoring vehicle emissions while they are actually out on the road. The CARES project brings together partners from across Europe and from China to develop remote emission sensing instruments, which could in the long run help improve air quality in cities, as the coordinator Åke Sjödin explains.

The dieselgate scandal which erupted in 2015 showed how car manufacturers were able to circumvent laboratory emissions tests, resulting in large numbers of vehicles being allowed onto the road despite breaching environmental standards. The scandal highlighted the need for reliable and efficient methods of monitoring vehicle emissions in the real world, a topic which Åke Sjödin and his colleagues in the CARES project are addressing, building on technology originally developed in the US. “Technology to measure emissions from individual cars at the roadside, without stopping them as they pass, was invented by a group of researchers at Denver University more than 30 years ago,” he outlines. In Europe this remote sensing technology has mostly been used for research purposes, now researchers in the CARES project are working to make it more affordable and so encourage its wider deployment in monitoring emissions. “It’s about increasing the use of remote sensing instruments by making them more accurate and cheaper to deploy.”

CARES project A number of remote sensing instruments are already available on the market, but they have some marked limitations, an issue at the heart of the project’s overall

agenda. The aim of the project, which brings together partners from across Europe as well as from China, is to improve some aspects of this technology, focusing in particular on the hardware. “We are looking at the development of lightweight, small and cheap sensors,” says Åke Sjödin. Several of the CARES partners have been working with these technologies for many years, and the project’s strong collaborative spirit means there are good prospects for further

These technologies can in principle measure all regulated pollutants, in particular carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Legal limits on the atmospheric levels of particularly nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter are broken on a fairly regular basis in many European cities at the moment, underlining the importance of more effective monitoring, an issue at the heart of the project. “Part of our vision in the project is to move to a more systematic and

We intend to carry out measurements on at least 300,000 further vehicles in remote sensing measurement campaigns in Milan, Krakow and Prague, using these new technologies. We successfully completed measurement campaigns in Milan and Krakow last autumn. progress. “We already have data gathered from more than ten years ago as inputs.

In the project we also intend to carry out measurements on at least 300,000 further vehicles in remote sensing measurement campaigns in three European cities, using these new technologies,” he continues. “It’s a matter of gathering larger volumes of data, increasing the number of pollutants that can be measured, and achieving a better level of accuracy with those measurements.”

long-term system for surveying vehicle fleet emissions.” The remote sensing instruments also gather data about the vehicle itself, including data on vehicle make and model, engine and fuel type, as well as emission standard, which will help researchers build a clearer picture of which vehicles are the biggest emitters. “There may be very large differences between various manufacturers and different models,” acknowledges Åke Sjödin. “Another thing we are looking at in the project is the

CARES test vehicles circulating the RDW test track.

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Photo taken from inside the cabin of the plume chase van.

The CARES plume chase van prepared for measurements.

CARES City Air Remote Emission Sensing Project Objectives

potential problem of drivers tampering with the emission control equipment. Some drivers may deliberately tamper with the emission control systems to improve the performance of the vehicle or to save money.”

A more reliable monitoring system could prevent this kind of behaviour and ultimately help city authorities improve air quality, which is a major concern in many parts of Europe. The technology will be trialled in three European cities with significant air pollution problems, Milan, Krakow and Prague. “We have been able to work very effectively with partners in these cities,” outlines Åke Sjödin. Alongside measuring emissions, researchers are also developing tools to analyse the data that is gathered, and it’s important that these tools are accessible and easy to use. “We have developed a highly sophisticated database platform that brings together all the data, including pollutant emissions, traffic levels, vehicle information, ambient data and so on,” explains Åke Sjödin.

“We will also develop user-friendly analytical tools and guidance documents. The idea behind this is that it should be possible for non-experts, non-scientists, to carry out measurements, and to use the tools to analyse the data they have in front of them.”

This will help researchers to disentangle the various different factors that affect air quality. While pollutant emission levels are a major influence on air quality, other factors are also involved, such as the ambient conditions.

“One part of the project is about trying to connect real-world emissions levels to air quality monitoring in different conditions,” says Åke Sjödin. Air quality is a major concern all over the world, not just in Europe, and CARES is also collaborating with partners in China, highlighting the wider relevance of the project’s work. “They have a very similar

project to CARES that is running more or less in parallel. We have a very good collaboration, because we can exchange results and learn from each other,” continues Åke Sjödin.

Improved sensors A significant amount of progress has been made in this respect over the course of CARES, and it is hoped that the project’s work will lead to the development of at least two improved sensors. These instruments will be available to deploy at both a lower cost and higher accuracy than previously. “These instruments measure particulate matter much more accurately – these are extremely small particles that are dangerous to human health.

We expect that there will be increased demand from city and national authorities for sensors capable of making these measurements,” says Åke Sjödin. This will not just be in Europe, but also developing economies where more and people are buying cars, leading to heightened concerns about air quality and its impact on health. “If we can make this technology more cost-effective, then it could also be of interest to developing economies that want to address air quality concerns.”

These concerns are highly unlikely to disappear entirely over the coming years, and Åke Sjödin anticipates that there will be a long-term need to monitor vehicle emissions. The remote sensing technology developed in the project, and the positive working relationships established between the different partners, could play an important role in this respect. “In future our research could be integrated into a more long-term surveillance of real-world emissions. This will firstly be in Europe, because we have common legislation in the EU on emissions,” says Åke Sjödin.

The overall objective of CARES is to reduce the hurdles for practical applications of remote emission sensing (RES) and to make it a widespread means of both monitoring and enforcing improvements in road vehicle emissions. RES is defined as applications of technologies capable of performing contactless and nonintrusive measurements of the emissions from individual vehicles under real-world operating conditions.

Project Funding

This project is receiving funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 814966.

Project Partners

• https://cares-project.eu/about/

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Åke Sjödin Transport & Mobility Group Sustainable Society Unit IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute T: +46 10 788 65 00 E: ake.sjodin@ivl.se W: https://cares-project.eu/ W: www.ivl.se

Åke Sjödin

Åke Sjödin is a senior researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

His main research focus for the last 30 years has been measurements of real-world emissions from road vehicles, particularly by means of remote sensing. In 1991, he conducted the first remote sensing study in Europe with the Denver University FEAT instrument. http://www.feat.biochem.du.edu/

The CARES team gathering after the successful completion of the test track experiments.

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Putting performers in the driving seat

The core performance team in a rehearsal of Marco Stroppa’s …of Silence for alto saxophone and chamber electronics.

From left to right: Dominykas Gircius, Germán Toro Pérez, Joan Jordi Oliver, Carlos Hidalgo and Leandro Gianini.

While the performance of the classical music repertoire has been extensively explored over decades or even centuries, it is often less clear how more recent electroacoustic pieces should be played.

Professor Germán Toro Pérez is looking at pieces composed over the last three decades, developing a performance practice database that provides valuable insights into performance practice today.

The electroacoustic music

of today has its roots in the period after the end of the Second World War, as the idea of musique concrète emerged and new studios were established, giving composers access to interesting new instruments and practices.

The Groupe de recherches musicales was established in Paris in 1951, the world’s first centre for electronic music, and electronic music has since spread further around the world. “A number of other centres appeared later, mostly in Europe and the US. Over recent decades it has become more widespread, in Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world,” says Professor Germán Toro Pérez, head of the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts. Electronic instruments were used both in composition and performance, as composers explored new possibilities. “Edgard Varèse is a very good example. Equipment from the electronics company Phillips was used for the performance of his Poème électronique at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair,” outlines Professor Toro Pérez. “For the time it was very advanced.

It was a multi-loudspeaker system.”

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Electroacoustic music As the head of an ongoing research project based at ICST, Professor Toro Pérez is now investigating questions around how electroacoustic music is performed, looking mainly at pieces composed in the last three decades or so. Over this time the concept of live electronic music has grown in prominence and computers have become more commonly

“We defined six non-exclusive compositional approaches,” he explains. “One of them we called ‘composing the instrument’. This involves building specific instruments, interfaces or objects that become a substantial, intrinsic part of the composition process. Another approach to composition is perhaps more classical – what we called ‘Composing the sound, the time, the space’,

The music of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn has such a strong tradition that a performer today can gain a very clear idea of what the performance challenges are.

Music today is however not so clearly linked to a

certain aesthetic tradition. used in both composition and performance practice. “It is the digital age that defines the border of this project, and the pieces that we are selecting,” says Professor Toro Pérez. The aim in the project is to look at the performance of a wide variety of pieces, with Professor Toro Pérez investigating pieces composed according to different approaches.

these being the fundamental dimensions in modern music.”

A third compositional approach involves not only sound but also visual information, in which bodily representations and gestures play an important role. Some pieces combine certain aspects of these different approaches. “We are addressing each of these

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compositional approaches, sometimes from different perspectives,” says Professor Toro Pérez. The way in which these pieces are performed is less clearly linked to a specific aesthetic tradition than much older classical pieces, a topic Professor Toro Pérez and his colleagues are exploring in the project. “If we think about the performance of classical music, you have a score that represents what it should sound like, while you also have a very strong tradition that informs performers about how to deal with the notation,” he points out. “The music of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn for example has such a strong tradition that a performer today can gain a very clear idea of what the performance challenges are. More contemporary music is however not so clearly linked to a certain aesthetic tradition, like for instance Viennese classical music.”

The electroacoustic music of today is very diverse, with a less established tradition to guide performers on how to deal with a certain piece. While some pieces have been performed multiple times in recent decades, and have taken their place within the canon of electronic music, others are much less widely

played. “Some pieces have been performed just once, like Koma by Gerhard E. Winkler.

So we had only the information related to that single performance,” says Professor Toro Pérez. This particular piece is very open, in the sense that what the performers hear and then play is generated in the moment.

“The musicians sit in front of a screen and a notation appears that is generated in realtime. So the musicians see something, then they have to react to that and play according to certain rules. The way that they behave and play has an influence on how the system evolves,” explains Professor Toro Pérez. “In certain situations you don’t really know what kind of sound you should expect. Then it becomes more difficult to know whether you are playing the piece correctly.”

Performance practice Researchers are also looking at more traditional pieces, in the sense that there is a score, like Horacio Vaggione’s Shifting Mirrors for alt saxophone and electronics. The wider aim in this research is to build up a culture of performance practice in a field where every piece is a singularity, although Professor

Toro Pérez says there will always be some differences between individual performances.

“This is related to the instruments themselves. We know exactly what a piano is for example, but a live electronic system is not frozen in time and may not function in the same way in 20 years’ time. It is more a set of functionalities,” he stresses. Electroacoustic pieces are being performed today using software and hardware that didn’t exist at the time they were composed, while new systems continue to emerge, an issue of great interest to Professor Toro Pérez as he aims to help establish a performance tradition for live electronic music. “This involves very basic things too, such as the conditions necessary for a performer to prepare and rehearse for a concert,” he says.

This is partly about having a functioning live electronic system before a performer enters the space, while it’s also important to consider the nature of the acoustic environment. While for some performers it may be enough to simply get a feel for a space for a couple of hours before a concert, electronic musicians typically need more time to get ready and adapt to the environment.

Singers Hannah Mehler (left) and Kara Leva (right) rehearsing Ashley Fure’s Shiver Lung.

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PERFORMING LIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC

Workshop #6 at ZHdK; session with composer Clara Iannotta (screens).

At the table from left to right: Carlos Hidalgo, Lucas Bennett, Brian Archinal, Thomas Moore, Germán Toro Pérez.

Technical and Aesthetical Challenges in the Digital Age

Project Objectives

The practice-based research project “Performing Live Electronic Music – Technical and Aesthetical Challenges in the Digital Age” addresses challenges presented by compositions for instruments and live electronics from the last 30 years, bringing together composers, performers and musicologists and documenting the results in open-access publications and selected pieces in SACD/CD publications.

Project Funding

Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. 943,164 Euros.

Project Team

Lucas Bennett, musicology Peter Färber, technical supervision Leandro Gianini, sound engineering Dominykas Gircius, recording Carlos Hidalgo, performance Milena Winter, video documentation Germán Toro Pérez, project lead

Project Partner

• Professor Jörn Peter Hiekel (Institute for Music Research, ZHdK)

Institutional Partners

• col legno, Vienna • Experimentalstudio des SWR, Freiburg • IEM, Graz • Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague • Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt • IRCAM, Paris

Board

• Professor Alvise Vidolin • Professor Killian Schwoon

Contact Details

Project Lead, Professor Germán Toro Pérez Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, P.O. Box, CH-8031 Zurich T: +41 43 446 55 01 E: german.toro-perez@zhdk.ch W: https://www.zhdk.ch/en/researchproject/ performing-live-electronic-music-558720 Prof. Germán Toro Pérez

Germán Toro Pérez is Professor for electroacoustic composition and director of the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts. His output includes compositions for orchestra, instrumental and vocal ensembles, chamber music with and without electronics and electroacoustic music.

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“Much more time is needed in the space in order to set up a system, to test it and adapt it to the acoustic conditions, and to rehearse,” outlines Professor Toro Pérez. Electronics are often used both in the instruments, as well as in the mixing and engineering of the sound after it’s been generated, and Professor Toro Pérez says sound engineers also need time to prepare properly. “Sound engineers –we call them also ‘sound directors’– are not only technicians, they also have to be musicians.

They have to think and act as a musician too, to be able to convey information, to ask specific questions and to take decisions that may have an aesthetic impact,” he explains.

An experienced sound engineer may well know what microphones they should choose for a specific piece, but someone with less experience is likely to need more guidance.

A performance practice database is being developed in the project bringing together information on the different pieces in the repertoire, which Professor Toro Pérez hopes will be a valuable source for performers and the people working alongside them. “For instance, in Professor Bad Trip, Lesson I, a piece by the Italian composer Fausto Romitelli, you have to amplify every single instrument. We’ve provided a list of the right microphones for doing that, which is very valuable information,” he says.

Researchers are also producing performance reports, in which the aim is primarily to heighten awareness of the critical aspects of a piece. “The

blend of strong amplified instrumental sound with the 8-channel tape reflects an aesthetic approach that is important in the work of Romitelli. He didn’t expect the very natural, almost inaudible amplification that you would use for other pieces, but he wanted to have the powerful, electronically transformed sound characteristic of rock bands” outlines Professor Toro Pérez.

By making performers aware of the most important aspects of the performance, Professor Toro Pérez aims to empower them to make informed choices. This is not about laying down rigid guidelines about the ‘correct’ way to play a particular piece, but rather to make people aware of the critical aspects. “What are the things that you have to keep in mind?” says Professor Toro Pérez.

This information will be available through the database, which will provide valuable insights into performance practice in electronic music today. “It is intended, in the first place, for performers. But it is also interesting for musicologists,” continues Professor Toro Pérez. “We hold workshops to which we invite the composers and expert performers, as well as others that can give an insight into a piece. These might be musicologists, or perhaps technicians that were involved in its creation. Imagine, you would be able to see and hear an interview with J.S. Bach about the performance of his works. We collect firsthand information for future generations.”

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Shining a light on tech platforms Major tech platforms like Google, Facebook and Airbnb have become an integral part of our daily lives, and these companies derive profit from social interactions on their websites.

What are the discourses, the language, in which these platforms ask for our trust?

This question is central to Dr Niels Niessen’s work in the Platform Discourses project.

Many of the

biggest technology companies in the world today are associated not just with commercial products, but also a particular worldview or philosophical outlook. For example, earlier in his career Mark Zuckerberg published a manifesto in which he described Facebook as a platform that creates global communities. “It presents Facebook as a platform that helps to connect people all over the world,” says Dr Niels Niessen, a researcher at the Radboud Institute for Culture and History in the Netherlands.

While Facebook does indeed help connect people and has an emancipatory function to some extent, ultimately the company is profit-driven, argues Dr Niessen. “Facebook doesn’t care about community, even though it may believe its own story that it does,” he says. “Looking at its structure, it derives profit from the social interactions that people have on it.”

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The social interactions of users are also central to the profitability of many other companies in what Dr Niessen describes as the platform economy. This doesn’t mean just social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, but also other major technology businesses such as Airbnb and Apple, now Dr Niessen is analysing the way in which these businesses try to gain the trust of users in the Platform Discourses project. “The project looks at digital online infrastructures. These infrastructures bring users together,” he explains. Alongside these companies, Dr Niessen and his colleagues are also studying several social media platforms. “We’re looking at the likes of Facebook and Apple, but also dating platforms like OkCupid and Tinder,” he says. “These dating platforms represent a different kind of social media platform, that brings customers together.”

Platform discourses project There are three separate sub-projects within the project as a whole, looking at how tech companies gain the trust of users for the introduction of what can be highly disruptive technologies. Methods of textual and visual analysis are being used to analyse the texts, images and moving images that these companies produce. “For example, Sidewalk Labs – a sister company of Google – was involved in a smart city project in Toronto, which eventually failed.

They produced booklets and videos about what a smart city would look like. I look at these and ask; what is Sidewalk Labs’ vision of human life?

A second project carried out by Rianne Riemens is on how tech companies talk about the climate crisis, as in Microsoft’s AI for Earth program,” Niessen outlines. “The third sub-project is on voice-user interfaces like Siri, in which my colleague Nuno Atalaia is analysing the way that tech companies introduce these new interfaces.”

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How does a tech company like Microsoft presents itself in the climate debate? CREDIT: Screen grab from Microsoft.com. Used with permission from Microsoft.

These types of interfaces are expected to eventually replace the more visual interfaces we are familiar with today to some extent, which would represent a significant change for many people. The wider aim in the project is to build a deeper understanding of the stories that these tech companies produce alongside this type of technology to build trust and gain the consent of the wider public.

“These platforms don’t produce just digital infrastructures, but also a worldview,” says Dr Niessen. These worldviews often spring from the core belief that technology can be used to enhance human life, and Dr Niessen himself acknowledges the emancipatory function of social media. “Social media does help connect people, and allows the formation of new kinds of social interactions. Sites like Facebook give voices to minority communities,” he says.

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A number of other emancipatory effects have emerged as a result of the rise of social media. For example, with online dating apps it’s now possible for sexual minority groups to more easily meet others of the same orientation facing similar challenges, which Dr Niessen views as a positive change. “That’s a revolution for the better,” he says. This is not however the whole story, and ultimately these platforms are part of a new economic model in which human experience and interaction is datafied. “These platforms generate profits from people’s social interactions, they extract value from everyday experience,” continues Dr Niessen. “In the project we juxtapose the image of humanity that these tech companies produce with what, in our analysis, is actually happening to human life in this platform society.”

This is a reality in which people are often overloaded by information, and hop from project to project. Many of us have grown used to receiving messages through different forms of media throughout the day, which affects the way we focus our attention.“It could be argued that people’s attention is much more scattered than the worldview promoted by companies like Apple would have us believe,” says Dr Niessen. This is related to the fact that the business model of companies like Google and Facebook is to gather data and extract value from human attention. “These huge datasets are profitable for advertising purposes, to find new target audiences and for product development,” continues Dr Niessen. “The two main lines through which data is profitable for these companies are advertising and product development.”

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Vision of human life The central question that Dr Niessen and his colleagues are addressing in their research is simply; what is the vision of human life that these platform companies produce? Dr Niessen is critical of these tech discourses, as in his view they don’t match the reality of a digitizing world. “In their book The Costs of Connection, the authors Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias essentially make the argument that market-driven digital platforms function by a colonising logic. They draw a parallel between colonial practices and the platform

if they are widely used by friends and family for communication then this makes them difficult to avoid. “As an individual, if all your friends are on a platform it’s very difficult to not join too. I would also say that a platform like Facebook reshapes people’s attention,” explains Dr Niessen. These platforms have become such a ubiquitous part of our daily lives that it may be difficult for many to imagine living without them, but Dr Niessen hopes that alternatives built on different foundations will emerge. “I hope that public alternatives will be created,” he says.

These platforms generate profits from people’s social interactions, they extract value from everyday experience. In the project we juxtapose the image of humanity that these tech companies produce with what, in our analysis, is actually happening to human life in this platform society. society we live in,” he says. Many technology companies promote the view that human beings, through technology, are in control of the world in which we live, a view which Dr Niessen doesn’t wholeheartedly share. “The narrative that problems can be brought under control by more technology can be part of the problem,” he says.

This is partly about resource availability in the light of climate change and wider sustainability concerns, while more broadly Dr Niessen wants to stimulate debate about what these platforms are doing to societies.

While there is a general awareness that social media platforms are highly addictive,

An initiative called Public Spaces has been established in the Netherlands for example, envisioning a version of the internet focused less on economic profit and more on facilitating social interaction, where our online browsing behaviour is not exploited for commercial gain. This is not to suggest that companies like Google and Facebook don’t have a right to exist, but Dr Niessen would like to see more effective regulation and also to heighten awareness among the wider public about how they operate. “I think Facebook can only be regulated effectively at the supranational level, by supra-national bodies like the EU or the US government,” he says.

PLATFORM DISCOURSES A Critical Humanities Approach to the Texts, Images, and Moving Images Produced by Tech Companies

Project Objectives

Platform Discourses analyzes the texts, images, and moving images through which tech companies like Google and Facebook address people not merely as consumers but also as a “public.” The project asks: What is the vision of human life that we find in these discourses? The project juxtaposes this ideological vision to Big Tech’s colonization of everyday life.

Project Funding

Funded by an European Research Council Starting Grant (2019-2024).

Host Institution

Radboud Institute for Culture and History (Nijmegen, The Netherlands).

Contact Details

Principal Investigator, Platform Discourses project Dr Niels Niessen, Ph.D Radboud University Nijmegen Houtlaan 4, 6525 XZ Nijmegen, Netherlands E: niels.niessen@ru.nl W: https://www.ru.nl/english/people/ niessen-n/ W: attentionbook.xyz

Selected publication

Niels Niessen, “Shot on iPhone: Apple’s World Picture,” Advertising and Society Quarterly 22.2 (2021), https://muse.jhu.edu/article/797069.

Dr Niels Niessen, Ph.D

Apple’s World Gallery campaign (photo by Niels Niessen).

Niels Niessen (Ph.D 2013, University of Minnesota) is a researcher in Arts and Culture at Radboud University Nijmegen. At Nijmegen he leads the Platform Discourses research project and he is also the initiator of the Critical Humanities research group. He now works on the book Big Tech and the End of Everyday Life.

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Liquidity: The Bloodflow of Financial Markets A stable flow of blood through the body is central to health and liquidity – the measure of the flow of trading activity across markets - is similarly critical to the health of the economy. We spoke to Professor Angelo Ranaldo about why it is important to study liquidity in conjunction with asset prices, just as a doctor should consider both blood and nerves for a comprehensive diagnosis.

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis remains an influential paradigm in financial economics. Simply put, a market is only efficient when an asset is traded at a unique price reflecting its fundamental value. This efficiency is broken down by a myriad of frictions, chief of which is the concept of illiquidity. Understanding these issues has motivated more than 20 years of research conducted by Professor Ranaldo, whose current projects are backed by the Swiss National Scientific Foundation (SNSF grant 182303 on “FX Trading Volume and Illiquidity” and SNSF grant 204721 on “Cryptocurrencies”). “My intention has always been to understand whether markets are efficient and if they are not, why not. An effective way to do this is to analyse illiquidity, which is the visible part of the iceberg of market inefficiencies,” he outlines.

While these inefficiencies can pose sizeable problems in their own right, they become exponentially dangerous when they amplify the consequences of adverse shocks to the economy. In times of crisis, liquidity frequently evaporates, causing chain reactions and contagion throughout financial markets. In the aftermath of the turmoil caused by recessions, global leaders often ponder what should

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be done to prevent history repeating itself.

Ensuring that market mechanisms function well and ironing out inefficiencies is essential to ensuring that the next crisis will be contained.

Our interview with Professor Ranaldo gives us an insight into this ongoing work, which he divides into three strands converging to the same end: market liquidity, funding liquidity, and how liquidity affects asset pricing.

Market Liquidity “A liquid asset is one which can be easily and rapidly converted into (or out of) cash, and will always be quoted a “fair” price no matter the trading volume,” Ranaldo explains. But liquidity is an elusive and multifaceted concept, with many considerations such as transaction costs, price elasticity, market depth, the time needed to find a suitable counterparty, the effort needed to execute the appropriate trading strategy, etc. Since the early writings of his Ph.D. thesis, Ranaldo’s research has continued to shed light on the demand and supply of liquidity (Ranaldo, 2004), the methods by which to accurately measure it (Abdi and Ranaldo, 2017), and how to circumvent the problem of limited data availability (Karnaukh, Ranaldo, Söderlind, 2015).

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“Something curious, if not ironic, is that the foreign exchange rate (FX) market is the largest market in the world and is considered by many to be verging on market efficiency given its size and the prevalence of professional traders, such as global dealers and sophisticated financial firms. And yet, little was previously known about its liquidity,” Ranaldo points out. “In Mancini, Ranaldo, and Wrampelmeyer (2013), we showed that FX market liquidity, while seemingly reliable, can suddenly disappear, as it did for example in reaction to the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Worse, it did so simultaneously for many currencies, and in connection with other financial securities such as US stocks and bonds. This is exactly what worries investors: just as things are getting precarious and you

has a negative impact on market liquidity.

The third component is the complications posed by market segmentation, which certainly applies to FX markets, as analysed in Ranaldo (2009). FX rates are traded in over-the-counter (OTC) markets which, by their nature, are fragmented and opaque.

In these markets, the supply of liquidity is concentrated in the hands of some twenty dealers who act on a global scale. FX dealers require compensation to offer liquidity and for all the risks associated with their service.

However, their availability to offer liquidity also depends on their own financial health, as shown in recent work (Huang, Ranaldo, Schrimpf, and Somogyi, 2021), and this brings the professor to the second strand of his work: funding liquidity.

My intention has always been to understand whether markets are efficient and if they are not, why not. An effective way to do this is to analyse illiquidity, which is the visible part of the iceberg of market inefficiencies. need liquidity the most in order to adjust your portfolio, you are trapped because illiquidity freezes trading and renders it painfully expensive.”

Since liquidity is an elusive, intangible concept, it can be difficult to identify its enemies. But there are at least three: First, a bitter enemy of liquidity is risk, whether it be the aggregate market risk or the idiosyncratic risk of a financial security. A second is the issue of poor information. As shown in Ranaldo and Somogyi (2020), a lack of information, or the unequal distribution of information among market participants,

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Funding Liquidity Liquidity is a coin with two faces: market liquidity and funding liquidity. The latter refers to peoples’ ability to borrow money or securities, which is crucial in the modern financial system, as investors often take a leveraged position to increase the potential return of an investment. On the one hand, funding problems can impair market liquidity.

“Imagine that in order to invest in assets worth more than your equity, you use a bank loan. If your bank suspects that you are no longer able to repay, or if the bank itself needs liquidity, then it may decide to stop

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lending and hoard liquidity for itself. In this scenario, you might be forced to sell your assets at whatever price the market will give you,” Ranaldo explains. “But causation can go the other way: market illiquidity can trigger funding problems. In fact, illiquidity goes hand in hand with price drops and volatility, resulting in margin calls which force you to desperately procure further funding to cover your losses.” In this context, liquidity becomes scarce and valuable, as it was during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.

Professor Ranaldo and his co-authors have extensively studied money markets, which are the major source of funding liquidity.

Money markets’ sound functioning is crucial for financial stability and monetary policy.

In fact, the first symptoms of a financial crisis surface precisely with sudden and abrupt increases in money market rates and the reluctance of financial firms to lend to each other. Furthermore, a wide dispersion of money market rates hinders the transmission of monetary policy.

Ranaldo’s research has shown how certain features make the European money market more resilient (Mancini, Ranaldo, and Wrampelmeyer, 2016) and how banks can cope with a liquidity haemorrhage (Di Filippo, Ranaldo, Wrampelmeyer, 2021).

Furthermore, he has demonstrated that new regulation introduced in response to the Global Financial Crisis is causing unintended consequences in the money market and asset prices (Cenedese, Ranaldo, Vasios, 2020; Ranaldo, Schaffner, Vasios, 2021). This brings us to the last important research area that Professor Ranaldo has been working on: how liquidity impacts asset prices.

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Liquidity and Asset Prices “Imagine that you hold a financial security whose liquidity evaporates when things take a turn for the worse, for example when financial markets go down. Wouldn’t you demand compensation or a premium for this risk?” asks Professor Ranaldo. With his colleagues, he empirically corroborates this idea by studying US stocks (Abdi and Ranaldo, 2017) and FX markets (Christiansen, Ranaldo, and Söderlind, 2011; Mancini, Ranaldo, and Wrampelmeyer, 2013). “With Fabricius Somogyi, we were able to isolate the asymmetric information risk. We showed that asymmetric information risk in the FX market is systematic and pervasive.

Furthermore, we found a way to quantify its economic magnitude,” he explains.

The liquidity of certain financial securities, or their ability to generate it, is priced by investors. “For example, there are heavily traded financial securities such as government bonds issued by solid sovereign states such as the US and Germany that are not only safe, but also offer liquidity benefits, such as being widely accepted as collateral by clearing houses or counterparties in derivative contracts, or by qualifying as collateral for refinancing operations with central banks, or as High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) to satisfy current Basel III regulations,” Ranaldo describes. In a recent work with Benedikt Ballensiefen, they demonstrate that investors pay a premium for the liquidity benefits offered by these safe assets (Ballensiefen and Ranaldo, 2019). Moreover, investors further appreciate them when they become scarcer and during risky times. In two further studies, it has been shown that scarcity can

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be induced by large purchase programs (i.e. quantitative easing) conducted by central banks (Ballensiefen, Ranaldo, and Winterberg, 2020) and regulation (Ranaldo, Schaffner, and Vasios, 2021).

The price of a financial security is not only determined by the quality of the security but also by how it exposes its owner to liquidity risks. “Liquidity mismatches are part of banks’ business models because they fund long-term assets with shortterm liabilities. Relying more heavily on volatile sources of funding – for example, deposits from a fickle customer base or short-term interbank lending – exposes banks to liquidity risk,” Ranaldo continues.

currency cash settlement system, handling around 50% of the global spot, swap, and forward FX transaction volume. These data have a rich information content since they represent the global FX market and are observable at a high frequency, i.e. even on an intraday basis. “So far we have studied the spot market on a global scale, as for instance in Ranaldo and Santucci de Magistris (2018).

The next step is to shed light on the FX derivatives market, especially FX swaps, which are an even larger segment than spot.

I started to report some general findings in a handbook chapter (Ranaldo, forthcoming) but I have only scratched the surface for now,” Ranaldo concludes.

Liquidity mismatches are part of banks’ business models because they fund long-term assets with short-term liabilities.

Relying more heavily on volatile sources of funding – for example, deposits from a fickle customer base or shortterm interbank lending – exposes banks to liquidity risk.

A recent study (Bechtel, Ranaldo, and Wrampelmeyer, 2019) shows that those who are more exposed to urgent liquidity needs are willing to pay a markup for immediate funding, and that the liquidity risk is different from other issues such as counterparty credit risk (demanded by lenders) or market illiquidity.

Next Projects In his recent research, Professor Ranaldo has analysed unique FX data from the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS), which operates the world’s largest multi-

Thanks to the recent SNSF grant 204721, Professor Ranaldo plans to conduct indepth research on Financial Technology (Fintech). “Technological innovations such as blockchain, tokenization, and smart contracts have the potential to diminish and even remove many of the frictions we discussed,” Ranaldo argues. Together with Professor Andrea Barbon, he has started a project assessing the quality of cryptocurrency markets (Barbon and Ranaldo, 2021). The next step will be to study digital assets and non-fungible tokens (NFT) - new blood in the financial system.

FX TRADING VOLUME AND ILLIQUIDITY FX Trading Volume and Illiquidity Project Objectives

In a regime of floating FX rates and open economies, international investors pay close attention to the liquidity of exchange rate markets. Thus some natural questions arise: How should one measure market liquidity?

What are its determinants? And what are its effects on FX rates? The objective of this research project is to address these questions by analyzing the liquidity of the global currency market.

Project Funding

Funded by the Swiss National Scientific Foundation (SNSF grant 182303 on “FX Trading Volume and Illiquidity”.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Prof. Dr. Angelo Ranaldo Professor of Finance and Systemic Risk School of Finance University of St.Gallen (HSG) | Unterer Graben 21 | 9000 St.Gallen Office 51-5010 T: +41 71 224 70 10 E: angelo.ranaldo@unisg.ch W: www.sbf.unisg.ch Angelo Ranaldo

Angelo Ranaldo is Full Professor of Finance and Systemic Risk at the University of St Gallen. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Zurich. Angelo is the top researcher in the JEL Code G (Finance) based on www.forschungsmonitoring.org ranking considering just A+ publications.

He has published many scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals and the three most recent publications are: Ranaldo, A., P. Schaffner, M. Vasios (2021): “Regulatory Effects on Short Term Interest Rates”, Journal of Financial Economics 141(2), 750-770.

Ranaldo, A., F. Somogyi (2021): “Asymmetric Information Risk in FX Markets”, Journal of Financial Economics 140 (2) 391-411.

Cenedese, G., A. Ranaldo, M. Vasios (2020): “OTC Premia”. Journal of Financial Economics, 136 (1), 86-105.

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Networking for business success Networks play a critical role in how entrepreneurs and innovators generate, elaborate, and implement new ideas. But how do they build the networks they need? And how can they best leverage the networks they already have? As Dr Anne ter Wal explains, the answer lies in shifting our attention from studying networks to studying networking.

Entrepreneurs and innovators benefit from being part of rich and diverse networks among peers which give them the chance to share ideas, ask for advice and identify opportunities for novel products and technologies. As the Principal Investigator of an ERC-backed research programme at Imperial College in London, titled ‘Networking for Innovation’, Dr ter Wal and his team are investigating the importance of networking in entrepreneurship and innovation. “We think of networking as broadly having two main functions, one of which is around accessing input for new ideas and identifying opportunities.

Network relationships affect the diversity of information that you have access to, which then feeds into creative processes,” he says.

A second function of networking is related more to building influence. “Once you have identified an idea or a new opportunity, how do you bring that forward inside an organisation or how do you convince investors?” says Dr ter Wal.

Entrepreneurial eco-systems An important objective of Dr ter Wal’s research programme is to identify how

entrepreneurs can best take advantage of network opportunities in their local environment. “It is well established that entrepreneurs and innovators benefit from being part of a community, but it’s not so clear how they achieve that,” he says.

A good example of the network challenges that entrepreneurs face relates to entrepreneurial ecosystems. Such ecosystems, for example London TechCity are rich in network opportunities, but it is

ter Wal says many budding entrepreneurs tend to find them quite frustrating. “They have lots of quite shallow conversations and don’t find what they were hoping to find,” he explains. “In one part of our programme, we observed the behaviour of participants at entrepreneurial networking events and interviewed TechCity-based entrepreneurs to try and understand how they seek to embed in the community of entrepreneurs inside the ecosystem and how this helps

It is the interplay between learned strategic networking actions and spontaneous organic ones that ultimately lead entrepreneurs to embed themselves in communities where they can bond with and learn from others. not obvious how entrepreneurs can make the most of them. Many start a company without any previous experience of running their own business, so have almost no connections in the ecosystem community to begin with. There are plentiful networking events in London designed to help entrepreneurs build relationships with people who can help them succeed, yet Dr

them identify new opportunities and bring them forward.”

Beneath the surface of events and venues open to anyone, there are more selective groups, but it’s only by behaving in certain ways that entrepreneurs can discover that these selective environments exist and be invited to join. “Our research documents that process. There are both organic and more

Photo by Cherry Deck on Unsplash

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strategic components to how entrepreneurs get embedded in the more selective spaces” says Dr ter Wal. “For example, we’ve found kite-surfing clubs where experienced entrepreneurs meet up to talk about how to run a growing business.”

An inexperienced entrepreneur would be unlikely to gain access to such a club simply by attending lots of events, rather they would need to first learn how to behave in such open networking environments, to crack the code of how to unlock new, unanticipated opportunities. While initially entrepreneurs may adopt a very commercial focus at networking events, over time they often learn to behave differently. It is the interplay between learned strategic actions and spontaneous organic ones that ultimately leads entrepreneurs to embed themselves in communities where they can bond with others and learn from them.

Mobilizing networks inside organizations Similar challenges arise inside larger corporations. Ideas do not move forward inside organizations on merit alone. For example, an innovator may know that they will benefit from having a senior sponsor for their project inside an organisation, but the question is how and when they can best enlist that support.

“The day-to-day decisions about how people use their networks are really at the core of my research,” stresses Dr ter Wal. “Two people may have exactly the same networks and know the exact same people, but they may make quite different choices as to when they elicit support from their contacts.”

“We found that individuals who gradually involve their network contacts from the inside-out – their closest contacts first, their outer circles later – are more successful in pushing their ideas forward in the organization than individuals who are more oblivious to understanding who can best help at what stage of an idea’s development and expose their ideas too broadly, too soon,” outlines Dr ter Wal. In large organizations, it is also not obvious how people working together on novel ideas can best divide their networking activities. “In most organizations there is a distinct division of labour. When it comes to innovation, the person in the technology development role represents what’s possible, while the manager represents what’s needed – they have more of a business background. It is not obvious how people in these different roles should work together,” says Dr ter Wal. In order to achieve market success, a product has to ultimately meet both a commercial need and be technologically sophisticated. “We found

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that managers and technologists pursuing joint ideas need to mirror one another’s networks in a networking practice we call dual networking.

Dual networking is not a matter of having overlapping networks but making sure to have similar but separate advice networks that allow co-workers to challenge one another,” says Dr ter Wal. “Only then will people working together succeed in merging what’s technically possible with what’s needed.”

Networking for innovation Whether they like networking or not, entrepreneurs and innovators know very well that networks matter a great deal, and that ideas they pursue become all the better for it. “We’ve found that the relationships entrepreneurs really crave are support networks with their peers,” outlines Dr ter Wal. This was particularly evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Many entrepreneurs kept social activities going online during lockdown, and they also returned in-person very rapidly,” says Dr ter Wal. “We have an entrepreneurial campus called ScaleSpace at Imperial, jointly run with venture builder Blenheim Chalcot, where we try to help businesses grow. That campus was brimming with life long before the university campus.”

This is a sign of the value that entrepreneurs and innovators place on being part of a network, and of a recognition of their importance to the commercial prospects of their business or the success of their ideas. While not everybody actively enjoys networking and it is not obvious how to best approach it, people can learn to network more effectively, believes Dr ter Wal. “Not all of us are social butterflies, but it doesn’t mean we can’t become effective networkers. There are techniques we can use that are effective for us, for the type of person we are and the type of work we do,” he says. In his teaching Dr ter Wal aims to help people identify what networking practices and habits they can sustain in the long-term that will help them build and employ the right kind of network.

“It’s about finding habitual behaviours that fit with your preferences and that you can sustain in the long term, not like joining a gym in the New Year and then not using it for 11 months,” he continues. “Learning to build and leverage your network more effectively, yet in ways that suit you, will make a meaningful difference in the odds of success in promoting your ideas.

It is by trying to unravel effective networking for innovation that my research programme hopes to strengthen our understanding of what it takes for entrepreneurs and innovators and the organizations and places where they work to succeed and flourish.”

N4I_CLUSTERS Networking for innovation: how entrepreneurs’ network behaviours help clusters to innovate Project Objectives

The ERC-funded “Networking for Innovation” research programme seeks to better understand how innovators and entrepreneurs build and mobilize their social capital to achieve innovative outcomes. A better understanding of networking behaviour is important, as it will help reveal the fundamental individual-level mechanisms through which networking facilitates innovation. Better understanding how innovators and entrepreneurs capitalise on local network opportunities may also help explain why some places are more vibrant and innovative than others.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Starting Grant.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Dr Anne ter Wal Imperial College Business School Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom T: +44 20 7594 1460 E: a.terwal@imperial.ac.uk W: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/ faculty-research/academic-areas/managemententrepreneurship/research/networking-innovation/ Ter Wal, A.L.J., P. Criscuolo & A. Salter (2022), Inside-out, outside-in, or all-in-one? The role of network sequencing in the elaboration of ideas.

Academy of Management Journal, in-press.

Ter Wal, A.L.J., P. Criscuolo, B. McEvily & A. Salter (2020), Dual networking: how collaborators network in their quest for innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 65 (4): 887-930.

Dr Anne ter Wal

Dr Anne Ter Wal is an associate professor of technology and innovation management at Imperial College Business School in London. Anne received his Ph.D. in economic geography from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His current research focuses on the role of social networks and networking practices in innovation and entrepreneurship.

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How could the Metaverse change our lives?

The Metaverse is a concept, born from science fiction, of connected environments based within virtual reality. The fact that the Metaverse is in development and pitched as the next major social network, means we need to look at the big questions around what impacts it will have on the way we interact, behave and how we choose to use it as a tool.

By Richard Forsyth

W

hen the Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, renamed his near trillion-dollar company, Meta, it was evident that he was taking his Metaverse project very seriously and in 2021 Zuckerberg explained exactly why.

“We believe the Metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet,” he declared. “We’ll be able to feel present, right there with people no matter how far apart we are… Because screens can’t convey the full nature of human expression and connection.”

With a 10 billion dollar investment and an army of engineers, he’s already built the foundations of his virtually based ‘utopian’ vision, with the intention to make it a shared global space to live and work in. Anyone who has seen the Hollywood movie Ready Player One will understand how an advanced, immersive Metaverse could look and feel. In the film, set in 2045, whilst the planet is in social decline, people find happiness and escape in a virtual reality universe called OASIS. Players live alternate realities as invented characters in beautifully rendered virtual worlds.

The promise of the connected, social parallel universe that is the Metaverse, has been bubbling in media speculation for a while and whilst it has now been created, it’s still got some growing to do. We must ask, can it and will it truly transform how we live our lives?

Gamers are ready For children and many adults around the world, the fundamentals of the Metaverse are already second nature. Playing a networked game such as Fortnite, which 350 million people do, means assuming digital avatars with the option of in-game purchases, interaction over shared

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rendered environments and working together toward goals with strangers from around the world – all key component parts of life in the Metaverse. Indeed, the CEO of Epic Games that made Fortnite, Tim Sweeny, is one of the Metaverse’s biggest ‘cheerleaders’ although he’s emphasised that a Metaverse needs to be open access to everyone in a way that creators on the Metaverse own their own creations, and as he says it, are ‘not forced to adopt other things’, under the control and for the profit of one company or entity.

The biggest obvious difference to platforms like Fortnite is that in its true form, the Metaverse is supposed to be accessed with virtual reality headsets, in Meta’s case, Oculus virtual reality headsets, so users will perceive fully 3D environments. Virtual reality headsets, in their various guises, have often presented a problem with adoption from the public, as they are cumbersome, expensive and even make people feel dizzy or sick. With this in mind, it is curious that Facebook announced the launch of Ray-Ban Stories – lightweight digital eye gear based on sunglasses, equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers. If a fully immersive Metaverse is to be widely adopted, it will likely benefit from less intrusive headwear down the line, more like glasses, than a box over your head.

Zuckerberg’s vision is that we will create all kinds of environments, assume avatar identities and interact more closely in a series of connected, shared and digitally rendered spaces, for both work and recreation.

Complete convergence Like the internet before it, the goal is complete digital convergence, where everything you do in real life like shopping, working, watching movies, socialising with friends and even dating, is accessible through the platform.

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Currently, Meta is still working on its new platform. So far it has created Horizon Home, literally a virtual home from home with furniture and comfortable living space, Horizon Worlds – where you can create custom virtual environments and Horizon Workrooms, for collaboration.

Meta opened up access to Horizon Worlds to people in the US and Canada, aged 18 and over. It was fairly basic graphically, with an environment like the game Roblox. It let you meet with up to 20 people at a time in a virtual space. Thousands of beta testers held regular meetings, including movie nights and meditation sessions. You would initially enter a plaza – a gathering place – where you then jump off to games and worlds.

It’s possible to create your own worlds with a code Meta refers to as script blocks, which lets you create rules for your worlds by attaching behaviours to objects.

A customer’s paradise?

With Zuckerberg betting his company’s future on it, some businesses and investors see investing in the Metaverse, as a huge opportunity.

One goal of Zuckerberg’s is to create an enterprise Metaverse, making environments for business accessible and safe.

Imagine the new online retail possibilities alone. You could have a high street where you try out virtual versions of real products, or just virtual products for the Metaverse, with massive online shops to browse within as opposed to just a screen of images of products with a search field. The ability to create any world environment, real or imagined would make venues for socialising and exploring an attractive way to spend leisure time. Take it further still, imagine exploring the inside of someone’s body after a medical scan, walking on accurately

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rendered landscapes of Mars or moons in our solar system, or floating around a foreign city you’ve never been to, not on a screen but there, in true 3D. The possibilities are only limited by imagination.

New realities, same problems As interesting and exciting as this new platform sounds, there are also big question marks and fears about its creation. When the internet became mature, it revealed a dark side, in the way it has been used for abuse, the way it is addictive and the way it can change our perceptions and interactions around others, often negatively. It exposed people’s cruelty and gave a channel for expressing hate without consequence or spreading malicious or damaging lies. Whilst Meta is adamant that they are looking at this, we already know the dangers of users’ behaviours from experience and the difficulties in eradicating bullying, lies and toxic interaction. People don’t hide their darker sides in virtual space, if anything, such platforms make it easier to unleash them, and easier to fall foul to them.

With flimsy regulation early on – criminality and abuse can flourish.

Despite being in its digital infancy, the Metaverse is already causing users and pundits to raise red flags.

Samsung created My Home to explore new home technology.

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Meta is well aware that terrifying abuse has already taken place during beta sessions. For example, in one of the sessions where Meta allowed access for 20 avatars to explore in a beta test for Horizon Worlds, one female user in the space reported she was pursued and groped by a stranger.

Whilst there is functionality to create what Meta called a Safe Zone that shuts down interactions, the woman was unaware of this and her experience is a disturbing example of how people can become victimised and even assaulted in this kind of fully immersive environment, which is especially concerning if there were ever vulnerable people able to access the Metaverse, such as children. The victim, in this case, posted that her experience felt as psychologically shocking as a physical attack.

She wrote: “Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense. Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people there who supported this behaviour which made me feel isolated…”

This was not the only incident reported of this nature. Another woman joined the Metaverse and immediately became the victim of a nightmarish assault in the virtual plaza where people initially gathered. She said: “Within sixty seconds of joining, I was verbally and sexually harassed by three to four male avatars, with male voices, who essentially, but virtually, gang-raped my avatar and took photos.”

There are pressing issues around dealing adequately with privacy, content moderation and political extremism. When socially based technologies bloom quickly to reach global audiences – monitoring, regulating and policing becomes extremely challenging. Can we expect the Metaverse to become a new breeding ground for misinformation, hate in all its guises and ugly political movements? Facebook’s initial motto was ‘move fast and break things’, which could be interpreted as recklessness, with regard to consequences.

With this in mind, a disturbing account of the company came from a whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, who had worked for the social network. She leaked internal documents to give an insider’s view of the company’s motives and workings. She inferred the company deliberately kept children drawn to the platforms, and that they hid research around how teenagers felt worse about themselves after using its products. She indicated the firm was willing to use hate content on its site to keep users engaged and returning.

In conjunction with this, independent research has revealed that social media platforms can be the source of depression and even suicidal feelings for teens. If safeguards are not only poor but they appeared an unwanted obstruction to profits in a company, should we be more careful about engagement or avoid it altogether? One thing that has already proven to be true is that in a very personal environment like the Metaverse, abuses and crimes would feel very real and be hugely impacting.

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Mirroring real life, the Metaverse will also create a new virtual economy and for the cynical, there is the very real fear that this will become just another way to take people’s money, a shiny new eCommerce where we buy things we don’t need, like memberships and digital apparel, all looped back into data capture of our habits for the host or third parties to further exploit. As platforms become more immersive, our digital profiles become more detailed, capturing every aspect about us, potentially how we move, where we look, what our avatars say about us, what we say to and about people. The user always becomes the product in these kinds of environments. To an extent, Zuckerberg may be counting on this. He said, “I think the digital goods and creators are just going to be huge.”

For Meta to sell virtual goods, this will entail harvesting personal data from all users as is the norm. It’s hardly shocking anymore but in the context of the Metaverse, something worth understanding and re-imagining.

It’s also been suggested that it’s possible there could be issues with anti-trust, as if a company controls all the data in a new space like this, it could in turn control the markets. Denying the data to others means a very significant competitive advantage and control. In fairness, as already stated, these issues are not new, it’s simply a new era, with new technology. When you are pioneering a new kind of technology that millions of people use and submit their data to, it may take ill-informed or slow-moving legal entities to try and catch up with the implications and create the necessary laws around them.

There are plenty of big question marks over the Metaverse but the biggest is surly, ‘will people use it?’ Not everyone thinks so. This may well be reflected in Meta’s share price which slumped significantly after the company invested heavily in the Metaverse project.

Some experts believe that the transition to the fully realised Metaverse could take up to 15 years for its widescale adoption so instead of this being a non-starter, it may be a ‘long-game’. At present, the Metaverse is finding its feet. It’s also true that whilst Meta is the giant, aiming to develop the ultimate kind of Metaverse, it’s by no means the only company working on bringing the concept to market.

For instance, there is Asia’s Zepeto Metaverse platform, one accessible via personal devices, which already has amassed around a quarter of a million users. Samsung created their popular My House Metaverse on this, showcasing future home technology you could use in the virtual space. Zepeto also hosted the Unite Seoul 2020 conference, for Unity Korea in their version of the Metaverse. Users could take in exhibit spaces, purchase items for their avatars to wear, take pictures and watch sessions.

Whilst these kinds of alternate virtual environments are around today, perhaps just showing us a glimpse of the full potential, what’s important is how we choose to use them and safeguard users in them in the future. If we’re going to escape into virtual lifestyles, we need to truly understand that it’s still real people with their own agendas and behaviours in a Metaverse, as well as profiting from the Metaverse. Whilst it may become a stunning new habitat to explore, we should also be aware of the dangers that we know can exist in uncharted and lawless places.

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Whilst these kinds of alternate virtual environments are around today, perhaps just showing us a glimpse of the full potential, what’s important is how we choose to use them and safeguard users in them in the future.

One thing that has already proven to be true is that in a very personal environment like the Metaverse, abuses and crimes would feel very real and be hugely impacting.

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A new perspective on rationality The foundations of decision theory and game theory are commonly thought to be settled, yet there are many examples of human behaviour which is not rational in the way these theories describe. We spoke to Professor Wolfgang Spohn about his work in re-examining basic normative questions about rationality, which could shift the normative reference point for empirical research.

Our model of rational human behaviour has been fundamentally shaped by the development of modern decision theory and game theory. “The basics of these theories are thought to be somehow settled for decades – erroneously,” says Wolfgang Spohn, Professor of Philosophy and the Philosophy of Science at the University of Konstanz. The point is not that these theories are often conflated with the model of homo economicus, which assumes that we are primarily guided by rational self-interest and prioritise our own economic concerns.

Such assumptions about specific individual values do not belong to the basic conception of rationality. Still, there are many examples of human behaviour which seem rational, but are not regarded as such by standard decision and game theory. While most research

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tinkers round the edges of existing theory, Professor Spohn aims to re-examine the foundations of rationality in a new Reinhart Koselleck project. “The basic normative questions about rationality are not settled.

They are still contentious, and I want to take them in a specific direction,” he says.

Normative theory of rationality Professor Spohn’s inquiry into the foundations of a normative theory of rationality could fundamentally change the reference point for all empirical research. “Empirical research proceeds from the standard normative picture and then tries to find explanations for how and why we deviate. But if that standard reference point is not the correct one, then the focus of empirical research should shift,” he explains.

In traditional decision theory and game theory, formal structures called trees are used to represent different options of the agent and the various ways in which a situation may develop. “Two kinds of nodes are usually distinguished in a tree, the action nodes and the chance - or nature’s - nodes. I want to add a third kind of node, which I call decision nodes,” outlines Professor Spohn. “These decision nodes represent not the options of the agent, but rather the decision situations themselves that she is in, or may get into. They represent possible mental states in which she takes a decision and chooses an action.” The label ‘reflexive’ in the project’s title precisely refers to the reflection on those mental states.

The decision nodes as described are something that Professor Spohn believes should be additionally represented within

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theoretical frameworks, leading to a more general theory of rationality capable of dealing with a wider range of situations.

For instance, while standard theories only deal with the ways your decision situation may improve through the addition of more information, the more general theory can also deal with questions such as: How do you rationally behave today, when you expect to have forgotten something important tomorrow? How do you rationally take into account the fact that your preferences may be different tomorrow?

expressions for example. They therefore have an influence, particularly on social environments which are receptive to such influence. Again, the decision relevance of this aspect can only be captured in the reflexive perspective.

This point is best exemplified in applications to game-like social situations. Such situations involve several ‘players’, and the outcome depends on their behaviour. They may be opponents or partners, or be entangled in some other way. The prisoners’ dilemma is a famous example, because it is a very common social situation.

The basic normative questions about rationality are not settled. They are still contentious, and I want to take them in a specific direction.

Such questions call for a reflexive decision theory, modelling your reflection on your possible decision situations. Economists currently have only restricted models of preference change, an issue Professor Spohn is working to address.

Another important aspect is the fact that decision-relevant mental states not only lead to rational action but are also expressed in other ways, through speech, emotions and facial

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In the original scenario, two criminals are arrested, but the police don’t have sufficient evidence to convict them on the more serious of two charges, so need a confession from one or both. If neither of them confesses, they can only be tried for a minor crime. If both confess, they will be imprisoned for a long time. However, if only one confesses, he is set free as the chief witness, while the other, showing no repentance, is even more severely punished. “Thus, both

rationally confess. At least this is what all game theorists say,” says Professor Spohn.

The same social structure (reduced to two persons) is exemplified with the decision to get vaccinated in the table below. Both are better off when getting both vaccinated than both getting not vaccinated. But each is still better off when only the other one gets vaccinated. If so, both seem rational in not getting vaccinated.

In the original example, the two prisoners can’t communicate. They don’t see what the other does, so their actions are causally independent. “Standard game theory concludes from this that the two decisions are also probabilistically independent. However, that’s a mistake,” claims Professor Spohn.

The prisoners may have collaborated over the years and thus have developed an awareness of each other’s mentality, a kind of causally entangled, joint mental setup.

This causal entanglement creates a common cause structure of their actions (confessing or not confessing), thus rendering them probabilistically dependent, even though they are causally independent. Just as fever and cough are correlated, but do not cause each other; rather, both are caused by an infection.

“The standard solution concept of game

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REFLEXIVE DECISION AND GAME THEORY Reflexive Decision and Game Theory Project Objectives

The project proceeds from the perspective that game and decision theory are normatively deficient, and attempts to improve the normative ideal of a homo economicus. This would shift the point of attack of empirical criticism.

The project does so by conceptualizing and theorizing `reflexive ascent’ in a formally rigorous way. According to it, a person considers not only her possible actions and their possible consequences, but also her possible (future) decision situations, which entail those actions.

Project Funding

The project is funded by the DFG (German Science Foundation) under the Grant No. SP 279/21-1 (Project No. 420094936).

Project Collaborators • Dr. Gerard Rothfus • Dr. Mantas Radzvilas

Project Partners

• Prof. Dr. Bernd Sturmfels, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany • Dr. Irem Portakal

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Professor Wolfgang Spohn Department of Philosophy, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany E: wolfgang.spohn@uni-konstanz.de W: https://www.philosophie.uni-konstanz. de/ag-spohn/ W: https://www.philosophie.uni-konstanz.de/ ag-spohn/personen/prof-dr-wolfgang-spohn/ Spohn, W. (2003), “Dependency Equilibria and the Causal Structure of Decision and Game Situations”, Homo Oeconomicus 20, 195-255 Kusser, A., W. Spohn (1992), “The Utility of Pleasure is a Pain for Decision Theory”, Journal of Philosophy 89, 10-29

Professor Wolfgang Spohn

theory, the Nash equilibrium, is characterised by the probabilistic independence of the individuals’ actions,” explains Professor Spohn.

He challenges this solution. “Despite causal independence, there may still be probabilistic dependence, and this is accounted for by another solution concept, which I call dependency equilibria,” he continues. “These dependency equilibria are more general than Nash equilibria. In particular, the prisoners may rationally cooperate - i.e. not confess - in such a dependency equilibrium.”

Two kinds of nodes are usually distinguished in a tree, the action nodes and the chance - or nature - nodes. I want to add a third kind of node, which I call decision nodes Normative reference point

Wolfgang Spohn is Professor emeritus of Philosophy and Philosophy of Science at the University of Konstanz and Senior Professor at the University of Tübingen. He was winner of the Lakatos Award in 2012. He is devoted to analytic philosophy and widely contributing to epistemology, philosophy of science, and the theory of theoretical and practical philosophy.

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response and adjust the split accordingly, which is borne out by the evidence. Researchers often observe a £5-£5 or £6-£4 split, while it’s unusual for a proposer to suggest a £9-£1 split, which game theory tells us to be the rational outcome.

“The ultimatum game is taken as a core example for other-regarding preferences. The proposer has a concern for fairness,” says Professor Spohn.

However, there are many dependency equilibria, i.e., rational outcomes in the ultimatum game, including an even split of the money. “This puts the existing literature in a different light,” he

The inclusion of dependency equilibria in game theory could lead to fundamental change by shifting the normative reference point for empirical research. This can be illustrated by the ultimatum game, where one individual (the proposer) receives, say, £10, which he has to split with somebody else (the responder). He may offer £1 (or more) and propose to keep £9 (or less). The responder can accept or reject this. If she accepts, she gets £1, if she rejects, nobody gets anything. Standard game theory claims that the responder will rationally accept the proposal, because £1 is better than nothing.

However, this is not what has been observed in experiments. If a proposer offers just £1 and keeps the rest for himself, the responder may well be outraged and reject the offer.

A proposer may then anticipate that kind of

says. “The rich experimental literature about the ultimatum game, and other similar games, would get a different reference point.”

This could eventually lead to changes in economic models. While his own background is in philosophy, Professor Spohn, who is a renowned formal epistemologist, has studied economic literature and regularly communicates with researchers in the field. “My collaborators are well versed in economics, and we aim to influence the economics community,” he adds. As the author of an influential paper on epistemic game theory in 1982, he also has a strong reputation among economists, which he hopes will help his new ideas gain traction.

“I aim to heighten awareness of the general reflexive perspective and in particular of the idea of these dependency equilibria not only in philosophy, but also amongst economists,” he says.

EU Research

The xCIT team develops cognitive training video games for research (http://behaverse.org/cognitive_training.html). The goal is to understand what game features and training modes improve cognitive abilities.

Why do video games improve cognitive abilities?

It has been shown that playing certain video games can have a positive impact on cognition, yet the underlying mechanisms behind these effects are not clear. We spoke to Dr Pedro CardosoLeite about his research into which features of video games help improve cognitive performance, which could then inform the development of new games designed to boost learning capacity.

A large body

of evidence suggests that playing certain types of video games can have a positive impact on cognitive performance, and researchers are investigating how they can be applied in education and training. Work

by Professor Daphne Bavelier and Professor Shawn Green a few years ago pointed to the potential of using video games in cognitive training. “A group of friends came to the lab and their performance on certain cognitive tests were way above those of normal people.

They started to investigate, why did they perform so well? And they realised that they were part of a group that regularly played action video games. These were first or thirdperson shooter games,” explains Dr Pedro Cardoso-Leite, Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Luxembourg. This raises the question of why action video games have these effects, a topic Dr Cardoso-Leite is exploring in his research. “There are some features of these video games that people think are leading to these effects,” he outlines.

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These games are typically quite fastpaced and players have to make lots of decisions, while at the same time they need to distribute their attention. A player needs to monitor everything that’s happening in the virtual environment around them, but they might also have to rapidly switch from that mode of distributed attention to focus more intently on a particular location. “An enemy might be lurking somewhere for example, and then you would need to focus your gun and shoot. There’s also prediction involved – you want to behave unpredictably, and to predict the behaviour of your opponents,” says Dr Cardoso-Leite. It has been suggested that these features lead to improvements in attentional control, which Dr Cardoso-Leite says is central to many cognitive tasks. “One of the hallmarks of the attentional control system is the ability to focus your attention and not get distracted,” he explains. “Video games tend to be quite complex, and a player may be involved in multiple tasks in parallel operating at different timescales.”

Action video games A number of features or ingredients of action video games have been listed as possible causes for the positive impact of playing certain games on cognitive performance. However, it is unclear how to map those features to both theories in cognitive psychology and to actual game mechanics. Now researchers are looking to build a fuller picture. In Dr Cardoso-Leite’s lab, researchers are working on a theory of cognitive training and are aiming to identify experimentally which game features are effective in enhancing cognitive performance and learning capacity. “We create games that have properties we think are interesting from a theoretical point of view,” he outlines. By developing different versions of video games which include some of these ingredients and exclude others, researchers aim to identify which have a positive impact on cognitive performance. “We are trying to go from those features and theories to the development of alternative, well-controlled versions of video games, where some of the features are present

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or absent,” says Dr Cardoso-Leite. “We can then test those theories experimentally by asking different groups of people to train on those games and evaluate how training on each of those games impacts their cognitive abilities.”

The wider aim here is to develop video training games that help improve cognitive performance, with researchers in Dr CardosoLeite’s lab working primarily with young adults.

There are of course many open questions within the field of cognitive enhancement; the main challenge in cognitive training but also in education research is to achieve ‘transfer of learning’ which is an individual’s ability to apply the knowledge that they have acquired in a given context to new relevant situations. It’s not clear how long training needs to be to yield cognitive performance improvements. “Many different studies have been pulled together in meta-analysis, and the amount of time that researchers asked participants to play video games varied significantly, from a single hour right up to 50 hours or more,” says Dr CardosoLeite. “The minimum amount of training required to achieve a particular effect is not completely clear. It seems to depend on the effect.”

A fairly small amount of training is required to change attentional performance

for example, in the order of 10 hours of training, whereas much more time is required to change perceptual abilities. Finally, if people are going to be encouraged to play a video game for long periods of time, it’s important that the game is engaging and immersive, which is not always the case with current training interventions. “When regular training or rehabilitation interventions are perceived as being dull then there’s a risk that people will drop out and not really engage.

They’re less motivated to put the effort into improving,” explains Dr Cardoso-Leite. A number of game designers are working with Dr Cardoso-Leite in the project to address this issue. “They bring some of their expertise to try to make those games as engaging as possible, for example by including appealing visual elements,” he continues. “Immersion and engagement is a major objective for game designers and developers; it must take a bigger a role in cognitive training research.”

Skill level The games that Dr Cardoso-Leite and his colleagues are creating are adaptive, in the sense that the difficulty level changes to reflect the skill level of the individual player.

A number of studies have been conducted to assess the impact of these types of games on people with different levels of mathematical and cognitive skills, and they have been found to have positive effects. “For example, there was a study in Italy on children with dyslexia, which appeared to be mainly related to attention deficits. It was found that playing these action video games actually helped improve their reading abilities,” outlines Dr Cardoso-Leite. While so far he has worked mainly with young adults, Dr Cardoso-Leite is also interested in using these games with older groups in the population, although he acknowledges that some modifications may be necessary. “We would need to take into account people’s motor and cognitive abilities, and this might mean that games have to be simpler.”

One of the current main training games is set in space for example, and while this may engage children and young adults, it is unlikely to be as appealing to older groups.

These video games could also be used to improve cognitive skills in people with certain handicaps, another area that Dr Cardoso-Leite is investigating. “We are involved in a study with the Institute of Neuroscience in Paris – we

The xCIT team (http://xcit.org/) develops video games for research in cognitive science at the University of Luxembourg.

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EU Research

SCIENTIFICALLY VALIDATED DIGITAL SCIENTIFICALLY VALIDATED DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Project Objectives

There is a great need for effective training interventions to enhance learning capacity and help people develop the skills they will need to thrive in the economy of the future. Regularly playing video games has been shown to lead to cognitive improvements, but the underlying mechanisms behind this are not fully understood.

The aim in the project is to use a multidisciplinary approach to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind learning and transfer, which could aid the development of more personalised training interventions in future.

Project Funding

Pedro Cardoso-Leite is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (ATTRACT/2016/ID/11242114/DIGILEARN)

Contact Details

The Behaverse battery of cognitive tests (http://behaverse.org/cognitive_assessment.html) developed by the xCIT team, provides a means to assess many facets of people’s cognitive abilities and to scientifically test the impact of cognitive training interventions.

develop and implement the assessments for cognitive abilities in patients who have certain neurological diseases. This is a group that may benefit from cognitive training interventions,” he says. The main focus at this stage however is on building a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind the cognitive improvements that have been observed, which could then inform the ongoing development of video games. “Which features of action video games lead to cognitive improvements? We make a range of measures before people train, and then again afterwards. We want to see what the profile of improvements looks like,” explains Dr Cardoso-Leite.

also be applied in the wider population to help people develop the skills that will be required in tomorrow’s employment market, in which there is likely to be a high premium on cognitive skills, another issue Dr CardosoLeite is addressing. “I’m also working with my colleagues at the University of Luxembourg, partner institutions, the Luxembourg National Research Fund and various stakeholders on setting up a national centre for excellence in research on education for the 21st century in Luxembourg,” he outlines.

This is part of a shift away from a system where formal education ends at the age of 18 and people then enter the employment

There was a study in Italy on children with dyslexia, which appeared to be mainly related to attention deficits.

It was found that playing these action video games actually helped improve their reading abilities.

This research could have a significant societal impact. To some extent problems associated with old age - like falling over and bumping into things - are related to attentional control issues, while the same applies for driving. “Attention issues are a major factor in explaining driving accidents in older people.

They start to have a more narrow focus and miss things that are happening in their surrounding environment. Helping to improve cognitive abilities and attentional control in older adults, keeping those processes active and essentially slowing down cognitive decline, would be a very positive outcome,” says Dr Cardoso-Leite. These games could

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market, towards one in which there is more of a focus on lifelong learning. As societies change so does the employment market, and people will need to acquire new skills throughout their lives as new technologies emerge, underlining the wider importance of Dr Cardoso-Leite’s research. “The cognitive training and assessments that we are developing with this project can also help address that societal challenge, in the sense that you can also provide people with cognitive training across the lifespan,” he says.

“We are aiming to connect cognitive abilities and cognitive training with how people learn and perform in their jobs.”

Pedro Cardoso-Leite Associate Professor | ATTRACT Fellow Head of xCIT University of Luxembourg | FHSE | MSH Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Science 11, Porte des Sciences, 4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg E: pedro.cardosoleite@uni.lu W: http://xcit.org

Dr Pedro Cardoso-Leite

Dr Pedro Cardoso-Leite is an FNR ATTRACT fellow and Associate Professor in Cognitive Science at the University of Luxembourg, where he leads the xCIT research group (http://xcit.org). His research is interdisciplinary—combining psychology, game design, computer science and machine learning—and focuses on creating and exploiting digital technologies, such as video games, to assess and improve human learning.

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Courtesy of Visyon & VRi - ViRe Instruments.

Driving technology transfer in Catalonia Bolstered by a mature research ecosystem in Catalonia, TECNIOspring PLUS provided a means for talented researchers to develop applied research projects, nurturing innovation for industries. The project has been a catalyst for technology transfer and for building careers in R&D. Catalonia is the

backdrop to one of Europe’s most thriving start-up ecosystems, with more than 1,900 Start-ups. Catalonia has been developing connections, networks and funnels for researchers and their projects to feed directly into industry. The Return on Investment (RoI) in developing careers, innovations and creating priceless farreaching professional relationships has been and continues to be, substantial.

The TECNIOspring PLUS programme has received funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant, from the European Research and Innovation program Horizon 2020, funding agreement No 712949. It funds innovation hubs for applied sciences, called TECNIO Centres, as well as technology and companies. TECNIOspring is an evolving programme. The initial TECNIOspring project was followed first by TECNIOspring PLUS and then, by Tecniospring INDUSTRY. The thread through them all is in facilitating ambitious talent in applied research over two-year contractual periods for senior researchers.

Advanced training in technology transfer is identified through TECNIOspring as the

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key to pushing Research and Development (R&D) milestones into scalable market-driven innovations.

The scheme provides up to 100% of financial support for researchers undertaking applied research projects, offering them close support with training, outreach and networking. This programme has been co-

Since the inception of the programme, companies have increasingly embraced the opportunities made accessible for R&D. In the first call of TECNIOspring PLUS, the number of companies awarded with the grant was just 2 out of the 17 selected projects. In contrast, by the third and last call of the programme, there were 9 out of

A highlight of the TECNIOspring programme has been that it allows for close collaboration with other international universities and companies in a well-developed research ecosystem. This is good not only for the notoriety and career of the researcher but also for the centre or company involved. financed by the EU’s Marie SkłodowskaCurie Actions and ACCIÓ, the latter acting as managing beneficiary. ACCIÓ is the Agency for Competitiveness from the Government of Catalonia, and its different programmes promote internationalisation and innovation to Catalan companies.

32. In the programme that followed, called Tecniospring INDUSTRY, the number of companies increased to 27 out of 67. Over recent years, the TECNIOspring concept has become a proven entity for supporting businesses and organisations, with talented researchers placed into an increasing number

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of companies that are directly benefiting in terms of product development, as a result.

Encouragingly, an increasing number of companies has fully realised the benefits of the initiative, as there was little to lose and everything to gain from the proposal.

TECNIOspring PLUS has awarded 66 fellowships for the 2016-2022 period with some fascinating innovation projects and impressive outcomes.

Matching researchers to companies The ongoing challenge that the project sought to address was supporting R & D professionals in finding the best routes to market. With 11,044,000 € of financial support made available for hiring experienced researchers and paying their initial salaries in applied science posts, relevant ‘good-match’ researchers became an attractive asset, through the project, for Catalonia industries. Making a perfect match between an applicant and a company required a high degree of scrutiny at the early stages. However, when a relevant match was identified, the results have often been far-reaching in terms of success both for the researchers, who on occasions became employed on a permanent basis at the company, and the businesses, which benefited from the expertise and input into developing attractive innovations.

Joint proposals submitted by aligned researchers and companies became funded projects in sectors such as Healthcare, Biotech, Food Industries and Energy to name a few.

There was a scientific evaluation of each project and also a technology transfer assessment, paying attention to the impact on the wider market.

A highlight of the TECNIOspring programme has been that it allows for close collaboration with other international universities and companies in a well-developed research ecosystem. This is good not only for the notoriety and career of the researcher but also for the centre or company involved.

Since companies and centres are based in Catalonia there is a much broader positive impact internationally. Most researchers involved have a wide range of nationalities, for example, two thirds of TECNIOspring PLUS researchers are international, while only one third is Spanish. The amount of international talent maintained with the following Tecniospring INDUSTRY programme (63% international researchers versus 37% Spanish researchers).

Collaborations that count Beyond the boost for employment, as a result of TECNIOspring PLUS there have been 14 patent applications submitted, 21 prototypes and 3 spin-offs created, and a vast number of collaborations carried out with some of the

world’s leading institutions and companies.

Here is a selection of some major examples of progressive research undertaken with support from TECNIOspring PLUS. In the framework of the TECNIOspring PLUS programme, Sadegh Astaneh, a PhD in Information and Communications Technologies, developed a monitoring system based on Big Data to optimise the use of water and fertiliser in agriculture, working with Barcelona based company ModpoW AgriTechnologies. The so-called MATAI solution monitors liquid data underground to give the farmer recommendations for watering in real-time, for each area. This saves up to 30% of water consumption and fertiliser annually.

The CEO of the company, Jordi Barcelo explained, “with this system we put our eyes under the ground and inform the farmer of everything that happens and that he cannot see with the naked eye – to save large quantities of water and fertiliser, as we have found that many growers over-water and end up damaging the crop.”

This provides a great benefit for the fruit and vegetable sector.

Researcher, Daniel Esteban Ferrer, supported by the company Visyon, developed a software that uses virtual reality to visualise medical tests in 3D – to help healthcare professionals detect changes in cellular structures that may otherwise be unnoticed and lead to conditions

Courtesy of ModpoW AgriTechnologies.

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TECNIOspring PLUS ACCIÓ programme to foster mobility of researchers with a focus in applied research and technology transfer

Project Objectives

To develop a professional career for experienced researchers in innovation & applied projects and provide top training in technology transfer in alignment with MSCA culture.

To bring technological research closer to the industrial sector by attracting research talent to Catalonia in order to strengthen the technological capacities of the Catalan productive industry.

To promote the establishment of strategic alliances with leading (inter)national entities.

Courtesy of IASO.

Project Funding

This project is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 712949.

MSCA-COFUND-2015-FP - Marie SkłodowskaCurie Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND-FP)

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Rita Riba ACCIÓ - GenCat Pg. de Gràcia, 129, 08008 Barcelona, Spain T: +34 934 849 603 E: tecniospring.accio@gencat.cat W: http://catalonia.com/innovate-incatalonia/tecniospringplus/index.jsp Rita Riba

Rita Riba works in the Talent Group as senior project manager currently in charge of the coordination of TECNIOspring PLUS programme (MSCA- COFUND Grant Agreement 712949) and TecniospringINDUSTRY programme (MSCACOFUND Grant Agreement 801342). She has more than 20 years’ experience in the management of R&D projects and European public funding. She holds a degree on Economics from Universitat de Barcelona (UB), a master’s degree in Management Engineering from Université de Clermont Ferrand and a postgraduate in Regional Development from Universitat de Barcelona (UB).

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like cancer. After the project, Daniel Esteban created a start-up ViReInstruments, which is now enrolling new research capabilities through the Tecniospring INDUSTRY programme.

Gerard Cortina pioneered smart parasols at the IASO company in Lleida. The solar panels, enabling the parasols to efficiently and costeffectively provide light outside at night, an innovation that benefits the hospitality industry with a significant energy cost saving.

The parasols incorporated high efficiency single-crystal photovoltaic cells and light supporting materials to bring down the weight of the panel. The solar radiation is stored in a battery which has enough energy for five hours of luminosity.

“The aim of the project,” explained Gerard, “Is to combine a solar protection element and then harness the energy from which we are protecting ourselves, to use if for lighting during the night, exploiting the functionalities of the two existing products and combining them to create sunlight.”

The autonomous lighting has widescale application and is a significant achievement for innovation in renewables. A knock-on effect for this innovation was that companies noticed the parasols were ideal for highlighting their brands and sought advertising space on them, adding another financial benefit for the sector.

There are so many examples of impressive work, including tackling a children’s disease, wearable technology to track glucose through sweat, animal nutrition advancements for farms and a new system for the detection of toxic algae. Such innovations drive big returns, societal changes and industrial transformations.

The collaborations generated through the network can be hugely beneficial for many reasons.

The researchers can accumulate a wealth of experience from working at the business end of applied research, together with access to training and stewardship from a range of business and academic mentors, sector experts and key people from ACCIO. The international and intersectoral opportunities, developed over time have become invaluable and there is the tight-knit relationship forged from the programme, between fellows and companies working on R & D. With the generous financing from the project toward salaries for researchers pioneering to new heights in applied fields, it’s a win-win for both industry and academia.

Progressing careers and applied science The feedback from those working with industry within the programme illustrated that being integrated reports benefits both to research and personal careers.

Researchers involved in TECNIOspring PLUS reported more than 50 Open Access accepted papers, together with 94 oral presentations in congresses, symposia and events.

From 2016-2021, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a 75% increase in the number of start-ups only in Barcelona.

Catalonia is going from strength to strength with R&D, innovation and applied sciences and this is in part due to a culture that has a strong collaboration between the EU, ACCIÓ, academia and the private sector. What is demonstrated through TECNIOspring Plus is that being closer to industry, making R&D financing viable for startups and companies of every shape and size, means Europe can accelerate innovation and build highly successful careers around applied research.

EU Research

Computational methods to describe languages Over 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today. They are listed and partially described in linguistic catalogues such as Glottolog and WALS. We spoke to Dr Tanja Samardzic and Dr Ximena Gutierrez about their work in developing a quantifiable and reproducible way of describing languages with the aid of text data, which will help map linguistic diversity.

Over 7,000 different

languages are spoken across the world today, some by millions in large countries, while many more are limited to relatively small communities in remote areas. Language processing technology was originally developed for ‘big’ languages with many speakers, especially English, but over recent years interest in other languages has grown. “Many companies want to develop multi-lingual language technology,” says Dr Tanja Samardzic. The question then is; how can we transfer solutions from one language to another? What kinds of solutions work for what kinds of languages? What kinds of languages are there? As the Head of the Text Group in the Language and Space laboratory at the University of Zurich, Dr Samardzic is working to develop new computational methods, based on analysis of text data across a wide variety of languages.

Language structures The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) is an invaluable source of information about linguistic diversity, providing data on 2,662 languages. Its authors designed a sample of 100 of these languages, which are broadly representative of global diversity. “We’ve taken this list of 100 languages, and are now collecting text samples for those languages,” outlines Dr Samardzic. This sample is structurally, geographically and genealogically varied, providing a solid basis for researchers to capture and map the most important types of linguistic structures. “We can estimate how many languages have short and ‘simple’ words

like English. There are languages with really long words. Short words tend to come with a fixed word order, while long words allow a variable word order,” explains Dr Samardzic.

“We are trying to cover various phenomena like that. Almost 100 families are represented within these 100 languages, and we also try to cover a wide geographic area.”

In the project, Dr Samardzic is using mathematical notions from information theory and geometry to describe languages in a quantifiable and reproducible way. “We want to observe a text, collect some data from this text, and then process this in order to categorise this language,” she says. The focus of attention in the project is on the formal side of language rather than the meaning and interpretation. “What is the form of different languages? What units do they consist of?

What is the form of these units?” outlines Dr Samardzic. “These are fundamental questions in the scientific study of language.”

A measure called Shannon entropy is one of the mathematical notions used in the project as a means of answering such questions. This is a measure that provides an insight into the complexity of a language. “We try to measure the entropy of a text as an indicator of language complexity and then see, where we find complex languages, what kind of complexity they show,” explains Dr Samardzic. The aim here is to get a kind of screenshot of linguistic diversity, including insights into languages at risk of extinction. “Languages can die. Several of the languages in our sample are at different degrees

Approximative language complexity (the size of the circle) vs. the enlargement status;

of risk of extinction,” says Dr Ximena Gutierrez, a post-doc student in the Language and Space lab.

This means not only the loss of the cultural heritage associated with a language, but also the loss of our knowledge about the way in which ideas and values are incorporated within it. This is a prime motivation behind Dr Samardzic’s work. “We see language as a code, and the structure of this code can be very different,” she outlines. Different languages have different ways of encoding information, and losing this diversity would have wider consequences. “We would lose awareness of the possibilities that the human mind has come up with to encode content,” says Dr Samardzic. “The kinds of things that can be encoded in language are really fascinating.”

The wider aim in the project is to develop a scalable, computational way of describing languages to facilitate the development of language technology. A further scientific goal is to study the relationship between various extra-linguistic factors and language types.

“Why is a certain language more complex than another?” outlines Dr Samardzic.

Non-randomness in Morphological Diversity: A Computational Approach Based on Multilingual Corpora Dr. Tanja Samardžić, PD URPP Language and Space, University of Zurich Freiestrasse 16, 8032 Zürich T: +41 44 63 43945 E: tanja.samardzic@uzh.ch W: http://www.spur.uzh.ch/samardzic Olga Sozinova is a PhD student at the Language and Space lab at the University of Zurich. Her research is mainly focused on computational linguistics.

Ximena Gutierrez-Vasques is a postdoctoral researcher at the Language and Space lab at the University of Zurich. Her research interests include natural language processing, quantitative linguistics and lowresource languages.

Dr Christian Bentz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen. He was previously a PostDoc at the Language and Space Lab, University of Zurich.

Dr Steven Moran is an Assistant Professor at the University of Neuchâtel. He was previously a PostDoc at the Language and Space Lab, University of Zurich.

Map by C. Bentz and X. Gutierrez-Vasques.

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Modelling activities ranging from atomistic, mesoscopic, coarse grain to continuous models to support materials developments (Politecnico Di Torino, ITAINNOVA).

Innovative components for smart applications The properties of smart materials can be changed or tailored to suit the environment in which they are being used, offering new potential applications across many areas of industry.

Researchers in the SmartFAN project developed innovative components with new functionalities exploiting smart materials, as Professor Costas Charitidis, Project Coordinator, explained.

There is a

wide variety of potential applications of smart materials, including in the automotive, energy and pharmaceutical sectors. Researchers from the EU-funded SmartFAN project developed sophisticated components with smart functionalities.

“In the SmartFAN project we investigated nanomaterials that are used to functionalise carbon fibres to introduce different functionalities into composite materials - we are talking here about carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs),” explains Professor Costas Charitidis, the project’s Coordinator.

Researchers are using nano-/micro- composites with unique physicochemical properties, which then opens up wider possibilities. “Combining functionalised carbon fibres and nanomicro materials with unique physicochemical properties leads to the emergence of carbon fibre reinforced polymers with new functionalities.”

Development of CNTs on CFs through Chemical Vapour Deposition for sensing applications (NTUA)

materials and also conducted modelling and simulations, in order to predict the impact on the properties of the composite, like its thermal and electrical conductivity.

“For example, for carbon-based nanomaterials, we are using different types of carbon nanotubes and different graphene

derivatives,” says Dr Tanja Kosanovic, project manager and research associate of RnanoLab. “Before using these materials in the composites, we first evaluated and simulated their properties in order to select the right combination. We did multi-scale modelling on different scales, from the atomistic to the mesoscopic level and finally to the macro scale.”

A certain type of nanomaterial can be used to introduce a variety of different functionalities, such as self-healing; an area which has attracted a lot of attention in research as a way to increase the service life of materials and reduce infrastructure maintenance costs. A crack of course first needs to be detected before it can be repaired or healed, a topic that has been addressed in the project by ITAINNOVA, one of the partners in SmartFAN. “Microcapsules filled with chromophore substances are used to detect defects in a structure – these microcapsules

Smart by design The functionalities of a composite material, such as the ability to change shape for example, can be predicted on the basis of knowledge of its component parts and its structure. This is related to the concept of ‘smart-by-design’, which means that researchers can understand how the addition of a nanomaterial will affect the final properties of the composite. “The smart-by-design principle, defines what material to add, and what functionality will be offered,” says Professor Charitidis. In the project, researchers have developed new

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Development of magnetic nanoparticles for healing and chromophore microcapsules for damage sensing (ITAINNOVA)

EU Research

Injection moulded fan wheel with selected Smartfan material (ELICA SPA).

release chromophores, exposing the position of a crack,” he outlines. These chromophores are fluorescent, clearly indicating where the composite has been damaged, then once the crack has been located it can be repaired. “We add micro-capsules in these composites, that have an active agent at their core, together with a catalyst, that enables the self-healing of the cracks. When a crack occurs these capsules are ruptured and this healing agent is released to fill the crack.”

Demonstrators & Applications This type of functionality holds wider relevance to companies keen to harness the potential of innovative new materials, yet it must not come at the cost of important physical properties like strength and weight. Some structural elements of composite materials are included for their physical properties, and Professor Charitidis says factors like weight and strength are both major considerations in development. “Maximising the strength of the components is an important target for automotive applications.”

In other cases, like the smart grabbing device developed in SmartFAN, the priority

is different. “This smart grabbing device is made from shape memory polymer composite laminates. The functionality in extreme conditions - namely space - is of high importance,” stresses Professor Charitidis. Researchers are exploring different possibilities in order to develop components relevant to specific applications; one major potential area of application is the automotive industry. “We have two demonstrators for high-end racing cars, the front wing and an energy absorber made from functionalised composites. In future there will be broader applications of nanocomposites in thermoplastics, for example in domestic appliances.”

The determining factor here is the nature of the application itself. The aim in the project is to serve industrial needs, with researchers investigating different routes to develop components relevant to specific applications.

“This is not a basic research project. If we can prove that the materials are effective in certain applications, then this may open up further possibilities,” says Professor Charitidis.

Intelligent structures have been developed specifically for the different applications targeted in the project, illustrating the wider potential of smart materials. “Materials developed in the project were targeted and demonstrated for applications in home appliances, the automotive sector, the electronics industry and potential use in space,” continues Professor Charitidis. “We

Tooling and manufacturing of the racing front wing demonstrator (Dallara Automobili SPA).

Electrodes obtained through spray-gun deposition method of GNPs/CNTs (THALES).

have partners in the project with expertise in innovation management, technology transfer and exploitation that have guided us towards commercial needs.”

A manufacturing technology capable of producing these components more efficiently could reduce costs and open up the possibility of applying them more widely, beyond the areas that have already been identified. Researchers reached technology readiness level (TRL) 6 by the end of the project, which provides strong foundations for continued development of these components, yet the decision on whether to develop them further lies with the companies that could use them. “Universities and research institutes can support businesses

A prototype 3D printer extruder to support continuous fiber 3D printing and Composite fan prototype with thermally responsive blades (BIOG3D).

Modular structure made of CFR “hands” and a pentagonal base, and shape memory polymer composite (SMPC) hinges activated through external heating system (Universita Degli Studi Di Roma Tor Vergata).

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SmartFAN Smart by Design and Intelligent by Architecture for turbine blade fan and structural components systems

Project Objectives

The goal of SMARTFAN project is the development of “smart” materials and architectures, with integrated functionalities, that will interact with their environment and react to stimuli. Their smartness is based on the use of functionalised carbon fibres (f-CF), CF reinforced polymers and nano-/micro- composites with unique physicochemical properties. With the application of Smart-by-Design and Intelligentby-Architecture, structural component systems have being developed. Using the developed “smart” materials, SMARTFAN is approaching intelligent structures through two different design concepts, L (layer) and G (grid) concepts.

Innovative processes are being carried out, in order to preserve the special physico-chemical properties of smart material composites

Quantification of exposure hazards during PA/Carbon Fiber co-deposition (IRES/NTUA).

Project Funding

H2020 (NMBP-04-2017 Architectured / Advanced material concepts for intelligent bulk material structures) budget Grant (SmartFAN): Grant agreement 760779.

Project Partners

18 Industrial and academic partners with complementary and multidisciplinary expertise: https://www.smartfan-project.eu/partners/

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Prof. C.A. Charitidis Professor, School of Chemical Engineering 9 Heroon Polytechniou St., Zographos, Athens, Greece GR-157 73 National Technical University of Athens T: +30 210 772 4046 E: charitidis@chemeng.ntua.gr W: http://nanolab.chemeng.ntua.gr/ W: https://www.smartfan-project.eu/ Thank to project partners Dallara Automobili, ITAINNOVA, University di Roma Tor Vergata, Elica SPA, BIOG3D, Politecnico Di Torino, IRES and Thales for providing the images contained within this article.

Prof. C.A. Charitidis

Costas Charitidis is Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens and Director of the Laboratory of Advanced, Composite, Nano Materials & Nanotechnology. He has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of Materials Science & Nanotechnology, Carbon-based materials and Safety impacts of Nanotechnology.

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in developing new materials, but the decision on whether to take them beyond TRL 6 rests with the companies themselves,” says Professor Charitidis. The intention is to deliver ideas and effective demonstrators to industry, while researchers are also investigating other novel materials in further projects. “A new project started a few months ago called Carbo4Power, in which we are addressing novel composite materials for offshore applications,” outlines Professor Charitidis.

This could help extend the lifetime of a material, which has a significant impact on the overall analysis of its cost, another important consideration in the project. In assessing the environmental impact of ‘smart’ products, researchers consider not only the operation phase, but also the resources used in their development, usage and eventual disposal.

“It’s not just about the production,” stresses Professor Charitidis. The wider picture here is that with a deeper knowledge of nano and

Combining functionalised carbon fibres and nanomicro materials with unique physico-chemical properties leads to the emergence of carbon fibre reinforced polymers with new functionalities!

Recycling The project’s scope also includes research into the efficient recycling and reuse of these composite materials, part of the wider goal of using resources more efficiently and establishing a circular economy. It is currently fairly challenging to recycle composite materials, partly because the different elements need to be separated, so researchers are working to develop smarter, more effective recycling processes. “The target is to recycle full components, and at larger scale,” outlines Dr Kosanovic. A new recycling process has been developed in the project which is designed to be more environmentally-friendly, reflecting wider concerns around the sustainability of current resource consumption patterns. “The target here is to recover full carbon fibre fabrics, in order to demonstrate that they can then be re-used in new, smaller components.”

micro materials, composite materials can be tailored more specifically to their intended application, increasing their service life. “The design aspect is of crucial importance in such structures,” explains Professor Charitidis.

“A material may be safe by design, green by design, or cost-effective by design, for example. In some applications the aim might be to combine all, while in others the objective may be different, keeping a balance between performance and sustainability.”

A further initiative called Repair3D deals with the recycling of carbon fibres, with the aim of closing the circularity loop, while other projects are also in the pipeline, reflecting the wider importance attached to the development of smart materials. As more sophisticated and cost-effective materials are developed, smart materials are likely to be applied more widely in areas such as aerospace, sport, health and the electronic industry.

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