Epithelial cancers are thought to evolve through a competitive process of mutation and selection in which the serial acquisition of oncogenic mutations confers an increasing fitness advantage, culminating in neoplastic transformation, tumour invasion, and metastasis. This programme often initiates through a phase of field cancerization in which mutant clones expand within the context of physiologically normal-looking tissue. To mitigate the risks associated with field cancerization, protection strategies have evolved that resist mutant clone expansion, from the development of anatomical features that limit clone growth to the activation of genetic and immunological surveillance mechanisms. Yet, despite these insights, our knowledge of how oncogenes act alone or in combination to evade these protection mechanisms to drive clonal pathogenesis remains largely unknown. Here, by combining a unique genetic lineage tracing strategy with comparative single-cell genomics and quantitative modelling-based methods, we will define the mechanisms that mediate mutant clone competition. By placing an emphasis on the squamous and columnar epithelia of the GI tract, we will investigate whether and how injury and inflammatory cues, as well as ageing, enable tumorigenic clones to evade natural protection strategies, functioning as a “second hit” in driving field cancerization and neoplastic transformation. Finally, to explore the translational relevance of our findings, we will combine DNA sequencing, single-cell methods, and spatial transcriptomics with the design and genetic manipulation of state-of-the-art 3D organ cultures to investigate mutant clone dynamics in human tissue. By tracing the origins of clonal pathogenesis, these findings promise insights into the design of new prevention, detection, and treatment strategies, targeting the early stages of cancer progression.

PleisTechnoVar aims to better understand the increase in technological variability observed in Africa during the Late Pleistocene, between 70000 and 15000 years ago. While many research projects have focused on the origins of Homo sapiens and its spread Out of Africa into Eurasia, fewer research has concerned the material cultures of the populations who « stayed » in Africa and how they interacted with eachother. The first objective is to study this variability on the regional scale of Eastern Africa, between Kenya and Ethiopia. The second objective is to develop a methodological approach to understand the factors driving this variability. A larger scale of analysis will be used and Eastern Africa as well as the Nile Valley and the Levant will be considered in order to propose hypotheses concerning links between technological variability, environments and population dynamics. This project is an in-depth study of the candidate's previous research axes in these regions. In order to meet these objectives, lithic assemblages will be studied using the concept of chaîne opératoire and attribute analyses. Data collection will take place during short mobilities in museums in Eastern Africa, Israel and Europe. Spatial analyses will complete the study. These data will then be discussed in view of the known palaeoenvironmental data, as well as the results from the study of other types of material (zooarchaeology, geomorphology, etc.). The research will be conducted at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in the University of Cambridge where the candidate will receive high level training to improve her skills in the study of material culture (quantitative and qualitative data, theoretical background), as well as to develop new competences in spatial analysis (through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)). The candidate will greatly benefit from the host organisation's experience in interdisciplinary research on the diversity of material cultures.

The existing Critical Infrastructure (CI) of Europe in the water, energy, urban and transport sector is facing major challenges because of pressures such as climate change, extreme weather, geo-hazards, aging and increased usage in combination with pivotal changes in the CI to meet long-term societal goals (e.g. energy transition). The GEOLAB research infrastructure consists of 11 unique installations in Europe aimed to study subsurface behavior and the interaction with structural CI elements (e.g. a bridge) and the environment. The installations already represent the best of the state-of-the-art available today. However, up to now, work in these installations has been independent and uncoordinated, significantly limiting the outcome for users among academia, industry and CI network managers. There is a gap in the European research landscape for an integrated, advanced research infrastructure in this field. This GEOLAB initiative will fill that gap. The scientific research community will use the innovative capabilities of GEOLAB from the JRAs to perform ground-breaking research, to be published in international peer reviewed, high impact journals. For CI managers and policy makers, the activities will result in a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing CI and evidence to base decision making upon. The construction industry will use GEOLAB to proof innovative solutions for the CI and so gain more leadership in the industrial and enabling technologies. The GEOLAB consortium will engage in different types of innovations processes with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). There will be close interaction with those SMEs that develop user-friendly engineering software from numerical modelling advances which are validated in the TA projects. We will explicitly challenge SMEs on sensing, new materials and other niches for innovative solutions, which will have spinoff in other fields of application, contributing to the competitiveness of Europe.

EU-BEADS investigates symbolically mediated behaviour of Early Upper Palaeolithic modern humans through the study of personal ornaments. Specifically, EU-BEADS will focus on the Levantine region between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. The goal is a better understanding of variation and standardisation in shell bead production and use, as well as establishing new criteria for identification of anthropic modifications of marine shell beads. To achieve this, EU-BEADS employs a range of state-of-the-art zooarchaeological and taphonomic methodologies in conjunction with newly learned analytical techniques namely finite element analysis, use-wear analysis and GIS. In addition, EU-BEADS aims to develop a new analytical method to improve quantification of human actions in the production of shell beadwork using geometrics morphometrics. The large shell bead collection of Ksar’ Akil (Lebanon) will serve as a case study. The high quality, multidisciplinary research results will contribute significantly to our knowledge of Early Upper Palaeolithic behavioural adaptations and of modern human symbolically mediated behaviours in general.