Human Rights Justifications (HRJ) are when States use human rights to justify decisions. Human rights regimes operate on the presumptions that only individual persons can be in possession of human rights. The regulatory gaps occurring when the States use HRJ for their actions are two-fold, one in the regulation of the States’ use of HRJ and one in the individual human rights protection when States use HRJ. This activity is not regulated by any international, regional or national regime. In other words, significant and important gaps in human rights regulations has now been identified, which this project seeks to address. We will develop a theory of HRJ and a process for Systematic Ongoing Civil Society Engagement (ODCSE) as a tool for a gender and intersectional inclusive Civil Society engagement. Through ODCSE, we will identify gaps in human rights regulations and protection, serving as underpinning data for our recommendations to EU in support of a multinational human rights system and promotion of transnational democratic governance. ODCSE will also help us identify geopolitical elements that influence States’ use of HRJ. This will be done through 5 countries: Sweden, Finland, Taiwan, India and Ukraine, through three actions: human rights dialogue, inclusive democratic participations, and protection of human rights defenders, and operationalised through three themes: Covid, Migration and Climate.

After the primary intervention, most of cancer patients are managed at home, facing long-term treatments or sequelae, making the disease comparable to a chronic condition. Despite their benefit, strong therapeutic regimens often cause toxicity, severely impairing quality of life. This may decrease adherence to treatment, thus compromising therapeutic efficacy. Also due to age-related multimorbidity, patients and their caregivers develop emotional, educational and social needs. CAPABLE will develop a cancer patient coaching system with the objective of facing these needs/issues. The time is right to fully exploit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data potentialities for cancer care and bring them to patients’ home. CAPABLE will rely on predictive models based on both retrospective and prospective data (clinical data, data from unobtrusive environmental and wearable sensors, data from social media and questionnaires). Models will be integrated with existing clinical practice guidelines and made available to oncologists. Thanks to the mobile coaching system for patients, CAPABLE will allow identifying unexpected needs, and providing patient-specific decision support. This feature, together with the chance of discovering unknown adverse effects of new treatments, makes CAPABLE more than a personalised tool for improving life quality, an advance for the whole research community. Our team includes complementary partners with experience in data- and knowledge-driven AI, data integration, telemedicine, decision support. In addition, the involved patients’ association gives a unique opportunity to access thousands of questionnaires on patients’ needs, which will inform the system design. The project addresses EU priorities such as shifting care from hospitals to home to face scarcity of healthcare resources, facilitating patients’ re-integration in the society and in the labour market, and ensuring all EU citizens to benefit from an effective, novel cancer care model.

The ANR MEDSALT project aims to consolidate and expand a scientific network recently formed with the purpose to use scientific drilling to address the causes, timing, emplacement mechanisms and consequences of the largest and most recent 'salt giant' on Earth: the late Miocene (Messinian) salt deposit in the Mediterranean basin. After obtaining the endorsement of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) on a Multiplatform Drilling Proposal (umbrella proposal) in early 2015, the network is planning to submit a site-specific drilling proposal to drill a transect of holes with the R/V Joides Resolution in the evaporite-bearing southern margin of the Balearic promontory in the Western Mediterranean - the aim is to submit the full proposal before the IODP dealine of April 1st 2017, following the submission of a pre-proposal on October 1st 2015. Four key issues will be addressed: 1) What are the causes, timing and emplacement mechanisms of the Mediterranean salt giant ? 2) What are the factors responsible for early salt deformation and fluid flow across and out of the halite layer ? 3) Do salt giants promote the development of a phylogenetically diverse and exceptionally active deep biosphere ? 4) What are the mechanisms underlying the spectacular vertical motions inside basins and their margins ? Our nascent scientific network will consit of a core group of 22 scientists from 10 countries (7 European + USA + Japan + Israel) of which three french scientists (G. Aloisi, J. Lofi and M. Rabineau) play a leading role as PIs of Mediterranean drilling proposals developed within our initiative. Support to this core group will be provided by a supplementary group of 21 scientists that will provide critical knowledge in key areas of our project. The ANR MEDSALT network will finance key actions that include: organising a 43 participants workshops to strengthen and consolidate the Mediterranean drilling community, supporting the participation of network scientists to seismic well site-survey cruises, organising meetings in smaller groups to work on site survey data and finance trips to the US to defend our drilling proposal in front of the IODP Environmental Protection and Safety Panel (EPSP). The MEDSALT drilling initiative will impact the understanding of issues as diverse as submarine geohazards, sub-salt hydrocarbon reservoirs and life in the deep subsurface. This is a unique opportunity for the French scientific community to play a leading role, next to our international partners, in tackling one of the most intellectually challenging open problems in the history of our planet.

The world is more polarized than ever. Discussions involving societal issues occur daily between acquaintances, co-workers, family members, decision-makers, and politicians. These conversations can help people find common ground, but they can also polarize. A project led by Guy Itzchakov at University of Haifa and Netta Weinstein at University of Reading proposes a model of depolarization through high quality listening. The project will test the expectation that high-quality listening can fundamentally shift the social and personal space so that conversations can depolarize attitudes. By providing attention, support, and understanding, despite different perspectives, it will model high-quality listening as a depolarizing agent in discussions centering around social causes. They will then apply this model across four cultures (Israel, the UK, Hong Kong, and Peru) to test for generalizability and to examine similarities in processes in collectivist and individualist cultures. The researchers have two primary hypotheses. First, that high-quality listening will act to depolarize speakers after they discuss a topic on which they disagree and second, and that challenging speakers on their views, a potentially threatening tactic that is known to backfire, can have additive (positive) effects when it follows high-quality listening. To investigate these hypotheses, the project team will manipulate listening behaviors during controversial discussions, such as conversations regarding prejudice and social rejection, between pairs of individuals. This approach allows a conversation to occur in a realistic setting while also allowing for experimental control of listening behavior. The work will target academics in psychology and related fields interested in understanding depolarization and practitioners and others in the community who benefit from understanding the nature of constructive conversations (e.g., inclusion trainers, educators, leaders within organizations, and clinicians). Ultimately, this work will build a foundation for understanding how social and individual factors interact in order to guide constructive communication between people who disagree on certain topics.