Assessing current and future biodiversity patterns, and their underlying drivers is of crucial importance to develop relevant conservation programs and promote sustainable development and human well-being. While biodiversity conservation research and actions yet mostly focus solely on taxonomic diversity, considering the diversity of organismal traits (functional) and evolutionary lineages (phylogenetic) offers promise for effective conservation and the maintenance of resilient ecosystems to global change. Indeed, taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic facets do not necessarily react at the same pace or scale, neither respond in the same way to drivers, especially anthropogenic perturbations. Knowledge about multifaceted biodiversity is still very fragmented which greatly limits our ability to anticipate current and future conservation needs. The main objective of INTEGRADIV is to develop an integrative approach to provide guidelines on how taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic facets of biodiversity should be encapsulated in realistic conservation plans. To achieve this, we will notably rely on the assessment of ecosystem integrity (its degree of preservation) and vulnerability to global change, based on an innovative quantification of trait-based and phylogenetic attributes distributions. INTEGRADIV will benefit from both existing and newly collected occurrences, life-traits and phylogenetic data to develop an innovative framework of biodiversity assessment considering multiple spatial scales (regional and euro-Mediterranean) and taxonomic groups Considering the diversity of trees, butterflies and birds in the Euro-Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, the key questions INTEGRADIV will address are: 1)Where are the high-value biodiversity areas? 2)What is the level of ecological integrity of the Euro-Mediterranean forests? 3)How were shaped spatial patterns of biodiversity, and how high are they vulnerable to climate and land-use changes? INTEGRADIV will build on the answers to these questions to provide a prioritization scheme for guiding effective future conservation strategies that will integrate all facets of biodiversity with responsible use of public money. The prioritization tool aims to be implementable, to be used in the future for example with new data at a finer spatial resolution, or to test new societal constraints. To ensure that the project aligns with stakeholder needs, it will engage in a joint learning process at the science-practice-policy interface from the beginning of the project. INTEGRADIV results will be delivered to the stakeholder community through policy briefs, outreach publication and workshops all along the project.

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.

Immigration has become a central and persistent issue in the political discourse and public debate of many European societies. Some evidence suggests that the popularity of anti-immigrant parties has been partly driven by recent waves of immigrant arrivals. Other evidence, however, suggests that in areas where natives are more likely to come into contact with immigrants, greater immigration has reduced support for the far-right. The contrasting evidence makes it crucial to understand when and how contact with immigrants can generate political division, and when it may foster greater integration. The overall objective of this project is to better understand how contact with immigrants can change attitudes and political behaviour in Europe. An important literature in social science and psychology has demonstrated that, at least in controlled settings, contact between majority and minority groups can reduce prejudice and encourage interethnic relationships. Yet the effectiveness of contact outside of controlled environments is much less well understood, with large uncertainty as to how policy can be designed to facilitate positive contact. This project therefore aims to help fill this evidence gap and hence guide policy makers in how to encourage social integration. To achieve our objectives, we will undertake analyses using a variety of econometric methodologies at differing spatial scales. We will begin the project by using comparable data from eight European countries to examine the relationship between immigrant populations and voting. We will then dig deeper by undertaking analyses using unique national administrative data in four European countries: Denmark, the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Finally, we will work with partners in three European countries to test specific ways in which contact with immigrants may impact the attitudes and behaviour of small groups of young people. Together, these different projects will aid to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the role of intergroup contact in political reactions to immigration. The project aims to help lift two important scientific barriers that have limited work on this topic. A first major barrier has been a lack of data on both contact with immigrants and the potential long-term impacts of this contact. We aim to lift this barrier by using various administrative datasets, matching them with other data and collecting new data in carefully targeted settings. This will allow us to look at instances of contact that are currently understudied as well as investigate the impact on outcomes on which little evidence exists. A second important barrier has been the non-random nature of contact with immigrants that typically makes it difficult to study causal impacts. We aim to lift this barrier by focusing on several situations where contact is influenced by factors which are plausibly random, including one experiment where we will deliberately introduce purely random variation. Lifting this barrier will allow us to better identify the potential impact of policies which increase contact with immigrants. Our project advances the state of the art relating to contact with immigrants in two important ways. First, we will study the impact of contact on a set of important outcomes on which there is currently little well-identified evidence. This includes novel tests of implicit prejudice, behaviour in incentivized games, voting, labour market discrimination and residential segregation. Second, we will carefully examine ways in which the type and duration of contact matters, where existing evidence is also scarce. Overall, this will produce important lessons for policy makers from relevant settings that will aid in designing institutions and interventions which will encourage positive with immigrants.

MOSAIC (MOisture Simulation and Assessment In Civil engineering) is an Initial Training Network (ITN) program to train future scientists in the field of sustainable construction materials. The MOSAIC proposal was already submitted in the ITN (ETN) Marie Sklodowska Curie Action call, the last evaluation score 87.4%. The MRSEI grant will give us means to make major changes for challenging the 2020’s ITN call. The project MOSAIC focuses on various materials, procedures and applications in the field of sustainable construction. An original, multidisciplinary and complementary approach addresses the presence of moisture, its evaluation and the role it plays in damage. Structures made of wood, concrete or brick and stone masonry will all be considered. Issues linked to determining and measuring moisture, its distribution within the structure and its evolution over time will be addressed So far the project was relying on an existing Technical Committee from RILEM (a scientific and technical international association that develops knowledge on materials properties and structural performance). The network is supported by academic and non academic partner organizations, who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds (owners, research and technical centers, industries and SME on materials, diagnosis and consulting), and who are working on the issue of heritage conservation and, building sustainability. According to the previous evaluation of the project, we need to organize the partnership differently while refocusing the project. The MRSEI will help us to reach this objective. The objective of the ITN is to train 15 doctoral students with a 360-degree perspective. By virtue of the partnership trans-disciplinary culture, they will be able to push back the present borders between different materials and techniques. The project is structured around scientific work packages aiming to achieve progress on development of new techniques and methodologies for moisture assessment; improvement of interpretation for evaluation of moisture; standardization of practice applications linked to moisture assessment. The establishment of a data exchange platform to support future scientific progress is also planned. Since an ITN aims as the training of future scientists a work package will be entirely devoted to this task structuring schools, and secondment to allow doctoral students to grow up to an original and attractive employment profile, capable of working in an international landscape. A last work package will deploy modern, original resources in order to communicate disseminate the advances and findings to all echelons of society. The project proposed for this MRSEI call is to favor physical meetings allowing brainstorming and more common writing, as well as to accede to external helps from experts. The initial project will be rebuilt by identifying the roles and involvement needed (based on a partnership already partly identified), as well as the structure of our project.