The International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUEAS) event will this year be hosted by the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia from 4-9 May.
With the aim of investigating developments in anthropology, and the focus on engaging with the public, this year’s event hopes to provide insight into the applications of results in anthropological studies, as well as how they can improve quality of life. Discussions on this particular role of anthropology, and the elimination of social and economic inequalities, will be a key theme.
The scientific programme of the Inter-Congress invites participants to discuss and develop comprehensive insights into diversity in research and scholarship, social processes, new technologies, global economic development, changes in demographics and the complexity of government in contemporary societies.
Ethnology and anthropology covers numerous research fields. The Inter-Congress also invites participants to discuss the diverse perspectives and ways in which these diverse issues and topics are addressed.
The European Research Council (ERC), which receives its budget from Horizon 2020, the European Commission’s framework programme, will participate in the event with an open session on the 4 May with Professors Alice Bellagamba and Thomas Hylland Eriksen. ERC scientific officer for science and humanities, Dr Inge Ruigrok, will chair the panel as well as present opportunities and advice on how to apply for ERC grants.
Dubrovnik, the most southerly city in Croatia, has a rich history with diplomatic letters from Tudor England on display in the city museum. Founded by Croats in the 7th Century adjacent to an ancient oak forest, the city’s name derives from ‘dub’, meaning oak, and ‘dubrava’, meaning wood. It came under heavy fire during the Balkans War of the early 1990s, severley damaging the Old Town, which has now been fully restored.
Information on how to register for this year’s event can be found here.
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Projeler
Nanobots coated with ‘wonder material’ graphene are the latest anti-pollution development for global waterways.
An international collaboration of scientists demonstrated that the microscopic machines (each smaller than the width of a human hair) are capable of removing 95% of the lead found in wastewater in less than an hour.
Project research leader Dr Samuel Sánchez of the Max Planck Institute for Intellighent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, said: “This work is a step toward the development of a smart remediation system where we can target and remove traces of pollutants without producing an additional contamination. This is a new application of smart nanodevices for environmental applications. The use of self-powered nanomachines that can capture heavy metals from contaminated solutions, transport them to desired places, and even release them for ‘closing the loop’ – that is a proof-of-concept towards industrial applications.
“We plan to extend the microbots to other contaminants and also, importantly, reduce the fabrication costs and mass-produce them.”
In these experiments, the graphene-coated robots were controlled with a precise magnetic field; in the future, however, autonomous guidance is a distinct possibility. Once loaded with pollutants, the nano-robots were guided to a collection point where an acidic solution was used to remove the lead ions; they were then ready to continue their task of decontamination.
It is hoped that a similar technique could be implemented in drug delivery.
The work has published in the online journal NANO Letters and can be viewed here.
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The Centre for Art History and Artistic Research (CHAIA), University of Évora, Portugal, discusses how art and heritage can become knowledge and innovation.
The Centre for Art History and Artistic Research (CHAIA) (www.chaia.uevora.pt) is a research and development unit of the University of Évora, Portugal, that is included in its doctoral school, the Institute for Advanced Studies and Research (IIFA) (www.iifa.uevora.pt), and carries out its scientific activity in the field of Arts and Humanities. It is located in the city of Évora, which has been listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO since 1986, in the Alentejo region, southern Portugal, a part of the country still of Mediterranean climate and culture.
Established in 1987, and evaluated and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) since 1998, CHAIA is one of the oldest Arts and humanities research centres of Portugal. Having the history of art as its first field of work, the centre soon engaged in a multidisciplinary strategy and a transdisciplinary approach by gradually integrating researchers from the fields of landscape, music and musicology, theatre, visual arts, architecture, design, archaeology and philosophy. The confluence of this multidisciplinarity with a transdisciplinary approach materialised with the definition of two core axes of research and action: artistic research and heritage studies.
Heritage studies
Through these two structuring axes, CHAIA has been specialised in artistic and heritage research as ways of studying how scientific and technological development has changed our perception of time and space, of individual and collective identities, of ideas and artistic practices, and of humanities as an area of knowledge capable of being involved critically, politically and prospectively. In the heritage studies axis the digital heritage and cyber-archaeology research stands out on a national and international scale, in particular with the project ‘City and Spectacle: A vision of pre-earthquake Lisbon’.1 The first goal of this project is to digitally recreate 18th Century Lisbon from the eve of the 1755 earthquake. At the same time, it tests the possibility of making use of digital technology to virtually transform the past into a humanities research laboratory, where it will be possible to enable new interactions between historical sources, facts and information, and to test new hypotheses through 3D modelling, particularly of buildings, infrastructures, urban spaces and events.
The results of those new interactions of facts, sources, information and hypotheses will already be part of a new digital epistemology. Following the City and Spectacle project, CHAIA has been part of the Virtual Archaeology International Network (INNOVA) since 2014, which includes 50 research units from 23 countries on four continents. INNOVA is co-ordinated by SEAV-Spanish Society of Virtual Archaeology, the association responsible for the Seville Charter, one of the international documents, along with the London Charter, that regulate digital heritage. INNOVA offers an international master’s degree entitled ‘Virtual Heritage: Cultural Heritage in the Digital Era’. More recently, in partnership with CIDEHUS (www.cidehus.uevora.pt), another research unit of the University of Évora, and the City Council of Évora, work is in progress to virtually recreate various historical periods of this city, from Roman times to the 19th Century. At the moment, the work on the Islamic period of the city is completed.
Also within the heritage studies axis, CHAIA, with other research centres, such as the Laboratorio HERCULES (http://www.hercules.uevora.pt), also of the University of Évora and specialised in heritage applied sciences, is developing a transdisciplinary process for the creation of a heritage language and methodology that is transversal and common to science, technology and humanities, with the aim of bringing them together in an integrated approach of specific heritage-related problems. Until now, this process has materialised through the creation of two specialised educational cycles: an Erasmus Mundus master’s programme in archaeometry, the ARCHMAT (http://www.erasmusmundus-archmat.uevora.pt/index.html) – a partnership with the universities of Sapienza (Rome) and Aristoteles (Thessaloniki); and a doctoral programme, the HERITAS – heritage studies – a partnership with the University of Lisbon. The innovative nature of the HERITAS transdisciplinary advanced graduation was recognised by FCT, which awarded it 36 research grants and 24 doctoral grants, to be distributed over four years. Moreover, with the same multidisciplinary approach, the online journal MIDAS – Museums and Interdisciplinary Studies (http://midas.revues.org) is being published in collaboration with CIDEHUS, the New University of Lisbon, the University of Coimbra and the University of Oporto.
Artistic research
On the other hand, at the core of the artistic research axis, the relationship between art, science and technology is evident in the research carried out under the visual arts doctoral programme that has an emphasis on the transversality with media, cultural studies, metamedia and design.
The University of Évora’s educational field of landscape architecture has one of the oldest traditions in Portugal. Among its former and current teachers are those who introduced the subject in Portugal and some of its most relevant experts. We can therefore see why landscape has been one of the founding scientific areas of CHAIA, especially the research regarding the history of gardens and landscape transformations in Portugal and the Mediterranean region, and its ecological, cultural, social and economic impacts.
Over the past two years, the research carried out on urban gardens and their contribution to maintain our way of life and a more sustainable future has had an increasing effect on the international scientific community, notably through the partnership established with the University of Seville to study urban neighbourhoods and their role in a balanced and sustainable city development. Landscape researchers are also responsible for co-ordinating the online journal2 jointly edited with the New University of Lisbon and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon.
At CHAIA the concept of landscape, because of its systemic approach that involves the linking of different factors, including the biophysical and the cultural, has also been used to aggregate joint research on trans and/or interdisciplinarity, materialised in the organisation of thematic seminars on landscape and heritage (2011-2014), which discussed the relevance of landscape in different disciplinary fields. Included in this new conceptual approach is the study of megalithic monuments, rock art and Roman settlements (particularly in southern Portugal and the Spanish region of Extremadura), as well as the research strand in art and community, with emphasis on the social role of art and projects in art history (the project ‘The Baroque Tile Route’ in Alentejo), theatre (projects in puppetry, acting and street theatre), visual arts (projects involving rural communities and on art and gender), design (the project Alentejo By Design), and architecture – all with a strong component of traditional and local Arts and knowhow recovery, revitalisation and recreation, and of its possible uses in creative industries and tourism.
The CHAIA research profile reveals an institutional mission that answers to the needs of the regional context in which it is situated, the city of Évora and the Alentejo region and, at the same time, projects its scientific results, reflection and the ensuing discussion onto an international stage through three prevailing research lines: heritage, identities and historiographies; Arts and digital humanities; and community and the social role of art.
http://lisbon-pre-1755-earthquake.org/city-and-spectacle-a-vision-of-pre-earthquake-lisbon-updated-for-vmss-2009/
http://www.chaia_gardens_landscapesofportugal.uevora.pt/PDFs/journal3/G&L%20N3%20Book.pdf
Professor Paulo Simões Rodrigues
CHAIA – Centre for Art History and Artistic Research
+351 266 706 581
psr@uevora.pt
http://www.chaia.uevora.pt/en
The post Future for art and heritage appeared first on Horizon 2020 Projects.
The European Research Council (ERC) has announced that it has awarded €647m to 277 senior researchers. The Advanced Grants will enable innovation for the benefit of both science and society.
Awarded under the ‘excellent science’ pillar of Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation programme, the grants are awarded to researchers of any nationality based in or willing to relocate to Europe. The projects will be held in 21 European nations with the UK (69), Germany (43) and France (30) topping the lists.
ERC President Jean-Pierre Bourguignon said: “It is inspiring to see both the quality and ambition of the projects submitted by the distinguished researchers to whom these grants have been awarded. The ERC was given the task to support cutting-edge and risky research to allow scientists to push the frontiers of knowledge. I look forward to seeing what breakthroughs and major advances will come out of these projects whose main driver was scientific curiosity.”
European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas added: “Through EU funding, the European Research Council is enabling the best minds in the world to create a better future for us all. These talented researchers are an integral part of what keeps us globally competitive. Their work will lead to new knowledge, it will fuel innovation and it can bring about market-creating innovation − generating employment opportunities and economic growth for Europe. Most importantly, the ideas developed by ERC grantees can lead to better, healthier, more innovative societies, if we engage Europeans in realising their potential.”
The ERC has a budget of €13bn for the years 2014-2020 as part of Horizon 2020. Each grant can receive up to €3.5m as long as the hosting institution is within the European Research Area.
Click here for the list of selected researchers.
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The Research Council of Norway have announced that this year’s H2020 European Health/Rare Diseases Brokerage Event will be held in the nation’s capital Oslo.
Hosted in association with French institutes and embassies in the Nordic countries, as well as with the French Norwegian Foundation, the event aims to share information on Horizon 2020 Health, Demographic change and Wellbeing 2016-2017 calls dedicated to rare diseases. Participants will receive the opportunity to present innovative projects to and network with potential partners from both Europe and the rest of the world.
Universities, research organisations, hospitals, companies and patients associations are invited to participate, thereby gaining new, as well as sharing their own, knowledge on the more obscure but no less harmful illnesses.
The inaugural speech will be delivered by the European Commission’s Innovative and Personalised Medicine Unit head Irene Norstedt, and subsequent topic sessions will focus on the diagnosis and therapies of rare diseases.
Places are limited to 80 participants. Registration is free and open until 25 April. The event takes place between Thursday 12 and Friday 13 May.
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Scientists at l’École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have developed new insights in to consciousness, which emerges from unconsciousness in 400 millisecond intervals.
Consciousness works as a continuous flow wherein the senses follow one another, providing constant information by which we perceive our world. The EPFL, however, argues that this sensory information can only be collected by the brain during ephemeral exposures, much like a camera taking multiple consecutive photographs. A growing body of evidence now opposes the theory of ‘continuous consciousness’.
Professor Michael Herzog of the EPFL said: “The reason is that the brain wants to give you the best, clearest information it can, and this demands a substantial amount of time. There is no advantage in making you aware of its unconscious processing, because that would be immensely confusing.”
This new paradigm, developed by Herzog with associate professor Thomas Kammer of the University of Ulm, Germany, and assistant professor Frank Scharnowski of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, promotes consciousness as a ‘conceptual framework’ by the review of previous behavioural and psychological data. The experiments showed two rapidly successive images, the stimuli, to a test subject and asked them to distinguish what it was they had seen whilst their brain activity was monitored.
From this experiment, researchers learnt that the process of information into the consciousness came in stages rather than as a continuous feed. The unconscious stage, wherein the brain processes specific features of objects, came first, followed by the conscious stage wherein unconscious processing is completed. The human brain merely accepts these stages as a single physiological flow to produce the final sensory perception, i.e. it becomes aware of the stimuli.
The whole process, from stimulus to consciousness, lasts up to 400 milliseconds for visual perception – a considerable delay in physiological terms – but may differ for the other senses.
The team’s report was published in PLoS ONE and can be downloaded here.
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The Carbohydrate Chemistry Group on the contribution of sugars to health and nutrition.
Carbohydrates are the most abundant biological molecules on Earth and are present in all living organisms. As renewable raw materials, they are economically viable and sustainable, allowing European economic growth without damaging the environment. Research in the Carbohydrate Chemistry Group on these ‘molecules of life’ is directed towards finding solutions to societal challenges underlying innovation, economic and social benefits. As a centre of excellence of the former ESF EUROGLYCOFORUM network, and integrating Portugal’s Centro de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (CQB-FCUL), and funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Carbohydrate Chemistry Group offers creative approaches in glycochemistry for the understanding of complex biological and biochemical processes.
Sugars as sustainable raw materials for functional molecules towards disease prevention and control
Within our goals, which focus on the chemistry for health and nutrition, we succeeded in developing new sugar-based antibiotics with new mechanisms of action to overcome antimicrobial resistance, with an added value for biosecurity purposes. The prevention of cognitive decline could also have a tremendous public health impact, and we have addressed this challenge by developing multi-target functional food ingredients that have demonstrated efficiency in controlling diabetes and in preventing cognitive impairments.
The latter are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), for which symptomatic treatment is mainly based on acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors. We have recognised a new binding site of this enzyme to a polyphenol, identified in a naturally occurring food ingredient with a potent anticholinergic activity, which was also active against amyloid aggregation and interacted with prion protein. These findings opened the way to the generation of compound libraries against this multifactorial disease, also bridging polyphenols and sugars that are known to avoid amyloid peptide re-aggregation.
Both AD and Type 2 diabetes share enhanced production and accumulation of β-amyloid peptide and abnormal levels of AChE and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). Hence, selective inhibitors of each of both enzymes are required to unravel the role of BChE in both disease pathologies. We were also able to generate a library of nucleosides that are potent and selective inhibitors either of BChE or of AChE, depending on structural requirements, well established by us, and developed procedures aiming at an easy access to such molecules. Within the project entitled ‘Diagnostic and Drug Discovery Initiative for Alzheimer’s Disease’, funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 612347, we have the leadership of work package three covering the design, synthesis and testing of novel chemical entities. We are developing synthetic strategies and new biomolecular entities aiming at multi-target drug discovery against this devastating disease. This project is co-ordinated by the University of Sheffield, UK, with the participation of the companies Eli Lilly (UK) and Biofordrug (Italy). New frameworks for nucleoside/nucleotide mimicry were also designed and synthetic approaches developed to access analogues/mimetics intended to inhibit other therapeutically relevant enzymes, namely cyclin-dependent kinases and carbonic anhydrases.
Supporting healthy living and healthy ageing
In the EU, the number of people aged 65+ is expected to increase from 85 million in 2008 to about 151 million in 2060. While longevity is a great achievement, it is also a challenge for public and private budgets, as well as for older people and their families. Innovation is required to retard frailty, playing a key role in ageing well. Our networking strategy and research encouraged the application in 2012 to membership of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing – Action Group 3 – on the prevention and early diagnosis of frailty and functional decline, both physical and cognitive, in older people (EIP-AHA A3) with the approved commitment entitled ‘Healthy ageing with innovative functional foods/leads for degenerative and metabolic diseases’ (INNOVAFUNAGEING).
Reinforcing our internationalisation with the newly formed consortium generated in this EIP-AHA A3 forum, and under our leadership, the Foundation of FCUL became a partner of the project entitled ‘PERsonalised ICT supported Service for Independent Living and Active Ageing – PERSSILAA’, funded from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme – Information and Communication Technologies (FP7-ICT) under grant agreement number 610359. It is co-ordinated by the University of Twente (the Netherlands), and the additional partners are the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Fundació Privada Institut de Neurorehabilitació Guttmann (Spain), Roessingh Research and Development BV (the Netherlands), University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Federico II and Nexera (Italy).
The goal of this project is to develop a new service module to screen for and prevent frailty in community dwelling older adults, integrating nutrition, physical and cognitive function and comprising remote service modules for screening, monitoring and training. With the leadership of the work package on nutrition, the Portuguese team members belong to CQB, to the Centro de Estatística e Aplicações (CEAUL) from FCUL Department of Statistics and to the National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA). Amongst our contributions to the project, the design and development of the NUTRIAGING website (http://nutriageing.fc.ul.pt/) should be highlighted. By bridging nutritional science with culinary, functional food ingredients and vegetable gardens, this interactive website is a unique and easy to use tool for end users with the mission ‘Learn and Enjoy!’.
The left figure shows the NUTRIAGEING website and the Portuguese PERSSILAA team. Top to bottom: Amélia Pilar Rauter (leader, CQB-FCUL), António Ferreira (CQB-FCUL), Marta Sousa Silva (CQB-FCUL), Helena Soares Costa (INSA), and Kamil Feridun Turkman (CEAUL).
Amélia Pilar Rauter
Associate Professor with Habilitation
Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa
+351 217500952
aprauter@fc.ul.pt
http://webpages.fc.ul.pt/~aprauter/
http://cqb.fc.ul.pt/research/carbohydrate-chemistry/
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The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) has released a report arguing for more transparency for Horizon 2020 applicants.
In particular, ITRE have criticised the European Commission for the lack of information that is provided with regards to the funding programme. The report notes that, for example, detailed statistics on the success rate of Horizon 2020 and the SME Instrument are not readily available on websites promoting the services. Further, they argue, there is an absence of detailed instructions for start-ups and young companies to participate in competitions to get more funding.
Belgian MEP Philippe De Backer told Science|Business that, although Horizon 2020 is a big improvement over Framework Programme 7, the previous funding initiative, it still has weaknesses that should be addressed: “I still see rules that are too complex for small businesses, gaps in the quality of feedback from evaluators, and proposal re-submissions which further depress the low success rate.”
The report lists the low success rate as the main problem with Fast Track to Innovation funding, pointing out that the success rate for the first two cut-off periods averaged 6.25%, and notes that low budgets for certain areas of dedicated funding mean that some projects which score above the threshold for funding nevertheless could not be given grants. This low success rate has been seen by some as a failing of Horizon 2020, and the report suggests that it has contributed to a lack of interest from some researchers, who are no longer willing to apply.
The ITRE recommend more transparency in application procedures and praises some areas of the current implementation of Horizon 2020, including ensuring that priorities such as gender equality and ensuring results are available in open access publications, which the report says are making progress towards the commission’s targets.
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Scientists from the University of Vienna, Austria, have used graphene to create a stable – albeit synthesised – carbyne prototype, which promises more robustness than any known material.
Carbyne has proved challenging to create due to its being a one-dimensional chain of carbon atoms. Its structure makes it highly reactive, rendering it susceptible to self-destruction no sooner than it had been created. The University of Vienna, however, has devised a method of preventing this destruction during the production process: by including graphene.
With two sheets of the two-dimensional ‘wonder-material’ laid together, the scientists created a double-walled tube. The carbyne was then synthesised within this tube, which functioned as a kind of protective exterior for the carbyne to maintain structural integrity.
The study, which has been published in the online journal Nature Materials, says: ‘Although end-capping groups can be used to stabilise carbon chains, length limitations are still a barrier for production, and even more so for application. We report a method for the bulk production of long acetylenic linear carbon chains protected by thin double-walled carbon nanotubes. […] Our results establish a route for the bulk production of exceptionally long and stable chains composed of more than 6,000 carbon atoms, representing an elegant forerunner towards the final goal of carbyne’s bulk production.’
Carbyne has been shown to contain elements stronger than graphene and even diamond. To what use carbyne will be put whilst encased in a graphene nanotube, however, is yet to be determined, but no doubt this study will inspire a new wave of researchers to attempt to find one.
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The third Human Brain Project (HBP) Education School is calling for applications to its comprehensive neuroscience programme.
Comprehension of the human brain requires integrated understanding on multiple scales, including channels, cells, microcircuits, brain regions and the way they affect human behaviour, e.g. perception during both wakefulness and sleep.
This school will present students with up-to-date information, models and techniques for investigating the complexity of the brain in the development of innovative insight, knowledge and theory. Daily workshops and seminars offer hands-on experience, state-of-the-art tools and techniques for neuroinformatics, analysis, modelling and simulation, as well as opportunities for scientific discussions between students and faculty experts.
The programme will start on Monday 28 November and run until Saturday 3 December 2016, with Sunday 4 December being departure day, as part of the European Commission’s framework programme Horizon 2020, of which the HBP is a flagship initiative.
Participation in the third HBP School 2016 is open to advanced master’s students, postgraduates and young researchers working in a relevant research area. Participation is a selection process based on competitive application and pre-defined criteria. Abstracts for presenting the applicants’ own work are strongly encouraged.
The programme will be hosted by the Obergurgl University Center in southwestern Austria. The centre, which specialises in sport and science, dates back to 1951 when three former customs buildings were adopted and renovated by the Obergurgl federal Sports Center and Innsbruck University’s Alpine Research Center.
Successful HBP students can request an account for the Education Website for further information on future events. The application deadline for the third programme is Wednesday 7 September 2016. Click here for more information.
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