The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for the study of European Integration and the European Union will function as a source of ideas and concepts for the development of policies of relevance to Luxembourgish and broader European society. The centre will thus focus on cross-cutting issues linking matters such as economic integration, constitutional and institutional evolution, the conceptual understanding of historical processes, the national and international dimensions of integration and the interaction of the various public and private actors involved in shaping the integration process. The Centre will contribute actively to initiate and advance policy debates that bridge disciplinary divides with the aim of developing policy relevant ideas to shape the development of the EU. It will ensure a vibrant academic community to conduct critical research and scholarly discourse at the highest level, with the publication of results in leading peer-reviewed publications and the maintenance of a strong on-line presence. The Centre intends to become internationally recognised as an important research community engaged in the ongoing exploration of the possibilities and challenges to the future of European integration.

Physical phenomena that combine effects on a surface and that in the bulk occur in many fields, ranging from crystal growth in chemistry and proton diffusion in biomembranes, through tyre aquaplaning and self-cleaning materials. We consider this multi-scale problem specifically for coupled bulk-surface fluid flow. Simulating these problems with traditional fluid solvers is challenging because of the different scale of the surface phenomena versus that in the bulk. Towards this end, specialized thin film flow models have been developed to accurately capture surface-level flow effects. However, it remains impossible to automatically detect the formation of thin fluid sheets and resolve the bulk/sheet coupled flow. This limits the application of thin film models. Advances made in thin film modelling have not been applied to complex flow situations where, for example, a free flowing bulk fluid can form thin films over an obstacle, or where sufficient fluid collects on a moving thin fluid sheet to obtain bulk flow. Such problems rely on bulk flow simulations with significantly finer resolutions to capture the surface-level effects, which dramatically increases computation time making full dynamic simulations unrealistic for actual applications. The primary objective of this project is to model bulk/surface flow phenomena numerically. We will propose novel mathematical models to computationally simulate flow of thin fluid sheets on moving curved surfaces, which can predict not just the evolution of an existing film, but also their formation, collapse and break up. We will develop efficient methods to two-way couple film flow with bulk fluid flow which are able to identify regions where surface level effects are relevant, on the fly. This fellowship will build on the expertise in fluid flow and particle methods of the researcher, and that in multi scale modeling, free boundary problems and advanced discretisation adaptivity of the host.

Embedded in a culturally diverse environment, the University of Luxembourg is a unique laboratory of intercultural collaboration and institution building. It is a European hub for research and teaching and well integrated in a framework of international partnerships. Its multilingualism is an important characteristic of the University, enriching both teaching and research through the unique plurality of perspectives that it embeds in the culture of the institution.With 6,366 students and 1,823 employees from all over the globe, the University offers a unique mix of international excellence and national relevance, delivering knowledge for society and businesses.The mandatory semester abroad for Bachelor’s students reflects the importance attached to mobility.In this context, Erasmus + plays an essential role, since more than 80% of mobility are carried out under the programme.During the academic year 2017/18, 489 students of the University of Luxembourg participated in an Erasmus+ exchange, of which 474 mobilities for studies and 15 for placement; whereas 125 students of Erasmus partner universities did an exchange period at the University of Luxembourg. Moreover, 33 staff members benefited from the Erasmus+ grant, whereof 25 participated in a staff mobility for training and 8 took up a teaching assignment.The Erasmus mobility project is mainly managed by the student mobility office in close cooperation with the faculties, but also by the International Relations Office for the staff component,The central administration offices provide information and support all along the mobility process and make sure that all the administrative obligations are met. They are also in charge of the financial aspects.The faculties are in charge of the academic part of the mobility : they provide information and help upon the course selection and guarantee full recognition of the earned ECTS based on the signed learning agreement. The conclusion and follow-up of inter-institutional agreements are managed by central administration upon approval by the faculties.The mobility management tool Moveon allows to better address the various stages of mobility and manage all aspects, both administrative and financial, in the interests of fairness and transparency, in accordance with the requirements of the programme. In order to promote the Erasmus+ programme and prepare students, the unit in charge of student mobility conducts information sessions for each study programme and all information is visible on the website. Different actions are taken to improve the integration of incoming students such as the Pickup-service, the Arrival days, the Welcome day, but also the Mobility dating where they can share their experience with former outgoing students and promote their home university amongst our future outgoing students.Mobility is a real winning asset for students. By living and studying abroad and coming into contact with another academic culture, students are inevitably put in a situation that enables them to question and assess their personal choices, ways of thinking and of approaching their studies.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Despite significant advancements in understanding CRC pathogenesis, the clinical prognosis of CRC patients is still poor due to metastasis dissemination. Cancer progression is often associated with the presence of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the tumor microenvironment that regulate processes such as extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition and repression of the immune response. The establishment of a hypoxic environment and activation of its main effector, the hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), are common features of advanced cancers. HIF-1α is a transcription factor, which regulates several genes that are exploited by tumor cells to escape from a nutrient-deprived environment and to survive as well as resist to treatment. However, the role of HIF-1α in CAFs has not be addressed so far in CRC. This research seeks to elucidate the effects of hypoxia on different aspects of CAFs' function , using in vitro functional assays and innovative co-culture models with patient-derived CAFs and matching tumor organoids. Furthermore, the study aims to unveil the role of HIF-1α expression in CAFs during tumor initiation and progression using a colitis-associated carcinogenesis model and pinpoint the origin of HIF-1α+ CAFs employing a lineage tracing model. Finally, in silico analysis of scRNAseq data will allow to detect the subset of CAFs that are responsive to hypoxia in different stages of carcinogenesis and in metastatic dissemination. Overall, this project will study the unappreciated role of HIF-1α in CAFs in the context of CRC with the ultimate goal to pave the way to new therapeutic strategies.

The project is devoted to two classes of metric invariants of Riemannian and contact manifolds: systoles and diastoles. Riemannian systoles are shortest non-contractible curves (and higher-dimensional cycles) on manifolds and other spaces. Diastoles measure longest curves in an optimal slicing of a manifold into a family of curves (or cycles). Symplectic/contact systoles measure the least action on closed characteristics (integral curves of the Reeb flow). The goals of the project are to extend and complement the results of M. Gromov, M. Freedman, C. Viterbo, and others, by relating all these invariants to the volumes of the corresponding spaces and other metric quantities. A key tool for investigating the systolic freedom (measured as the behavior of several systoles compared to the volume) is its connections with quantum error correction codes, which are a promising rich source of spaces of great systolic freedom. The diastolic geometry, which is the study of waists of slicings/foliations/sweepouts via the methods of geometric analysis, has applications to the open Buser pants decomposition problem, as well as connections with persistence and dimensionality reduction in manifold learning. The symplectic isosystolic/isodiastolic conjecture of Viterbo, which will be studied via extensions of billiard approach, has exciting implications in convexity, namely the longstanding Mahler conjecture on the volume product. My experience in waist and width estimates, combined with the expertise of Prof. Hugo Parlier in systolic geometry and Buser's problem, will help me to carry out this project at the University of Luxembourg. The secondment at Freie Universität Berlin in the quantum group of Prof. Jens Eisert will help me to bring closer the systolic and quantum topics of research as well as the communities of researchers.