Ordinary matter is made of atoms and atoms are made of electrons surrounding a very tiny and fascinating object, the atomic nucleus. At the same time, the atomic nucleus is a physical system composed of two types of particles, protons and neutrons, that are interacting through intricate nuclear interactions, and, in the case of protons, through the electromagnetic interaction. Typical energies and sizes of this system require for its study the use of quantum many-body techniques. The main scientific goal of the present action is to provide a microscopic, universal and reliable theoretical description of the atomic nucleus. This ambitious objective will be achieved by developing: 1. Theoretical tools that combine state-of-the-art first- principles (ab-initio) nuclear interactions with the two most widely used quantum many-body techniques in Nuclear Physics, namely, the interacting shell model and the self-consistent mean-field and beyond-mean-field approximations. 2. State-of-the-art software and high performance computing to implement and use these techniques to produce valuable theoretical data that can be useful to nuclear experimentalists and astrophysicists. Pursuing this objective, the experienced researcher (ER) will acquire new scientific, managerial, dissemination, mentoring and cultural skills through advanced training that will boost his career possibilities both in academia and industry. Furthermore, this action is mutually beneficial because it opens a new line of research within the host group devoted to nuclear ab-initio methods. These topics are considered as the most important challenges to Nuclear Theory for the next decade. Therefore, this action will foster the international visibility and attractiveness of both the ER and the host group.

While linguistic diversity is promoted at the supranational level by the European Union policies, standardization and homogenization still prevail at the national level in most European countries in alignment with the one state - one language nationalistic ideology. In this context, any speaker who deviates from the standard norm, in particular, migrants and their descendants are often misrecognized as linguistically deficient. A discriminatory process that entails social, economic, and political consequences. The case of Spain is paradigmatic, given the attested pressure towards normativity in the dominant variety of Castilian Spanish, especially in monolingual regions like Madrid. Drawing on interdisciplinarity, this project, MigrantVoices, aims to address this issue and open paths for social transformation. The project will provide and analyze examples of instances in which migrant voices – usually unheard– have reached domains of public influence in society and have managed to challenge and transform the linguistic prejudices that affect them. These instances of speaking out against linguistic discrimination coming from migrant communities have been deeply analyzed in the US but have not yet been studied in the European context. To analyze these initiatives, this action proposes an innovative change in perspective by focusing on artistic and cultural spaces which influence social practices and beliefs, and which have yet to be explored. Drawing on ethnography and participatory methods, this project will provide an analyzed corpus of successful experiences. This will contribute to generating public knowledge on the possibilities to foster immigrants’ inclusion and participation in European societies, which is one of the EU’s political priorities for 2021-2027. In doing so, MigrantVoices will also raise awareness of the role of language in discriminative processes, and promote fairer individual, social and institutional approaches to language.

Waste management and final disposal cause severe environmental impacts. Even in modern landfills, installed engineered barriers worsen their hydraulic performance after 8 years of landfill operation, which can lead to leachate leakage and environmental pollution in the medium to long term. In addition, the use of clay as landfill barriers relies on a non-renewable resource and entails high economic and environmental costs when such a resource is not locally available. Therefore, it is necessary to develop barriers made of renewable and/or recycled sources, which not only promote leachate containment but also enhance its in-situ treatment and attenuation. This project will take advantage of the bacteria naturally occurring in leachate that grow and form biofilms by consuming the organic compounds. We will apply the biofilm-forming bacteria in a novel liner made of the rejected fraction of fine aggregates and plastic waste. Adopting such a bio-barrier between the liner and the drainage system could reduce both the leachate flow and the contaminants concentrations that actually reach the liner. This is because the natural clogging of the bio-barrier would reduce its permeability, and the physicochemical and biochemical processes would enhance their attenuation. In this regard, the proposed project will 1) develop bio-barriers for landfill design, combining the rejected fraction of fine aggregates, plastic waste and biofilm-forming bacteria, 2) verify the long-term performance of these new designs for representative conditions, and 3) develop guidance for real-world implementation to reduce barrier permeability and increase contaminant attenuation. The bio-barrier (BioBar) approach has not been quantitatively tested for landfill barrier design and merges innovative geochemical concepts and biofilm engineering. The effectiveness of the developed bio-barrier could enable the reduction of clay liner thickness, in a renewable and sustainable design perspective.