Facing the challenges of climate change adaptation, TRANS-ADAPT aims to analyse and evaluate the multiple use of flood alleviation schemes with respect to social transformation in communities exposed to flood hazards. The overall goals are (1) to identify indicators and parameters necessary for strategies to increase societal resilience, (2) to analyse the institutional settings needed for societal transformation, and (3) to assess the perspectives of changing divisions of responsibilities between public and private actors necessary to arrive at more resilient societies. Yet each risk mitigation measure is built on a narrative of exchanges and relations between people and therefore may condition the outputs. As such, governance is done by people interacting and defining risk mitigation measures as well as climate change adaptation are therefore simultaneously both outcomes of, and productive to, public and private responsibilities. Building off current knowledge this project will focus on different dimensions of adaptation and mitigation strategies based on social, economic and institutional incentives and settings, centring on the linkages between these different dimensions and complementing existing flood risk governance arrangements. The policy dimension of adaptation, predominantly decisions on the societal admissible level of vulnerability and risk, will be evaluated by a human-environment interaction approach using multiple methods and the assessment of social capacities of stakeholders across scales. As such, the challenges of adaptation to flood risk will be tackled by converting scientific frameworks into practical assessment and policy advice. In addressing the relationship between these dimensions of adaptation on different temporal and spatial scales, this project is both scientifically innovative and policy relevant, thereby supporting climate policy needs in Europe towards a concept of risk governance.

ROADMAP investigates the influence of North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean surface variability on the extratropical atmospheric circulation, with a focus on high-impact weather and climate extremes under present-day and future climate conditions. Specifically, ROADMAP will address: • impacts of a changing ocean circulation on sea surface temperature (SST) • future of western boundary currents and their extensions, such as the Gulfstream • extratropical ocean-atmosphere interactions controlling jet streams, cyclones, blocking and their links to weather and climate extremes • impacts of tropical SST anomalies (e.g. El Nino) on the extratropical atmospheric circulation • role of the SST and Arctic sea ice for driving impact-relevant atmospheric extremes such as heat waves including compound weather extremes • intensity and frequency of Mediterranean mesoscale cyclones (Medicanes) • interactions between oceanic and atmospheric modes of variability ROADMAP will exploit the wealth of model simulations recently produced in other international (EU and worldwide) research activities. Additionally, ROADMAP will conduct dedicated experiments employing cutting-edge numerical techniques based on data assimilation and interactive ensemble modelling. Analyses will be based on advanced dynamical and statistical methods as well as novel machine learning techniques designed to infer complex, non-linear relationships. ROADMAP applies a multi-model approach, crucial for assessing uncertainties. Results will be disseminated to the scientific, stakeholder and climate service community as well the general public. The consortium encompasses leading climate research institutions from seven European countries, including universities as well as institutions providing (national) meteorological and climate services. ROADMAP will continue a long-standing history of successful international collaboration between its partners.

With 10 million death per year worldwide expected by 2050, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is now considered by all major international organizations to be one of the most challenging threats for humankind. This is due to the international occurrence of AMR, its high health impact as well as deep economic and social implications. The ANTIVERSA project explores the links between AMR and biodiversity specifically in freshwater and soil ecosystems. The project aims to answer the question of whether biologically diverse ecosystems have a greater capacity to prevent or delay the spread of AMR compared to low-diversity environments. Important societal trends of globalization and urbanization are likely to increase the pressure on water and terrestrial resources in the future. Studying whether high biodiversity in urbanized systems also results in ecosystems that contain less potential pathogens (specifically less bacteria carrying antibiotic resistance genes) is crucial. Consequently, the project experimentally tests the hypothesis that the level of biodiversity of the microbial communities affects the invasion success of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARBs). This will be tested based on exposed naturally assembled freshwater and soil communities differing in microbial diversity. The experiments will be conducted in a harmonized procedure such that a variation of diversity of seven nations in Central Europe will be tested for freshwater sediments and soil. In addition to the above described diversity, microbial communities with differing past exposure to anthropogenic impacts will be chosen. The experiments follow and increasing complexity from the exposure to cultured single ARB strains to the exposure of wastewater treatment effluent and pig manure for varying temperature settings. Furthermore, selected sites will be monitored for their biodiversity and abundance of ARGs and ARBs in order to test for a (negative) correlation of the microbial community biodiversity and ARG and ARB abundance in the field. Additionally, indicators for water and soil quality and human health will be monitored. This will aid the development of regulations on maintaining water and soil quality. The project recognizes the importance of socio-economic aspects of microbial resistance and biodiversity and therefore includes important communication and social-scientific elements. It addresses several stakeholders as well the general public who are – to some degree – involved in an increasing discharge of various pollutants, including antibiotic resistant bacteria. The water and soil resources provide ecosystem services that are important for the society and the economy alike. The present research project is located at the nexus of the sectors listed above and will test an aspect of maintaining biodiversity that may become even more clear and reveal a hitherto unappreciated ecosystem service.

Aphids are serious pests of many cultivated crops and mainly managed by application of pesticides. Pesticides can be harmful to the environment and human health, and many aphid species have developed resistance mechanisms against insecticides; therefore, alternative methods for aphid control are required. To develop durable aphid control strategies while reducing pesticide use, it is necessary to create more knowledge on plant-aphid interactions and select or construct aphid resistant crops efficiently. This project takes advantage of well-developed pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) system to study plant-aphid interactions at a molecular level. More specifically, we will examine A. pisum biotypes and host legume interactions to identify and characterize the compatibility and incompatibility factors in both aphids and plants and examine the plant signaling pathways involved in the interactions. A. pisum biotypes are specialized to feed on one or a few legume species only (compatible hosts) and cannot perform well on the other legumes (incompatible hosts). We hypothesize that plant-aphid interactions are analogous to plant-microbial pathogen interactions: aphid salivary proteins might function like effectors with virulence and avirulence functions, and their interactions with certain plant proteins determine the success of the aphids. We further hypothesize that aphid salivary proteins with biotype specific expression pattern or amino acid sequence can be the effectors involved in the determination of compatibility with specific plants. Based on the analyses of genome re-sequencing and transcriptomic analyses, we have already identified some candidate salivary effector genes that may be involved in the aphid adaptation to their specific host plants. We would like to characterize those genes and envisage identifying their plant targets using protein-protein interactions. To directly identify the plant factors involved in aphid interactions, we have screened 240 re-sequenced Pisum sativum accessions with pea adapted and non-adapted A. pisum lines and observed a range of resistance and susceptibility. In this project, based on the already acquired data, we would like to conduct genome wide association study (GWAS) and identify the loci involved in plant resistance or susceptibility. We will also select accessions with extreme resistance/susceptible phenotype and conduct metabolomics and transcriptomics to identify the signaling pathways involved in the interactions with aphids. Furthermore, we aim to screen P. sativum mutants by TILLING to find the mutants of key resistance pathways, effector targets and resistant genes. We will test their interactions with A. pisum biotypes and examine the induction of genes and accumulation of metabolites. By the end of the project, we will produce valuable data and materials useful for both fundamental and applied researches and create the knowledge that can contribute to select or create aphid resistant crops.