The ETN has two aims: to a) train ESRs; b) investigate the The History of Human Freedom and Dignity in Western Civilization. a) The ETN will establish an innovative training programme which allows the ESRs to obtain specialist knowledge of a specific research topic and to obtain transferable skills enabling the students to apply their knowledge in non-academic institutions, e.g. dealing with social welfare, human resources, or legal /political institutes. The training program includes acquiring transferable skills via courses and via secondments in non-academic partner organisations. b) The thesis of the research is that the concept of the ideal modern Western European human being has its roots far back in the history of philosophy and theology. This ideal human being has the right to think, believe, and express itself freely about all matters without fearing retribution, and to be treated as an autonomous and dignified individual. But such a conception is not shared by all – and never was. Its long history has been formed through a continuous battle between two theological and philosophical traditions going back to Origen from Alexandria and Augustine of Hippo respectively. Origen saw humans as free, valuable and dignified beings, while Augustine saw them as predestined, sinful and bound to servitude. The network will investigate the reception and use of Origen’s ideas in order to provide a comprehensive and historically based understanding of these fundamental values, their origins, development and the fights they have gone through. Only then can we argue for their continued place in modern society. Such a project is highly relevant today, since the modern conception of humans is a fundamental pillar of Western democracies which is under pressure from both political and fundamentalist religious groups that question the societal structures building on ideas of humans’ freedom and dignity, and by global crises and structures that limit the individual’s autonomy.

Breast cancer represents a leading cause of cancer death in women and a major socio-economic issue. With currently available methods, early diagnosis frequently fails. Moreover, beyond mere detection, there is an ever-increasing need for improved non-invasive characterisation of cancer. Targeted therapies require an in-depth analysis of cancer to select and guide appropriate treatment. Both, PET and MRI can provide molecular and functional information that may be of pivotal importance for tailoring therapy. However, current whole-body PET/MRI systems lack the necessary sensitivity and resolution for this task. HYPMED addresses this by engineering an innovative imaging tool. HYPMED will integrate an innovative fully-digital MRI-transparent PET-detector into a novel multi-channel PET-transparent MRI surface coil. The PET-RF insert will allow unprecedented imaging of breast cancer with high-resolution/ultra-high sensitivity PET, combined with high-level structural and functional MRI, and allow minimal-invasive MR- and PET-guided targeted biopsy. Moreover with such PET-RF inserts, every regular clinical MR-system can, upon demand, be turned into a hybrid system. We will evaluate the impact of this technology on breast cancer diagnosis, prediction, and monitoring/assessment of treatment response by a carefully designed clinical study that employs established and novel PET tracers in 250 patients. Imaging data will be correlated with established and novel molecular biomarkers; results will be compared to those obtained from whole-body PET/MRI and PET/CT. A multidisciplinary consortium of clinical scientists, 3 SMEs and an industry partner will pave the way for commercialization of HYPMED products for advanced clinical decision making in cancer patients. Once HYPMED is successful, we will expand this approach to other applications such as prostate cancer or cardiac hybrid imaging, and thus introduce a paradigm shift in the field of PET/MR hybrid imaging as a whole.

GoviB is a historical study of governance in the ancient capital of Babylon. Babylonia is the earliest society in the ancient world that produced sufficient indigenous sources that allow studying the transition from a strongly anchored local to a more ‘global’ (imperial) form of governance. From the late 8th to the 4th century BC, Babylon experienced two major regime changes and was consecutively ruled by three empires – the Assyrian, the Chaldean and the (first) Persian. While the regime changes and other events are known as historical facts, little is known about how imperial rule was negotiated locally and how the strategies which rulers and ruled applied in pursuit of their interests interacted and led to instability or stability. The reasons are incomplete historical data, and difficulties to interpret available ambivalent or conflicting data. With GoviB I want to achieve a novel understanding of politics and authority in the ancient city of Babylon, leading to a new balanced evaluation of the role which the empires played in the long-term cultural transformation of the ancient Near East. The results will contribute to a re-evaluation of modern perceptions of ‘oriental’ governance as absolute or ‘despotic’, and to the wider question of what causes states to be stable or instable, and how regime changes fail or succeed. I will achieve these goals by analysing newly available textual and archaeological material: the Neo-Babylonian archival texts from the German excavations in Babylon. The Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin granted me the rights to put this museum treasure trove to use for GoviB. Furthermore, I will apply the conceptual framework of governance studies to the historical evidence. Its heuristic value lies in the fact that it relocates the focus from government to governance, that is, the interdependencies and interactions between actors, and it includes non-personal factors that influenced decision-making.

The theoretical understanding of human motor control and learning has a strong impact on the diagnosis and treatment of motor disorders, and vice versa. Recent progress has been made in the understanding of motor control and learning, particularly with respect to understanding the functional role of neuro-behavioural variability that is inherent to sensorimotor control. However, this progress has not yet been transferred appropriately into clinical therapy approaches. The goal of TReND is thus, to create a translational research network in motor disorder rehabilitation. The network will be highly interdisciplinary with doctoral and senior researchers from fundamental research areas (movement science, neuroscience, computer science), clinical practitioners (physical and occupational therapy, rehabilitation science, etc.) and partners from related industries. The overall aim is, to systematically translate recent theoretical and methodological advances in motor control and learning research into clinical practice to enhance clinical diagnosis and motor rehabilitation. More specific, we will investigate the functional role of variability in the sensorimotor coordination dynamics on behavioural and neurophysiological level in motor and mental disorders such as Stroke, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. This will be addressed in three research objectives: 1. To investigate how different disorders affect the sensorimotor systems’ capability to exploit functional variability for stable and adaptive motor control; 2. To investigate how novel therapy concepts can enhance the capacity to exploit functional variability and treat motor disorders across different patient populations; and 3. To develop novel approaches to translate the knowledge gain from our fundamental research into clinical practice.

RESILIENCE (Religious Studies Infrastructure: tooLs, Innovation, Experts, conNections and Centres in Europe) is a distributed Research Infrastructure that entered the ESFRI Roadmap in 2021. Its mission is to address the challenge of creating a larger, structured involvement of excellent scholars who innovatively produce competencies, knowledge, approaches, and impact within the scientific domain of Religious Studies. The main objective of the RESILIENCE Preparatory Phase Project (PPP) proposal is to bring the RI to the completion of its Preparatory Phase, which started in 2021 and will end in 2025. The work includes legal, governance, financial, technical, strategic, and administrative aspects carried out in 6 work packages. The primary outcomes of the PPP are the setting-up of the legal and financial frameworks of the functioning of the RI; the preparation of signature-ready documents towards the implementation phase; the completion of the RESILIENCE service catalogue, and the establishment of legal agreements and technical frameworks for their operation.