The SSiON-ACSENT project seeks to advance sodium-ion battery (SIB) technology by addressing key challenges such as limited lifespan, low energy density, and slow charging rates. By developing high-performance anode and cathode architectures incorporating single-atom catalysts (SACs) on MXene, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and bio-derived carbon, the project aims to significantly enhance battery performance. These SACs, through precise d-orbital tuning and heteroatom coordination, improve metal ion adsorption and conversion kinetics, thereby boosting overall battery performance. The anticipated outcomes align with the European Commission's ambitious climate strategy, targeting climate neutrality by 2050 while reducing dependence on critical raw materials. SIBs, leveraging sodium's abundance and environmental benefits, represent a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Pre-commercial SIBs have demonstrated energy densities around 160 Wh/kg, but SSiON-ACSENT aims to raise this range to 200-350 Wh/kg (an increase of 25-118%), with an improved cycle life of 5000-8000 cycles (a 25-100% improvement) and enhanced safety. By integrating SACs into 3D porous structures, the project focuses on improving Na-ion intercalation, optimizing electrode-electrolyte interfaces, and accelerating ion transport, overcoming the current limitations of SIB technology. This research directly supports the Horizon Europe mission for affordable, clean energy and aligns with the European Green Deal and MSCA Green Charter by promoting sustainability and responsible consumption. The innovations within the project contribute to advancing energy storage solutions and transitioning toward sustainable energy systems.

Parasitic nematode infections are a major threat to human, animal and plant health. Infection prevention or control depends heavily on chemical treatment, but resistance is becoming widespread, and the compounds used pollute surface- and groundwater. To develop new mitigation strategies, it is important to understand host-parasite interactions and fundamental mechanisms of parasitism, but parasites of vertebrates are difficult to study. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) and their hosts offer great potential in this context. EPNs are microscopic nematodes that prey on larval stages of many insects and naturally help regulate insect populations. EPNs are commercially available to target a range of soil-dwelling plant pests, but efficiency depends on the environment and the targeted pest. EPNs have also been used to study immunological responses of insect hosts. In these studies, a fraction of the hosts survives the infection. The aim of research proposed here is to select the surviving hosts and establish a model system of the EPN-host complex to study host-parasite interactions through experimental evolution of parasitism. Traits including life span and stress responses, as well as genomic and transcription changes of the host and the EPN will be studied. The downstream application of this model is the optimization of biocontrol agents of plant and animal pathogens by selecting EPNs that are resistant to environmental stressors like heat, desiccation and UV radiation, and that prey on new host species. The proposed research uses the EPN Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, its symbiont Photorhabdus luminescens, and the host Drosophila melanogaster. The expertise of the supervisor in Drosophila and evolutionary research combined with the Experienced Researcher’s (ER) empirical and computational skills provides a perfect match for the proposed project. Additionally, the project will integrate the ER’s multidisciplinary skillset for a future career as an independent academic.

The research proposal addresses the design challenges in the power conversion and the energy storage systems in the electric aircraft used for urban air mobility (UAM). The success of UAM as an alternate transportation system is strongly dependent on designing the overall system to be safe, efficient and reliable. This proposal focuses on improving the power conversion efficiency and designing a smart wireless battery management system (BMS) with accurate battery state-of-charge (SoC) and state-of-health (SoH) estimations. Another desirable aspect in the UAM aircraft is improving the overall payload capacity, which is impacted by the weight of the batteries, interconnection wiring and power conversion efficiency. The proposal aims to improve it by increasing the voltage of the Li-ion battery packs above the current state-of-the-art, which would reduce the current rating and cable weight, while identifying a power converter topology to maximize the overall efficiency. The design optimisation will consider the impacts of higher insulation requirement with higher voltages and overall cost. The power converter topology and the accompanying filters are optimised to reduce electromagnetic interference that can affect the sensitive electronics on the aircraft. The proposal explores data-driven machine-learning based methods to improve the accuracy of the SoC and SoH estimations and reduce the gap between peak error and the root-mean-square error (RMSE). A reduction in the gap between peak and RMSE will provide a reliable upper bound unlike for the case when estimation methods show a lower RMSE but a wide variation in the peak error. The wireless BMS will provide the advantage of easier maintenance and elimination of the conventional wiring weight. This is a timely and innovative project that will help in novel technology development for UAM industry. It will help the applicant gain additional technical and managerial skills that would ensure a successful research career.

Chronic inflammatory diseases such rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes (t1D) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are increasingly common and cause important loss of quality of life and work productivity. Most of these conditions are diagnosed at a late stage of the disease; many patients have complications at diagnosis. For many of these conditions there are now methods or markers in the blood that allow diagnosis in the preclinical phase, meaning that individuals can be identified that have the disease but not yet the symptoms. This would allow very early treatment (which is highly effective) that prevents development of complications, which has been done successfully in RA, MS and t1D. CD mainly affects adolescents/young adults in the most productive phase of life. At diagnosis the majority of patients has fistulas (painful holes around the anus), stenosis of the bowel leading to crampy pain and metabolic symptoms such as weight loss, iron deficiency and other nutritional deficiencies. In CD, a number of molecules (‘markers’) have been identified in the blood of individuals up to 7 years before diagnosis. In the current project we wish to verify these markers in North American and European cohorts of which we have the serum available in freezers with the help of advanced laboratory tests leading to a ‘serum signature’. An algorithm will incorporate the relative importance of the different proteins to make it ready for widespread use. Then, we will test this signature in 10000 first degree relatives of European patients with CD across 7 countries, a process that is named ‘prospective validation’. In a final step we will demonstrate that if individuals are identified with the biomarker, CD symptom development can be halted (‘intercepted’) with medical treatment. If we succeed in this scientific work, the impact for the community would be enormous. We would be able to prevent suffering, surgeries, disability and loss of productivity significantly.

Due to human activities, at stake is the habitability of the planet and our capacity to invent effective, inclusive and democratic trajectories that preserve or restore the viability of the planet. To overcome the limits of mainstream economic paradigms, EPOG-DN aims to develop a community of economists able to work with other disciplines and a range of sectors and stakeholders, to address these ecological challenges. EPOG-DN investigates the trajectories leading towards a strong sustainability, i.e. scenarios considering social, economic and ecological objectives as not substitutable. To this end, EPOG-DN introduces the concept of Global Bifurcation (GB), defined as a series of processes which are systemic and multidimensional in nature. To face the complexity of the GB, EPOG-DN proposes an original approach based on: (a) a sociotechnical perspective and critical questioning of the role of innovation and technologies; (b) a socioeconomic perspective involving the development of macroeconomic scenarios; (c) a socioecological perspective to enable consideration of how social organisations and citizens can contribute to the GB, (d) the interaction between these sub-field to develop a systemic approach. EPOG-DN involves academic, governmental and intergovernmental institutions, local authorities, NGOs, financial and non-financial corporations. PhDs are jointly supervised by an economist and a supervisor from another field. Disciplines involved include economics, sociology, geography, political sciences, engineering, life and earth sciences. They benefit from international mobility in relation to their research: at the institution of the joint supervisor and a secondment at a non-academic partner. The training includes collective activities and activities tailored to individual needs, which cover interdisciplinary approaches and methods; promote discussions with stakeholders from different fields and sectors, and enhance transferable skills and professional development.