The recent intensive sociopolitical debates on racism and the colonialism, which created a wave of protests across the Global North, has broken the ordinariness of the racial status quo endemic to the modern social institutions. In academia, it has enforced a series of initiatives, asking for reconsidering curricula and diversity quotas. The URDER project takes a step back from these societal debates to understand how practices of diversity are understood and applied by those who have a central impact on academic knowledge production and science more generally: the reviewers of academic grants. By studying the evaluation practices of the review panelists of the European Research Commission grant awards, the project will explore how scientific excellence is linked with diversity practices in the European research space. Bringing together (a) science policy studies, (b) cultural sociology, and (c) postcolonial critique, the URDER project seeks to investigate how the European academic elites in social sciences and humanities understand the role of decolonial, anti-racist, and diversity initiatives in European research. The proposed project will allow for training the Fellow in science policy, research management, and research evaluation while the Fellow will offer her valuable knowledge in postcolonial theories, feminist epistemology, and intersectionality. To provide conceptual overlaps between these fields of research will allow for critical assessment of diversity initiatives and propose effective solutions to address diversity in academia.

The EU is one of the key proponents of knowledge-based economy, i.e. an economic system based on research, development, and knowledge production. However, techno-scientific progress may bring not only benefits and well-being to the society, but also undesired side-effects and new dilemmas. Apart from social, ethical, or environmental controversies that scientific research opens, innovation is now increasingly linked with security controversies, characterized by the concerns over a potential misuse of science for hostile purposes. Yet with the ever-accelerating speed of scientific inquiry and the rise of interdisciplinary and international connections, it becomes impossible to clearly define and police “dangerous” research that could be exploited by terrorists and criminals. To balance the demands for scientific openness with national security interests, new techniques of governance are introduced in science, which integrate the existing principles of scientific responsibility with security practices restricting the mobility of scientific knowledge. This project aims to build a unique body of interdisciplinary expertise to study security controversies in the governance of research and innovation. It will link researchers from security studies and science and technology studies with leading biotechnological stakeholders in Austria and practitioners of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) involved in ethics review of EU research projects. Specifically, the project will, first, situate the current security controversies historically and theoretically, second, map the techniques of knowledge governance in health-data governance and RRI, and third, explore what competences and skills are required in the assessment of security risks of scientific knowledge mobility in the two empirical areas. In sum, the project will set out a research agenda to study how our societies design, implement, and regulate sensitive and potentially dual-use research and innovation.

Financial liberalization and cross-border banking underpin a striking global trend: while creditor countries had net financial claims on debtors of 20% of GDP in 1980, by 2010 this had risen to 70%. In accounting terms, such international wealth re-distribution materializes via current account (CA) surpluses by creditors and deficits by debtors. Hence the interest in what drives such CA imbalances, their desirability, and sustainability. The recent Eurozone crisis brought further attention to the issue: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain all had unprecedented CA deficits in the run up to the crisis, and studies indicate that such high deficits helped trigger it. The MAIN OBJECTIVE of this project is to deepen understanding of the links between CA imbalances, cross-border banking and credit. Much of CA flows consist of purchase/sale of debt contracts between residents and foreigners, and since up to two thirds go through banks, the accounting link is clear. Unclear is the behavioral link: What motivates such flows and makes them very risky at times? This project’s novelty is to build a model of this behavioral link, focusing on the Eurozone. This main objective WILL BE ACHIEVED BY: - A new general equilibrium model featuring international risk-taking banks with potential externalities on the economy and which can amplify CA imbalances - A new database on banking indicators and macro-determinants of CAs - Model estimates using O2 and state-of-the-art empirical methods - Assessment of risk thresholds and welfare of regulatory policies - Scenarios for intra-Eurozone imbalances under the EU banking union This research is HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THE WORK PROGRAM because unexplained CAs expose countries to undetected risks, and studies on Eurozone CAs do not model bank behavior thus overlooking a main component of imbalances. This research is timely because growing cross-border banking affects imbalances and understanding such links is key to EU banking union policies.

The goal of the project is to foster RRI transition in Europe by developing and testing good RRI practices in pilot cases, for a further upscaling among the RTOs in the EU28. A Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Plan will be developed and implemented at the biggest European RTOs, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and TNO, covering the five RRI key dimensions (societal engagement, gender equality and gender in research and innovation con-tent, open access, science education and ethics). After identifying the state-of-the-art of good RRI practices, goals will be developed for within each dimension. Barriers for the achievement of these goals will be analyzed, and an action plan to overcome these barriers will be formulated. The project will be set up as a mutual learning process between the consortium, further European RTOs, stakeholders, and two international associated partners.

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, with incidence increasing with age: 10% of the population >80 years is afflicted with it. As AF is progressive, over time it is harder to treat, which increases risk of stroke, dementia and heart failure. The most effective treatment is catheter ablation which selectively destroys tissue to create lesions blocking conduction; however, ablation follows generic patterns, without personalisation. AF often recurs after treatment, with >20% of patients requiring re-ablation after 2 years. We aim to develop a personalised medicine approach based on computer modelling, to plan AF ablation to prevent recurrence. We propose to use physiological digital twins of patient hearts, created from imaging (MRI/CT), and calibrated using machine learning to analyse and fit ECG and electrogram recordings acquired clinically, from implantable devices or wearables. Novel technology for real-time simulation of AF in humans will be developed and integrated in a clinically viable platform to support the easy flow, robust analysis and interpretation of information, to achieve a scalable translation to large cohorts, and, thus, to enable clinicians to speed up the translation of observations to diagnosis and therapy planning. Due to inherent uncertainty, multiple AF scenarios will be simulated to derive biomarkers for assessing risk of AF progression, and to determine ablation sets optimal for each individual prior to ablation. Intraoperatively, electroanatomic recordings will be used to determine which simulations correspond best to the patient, and to further optimise ablation sets. Platform development will be performed on large-scale retrospective clinical data, but will be equally applicable to prospective trials. Economic analysis will evaluate benefits arising from early preventative and longer-lasting treatment, reduced duration and procedural risks of interventions.