The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) stores a substantial volume of freshwater on land. It is thought to be inherently unstable and so projections of future sea level rise require robust numerical ice sheet models, fully calibrated against geological data. The WAIS is widely believed to have collapsed in past warm interglacial periods, raising sea level by up to 3.3m, but perhaps surprisingly we do not yet have direct evidence of collapse from Antarctica that can be securely dated. Instead global sea level data have been used to infer that some combination of WAIS, Greenland and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed in one or more past interglacials, but with substantial uncertainty as to how this mass loss was partitioned between the ice sheets. This matters because it means that models projecting future sea level are calibrated against an assumption of how small the WAIS became during past warm periods. I argue that a fresh approach is needed, one that provides direct evidence of WAIS retreat that can be dated and quantified. INCISED will provide this by rapid drilling to the ice sheet bed to retrieve direct records of past collapse. New modelling of cosmogenic isotope concentrations shows that hypotheses of past WAIS collapses can be tested by analysis of subglacial bedrock from carefully selected sites. INCISED exploits recent engineering advances in ice coring and a new subglacial rock drill to take bedrock samples which will be used to determine past lowering of the ice surface to test for WAIS collapse. Numerical ice sheet modelling will link changes in past ice levels to quantify the range of possible sea level contribution. By determining and quantifying the configuration of WAIS during warm periods I will provide firm targets for ice sheet model calibration and thus more secure future sea level projections. INCISED will deliver a transformative change in modelling of WAIS sea level contributions as well as a significant equipment legacy.

Quantum Technologies (QT) is a highly interdisciplinary, paradigm-changing area of research. European researchers have been at the forefront of these developments, delivering many groundbreaking scientific results and advancing technological exploitation. For the past four years, the QuantERA network has been successfully providing the research community with a coordinated Europe-wide approach to support cutting-edge research in QT. Building on this experience, with EU support, the QuantERA consortium (currently present in 30 countries) will continue its activities and develop them even further. The central objective of this proposal is to launch a transnational co-funded call with a planned budget of over €26M of national contributions. €15M of EU contribution is expected to support the co-funded call budget and project tasks. In accordance with the FET Work Programme 2018-2020, the scientific scope of the QuantERA II co-funded call will complement the Quantum Technologies Flagship activities. QuantERA II will seek to effectively liaise with the QT Flagship and other stakeholders in the field of QT research to make the best use of the collective European experience in QT research funding, as well as address the gender imbalance in QT research and spread the research excellence across European Research Area (ERA). A range of additional activities will be integrated into the launch of the co-funded call: strengthening the multilateral dialogue with policy makers regarding the design of future funding instruments, stimulation of networking and exchange of best practices, continuation of mapping of public QT policies in Europe, use of the Guidelines on Responsible Research and Innovation in QT developed in the first QuantERA programme. The QuantERA II proposal conforms to the specific challenges and scope of the Work Programme Horizon 2020-Future and Emerging Technologies by providing a structured framework to coordinate national and regional research programmes in QT.

The polar regions play a key role in the Earth’s system. They are essential for our climate and are sentinels of climate change, human expansion, and the hunt of new resources. The polar regions are losing ice, and their oceans and land are changing rapidly. The consequences of this polar transition extend to the whole planet and are affecting people in multiple ways. Evidence-based policy recommendations are needed, but the polar regions are difficult to reach, and research infrastructures able to operate in these regions are scarce. To understand and predict key processes in the polar regions and provide evidence-based information, the polar research community needs access to world-class research infrastructure operating in these regions. POLARIN is an international network of polar research infrastructures and their services, aiming at addressing the scientific challenges of the polar regions. The network includes a wide array of complementary and interdisciplinary top level research infrastructures: Arctic and Antarctic research stations, research vessels and icebreakers operating at both poles, observatories, data infrastructures and ice and sediment core repositories. POLARIN will provide integrated, challenge-driven, and combined access to these infrastructures to facilitate interdisciplinary research on complex processes. POLARIN will: 1. Provide challenge-driven transnational access to a large portfolio of research infrastructures. 2. Improve the access to data by improving data availability and interoperability between data infrastructures. 3. Provide virtual access to data and data services. 4. Provide data products for the scientific community and decision makers. 5. Train the young generation of polar researchers in optimally exploiting the infrastructures for their research. 6. Duly advertise the services offered by POLARIN and engage the infrastructure users to share their research outcomes with society.

The HERA Joint Research Programme European Public Space, Culture and Integration (HERA JRP PS) consortium will establish a 4th joint transnational programme for multi-disciplinary research. The HERA JRP PS involves the launch of a joint Call for Proposals and a commonly-agreed two-stage evaluation process involving an independent, international Review Panel. The consortium expects to fund about 20 transnational humanities centred projects of ~1 M EUR each. The aim of the HERA “Public spaces” programme will be to deepen the theoretical and empirical cultural understanding of public spaces in a European context. The programme has been designed to facilitate a broad range of cultural approaches to conceptualising public space, its structural and processual formations, and its possible outcomes in terms of integration, exclusion, disintegration, fragmentation, hybridization, amalgamation or transmission. Twenty-four organisations from 24 EU countries have pooled a substantial amount of their humanities research funding for this new HERA JRP increasing the efficiency and impact of public funding. The HERA JRP PS consortium will also actively support knowledge exchange activities and stimulate wider dissemination about the valuable contributions of new humanities research. Furthermore, the HERA JRP PS will pursue additional activities aiming at international capacity-building in humanities research and explore and prepare new joint actions.