EU Research Autumn 2022

Editor’s Note

In July this year, Europe found itself roasting in the heat with wildfires in France, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Croatia and the UK hitting record temperatures above 40C for the first time in recorded history.

Meanwhile, there were many pundits and commentators in news media and online who shrugged off the hot spell as just a balmy summer and the people worried about it, as paranoid fools. Eating ice creams and going to the beach, for a great many, was a welcome weather pattern to be enjoyed, and be damned with the bigger picture.

Whilst a proportion of those who were not impacted by the extreme weather scoff, in just a few decades, you can bet Europe will be experiencing a level of intense heat in summers that will for some people be unbearable, with health impacts, wildfires and droughts as the norm. Incredibly, there still remains a large amount of the public who do not care to want to believe the link between extreme weather and climate change, or simply don’t care about what’s happening.

Since the 1950s in Europe, large areas have endured long heatwaves and 500-yearold temperature records were broken over 65% of Europe, just between 2003-2015.

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.

It transpired that weathermen who made a link to climate change in their weather reports received unprecedented trolling by climate deniers. To be clear, this was the warmest decade on record for Europe. This was not just another summer. It is the visible beginnings of what scientists have been tracking, predicting and trying to explain for decades. I myself remember a trip to the MET office in the UK in the early 2000s and a director there showing me the expectations of climate change, the river floods that have come true, and the wildfires that have since transpired. This was all long foreseen by climate experts.

One study by researchers concluded that the heatwave affecting Europe was up to three degrees hotter due to Man-made climate change. Research has also shown that heatwaves are 10 times more likely in some locations because of climate change. It’s fair to say that there is not a government in the world now that doesn’t know about climate change or that isn’t aware of the data and modelling, but we are in it, it is here, and it is escalating even faster than was anticipated. For those who deny it, you likely won’t have the luxury of ignorance for a great deal longer.

Hope you enjoy the issue.

Richard Forsyth Editor

4 Research News

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

10 Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura - role of ADAMTS13 and long-term outcome

We spoke to PD Monica Schaller, PhD and Erika Tarasco,PhD, who both work in the group of worldrenowned expert Prof. Johanna Kremer Hovinga, MD, about their research into thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.

12 Deciphering the Role of Oligodendrocytes in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease

Evidence suggests that the loss of myelin-producing cells called oligodendrocytes is also an important factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, as Dr Sarah Jaekel explains.

13 Molecular basis of gene insulation

Little is known about which regulatory element in the genome is connected with which gene promoter, a topic at the heart of Dr Maria Cristina Gambetta’s research.

14 4D-BIOMAP

Researchers in the 4D-BIOMAP project are developing smart materials that change shape and stiffness when a magnetic field is applied, alongside investigating the impact of mechanical changes on cell behaviour, as Dr Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez explains.

17 MIAMI

We spoke to Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen, about his work in using yeast to support sustainable, scalable production of complex chemical compounds in rare plants, aiming to harness their valuable healthcare and pharmaceutical properties.

20 CalorieRL

Dr. Oliveira-Maia and his research team at the CalorieRL project are working on a more exact understanding of the mechanisms that drive and reinforce foodseeking behaviour.

22 P2MED

The P2Med programme offers fellowships to biomedical researchers in the field of personalised medicine, helping them develop advanced skills and technical expertise, as Programme Manager Maria Saarela explains.

24 SYNVIVO

We spoke to Dr Giulia Pasqual about her research into the interactions between dendritic- and T-cells, and how this interaction influences the subsequent fate of T-cells.

26

HARNESSING THE WISDOM OF PLANTS

Researchers at Wageningen University & Research are investigating whether secondary metabolites from plants could act as efflux pump inhibitors and help restore antimicrobial efficiency, as Dr Carla Araya-Cloutier explains.

28 Queen Elizabeth II Science Independent

With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, we look back at her life and the way she embraced science wholeheartedly, during her 70-year reign. By Richard Forsyth.

32

Let it shine

We spoke to Dr Panikos Georgallis about his research into the conditions that lead to the emergence of moral markets, like those for solar panels or plant-based meat, and how they subsequently evolve.

34 LiftWEC

Could the lift forces within ocean waves provide a sustainable source of power? Matt Folley, Principal Researcher in the LiftWEC project, seeks to finally prove waves can make sense as the next big renewable.

37

REWOFUEL

The REWOFUEL project is developing sustainable methods of producing gasoline and aviation fuel from residual wood, while also making use of other co-products, as Dr Tino Lassmann explains.

40 REINFORCE

The Reinforce project aims to involve the public in research, which will ultimately help narrow the gap between science and society, as Professor Stavros Katsanevas explains.

42 FRIAS COFUND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME

The FCFP programme is designed to support international researchers and help them build their careers in the academic sector, as Dr Katrin Brandt and Professor Bernd Kortmann explain.

44 6i-DIRS

Osane Uriarte, Noémi Kalocsay, Oleksandr Husiev and Juan Sebastian Angarita tell us how the 6i- DIRS COFUND project helps PhD students develop the skills they will need to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

47 THE EXTERIOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Confucianism is an important Chinese tradition. We spoke to Dr Philippe Major and Professor Ralph Weber about their work investigating modern Confucianism, and its importance to understanding contemporary China.

50 A PROMISE IS A PROMISE!

A willingness to compromise was once seen as a sign of political maturity, many voters now see it as selling out, an issue Dr Mariken van der Velden is exploring in her research.

53 ESTEEM3

The ESTEEM3 initiative coordinates an integrated network of the leading European Transmission Electron Microscopy installations, enabling them to pool their resources and knowhow. We spoke to project coordinator

Prof. Dr Peter A. van Aken

56 SHAREWORK

We spoke to Néstor García and Simona Neri about the achievements of the Sharework project in developing a modular collaborative robotics system that allows humans and robots to work together safely and effectively.

58

Fusion Theatre Independent

66 Crossing boundariescomplex scribal practices

We spoke to Professor Antonio Loprieno, Elena Hertel and Stephan Unter about their work in analysing texts from the ancient Egyptian community of Deir el-Medina and developing new research methods which cross disciplinary boundaries.

69 THE STATUS OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES

Dr. Mònica Colominas

Aparicio unravels historical relationships in the research project: The Status of Religious Minorities in Islamic Societies: Jews and Christians in Islamic Iberia (8th-15th c.).

72

IMAGE OF GOD AND ABYSS OF DESIRES

The bible speaks of humans as the image of God despite their mortal and fallible nature, a paradox that Professor Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Professor Georgiana Huian, Dr. Beatrice Wyss, and Ilya Kaplan are investigating.

74 SUN-PILOT

Sub-wavelength nanostructures can affect a variety of a material’s surface properties, including reflectivity and hydrophobicity.

Dr David Nugent and Professor Parvaneh Mokarian are developing a process for creating such nanostructures.

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Richard Forsyth info@euresearcher.com

Deputy Editor Patrick Truss patrick@euresearcher.com

Science Writer Holly Cave www.hollycave.co.uk

Science Writer Nevena Nikolova nikolovan31@gmail.com

Science Writer Ruth Sullivan editor@euresearcher.com

PRODUCTION

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PUBLISHING

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76 FALCON

Richard Forsyth.

The ITER project, in France, is to fire up the next phase of nuclear fusion research. Sabina Griffith, Communications Officer at ITER confers with EU Research, explaining why fusion is the bright star of our energy future. By

65 STARFISH

Is the emergence of new syntactic features in a language related to the number of adults learning it?

We spoke to Professor George Walkden, Dr Henri Kauhanen and Molly Rolf about their research.

How do spin waves behave? Can their propagation be controlled and manipulated on extreme time- and length-scales? These questions lie at the heart of Dr Davide Bossini’s research.

78 BEATS

The BEATS project aims to design and construct a new beamline for tomography at SESAME, which will open up new research opportunities, as Dr Axel Kaprolat , Dr Gianluca Iori and Dr Andrea Lausi explain.

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ISSN 2752-4736

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

Europe’s energy crisis hits researchers

Surging energy prices are hitting Europe hard—and it’s not just households that are feeling the pain. Institutes that operate energy-hungry supercomputers, accelerators, and laser beamlines are also struggling—and they may be coal mine canaries for the rest of science. If prices continue to soar this fall and winter, “The impact for science is going to be significant,” says Martin Freer, a nuclear physicist who directs the University of Birmingham’s energy institute.

The primary cause of the crisis is a rebound from an economic slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Power generators that had been shut down could not ramp up in time to meet renewed demand, says Jonathan Stern, who studies natural gas at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February worsened the situation. Both European sanctions and Russian retaliation crimped supplies of Russian natural gas, which powers electric generators and heats buildings, pushing continental European gas prices to more than 10 times their average historical values.

Early science casualties came in January, even before the Ukraine war, when Lumius, an energy contractor in the Czech Republic, declared bankruptcy, forcing many of the country’s universities and research facilities to buy energy at much higher prices from the region’s main supplier. IT4Innovations, a national supercomputing centre, was compelled to run Karolina, its most powerful

supercomputer, at one-third of its capacity—creating delays for the 1500 users who used it for climate modelling and drug discovery. ELI Beamlines, a Czech facility that hosts high-power laser beams, had to shut down operations for a few weeks.

By May, the Czech government had agreed to bail out both facilities until the end of 2023, but their fate beyond that point remains uncertain. Roman Hvězda, ELI Beamlines deputy director, worries the government will declare a state of emergency, which could restrict the gas supply that the facility needs to heat its buildings. But the electricity that powers the beamlines themselves is the bigger concern. If supplies are restricted, the facility may have to shut down again, for up to 6 months—which would not only curtail ongoing experiments for hundreds of users, but also delay calls for future ones, he says. “So, you’re effectively losing not 6 months, but maybe 12, maybe even 18 months.”

There’s a similar concern at DESY, Germany’s largest accelerator centre. The centre has bought enough energy in advance to last into 2023, but DESY might not be able to use those supplies if the German government imposes national energy restrictions, says Wim Leemans, who leads DESY’s accelerator programs. Leemans says DESY is exploring options to run its machines at lower energies. For example, it might turn down its synchrotron, a circular particle accelerator that produces bright x-rays for imaging proteins and materials, so that it generates only lower energy

Universities, super computers and accelerator centres struggle with surging gas and electricity prices.

Post BREXIT Britain is becoming less attractive to talented international researchers

The UK government’s plan to increase R&D spending requires a skilled workforce which its universities and research institutes will struggle to assemble, expert witnesses told the House of Lords’ science and technology committee today. “The attractiveness of the UK as a destination for scientists might have decreased in recent years,” said Maggie Dallman, vice president for international affairs and associate provost for academic partnerships at Imperial College London. In a strategy published in March, the UK government renewed its commitment to reaching a public and private R&D spending target of 2.4% of GDP by 2027, in a new five-year strategy.

The strategy says the UK needs to “grow and diversify” its R&D workforce by 150,000 people over the next eight years. Harry Anderson, policy manager at Universities UK, which represents 140 institutions, told the committee the government has not provided any details about how it plans to do this. “My question is, are we actually on that trajectory? How are we going to meet those targets?” he said. Plans for establishing new international science links after breaking away from the EU have not been very successful do date. A visa scheme that aimed to attract leading scientists from around the world has failed to attract applicants. The subtext is that the UK’s reputation as an international science and technology hub has been damaged by the government’s post-Brexit stance on immigration.

Ottoline Leyser, CEO of UK Research and Innovation, the main public funding agency, said the government should give a stronger indication of its political and financial commitment to research and innovation. “It’s absolutely critical that the UK signals really clearly and loudly, with long term commitments from a funding point of view, its intention to drive up research and innovation, investment and opportunity right across the UK economy,” Leyser said. The hearing took place as Liz Truss was being appointed as the UK’s new prime minister. In her previous posting of foreign secretary, she last month announced legal proceedings against the EU for blocking its membership of the €95.5 billion research programme, Horizon Europe, in a move which move could set the scene for an increasingly heated dispute over EU-UK science cooperation.

Universities and research institutions are having a hard time getting suitable candidates from abroad partly because the UK’s visa system is costly for researchers hired on longer term contracts who want to bring their families with them. As a result, academics have started “asking for shorter contracts,” said Anderson. He gave the example of a Turkish academic who was planning a move to the UK but the upfront cost including the visa, accounted for as much as ten times their salary in Turkey. Some universities do have loan repayment schemes to help cover these costs, but that option is not available everywhere. “I think that’s a real challenge and a real barrier,” Anderson said.

“soft” x-rays. That way it could continue to serve some users, he says. However, DESY’s two large linear accelerators, used to produce laserlike pulses of x-ray light, would need to be shut down completely if the restrictions are severe. They rely on superconducting magnets that need constant power-hungry cryogenic cooling. It can’t be turned down, Leemans says. “We cannot say, ‘Well, we’re only going to run some parts of the machine.’”

Reducing operations would hurt important research,

Leemans

says.

During the pandemic, vaccine maker BioNTech used DESY’s x-ray facilities to reveal the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how it uses its surface protein, spike, to dock on human cells. Other DESY researchers study materials used in solar panels and batteries. “It will have ramifications for slowing down innovations, right at the moment when we need them the most,” Leemans says. Big legacy machines may be hard to restart after a shutdown, adds AnkeSusanne Müller, who heads accelerator physics and technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Turning off vacuums may damage delicate systems, stopping the flow of water in cooling systems may cause corrosion, and older control electronics might not turn on again. “If you suddenly switch a component off, they might not easily come back,” she says.

CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, in Switzerland, is also nervously watching the energy crisis unfold. The organization purchases energy from the French grid years in advance, but now the concern is supply. “For this autumn, it is not a price issue, it’s an

availability issue,” says Serge Claudet, CERN’s energy coordinator. CERN uses 1.3 terawatt-hours of energy annually, roughly the equivalent of 250,000 households. French energy authorities might order CERN to not operate at times when the electric grid is least stable–typically mornings and evenings. Depending on the frequency of these requests, CERN’s data output could significantly decrease, Claudet says. He says CERN may have to shut down smaller accelerators in order to fulfil its top priority: maintaining operations for the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful accelerator.

Even with energy procured for the short term, Claudet says CERN’s budgets will be stretched to buy energy for the coming years at such high prices. “This is a financial concern because the energy prices on the market are very high, up to 10 times higher,” he says. Stern predicts it will take at least 2 years for prices to fall to typical levels. Meanwhile, peak prices will depend on the severity of Europe’s winter and whether Asian countries bid against Europe for global supplies of liquid natural gas. Stern says it’s unclear whether governments will keep research labs afloat, or prioritize aiding industrial companies. Smaller research laboratories in universities may be left to fend for themselves, he says.

That could have real-world consequences, Freer warns. He gives the example of accelerators at Birmingham that produce isotopes used in medical imaging—programs that would either need to be suspended, run at a loss, or run with their costs passed down to local hospitals. “It’s going to be a challenging time to get through,” he says. “It may mean, like with COVID, there will be a hiatus in science programs.”

With the UK planning to increase R&D spending, questions are being asked about how to attract more people with advanced skills in science, technology, engineering and maths.

The risk to academic freedom in Eastern Europe

Researchers in Hungary and Poland are continuing to decry curbs on academic freedom, as alarm bells sound about increasing restrictions on universities across the EU. Hungary is viewed as the most extreme case of an EU member state limiting academic freedom, as highlighted in the 2018 ruling by the European Court of Justice that the government violated EU law when the Central European University (CEU) was pressured into moving from Budapest to Vienna. The situation in Poland is seen as less acute, but the conservative government has been accused of leaning on academic institutions to drop courses and research that are critical of government policies.

According to the latest edition of the Academic Freedom Index, published in March 2022 by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität ErlangenNürnberg, academic freedom has declined substantially in Hungary and Poland. But while these two are singled out as the worst examples, members of the European Parliament and university representatives are concerned about creeping restrictions across Europe as a whole.

Limitations on academic freedom can take many forms, from selfcensorship of individual academics to government interventions in the operations of academic institutions. Earlier this year, German MEP Christian Ehler said a decision by Humboldt University Berlin to cancel a lecture by biologist Marie-Luise Vollbrecht is another example of universities not defending their staff against activists. Meanwhile, in Romania, a hotly contested new higher education law could allow rectors to hold more than two mandates. In 2020, EU research ministers signed the Bonn declaration on academic freedom, a document that proposed the establishment of a monitoring system on academic freedom in Europe. But MEPs want to go further and are calling for academic freedom to be enshrined in EU treaties, meaning governments could be held to account for limiting university autonomy and freedom to do research. Liviu Matei, former provost of CEU, and since March this year professor of higher education and public policy at King’s College London, says Hungary is by far the worst in the EU in terms of curbs on academic freedom and university autonomy. “In fact, it might be as bad, if not worse, than countries ‘officially’ recognised as undemocratic, like Turkey or Russia.

According to the 2021 law, the new foundations are to be managed by government appointees and to receive public funds. Eva Fodor, professor of gender studies at CEU said all members of foundation boards are loyal to the government. “They have full control over the universities and replaced legitimate university bodies, such as the university senates,” she said. Universities led by public-private foundations may appear independent, but in fact are not independent at all, Fodor said. Fodor believes the European Commission is unlikely to take a stand on the issue because the reform does not breach any EU laws. “On paper, a kind of university governed by the board is fine, except that this is a board of political loyalists,” she said. Hungary has C status on the Academic Freedom Index, below Guinea and Ethiopia and just above India. This is much lower than Poland, which is ranked A. However, academic freedom in the country has been declining in recent years, a downward trend that started in 2015 when the ruling party Law and Justice won power, according to the index

Marcin Pałys, former rector of the University of Warsaw, says academic freedom in Poland is in relatively good health but not stable in the longer run. There have been cases of pressure being exerted on academic institutions to refrain from activities that are critical of government policies. As one case in point, in October 2020 education minister Przemysław Czarnek criticised universities that cancelled classes to allow students to join protests against Poland’s ban on abortions. Czarnek pointed to his authority to distribute funding for grants and said he would take universities’ actions into account when doing so.

Pałys says such cases undermine public trust that the political authorities accept the idea of academic freedom and that they are going to uphold it. In addition, Pałys, claims the government limits academic freedom by politicising the funding decisions of government agencies, especially in the social sciences. “Those agencies are getting more dependent on decisions of the minister, mainly through the change of leadership and appointing to the leading functions people that are well-linked to the government,” he said.

The government denies any attempts to limit the autonomy of science. On the contrary, a spokeswoman for the ministry of education said in a statement that the government passed a law last year to counteract threats to the freedom of teaching and research. The argument for this new law was that there were violations of freedom of expression in universities which needed to be addressed.

Polish and Hungarian academics have raised concerns over academic freedom, as controls over universities and research institutes are further tightened.

Photo by Iwona Castiello d’Antonio

EU issues a new plan to nurture ‘deep tech’ and other innovation

European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel outlines the goal of this new agenda.

Innovation is critical to navigate the twin green and digital transitions and to secure the EU’s strategic autonomy. The New European Innovation Agenda, adopted by the Commission in July, aims to unlock Europe’s innovation potential, and ensure its leading role on the global innovation scene, so that it becomes a place where deep tech innovation creates cutting-edge solutions across the continent. This is the result of close cooperation with our stakeholders – innovators – who are willing and able to lead the new wave of innovation: “deep tech innovation”, based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges. They are telling the world that Europe has the competitive advantages to become the global powerhouse for deep tech innovations and start-ups for the next generation of researchers, founders, and innovators to create and scale-up in Europe.

The New European Innovation Agenda emphasises our determination to seek solutions to the most pressing societal and economic challenges. Its economic, business, and social impact will be felt everywhere because deep tech ventures aim to provide tangible solutions to our most complex challenges.

Successful deep tech ventures use a mix of talents to tackle a challenge, including scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs. They are at the centre of a complex innovation ecosystem that also includes governments, academic institutions, venture capital and big enterprises. In 2020, the team of BioNTech and Pfizer brought the first COVID-19 vaccine from genetic sequence to market in less than a year, demonstrating the strength of this ecosystem. Even while these companies accomplished remarkable achievements at an unprecedented rate, they benefited from the efforts of numerous others in the ecosystem.

As shown by the fact that 97% of deep tech ventures contribute to at least one of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, their focus is on deep, fundamental challenges. This is why they are called ‘deep’ innovations. Typically, they generate physical goods rather than software. In fact, 83% of deep tech start-ups are developing physical items. They are transforming the innovation equation from bits to atoms, bringing data and computational power into the physical world.

The New European Innovation Agenda represents a significant advancement in the innovation ecosystem of Europe. It makes it possible for the EU to act decisively with five “flagship” initiatives, made up of 25 concrete actions. The first flagship initiative concentrates on attracting private institutional investors to build welldeveloped financial and capital markets by expanding the European Scale-Up Action for Risk Capital (ESCALAR), proposing a Listings Act, and implementing specific measures to support women investors.

The second flagship is focused on supporting deep tech innovation through experimentation spaces and public procurement.

Experimentation facilities at universities could be utilised in collaboration with deep tech start-ups. The proposed regulatory sandboxes will help the EU to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology, allowing deep tech breakthroughs to be evaluated and then marketed in the EU.

The third flagship aims to accelerate and strengthen innovation in a genuine pan-European innovation ecosystem across the EU, as well as bridge the innovation gap. It will establish and connect regional deep-tech innovation valleys in up to 100 regions, establish Innospace as a one-stop shop for all European innovation ecosystem players, double the number of hydrogen valleys in the European Union, as well as launch Scaleup 100 initiative to help the 100 most promising deep-tech start-ups become “unicorns”, a term for innovative ventures each worth more than $1 billion.

The fourth flagship initiative ensures the development and movement of vital deep technology talent inside and to the EU. It will develop one million high-tech experts in fields such as new materials, batteries, synthetic biology, aerospace, and quantum. It will support female entrepreneurship and attract global talent through an innovative matching tool. In addition, new mechanisms, such as the European Network of Innovative Higher Education Institutions, which was recently launched at the Education and Innovation Summit, will be used to ensure close ties between education and innovation.

The last flagship effort focuses on the production and utilisation of comprehensive, comparable data sets and a common data repository that may inform EU-wide policies at all levels. The initiative will also develop European definitions for startup, scale-up, and deeptech innovation. We are looking for close cooperation between the Commission and the member states so that European innovation takes a leading role in addressing present and future global challenges. This agenda is a call for action and we are determined to make it concrete.

We encourage all member states and regions to build on our proposals and work with the European Commission and stakeholders to mobilise investments, ensure favourable framework conditions and implement necessary reforms. We also invite universities, at the crossroads of research and innovation, to take an active role in its implementation, especially through the promotion of horizontal and entrepreneurial skills.

From our side, we will continue engaging innovators, entrepreneurs, and citizens more actively in the discussions, enabling them, promoting ideas, and being more responsive to societal demands. It is crucial that every region in Europe benefit from it. Only together will we be able to achieve the objectives of the New European Innovation Agenda for establishing a truly pan-European innovation ecosystem, where no one is left behind, by using Europe’s unique talents, intellectual assets, and industrial capabilities in a united effort.

Droughts in Europe this Summer have affected over half of European territory

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre have published the “Drought in Europe - July 2022” report, an assessment of Europe’s drought situation.

The drought in much of Europe is critical as the winter-spring precipitation deficit (19% of the 1991-2020 average across all warning areas in EU+UK, and 22% in areas under drought alert) was exacerbated by early heatwaves. River discharge in multiple countries is severely affected, with stored water volumes also depleted. Altogether, this may require extraordinary water and energy management measures to be taken in affected countries. The lack of precipitation means soil water content has reduced significantly. This has made it harder for plants to extract water from the soil, leading to widespread stress on vegetation — namely in the Italian lowlands, in southern, central and western France, in central Germany and eastern Hungary, Portugal and in northern Spain.

Multiple countries are exposed to very high drought levels. Water and heat stress are driving crop yields down from a previously already negative outlook for cereals and other crops. France, Romania, Spain, Portugal and Italy will need to deal with this reduced crop yield. Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia are also impacted. In Italy, the Po River basin is facing the highest level of drought severity . Drought emergency has been declared in five Italian regions and insufficient water availability has led to multiple use restrictions across municipalities. Similar measures to restrict water use have been taken in France. The situation is also difficult across the Iberian Peninsula. In Spain, volumes of water stored in reservoirs are currently 31% lower than the 10-year average. In Portugal, hydroelectric energy stored in

water reservoirs is at half the average of the previous seven years. Both countries are experiencing conditions conducive to wildfires.

Energy production from run-of-river plants until the beginning of July was lower than the 2015-2021 average for many European countries, notably in Italy (-5039 GWh compared to the average), France (-3930 GWh) and Portugal (-2244 GWh). The same decrease is true for hydropower reservoir levels, affecting countries such as Norway, Spain, Romania, Montenegro and Bulgaria, among others. This lack of water is also reducing or suspending hydroelectric and thermoelectric power production operations across countries. In summary, drought conditions and water scarcity are affecting energy production and reducing crop yield.

The unfavourable forecasts for the coming months may compromise the water supply and will likely keep the competition for this resource high. Integrated water resources management in line with the water acquis is vital in ensuring sustainable quantity of good quality water for all water users and the environment in a given river basin. While drought mitigation strategies are of the utmost importance now, so is tackling the root cause of the problem: climate change and its disruption of the planet’s water cycle. Further efforts are needed also for preventively adapting to the changing weather patterns by climate-proofing energy supply and applying sustainable solutions in agriculture.

Ancient Borneo skeleton indicates amputation surgery 31,000 years ago

Scientists reveal the patient survived another six to nine years after the operation.

According to scientists, a skeleton found in a remote area of Borneo rewrites the history of ancient medicine and provides evidence that amputation surgery was successfully performed some 31,000 years ago. The earliest known amputation, a 7,000-year-old skeleton discovered in France, was previously thought to have only occurred in developed agricultural communities.

The discovery also implies that East Kalimantan in Indonesia’s modern province of the Stone Age hunter-gatherers had extensive medical knowledge of anatomy and wound care. Tim Maloney, a research fellow at Australia’s Griffith University and the project’s principal investigator, said the findings “rewrite our understanding of the development of this medical knowledge.”

The skeleton was discovered in 2020 in the massive Liang Tebo cave, which is famous for its 40,000-year-old wall paintings. Scientists painstakingly excavated sand to reveal an astonishingly well-preserved skeleton, which they did while being surrounded by bats, terns, and swiftlets and occasionally interrupted by scorpions. Only one conspicuous feature was absent: its left ankle and foot. The ankle and foot were likely purposefully removed because the base of the leg bone had an unusual form with knobbly regrowth over an apparent clean break.

A fall, animal assault, or injury from crushing would have resulted in bone fractures and healing that were different from what was observed in the skeleton’s leg. The skeleton is at least 31,000 years old and belonged to a human who passed away at roughly 20 years of age, according to a tooth and the surrounding silt. Based on the recovery of the leg bone, they appear to have survived the terrible trauma of amputation six to nine years after the procedure and did not experience any significant post-operative infections.

Dr Tim Maloney and Andika Priyatno work at the site in a cave in East Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia, March 2, 2020.

Credit: Tim Maloney/Griffith University via AP

The 31,000 year-old-skeleton discovered in a cave in East Kalimantan, Borneo Indonesia, is photographed at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, Sept. 1, 2022.

Credit: Tim Maloney/Griffith University via AP

Casting new light on thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a life-threatening disorder, where blood clots develop spontaneously without any previous injuries. We spoke to PD Monica Schaller, PhD and Erika Tarasco, PhD, who both work in the group of Prof. Johanna Kremer Hovinga, MD, a world-renowned expert in the field of TTP, about their research.

A disorder which leads to the spontaneous formation of blood clots, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a serious threat to health. When blood clots form in an uncontrolled fashion, they will attract and activate platelets and form blood clots together with von Willebrand factor (VWF), which obstruct the small vessels. “If the condition is left untreated then the organ becomes ischemic and dysfunctional. The major organs that can be affected are the kidneys, the brain and the heart,” explains Dr Monica Schaller. Based at the Department of Hematology at the University Hospital Bern, Dr Schaller is part of a research project which aims to shed new light on both the immunemediated (iTTP) and hereditary (hTTP) forms of TTP, which share some clinical features. “First of all in both forms there is a reduction in the activity of an enzyme called ADAMTS13,” says Erika Tarasco, a post-doctoral fellow at the University Hospital Bern, Inselspital who is also the project manager of the international hereditary TTP registry ( HYPERLINK “http:// www.ttpregistry.net/”www.ttpregistry.net).

ADAMTS13

This particular enzyme, that was discovered in Professor Kremer Hovinga’s laboratory in 1996 (Furlan et al, Blood 1996), plays a crucial role in cleaving VWF, which forms ultra-large multimeres at the origin of the observed blood clotting. In iTTP and hTTP, the ability of ADAMTS13 to cleave VWF is limited. “In hTTP mutations lead to decreased expression of ADAMTS13 or a less functional variant. In iTTP, there are antibodies that block ADAMTS13,” outlines Dr Schaller. As an immunologist, the focus of Dr Schaller’s research is iTTP. “What kinds of antibodies do those patients have that block ADAMTS13? Characterization of the antibodies (genetically and functionally) might give insights into how inhibition of ADAMTS13 can be prevented. What triggers them?” she says. “Children aren’t affected by the immunemediated form – in general it starts in the third decade – so something must act as an additional trigger. We are trying to figure out how the disease starts and is maintained.”

Researchers are using cells from the spleen, which is known to be a major reservoir of

antibodies and autoantibodies, to probe deeper in this area. Dr Schaller is analysing material from the spleens of eight patients, which she says opens up a variety of interesting avenues of investigation. “With these spleens we have access to the B-cells that produce the pathogenic antibodies. We can then extract those antibodies with a technique called phage display technology,”

This is a topic that Dr Tarasco is exploring further in the project, using data from the international hTTP registry, which brings together information on hTTP patients from across this world. The registry was initiated by Prof. Johanna Kremer Hovinga from a collection of several case studies and was officially approved by the ethics committee in 2006.

she explains. Building from these foundations, researchers can then generate antibodies in the lab in a recombinant way. “We use those as tools to select for any molecules that would bind those antibodies,” continues Dr Schaller. “In a very broad sense, the idea is to inject small molecules that bind very strongly to those anti-ADAMTS13 antibodies, thus essentially preventing them from binding to ADAMTS13. ”

The wider aim here is to essentially restore the function of ADAMTS13 and prevent VWF from growing too long, with Dr Schaller looking at whether small molecules called Designed-Ankyrin-Repeat Proteins (DARPIns) can block these antibodies. This work is at a relatively early stage, and is still a long way from clinical translation. Alongside this work on iTTP, the project’s agenda also includes research into hTTP, the two of which have historically been considered to be very similar. “Some of the clinical features that we see with patients are similar. However, there are also aspects in which they differ,” says Dr Tarasco. “The two forms of the disease are fairly similar, but I would not say that they are exactly the same.”

TTP is a rare and complex disease, so Prof Kremer Hovinga and Dr Tarasco say it’s important to share information. “Our laboratory is one of the major reference centres on TTP in the world, so we are part of a network,” they explain. This kind of network can help physicians – some of whom may not have seen many patients with TTP – to diagnose it rapidly when they do come across a case, while the registry is also a valuable research resource. “Hereditary TTP is a very heterogeneous disease,” says Dr Tarasco. “We

NORMAL CONDITION

B-cells

How can we raise awareness for this rare disease to optimize treatment and develop new therapy approaches for the iTTP and hTTP? Antibodytargeted therapies would be highly desirable for iTTP.

Bone Marrow Spleen

see some patients who have been diagnosed, had one episode, and then are subsequently fine - with or without treatment. We also see patients who are regularly sick. They are constantly having blood-clotting episodes, requiring additional treatment.”

The main treatment option for both forms available at the moment is plasma exchange, for which a patient typically needs to travel to hospital. If a patient feels fine and is not experiencing symptoms they might ask whether the inconvenience is really necessary, so preventing over-treatment is also an important issue. “We hope that the clinical trial studies on recombinant ADAMTS13 will lead to greater possibilities for patients to have home treatment,” says Dr Tarasco. More data on TTP would help researchers probe deeper into the disease, and Dr Tarasco says she and her colleagues are keen to widen the network in future. “We are interested in expanding the network and collaborating with researchers in different countries, while we also want to share knowledge of unusual cases,” she continues. “It would be interesting to get data on these patients in our registry, and then we can look deeper into the course of the disease in these cases.”

Rare disease

This remains an extremely rare condition, yet there has been an increase in the number of cases over the last 10 years which is largely due to heightened awareness of the disease among clinical professionals. Even so, Dr Tarasco believes it is important to raise awareness of the disease still further, which would improve the treatment prospects of patients. “Often it’s only in the later stages, when all the other possible microangiopathies have been excluded, that somebody will raise the possibility that a patient has TTP,” she says. By measuring levels of ADAMTS13 activity, Prof. Kremer Hovinga and her group can help diagnose cases of TTP. “For hTTP we do this nearly free of charge for the countries that would like to collaborate with us and become part of the registry. Then we can strengthen the network and plant the seeds of future collaboration,” she continues.

THROMBOTIC THROMBOCYTOPENIC PURPURA - ROLE OF ADAMTS13 AND LONG-TERM OUTCOME

Project Objectives

Research at Professor Dr Kremer Hovinga’s lab is centered on underlying the mechanisms behind immune-mediated and hereditary TTP.

Project Funding

This project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant 310030-185233)

Contact Details

Erika Tarasco, PhD

Project Manager Hereditary TTP Registry

INSELSPITAL, University Hospital Bern

University Clinic of Hematology & Central Hematology Laboratory

Department for BioMedical Research (DBMR), University of Bern

T: +41 31 632 56 90

E: erika.tarasco@insel.ch

W: www.ttpregistry.net

W: http://www.hzl.insel.ch/de/lehreund-forschung/blood-research-program/ research-group-kremer-hovinga

Erika Tarasco is project manager of the hereditary TTP registry at Inselspital in Bern. In her role she manages and monitors the database, reviews and writes medical information reports, and presents registry data in national and international congresses.

Prof Johanna Kremer Hovinga has a longstanding expertise in hemophilia, von Willebrand disease and thrombotic microangiopathies with a particular interest in Von Willebrand factor, ADAMTS13 and TTP. Her lab acts as a national and international reference laboratory for Von Willebrand factor and ADAMTS13 testing. She has authored and co-authored more than 140 papers published in international scientific journals and heads the international hereditary TTP registry. www.ttpregistry.net

Monica Schaller is a Group Leader in the thrombotic autoimmune diseases lab at Inselspital in Bern. Her research is dedicated to unravelling the pathophysiology of different autoimmune diseases, including TTP.

Johanna Kremer Hovinga Erika Tarasco Monica Schaller

Probing the role of oligodendrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease

While the development of Alzheimer’s disease has historically been associated mainly with the loss of neuronal connections in the brain, evidence suggests that the loss of myelin-producing cells called oligodendrocytes is also an important factor. We spoke to Dr Sarah Jaekel about her research into the role of oligodendrocytes in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.

The progression of Alzheimer’s disease has historically been associated mainly with the loss of neuronal connections in the brain, yet recent research suggests that changes in cells called oligodendrocytes also play an important role. Oligodendrocytes produce myelin, which effectively insulates neuronal axons in the body in a process called myelination. “Myelin is produced soon after birth, but myelination is actually a very slow process. Myelin is produced until you are around 40 years old, and then it degrades as part of the aging process,” explains Dr Sarah Jaekel, head of a research laboratory at the hospital of the Ludwig Maximillian University (LMU) of Munich.

Alongside their role in producing myelin, oligodendrocytes also have additional functions. “Oligodendrocytes also provide metabolic support to neurons,” explains Dr Jaekel. While previously it was thought that all oligodendrocytes had the same function, it is now recognised that they are in fact quite heterogenous. “There are sub-sets of oligodendrocytes, which seem to be doing different things,” says Dr Jaekel.

Deciphering the Role of Oligodendrocytes in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease

This project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Emmy Noether.

Dr. Sarah Jaekel

Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research Feodor-Lynen-Str. 17

D-81377 Munich

T: +49 (0) 89 / 4400-46238

E: sarah.jaekel@med.uni-muenchen.de

W: https://www.isd-research.de/ research-groups/ jakellab/50781cbb75d49b45

Dr Sarah Jaekel is the leader of a research group focusing on oligodendrocyte pathology at LMU. She studied biochemistry at Ulm University and held positions at LMU and the University of Edinburgh, before gaining an Emmy Noether research grant in 2021.

differently distributed across regions in the human brain. In the course of ALzheimer’s disease the environment in the brain changes and is considered toxic for cells including oligodendrocytes, however some of the states might be more vulnerable to environmental stress than others, which could explain the different vulnerability of some brain regions to Alzheimer’s disease. Illustration recreated from original figure by Dr Sarah Jaekel.

Oligodendrocytes

As the head of a research project based at LMU, Dr Jaekel is now investigating these different subpopulations of oligodendrocytes and their role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. The idea here is that the death of oligodendrocytes in the later stages of Alzheimer’s is not just a side-effect of the disease, and that changes in these cells are in fact a co-factor. “Oligodendrocytes may play a role in disease pathogenesis, in the early stages of the disease,” outlines Dr Jaekel. This research is highly translational, with Dr Jaekel and her colleagues using a variety of different techniques, including single nuclei RNA-sequencing to probe deeper into different populations of oligodendrocytes. “We are analysing post-mortem human brain tissue, while we are also using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs),” she says. “With iPSCs, we can add certain things to oligodendrocytes, and then look to see how they react.”

Researchers can then look to assess the impact on oligodendrocytes’ function and their ability to maintain neurons. Oligodendrocytes are known to secrete certain substances, including neurotrophic factors, which help to maintain neurons. “This is important for neuronal health,” says Dr Jaekel. The loss of myelin and damage to neurons are also features of some other conditions, and Dr Jaekel hopes to draw wider comparisons in future. “Multiple sclerosis is a de-myelinating condition for example, but in the late stages it becomes a neurodegenerative disorder. This is because there is no re-myelination, and the neurons degenerate and then die,” she says. “My vision is to compare oligodendrocytes in different neurological disorders, to see if they have any common pathological mechanisms.”

My vision is to compare oligodendrocytes in different neurological disorders.

How do regulatory elements connect with gene promoters?

Our gene promoters are controlled by regulatory elements, that can either activate or silence a particular gene. Regulatory elements can be located at a relatively long distance from their target genes in the genome, as Dr Maria Cristina Gambetta, Assistant Professor in the Center for Integrative Genomics at the University of Lausanne, explains. “As a consequence, regulatory elements have the potential to connect to the wrong promoter during development, leading to its misregulation,” she outlines. “The challenge is to identify which regulatory element is connected to which promoter, and how they specifically connect,” she says. “Over the past decade or so new technologies have been developed that allow us to look at how the genome is folded in three dimensions, allowing us to assess how regulatory elements are wired to their target genes in 3-D.”

Genome folding

The wider relevance of this genome folding is still a matter of debate, as most studies so far have been conducted on mammalian cell cultures, which don’t reflect the overall complexity of gene expression patterns. After experimentally perturbing 3-D genome folding, cells need to survive for long enough for researchers to assess whether genome mis-folding causes mis-wiring of regulatory elements to the wrong promoters. Dr Gambetta is therefore using the classical model of the fruit fly – Drosophila melanogaster – in her research. “Human cells with misfolded genomes just die too quickly, that’s where the fly is useful,” she says. The aim in this research is to test the relevance of this 3-D genome folding to establishing connections between genes and their regulatory elements. “We test this by making flies with mutations in genes that encode for proteins that – we hypothesise – help fold the genome in three dimensions,” explains Dr Gambetta.

A gene that would normally encode for a protein is knocked out in these mutant flies, then researchers check whether this particular protein was indeed required for genome folding. Using genomics technologies researchers in the lab found that specific proteins are important for forming 3-D

physical boundaries between genomic domains. Dr Gambetta also looks at the expression patterns of developmental genes in mutant flies lacking these 3-D physical boundaries. “Developmental genes are expressed in embryos, and are important to specify cell identity,” she outlines. “We were able to see that the expression patterns of certain developmental genes in our mutants changed in a way that we would have predicted if the genes were being misregulated by known regulatory elements from which they are normally protected by a 3-D physical boundary.”

This research is largely fundamental in nature, with Dr Gambetta investigating how 3-D, physical boundaries in the genome function to prevent regulatory cross-talk between genes and regulatory elements on either side of a boundary. Using Drosophila allows Dr Gambetta to test this concept in a very well-controlled, biological model, while also allowing the researchers to understand how gene expression patterns can be altered in developmental time, as well as spatially within the embryo. “We’re working with proteins that, if you remove them from a human cell, the cell will die within a few hours. The organism also dies in a fly, but only after going through at least a little bit of development first,” she explains. The fruit fly

provides researchers with a handle to study the importance of genome folding to gene expression patterns. “We’re interested in how these gene expression patterns are made, and how they are specific,” says Dr Gambetta.

Molecular basis of gene insulation

Financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation grant to MCG #184715 and the University of Lausanne.

Prof. Maria Cristina Gambetta

Center for Integrative Genomics (CIG)

University of Lausanne

Unil-Sorge district

Genopode building

CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland

T: +41 21 692 3985

E: mariacristina.gambetta@unil.ch

W: http://gambettalab.org

Maria Cristina Gambetta is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Integrative Genomics at the University of Lausanne. She leads an independent research group and is investigating the molecular basis of gene regulation specificity, while she also supervises junior researchers at trainee, Masters, Ph.D and Postdoctoral levels.

A lot of attention in research has been focused on mapping all the gene promoters and regulatory elements in the genome, yet little is known about which regulatory element is connected with which promoter. We spoke to Dr Maria Cristina Gambetta about her research into how gene expression patterns arise and how they become specific.

In wildtype fly embryos, chromosomes are folded into domains containing genes and their regulatory elements. In mutant fly embryos, domain boundaries are blurry, and genes are expressed in imprecise patterns.

Smart materials for mechanobiology

The surrounding mechanical environment has an important influence on the behaviour of cells and the way that they perform biological processes. Much like a human being, a cell will perform its activities more effectively and efficiently within a comfortable mechanical environment, which then helps the body to grow and repair itself. “The nature of the mechanical environment is important in terms of wound healing for example,” outlines Dr Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez, a research fellow at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. As part of the ERC-backed 4D-BIOMAP project, Dr Garcia-Gonzalez is working to develop 3D printed composite materials that can reproduce the biological mechanical environment: from the comfort of healthy tissue to the mechanical disruptions that arise in events such as traumatic brain injury. “We are creating materials that respond, mechanically, to external magnetic fields,”

he explains. “So basically we can apply an external magnetic field to these materials –in a remote and non-invasive fashion – and they will change their stiffness and shape, to take one example.”

4D-BIOMAP project

Researchers in the project are working to develop these smart materials, called magneto-active polymers (MAPs), to serve as a substrate for cells. The ultimate aim is to effectively modify cell behaviour in the body using magnetic fields, depending on the needs of an individual patient. “We initially thought that these materials would mainly open research possibilities for neurological applications like traumatic brain injury, but now it is becoming apparent that they have more general potential, and can be applied in many different fields,” says Dr GarciaGonzalez. The materials themselves are elastomers with 2D cell cultures on top, which

can be induced to change their shape when a magnetic field is applied. “The magnetic field activates a mechanical deformation on the substrate. This mechanical force, from the substrate, is then transmitted to the cells,” explains Dr Garcia-Gonzalez. “We can apply a given stress level, without needing to physically touch the cells. A non-invasive method minimises any interference with the cell’s physiological processes.”

The system developed by these researchers allows scientists to generate different magnetic conditions on the substrate. These magnetic fields can create highly complex deformation patterns within such a substrate, mimicking relevant biological scenarios. Alongside developing the smart materials, Dr Garcia-Gonzalez and his colleagues are also investigating how these changes affect the mechanical behaviour of cells. “We are looking to transmit these different forces to cells, in

The mechanical environment around cells has a significant influence on their behaviour. Researchers in the 4D-BIOMAP project are developing smart materials that change shape and stiffness when a magnetic field is applied, alongside investigating the impact of mechanical changes on cell behaviour, as Dr Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez explains.

Magneto-mechanical stimulator system for biological research

order to understand how they behave,” he outlines. The project’s overall agenda combines computational, theoretical and experimental research, aiming to provide novel experimental-computational systems to control changes to the substrate and understand how they affect cells. “By playing with relative positions of permanent magnets, you change the magnetic fields, and the deformation of the material,” continues Dr Garcia-Gonzalez. “With our framework, we can see how this deformation is transmitted to the cells, and we can then see how the cells orient themselves, how they proliferate, and how certain signals are changed.”

This system could be applied in labs across different industries, an issue that Dr Garcia-Gonzalez plans to explore in the project. Current approaches to evaluating biomechanical effects are relatively limited; by contrast the 4D-BIOMAP system allows

cell cultures. “With these elastomers we currently put the cells on top. Now we are considering other materials, and we are looking into using hydrogels, so that the cells can go inside, which would be a more realistic approach,” outlines Dr Garcia-Gonzalez. Computational models and theoretical formulations have also been developed to predict the behaviour of the smart materials and cells, while research continues in other areas. “Another important part of the project is our work in developing software and hardware for a new 3D printing technology, to manufacture these materials,” says Dr Garcia-Gonzalez. “We have gained a lot of very interesting results during the project.”

The intention now is to look towards the translation of this research, and to develop experimental tools that can be implemented in different labs. These various systems and methodologies would enable interesting new possibilities for scientists, believes Dr Garcia-

4D-BIOMAP

Biomechanical Stimulation based on 4D Printed Magneto-Active Polymers

Project Objectives

MAPs are polymer-based composites that respond to magnetic fields with large deformation or tuneable mechanical properties. 4D-BIOMAP aims to apply heterogeneous 3D printed MAPs as modifiable substrates to support biological structures which can have their deformation state and stiffness controlled by the external application of magnetic stimuli.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERC Starting Grant Agreement No. 947723.

Project Collaborators

• Instituto Cajal from CSIC

• École Polytechnique at Paris

• Institut Pasteur at Paris

• Johns Hopkins University

• University of Texas at Austin

• Swansea University

• FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Contact Details

Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez, Ph.D

Talent Attraction Fellow from Comunidad de Madrid

ERC StG Grantee, 4D-BIOMAP

Department of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis

University Carlos III of Madrid

T: +34 916246053

E: danigarc@ing.uc3m.es

W: www.multibiostructures.com

W: http://danielgarciagonzalez.com/

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmt.2022.101437

researchers to combine different mechanical inputs. “You can change the frequency of a cyclic loading for example, while changing the direction. The system allows you to reconstruct this complex mechanical environment around cells,” says Dr GarciaGonzalez. The pharmaceutical industry is one area that could benefit from the system, as it would help provide a deeper picture of the effectiveness of a drug, believes Dr Garcia-Gonzalez. “For example, with this system you can take mechanical forces into account when you are testing a drug treatment,” he points out. “We are providing people who investigate areas like cancer or the electrophysiology of neurons with an in vitro experimental framework to control the mechanical environment.”

Prototype

An initial prototype of the entire system has been developed, while Dr Garcia-Gonzalez is also working on several other strands of research in the project. The elastomers, with the 2D cell cultures, have been characterised across different scales, and researchers are working on using this platform with 3D

Gonzalez. “The project is about more than developing a specific solution, or analysing a specific problem. We aim to provide new methodologies and novel systems, which will open up new opportunities for people working in the mechanobiology field,” he says. In the long-term, this research could help clinicians effectively control cell behaviour in the body using mechanical stimuli, which would be relevant to the treatment of a variety of conditions. “Our research is relevant not only to neurological applications, but also in areas like wound healing and cancer treatment,” outlines Dr Garcia-Gonzalez

This depends first of all on a deeper understanding of the impact of mechanical changes, an issue central to Dr GarciaGonzalez’s work in the project. In the case of neurological applications, when an individual experiences an impact to the head, there is a physiological response to the mechanical impact. “We can look at how deformations in the brain evolve and then, by using our in vitro system, we can apply the same patterns and see what the cells do,” says Dr Garcia-Gonzalez.

Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez got his PhD at UC3M. Then he moved to the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher. Back at UC3M, he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant. He created the new MULTIBIOSTRUCTURES Lab that puts together computational and experimental facilities to address challenges in advanced multifunctional materials and mechanistically mediated biological processes.

Daniel Garcia-Gonzalez, PhD

The project is about more than developing a specific solution, or analysing a specific problem. We aim to provide new methodologies and novel systems, which will open up new opportunities for people working in the mechanobiology field.

New scalable strategy for challenging plant-based medicines

A European consortium working on the MIAMi project is using yeast to support sustainable, scalable production of complex chemical compounds in rare plants, to harness their valuable healthcare and pharmaceutical properties. We speak to Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen, Group Leader & Senior Researcher from the Technical University of Denmark.

About half of modern medicines are plant-based and plants provide the ingredients of highly effective medicines for several debilitating and life-threatening conditions. For just a couple of examples to show the usefulness of plant-derived medicines, take the anti-malarial drug Artemisinin, from the sweet wormwood plant – it damages the malaria parasite in red blood cells, or the opium poppy, harbouring opiates for pain medicine and used in morphine. Plants are invaluable and can provide us with an enormous range of uses for healthcare.

The MIAMi project focuses specifically on tropical plants possessing the molecules known as MIAs (monoterpenoid indole alkaloids), which are plant secondary metabolites. There are more than 2000 MIAs in nature, but they can be rare, so studying them is not always possible. This rarity also means it is near impossible to harvest them and furthermore, exploiting them could lead to their extinction. However, it is known they can be used for anti-cancer therapeutics, anti-psychotic drugs and anaesthetics so finding better methods to utilise them for treatments is an important goal in healthcare.

The challenges of extracting MIAs

“We have millions of species of plant on this planet, most of them full of interesting chemicals and apart from problems like habitat destruction, and the extinction of plants, even if we find interesting substances in a plant this does not mean we can directly use them, because if you use a substance you have to have it in sufficient amounts, you need to produce them cheaply and sustainably and that’s where we often find problems,” said Linus Naumann, from the Max-Planck Institute, who is working on MIAMi. “Some plants require you to harvest tonnes of them for milligrams of the substance. Some may grow extremely slowly. There may be some that you cannot cultivate at all because they need symbiotic interactions that only occur in their natural habitat. Many interesting plants are also very rare so they would become extinct if exploited. You can see the dilemma.”

As if this wasn’t enough to dissuade the exploitation of the plants, the process for extracting them can involve solvents and large amounts of energy which shows it’s not kind to the environment. Production of pharmaceutical ingredients can also be hindered when there are gaps in knowledge about biosynthetic pathways.

“Sometimes, these molecules quickly become so complex and intricate that even our biochemists cannot efficiently reproduce them in the lab. Even in the year 2020, we rely on growing these plants and extracting the molecules.”

The chemical mastery of plants

It may seem strange that modern science cannot keep pace with this natural manufacturing process but there are good reasons. Plants rely on chemicals for nearly

all of their interaction with their environment because plants cannot move from where their seed falls. They face threats such as being attacked by insects and eaten by larger grazing animals, they have to deal with extremes in weather and they must be attractive to pollinators to reproduce. Therefore, they rely on a specific, targeting, chemical production for each job, for defence, for attraction, even for signalling and conveying warnings of attack, to other plants. They have developed chemical mastery in nature and this specialism, honed over evolutionary time frames is beyond our abilities to mimic and reproduce them.

The impracticalities and inefficiencies in the process from extraction to synthesis, mean that whilst the range of plant-derived pharmaceuticals is potentially vast, only a fraction can be used for medical treatments.

By machine learning-guided elucidation of biosynthetic pathways for monoterpenoid indole alkaloids found in plants, the EU-funded MIAMi consortium are refactoring alkaloid biosynthesis in yeast cells using computer-aided design tools, advanced genome engineering, mass-spectrometry-assisted imaging, and enzyme characterization to enable fermentation-based manufacturing of natural and new-to-nature alkaloids from engineered yeast cells. Lærke M.M. Lassen

New solutions and strategies

The secret to these substances is encoded in the organism’s DNA. The best hope is in genetic engineering, finding a way to trick the natural production of the valuable chemical in a more accessible, quick growing, cheap and abundant organism, compared to the rare plant. That ideal organism would take on the task of ramping up chemical production.

To accomplish this feat, you first need to extract the genetic sequence from the plant, then analyse it and create a new DNA construct, and finally insert it into the alternative organism. Each of these processes is incredibly complex and there are many unknowns, so trial and error and going back to the start are part of the painstaking process.

The MIAMi project is made up of four university groups and three industry partners collaborating to address the challenge to develop a sustainable bioproduction route based on yeast, which can ferment simple and cheap feedstocks such as sugar into bioactive MIAs. It essentially means taking the DNA from the plants and placing it into yeast to grow it.

“This organism, yeast, that has been used for baking bread and brewing beer for thousands of years, grows quickly and on cheap media, and it possesses advanced cellular machinery. This organism is already part of many great achievements in biotechnology. It provides a means of cheaper, more sustainable production,” says Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen.

Who’s involved?

The Dutch company, Future Genomics Technologies take on the task of sequencing the plant. The company showcases one of the most advanced DNA sequencing technologies available, called Nanopore sequencing.

Nanopore sequencing relies on a thin electrically insulating membrane in a small liquid-filled well. In the membrane is one tiny hole called a pore protein which allows

measuring these changes in the electrical current, it is possible to calculate each and every base that passes through the hole. The sequence of changes in electrical current can be matched with correlating DNA bases. This is the method used to sequence genomes for the MIAMi project.

For reading and deciphering the sequence, Universite de Tours, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and University of

DNA

DNA to pass through it. The scientists put the DNA that needs to be sequenced on one side of the membrane. DNA is a negatively charged molecule which means when an electrical voltage is fed into the membrane the DNA gets sucked to the positive pole, through the one single pore. When it passes through the pore, every base of this DNA changes the electrical current that flows through it for a short amount of time. By

Copenhagen step in with their expertise. After finding out which part of the genome produces which compound, Explorer Biotech and their business unit, Doulix, attempt to streamline and automate DNA construct design. The next step is the production of these sought-out substances, when they are inserted into yeast cells, which act as busy high-throughput biological factories for the desired molecular compounds.

Doulix has created a tool for biologists to upload the

sequences, which returns a recommendation on how to assemble them to fit the new target organism. Building a library of well characterised and standardised biological parts means it will become possible for plug-and-play designs of new genetic circuits, over time. This kind of innovation is key to accelerating biosynthetic solutions.

MIAMi Team Photo

There will need to be ‘bug-fixes’ in the genetic pathways but using yeast allows scientists to refine the process, testing variable genetic constructs until an adequate ‘pilot’ design is reached. Optimisation will also need consideration, determining the best conditions to grow the compounds on media, taking account of criteria such as Ph value, nutrients, oxygen levels and other environmental variables.

One of the partners in the programme is the French company, Axythtis, which has experience in pharmaceutical compounds and can medically test new substances in pre-clinical studies like animal testing, for example measuring the bio-activity of compounds introduced in mice. When scaleup is approved, large, industrial bio-reactors can be used for production.

Saving lives with MIAs

In summary, the project discovers genes in the target plants that need to be assembled in a new way, to be suitable to genetically engineer in yeast cells.

Doulix has created a tool for biologists to upload the DNA sequences, which returns a recommendation on how to assemble them to fit the new target organism. Building a library of well characterised and standardised biological parts means it will become possible for plug-and-play designs of new genetic circuits, over time. This

kind of innovation is key to accelerating biosynthetic solutions.

The project intends to deliver at least three lead MIA chemicals, and 15 MIA analogues. An important milestone has already been accomplished when researchers from the University of Tours, France, working on the MIAMi project, assembled a complex seven-step biosynthetic pathway of the MIA, vindoline, the precursor of the cancer medications vinblastine and vincristine. Furthermore, the DTU team has recently showcased the biosynthesis of vindoline and catharanthine in yeast, and from those compounds enabled synthesis of vinblastine, purely from fermentation of sugar and amino acid feedstocks by yeast (ref: Zhang et al., Nature, 2022). Currently, cancer patients face shortages in the supply chain, so the achievement is a positive step toward a more reliable, sustainable production of the drugs.

The wider implications of this process, mean taking the emphasis off discovering the plants and manufacturing drugs directly from the harvest. It would be game-changing for increasing production without destroying the source. It would save on resources like land and water and it would also save time. Most of all, it makes possible the creation and mass production of new drugs with these key pharmaceutical ingredients, that could change healthcare outcomes and save lives, potentially for millions of people.

MIAMI

Refactoring monoterpenoid indole alkaloid production in microbial cell factories

Project Objectives

Our mission is to develop new tools and methodologies to discover complex biosynthetic pathways of bioactive natural products from plants, and to optimize their production in yeast cell factories in order to establish robust fermentation-based manufacturing of essential plant-derived medicines facing supply chain challenges and environmental concerns related to their sourcing from plants.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Grant agreement No 814645.

Project Partners

https://www.miami-project.eu/about-us/ meet_the_team/

Contact Details

Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen

Group leader & Senior researcher Technical University of Denmark

DTU Biosustain

Kemitorvet 220

DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby Denmark

T: +45 61284850

E: mije@biosustain.dtu.dk

W: http://www.miami-project.eu

animation video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=PSRY0oGu4x0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plwcUWIKWts https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eS9cFjagaY0&t=984s

Newsletter: https://www.miami-project.eu/ newsletter-2021/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36045295/

Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen

Dr. Michael Krogh Jensen is Principal Investigator at the Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, and coordinator of the Horizon 2020 consortium MIAMi focused on developing new supply chains of human therapies using yeast cell factories. He is a molecular biologist by training, and conducted his post-doctoral research at Max-Planck Institute in Germany, University of Copenhagen, and Stanford University in the US.

The intricate details behind the formation of food preferences

Extensive research across several species suggests that, in addition to sensory properties such as taste, smell, texture, appearance, as well as other environmental signals, regulation and selection of food are also influenced by the caloric content of the meal. Indeed, after being swallowed, i.e. during the post-ingestive phase, food is analyzed for its caloric and nutritional content, and this post-ingestive assessment is responsible for the formation of long-term food preferences. Specifically, many studies have shown, both in animal models and in humans, that learning associations between food cues and post-ingestive consequences will lead to development of preferences toward highcalorie foods that, in the long term, is thought to alter food-seeking behaviour.

Dr. Oliveira-Maia developed an interest in post-ingestive reinforcement during his Ph.D. “We had access to a transgenic mouse with a modification in a gene relevant for taste transduction in taste receptor cells. This mouse was engineered specifically to study taste, and it had been previously shown to be unable to sense sweetness, i.e., it was ‘sweet-blind’. We decided to study if the animal could detect the rewarding and reinforcing properties of calorie-rich sugar solutions, even though it was unable to sense their sweet taste. Indeed, we demonstrated that these animals were still capable of identifying the presence of sugar, since they would prefer solutions with sugar over water, namely when the different alternatives were left in the same place across several days” explains Dr. Oliveira-Maia. In this study, the research team further demonstrated that reward-related brain areas such as the ventral striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex were activated when the animals were consuming sugar, relative to consumption of a noncaloric sweetener, used as a control. They also demonstrated that dopamine was released in the ventral striatum, also when the animals were drinking sugar. “This revealed to us that a non-oral component of sugar could be identified by the organism, and this process of identification was somehow related to activation of reward circuits in the brain and to the release of dopamine. This was the first

paper which proved that animals can identify the post-ingestive nutritional value of sugars, in a manner that is fully independent of any orosensory properties” says Dr. OliveiraMaia, who has continued to work in this area. More recently, to identify how the metabolic reward coming from sugar induces learning, Dr. Oliveira-Maia and his team developed a protocol for conditioning lever-pressing behaviour in mice, using another method to

bypass sweet taste and oral stimulation. In this task, whenever the animal pressed a lever, the researchers would inject solutions into its stomach via a surgically implanted catheter. Injecting solutions directly into the animal’s stomach bypasses the mouth, and eliminates the palatable effects of food. Once the animals had established lever-pressing behaviour to obtain only water, the researchers would change the rewards to either sugar or a non-caloric

How do we choose what we would like to eat? Revealing the factors that influence food selection has been a crucial question in the study of eating behaviour. Dr. Oliveira-Maia and his research team at the CalorieRL project are working on a more exact understanding of the mechanisms that drive and reinforce food-seeking behaviour.

sweetener, delivered directly into the stomach. While the non-caloric sweetener was not sufficient to stimulate continued lever-pressing, the animals receiving sugar persisted in lever pressing across many days, and could actually significantly increase these behaviours given certain conditions. “This gave us insight into the fact that post-ingestive metabolic signals were having an important impact on the maintenance of these learned behaviours across time, and we became quite interested in understanding how this could have a more global impact in terms of feeding behaviours” says Dr. Oliveira-Maia. In this paper, the researchers also demonstrated that injecting sugar into the stomach would increase the firing rate of subpopulations of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Furthermore, in what Dr. Oliveira-Maia considers one of the most interesting findings from the paper, once the researchers cut the branch of the vagus nerve that carries information from the liver, the capacity of animals to learn from postingestive administration of sugar was severely impacted. This paper was the main inspiration for CalorieRL. It formed the hypothesis that behaviours conditioned by the nutrient value of sugar has a dopaminergic substrate associated with neural activity in brain reward circuits, resulting from sensory information transmitted through the vagus nerve.

of the liver, for many reasons such as the presence of a tumor. Depending on the part of the liver that is being removed, this will require cutting a part of the innervation during surgery. However, some patients will also have conserved innervation of the liver, and that will allow for a comparison with those that have nerve lesions” explains Dr. Oliveira-Maia. The researchers will use functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure neural activation, with brain activity measured while the patient is in the scanner performing the post-ingestive task. Dr. Oliveira-Maia and his team plan to identify the computations that the person is doing within the task, to extract parameters that are significant in terms of decision making and correlate them with brain activity. If relevant parameters of the computational model of the behaviour are reflected in the neural activity during the task, it is assumed that a similar computation is happening with a similar time course in a specific area of the brain. In parallel, the researchers will also assess neurochemical activation using a molecular imaging approach. Using a radioactive marker for dopamine receptors, the researchers can observe changes in radioactivity intensity that occur following consumption of food in areas of the brain that are rich in dopamine

CalorieRL

Reinforcement learning from postingestive calories: from body to brain in health and disease

Project Objectives

Reinforcement learning from post-ingestive calories: from body to brain in health and disease. In CalorieRL, computational reinforcement models and brain functional imaging will be applied to instrumental conditioning in healthy volunteers and liver patients with and without surgically induced lesion of the hepatic branch of the vagus nerve. Our aim is to explore post-ingestive reinforcement of food-seeking behavior and the contribution of vagus nerve signalling for post-ingestive conditioning in humans.

Project Funding

Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº950357.

Project Partners

• Dr. Hugo Pinto Marques

• Dr. Eric J. DeWitt

• Dr. Durval C. Costa

• Dr. Francisco P. M. Oliveira

Contact Details

Albino Jorge Oliveira-Maia, MD, MPH, PhD Group Leader @ Champalimaud Research

Neuropsychiatry Director @ Champalimaud Clinical Centre

Champalimaud Foundation

Av. Brasilia, Doca de Pedrouços 1400-038 Lisbon, Portugal

T: (00351) 21 0480 115

E: albino.maia@neuro.fchampalimaud.org

W: https://www.fchampalimaud.org/ researchfc/groups/grupo-neuropsychiatry

The idea of CalorieRL is transferring what has been found in mice, into humans.

According to Dr. Oliveira-Maia, the main goals are to develop methods for a very well-defined measurement of post-ingestive reinforcement in humans and to understand the impact of the innervation of the liver, namely by the vagus nerve, on this behaviour. The researchers are recruiting healthy volunteers, as well as patients who have surgical lesions of the vagus nerve innervating the liver, and then understand how behaviour and neural activation from post-ingestive reinforcement are relevant in the context of obesity. “There are two possible approaches that would allow us to understand the impact of hepatic innervation. One is with patients who have received a liver transplant, since after a liver transplant one does not have any neural connections between the liver and the central nervous system. The other alternative is with patients that need to remove part

receptors, and that reflect the concentration and release of dopamine in the synapse.

Dr. Oliveira-Maia is also a practicing psychiatrist and, naturally, one of the research team’s interests is also to uncover to what degree post-ingestive reinforcement is modified in individuals with disorders of eating behaviour. Their specific interest is in obesity. Obesity has become a problem of epidemic proportions with over 4 million people dying each year due to being overweight or obese. Patients with severe forms of obesity may require invasive bariatric surgery for long-term treatment and weight loss. “If we better understand the impact of the autonomic nervous system and gutbrain communication, this could provide opportunities for treatments that are less invasive, or treatments for those patients that do not respond or cannot access currently available options, like bariatric surgery” explains Dr. Oliveira-Maia.

Albino J. Oliveira Maia is the director of the Neuropsychiatry Unit at the Champalimaud Foundation. In addition to being a physician he holds a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate in neuroscience, and was trained at Porto, Duke and Harvard Universities. He is currently a practicing psychiatrist at the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, group leader at Champalimaud Research and Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at NOVA Medical School.

Albino J. Oliveira Maia

This gave us insight into the fact that post-ingestive metabolic signals were having an important impact on the maintenance of these learned behaviours across time, and we became quite interested in understanding how this can have a more global impact in terms of feeding behaviours.

Preparing for the future of personalised medicine

A detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind a disease is key to the development of more personalised treatments. The P2Med programme offers fellowships to biomedical researchers in the field of personalised medicine, helping them develop advanced skills and technical expertise, as Programme Manager Maria Saarela explains.

A vast amount of information is available nowadays on both the human genome and the molecular basis of disease, which opens up new possibilities in the area of personalised medicine. Rather than treating patients with a generic therapy that may not prove effective, the aim with personalised medicine is to develop treatments tailored to the specific needs of individual patients, a topic at the heart of the IMIBIC-P2Med project, an EU-backed fellowship programme. “We built the programme around the topic of personalised medicine, oriented towards solving health problems facing society through translational research,” explains Programme Manager Maria Saarela, based at the IMIBIC Institute in Cordoba. There are six postdoctoral fellows working on biomedical research projects within P2Med, covering a diverse range of topics under the common theme of personalised medicine. “All of the fellows had to show in their applications how they would solve problems around personalised medicine,” continues Saarela.

P2Med project

The individual projects within P2Med are largely focused on research into the underlying mechanisms of specific diseases, which then provides a sound basis to develop improved treatments. Some of the projects are still quite a long way from clinical translation, while Saarela says others are more applicable in nature. “One of our fellows is working on protein modelling. Her research is largely fundamental in nature, although it could eventually lead to improved treatments. There’s also a project on prostate cancer and links to obesity - that’s closer to patients,” she says. The initial applications were submitted a few years ago, yet the fellows have had to adapt their plans as the projects have progressed, while also dealing with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s inevitable that the fellows have to make certain small adjustments to their projects. The supervisors and the fellows have had to work closely together to figure things out,” says Saarela.

These individual projects cover a wide variety of topics, from fertility to computational biomedicine, all of which fall within IMIBICs five established scientific programmes.

While the fellows may have very different scientific interests, and the nature of the biomedical field means they have to focus their attention quite intensely, they nevertheless also benefit from the opportunity to collaborate with each other and share insights. “There’s a lot of collaboration among the fellows in areas like postdoctoral training, as well as dissemination and communication activities,” continues Saarela.

This is an important element of the P2Med fellowship programme. The aim in the programme is not just to help researchers develop their biomedical skills and deepen their scientific knowledge, but also to help them identify possible options for their future careers, whether in academia or elsewhere. “The fellows presented detailed training plans at the application stage, as well as a plan for communication and dissemination,” stresses Saarela. The fellows’ academic supervisors play an important role in terms of career development, providing regular advice and guidance. “The fellows make a career development plan, which is revised on an annual basis, together with the supervisor, while there’s also input from the programme side,” explains Saarela. “We have very extensive training programmes here at IMIBIC, offering all sorts of training courses, and try to tailor courses also based on fellows’ individual needs.”

The wider aim here is to help researchers build their profile and gain skills that will boost their employment prospects. It is difficult to get a permanent position as a researcher in Spain, so Saarela believes it’s important to provide effective support. “Our job is to do everything that we can to support the researchers,” she says. “We have very close communication with all of the six fellows. Some of the projects have a duration of three years, while others are just for one or two. We would be very

Improved treatment

This will ultimately give them the best possible chance to translate research advances and new insights into improved treatments, which is very much in line with the wider agenda at IMIBIC. “We are trying to find improved treatments for patients,” stresses Saarela. A deeper understanding of the nature of the disease in question is an essential step towards this, and more personalised treatments in general, a goal which Saarela says the fellows within P2Med are working towards.

P2MED

A new Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme for future leaders in Biomedical Research

Project Objectives

The IMIBIC Fellowship Programme for Personalised and Precision Medicine offers trans-national mobility for experienced researchers and relevant, top-notch training that improves their career prospects. The selected fellows will perform forwardlooking research in a field which is set to become the standard of medical practice, situating them in an advantaged position to continue their research careers.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 847468.

Partner Organisations

Full details of the Project Partner Organisations can be found at:

interested in applying for another round of funding to continue the programme.” The programme itself is co-funded by IMIBIC and the EU, and Saarela hopes that some of the fellows may stay at the Institute beyond their time in P2Med. “It would be great if some of the fellows were able to start their own research groups here and to establish new lines of research at IMIBIC. It would be fantastic to have them all here, but of course some may choose to take up positions at other institutes,” she continues. “What we are really looking out for is the best interests of the fellows. We want them to have stable working conditions, whether that’s in academia or industry.”

There is vast scope for further research into personalised medicine, which could in future lead to improved prevention, diagnosis and treatments. More personalised treatment tailored to individual needs depends not only on knowledge of the underlying mechanisms behind a disease, but also of how a patient is likely to respond to treatment. “For example, if you know more about the genetic background of a patient, that can then guide you in selecting the right treatment for them,” points out Saarela. She hopes that the relationships that have been forged during P2Med will lead to further collaborations beyond the conclusion of the programme. “We’re confident that the fellows in P2Med will continue their collaborations with our groups here at IMIBIC,” she says.

https://p2med.imibic.org/partner-organisations/ Contact Details

Maria Saarela

IMIBIC-P2Med Programme Manager

IMIBIC building

Avda Menéndez Pidal s/n

14004 Cordoba

T: +34 957 21 37 16

E: imibic.p2med@imibic.org

W: https://p2med.imibic.org

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/847468/results

https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/357928887_Introduccion_a_la_ Bioestadistica_con_R

Maria Saarela

Maria Saarela is an international projects manager at IMIBIC. With over 10 years of experience in managing research and innovation projects and European funding in the field of biomedicine, she develops and implements internationalisation strategies at the institute and acts as the programme manager of IMIBIC-P2Med.

We built the programme around the topic of personalised medicine, oriented towards solving health problems of the society through translational research.

Characterising cell-cell interactions

T-cells are an important part of the immune system, but they need to interact with dendritic cells before they can be activated and acquire specific functions. We spoke to Dr Giulia Pasqual about her research into the interactions between dendritic- and T-cells, and how this interaction influences the subsequent fate of T-cells.

The nature of interactions between cells is an important topic in all areas of biology, including in the immune system. For example, T-cells must interact with dendritic cells in order to be activated, a topic that lies at the heart of Dr Giulia Pasqual’s research in the Synvivo project. “I am studying cell-cell interaction in the context of the immune system. More specifically, I am studying interactions between dendritic cells and T-cells,” she outlines. Once T-cells have been activated, they can then acquire different types of function in the immune system. “Each program secretes a defined sub-set of cytokines, some are more active in dealing with bacterial infections, while other types of T-cells can suppress or negatively regulate the immune function,” explains Dr Pasqual. “The messages that are exchanged in the context of this interaction between T-cells and dendritic cells are highly relevant in terms of the eventual fate of the T-cells.”

Synvivo project

As the Principal Investigator of the Synvivo project, Dr Pasqual is working to characterise these interactions in greater depth, conducting in vivo research using mice as a model system. The focus in this research is on three specific aspects of these interactions, one of which is the identity of the dendritic cells that are involved, with researchers aiming to deconvolute the heterogeneity of the immune system. “The dendritic cell population is very heterogenous, there is a high degree of diversity within it,” says Dr Pasqual. It is difficult to study these cells using existing genetic tools, so Dr Pasqual and her colleagues are employing a new labelling technique called LIPSTIC, which helps researchers gain deeper insights than previously possible. “There are basically three components to the LIPSTIC technique. On the one side there is an enzyme, and on another cell there is a moiety that is recognised by the enzyme,” she explains. “The third component is the substrate.”

The LIPSTIC technique allows researchers to effectively attach a label to the cells involved in an interaction, such as a fluorophore or something else that can easily be detected with other reagents. One cell marks the other when they interact, and while this labelling is not permanent it does last for a few hours, providing a window of opportunity for researchers. “There is the possibility to then retrieve the cells that are involved in the interaction, and to analyse them with other methods, such as proteomics or gene expression analysis. Or we can just perform phenotyping on the cells,” says Dr Pasqual. Researchers can then compare the cells that underwent interactions with those that didn’t, and in the process learn more about the influence of those interactions on cell fate. “Using this LIPSTIC tool, or variations of it, we can map the dendritic cells that are interacting with the T-cells,” continues Dr Pasqual.

A second major topic Dr Pasqual is addressing in the project is the spatial localisation of the interaction. It has been

A ligand and receptor pair involved in interaction are equipped with an enzyme and an acceptor moiety. In presence of the substrate (red kiss), and upon cell-cell interaction, the LIPSTIC reaction takes place so that one cell labels the interacting partner, which can later be identified, retrieved and analysed.

hypothesised that the anatomical niche where an interaction takes place is highly relevant in shaping different types of T-cell response, an idea which Dr Pasqual is exploring further through in vivo research.

“In order to investigate this hypothesis, we need to observe it in the natural or physiological context. When we extract cells and distribute them on a dish, we lose the complexity of different types of microanatomical niches. We want to first observe what happens in vivo, then we can use other types of tools or experimental set-ups,” she outlines. The third area of research involves performing single-cell analysis, as it’s now possible to distinguish the cells that did interact from the ones that didn’t, and then analyse them. “We’re looking at the gene expression of the different cells that were involved in interactions,” says Dr Pasqual.

the immune response, yet Dr Pasqual says there is a possible alternative approach. “A different approach could be to effectively instruct T-cells to become suppressive, to become tolerogenic,” she outlines. “It is currently challenging to tune the response in a suppressive manner.”

There are tools currently available to tune the immune response in a specific direction. However, these tools are based largely on experimental evidence, and the molecular mechanism that leads to the measured effect is not always clear. “Knowing exactly what signals lead to a particular type of response would help us to rationally develop novel tools to tune the immune response,” says Dr Pasqual. The project’s work could represent an important step forward in this respect. “If, in 10 years time, we know exactly what signals are important to induce cells to be

SYNVIVO

Revealing dendritic cell-CD4+ T cell communication by using synthetic biology in vivo

Project Objectives

Interactions between different cell types are key for immune function. By coupling chemical and synthetic biology with mouse genetics, our research aims at developing innovative technologies to study cell-cell communication in the immune system, and to use these novel experimental approaches to track interactions between antigenpresenting cells and T cells, with the ultimate goal of revealing the molecular pathways governing the T cell response in vivo

Project Funding

This project is funded by the European Research Council Starting Grant “Revealing dendritic cell-CD4+ T cell communication by using synthetic biology in vivo - SYNVIVO”, grant agreement 853179

Contact Details

Principal Investigator,

Giulia Pasqual, Associate Professor

Department Of Surgery Oncology and Gastroenterology

Università degli Studi di Padova via Gattamelata 64 35128 Padova PD Italy

T: +39 049 8215891

E: giulia.pasqual@unipd.it

W: https://www.pasqual-lab.org/

Auto-immune disease

The aim in this research is to describe the process that leads to T-cell activation in a more detailed way, at both the cellular and molecular level, while it also holds wider relevance in terms of the treatment of immune mediated diseases. For instance, in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) and coeliac disease the immune response damages healthy cells, leading to wider health problems. “For example, in MS the T-cells recognise some components as attackers. They attack those components, and this leads to disease,” says Dr Pasqual. The majority of auto-immune diseases like MS are currently treated by broadly suppressing

tolerogenic or suppressive, then we will have an additional tool that could be very valuable for the treatment of autoimmune diseases,” continues Dr Pasqual.

This is a more general goal for researchers in the immunology field however, rather than a specific objective in Synvivo. For Dr Pasqual and her colleagues in the project, the more immediate priority is to pursue fundamental research into the interaction between dendritic cells and T-cells. “We want to more accurately describe - at both the cellular and the molecular levels - the process that leads to T-cell activation, with particular attention to both inflammatory and tolerogenic programmes,” she says.

Giulia Pasqual obtained a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. From 2012 to 2018 she trained as a postdoctoral fellow in immunology, first at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at the Rockefeller University, USA. Since 2019 she is professor of immunology at the University of Padova, Italy.

Giulia Pasqual

I am studying cell-cell interaction in the context of the immune system. More specifically, I am studying interactions between dendritic cells and T-cells . Once T-cells have been activated, they can then acquire different types of function in the immune system.

Confocal microscopy images of immune cells in mouse lymph node.

Harnessing the wisdom of plants

The growth of antibiotic resistance represents a significant threat to public health, with more and more infections becoming resistant to drugs, making them harder to treat. One reason is the over-expression of efflux pumps, transporter proteins intrinsically present in all bacteria, which extrude substances toxic to the bacteria, such as antibiotics. “When bacteria are over-exposed to antibiotics, they create new mechanisms of resistance, but one of the first responses is to over-express these pumps,” explains Dr Carla Araya-Cloutier, Assistant Professor in the Laboratory of Food Chemistry at Wageningen University & Research. A method of blocking the activity of these pumps could help restore the effectiveness of existing antibiotic treatments, a topic Dr Araya-Cloutier is exploring in her research. “I am the head of the Plant Bioactives group. We aim to search for adjuvants or ‘helpers’ – some people call them resistancemodifying agents – in the plant kingdom,” she explains. “An adjuvant can be combined with an antibiotic to make it less susceptible to the resistance mechanisms of the bacteria.”

Efflux pump inhibitors

This research involves looking for novel plant compounds or phytochemicals that can

act as efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) in gram negative bacteria. These are more challenging microbes than gram positive bacteria, with very complex efflux pumps that span through a double membrane. “There’s an inner membrane, a periplasm and an outer membrane, and these pumps go all the way from inside to outside,” explains Dr ArayaCloutier. These pumps are poly-specific and can extrude different kinds of compounds or ‘substrates’, so Dr Araya-Cloutier says they are the most challenging to inhibit. “They are ‘smart’ if I could put it like that. These pumps recognise a great diversity of compounds, hence their poly-specificity, and extrude them in a very efficient way,” she continues.

“It’s already difficult for antibiotics to get

inside these gram-negative bacteria due to their double membrane. Once they get inside, they can then be taken by the efflux pumps again, to the outside.”

As the head of a research project backed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), Dr Araya-Cloutier is studying different types of phytochemicals in the search for new EPIs, or phytoEPIs. As sessile organisms, lacking the ability to move under their own power, plants need to have strong and resilient defence mechanisms. “They have to withstand predators, bacteria, and other threats in the same location,” explains Dr Araya-Cloutier. The secondary metabolism of plants is very rich, with different families of molecules, structures and functional groups, which Dr Araya-Cloutier and her colleagues in the project are now trying to harness and exploit. “Normally plants will have a set of constitutive metabolites. If you grow a soya bean plant, it is normally meant to grow efficiently and healthily, thus secondary metabolism and diversity of phytochemicals is rather limited or narrow. Here, we exploit the defence metabolism in plants which is activated upon exposure to stress.”

The idea is to stress the plant using biotic

The rise of antibiotic resistance is a major public health concern, which threatens to make even common infections much harder and more expensive to treat. Researchers at Wageningen University & Research are investigating whether secondary metabolites from plants could act as efflux pump inhibitors and help restore antimicrobial efficiency, as Dr Carla Araya-Cloutier explains.

The Plant (Bio)Actives group

or abiotic agents in such a way that the plant reacts and creates a new set of secondary or defence metabolites, with researchers also aiming to relate the structure of the metabolites that are produced to the bioactivity, opening up the possibility of rational design. Previous research has shown that these defence metabolites are more potent antimicrobials than the constitutive metabolites, now Dr Araya-Cloutier is looking to build on these earlier findings. “We stress plants to create these novel sets of more potent defence metabolites,” she outlines. Researchers are stressing different plants, including some from the Fabaceae family such as soy beans, which produce prenylated phenolic compounds as a defence response and can act as phytoEPIs. “We germinate the beans and create sprouts, and at a certain point we induce stress by adding a fungi. This is an efficient way of stimulating the sprouts to create these new metabolites” continues Dr Araya-Cloutier. “We can also use specific rhizobacteria, which is normally present in the soil, while another option is using certain chemicals as abiotic stressors.”

model, gram-negative organism, frequently involved in antibiotic-resistance infections. “We test these molecules on different strains of E. coli. One is the wild type, while another is a mutant strain, which has over-expression of these efflux pumps, and is basically an antibiotic resistant strain, as it’s able to extrude out most of the antibiotics that you put in,” she outlines. A couple of candidate compounds have been identified and their effectiveness is being investigated, while there are also several other lines of research in the project. “We are collaborating with the biochemistry group of Prof. Dr. K.M. Pos in Germany where we can essentially test the binding of the candidate phytoEPIs with the actual efflux pump,” says Dr Araya-Cloutier. This will open up further insights into how EPIs actually work. Through a collaboration with the physics group of Prof. Dr. P. Ruggerone in Italy molecular modelling tools, such as molecular dynamics simulations, will be used to model this binding and inhibition process.

The final aim in the project is to propose a couple of natural lead compounds for potential use as EPIs, which Dr Araya-Cloutier says could

HARNESSING THE WISDOM OF PLANTS

Harnessing the wisdom of plants: Blocking pathogen’s emergency exit to restore antimicrobial efficiency

Project Objectives

The rise of antibiotic resistance threatens to make even common infections much harder to treat. One of the main strategies gramnegative bacteria use to evade antibiotics is through efflux pumps, which enable them to remove (or extrude) antibiotics and other toxic substances. The aim in the project is to harness plant secondary metabolism to identify and characterize phytochemicals capable of effectively disarming bacterial efflux pumps (phytoEPIs). By combining expertise in chemistry, microbiology and molecular modelling fundamental understanding of their structure-function relationships and mechanism of inhibition will be obtained. Candidate phytoEPIs can serve as lead compounds for the development of adjuvants to restore the effectiveness of antibiotic treatments.

Project Funding

This project has received a VENI grant (VI. Veni.192.095) from the Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Project Partners

• Prof. Klaas M. Pos, Institute of Biochemistry, Goethe-University Frankfurt

• Prof. Paolo Ruggerone, Department of Physics, University of Cagliari

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Dr. Carla Araya-Cloutier Laboratory of Food Chemistry

Department of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences

Wageningen University & Research

The Netherlands

Inducing defence metabolites in plants

These plants are placed under stress at different time points over a period of around 10 days, and differences have been observed in terms of the amount and composition of the metabolites that are produced. Once the metabolites have been produced, the next step is to extract and characterise them. “We extract the metabolites with different solvents. We can then characterise the compounds via chromatography and mass spectrometry,” says Dr Araya-Cloutier. A combination of phytochemistry and microbiology expertise is then used to assess how effective these compounds will be as EPIs. “We use our chemical knowledge of the structural features present in the compounds to look at the structure-activity relationships,” explains Dr Araya-Cloutier. “With knowledge of the structure of the molecules, and of their activity as EPIs, we can then look to identify the structural motifs that are key to this bioactivity of efflux pump inhibition.”

The purified candidate phytoEPIs are combined with certain antibiotics, then used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains of common infections, which will provide a clearer picture of their effectiveness. Dr Araya-Cloutier is using E. coli, which is a

then be developed further on the basis of the information available. “Information about the structure-activity relationships of the compounds and their inhibition mechanism would be very valuable for pharmaceutical companies, so they can then identify which molecules could be optimised further,” she explains. There are still many more hurdles to negotiate before these EPIs can be applied, but Dr Araya-Cloutier believes there is exciting potential in this area. “We are still at an early stage, but we know that plants have defended themselves for millions of years, thus are able to trick these efflux pumps into not working properly,” she says.

An effective means of restoring antimicrobial efficiency will have dramatic effects on the healthcare sector, helping both counteract the rise of antibiotic resistance and reduce the cost of treatment, while it could also have a wider impact. Antibiotic resistance affects not just healthcare, but also our food and farm systems and the environment more generally, so the compounds could also be used in other areas. “We could re-purpose any EPI compounds for other situations where antimicrobial resistance is of concern and where efflux pump inhibition might be beneficial,” says Dr Araya-Cloutier.

T: +31 317 48 48 63

E: carla.arayacloutier@wur.nl

W: https://research.wur.nl/en/persons/ carla-araya-cloutier

W: www.fch.wur.nl

Dr. Carla Araya-Cloutier is an Assistant Professor in the Laboratory of Food Chemistry at Wageningen University & Research. Her Plant (Bio)Actives group focusses on phytochemicals from elicited plants as antimicrobial agents. The main goal is to understand and predict their structure-activity relationships and mechanism of action, using a combination of

Dr. Carla Araya-Cloutier

We know that plants have defended themselves for millions of years, and they are able to trick these efflux pumps into not working properly.

1926

A Queen of Innovation

With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, we look back at her life and the way she embraced science whole-heartedly, during her 70-year reign. For a position and status that relied so heavily on tradition, the Queen was remarkably open to innovation, trying out new technologies, making them work for the monarchy and probing what was new and next.

By Richard Forsyth

As recently as March 2021, the Queen joined a panel in a virtual science showcase, to mark British Science Week. She talked about meeting the ‘fascinating’ Yuri Gagarin at Buckingham Palace – the first man in space, and was shown images of the Martian landscape and a meteorite that fell to Earth in the UK. Her curt wit and curiosity were evident during the virtual session.

The Queen had a healthy attitude to technology and the benefits,

strides and ambition that comes with it. A glance to her past and it becomes apparent quickly that she wanted to know how things worked. In World War II she served Britain by volunteering in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) to become a mechanic, arms deep in engines on many days, something that at the time may have been unusual, within a culture of gender stereotyping. She wasn’t afraid of the ‘technical’, nor hesitant to embrace and master the then typically male-dominated areas of machinery and technology.

An Early Adopter

More accurately, she was an active pioneer of the latest innovations. It was typical of her to adopt new platforms to deliver her messages to the people of Britain.

In a speech broadcast on the radio on her 21st birthday in 1947, she said, “There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors – a noble motto, ‘I serve’. Those words were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the Throne when they made their knightly dedication as they came to manhood. I cannot do quite as they did. But through the inventions of science I can do what was not possible for any of them. I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening. I should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple.”

Continuing this commitment, the Queen was the first British monarch to give a televised Christmas address to the nation in 1957, usurping radio broadcast.

On reflection it is hardly surprising she understood the power of this new medium, her televised coronation had been largely responsible for its leapfrogging of radio broadcast and our mass enjoyment of television today. Her coronation in 1953 was heralded as a live televised event and because of that, TV sales had an unprecedented boom. Television licenses increased from 763,000 in 1851 to 3.2 million in 1954. It was a tipping point and a transformational moment for television. In the UK around eight million people watched the coronation from homes and around 10 million packed into other people’s houses for a chance to watch this historic event, albeit in grainy black and white. It was the catalyst for television as the dominant home media. It was not just a scramble for TVs in Britain, as this was the first televised event to be broadcast internationally. The Queen saw its benefits for delivering her messages.

AT COP26 she urged the world leaders to create a “safer, stabler future” and she indicated people hoped the “time for words has now moved to the time of action.”

She was what you could term, an early adopter and was well informed and interested in innovations.

The Queen had access to many of the transformational technologies as they were fledgling but have since formed the backbone of our modern world. She was the first monarch to send an email in 1976, from a telecommunications research facility, on a new network called ARPANet – the email delivered an update about the service.

In 1997 the Queen endorsed the royal family’s official website. The Royal family subsequently had selected social media accounts set up and managed by staff but in 2019 the Queen created a media storm when she sent an Instagram post by herself. It read: “Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert. Charles Babbage, credited as the world’s first computer pioneer, designed the ‘Difference Engine’, of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype in July 1843. In the letter, Babbage told Queen Victoria and Prince Albert about his invention the ‘Analytical Engine’ upon which the first computer programmes were created by Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron. Today, I had the pleasure of learning about children’s computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology, innovation and inspired the next generation of inventors. Elizabeth R.’

The content of the post and the post itself showed her unwavering fascination with the advances of science.

new premises at Carlton House in 1967 and launched a scheme of China Royal Fellowships in 1986 to promote scientific exchange. More than simply exploiting technologies, the Queen actively sought to ramp up interest, achievements and collaborations in science and engineering.

In 2013, she presented a £1 million prize (Queen Elizabeth Engineering Prize) to innovative projects that benefit humanity. She said with her trademark no-nonsense logic: “Engineering is basically about using science to come up with creative and practical solutions.”

She was also the patron of The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET). In a letter on the IET’s 150th anniversary in 2021, the Queen wrote to the Institute and said: ‘Engineers have created solutions to global challenges and continue to improve the lives of millions of people all over the world. This anniversary provides an opportunity to thank and recognise the dedication and hard work of all those working in engineering and technology who, every day, make a difference to society.’

The Queen was keen to increase the tally of university-educated scientists and engineers and to promote and showcase the latest breakthroughs in research. She understood the important place science had in the progress of economies, humanity, the world and all of our personal lives.

Watching Change from the Front Seat

As the Queen, part of her role was launching new technologies in front of the public and media, allowing her to see them up close whilst being given personal tours and explanations from innovators. She accumulated a

Royal Zooms and 3D Head of State

The Queen has been no stranger to video calling. One of her most memorable must have been a video call to astronauts on the International Space Station at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, in 2007. However, like most of us, it was the period when the Covid-19 pandemic put the UK into lockdown when Queen Elizabeth embraced video calling from Windsor Castle. She flipped to the technology to be able to chat to carers about their experiences during the difficult period, where personal visits were prohibited. Since that engagement, she reportedly used video calling so regularly, that in 2021 a total of 118 of her 192 engagements were held via a video calling platform. Beyond keeping attune to the everyday advantages of technologies, the Queen also indulged in more creative pursuits with it. In 2004 the Queen allowed artist Chris Levine and holographer Rob Munday to create a holographic image of her head and shoulders. She was required to sit perfectly still for some time, surrounded by gadgets and cameras as they scanned her every line and pore. The Queen consistently showed us she was resilient when it came to experimenting with technologies in front of the cameras and onlookers. For instance, she did not shy away from donning large, dark 3D glasses in 2010 at the University of Sheffield to grasp a project, as the press circled. Her willingness to engage with devices like these was a testament to her openness to explore new ways of doing things without fear.

Promoting Science

The Queen was the Patron of the Royal Society since 1952, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence (founded in 1660), and associated with eminent scientists like Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton and Joseph Banks. In 1965 she added another medal to The Royal Medals (awards by the Society) for applied sciences. She also opened the society’s

wealth of knowledge first-hand. She would be invited to visit and observe everything from self-service checkout machines to power plants and she was often the first to experience technologies, or the first monarch, at least. For instance, she was at the opening of the world’s first nuclear power station at Calder Hall, in Cumberland, where she was applauded by onlookers for pulling a lever which sent electricity from the power station into the National Grid. She was also one of the first people to ride through the Channel Tunnel linking the UK to Europe, and she was the first British monarch to travel on the tube train, when she opened the Victoria line in the London Underground in 1969. Her experiences are threaded through historic moments of engineering and innovation, as a participant, an onlooker and as a reflection of their importance.

She was ever attentive and ever ready to ask questions about their operation and the advantages they provided. Her status, the strength of her brand and PR, was the ultimate endorsement for technologies that were deemed potentially transformational.

It was not just the purely technological, engineering side of science that the Queen cared about. She was also critically aware of the bigger issues that impact us all, such as climate change and she used her position to emphasise important messages around this. AT COP26 she urged the world leaders to create a “safer, stabler future” and she indicated people hoped the “time for words has now moved to the time of action.” Interestingly, prior to the event, this sentiment was mirrored when she was overheard saying, “It’s really irritating when they talk, but they don’t do”.

She was a woman of intent and she knew how to address an audience, whether that was a family in their own home watching her on their TV, or world leaders invited to Buckingham Palace for a private audience with her. Such a universally understood, liked and admired person was a huge ambassador for scientific goals and achievements. She will be missed by all those who met her, in the scientific circles and beyond.

More accurately, she was an active pioneer of the latest innovations. It was typical of her to adopt new platforms to deliver her messages to the people of Britain.

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante

Let it shine; spotlight on the solar energy market

Concern about social and environmental problems like climate change is at the core of many moral markets, such as those for solar panels, plant-based meat or fair trade coffee. We spoke to Dr Panikos Georgallis about his research into the conditions that lead to the emergence of moral markets and how they subsequently evolve.

The emergence of new markets for certain products or services is not always associated just with a desire for financial profits, but increasingly also the goal of addressing social and environmental problems. Solar panels, fair trade coffee and plant-based meat are just a few examples of products that some consumers purchase in what have been described as moral markets, often because they perceive it as being the right thing to do. “The difference between moral markets and conventional markets is that at least some of the participants are in these markets, and supporting them, for reasons that go beyond profit-making,” explains Dr Panikos Georgallis, Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Amsterdam Business School. The products or services available in moral markets are perceived to be superior to others not on functional grounds, but on normative, moral grounds. This is linked to another differentiating feature. “One feature of these moral markets is that you also have other participants – who are not usually present in conventional markets – such as activists and social movements, that are trying to support them,” explains Dr Georgallis.

Let it shine project

As the Principal Investigator of the Let It Shine project, Dr Georgallis is now investigating the conditions that lead to the emergence of these moral markets and how they subsequently evolve, focusing largely on the solar energy market. In their initial stages these moral

markets are to a large extent created in response to a social or environmental problem, such as climate change in the case of solar panels. “In the early stages, a lot of NGOs and activist organisations try to boost these markets, and to push policy-makers

solar panels, as well as the support of Greenpeace and other environmental groups. “That showed to governments that the public was interested in solar energy, and saw the benefits of these markets,” outlines Dr Georgallis.

to support them,” says Dr Georgallis. This might take the form of government subsidies, which can play a role in making these markets more profitable than they might otherwise have been. “You’re more likely to see government subsidies in markets with some social or environmental implications, compared to other areas where the role of government is more about ensuring there is fair competition,” continues Dr Georgallis.

“In some cases government policy has been very important to the growth of these moral markets and their further expansion.”

There is a common perception that the solar energy market was essentially created in response to government policy, yet Dr Georgallis says the picture is actually more complex and that it developed in a more bottom-up way. There is evidence that government policy itself was influenced by the pressure from organisations producing

Policy in the solar energy market

The market has since developed further, and in the project Dr Georgallis and his colleagues are investigating the factors that influence a firm’s decision on whether to enter a foreign market, looking at a large dataset of location choices by European companies. “Part of it is the firm’s own experience and capabilities, while part of it has to do with the characteristics of the country in question,” he says. “This includes things like how easy it is to set up a business and the level of bureaucracy. Then there are also factors like political uncertainty, and the institutional characteristics of the country.”

A lot of attention in the project has been focused on the experience of the solar energy market that these firms possess. Alongside this, Dr Georgallis is also investigating their experience with non-market aspects such as certain policy features, and whether they have

The difference between moral markets and conventional markets is that at least some of the participants are in these markets, and supporting them, for reasons that go beyond profit-making.

dealt with them in the past. “We found that the experience of facing similar policies gives them a perceived advantage, and it makes them more likely to enter markets in countries that have similar policies, which in this case is feed-in tariffs,” he outlines. Researchers found that the extent of this advantage depends also on the nature of the experience they had with this policy. “We see that firms that were exposed to similar policies may have had to deal with adversity. It may be that support was reduced, or completely taken away. Then they see seemingly generous policies in other countries more sceptically,” continues Dr Georgallis. “Even if objectively those policies are generally linked to profitable investment opportunities, and the country doesn’t have a history of changing policies very often, firms are still more sceptical.”

Policy stability

This implies that the level of policy stability in a country where a firm already operates affects how they perceive similar policies in another country. If Spain and Germany have similar policies and there is instability in Spain for example, then that will affect how firms perceive the policy in Germany; this is an important consideration for governments that want to stimulate the growth of moral markets. “If they want to encourage firms to invest, it’s not enough that they have a stable policy environment themselves, they also have to ensure that there is a stable policy environment elsewhere,” explains Dr Georgallis. This research holds wider importance in the context of concern about climate change and the current high cost of energy, which Dr Georgallis believes will accelerate the transition to renewable energy. “The current position will push both

individuals and governments to get more serious about the transition to renewables,” he says. “If there are going to be more subsidies for renewable energy, or other forms of policy intervention, then it will be important to consider what other countries are doing.”

The solar energy market is still growing, and researchers are in way observing its ongoing development in real time. While the first practical silicon solar cell was demonstrated in 1954, it was not until the ‘90s that the market became more established, and work continues to improve them further. “Solar cell efficiencies in the lab are usually double what we see in commercial applications. But of course it takes a lot of time for that to filter down,” says Dr Georgallis. Solar is of course not the only form of renewable energy or the only moral market, and Dr Georgallis is also looking at other areas in which the project’s results could be generalised. “Wind energy is the obvious one, as it’s very similar to solar. It took off earlier, but there are similar characteristics in terms of societal and policy support,” he outlines. “Other markets are also emerging, such as plant-based alternatives to meat, which are motivated by concern about climate change. The boundary of where we can generalise the results is, generally speaking, markets that are promoted because of social or environmental benefits.”

A government seeking to encourage investment in a moral market can gain valuable insights from these other cases. The EU has an ambitious agenda for addressing climate change, yet they typically leave it up to individual governments to implement it, and the project’s research can help policy-makers assess the likely impact of specific policies.

LET IT SHINE

The emergence and evolution of moral markets

Project Objectives

The aim of the Let It Shine project is to investigate how moral markets emerge and then evolve. Moral markets emerge for reasons that go beyond profit-making, for example concern about climate change, or a desire to share profits from a particular product more equitably.Researchers are investigating how markets for products like solar panels or fairtrade coffee develop over time, and the role of several different actors in supporting and encouraging the growth of these markets.

Project Funding

This project is funded by The Dutch Research Council (NWO) (project 016.Veni.195.232)

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Panikos Georgallis

Assistant Professor

Strategy & International Business Amsterdam Business School

University of Amsterdam

T: +31 (0)20 525 5311

E: p.georgallis@uva.nl

W: https://www.moralmarkets.org/2018/ let-it-shine-the-emergence-and-evolutionof-moral-markets/

W: https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/g/e/p. georgallis/p.georgallis.html

Georgallis, P., Albino-Pimentel, J., & Kondratenko, N. (2021). Jurisdiction shopping and foreign location choice: The role of market and nonmarket experience in the European solar energy industry. Journal of International Business Studies, 52(5), 853-877. (available open access here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/ s41267-020-00358-2)

Panikos Georgallis

Panikos Georgallis is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Amsterdam Business School. His main research interests lie in the areas of strategy, organisation theory and sustainability. His research currently focuses on moral markets, business-society interactions and organisational responses to climate change.

Innovating to make wave energy viable

Developing Innovative Strategies to Extract Ocean Wave Energy, or the LiftWEC project, is exploring the potential of using lift forces generated by ocean waves as a source of power. Principal Researcher, Matt Folley, seeks to finally prove waves can make sense as the next big renewable.

There have been many attempts and trials to convert energy from the natural power of ocean waves. It is an area of enormous potential because waves are relatively predictable and reliable as natural forces. There is a range of technologies established such as heaving buoys, oscillating water columns, overtopping devices, and line absorbers, among many other methods of capturing energy from waves. However, there is an issue with the majority of ocean wave energy converters because, despite their useful functionality, they have not proved to be commercially competitive with offshore wind, or solar power. However functional a device might be, it has to be cost-effective and make economic sense for wide-scale adoption and to attract industry investment.

“Wave energy is probably thirty years behind wind energy,” began Folley. “If you think about where wind energy was thirty

years ago, where there were a few prototypes but limited commercial interest; that’s where wave energy is now. People would treat wind energy back then as a marginal technology but of course, that changed, partly because of the demands from climate change, but also because effort has been spent on developing wind turbines resulting in a significant reduction in cost. This is even more apparent when you see the changes with solar panels. The cost of solar panels has plummeted dramatically in the last ten years, making it more attractive to manufacture and install.”

The power of starting afresh

The LiftWEC project was created to discover new ways to approach the challenge of making wave energy commercially viable and to fulfil its potential as a major renewable, alongside wind and solar.

The engineering design began with ‘a blank

canvas’ and the coming together of experts and specialists in related fields, to understand the hydrodynamics involved. The wider goals stretch beyond making a device that works and the aim is to design and engineer a device that is viable in the renewable industry. This goal means considering the environmental impact, the maintenance requirements, and the costs. For a design to be successful it has to operate in the ‘real world’ with a range of considerations beyond functionality.

“A lot of people are trying to do wave energy today, and it feels to me like there are too many ideas and not enough are filtered out. There can be a tendency for inventors to have one idea and focus on developing it, with a blinkered vision, and this may encourage a bias towards its positives, ignoring its flaws. We wanted to avoid that. Following a structured design process, we initially came up with seventeen different concepts which

Wave-tank facilities at Ecole Central Nantes. © Ecole Central Nantes

we narrowed down to four concepts after analysing the ideas in detail, and finally to a single concept to go forward with for detailed engineering.”

Through a process of analysing different ways to extract wave energy in an economically sound way, the research team, derived from a consortium of 10 European universities and companies, has developed a concept for a cyclorotor-based wave energy converter reliant on lift forces from rotating hydrofoils.

These relatively large devices would be positioned underwater, out of sight, and connected to the Grid.

“The major difference to other wave energy converters is that our device couples with the waves through lift forces rather than diffraction or buoyancy forces, and if you look at the history of wave energy, although there have been hundreds of devices invented, the number of devices that have used lift is probably less than half a dozen,” said Folley. “What we tried to do in this research project, is to look in terms of how it can be done most effectively and to reduce the cost to make it competitive with other sources of renewable energy.”

Technology fit for the sea

With a wave energy converter there are core problems to address. One is the device’s survivability and robustness. The advantage with lift-based devices is they have a similar benefit to wind turbine devices, which is they can decouple and stop generating lift in order to survive extreme events, like fierce storms. This sets it apart from many other types of wave energy converters.

“If you look at buoys, oscillating water columns or overtopping devices there is little

they can do in extreme conditions, they just have to be built to survive it,” explained Folley. Another issue is the ability to perform essential maintenance for these machines in the sea. It is key to place these devices where there are lots of waves but where there are lots of waves, it makes maintenance very challenging. The biggest issue with maintenance at sea, where people are involved,

a game-changing piece of technology development in this field. In the future, with inevitable advances in technology, there is likely to be further progress in providing better solutions to this challenge.

“Our current maintenance policy is to return it to base as that seems most viable. It may be in twenty years’ time that remotely operated vehicles or ROVs, latch

is of course risk to life. LiftWEC’s solution would be to tow the devices back to port to be worked on in safety. Using knowledge gleaned from other projects means it is now possible to disconnect such a device in 15 minutes,

on to these devices and crawl around to fix them. If ROVs were deployed in the future, it could dramatically change the landscape for offshore wave energy making it significantly cheaper and commercially viable.”

LiftWEC has a profound understanding of why wave energy converters have historically failed to develop into large offshore farms. The project is taking a broader view of all the factors that need to be satisfied for adoption by the sector, as well as choosing a novel solution that bucks the trends that have not previously translated to industry.

Results from a 3D CFD model for LiftWEC showing vortex shedding at end of hydrofoils. © Gerrit Olbert, TUHH

LiftWEC Developing Innovative Strategies to Extract Ocean Wave Energy

Project Objectives

The LiftWEC project aims to develop understanding of how best to extract wave energy using wave-induced lift forces and to design a novel wave energy converter based on this understanding leading to the identification of a viable renewable energy technology.

Project Funding

3.4 Million Euros

Project Partners

• Queen’s University Belfast • Technical University of Hamburg • Innosea Ltd • Maynooth University • Aalborg University

• University College Cork • Strathclyde University • Julia F. Chozas Consulting • Wavec/ offshore renewables • Ecole Central Nantes

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Dr Carwyn Frost

Lecturer & MRG Lab Manager

School of Natural and Built Environment

QUB Research Portal Research Gate

T: +44 (0) 28 9097 4012

E: c.frost@qub.ac.uk

W: https://liftwec.com/ : https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CJjVeFMwlDA.

Always seeing the bigger picture

Dr Matt Folley is the principal researcher in the LiftWEC project having worked in the research and development of wave energy converters, from conceptual design to fullscale prototypes, for over 30 years.

Dr Carwyn Frost is an academic in the offshore renewable energy sector, facilitating lab and field scale testing and measurement campaigns for the development of renewable technologies.

Dr Paul Lamont-Kane is a research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast and is working on developing the fundamental hydrodynamic understanding of the LiftWEC concept.

After the initial design phase, numerical modelling was the crucial next step. There were many different models. There were highresolution models that took days to run and produced all the details of the vortex shedding and the lift generation, a model around potential flow solutions and an engineering design model. By validating those numerical models, the team could generate performance data for different wave scenarios and also for different dimensions of the device, to understand more completely how the device works and which configurations were optimal. However, with the wider perspectives of the project focused on commercial viability, there needed to be a holistic approach with every change.

“If for example, they said increasing the length ten metres would increase power capture by fifteen per cent but then the structural people come in and said it will increase the cost by twenty per cent, then that’s when the development is not going in the right direction. Unfortunately, there is not always sufficient focus on how power capture and costs change with dimensions so that novel concepts cannot be truly optimised. What we are trying to do is avoid that pitfall. It makes it more complicated during development but produces a more economically viable result.

There is a delicate balancing act with the developing technology and dimensions of this machine.

The physical modelling involved testing a small-scale model in a two-dimensional configuration and a larger-scale model in a three-dimensional configuration. A special water tank was used for the simulation of ocean waves in a controlled environment. This way performance could be measured and assessed much faster than if the device was in situ in an ocean environment.

LiftWEC has a profound understanding of why wave energy converters have historically failed to develop into large offshore farms. The project is taking a broader view of all the factors that need to be satisfied for adoption by the sector, as well as choosing a novel solution that bucks the trends that have not previously translated to industry.

The resulting wave energy converter appears robust and effective and a promising new direction as an ocean-based renewable. The testing and engineering of this device may well pave the way to large-scale energy harvesting from our seas. There is more to be done. Further optimisation of the concept has to be worked on in line with the wider aims of the project. Every detail, configuration and environmental parameter must be thoroughly investigated. Ongoing marginal changes, paired with the potential of newly developed materials and technologies, could lead to the first major success story for wave energy harvesting.

Dr Matt Folley

Dr Carwyn Frost Dr Paul Lamont-Kane

Testing the LiftWEC prototype at Ecole Central Nantes. © Ecole Central Nantes

Sustainable biofuels set for take-off

The aviation sector uses large quantities of fuel, but with environmental and sustainability concerns growing, the search is on for alternatives to conventional fossil fuels. Based at the green chemicals company Sekab, Dr Tino Lassmann is part of the REWOFUEL project, an initiative working to transform residual wood into biofuels. “The process is divided into several steps before you eventually produce the aviation fuel,” he says. While the REWOFUEL project covers the entire value chain, including all the steps involved in the conversion process, Dr Lassmann’s main area of expertise is in converting the biomass into intermediate products. “At Sekab we have the skills and knowledge to open the structure of the biomass, and make the cellulose and hemicellulose accessible for conversion into sugars. These sugars are then further converted, in two separate steps, into aviation fuel,” he explains. “Our expertise lies in using biomass residues, and making the sugars that are in the biomass available, so they can then be further used for different applications.”

Pre-treating wood

This involves pre-treating soft wood in order to access certain materials within it, in particular lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose.

Lignin itself has a highly polymeric structure and a high energy content, so historically it has often been burnt, yet in recent years researchers have explored other possible applications. “It can be used in composite materials for example. In REWOFUEL we have tested lignin with a view to using it as a replacement for bitumen in asphalt. The company responsible for this was PEAB Asphalt, a Swedish road builder,” outlines Dr Lassmann. However, the main target in terms of making sugars available is cellulose, which is tightly bound in together with the lignin and the hemicellulose in woody materials such as sawdust, making it difficult to extract. “We’re using a pre-treatment process called the steam explosion process. The aim is to hydrolyse the

hemi-cellulose in woody material, which then makes the cellulose accessible for the next step, the so-called enzymatic hydrolysis,” continues Dr Lassmann.

The steam explosion process takes place in a high-pressure reactor, with different catalysts available to solubilize the hemicellulose in the sawdust. Due to the pressure drop at the outlet of the reactor the structure is opened –the ‘explosion’ – and its surface area increases, which then makes it easier for the enzymes to go in and do their job. “The enzymes are then responsible for the conversion of cellulosewhich is a long-chain sugar - into short-chain sugars, by cutting them at the right position,” explains Dr Lassmann. The steam explosion process is one of Sekab’s core technologies, with technology experts able to modify how it is run so as to maximise the amount of cellulose that is subsequently made available for enzymatic hydrolysis, while Dr Lassmann says there are also other factors to consider. “It’s also important to minimise the amount of acids or inhibitors that are produced during the pre-treatment process, as they can limit the effectiveness of the enzymatic hydrolysis,” he outlines.

By modifying the operational conditions of the reactor, in particular the temperature, pressure and residence time, Dr Lassmann and his colleagues are able to influence the

Wood contains materials which could represent a valuable resource for the gasoline and aviation fuel markets. Researchers and companies involved in the REWOFUEL project are developing sustainable methods of producing gasoline and aviation fuel from residual wood, while also making use of other co-products, as Dr Tino Lassmann explains.

Roads made of trees - sustainable asphalt paving the way.

result of the steam explosion process and so steer it towards certain applications. In the case of biofuel production, once the right amount of sugars are available, there are then several further steps in the conversion process. “A partner in the project called Global Bioenergies has developed a process where they can ferment the sugars to bioisobutene (Bio-IBN). The Bio-IBN is then further converted into fuel components ETBE, Iso-octene and Iso-dodecene, utilizing proprietary technology developed by Neste,” says Dr Lassmann. Other partners in the project are involved in producing the jet fuel, while Dr Lassmann says experts at SkyNRG are also looking to assess its performance. “The people at SkyNRG are currently working with the certification process, utilizing fuel samples that have been produced during the project. These certification processes can take a long time,” he says.

Co-product valorization

This work on biofuels is a central part of the project, yet there is another dimension to REWOFUEL, with several of the partners also looking to make use of certain outgoing coproducts. This includes lignin, which can be used as a replacement for bitumen in asphalt. “ When you produce asphalt you work to a kind of recipe and you have a certain amount of ‘filler’. Depending on what type of asphalt you produce, there are certain standards that need to be fulfilled. These standards define the recipe for the amounts of binder and filler in the asphalt,” explains Dr Lassmann. Over the course of the project, experts at PEAB Asphalt have explored the impact of introducing lignin later on in the asphalt production process. “The lignin turns more into a sort of filler. The lignin that we produced in our demo facility has been put into bitumen for industrial stock, and a

method has been developed for how it can then be blended in and used. This was used by PEAB for testing at laboratory scale as well as in field tests,” continues Dr Lassmann. “So far the field tests have shown positive results, with road samples suggesting the material is well-suited to this application. Now we have to see the long-term effects, such as how the different test roads deal with sustained traffic, which can take a few years.”

A further aspect of the project’s work involves using residual biomass to provide microbial protein for animal feed, part of the goal of improving resource efficiency. With every step involved in the fuel production process, the capital expenditure required increases, which Dr Lassmann says heightens the need to valorise the co-products generated along the way. “One of the goals of this project has been to valorise all the outgoing products as much as possible,” he outlines. This will improve the efficiency of resource use and in the process reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping address environmental concerns. “In the project we are trying to figure out different kinds of processes to make the best use possible of the raw materials available,” says Dr Lassmann. “The ambition in the project was to produce high-performance drop-in biofuels from abundant resources, and to achieve a high level of co-product valorization.”

A significant degree of progress has been made over the course of the project in this respect, with the partners working to improve yield and productivity at every stage, demonstrating the efficiency of the process and the performance of the products. The first step with the biofuels would be to use them as a drop-in fuel, that can replace at least a certain proportion

Biorefinery Demonstration Plant (BDP), Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

REWOFUEL gasoline and aviation fuel production process from residual wood.

of the fossil-based fuels, and Dr Lassmann says the ratio could be increased further in future. “A certain maximum amount of biofuels can blended into aviation fuel, with the regulations varying across different countries,” he outlines. On the co-products, a lot of effort has gone into ensuring that the feed formulation is suitable for animal feed, while Dr Lassmann says the experts at PEAB asphalt are also working to increase the amount of lignin that can be blended into the asphalt. “The more you can reduce the amount of bitumen you have in your asphalt, the better. It is important to find the maximum amount of bitumen that can be replaced with lignin while still maintaining the necessary quality of the asphalt,” he stresses.

the future. “There are companies from different parts of Europe working together in REWOFUEL, using their expertise in different fields to find new pathways of developing biofuels,” he says.

REWOFUEL

REsidual soft WOod conversion to high characteristics drop-in bioFUELs

Project Objectives

During the course of the REWOFUEL project, the consortium was able to demonstrate the production of residual wood hydrolysate and establish a quality standard for RWH to feed an isobutene fermentation unit. Furthermore, the production of bio-IBN based biofuels from this RWH standard material at a representative scale was performed, whilst the valorization of lignin and other coproducts was demonstrated. A concept for a first of its kind commercial plant was developed, achieving the defined economic, social and environmental performances levels to a certain extend.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant agreement No 792104.

Project Partners

Project partners can be seen represented in the process diagram on the opposite page.

Contact Details

Tino Lassmann

Senior Process Engineer & Project Manager

Sekab E-Technology AB

Hörneborgsvägen 12

Environmental concerns

This research is being conducted against a backdrop of growing concern over the environment, with the industrial sector under pressure to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The REWOFUEL project could have a significant impact in this respect, potentially replacing around half of the overall aviation fuel market, while also demonstrating that alternative sources to fossil fuels can be developed. “It’s about utilising the resources you have locally to find substitutes for fossil-based materials or fuels,” says Dr Lassmann. Sweden has access to large amounts of biomass, and Dr Lassmann hopes the project will help identify ways in which this resource can be used effectively in supporting the sustainable industries of

The cost is of course an important consideration, and ultimately the process has to be economically feasible. Some steps may prove to be too expensive, while Dr Lassmann says others may be modified and tweaked in certain ways. “Where do we have to increase the productivity to make the overall process economically feasible?” he outlines. The aim is to make the best possible use of the available material, reflecting wider sustainability concerns, which is the subject of detailed analysis in the project. “In the project researchers at the Energieinstitut an der Johannes Kepler Universität in Linz have performed a global sustainability analysis of the whole value chain, while the process integration was performed by Technip FMC and IPSB from France,” continues Dr Lassmann.

SE-89250

Domsjö

SWEDEN

T: +46(0)660 794 84

E: Tino.Lassmann@sekab.com

W: http://rewofuel.eu/

Tino Lassmann

Dr. Tino Lassmann holds a position as Project Manager & Senior Process Engineer at Sekab, specializing in process design & development from pilot scale to industrial scale of bioconversion processes. Postgraduate education from the Vienna University of Technology includes PhD in chemical engineering, with a specialization in thermal process engineering. Originating from Austria, he has been working for Sekab since 2018, managing national and international funded projects and collaborations, as well as customer projects. He has 10 years of experience in simulation, balancing, analysis, model development, process integration and optimization of industrial processeswithin scientific research as well as in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.

At Sekab we have the skills and knowledge to open up or convert biomass into sugars. These sugars are then further converted, in two separate steps, into aviation fuel. Our expertise lies in using biomass residues, and making the sugars that are in the biomass available.

Sugar production from lignocellulosic biomass in the Biorefinery Demonstration Plant (BDP)

Biorefinery Demonstration Plant (BDP)

Citizen science to counter sceptics

Fundamental scientific research has been integral to material progress and improvements in areas from the environment and biotope issues to medical treatment and cultural heritage, yet there is a strand of public opinion that remains wary of science. The Reinforce project aims to involve the public in research, which will ultimately help narrow the gap between science and society, as Professor Stavros Katsanevas explains.

The fruits of scientific research are all around us in our everyday lives. However, there remains a common misperception of what scientific research involves and how results should be interpreted, says Professor Stavros Katsavenas, Director of the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in Pisa. “Rather than providing certainty, for me science is about the management of uncertainty. When you have a set of data you ask; what theory best describes that data, given the current measurements and their errors?” he outlines. The nature of this approach is not always widely understood however, resulting in a knowledge gap between scientists and wider society, an issue that Professor Katsanevas is working to address. “It’s important to heighten awareness of the methods that are used in scientific research, to help citizens actively participate in the making of science, and thus enhance the potential of scientific endeavours and in return increase critical thinking in society,” he says.

Citizen science

As the coordinator of the EU-funded Reinforce project, Professor Katsanevas now seeks to involve the public in scientific research to a greater degree, which it is hoped will help narrow the gap between scientists and wider society. There are four citizen science demonstrators within Reinforce, one on gravitational wave research, one on deep sea exploration, one on the search for new particles at CERN and one on cosmic ray muon images as a radiography tool from natural hazards (Volcanoes) to industrial and cultural (archaeology) prospection. Professor Katsanevas himself is closer to the first project, using the data of the Virgo antenna hosted at EGO, which aims to engage the

public in the search for gravitational waves. “With gravitational waves we metaphorically hear the sound of the universe, although it’s not sound that we actually detect, but an interferometric pattern of light that can be analysed directly in acoustic frequencies (10 Hz to 10 KHz). This pattern is due to deformations of spacetime, caused by violent events in the Universe, leading to minute displacements (1/1000 of the diameter of a proton) of the position of mirrors, at the end of two 3 km vacuum tubes, forming the Virgo antenna, illuminated by the same laser beam,” he continues. “This change of position leads to a change of the resulting interferometric signal, establishing thus together with our American (LIGO) and Japanese (KAGRA) colleagues the most precise ‘standard meters’ on Earth.”

of the atmosphere, instrumental ‘glitches’, anthropogenic noise created by passing trucks, helicopters, nearby windmills – all these can lead to changes in the position of the mirrors for example,” says Professor Katsanevas.

The gravitational wave detector has on the order of a thousand ‘slow’ sensors to monitor the environment. As the sensitivity of the detector improves, it will become more and more important to remove ‘environmental or instrumental noise’ from data on gravitational waves from eventual cosmic signals of unknown form, a task in which Professor Katsanevas aims to involve the wider public. “We’re mainly asking citizens to work on analysis of these data,” he outlines. It’s important here to maintain people’s interest and provide regular feedback, so that people feel engaged and involved in the

This is an exciting period in the field, following the first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 that gave the Nobel Prize to Barish, Thorne and Weiss there was the observation in 2017 of the collision and fusion of two neutron stars, that occurred around 130 million years ago. Using different observation instruments, from satellites to optical telescopes and radio telescopes, the Astrophysicists were able to follow the subsequent activity over a sustained period, marking the dawn of MultiMessenger Astrophysics as a field. Environmental factors can alter the position of these mirrors, introducing ‘noise’ to these captured cosmic signals. “Spontaneous seismicity, the passage of clouds, electromagnetic changes

task. “We don’t want to ask citizens to simply classify data. People are exercising their critical capabilities in analysing these signals and identifying noise or in our language glitches,” continues Professor Katsanevas.

This is not only beneficial in terms of the research project, but also for the participants themselves, who have the opportunity to gain new skills and learn about cuttingedge research. In the demonstrator at EGO, Professor Katsanevas aims to involve senior citizens in particular. “We try to see how we can involve senior citizens and get their input to the development of science, we organised a series of 12 courses that created a certain enthusiasm and we have been asked

With gravitational waves we effectively hear the sound of the universe. What we see are deformations of spacetime that lead to the displacement of two mirrors, which are positioned with great precision.

Composite background image photographs by Testalize.me and the National Cancer Institute.

“Glitches” in the Virgo antenna.

Photoluminescence activity at KM3Net. Search for new particles at ATLAS/CERN.

to repeat it next year,” he says. “We are also holding a number of Summer schools for example,” continues Professor Katsanevas. “We organise ‘challenge meetings’ within the demonstrators, and the people who gain the best results have the opportunity to interact directly with the people that created these programmes, go to specialised schools etc.”

Involving the public

The search for cosmic phenomena not only holds fundamental scientific interest, but is also deeply inter-connected with what happens in the atmosphere around us. Data on cosmic rays is relevant to research into the movement of lava in certain volcanoes, while Professor Katsanevas says there are also further possibilities. “It’s also possible to look at how the presence or absence of clouds changes the rate of cosmic ray detection for example; our seismic sensors participate in the global seismic network; we have developed sophisticated software to distribute worldwide alerts on important events that can also be used for natural catastrophe events,” he says. These points demonstrate the wider societal value of scientific research and facilities like Virgo, with the data generated at the facility also being used in research into climate change. “We have also established memoranda of understanding with certain ecological teams, to try to see the impact of the tides here on the Tyrrhenian sea,” outlines Professor Katsanevas. Another front where REINFORCE is working is the inclusion of sensorially disabled communities. “With what has been called the Multi-messenger scientific revolution we can now probe the universe with different sensing elements – not only light and shadow, but also, always metaphorically speaking, sound, and in the future particles, falsifying thus the famous Blaise Pascal saying for whom ‘the eternal silence of the infinite spaces frightened him’,” adds a smiling Professor Katsanevas. “We

can thus move, always metaphorically from the multi-messenger to the multi-sensorial stance, and this is achieved by sonifying the astrophysical data and using the proper sonifying/hearing tools to analyse them. Thus we do not only increase inclusion by permitting non-seeing people to participate in the above Citizen Science endeavour, but at the same time we increase the perceptual capabilities of humanity, its capability to distinguish signal from noise more effectively, in light and/or sound. This program is included in REINFORCE, with the help of the Argentinian Astrophysicists Betriz Garcia and the well known blind astronomer Wand Diaz Merced.”

This research comes firmly under the category of ‘hard’ science, yet the project’s agenda also extends into the human sciences. The renowned Argentinian artist Tomás Saraceno collaborated with the project, producing pieces for an exhibition. “He explores questions around the traditional acquisition of knowledge, and how animals sense changes in their environment, such as how some animals can sense that an earthquake is imminent,” says Professor Katsanevas. The wider objective here is to engage the public in scientific research and encourage a greater level of scientific rigour amongst citizens, which Professor Katsanevas believes would ultimately put us in a better position to deal with emerging challenges in society, such as climate change, pandemic situations, and the overwhelming digitisation of our society. “Everybody should look at the reality they face with a certain methodology,” he stresses.

The UN has designated 2022 as the International Year for Basic Science for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD), reflecting the wider importance attached to fundamental research. While Reinforce is set to conclude later this year, proposals have been submitted for further projects, and Professor Katsanevas is also actively involved in conferences and laying the groundwork for future collaborations.

REINFORCE Research Infrastructures FOR citizens in Europe

Project Objectives

The objectives of REINFORCE are the development of: multi-messenger science (Virgo, KM3NeT, CR) related to the Physics of the infinitely small (ATLAS@ LHC); environmental science through the imbedding of research infrastructures in the Geosphere/Atmosphere; multi-sensorial science: (sonification) and the development of a Roadmap with other Astroparticle Large Infrastructures; while in parallel developing societal aspects: diffusion of critical thinking, inclusion and diversity to art and science practices.

Project Funding

REINFORCE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 project call H2020-SwafS-2018-2020 under Grant Agreement no. 872859.

Project Partners

https://reinforceeu.eu/reinforce-team

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Prof. Stavros Katsanevas, Director

European Gravitational Observatory, EGO, Via Edoardo Amaldi

56021 S. Stefano a Macerata (Pisa), Italy

T: +39 050 752 300

E: stavros.katsanevas@ego-gw.it

W: https://reinforceeu.eu/

W: http://www.ego-gw.it

Sites of the Citizen Science Demonstrators

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/reinforce/ gwitchhunters

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/reinforce/ new-particle-search-at-cern

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/reinforce/ cosmic-muon-images

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/reinforce/ deep-sea-explorers

Stavros Katsanevas, professor at the University of Paris, is the director of the European Gravitational Observatory hosting the Gravitational antenna Virgo in Pisa. He has served as director of the Laboratory of Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology (Paris), deputy director of the National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics of CNRS and chairman of the European Consortium of Astroparticle Physics.

Stavros Katsanevas

The 4 demonstrator observatories (left column) Training course central poster and Activities of engagement (right column).

Bringing top researchers to Freiburg

The FRIAS Co-Fund Fellowship Programme gives leading researchers from all disciplines the opportunity to study at Freiburg, helping them broaden their experience and build networks that can support future projects. The FCFP programme is designed to support international researchers and help them build their careers in the academic sector, as Dr Katrin Brandt and Professor Bernd Kortmann explain.

The opportunity to collaborate with peers and exchange ideas is highly beneficial for academics, exposing them to new perspectives that can potentially lead to fresh insights, while also helping researchers establish a network to support future projects.

The FRIAS (Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies) Co-Fund Fellowship Programme – or FCFP – gives 15 top researchers a year the chance to conduct research at Freiburg for between 3-12 months, supporting their career development and so encouraging them to advance in research. “We offer 12-month fellowships to junior fellows, so post-docs who have completed their PhD within the last six years. The senior fellows can choose from between 3-10 months,” outlines Dr Katrin Brandt, project manager and leader of the Fellow Service team at FRIAS. The fellowships are open to applicants from all disciplines, from the humanities and the social sciences to medicine and engineering. “FRIAS covers the entire spectrum of disciplines, which is fairly unusual for an Institute of Advanced Studies,” says Professor Bernd Kortmann, executive director of FRIAS.

FCFP Fellows

This breadth is reflected in the current group of FCFP fellows, which includes researchers addressing topics as diverse as criminal

law, chemical physics and anthropological linguistics. The selection process for the fellowships is extremely rigorous, with about 250 researchers from different disciplines competing with each other. “Theologians compete with archaeologists, and with biomedical physicists for example. It’s very competitive,” explains Professor Kortmann. The programme attracts applicants from all over the world, and Professor Kortmann says

and senior fellows to mix, which can stimulate interesting debate and discussion, even amongst researchers from seemingly very different disciplines and research cultures. An open mindset is an essential pre-requisite for an FCFP fellow, and while fellows work on their own specific research projects during their time at FRIAS, Professor Kortmann says they are also exposed to ideas and new developments from other disciplines. “We

We’ve had a law professor collaborating with a philosopher of technology, a neurologist and a roboticist. They discussed the legal frameworks governing the use of brain data, autonomous weapons and selfdriving cars. Responsible AI is the specifically European way to go!

great care is taken to support the fellows when they arrive at FRIAS, both academically and socially. “It’s important to provide junior fellows with networking opportunities, both with other FCFP fellows, and also other people who are working in their field here at Freiburg,” he continues. “Our institute has a very interdisciplinary and social character. The idea is really to create a community of fellows during a given academic year, even if people only come for a short period.”

Events like joint lunches encourage junior

make sure that the fellows are confronted with research from disciplines they would never normally be in touch with,” he stresses. This benefits both the presenter and the audience, who often bring a new perspective to the subject under discussion: “A presenter has to learn how to present their research to people from outside their own discipline, while the audience may ask questions that the presenter has never been asked before. They are trying to understand how this discipline works.”

This can then lead to interesting new avenues of interdisciplinary investigation. For instance, over the last few years researchers at FRIAS have been investigating various applications of artificial intelligence, teaming up under the rubric of ‘Responsible AI’. “We’ve had a human rights law professor collaborating with a philosopher of technology, as well as with a neurologist and a roboticist. They discussed, for example, the legal frameworks governing the use of brain data, autonomous weapons and self-driving cars,” Professr Kortmann outlines. This group had numerous FCFP-funded international fellows and guest researchers joining them, and they are all still working together now, even after their time as FRIAS fellows has ended. This demonstrates how FCFP can lead to fruitful collaboration over the longer-term, something which Professor Kortmann is keen to encourage. “We have implemented an alumni programme, so that quite a few fellows come back to Freiburg on a regular basis to continue their collaborations,” he says. “The contacts that are created through FCFP can be sustained over the long-term, which is hugely positive for all parties involved.”

Research relationships

The FCFP fellows may also encourage others in their network to apply, which can then strengthen and enhance the research environment at Freiburg. This is very much in line with the wider goals of the entire Marie Curie fellowship programme, which is designed to bring European scholars from outside the continent back to the European Research Area. “It’s about reversing the brain drain, and bringing top people to, or back to, Europe,” outlines Professor Kortmann.

The FCFP is playing a key part in this, not just by providing a stimulating academic environment but also by taking the social needs of the fellows into account. “We don’t think of the fellows solely as researchers who need resources for their investigations. That’s of course important, but once they are here, they are also people who have a family life and social interests,” says Professor Kortmann. “As soon as people get an offer of an FCFP fellowship from FRIAS, Katrin and her team get in touch to enquire about their requirements, whether that’s nursery places or taking care of the family dog.”

This holistic approach helps fellows settle in quickly once they arrive at Freiburg, so they can enjoy their time at FRIAS and participate fully in life at the Institute. This means not just working on their own research, but also attending other events like the regular lunch lectures. “Here we present the results of research conducted at FRIAS to the University public. We also have a series of outreach events for the general public, called the Freiburg Horizons, where we bring together outstanding people to discuss issues of high societal importance,” says Professor Kortmann. At one recent event the difficulty of taking bold decisions in politics in times of crises was discussed, while other topics of debate have included academic freedom under pressure and resource efficiency, which is a prominent issue in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and possible restrictions to energy supplies over the coming winter. “We invited the Minister for the Environment in our State to the event, and she willingly gave an in-presence keynote lecture to the city public,” continues Professor Kortmann.

FRIAS COFUND FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME for Junior and Senior Researchers - FCFP Project Objectives

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme (FCFP) offers about 15 fellows per year (juniors and seniors) from all disciplines, regardless of their nationality, the opportunity of spending three to twelve months working on their own research project at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), the international research college of the University of Freiburg.

Project Funding

This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skolodwska-Curie grant agreement Nº754340.

Contact Details

Max Bolze

Freiburg Institute for Advanced StudiesFRIAS

University of Freiburg

Albertstr. 19

D-79104 Freiburg

Germany

T: +49 761 203 97407

E: max.bolze@frias.uni-freiburg.de

W: www.frias.uni-freiburg.de

Prof. Bernd Kortmann holds a chair in English Linguistics at U Freiburg and is an elected member of the Academia Europaea. From 10/2013 until 9/2022 he served as Director Humanities and (from 10/2015) as Executive Director of FRIAS.

Dr. Katrin Brandt has a PhD in Physical Chemistry. As team leader at FRIAS, she is responsible for the Fellow Service and the Funding Programmes. She has been in charge of the FRIAS COFUND Fellowship Programme since 2013.

Katrin Brandt Bernd Kortmann

New skills for new challenges

A stimulating research environment helps students develop the skills they will need in their future careers, whether in academia or industry. We spoke to Osane Uriarte, Noémi Kalocsay, Oleksandr Husiev and Juan Sebastian Angarita about the 6i- DIRS COFUND project, an initiative that aims to help PhD students develop the skills they will need to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

A stimulating and supportive academic environment helps students develop the skills they will rely on in their future careers, whether that’s in academia or industry, as researchers explore new ideas and form relationships with their peers. Following on from the success of the initial DIRS COFUND project, the 6i-DIRS project was established at the University of Deusto in Bilbao in 2019, offering three-year fellowships to successful applicants. “6i-DIRS is a co-fund programme for the whole university,” says Osane Uriarte, research advisor at the University’s International Research Project Office (IRPO). The programme offers 19 PhD fellowships to Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) of any nationality across a variety of disciplines, with a focus on research that is International, Inter-disciplinary and Inter-sectoral, as well as Inclusive, Innovative and Impactful (the 6i’s in the project title). “Deusto’s five international inter-disciplinary research platforms participate in the project,” continues Uriarte.

6i-DIRS project

The students are pursuing research into a wide range of topics, from jazz festivals and art fairs to machine learning and energy systems, which fit within one of these five research platforms. This structure gives researchers the opportunity to share their ideas with students in related areas. “For example one

their research idea, and describe how they are going to translate it into a project. We also consider factors like international exposure and their background, and we want people with specific profiles that would complement our research teams,” she explains.

A PhD involves intense study and the topic can be quite narrowly focused, yet it can

In 6i-DIRS the focus is on the fellows’ skills, their employability, and their training. Through involvement in different projects, the fellows gain transversal skills and a deeper cultural awareness.

of the researchers is working on a thesis about art fairs, which is part of the Cultural and Creative industries platform,” outlines Uriarte. The students have to meet rigorous academic standards, while Uriarte says other factors are also considered in awarding the fellowships. “The applicants have to present

also be beneficial for students to be exposed to projects and ideas from outside their own specific area of research. The 6i-DIRSs researchers do not labour away in isolation but have the opportunity to collaborate with peers working on other areas of research; the interdisciplinary nature of the programme helps

them gain new skills. “In 6i-DIRS the focus is on the fellows’ skills, their employability, and their training. Through involvement in different projects, the fellows gain transversal skills and a deeper cultural awareness about how to work with partners in other areas of the world,” says Uriarte. “We want our fellows not only to be experts in their own area of research, but also to learn about topics like project management and communication skills.”

The researchers are based largely at the University of Deusto during their fellowship, but they are also encouraged to spend some time away from the institution to broaden their experience. This international dimension is an important element of the 6i-DIRS programme, giving researchers a wider perspective. “One of the researchers is going to Milan for example. Another researcher will spend some time in Ghana, while one of our students is working in Slovenia,” says Uriarte. The project is supported by over 60 partner institutions, and while not all can host fellows, researchers still have the opportunity to spend time abroad. “Some of the fellows study at another university, while some collaborate with other industrial partners,” outlines Noemi Kalocsay, project manager at the IRPO. This gives fellows the opportunity to engage not just with their peers, but also professionals in industry, who can help them take steps towards a career in the commercial sector. While some of the fellows are keen to go into academia after gaining their PhD, others view it more as a stepping stone towards a career in industry.

“Some of the fellows are clear that they want to get a PhD to prove to themselves that they can do it, they want to gain insights and build a network. Others have been clear that they don’t want to stay in academia,” says Uriarte. If the fellows do choose to go into industry, the skills they have gained during their fellowship will help them develop products and ideas that benefit wider society. “The social impact of the university is not just about teaching, but also helping students develop skills that can be used outside the university,” continues Uriarte.

Social impact

The aim here is to conduct research that has a positive social impact. One of the researchers in 6i-DIRS is working on a device designed to help women who have problems with pelvic floor dysfunction for example, while another is working at a school in Ghana, reflecting the overall ethos of the programme. “We are trying to have an impact on society, via our PhD students,” explains Uriarte. This represents a shift from the common view of a PhD thesis as a document that a student labours over for a few years, defends before a panel, then subsequently gathers dust in a library. “We want the fellows to produce work that is not just of academic interest, but also hold wider relevance,” continues Uriarte. “Rather than writing an extended thesis, fellows can develop their thesis by getting three articles published, which is a bit more practical than the traditional approach.”

This research is often conducted in collaboration with institutions outside the university, which brings it closer to practical issues and concerns. This approach is set to continue until the conclusion of 6i-DIRS, and Uriarte hopes the programme will have a lasting legacy at the University of Deusto, leading to cultural change at the institution.“We are trying to incorporate these ideas from the COFUND into the doctorate programmes here. The university benefits from the presence of PhD students, with their energy, their work ethic, and their openness to new ideas,” she stresses. By building on the success of the COFUND, Uriarte and her colleagues hope to attract more PhD students to the University in future. “We want prospective students to see us as an attractive option when considering their PhD options,” she says.

6i-DIRS

A growing attractive collaborative ecosystem for boosting impact driven research careers

Project Objectives

6i-DIRS aims to attract outstanding Early Stage Researchers to the International Research School of the University of Deusto. Building upon the previous COFUND project, DIRS, 6i-DIRS is creating an international, interdisciplinary, intersectoral, innovative, impactful and inclusive research and training environment where research areas and teams merge and interact, providing junior scholars with unique opportunities that will support and broaden their future career prospects.

Project Funding

6i-DIRS project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skolodwska-Curie grant agreement Nº847624.

Co-financing partners:

• Blanquerna- URL Foundation

• GEINTRA Electronic Engineering Applied to Intelligent Spaces and Transport Research Group of the University of Alcalá

• Instituto de Selección Escolar de Vizcaya Foundation

• Tubos Reunidos Group

• UNIBASQ- Basque University System

Quality Assurance Agency

• Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia

Contact Details

Noémi Kalocsay

International Research Project Office (IRPO)

Universidad de Deusto / Deustuko Unibertsitatea

Avda. Universidades 24. 48007 Bilbao

T: +34 94 413 93 96 (ext. 3188)

E: n.kalocsay@deusto.es

W: https://www.deusto.es/cs/Satellite/deusto/ en/phd-1/dirscofund/about-dirscofund/6idirs

Osane Uriarte is general coordinator of the 6i-DIRS project and managed the previous COFUND project, DIRS. She is research advisor at Deusto International Research Project Office (IRPO) since its inception in 2011. Her main area of activity is the support in attracting international talent and the internationalisation of research in the areas of Sustainable and Creative Cities and Communities.

Noémi Kalocsay is the co-coordinator of the 6i-DIRS project. She joined IRPO in 2021 and she supports the internationalisation of Deusto’s research through the coordination and management of projects under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.

Essential Research Experience

The DIRS COFUND project was established in 2016 and 6i-DIRS project followed in 2019, and many researchers have completed their PhDs at the University of Deusto over the years since. We spoke to two researchers who participated in DIRS and 6i-DIRS respectively, Juan Sebastian Angarita Zapata and Oleksandr Husiev, about their time on the programme and how it helped them develop and apply their skills.

Many researchers have completed their PhDs at the University of Deusto, and many more research projects are in the pipeline, under the DIRS and the 6i-DIRS programmes. We spoke to two researchers, Juan Sebastian Angarita Zapata and Oleksandr Husiev, fellows of the DIRS and 6i-DIRS projects respectively, about their time on the programme and how it helped and helps them develop and apply their skills.

EU Researcher: What was the topic of your PhD?

QA &

Juan Sebastian: My PhD was in the area of machine learning and its use in supervised traffic forecasting. This research was interdisciplinary in nature, between transportation systems and machine learning

The context is that intelligent transport systems nowadays are full of digital data, yet many transportation stakeholders don’t have a background in machine learning

EUR: How did you address this issue?

JS: During the thesis I developed machine learning methods for use in transportation. These methods are designed to help transportation managers identify the best model for the input data they have, without the need for any specialist machine learning knowledge.

EUR: What kind of support did you have during your PhD studies?

JS: I want to highlight the quality of the supervision in 6i-DIRS project, not only here at the University of Deusto, but also the host institutions. During the programme I had access to a second supervisor based in the

UK, which was quite complementary. The group here at Deusto is focused on transportation-related projects, so it was a very good environment for me to learn about transportation and how I could apply my computational knowledge to develop effective tools that met practical needs.

EUR: Why did you apply to the 6i- DIRSirs programme?

Oleksandr Husiev: Previously I conducted research related to smart cities and communities, and I was looking to get involved in a project on questions around the energy transition and data-driven analysis of social issues.

EUR: Is this research quite interdisciplinary in nature?

OH: Yes, which is one reason why the 6iDIRS programme is very exciting for me. I have the opportunity to collaborate in the open European framework with projects on the energy transition.

EUR: Is the energy transition not just about developing new sources of energy? Does it also raise social questions?

OH: The role of society in the energy transition is now seen as being more and more important. Energy is not something we just consume any more, but nowadays we can actively participate in the market, and play a role in generating energy for the local community. This project gives me the opportunity to go deeper into the social and technical aspects of the energy transition.

Osane Uriarte Noémi Kalocsay

This article reflects only the author’s view and the Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

A new integrative approach to the study of modern Confucianism

Confucianism is an important Chinese tradition from which many philosophers have drawn inspiration, right up to the present day. We spoke to Dr Philippe Major and Professor Ralph Weber about their work investigating modern Confucianism, and its importance to understanding contemporary China.

Confucianism has a history of over 2000 years. Over the last two millennia, many thinkers have drawn from this complex tradition, right up to the present day. In the early 20th century the modern Confucian movement developed, pushing for a revival of the tradition, a topic central to Dr Philippe Major’s work in a research project based at the University of Basel. “We are looking at the people who advocated a revival of Confucianism. We focus on figures from the 20th and 21st centuries,” he outlines. Confucianism itself is a very contested tradition, says Dr Major’s colleague Professor Ralph Weber, the leader of the project. “Some think of Confucianism as a philosophy, others

as a religion, others as a family-centered social order,” he acknowledges. “We study a group of philosophers, so we treat Confucianism mainly as a philosophy.”

This philosophical tradition is very diverse, and different thinkers have very different ideas about what Confucianism is. One important dimension of Confucianism is an emphasis on self-cultivation and selfimprovement. “For example, there’s an assumption among modern Confucians that there is such a thing as a moral metaphysics. So there is some metaphysical ground for morality that is expressed through moral praxis,” says Dr Major. It is very difficult for Western philosophers to accept the idea that

there is a moral metaphysics however. “How would you explain that there is a metaphysics that sustains our moral praxis if we come from animals?” asks Dr Major. “One way we can think about the project is that we explore modern Confucianism on the basis of ideas drawn from the sociology of philosophy. Very little work has been done on the sociology of non-Western philosophies.”

Modern Confucianism

The modern Confucians are usually portrayed as contributing to discussions about modernity. They are typically regarded as a conservative group that accepts modernity on some grounds, but also

This image represents the literary connections between modern Confucians He Lin, Liang Shuming, Xiong Shili, Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan, and Xu Fuguan between 1919 and 2017.

criticises it on others. “Modern Confucians would agree in some ways with the ideas of Max Weber about the ‘iron cage’,” says Dr Major. The modern Confucians also share a certain patriarchal understanding of the world, another topic that researchers are exploring in the project by looking at texts, pictures and photographs. “No woman has managed to integrate and advance in the modern Confucian movement to the extent that they could be viewed as one of its main representatives,” continues Dr Major. “The modern Confucians don’t usually deal very much with gender issues. One of the questions we want to ask is whether this is representative of a patriarchal understanding of society that is implicit in their philosophy.”

This is one of several different strands of research, with Professor Weber and his colleagues examining the work of several modern Confucians, including those who stayed on the mainland following the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in the Civil War. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949, and the ruling Communists had a complicated relationship with Confucianism, making it a difficult environment for those Confucian philosophers who stayed. “One of our projects looks at these philosophers. They had to present their philosophy within a Marxist-Leninist framework. How did they

deal with that?” says Professor Weber. They had a choice between concealing their ideas in a kind of code, renouncing Confucianism in favour of Marxist-Leninist thinking, or adapting Confucianism to the dominant ideology. “Some of these philosophers were quite outspoken about Confucianism before 1949, so for them the Communist victory marked a real break,” continues Professor Weber.

A further part of the project involves looking at the work and life of philosophers who left the Chinese mainland, for example to Taiwan, Hong Kong, or the US, where they had greater freedom to express Confucian ideas. These exiled philosophers often felt a deep sense of resentment towards some of those who had stayed and whom they viewed as complicit in legitimising the Chinese Communist Party. “Some philosophers tried to reconcile Marxism with Confucianism,” explains Dr Major. These philosophers were living in a dramatic period of social and political change, sometimes dealing with the psychological effects of being exiled from their homeland, and Professor Weber believes it’s important to consider the wider context in which they developed their ideas. “When we read these texts for their philosophy, wouldn’t we profit from factoring in the intellectual history of the author, what they went through?” he argues.

Sociology of philosophy

The project uses ideas from the sociology of philosophy to look at the context in which a text was written. Some people argue that philosophy should be read purely on its own terms, while others believe that works should be placed in their historical context. Now Professor Weber is adopting a different perspective. “The sociology of philosophy is really a different level to look at this. We think of it as the meso-level,” he outlines. This is not just about reading a specific text in its historical context, but also about considering the motivations of the author and the sociological background to the work. “The use of approaches from the sociology of philosophy is highly innovative,” continues Professor Weber. “We believe that approaching texts through this institutional meso-level, and considering the sociological dimensions, makes for better philosophy. It can help us to understand the philosophical message of a text better.”

By bringing ideas from other disciplines to the project, the researchers hope to open up new perspectives on modern Confucianism and so gain deeper insights. Modern Confucians were often part of wider groups and formed collaborative networks through universities, research associations and other institutions, a topic that Professor Weber and his team are exploring

We are looking at the people who advocated a revival of Confucianism. We focus on figures from the 20 th and 21st centuries.

Ralph Weber (left) meets with modern Confucian Tu Weiming (right) at the Mencius temple in Zoucheng in 2007.

in a digital humanities project. “We want to highlight those networks more than individuals, we want to see them through a different lens,” he explains. There is a sociological aspect to this research, involving theories about networks and group behaviour, so Professor Weber says it has been essential to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines. “This research couldn’t be done solely by philosophers,” he stresses. “A lot of our colleagues are either philosophers or historians, but we are now also collaborating with sociologists.”

The aim in this project is to develop a database of modern Confucians and their works over the period between 1911-2011, which will provide a solid basis to demonstrate connections between them. This work involves not just drawing on data but also creating it, which could open up new avenues of investigation. “There are categories in the database that will allow researchers to reconstruct networks of modern Confucians. Who was doing what with whom? On which boards were they sitting together? Which journals did they found?” outlines Professor Weber. This approach could also be used by groups in other areas of research, although the primary focus for Professor Weber is the modern Confucians, and he

hopes the database will help uncover some interesting details. “We might discover some new figures in there that hadn’t previously been thought of as central to this tradition,” he says.

Modern China

This research is designed to shed new light on modern Confucianism, and to develop a deeper understanding of nonWestern philosophy. While there is a purely philosophical side to this work, it also holds wider relevance in terms of understanding modern China and its leaders. “It’s important to try to understand how traditions are being drawn on by political actors in China, how they are instrumentalised,” says Professor Weber. These philosophers often acted as scholar-officials who were concerned with the fate of their country, and in many cases they enjoyed access to powerful people. “This access to power is a really central part of the story,” continues Professor Weber. “These philosophers perform a deeply culturally rooted function of the scholarofficial, of caring about China. This is almost a characteristic of Chinese intellectuals in the 20 th century.”

THE EXTERIOR OF PHILOSOPHY

The Exterior of Philosophy: On the Practice of New Confucianism

Project Objectives

One of the largest research groups specialized in modern Confucianism outside of East Asia, The Exterior of Philosophy adopts Sociology of Philosophy perspectives to study the impact of social factors on modern Confucian philosophical practices. The project explores the possibilities of deploying Sociology of Philosophy perspectives for philosophical aims.

Project Funding

Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Project Ph.D Students

Yim Fong Chan and Milan Matthiesen.

Contact Details

Project Contact, Philippe Major, PostDoc Europainstitut | Institute for European Global Studies

Universität Basel | Riehenstrasse 154 | 4058

Basel

T: +41 (0)61 207 48 65

E: philippe.major@unibas.ch

W: www.europa.unibas.ch

W: https://europa.unibas.ch/de/forschung/ european-global-knowledge-production/ the-exterior-of-philosophy/

Ralph Weber is an Associate Professor at the Institute for European Global Studies of the University of Basel. He has published extensively on comparative philosophy, Confucianism, and Chinese politics and philosophy.

Philippe Major is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for European Global Studies of the University of Basel. His work focuses on modern Confucianism, textual authority, and epistemic hegemony.

Dr Philippe Major Professor Ralph Weber

Former residence of modern Confucian Ma Yifu in Hangzhou.

Politics and the art of compromise

Political compromises are essential to any form of government, but they are particularly central in coalitions, where different parties have to balance each others’ priorities. While a willingness to compromise was once seen as a welcome sign of political maturity, many voters now see it as selling out for the sake of power, an issue Dr Mariken van der Velden is exploring in her research.

Many European countries have a long history of being governed by coalitions, which inevitably entails political compromise between the partners, as they seek to balance each other’s legislative priorities within a single government. However, while coalitions are common across Europe, voters are increasingly unwilling to accept the need for compromise, and tend to punish those parties who are seen as having not lived up to their promises while in government. “In the Netherlands for example we never have a single-party government. Yet at the same time people are upset that politicians compromise,” says Dr Mariken van der Velden, Associate Professor of Political Communication at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In her research, Dr van der Velden is investigating whether this hostility to compromise is related to the language politicians use during campaigns. “Campaigning language is affirmative, and that may make people less likely to accept compromise,” she suggests.

Political campaigning

The focus in this research is on voters and politicians in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, countries with different political traditions. While Germany and the Netherlands have a long history of multi-

support of voters. “My work builds upon a group that looks at the number of pledges politicians make. They consider pledges as being quite specific ideas about policy, such as changing the speed limit on the highway,” continues Dr van der Velden.

that propose two different ways of celebrating that anniversary in a mock town-hall debate. The question is whether the way that this mock town-hall debate unfolds is conducive to people accepting compromises or not.

party government, Spain only recently elected its first coalition government this century. “Spain doesn’t have a custom of coalition governments, but it is currently governed by one,” says Dr van der Velden. One aim in the project is to probe the different kinds of promises that politicians make during a campaign as they seek the

“This is a bit problematic in terms of political compromise, as politicians are very aware of when they have to be highly specific with their language and when they can be a bit vaguer. I’m looking at questions like, where do they put their emphasis in terms of rhetoric during the campaign?”

I have two VR agents, acting as politicians,

This may be indicative of their particular priorities, as well as the areas in which they might be willing to compromise should they enter government. In both Spain and the Netherlands, political parties campaign on the basis of their plans for government, rather than who they may be willing to form a coalition with after the election. “In Spain there has traditionally been a left-wing bloc and a right-wing bloc, although we will have to see how this plays out in future. In the Netherlands we never have a single-party government, but up until the last election in 2021, leaders were not willing to engage with the topic of a potential coalition, because they feel that it’s something that people decide after an election,” says Dr van der Velden. The differing levels of coalition experience in these three countries was one of the major reasons Dr van der Velden chose to focus on them in

her research. “I’m working with data from a country with no coalition experience at the national level (Spain) up to this point, as well as two countries with coalition experience (Netherlands and Germany),” she outlines.

As part of her research, Dr van der Velden is using virtual reality (VR) games to investigate the effect of the language politicians use on voters’ attitude towards political compromises. In this game, VR agents debate how to mark the 750th anniversary of Amsterdam’s founding in 2025. “I have two VR agents, acting as politicians, that propose two different ways of celebrating that anniversary in a mock town-hall debate. The question is whether the way that this mock townhall debate unfolds is conducive to people accepting compromises or not,” explains Dr van der Velden. Voters may feel particularly strongly on some issues and may be unwilling

to accept any compromises, another topic Dr van der Velden is exploring in the project. “We did an experiment in Germany just after the election, when coalition talks were ongoing. We asked; should there be a speed limit on the highways? This is a highly symbolic issue in Germany,” she says. “We combined this with research into their attitude towards tax, which is a bit of a generic, left-right divide.”

Researchers have found that voters don’t approve of parties compromising their principles for the sake of being in government, regardless of the issue. This might mean it takes longer to form a government after an election, yet evidence suggests voters still prefer this to messy political compromises. “People want parties to take a clear stand on the issues that matter to them,” says Dr van der Velden. In many European countries there are now a wider range of political parties to

Photograph by Richard Ley

A PROMISE IS A PROMISE!

A Promise is a Promise! A Study of the Electoral Ramifications of Political Compromises

Project Objectives

Nowadays, political compromises seem to be extremely unpopular. This poses a problem for politicians’ ability to form stable coalitions to govern. My project studies the ramifications of compromises for politicians’ communication and voter behaviour utilising virtual reality techniques, experiments and computational textual approaches.

Project Funding

This project is funded by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [VI.Veni.191R.006]

Contact Details

Project Coordinator,

Mariken van der Velden, PhD

Associate Professor of Political Communication

Department of Communication Science | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam

T: +31 639 515307

E: m.a.c.g.vander.velden@vu.nl

W: http://www.marikenvandervelden.com/

W: https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/ mariken-van-der-velden

represent these different viewpoints, yet this fragmentation only leads to a greater need for compromise if a stable government is to be formed. “More parties means that parliament is divided into smaller representative groups. That means no single party is likely to gain a majority, and that more parties will be involved in coalitions than before,” points out Dr van der Velden. “In Germany two-party coalitions are not common any more, there may be three parties involved, while here in the Netherlands we sometimes have four parties in a coalition.”

Fragmented politics

Mariken van der Velden, PhD is an Associate Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Communication Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research is motivated by key societal challenges that face democracies today, such as the crisis of representative democracy and increasing political fragmentation. To fund her research, Mariken has received many prestigious grants from national and European funding agents

This will inevitably result in more compromises between partners, which will anger some people who see it as politicians failing to live up to their promises, but involvement in the political process and greater familiarity with it may lead to a change in viewpoint. This is a topic Dr van der Velden is investigating in the project. “Does participating in the political process make people more accepting of the need for compromise?” she asks. Results from the VR games so far suggest that greater awareness of the political process has an impact in these terms. “The people who participated in this game said that they had more of an understanding of the complexity of the political process, and therefore are more aware that not everything can go their way,” explains Dr van der Velden. “So far we’ve done this research with students to test the equipment. Later on we will do this research with a random sample of the population, which we expect will also include some people who are more distrustful of the political process.”

The wider backdrop to this research is an increasingly fragmented political environment in Spain, the Netherlands and Germany, with more and more parties gaining representation in parliament. This makes coalitions more likely, yet at the same time many populists criticise those politicians who are willing to compromise, undermining trust in the system as a whole. “People are less accepting of this need for compromise. That poses many challenges in terms of acceptance of the system,” says Dr van der Velden. Effective communication between governments and citizens is central to rebuilding trust, a topic at the heart of Dr van der Velden’s research. “Citizen-driven participation like town-hall debates give governments the opportunity to establish a rapport with the electorate. The question is how should they communicate? What things should they say? What resonates with the public? What does it mean to effectively or persuasively communicate?” she outlines. “These are the types of questions that I’m looking at.”

The VR games are an integral part of this research, and textual methods are also under development to look at how politicians reach compromises and subsequently justify their actions to the public. The plan is to apply these textual and VR methods over the next year or so, while Dr van der Velden is also considering possible further avenues of investigation in future. “For example, if we know that certain citizen-driven decision making is helpful for political trust, or for the perception of the legitimacy of democracy, then how does this work? What are the mechanisms through which this is accepted?” she continues.

Mariken van der Velden, PhD

European Vision with a Focus on Access

The

TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

The advances in Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), which allow materials to be studied at the atomic level, are invaluable for research and development in physical, chemical, and biological sciences, and the ever-increasing demand for highly specialized materials in practical applications for many industries and small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) developing materials for a particular end-use.

ESTEEM3 (Enabling Science and Technology through European Electron Microscopy) is an EU-funded project integrating activity for electron microscopy providing access to the leading European state-of-the-art electron microscopy research infrastructures, facilitating, and extending transnational access services of the most powerful atomicscale characterization techniques in advanced electron microscopy research to a wide range of academic and industrial research communities for the analysis and engineering of novel materials in physical, chemical, and biological sciences.

ESTEEM3 also delivers a programme of education and training to heighten awareness of the European TEM technology and capabilities available to industry, small businesses, and academia.

THE ROLE OF ESTEEM3

“Europe is at the forefront of electron microscopy technology, offering world-class instrumentation and installations equipped to support industry and research,” according to Prof. Dr. Peter A. van Aken, ESTEEM3 Coordinator, “and our vision at ESTEEM3, while continuing to support ongoing research and encourage dissemination of the latest findings, includes a drive to connect those working in materials, whether in industry, small businesses, or academic research, with the network of European centres of excellence offering state-of-the-art high-resolution electron microscopy equipment and services.”

The partner laboratories, distributed throughout Europe (see map), are brought together by the ESTEEM3 initiative to

innovate, collaborate and share the latest knowledge and techniques in this domain.

He continues, “Building on the achievements and the knowledge gleaned from the first incarnation of ESTEEM in 2007, and through ESTEEM2 in 2012, ESTEEM 3 can call on 16 years of experience in serving the needs of the end-users”.

The term of the current project runs four and a half years, from January 2019 until the end of June 2023.

Following the Mid-Term Review by the European Commission in 2020, where the

reviewers declared the results and progress of the ESTEEM3 project to be “excellent”, Prof. Dr. Peter A. van Aken is understandably delighted by the interest the project has attracted, and the successes recorded by the initiative.

He concludes, “So far, ESTEEM3 has provided access to more than 350 projects, which demonstrates the high level of demand for access to TEM infrastructures in Europe and indicates the confidence in ESTEEM3 as a firmly established and trusted network to support the European electron microscopy community.”

ESTEEM3 initiative coordinates an integrated network of the leading European Transmission Electron Microscopy installations, enabling them to pool their resources and know-how. We spoke to the coordinator of the project Prof. Dr Peter A. van Aken of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart.

ESTEEM3 partner laboratories, distributed throughout Europe.

By connecting a network of centres of excellence in state-of-the-art electron microscopy throughout Europe, the findings of the latest research can be disseminated among the laboratories, thus ensuring that the highest standards of service and the most up-to-date advances in electron microscopy are deployed throughout. As cutting-edge services are made accessible to industry, research and SMEs, the scope of applications is expanding rapidly as more end-users become aware of the services available to them.

The 14 ESTEEM3 member laboratories and SMEs such as Attolight, CEOS, DENS solutions, Quantum Detectors and Nanomegas have developed Joint Research Activities, which have resulted in over 250 scientific publications so far.

ESTEEM3 OBJECTIVES

European and international researchers are provided with ultrahigh-resolution electron microscopy instrumentation at the forefront of technology with world-class facilities so that challenging materials problems can be solved at unprecedented spatial and energy resolution, and researchers from various disciplines can interact and develop collaborations.

The procedure to apply for transnational access follows a simple peer review process, based on merit and scientific priorities. The user, whether an individual or a team, presents a description of the work they intend to carry out on the ESTEEM3 website. The application is then assessed by the Transnational Access Proposal Committee (TAPEC), which is composed of world-renowned scientists in microscopy and materials science.

of-the-art electron microscopy research infrastructures.

1. Transnational Access (TA),

The overall objective of ESTEEM3 is to be the best in the world and the key European multisite research and user infrastructure platform for advanced characterisation of materials using TEM. ESTEEM3 activities are divided into three main areas of :

2. Joint Research Activities (JRA), and 3. Networking Activities (NA).

1 TRANSNATIONAL ACCESS

As an ongoing European project, ESTEEM3 provides transnational access for the scientific community to the leading European state-

The ESTEEM3 protocol means that highly sophisticated equipment and the services of highly trained staff are made available, free of charge, to serve industrial developers and small to medium-sized enterprises, all having access to the latest electron microscopy facilities, and the services personnel qualified to assist them with the methodologies and experimental techniques to support their requirements.

Users are supported throughout the process, from assistance with preparing their requests, to the selection of appropriate methodologies and protocols.

2 JOINT RESEARCH ACTIVITIES (JRA)

Joint Research Activities (JRA) focus on the development of the advanced TEM methods required for the solution of key problems in materials and nanoscience. Importantly, these JRA will strengthen TA capabilities within the ESTEEM3 consortium by providing a higher level of overall service to all TA users both from academia and industry. The JRA have

been selected to enable potentially disruptive scientific and technological projects that will enhance overall service provision. In addition, we have structured a JRA to tackle key problems in technologically important materials.

• THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNIQUES IN TEM

The ESTEEM3 project strives to foster the development of new techniques at the leading edge of Electron Microscopy and to maintain Europe’s position as the world leader in the field.

• THE STUDY OF NEW MATERIALS

Facilitating the use of TEM as it becomes an invaluable research tool in an ever-expanding range of applications, such as ICT, energy, health, and transport. (See panel “TEM Applications”)

• AUTOMATION and BIG DATA

The advancement of routines for instrument control data acquisition data processing and machine learning with a reduced level of human intervention will be developed using automated and smart workflows, as well as open software for the design and interpretation of experiments.

3 NETWORKING ACTIVITIES (NA)

In addition to the initiative to facilitate access for industries and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to world-class electron microscopy facilities and services, ESTEEM3 develops and hosts Networking Activities, with regular events being hosted throughout Europe.

• Integration and Sustainability is focused on increasing the quality and integration of the TA service provided by the consortium.

• Education and Training ESTEEM3 strives to disseminate knowledge and expertise through an extensive education and training component. It delivers advanced TEM instruction to schools, and in advanced workshops, webinars and other contemporary, internet-supported means of education, with input from leading experts in the field. There is also an education hub on the official website, with open access to all.

• The Outreach component strives to increase the awareness and promotion of the ESTEEM3 activities in general and of the free-to-use Transnational Access offer in particular, including the dissemination of information to industry and to non-specialist scientific communities and the general public

TEM APPLICATIONS

TEM is an invaluable research tool in the four main categories of:

ICT: with increasing demand for highlyengineered semiconducting and magnetic materials, functional complex oxides, and photonics materials.

Energy: for the assessment and development of materials for electrodes in batteries, nanocomposite solar cells, and steel and superalloys for use in power plants.

Pharmaceutical Industry: for research into materials such as pharmaceutical nanoparticles.

Transport: including the aeronautics, aerospace, and automotive sectors, where there is a need for high-performance materials, such as complex metallic alloys.

In addition, there are applications in an everwidening range of disciplines, including the study of polymers for the Chemical Industry, the analysis of rocks and unlithified materials in Geology, and applications in Archaeology, for instance, the requirement to preserve and protect substrates of cultural heritage materials, such as paintings and textiles.

Materials Development at the Atomic Level

By means of a state-of-the-art synthesis technique “molecular beam epitaxy”, we can create novel materials by layering atoms. This technique gives rise to unprecedented physical properties between any two layers of specific atoms. One of the most exciting examples is the existence of interfacial superconductivity between two non-superconducting dissimilar layers, for example, a metallic layer and an insulating layer. Such intriguing properties are confined to the range of one to two nanometres, and the underlying physics and chemistry can be determined with atomicresolution imaging and spectroscopy using scanning transmission electron microscopy. These techniques can be used not only to image the atoms of the materials but also to reveal the chemical properties of the individual layers, e.g. by elemental mapping of each atomic column.

Mapping Electrical Properties of Nanodevices in situ

A collaboration with the European semiconductor company STMicroelectronics resulted in a technique to study electric fields in commercial nanodevices under working conditions, by means of operando electron holography. A sample preparation protocol was developed to allow nanodevices to be extracted from production lines and thinned to electron transparency while still retaining their electrical connectivity and functionality. This technique enabled the electric potential of the devices to be mapped quantitatively in situ, so that electrical properties, such as capacitance and surface charge density, could be determined. This exciting development opens up further possibilities to study more complex devices.

ESTEEM3

Enabling Science and Technology through European Electron Microscopy

Project Objectives

The European H2020-INFRAIA project ESTEEM3 (Enabling Science Through European Electron Microscopy) is an integrating activity for electron microscopy, providing access to the leading European state-of-the-art electron microscopy research infrastructures, facilitating and extending transnational access services of the most powerful atomic-scale characterization techniques in advanced electron microscopy research to a wide range of academic and industrial research communities for the analysis and engineering of novel materials in physical, chemical and biological sciences.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 823717 – ESTEEM3.

Project Partners

The ESTEEM3 project has a total of 20 international partners. A full list of details of the project participants can be found here: https://www.esteem3.eu/consortium

Contact Details

Peter van Aken

Head of Scientific Facility

Stuttgart Center for Electron Microscopy

T: +49 711 689-3529

T: +49 711 689-3522

E: p.vanaken@fkf.mpg.de

E: a.garses@euronovia.eu

E: c.benhida@euronovia.eu

E: p.vanaken@fkf.mpg.de

W: https://www.esteem3.eu/

To keep abreast of news and developments and to join our community, subscribe to our newsletter at https://www.esteem3.eu/Newsletters for further details about results, training events, transnational access, etc. The latest information is available on our website or social media (LinkedIn: https:// www.linkedin.com/company/esteem3/ or Twitter: https://twitter.com/Esteem3Project).

Prof. Dr. Peter A. van Aken leads the Stuttgart Center for Electron Microscopy of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research and is Coordinator and Principal Investigator of the European project ESTEEM3 (Enabling Science Through European Electron Microscopy). Prof. van Aken’s research mission is the advancement of the in-depth microscopic understanding of materials with respect to their functionalities and structure–property relationships.

Prof. Dr. Peter A. van Aken

Share the work, reap the benefits

Effective collaboration between robots and humans can boost productivity in the manufacturing sector and also improve ergonomics for the workforce, bringing wider health benefits. We spoke to Néstor García and Simona Neri about the achievements of the Sharework project in developing a modular collaborative robotics system that allows humans and robots to work together safely and effectively.

An industrial or manufacturing plant can be a physically demanding place to work, with operators often needing to pick up heavy components and move them around. Robots can take on some of these tasks and so reduce the physical burden on human staff, a topic central to the Sharework project, an EU-funded initiative which brings together partners from across Europe. “The idea in the project is to apply robots in a collaborative environment, for example in a manufacturing plant. Introducing robots in these plants will help human operators by improving ergonomics, so reducing injuries and boosting productivity,” says Simona Neri, Programme Manager at Eurecat, coordinator of the Sharework project. There are however some barriers to the introduction of collaborative robots - or cobots - into manufacturing plants, one of which is that human staff are wary of them for fear of losing their jobs, an issue researchers in the project are working to address. “We have gathered feedback from workers. We want to identify the issues they are concerned about when it comes to introducing robots into the workplace,” explains Néstor García, the technical coordinator at Eurecat.

Sharework system

This may vary according to the nature of the workplace, with four separate industrial use cases or demonstrators within the Sharework project in the automotive, railway, metal and capital goods industries. Researchers are using commercially available robots and developing a system of different integrated software modules

that will enable humans and robots to work together collaboratively in these different industrial scenarios. “We analysed all the tasks involved in each use case and identified which are the most repetitive and dangerous for operators, then those tasks were placed into the robot’s area of responsibilities,” outlines García. In the automotive use case, the robot is used to pick up heavy objects and components, while it is applied in different ways in other areas of industry. “in the railway use case, an industrial collaborative robot is used for the riveting and the application of silicone during the assembly of train windows and door frames,” he continues. “In the capital

collaborative robots and operators, and so helps them work together effectively. “First the environment is analysed – so where are the objects? And where are the human operators? This is so that the robot can understand the trajectory of human workers and adapt its movement accordingly, avoiding any collision,” explains García. Humans may change the order of assembly tasks, so it’s also important that the robot understands what tasks workers are performing, being aware of any obstacles or impediments in the surrounding environment. “With the Sharework system we are able to recognise the objects or tools in a specific scene,” says García.

We analysed all the tasks involved in each use case and identified which are the most repetitive and that require special attention, then those tasks were placed into the robot’s area of responsibilities.

goods use case, the robot screws bolts, and also helps the worker to perform a quality check, demanding high torque rotations. In the metal use case, the robot is used to help workers in assembly and disassembly tasks involving multiple components.”

The system is designed to work together simultaneously with humans, rather than as a replacement, a prime example of collaborative robotics in industrial scenarios, so an effective and reliable means of communication is essential. An interface developed in the project enables communication between industrial

Research in Sharework has been devoted to developing the software, with the aim of providing a modular solution that can be used in different industries willing to automate their tasks without losing the skills and knowledge of human workers. The end-users of the Sharework system –SEAT S.A., CEMBRE, ALSTOM and GOIZPER Group – provided their requirements and specifications at the beginning of the project, which García says has been invaluable in terms of guiding development. “We have developed some demonstrators and we have been integrating the different

Human-Aware robot tasks and motions in CEMBRE use-case.

Robot controlled through Augmented Reality in SEAT S.A. use-case.

Easy-Programming robot interface in GOIZPER Group use-case.

software modules in these four use cases, providing the collaborative robots the necessary knowledge to move throughout the environment safely and without fences limiting the spaces. We have moved these demonstrators to industrial facilities, to be closer to end-users,” he outlines. The idea is to test the solution with workers in manufacturing plants to gather feedback and assess the performance of the system. “We have different performance indicators like the amount of time the cobot is being used, the reduction of the cycle time, or the worker’s ergonomics improvement,” says García. “Specific metrics allow the validation of the Sharework system in each of the four use cases considered in the project.”

Working conditions

The major aim in this research is to improve working conditions in manufacturing plants, in particular helping improve ergonomics, so that employees are more comfortable in their working environment. Removing the need to carry heavy loads would bring wider benefits to both employees and employers, says Neri. “It’s not just about reducing the number of injuries in the workplace, but also improving ergonomics and boosting productivity, as well as fostering gender equality in industrial sectors by reducing the strength capacity needed. This technology can help reduce sick leave and injuries that can result from dealing with heavy components,” she explains. The technology is currently at around TRL 6 (Technology Readiness Level), so there is still some way to go before it reaches practical application, yet Neri believes it holds vast potential. “We see great market opportunities for the system, even just considering the industrial cases that we are working with at the moment,” she continues. “The technology can also be extended to other activities in the same sectors, as well as in other sectors entirely.”

There are a wide range of potential applications of this system, such as in the

aviation sector for example, or any other industry which wants to automate certain processes without replacing human staff. A key first step before the technology can be applied more widely is to gain the acceptance of workers, and demonstrate that collaborative robotics technology can help improve their working conditions. “Iterative discussions have been held with the industrial end-users in each of the four use cases, in order to identify the most relevant requirements for their processes and to identify a specific set of metrics that could best represent their needs in terms of productivity, cost, safety and human-related factors,” outlines García. “In parallel with the definition of KPIs targeted to the industrial scenarios, all technological modules of the Sharework have also been investigated. Each module is presented taking into account the situation in the industrial scenario before Sharework implementation, the objectives and targets after Sharework implementation and the methodology to validate the modules’ performance with respect to the state-of-the-art.”

This technology is ultimately designed for practical application, so Neri says researchers have collaborated closely with workers. “We can develop very exciting, interesting systems, but in the end if the workers themselves don’t trust it, if they are afraid of working together with cobots, then our work won’t be applicable to industry,” she acknowledges. The voice of human operators must be represented in the collaborative robotics field and their views taken into account, and the project is now moving into this phase. The technology has been developed and tested in laboratory environments, now Neri says the demonstrators have been moved into the facilities of the end-users, marking another step forward in development. “The operators are testing them, which may tell us whether there are any other factors we need to consider in developing the system. We expect positive results,” she says.

SHAREWORK

Safe and effective HumAn-Robot coopEration toWards a better cOmpetiveness on cuRrent automation lacK manufacturing processes

Project Overview

Sharework project develops a Europe-wide smart modular solution integrated by different software and hardware modules to allow robots to physically interact with humans within a collaborative production environment without the need for physical protection barriers. The project boosts process productivity and improves the ergonomics of those workstations where it is implemented.

Project Partners

Sharework consortium is formed by 15 entities from 6 countries with expertise involving industrial human-robot collaboration technologies, as well as inherent environmental and human factors aspects, innovation and business.

https://sharework-project.eu/consortium/

Contact Details

Eurecat Technology Center, Spain

E: info@sharework-project.eu

W: www.sharework-project.eu

Néstor García Ph.D is Sharework technical coordinator and Principal Investigator of the Collaborative Manipulation research group at Eurecat. He holds an B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and an Ph.D. in Automatic Control, Robotics and Computer Vision from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC).

Simona Neri Ph.D is the Sharework project coordinator and program manager responsible for European funding at Eurecat. With a PhD in supermolecular chemistry and an MBA, she has transitioned to the coordination of projects to bring cutting-edge technologies to industrial environments.

Néstor García Ph.D

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 820807.

Safe human-robot collaboration through worker monitoring in ALSTOM use-case.

The Path to Fusion

Fusion energy is regarded as a potentially powerful, clean and sustainable energy source, using the same processes as the sun. The ITER project, in France, is to fire up the next phase of nuclear fusion research. Sabina Griffith, Communications Officer at ITER confers with EU Research, explaining why fusion is the bright star of our energy future.

By Richard Forsyth

The endeavour to harness fusion energy is a worldwide concern, pursued relentlessly by several teams of researchers. The hope to achieve fusion energy has been around for a long time and that hope drives several experimental projects. Recently, fusion energy research

has been hitting the headlines again, not surprising when there are 133 fusion devices in operation around the globe. Along with international collaborations, is increased private investment. The second global fusion industry report by the FIA (Fusion Industry Association), said the amount of private investment into fusion is

around $4.7 billion, which includes $2.83 billion in new funding declared a year since the previous survey. Complementary to other sustainable energy efforts, fusion is seen to play a critical part in future energy.

There have been some spectacular milestones for fusion energy research in the last couple of years from around the world. In Korea, scientists working on the KSTAR device made a major breakthrough by sustaining a super-hot plasma temperature of 100 million degrees C for

30 seconds, pushing fusion one step closer to commercial use.

“We usually say that fusion energy is a dream energy source – it is almost limitless, with low emission of greenhouse gases and no highlevel radioactive waste… fusion is not a dream,” said Yoo Suk-jae, the president of Korea Institute of Fusion Energy.

At the same time, the Chinese government has approved the construction of the world’s largest pulsed-power plant with plans to generate nuclear fusion energy by 2028.

“With 35 nations joined under the ITER flag it is currently the largest international science collaboration in the world. This is hard to manage, but it also gives the project stability in troubled political times.”

Closer to home, the UK is looking for a site for STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), a UKAEA programme to demonstrate the ability to generate net electricity from fusion – this will look at the operational life of a reactor and prove the potential to produce its own fuel, a concept design is planned by 2024. Its goal is to have an operational prototype fusion power plant by 2040. The UK’s existing JET tokamak also achieved first ever sustained, high confinement plasma using the same materials and fuel mix as ITER plans to. Its predictions were sound, which is great news for ITER’s future.

These landmarks for fusion energy have created a renewed fervour in ‘fusion science’, because the dream of clean, sustainable fusion energy seems to be creeping closer to reality, after decades of massive investment, speculation and a little eyebrow-raising about what is

‘actually’ being achieved. As Lee Margretts, at the University of Manchester commented, ‘It’s not physics, it’s engineering’ that is now the biggest hurdle to realising the fusion energy dream.

For this reason, the anticipation for ITER, the biggest tokamak fusion reactor ever created, to begin operations is mounting.

ITER to show the way

Amongst a patchwork of fields in Saint Paul-lez Durance, southern France, ITER’s sprawling infrastructure spans hectares and has become a prominent feature in the landscape. It could also become a facility that provides the key to unlocking a more positive energy future for us all. Arguably the most complex and ambitious science endeavour of our time, ITER represents the culmination of decades of research and global collaboration from China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, countries that continue to work together on this shared project, despite the broader political strains.

Success for the ITER project will be around managing to assemble and then launch the operation of the incredibly complex machine. All the major components are manufactured

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ A technician repelling down the module to position fiducial targets on the surfaces of the component to be used in laser metrology.

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/ Representatives of the European Agency for ITER, Fusion for Energy, gathered to celebrate the completion of Europe’s eighth toroidal field coil for ITER at SIMIC in Italy.

“A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for up to fifteen times more electrical power. A 2,000-megawatt fusion electricity plant, for example, would supply 2 million homes.”

Credit © ITER Organization, http://www.iter.org/

The electromagnet, the central solenoid, is the heart of the ITER Tokamak.

in different, far-flung parts of the world but are expected to fit together with submillimetre precision and perform like a wellexperienced orchestra.

“That is what ITER stands for: Collaboration across borders, languages and mentalities. All for one: To deliver fusion energy,” states Sabina Griffith.

Collaboration and investment in this work are unprecedented, even Russia, a country excluded from international science on a large scale, remains in the ITER programme through necessity to the cause, and despite problems with imports due to the war with Ukraine. Russia is a supplier of the superconducting niobiumtin material for ITER magnets as well as other parts required for construction. Whilst this is controversial, it demonstrates the scale of involvement, commitment and investment from all countries involved in this multi-billion Euro project.

Griffith reports: “With 35 nations joined under the ITER flag it is currently the largest international science collaboration in the world. This is hard to manage, but it also gives the project stability in troubled political times. The biggest challenge is the unique way we are building the machine: by in-kind contributions. So, all partners are contributing hardware to the machine, a machine that is pushing the boundaries of the known. But the fact that we are doing this all together is also something that makes us very proud.”

It demonstrates if nothing else, that the political energy invested in fusion at least, is seemingly unstoppable.

Safe and sustainable energy

ITER, which stands for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, also aptly (and which is more ‘sticky’ in terms of PR) means ‘the way’ or ‘the path’ in Latin. It is the most ambitious energy project in the world. Fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true. It’s clean, it’s self-sustainable and potentially limitless. ITER relies on two forms of hydrogen fuel: deuterium, extracted from seawater; and tritium, which is bred from lithium inside the fusion reactor. The supply of fusion fuel would be enough to power cities for millions of years. Fusion energy is carbon-free and environmentally sustainable, and for comparison, consider a pineapple-sized amount of hydrogen offers as much fusion energy as 10,000 tonnes of coal.

Another reason fusion energy is such an attractive energy solution is that it is safe. When the fusion reaction is disrupted, the reactor shuts down safely, without the need for external assistance. Tiny amounts of fuel are used, about 2-3 grams at a time; so there is no possibility of a meltdown. And whilst the costs of building and operating a fusion power plant are comparable to the cost of a fossil fuel or nuclear fission plant, unlike nuclear plants, a fusion plant will not have the costs or challenges associated with high-level radioactive waste disposal. Significantly with today’s environmental concerns, unlike fossil fuel plants, fusion will not have the environmental cost of releasing CO2 and other pollutants. It is an attractive energy source for all these reasons.

Power for millions of homes

For fusion to take place it’s necessary to generate incredibly high temperatures. At the heart of ITER is a giant tokamak reactor, the classic type of reactor for so many fusion projects, an experimental machine that produces plasma temperatures ten times hotter than the core of the sun, at 150 million degrees C. It relies on ten thousand tonnes of superconducting magnets to produce, confine and shape the superheated plasma in the shape of a doughnut. The heat produced would vaporise anything it touches, so the plasma is held in a magnetic field in this ring. The heat is captured by pipes with cooled water beneath the surface of the device’s walls. Ultimately it can provide abundant energy to heat water and create steam to drive turbines that make electricity.

A functioning fusion reactor of the future would pump out serious energy and could for an idea of scale, provide enough energy to power cities.

The ITER tokamak will produce 500 megawatts of thermal power. This size is suitable for studying a ‘burning’ or largely self-heating plasma. In a burning plasma, most of the plasma heating comes from the fusion reaction. Studying fusion technology at ITER’s scale will lead to optimisation of the plants that follow.

Griffith said, “A commercial fusion plant will be designed with a slightly larger plasma chamber, for up to fifteen times more electrical power. A 2,000-megawatt fusion electricity plant, for example, would supply 2 million homes.”

ITER is hailed to open a new chapter in fusion research. It will act as proof that the technology, the materials and the know-how to operate a fusion reactor on an industrial scale are together and it will be the first fusion reactor to produce fusion for long periods. But ITER is not created to produce energy, it is first and foremost an experiment. The next step after ITER, called DEMO, will be a prototype powerplant.

Fusion energy is still ‘in the wind’ and not available to solve immediate climate and energy challenges, so renewables will have to build that bridge.

The potential of fusion has long been recognised but it’s only now that success has become visible ‘on the horizon’.

“It is the only solution that could take over the ‘baseload power’ that is currently provided by fossil fuels. ITER scientists predict that fusion plants could start to come on line as soon as 2040. The exact timing,

“It is the only solution that could take over the ‘baseload power’ that is currently provided by fossil fuels. ITER scientists predict that fusion plants could start to come on line as soon as 2040.”

according to fusion experts, will depend on the level of public urgency and political will that translates to financial investment.”

By literally harnessing the same power as the stars, working fusion reactors will be a huge step toward the sustainable energy we need to achieve. The promise of fusion has been a long time coming, with

research from around the world combining toward the same goal. When fusion reactors become fully operational, it will be one of our biggest defining moments of innovation in history.

Special thanks to Sabina Griffith, Communications Officer at ITER for her contributions.

Final assembly underway at Mangiarotti (Italy) on vacuum vessel sector. @WECNuclear

Speaking your language, and changing it too?

Languages are dynamic and new syntactic features may be imported over time, such as changes in word order and shifts in the relationships between certain words and phrases. Is this related to the number of adults learning a second language? We spoke to Professor George Walkden, Dr Henri Kauhanen and Molly Rolf about their research into this and other questions.

The movement of populations can shape and influence the evolution of language, as different groups may import or acquire certain features of each others’ language over time. A lot of the modern syntactic features of English for example could be related to contact with people from Scandinavia around 1,000 years ago. “The two languages – Old English and Old Norse – would probably have been mutually intelligible. That contact had an impact on the structure of the language,” says Professor George Walkden. As the Principal Investigator of the STARFISH project, Professor Walkden is now investigating how acquiring a second language affects the structure of a language over its history.

laboratory and corpus data. “These kinds of resources are available, and we are making full use of them,” says Dr Henri Kauhanen, a post-doc researcher in the project. One of the major aims in the project is to understand how

through the data. “We want to test whether the social and historical factors that we’re interested in play a role in language change. We’re particularly interested in the effect of acquiring a second language,” he says.

STARFISH

Sociolinguistic Typology and Responsive Features in Syntactic History

Second language

There are certain syntactic features of languages like German that a non-native speaker may find difficult to master. An English person learning German as a second language might struggle with its slightly different word order for example. “Sometimes, we find the verb at the end of the sentence where in English it might not be. So you might hear English speakers reverting back to the English structure of putting the verb in the middle of the sentence rather than at the end,” explains Molly Rolf, a PhD student working on the project. Professor Walkden and his colleagues are looking at historical texts to investigate the extent to which this type of shift occurred in the past, and whether it was related to people acquiring a second language. “We can collect comparable texts from different periods in the history of the same language – maybe before and after a big socio-historical event –and see what the changes are,” he says.

Researchers are also looking at historical records to assess how many people from different linguistic backgrounds were in a particular region at a particular time, so that linguistic evidence from the texts can be correlated with data on population movements and social changes. A further important source is empirical data on how people acquire language, including both

linguistic innovations, such as a new positioning of the verb in the sentence, spread through speaker populations. “From a linguistic point of view, such changes are radical, and at present we lack a detailed understanding of the population dynamics,” says Dr Kauhanen. “To make progress, we use computational and mathematical models to create an artificial ‘laboratory’ in which processes of language change can be simulated. The simulation outcomes are then compared against the empirical record.”

The important proviso here is that these developments tend to take a lot of time, and the underlying reasons why are not currently well understood, a topic of great interest in the project. One aspect of this is that people may adapt the way they communicate to reflect the linguistic knowledge of others around them. “For example if you’re talking with someone who isn’t completely fluent in your language, you might speak in a way that you think is simpler to try and help them understand. That can have an effect on how the language is learned and how it changes,” explains Rolf. This research is focused on specific regions, such as the Balkans, Western Europe and Latin America, yet the hope is to identify wider trends relevant to all languages, with Professor Walkden and his colleagues currently working

This project has received funding from the ERC (European Research Council) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 851423. Project Coordinator, George Walkden PO Box D 175, Universität Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany

T: +49 7531 88 3555

E: george.walkden@uni-konstanz.de

W: https://www.ling.uni-konstanz.de/en/ walkden/starfish/

George Walkden is Professor of English Linguistics and General Linguistics at the University of Konstanz. He works on language change and syntax, particularly in the context of the Germanic languages.

Henri Kauhanen is a post-doctoral researcher and complex systems scientist who formulates mathematical models to discover what is and what isn’t universal in the dynamics of human language.

Gemma McCarley, Raquel Montero and Molly Rolf are PhD candidates researching syntactic change in Spanish, the Germanic languages and Balkan Slavic using corpora.

Sarah Einhaus is a Masters student research assistant working on corpus construction and aiding the whole team in various ways.

We want to test whether the social and historical factors that we’re interested in play a role in language change. We’re particularly interested in the effect of acquiring a second language.

The STARFISH team.

Crossing boundaries to uncover new insights on Ancient Egypt

Artisans in the ancient Egyptian community of Deir el-Medina produced a large volume of written materials, which represents a valuable source of information about life and society at the time. We spoke to Professor Antonio Loprieno, Elena Hertel and Stephan Unter about their work in analysing these texts and developing new research methods which cross disciplinary boundaries.

The ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina was home to a highly literate community of artisans working on the Pharaonic tombs during the New Kingdom period (1350 - 1050 BCE), and the written materials they produced are a valuable source of information about life and society at the time. As the Principal Investigator of the Crossing Boundaries project, Professor Antonio Loprieno is analysing some of these materials, held in an archive at the Egyptian Museum of Turin. “The vast majority of the documents from Deir el-Medina relate to a period after the era of Tutankhamun, usually called the Ramesside period, towards the end of the second millennium BC,” he outlines. The documents include thousands of small fragments as well as larger manuscripts and cover a range of topics, which researchers divide into essentially two broad categories. “We have the more documentary texts, that relate to the economic aspects of everyday life. So things like transactions, bills and

work reports,” explains Professor Loprieno. “Then there are literary works, some of which have a religious dimension, as well as entertainment literature. There is however a degree of crossover.”

documents, but then there’s also a sociological or cultural dimension. So how did writing work in the setting of Deir el-Medina?” asks Professor Loprieno. The compact nature of the Turin archive is of great benefit in this

Complex scribal practices

These written materials are now the focus of attention in the project, with researchers looking at papyri containing different types of information and investigating the scribal practices that lay behind their production. The term ‘scribal practices’ here refers to more than just the act of writing things down. “There is a kind of dual meaning. On the one hand a scribe was someone who wrote down

respect, enabling concentrated observation and analysis of the available material. The traditional view is that these documents were written by professional scribes or writers, yet this is now the subject of debate amongst researchers. “Were these writers a social group? Or a specific profession? Did only the elites write? Were women involved? We do find some limited evidence of women writing,” says Elena Hertel.

From looking at this large body of materials, we hope to develop a deeper knowledge of intellectual life in Deir el-Medina and societal interaction in ancient Egypt during the Late Bronze Age.

Reconstruction of the erased inscription on Papyrus Turin Cat.1906+2047+1939 verso © Elena L. Hertel.

As a PhD student working on the project, Hertel’s focus is more on the manuscripts rather than the people who wrote them however. While a variety of different materials were used in ancient Egypt as a surface for writing, such as stone for example, Hertel is looking primarily at heterogenous papyri, i.e. manuscripts inscribed with several texts of different genres and by different authors. “Papyrus was relatively expensive and it took a fairly long time to make,” she says. It is often thought that cheaper and more abundant materials were used to record less important information, while papyrus was used more selectively, a topic that Hertel is exploring in her research. “When you wanted to write something more prestigious, something that you maybe wanted to keep for longer, then you would use papyrus,” she explains. “The overall picture is complex however, as a lot of the papyri contain little jottings, and some of the text was sometimes erased. They did various things that we, from a modern perspective, would not associate with important writings.”

Many of these documents are less structured than might be expected. For instance notes on when wages were paid, or how much fish was delivered to a customer on a particular day, can seem almost chaotic to a modern observer. “People sometimes just wrote some information down, then maybe skipped a few days and wrote it on another day. Then they wrote a completely different note on the same papyrus,” outlines Hertel. Through analysis of these papyri, researchers hope to gain fresh insights into ancient Egyptian culture. “From looking at this large body of materials, we hope to develop a

deeper knowledge of economic transactions in Deir el-Medina, and societal interaction in ancient Egypt during the late Bronze Age. We hope to gain new insights into the economy of ancient Egypt, as well as its religious and cultural life,” says Professor Loprieno.

Machine learning

A further dimension of the project centres on using machine learning techniques to classify and reconstruct the thousands of fragments of papyri held in the Turin archive. This work has its roots in a desire to open up access to these documents. “We want to edit and publish these

thousands of fragments, which come in different dimensions,” explains Professor Loprieno. Machine learning techniques could play an important role in these terms, for example in identifying fragments from the same scribe, a topic PhD student Stephan Unter is investigating. “We are asking whether machine learning could help us classify the fragments more efficiently. For example, can a machine identify a specific scribe where a human can’t?” he explains. “However, neural networks typically need a large quantity of annotated training material before they can learn different classes and make generalisations. We want to train neural

The Virtual Light Table.

Traces of previous inscriptions on Papyrus Turin Cat.1906+2047+1939 verso © Elena L. Hertel.

CROSSING BOUNDARIES

Understanding Complex Scribal Practices in Ancient Egypt

Project Objectives

Crossing Boundaries is an interdisciplinary heritage studies project connecting Egyptology and informatics, in which two European universities (University of Basel and University of Liège) and a major research museum (the Museo Egizio Torino) join forces in an open science effort to make accessible the contents of an Egyptian archive from the Late Bronze Age (around 1200 BC). To achieve this goal, Crossing Boundaries draws its competences from philology, material studies, and machine learning.

Project Funding

Crossing Boundaries is financed by the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research (CH) and by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (B).

Contact Details

Project Coordinator,

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Antonio Loprieno, Egyptology Department of Ancient Civilizations, University of Basel

President of All European Academies (ALLEA), Berlin

Petersgraben 51, 4051 Basel, Switzerland

T: + 41 61 207 33 31

E: a.loprieno@unibas.ch

W: http://crossing-boundaries.unibas.ch

networks on around 200 larger documents and then apply them on these 11,000 fragments.”

Antonio Loprieno is a professor of Egyptology and History of Institutions at the University of Basel. Before returning to Europe, he taught many years at UCLA. His research fields are Egyptian linguistics, cultural studies and institutional history. For a recent contribution see https://doi. org/10.1002/9781119193814.ch26.

Elena L. Hertel is a PhD candidate in Egyptology at Basel University. She studied Egyptology and Classical Archaeology at the Universities of Heidelberg, Turin, and Leiden. Her research focuses on ancient manuscripts and the materiality of inscribed objects. She specializes in ancient Egyptian cursive scripts (hieratic, abnormal hieratic, and demotic).

Stephan M. Unter is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Basel. He acquired a MA in Egyptology (Ludwig Maximilians University Munich) and a MSc in Computer Science (University of Basel). At Crossing Boundaries, he combines his interest in layout and graphical structuring of Egyptian papyri with machine learning applications.

The challenge for Unter is to work out how to train these machines with respect to specific aspects of the available material, such as colour and texture. The larger documents are used for training neural networks, as they can be separated into smaller fragments which researchers know came from the same original source. “From this point I can train the machine so that it looks for specific features that might tell you which fragments belong to the same document, and which definitely don’t,” outlines Unter. This could then enable the identification of fragments that fit together, while other features aside from colour and texture could also be used. “We could have a look at the handwriting on different fragments. Can the machine identify whether the writing styles are the same?” asks Unter.

Crossing boundaries

This represents a significant departure from traditional study methods in the Egyptology field, which typically involved looking at sources one by one. The aim is to show that this approach can help Egyptologists uncover interesting new details. “We want to give Egyptologists the sense that we need more digital data, or digital annotation to material, to gather new insights,” outlines Unter. This is not about replacing traditional methods, but rather crossing disciplinary boundaries to develop a new tool

that will help researchers gain fresh insights and probe deeper into the culture of ancient Egypt, changing the way information is accessed in the Egyptology field. “This is a new tool, a new way of seeing things. But in order to use that, we need first to have a kind of proof-of-concept, which is what I’m working on,” continues Unter. “We need to show that we can achieve something with our material that we are working on, which will then encourage others to make digital annotations.”

A software application called Virtual Light Table (VLT) is under development in the project, which is designed to reconstruct entire documents from fragmentary material. This application will be published on an open-source basis, and Unter believes it will be a valuable tool for both Egyptologists and also researchers in other fields. “This is an example of how other scholars, be it in our field or even outside the scope of Egyptology, can benefit from our work,” he says. A key objective in the project is to publish the entire corpus of material from the Turin archive online, which could also help researchers form new relationships and share their findings with Egyptologists looking at other periods. “Egyptologists are interested in ancient Egypt throughout its historical development,” says Professor Loprieno. “There are specialisations in the field, and there is what we might call a Deir el-Medina community. There is a much larger community of Egyptologists, which is interested in other periods and other regions of the country.”

Elena L. Hertel

Antonio Loprieno

Stephan M. Unter

Digital tracing of erased writings with a graphics tablet.

© Martina Landrino

Dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio unravels historical relationships in the research project: The Status of Religious Minorities in Islamic Societies: Jews and Christians in Islamic Iberia (8th -15th c.). This time and place in history can help us understand how faith-based communities and cultures managed to co-exist, despite differences.

Muslim Iberia – also known as alAndalus – stretched over southwestern Europe, through Spain and Portugal and near the time of the first conquests even entered southern France. Throughout the 8th – 15th centuries, those parts controlled by Muslim rulers reduced dramatically but included, during the whole period, populations of Jews and Christians. It was a landscape of religious diversity that found a parallel in the territories under Christian rule as they advanced in their conquests and hosted larger populations of Muslims and Jews. The relationships of these three diverse faiths and cultures in Iberia, and in Muslim Iberia, have long been an area of heated academic discussion. It is a time and place where three distinctly different communities came into contact, with their own beliefs, norms and internal politics. Certainly, this period witnessed episodes of persecution and violence toward Jewish and Christian communities alike but there was

more to Muslim Iberia than violent struggle.

Threaded through the wars, powerplays and battles for political dominance and often buttressed by religious claims, there was also collaboration, tolerance, and agreements, raising important questions about how it was possible to coexist closely, in these turbulent times and shared territories.

The status of Jews and Christians

There is evidence that Jews and Christians, also known as the ‘People of the Book’ in Islam, had a measure of protection under Islamic rule as dhimmis that was linked to certain conditions such as the payment of a tax. In fact, we are aware of relationships of a varied nature, of times when there were alliances, closeness and mutual aid between the communities, as well as times of opposition, exclusion and persecution of minorities. The period and place, therefore, provide for a fascinating case study. However, there are

gaps in knowledge and understanding, leaving several key questions open and unresolved for academics and the general public.

Dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio has travelled to several libraries in different parts of Spain and North Africa, studying original historical texts, to find evidence and descriptions of how different religious communities lived together in that place and what it meant for people of the time.

“Access to and knowledge of the original sources is important. My aim with my work on these materials is to bring nuance to some big claims about the period,” explained Dr. Colominas Aparicio. “I am trying to do that by first forming an idea about what happened in this period as a whole. I do this by exploring a number of sources, most of which are in Arabic. Sometimes black-and-white answers have been sought, with some historians emphasising the blossoming of the cultures of the three groups and others emphasizing

How Jews, Christians and Muslims related to each other in Muslim Iberia

Façade of the Bibliothèque Royale of Rabat (al-Khizāna al-Ḥasaniyya), Morocco. Photograph by Dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio.

intolerance and persecution. I think what is most interesting is that such a well-defined picture does not come out from the historical evidence left to us. What we see is complex.”

Sources pose several challenges. Regarding relations between and within communities, information is limited. Where information is available, it is regularly presented from a singular or biased perspective. Dr. Colominas Aparicio is painstakingly piecing together what evidence there is from rarely explored books and sources. She has brought to light instances that help chart discourses on religious difference straddling between incidents of persecution and forced conversion, friendship, cooperation and even trust between Muslims, Christians and Jews.

“I am trying to identify periods of change and also continuity and how this reflects society. One important conclusion is that there was no one framework or blueprint of rules that was robustly, systematically enforced.”

The illusion of hard borders

The Muslim territories of the time, in reality, were multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies whose porous borders could change drastically in a short time. Friendships, marriages, trade and taxes took place, the region being full of such interactions between the religious communities and conversions to and from Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The idea that there was no room for acceptance of diversity and that conflict between self-enclosed groups was the expected norm in the region has turned out to conform poorly to historical facts.

Mònica discusses, for example, perspectives on the possibility of minority groups, even if they had their own jurisdiction, having recourse to judges of the majority Muslim faith to resolve specific cases, so that, for example, if the Christian authorities reached a decision unsatisfactory to the parties on a matter, e.g. the sanctioning of a marriage, the couple could seek its concession through this route. On the other hand, and more generally, the occurrence of intermarriage shows us the level of intertwining of communities, sometimes contested, but with obvious social embeddedness. What emerges from the research is that there were different types of understandings and levels of dedication and discipline in confessional practices among Muslims, Christians and Jews. Besides, Christians and Jews of al-Andalus used Arabic and showed a capacity for adaptation and absorption of Islamic culture, creating hybrid identities out of practical necessity and unavoidable fusion.

There are also interesting ideas around conversion as a Christian or a Jew recently converted to Islam was not always expected to know beforehand the set of practices of devout Muslims, the emphasis lying on the sincere proclamation of the faith to be recognised and accepted by the community.

“At certain times lowering the threshold for neophytes makes sense in a society with practices that were often shared between communities,” said Dr. Colominas Aparicio.

A major question mark concerns the pressure for conversion from Muslim rulers or by a faith that was in the majority at a

given time. Broadly speaking, the pressure for conversion was more social and restrictive than physical, using humiliating or demeaning language and epithets against other faiths along with economic pressure and disadvantages. It is also unlikely that conversion was imposed at all times of conflict between religious communities. “In certain periods of peace, covenants were signed in which both Muslims and Christians seemed to adhere to a generalised understanding that, at least on a formal and normative level, the maintenance of each other’s beliefs would be respected when crossing territorial borders.”

A special tax for protection

Instead of forced conversion or expulsion, it was used to apply a system of taxation to those Jews and Christians who resided permanently in Muslim territory. The so-called ‘Pact of ‘Umar’ gives the basic guidelines for the obligation of the ruling Muslims to protect the life and property of the dhimmis (meaning protected persons) and their freedom of religion, for which a tax, or ‘jizya’ had to be paid.

We do not actually know if the pact was implemented or how exactly the taxes were collected in al-Andalus, and what it meant in day-to-day relations between communities, seemed to depend largely on time and place. Despite irregularities, the presence of tributaries throughout most of the period attests to a sustained system of living religious diversity according to an Islamicbased social ideal.

The main hall of the Bibliothèque Royale of Rabat (al-Khizāna al-Ḥasaniyya), Morocco.

Photograph by Dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio.

One important conclusion is that there was no one framework or blueprint of rules that was robustly, systematically enforced.

“The payment of taxes that ensured the visibility of the various religious communities was the order of the day, both in Muslim and Christian territories. It is a matter of dealing with a reality because you cannot change society completely at once. When the Muslim groups arrived and conquered new areas, they subdued the population and tried to share the resources. In Christian areas, there is ample evidence also that Jews and Muslims lived as minorities and paid taxes as well.”

The prevalence of taxing other groups, or receiving resources as payment for remaining in the area, provides an idea that the practical benefits of these arrangements outweighed possible claims of religious monoculture.

“From the 13th to the 15th century the political situation on the peninsula remained comparatively more stable, but many interesting phenomena occurred in this border region. For example, there were many Christians in the area who were not tributaries strictly speaking. They were seen as important merchants coming from areas such as Venice, and there are reports that they may have enjoyed conditions that benefited them, such as having their own church.”

The importance of social status

Social status often played an important role and those Christians and Jews who joined the ruling Muslims, important merchants or individuals close to the court environment, for example, were sometimes held in higher regard and esteem than poorer and lower ranking Muslims. Not surprisingly, this could cause friction and resentment among some Muslims, particularly

in those periods of political instability or crisis.

The framing of emotions and the behavioural norms they establish is an important context, and although difficult to quantify in research terms, it is an area that the project aims to understand.

“I have also been working on emotions. These minorities were part of the emotions and the expectations of how to behave, both for members of these groups and, in turn, for pious Muslims. It is interesting to see how emotions are framed in broader discourses and how they are made to match with the ethical standards of the ruling communities.”

What can be learned is often presented from the point of view of the rulers of the time, in the sense that ‘history is written by the victors’. Much of the information is obtained by ‘reading between the lines’ and across sources of a different nature and origin to sketch as far as possible a more balanced portrait of social life at the time.

No doubt Iberia was turbulent in these centuries, but what is most fascinating is that multiculturalism was a real phenomenon until the early-modern period, and no matter how faithful communities were to their beliefs, norms and values, overlaps between communities occurred regularly. People recognised each other, fell in love, worked and lived together and even fought together against common enemies with common goals and an understanding of how to work together. In the context of contemporary globalisation, it is important to see how diverse and sometimes contrasting worldviews can coexist within the frameworks of law, economics and resource sharing, alongside waging war.

THE STATUS OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN ISLAMIC SOCIETIES

The Status of Religious Minorities in Islamic Societies: Jews and Christians in Islamic Iberia (8th-15th century)

Project Objectives

Religious diversity in Islam is often controversial. Al-Andalus serves as a model in societal debates about minorities, but solid studies about the period are lacking. This project investigates the social reality of Jews and Christians in al-Andalus and wants to clarify knowledge about the history of minorities in Islamic societies.

Project Funding

This project is funded by The Dutch Research Council (NWO)

Contact Details

Principal Researcher/Investigator, Dr. M. (Mònica) Colominas Aparicio Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

Department of Christianity and the History of Ideas

Oude Boteringestraat 38

9712 GK Groningen

The Netherlands

T: +31 50 36 32293

E: m.colominas.aparicio@rug.nl

W: https://www.nwo.nl/en/projects/viveni191f001

Dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio researches the complex and often misunderstood relationships between Muslims, Jews and Christians in Islamic Iberia in the period between 8th-15th c. This was a time and place in history with diverse layers of interwoven faiths and cultures that would sometimes converge and adapt to coexist.

Dr. Mònica Colominas Aparicio

The Alhambra, Granada, 1564, Braun, Georg. Civitates orbis terrarium, vol. 5-6. Coloniae Agrippinae, 1612-1618, p. 35.

Image of God and abyss of desires: the human being

The bible speaks of humans as the image of God despite their mortal and fallible nature. We spoke to Professor Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Professor Georgiana Huian, Dr. Beatrice Wyss, and Ilya Kaplan about their research into how this paradox is addressed in different religious and philosophical traditions. Apl. Prof. Athanasios Despotis also contributed as a team member to this research.

The idea of the human being as an image of the good and eternal God is difficult to reconcile with the everyday reality of human fallibility and mortality. How is this corporeal being supposed to represent the transcendent and incomprehensible God? In what way can the human abyss of desires and ignorance be related to God’s bottomless depth of love and wisdom?

Researchers in an SNSF-funded project based at the University of Bern are exploring the paradox between the view of humans as an image of the divine and a bodily creature driven by emotions, appetites, and desires. “The project’s aim is to show how this paradox is addressed in various religious and philosophical traditions,” outlines Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Professor of Theology at the University of Bern, who leads the SNSFfunded project together with Professor Georgiana Huian. “We want to show how, in light of the claim that the human being is an image of God, all aspects of human existence can be used in these traditions to eludicate bits of what the incomprehensible God is.”

How can we talk about God?

The research centers on the analysis of texts from Hellenistic Judaism, early Christianity, and pagan religious Platonism. A fundamental question of the respective thinkers is how any affirmative statements about God are possible in the first place. “How can we talk about the Divine, especially in a platonic framework, if God is wholly transcendent?” asks Professor Hirsch-Luipold. Starting in the 1st c. CE, it is argued by theologians and philosophers alike that the divine is incomprehensible and unknowable. As a result, rather than describing what God is, some authors have looked to describe what God is not, an approach called negative or apophatic theology. “Negative theology is not a sceptical position, or an agnostic stance, it can be constructive and we are investigating how it becomes constructive,” says Professor Georgiana Huian.

In her research, Professor Huian is looking at how the idea of humans as image of God provides a glimpse of the incomprehensible God: “If a human being really is an image

of the invisible and incomprehensible God, then a human being will also be essentially incomprehensible,” continues Professor Huian. “But human beings are fallible and make mistakes. How can we integrate fallibility in the concept of the human as an image of God?”

“How then is the human, this mortal, passible, shortlived being, the image of that nature which is immortal, pure, and everlasting?” (Gregory of Nyssa)

The question then is what it is that turns a human being into an image of God, with researchers in the project looking at how this is addressed in different theological traditions. Dr Beatrice Wyss is examining the work of Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish thinker who used negative theology to look at this question. “For Philo as a Platonist, it’s the

insights about God. A further part of the project involves writings of Early Christian thinkers, beginning with the Gospel of John. The 2nd century author Irenaeus of Lyons and the 4th century theologian Gregory of Nyssa figure prominently. The project focuses on concepts of the initial relationship of human beings to the Logos and their potency to be brought to completion in union with and assimilation to God throughout these various Jewish, Christian, and pagan-religious traditions. John draws on earlier Hellenistic Jewish exegesis and makes radical steps towards a new synthesis that presents the Logos (incarnate in Jesus Christ) both as the creator and the telos (aim) of human life, as Apl. Professor Athanasios Despotis shows. Professor Hirsch-Luipold sees human fallibility and mortality not as an accident.

If a human being really is an image of the invisible and incomprehensible God, then a human being will also be essentially incomprehensible. But human beings are fallible and make mistakes. How can we integrate fallibility in the concept of the human as an image of God?

human mind that is created in God’s image,” she says. While God was viewed as being beyond human perception, Philo believed that we could come into contact with God’s Logos or Word, an intermediary which acts as a kind of bridge, as in the Gospel of John, where Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Logos or Word.

“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9)

The project also includes research into a pagan-religious Platonist philosopher and priest of Apollo in Delphi, Plutarch, who lived between approximately 40-120 AD, around the time that the New Testament was being written. Plutarch’s philosophy of images views not only exceptional humans, but also the physical world at large, as an enigmatic image of the Divine that can, if interpreted correctly, lead to

“In a way, it is the pre-requisite of any form of creation” he says. “Because whenever God creates, God necessarily creates something different to himself, and that means: something imperfect”, he explains. The concept of a “new creation” is therefore at the heart of PhD student Ilya Kaplan’s research. “It seems that God’s project, as it were, has two steps. At the moment, in this first step, we are still being created – we do not think of the work of God as being finished,” he explains. “The idea of the human being as an image of God is not static, it’s dynamic, humans are becoming God’s image.”

Light and darkness

A mosaic from the church apse of the St Catherine Monastery in Mount Sinai shows the Transfiguration of Jesus. Against the viewer’s expectations, what is supposed to be the brightest center of the light surrounding Jesus, appears in

gradually darker hues. In a Christological image, this captures beautifully the paradox addressed in this research project as a paradox of light and darkness: while we often think of light as the way to see and understand (and the image of the sun and its rays is prominent in the tradition), it is in fact only darkness through which we might be able to get a glimpse of the invisible God.

The issue of sense perception is fundamental to this research. “The idea of an image implies some kind of perceptibility, in a bodily form. But if that which we are striving to perceive is non-bodily – how is that supposed to work?” asks Professor Hirsch-Luipold. An alternative metaphor for the unsearchable and hidden is the depth, the ‘abyss’ – of the divine and the human, which Professor Huian is exploring in modern theologians.

The research outcome of the project will be published in a collective volume “The Human as Incomprehensible Image of God. From Anthropology to Theology and Back.” The sub-title of this volume is a good description of the central research agenda in the project. “If we call human beings the image of God, then we are projecting something theological onto them,” explains Professor HirschLuipold. “The next step then is to ask the

question – is there also a way to project back, from the human being as an image of God, to learn more about God?”

IMAGE OF GOD AND ABYSS OF DESIRES

The theological implications of anthropological conceptualisation in Hellenistic Judaism, Early Christianity and pagan-religious Platonism.

Project Objectives

The human being is seen as “image” of the incomprehensible God, bridging the epistemological gap between the world and God. As fallen creature, the human being is an “abyss” of desires, which reflects the utmost distance from God. This project investigates the implications of this paradox in religious Platonist circles from 1st c. AD – 6th c. AD.

Project Funding

The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Project Partners

The project is based at the Faculty of Theology, University of Bern, involving the collaboration of the Institute for New Testament Studies and the Institute of Old Catholic Theology.

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Prof. Dr. Georgiana Huian Systematische Theologie und Ökumene Theologische Fakultät der Universität Bern Institut für Christkatholische Theologie Längassstrasse 51, CH-3012 Bern

T: +41 (0) 31 684 41 92

E: georgiana.huian@unibe.ch

W: https://www.imageandabyss.unibe.ch/

“God

The project brings together researchers from a variety of backgrounds, including theology, philosophy, and classics. This diversity allowed the project to bring together discourses in different areas that are too often separated in research. “The collaboration between members of different academic fields and different Christian denominations, protestant and Orthodox, has been enormously helpful,” says Dr Wyss.

Rainer Hirsch-Luipold is Full Professor of New Testament and Ancient History of Religion at the University of Bern and since 2015 also Extraordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University (SA), Department of Ancient Studies.

Georgiana Huian is Assistant Professor of Systematical Theology and Ecumenical Theology at the Institute of Old Catholic Theology, University of Bern, and since 2021 invited professor of ascetical theology at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris.

Rainer Hirsch-Luipold

Georgiana Huian

Light and darkness in the Apse Mosaic of the Transfiguration in the Basilica at St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt/Greece/Italy. Photo: © CCA, Centro di Conservazione Archeologica - Roma

is not apprehensible even by the mind, save in the fact, that he exists.” (Philo of Alexandria)

Inset manuscript images sourced from; Parisinus Graecus 923 (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).

Team Members (f.l.t.r.): Severin Jonas Küenzi, Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, Beatrice Wyss, Georgiana Huian, Athanasios Despotis, Ilya Kaplan.

Nanostructures; a transformative technology

Sub-wavelength nanostructures can affect a variety of a material’s surface properties, including its reflectivity, hydrophobicity and anti-viral properties. We spoke to Dr David Nugent and Professor Parvaneh Mokarian about the work of the SUN-PILOT project in developing a process for creating such nanostructures, and the potential wide-ranging applications of the technology.

A variety of functions can be introduced to a material by nanotexturing its surface, including hydrophobicity, self-cleaning, and anti-reflectivity, and researchers are drawing inspiration from the natural world as they seek to develop such nanostructures. Moths for example have anti-reflective eyes, with subwavelength, periodic structures that suppress reflections, while certain other animals and insects have anti-microbial surfaces. “Those functions are the result of nanotexturing,” explains Dr David Nugent, the founder of technology development company Elucidare, a partner in the EU-funded SUN-PILOT project.

SUN-PILOT project

The ability to create similar sub-wavelength nanostructures and apply them on different materials could bring significant benefits across many sectors, from healthcare to the automotive industry, a topic at the heart of SUN-PILOT. An initiative bringing together academic and commercial partners from across Europe, the aim in SUN-PILOT is to develop a cost-effective means of producing periodic nanostructures, utilising a technology called block co-polymers. “This is a class of polymers made of two chemically incompatible polymers joined by a very strong covalent bond,” says Professor Parvaneh Mokarian, founder of the technology and SUN-PILOT coordinator from Trinity College Dublin.

This covalent bond means that two blocks in a polymer chain can only separate to a limited degree when mobility is introduced into the system, and periodic self-assembled nanostructures then form on the substrate. Changing the molecular weight of each block enables researchers to modify the periodic structure, an issue Professor Mokarian is exploring. “We are working on high molecular weight block co-polymers. The higher the molecular weight, the larger the domain size and periodicity you get,” she outlines. “We basically need to have these high molecular weight block co-polymers to go towards higher wavelength anti-reflective surfaces.”

There are other means of creating subwavelength structures that lead to the creation

of random structures, which are used to some extent in nature to create anti-reflective surfaces. However, the aspiration from the outset in SUN-PILOT has been to replicate the periodic structures found in the moth eye. “If you look at a moth eye under a microscope, you can see, categorically, that a moth eye has a periodic structure. That is not by accident,” stresses Dr Nugent. In recent research, done through the SUN-PILOT project, the benefits of periodic structures over random ones have been demonstrated. “You get better optical performance and better mechanical stability, or robustness,” he continues.

A key aim now in the project is to increase the periodicity of these nanostructures, which would then open up new possibilities in terms of applications, for example in the optics industry. The periodicity of the structure should be somewhere between 0.5-0.7 times the smallest wavelength of interest, which in the case of the UV spectrum would be about 300 nanometres, although there are different definitions. “That would imply that you want to have periodicity of about 150 nanometres. Wavelengths above that will see these structures as sub-wavelength, and therefore we will be able to achieve these anti-reflective properties,” says Dr Nugent.

There is not yet a means of manufacturing these devices at large scale and low cost, an issue that partners in SUN-PILOT are working to address, with the project covering each step of the innovation cycle. Alongside developing the periodic structures, researchers in the project are also investigating how they can be transferred onto a substrate. “In SUN-PILOT we’re using a solution-based process. We dip the optic into a bath of the block co-polymers, and then they naturally form these microdomains via an annealing process,” outlines Dr Nugent. “As a result we’re theoretically able to create these nanostructures over any 3-d structure.”

How often do you have to hunch over your phone to block out ambient sunlight to see what’s on the screen?

Applications

The process could be applied to any 3-d object, yet this is not an immediate objective in the project, with researchers at this stage targeting applications in the optics and automotive industries. The workhorse of the optics industry is fused silica, which is commonly used in lenses on tablets, mobile phones and other devices; Dr Nugent says anti-reflective surfaces would make it much easier to use these devices outside. “How often do you have to hunch over your phone to block out ambient sunlight to see what’s on the screen?” he points out. Anti-reflective

Injection moulded plastic with nanoengineered surfaces.

surfaces would also significantly improve device efficiency. “We would get a better battery lifetime, as you wouldn’t have to compensate for ambient light by cranking up the power of the display,” explains Dr Nugent.

A second major area of application is in the automotive industry, which involves etching into stainless steel. This is a more challenging material to etch onto, yet valuable insights have been gained during the project. “We’ve learned a lot of important lessons from the automotive industry,” says Professor Mokarian. Looking beyond the scope of the project, Professor Mokarian believes there are a wide range of potential applications of these nanostructures. “I would envisage that the process will be adopted by different companies and different industries, and modified to suit their particular needs,” she says. “The use of block co-polymers – engineered to achieve domains and periodicities that are suitable for the particular application – will be the common theme.” The development of a pilot line for producing tailored polymeric fluorinated additives is another useful outcome of the automotive application. Engineered by SUNPILOT partner micro resist technology GmbH, these mould-release chemicals will serve an important role in the advancement of injection moulded parts featuring functional nano-patterned surfaces.

One exciting possibility is in using nanostructures to give a surface anti-microbial properties, which again is inspired to a large degree by observations of the natural world. For a long time it was thought that the antimicrobial properties of nanostructured surfaces in nature arose because they are inherently hydrophobic, and while that is indeed true, Dr Nugent says it doesn’t tell the whole story. “Another phenomenon is going on, which is that microbes become impaled on the sharp ends of these nanostructures,” he explains. “While it has been known for over ten years that something similar happens to bacteria, it’s only within the last two years that it’s become known that the same thing happens to viruses as well.”

This results in a surface that is not just self-

cleaning, but is also inherently anti-microbial and anti-viral. Similar nanostructures could be applied to door handles in hospitals, to prevent the transmission of viruses, or to make surgical devices self-cleaning, while there are many further possibilities. “Sub-wavelength structuring – nanotexturing – can change many aspects of an object’s properties. For example utility companies could use nanotechnology to prevent pipes getting clogged and dirty, as nothing could stick to the walls, so reducing maintenance costs,” outlines Dr Nugent. Nanostructures could also be used to improve the overall absorption efficiency of photovoltaic panels, underlining their versatility. “Sub-wavelength nanostructures can be used in many different ways,” stresses Dr Nugent.

SUN-PILOT SUbwavelength Nanostructure PILOT Project Objectives

The objective of SUN-PILOT is to develop a novel and cost-effective platform for upscaling the fabrication of sub-wavelength nanostructures across large and non-planar surfaces. This will be achieved using stateof-the-art block copolymer chemistry and highly scaleable etching and injection moulding methods. Specific objectives include the demonstration of a clean and sustainable nano-patterning technology capable of reducing the maintenance and capital investment costs for optical component users whilst enhancing the lifetime of anti-reflection parts.

Project Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 760915.

Project Partners

www.sunpilot.eu/partners

Contact Details

Professor Parvaneh Mokarian Research Associate Professor

AMBER and School of Chemistry Trinity College Dublin Ireland

T: +353 1 896 3852

E: parvaneh.mokarian@tcd.ie W: www.sunpilot.eu

Parvaneh Mokarian is a Research Associate Professor in School of Chemistry and a PI in AMBER centre, Trinity College Dublin. Her research interest is on polymer thin films, polymers at surfaces and interfaces, lightnanostructure interaction, cell-nanosurface interaction and soft nanotechnology. Her research team is currently focused on creating templates for sub-wavelength nanostructures for industrial use for applications in optics, antireflective surfaces, metamaterials, self-cleaning and functional/smart surfaces

Parvaneh Mokarian

Ambient light reflections dramatically reduced by surface nanotexturing.

Laser focus on magnetic materials

Exciting a magnetic material with ultrashort laser pulses can strongly modify the macroscopic properties of the medium. Waves of the magnetic texture, called spin waves, can be induced in a broad frequency range, from a few GHz up to tens of THz. How do these spin waves behave? Can their propagation be controlled and manipulated on extreme time- and length-scales? These questions lie at the heart of Dr Davide Bossini’s research.

The behaviour of a magnetic solid can be described in great detail using the laws of thermodynamics as long as nothing changes, or if any changes occur very slowly. However, the so-called ultrafast phenomena, which occur on the picosecond (10 -12 s) and femtosecond (10 -15 s) timescales, cannot be described using thermodynamics. “This physical regime, in which the material is in nonequilibrium states, eludes thermodynamics, as this theory relies on the concept of equilibrium at its foundations,” says Dr Davide Bossini, a researcher at the University of Konstanz in Germany. This is a topic Dr Bossini is exploring within the framework of the FALCON project, in which he and his colleagues are investigating deeply fundamental questions around the properties of magnetic materials when perturbed on an ultrafast timescale. “We perturb solids using laser pulses with durations of tens of femtoseconds and measure how the system reacts in real time, aiming to manipulate its macroscopic properties in an ultrafast fashion,” he explains.

Ultrashort laser pulses and magnetic materials: A new frontier of science

This research involves changing the parameters of the laser pulses (wavelength, polarisation, intensity and duration) and investigating its effect on magnetic

solids. While some of the phenomena that have previously been observed in this area of research could be grasped in a first approximation in terms of semithermodynamical pictures – others require the use of novel theoretical models. “These phenomena cannot be portrayed by established, well-defined canonical theories,” stresses Dr Bossini. “We have already observed that when we excite

There are not many cases of entanglement in solids so a direct experimental confirmation of the theoretical predictions would be a very interesting finding, a topic which Dr Bossini intends to investigate further outside the scope of his EmmyNoether project, in collaboration with his colleagues at the University of Konstanz. The theory can be paraphrased by stating that these two wave-like excitations are

a magnet under the proper conditions, collective coherent spin oscillations – even at frequencies exceeding 20 THz – can be triggered. We want to understand this phenomenon in depth, and to investigate if we can control the spatial propagation,” he explains. “Theories formulated to describe this peculiar regime of spin dynamics by us and other researchers suggest this phenomenon is intrinsically quantum mechanical. More precisely, quantum entanglement and squeezed states involving the photo-induced magnons have been theoretically proposed.”

entangled, so they can influence each other, despite not being physically connected. However, demonstrating the entanglement experimentally at the ultrafast timescale is a daunting challenge. “An experimental method to address this question in an unambiguous way is not available at the moment,” acknowledges Dr Bossini. “One of my activities in Konstanz, beyond FALCON, consists of an attempt at developing such a scheme, in tight collaboration with some colleagues at the Physics Department.”

We perturb solids using laser pulses with duration of tens of femtoseconds and measure how the system reacts in real time, aiming at manipulating its macroscopic properties in an ultrafast fashion.

FALCON

A highly sophisticated microscope is currently under development in the project, which is designed to detect the propagation of these spin waves. The aim is to achieve as high a spatial resolution as possible, in combination with the femtosecond temporal resolution provided by the duration of the laser pulses. “The challenge is to combine this time resolution, spatial resolution, and the ability to operate in cryogenic conditions in a single microscope,” explains Dr Bossini. The microscope will be used to study how both low-energy and high-energy spin waves propagate in space, while Dr Bossini also plans to investigate the possibility of coupling these waves to the charges of electrons. “If you want to exploit these ideas, to translate it into technological development, you must be able to couple any possible ultrafast magnetic manipulation to charges, as otherwise any possible novel concept could not be integrated with CMOS technology,” he says. “I mainly focus on coherent processes, as they they do not result in heating up electrons and the lattice of the material, while allowing us to store and manipulate information in the phase of the spin waves.”

Consequently metals are not suitable for this purpose. “As soon as you shine light on metals, you heat up the free electrons and, consequently, the lattice and the magnetic system. So we work with materials with an energy-gap, as insulators and semiconductors,” explains Dr Bossini. The focus for Dr Bossini and his group at the University of Konstanz is on fundamental research and he is in the ideal place to make interesting findings. “My host here in Konstanz (Prof. Alfred Leitenstorfer) specialises in building lasers with specifications

which exceed commercial systems, in particular in the mid-infrared spectral range. I have the opportunity to work with these lasers,” he continues.

The complexity of the physics of ultrafast processes in magnetic media demands a tight collaboration between experimentalists and theorists. “I have recently begun collaborating with a group based here in Konstanz, and another in Mainz. We provide them with updates on our measurements,” outlines Dr Bossini. “We strive to understand how these spin waves propagate in space, and if we can couple them to charges. The goal is to couple not only low-energy but also high-energy spin waves with charges. We are going to investigate a variety of materials, which are promising for the identification of a coupling mechanism.”

This research also holds wider relevance to the development of a next-generation information technology, able to outperform the schemes employed nowadays, especially in big facilities. While solid state devices (SSDs) are commonly used in laptops, they are not used in the large-scale data centres run by major technology companies, as they are not available in sufficient volume and are not cost-effective. “Huge datacentres run by the likes of Google and Facebook rely on magnetic hard drives. A concept for a magnetic information technology, enabling not only the storage (write/read) but also the transfer of data on timescales thousands of times shorter than conventional hard disks – unconstrained by heating-related issues – is thus highly desirable,” says Dr Bossini. “This is the potential of investigating the optical generation of coherent magnons and the control of their spatio-temporal propagation on extreme scales.”

FALCON

Femtosecond non-dissipAtive propagation controL and charge Conversion of THz antiferrOmagnetic magnoNs

Project Objectives

Despite the feverishly growing research field investigating the interaction of light and quantum materials on extreme time- and length-scales, an optical drive and manipulation of the spatiotemporal dynamics on such scales of magnetic excitations has been so far not addressed. FALCON aims at setting a landmark in the realm of solid state physics, by establishing the all-optical generation, control and detection of extreme spatiotemporal dynamics of spin waves in magnets. During the process a novel experimental methodology and essentially novel physics will be developed, as the aimed extreme spatiotemporal regime is elusive of the state-ofthe-art condensed matter science. The results of FALCON will be key in assessing whether relying on collective magnetic excitations, i.e. spin waves, as information carriers can be the base of a novel paradigm of information technology.

Project Funding

The FALCON project is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Project Partners

• Prof. A. Leitenstorfer, University of Konstanz, Germany

• Prof. G. Cerullo, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Contact Details

Dr. Davide Bossini

Emmy Noether group leader

Department of Physics

University of Konstanz

Universitätstraße 10

D-78457 Konstanz

Box 696

Germany

T: +49 (0)7531 88 4676

E: davide.bossini@uni-konstanz.de

W: https://www.bossini.uni-konstanz.de/en/ team/dr-davide-bossini/start/

Davide Bossini received his PHD in 2015 at Radboud University Nijmegen (NL). He spent 2 years at the University of Tokyo as a postdoc fellow. After 2 years as a Akademischer Rat auf Zeit, (equivalent to non-tenured assistant professor) at TU Dortmund, in 2020 he joined the University of Konstanz, as an Emmy Noether group leader.

Dr Davide Bossini

New beamline set to open up new research horizons

Synchrotron radiation helps researchers across a wide variety of disciplines gain fresh insights. The aim of the BEATS project is to design and construct a new beamline for tomography at the SESAME synchrotron facility in Jordan, which will open up new opportunities to researchers across the Middle East, as Dr Axel Kaprolat, Dr Gianluca Iori and Dr Andrea Lausi explain.

SESAME is an important scientific resource for researchers across the Middle East, producing a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation that supports investigation in disciplines from materials science to cultural heritage. In a synchrotron facility, electrons circulate in a storage ring at close to the speed of light. “When these electrons move at the speed of light and are made to change direction to follow a quasi-circular path, they emit a very intense and brilliant photon beam. The spectrum of this radiation beam ranges from the infrared to high-energy X-rays,” explains Dr Axel Kaprolat of the European Synchrotron (ESRF). As coordinator of the EU-funded H2020 BEATS project (Beamline for Tomography at SESAME), Dr Kaprolat is working to help design and construct a new beamline for X-ray tomography at SESAME. “For the sustainable operation of a synchrotron facility it is important to have a certain number of operational beamlines that constitute a critical mass. Currently SESAME

is enhancing the number of beamlines to go beyond this threshold, with the BEATS project being a major part of this process,” he outlines.

Cultural heritage and archaeology

BEATS will be a state-of-the-art beamline, or experimental station, for tomography at SESAME. It will primarily cater for researchers in cultural heritage and archaeology. The beamline is designed to have only those optical elements that are absolutely necessary, and will have two operational modes. “One is that we have the beam as it comes from the storage ring, modified only by absorbers allowing us to shape the spectrum according to needs. The other mode involves using a monochromator, selecting a smaller band of energies which enables what we call phase and coherence-dependent experiments,” says Dr Gianluca Iori, a beamline scientist at SESAME. In this second operational mode a double multilayer monochromator will enable researchers to see

subtle or seemingly minor details in a sample that would not be apparent using standard tomography. “Even small contrasts in a sample can be enhanced, which you cannot do with standard methods,” explains Dr Iori.

The beamline is being developed on the basis of existing technology, drawing particular inspiration from the TOMCAT beamline operational at the Swiss Light Source, although the BEATS experts have to adapt to SESAME’s local framework (space considerations, technical standards). One important consideration in development is how many photons are available per second at the beamlines’ sample position. “The more the better, as the more intense the light is, the more experiments you can do more quickly,” says Dr Iori. Further to the challenge of providing the experimental station with an intense beam of energy sufficient to enable researchers to look at highly absorbing samples, the overall design also has to comprise the sample station, where samples

Courtesy of Shiva Shirani.

Aliakbar Kakouie, Ali Vatani, Seyed Amir Hosseini Moghaddam, Shiva Shirani, Claudio Ferrero, and Emmanuel Brun. “Lattice Kinetic Model of 3D Flow Characterization in Core Samples via Synchrotron X-Ray Micro-Tomography.” Computers & Geosciences 156 (November 1, 2021): 104908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2021.104908.

Finite element simulations can be derived from synchrotron CT datasets and applied to understand failure and hardening processes in stealfoams steel foams and lightweight materials from aerospace engineering. (Kaya, Ali Can, Paul Zaslansky, Mehmet Ipekoglu, and Claudia Fleck. 2018. “Strain Hardening Reduces Energy Absorption Efficiency of Austenitic Stainless Steel Foams While Porosity Does Not.” Materials & Design143 (April): 297–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2018.02.009.) Courtesy of Prof.Claudia Fleck, TU Berlin, Germany.

under investigation are rotated with respect to the incoming beam. Here, suitable detector assemblies record series of images, which in turn are used to reconstruct 3d tomography results. Also, the computing infrastructure needed to perform the necessary computations is part of the overall design. “Tomography beamlines produce huge amounts of data, in the region of several terabytes per day, so highly sophisticated computing is required,” continues Dr Iori. “One important question is how fast can we do 3-dimensional reconstructions? This is about making the best possible use of all the information available.”

A further dimension of the project involves building up a community to use the beamline over the longer term. By heightening awareness of the beamline and the opportunities that it offers to researchers in cultural heritage and archaeology, the BEATS project aims to help put the facility on a sustainable long-term footing. “We need to let potential users know what the beamline can do,” outlines Dr Andrea Lausi, Science Director of SESAME. The European Commission has a history of supporting the development of SESAME, and the emphasis now is on building local capacity to use and maintain the beamline, so reducing the need for outside support. “The ESRF was proposed as coordinator for this project, as they have a lot of recent experience in upgrading and constructing beamlines, which could benefit other synchrotrons. We learn from each other in this process,” stresses Dr Lausi. “The project is based on three pillars of equal importance: i) design, construction, and commissioning of the beamline, ii) establishing means of sustainable operation and user community building, and iii) knowledge transfer between the partners of the BEATS project.”

This is part of the wider aim of building capacity and opening up new opportunities for researchers, with the project bringing together partners from across the Middle East. While

Courtesy of Prof.

researchers can apply for beamtime at other synchrotrons, Dr Lausi believes the local research community will benefit greatly from the addition of a hard X-ray tomography beamline at SESAME. “The best thing is that you have a beamline close by, then we can provide training on how to use it,” he says. The beamline itself is quite versatile, and while it is intended primarily for cultural heritage and archaeology research, it has a wider range of potential applications, including in the oil and gas industry. “We cover the whole spectrum of problems related to determining the 3-D structure of a sample. That could be a painting, or composite materials,” outlines Dr Lausi. “With X-ray tomography the sample comes back unharmed, which is very important for very rare cultural artefacts.”

approach that aligns well with the overall mission of the ESRF, which includes fostering research using synchrotron radiation. The construction of a further beamline at SESAME, with a growing community of users, will also help strengthen the facility as a whole and put it on a more stable footing, less vulnerable to shifting priorities.

Courtesy of CCHT-Italian Institute of Technology

New beamline

The project is set to conclude around the middle of 2023, when the new beamline becomes operational, yet this will not mark the end of collaboration between the BEATS project team and SESAME. The staff that have worked to create the beamline will continue to support its operation beyond the end of the project, an

This will help secure the long-term future of SESAME and widen the opportunities available for researchers across the Middle East, a region with a rich cultural and archaeological heritage. While SESAME itself is based in Jordan, eight member countries contribute to its funding, including several with a history of tense relations, reflecting the founding spirit of the

For the sustainable operation of a synchrotron facility it is important to have a certain number of operational beamlines that constitute a critical mass. Currently SESAME is enhancing the number of beamlines to go beyond this threshold.

Boaz Pokroy, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel. Bianco‐Stein, Nuphar, IrynaPolishchuk, Gabriel Seiden, Julie Villanova, Alexander Rack, Paul Zaslansky, and Boaz Pokroy. “Helical Microstructures of the Mineralized Coralline Red Algae Determine Their Mechanical Properties.” Advanced Science7, no. 11 (2020): 2000108. https://doi.org/10.1002/ advs.202000108.

Phase-contrast synchrotron X-ray computed tomography allows to visualize the internal microstructure of rare archaeological samples without sectioning or damaging them. Cultural heritage specialists apply XCT to understand the degradation of ancient glass and develop conservation approaches for specific materials and artefacts.

BEATS

BEAmline for Tomography at SESAME

Project Objectives

The BEATS project has the aim to design, procure, construct and commission the first beamline for X-ray tomography in the Middle East. The main objectives include developing the scientific case and building a user community, ensuring the transfer of knowledge to SESAME staff and addressing the issue of sustainability and post-project operation of the beamline.

Project Funding

BEATS project has received funding from the EU’s H2020 framework programme for research and innovation under grant agreement n°822535.

Project Partners

https://beats-sesame.eu/partners/

Contact Details

Project Coordinator, Axel KAPROLAT

ESRF Instrumentation Services and Development Division

ISDD-Office / Project Coordinator, Office

CB 437

BP 220

F-38043 Grenoble Cedex

T: +33 (0)4 76 88 24 35

E: axel.kaprolat@esrf.fr

W: www.beats-sesame.eu

facility. “This spirit is about bringing people together to work on similar scientific projects for the benefit of humanity,” says Dr Kaprolat. The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) was founded in a similar spirit in the aftermath of the Second World War, and Dr Kaprolat says the two institutions are linked in other ways. “Traditionally the President of the Council of SESAME is always a former DirectorGeneral of CERN. The development of SESAME has been guided by Unesco,” he outlines.

The long-term hope is to build more beamlines at SESAME, further diversifying the reach of scientific research and helping to secure its future as part of a wider network of facilities. Compared with other synchrotron facilities, SESAME currently has a rather low nominal annual budget. “BEATS will be the

fifth beamline to enter operation at SESAME” continues Dr Kaprolat. “The hope is that the addition of more beamlines over the next few years would strengthen the position of SESAME in the global and regional research landscape”

This has been the experience of many European synchrotrons, which started with a relatively small number of beamlines and then gradually grew over time. Staff from wellestablished synchrotrons in other parts of the world have made important contributions to BEATS, sharing their knowledge and expertise. “Coordinating this kind of project is a challenge, as it involves partners from several countries and cultures as well as using various different technologies, but it has been rewarding. The partners have worked very well together in BEATS,” says Dr Kaprolat.

BEATS: Supporting Scientific Excellence

SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) was officially opened in 2017. It is a ‘third-generation’ synchrotron light source and the region’s first major international centre of excellence. Now, five years on, the BEATS project aims to further improve the facility, marking another step forward in its development.

Axel Kaprolat started his career as a solid state matter experimental physicist and worked in several third generation synchrotron sources before joining the ESRF in 2002. He evolved towards the coordination of scientific projects with collaborating researchers. In recent years, he has coordinated several European projects, today focussing on BEATS.

This is very much a team effort, with scientists from different countries and cultural backgrounds working together and sharing ideas, helping to shape a truly world-class facility. The aim is to create a state-of-the-art beamline that can support research in not only cultural heritage and archaeology, but a wide range of other disciplines too, from geology to materials science.

The first two years of the project were devoted to the design of the beamline, but with the construction phase now underway, the vision is closer to becoming a reality. The beamline no longer exists just on paper or computer simulations, but is beginning to take tangible shape as the newest addition to the SESAME facility.

It’s an exciting time for everybody involved in BEATS to see the design, drawings and calculations take form inside the SESAME storage ring and experimental hall. Many support teams work together during the machine shutdowns at SESAME to install equipment such as the source, vacuum chambers, front end, optics and experimental equipment. Several campaigns are planned, until around the Spring of 2023, before the beamline eventually enters operation.

This will mark the formal conclusion of the BEATS project, but also the start of a new era at SESAME, with the addition of a tomography beamline opening up new opportunities for researchers across the Middle East. This will ultimately support scientific excellence in the region and help establish SESAME as an integral part of a wider global network of synchrotron facilities.

Axel Kaprolat

The BEATS installation team on location in the SESAME storage ring tunnel.