Lipid biomarkers provide unique information to disciplines such as paleoceanography, paleoecology and biogeochemistry. Factors limiting their scope include high sample demand and analytical complexity, constraining resolution of time and space to decadal and centimeter scales, respectively. However, dynamic interactions between physical, chemical and biological processes are recorded within sedimentary matrices at finer scales; lipid biomarkers could decode this sedimentary fine print if the limitations of resolution could be overcome. In a recent PNAS paper, we have demonstrated that this can be done and shown that µm-scale molecular images of paleoenvironmental and geobiological processes can be obtained directly on surfaces of cut sediment cores via laser desorption ionization coupled to mass spectrometry. The project ZOOMecular will build on this innovation by interrogating laminated sediment archives of Late Quaternary climate change and dissecting the complex environmental and ecological responses at subannual resolution. Through analysis of spatial associations of lipid biomarkers with the sedimentary matrix, we will provide a new view of the mechanisms underlying delivery to and preservation of molecular signals in sedimentary records. ZOOMecular will seek to examine the microbial habitat niches at sedimentary interfaces that are home to globally important biogeochemical processes but that are largely known from studies of cm3-scale samples. To enable these pioneering studies, we will develop innovative analytical protocols for a suite of informative biomarkers and for the acquisition of congruent molecular and elemental maps of geological samples. ZOOMecular will unlock otherwise inaccessible information of broad geoscientific relevance; its goals go far beyond the state-of-the-art and its outcome has the potential to transform biomarker research. Such a project can be successfully realized only within a frontier research scheme as provided by the ERC.

A key challenge in climate change science is to provide informed constraints on the magnitude of future climate change. Uncertainties associated with such predictions remain large due to the shortness of our observational records (at best 150 years) and the absence of large climate shifts therein to serve as an analogue for future change. This is especially problematic when estimating Arctic climate change because the response in the Arctic is amplified relative to the global mean, making the Arctic the most sensitive and vulnerable environment with regards to global warming. Efforts to assess the magnitude of past (e.g. pre-industrial) climate changes using climate proxies are thus crucial to further our understanding of how the Arctic system will respond to continued global warming. The proposed investigation seeks to constrain the magnitude of Arctic amplification by quantifying the influence of the carbonate ion concentration of sea water on the temperature signal recorded in the Arctic planktonic foraminifera Neogloboquadrina pachyderma sinistral (NPS). Using NPS shells collected from stratified plankton samples, I will combine established and new analytical techniques in trace element and isotope geochemistry to derive and isolate carbonate system parameters from the climate signature recorded in NPS. This approach is innovative and interdisciplinary as it takes advantage of cutting edge knowledge in proxy development without compromising on the benefit of a seasonally and spatially constraint dataset. This will provide a holistic understanding of how changing hydrological and other environmental conditions impact not only NPS lifecycle but also the geochemical signal recorded in their shell. Given the uncertainties associated with available paleoceanographic tools this will provide a major advancement in the field of paleoceanography and climate change science.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

Light-matter coupling has the potential to modify functional properties of quantum materials to yield the tunability required for quantum-technological applications. However, light-matter control concepts, such as Floquet engineering and light-induced phase transitions, suffer from the requirement of strong laser driving and the lack of coherence on long time scales. Overcoming these key limitations through advancing the infant field of cavity quantum materials is the central objective of CAVMAT. The main hypothesis behind CAVMAT is that cavity materials engineering combines the efficiency of strong-light matter coupling in cavities with the flexibility of Floquet engineering of macroscopic quantum many-body phenomena. CAVMAT aims to explore and expand this new frontier with a combined theoretical-computational effort. The three key objectives of CAVMAT are: (i) To establish cavity-driving schemes that successfully bridge the gap between quantum cavity and semiclassical many-photon Floquet limits. (ii) To propose realistic cavity quantum materials platforms providing guidance for next-generation experiments. (iii) To develop and combine numerical methods that can treat the relevant nonequilibrium electron-polariton problems at short and long time scales. These objectives will be tackled in three work packages, namely WP 1: quantum Floquet engineering, WP 2: plasmonic superconductivity, and WP 3: excited states by design. The proposed work goes well beyond state-of-the-art in both nonequilibrium quantum many-body systems and quantum optics, and its success will be groundbreaking through providing microscopic underpinnings for pathways towards versatile solid-state platforms for cavity and Floquet physics.