What happens when you acquire a stake in a rival firm? Are you expected to continue competing on the market as before? While partial ownership is ubiquitous, its competitive implications are traditionally underplayed under the dogma ‘small is innocent’. Yet, this project asks: Is this EU legal position justified; to what extent; in what cases? Ultimately, what is the price for EU consumers or society to pay for any harmful effects of partial ownership beyond any efficiency gains? If the price is high, should Europe move up a gear? Or are there countervailing costs and trade-offs to be considered before deciding legal reform? With increasing stock market investing, dispersed ownership of public companies and financial intermediation in Europe too, potential concerns gain new dimensions. EU policy may not just be inert but in a wrong direction: one-sided push for a Capital Market Union or increased shareholders’ rights may amplify the EU competition law problem. The research is set to explore the hidden costs and long-term consequences of partial ownership by examining both its different substantive (competition vs corporate law) and governance (EU vs national laws) aspects in the EU context. By means of economic, multi-level legal and empirical analysis the research aims to assess whether there is a regulatory gap in Europe and if so, a solution is necessary and desirable. The supervisor with his cross-disciplinary expertise (EU law; competition & corporate law) and stellar academics in my research areas (business law; finance/microeconomics) associated with LU provide an ideal setting for the project to be effectively implemented. The research will produce new scientific knowledge; training benefits for my future academic career and societal impact (policymaking; public awareness) for stakeholders and the EU economy and democracy. For the sake of all, Europe should bridge the knowledge gap and not be left behind, when action may come as ‘too little too late’.

Motivated by a series of recent discoveries, DEVOCEAN will provide the first comprehensive evaluation of the emergence of diatoms and their impact on the global biogeochemical cycle of silica, carbon and other nutrients that regulate ocean productivity and ultimately climate. I propose that the proliferation of phytoplankton that occurred after the Permian-Triassic extinction, in particular the diatoms, fundamentally influenced oceanic environments through the enhancement of carbon export to depth as part of the biological pump. Although molecular clocks suggest that diatoms evolved over 200 Ma ago, this result has been largely ignored because of the lack of diatoms in the geologic fossil record with most studies therefore focused on diversification during the Cenozoic where abundant diatom fossils are found. Much of the older fossil evidence has likely been destroyed by dissolution during diagenesis, subducted or is concealed deep within the Earth under many layers of rock. DEVOCEAN will provide evidence on diatom evolution and speciation in the geological record by examining formations representing locations in which diatoms are likely to have accumulated in ocean sediments. We will generate robust estimates of the timing and magnitude of dissolved Si drawdown following the origin of diatoms using the isotopic silicon composition of fossil sponge spicules and radiolarians. The project will also provide fundamental new insights into the timing of dissolved Si drawdown and other key events, which reorganized the distribution of carbon and nutrients in seawater, changing energy flows and productivity in the biological communities of the ancient oceans.

The discovery of ferroelectric characteristics in annealed HfO2–based films opens a wide range of applications not only in memory and logic, but the results will enable new scientific directions for instance in reconfigurable electronics. So far, ferroelectric films have been investigated in metal-insulator-metal structures suitable for back-end-of-line integration. They have also been introduced onto Si and two-dimensional materials. However, there is a gap of knowledge with lack of science and technology for integration of HfO2–based ferroelectric films on III-V channel materialswhere the increased permittivity will improve electrostatics. III-V transistors hold a key position for high-performance millimetre wave electronics. The high electron mobility in III-V materials contributes to a high transconductance that enables high unity-current-gain cut-off frequency and unity-power-gain cut-off frequency, fT and fmax, more than a factor 3 higher than competing Si MOSFET technologies. The wide options for heterostructure design have enabled III-V steep-slope transistors for low-power electronics operating down to 30 mV/dec without hysteresis . To research for the first time ferroelectric films integrated on high-performance III-V devices at technology-relevant dimensions, we will use our demonstrated integration of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 on InAs: - Establishing the best strategy to integrate ferroelectric gate-stacks on III-V materials with strong polarization and long endurance. - Characterizing the dynamic properties with non-volatile functionality of ferroelectric films integrated on III-V transistor channels. - Investigating ferroelectric III-V MOSFETs for future applications including millimeter-wave devices, cryogenic electronics, Negative Capacitance FET (NC-FET) circuitry, and Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions (FTJs). Combined, the new science and technology will enable novel high-performance devices as well as reconfigurable millimetre-wave electronics.

Ongoing climate change leads to rising sea levels and changes in local precipitation volume and regularity which will reshape estuarine ecosystems across Earth. As current climate change dramatically alters estuarine ecosystems, fish populations must adapt to the novel environment, or they will go extinct. Understanding how past environmental changes led to genomic adaptations is the key to predicting the adaptive potential of fishes facing ongoing climate change and could be the difference between protecting and losing locally adapted biodiversity. Perch (Perca fluviatilis) and pike (Esox lucius) are two freshwater fish species inhabiting freshwater ecosystems across the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless, in the Baltic Sea, which is the world’s largest estuary, each species have developed brackish water ecotypes capable of thriving at salinities exceeding their internal salinity. This requires fundamentally different cellular functions and is lethal to non-adapted freshwater individuals. However, their evolutionary histories and functional genomic adaptations are unknown. Through deep sequencing of brackish water and freshwater ecotypes of perch and pike, Project BrackAdapt aims to identify the demographic and evolutionary history of each species. The project will identify genomic regions under selection for salinity tolerance and investigate whether genomic adaptations to environmental changes are parallel in function, time and space within and between species. The training and project management experience I will gain during the project will be a stepping-stone for my career to advance and make me an independent researcher.

Nanotechnology is widely considered to be one of the drivers of innovations in the 21st century. Specifically, nanoscience strongly contributes to several of the key enabling technologies identified by the European Commission, including Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials and Biotechnologies, and Sustainable development. In this way, nanotechnology also has significant potential to directly address Europe’s Societal Challenges, including clean and efficient energy, resource efficiency, health and well-being. The effective use of nanotechnology requires a highly trained workforce able to tackle interdisciplinary challenges through combination of unique approaches, advanced materials and characterization techniques coupled with a clear understanding of technology and market needs. The GenerationNano program will effectively consolidate and leverage externally (public and private) funded projects to facilitate a cohesive training program that integrates multiple disciplines, mobility, training in innovation processes and leadership to produce tomorrow’s leaders in nanotechnology and nano-innovation. GenerationNano’s is highly timely and is specifically designed for the Lund region in Southern Scandinavia. First, large investments into basic nanoscience have by now built up an extensive base of knowledge, infrastructure and materials synthesis capabilities related to nanostructures, and a large number of highly innovative applications are emerging. The time to focus on future applications is now. Second, the project is perfectly timed to coincide with major investments into regional nanotechnology e.g. world-leading nanomaterials research at NanoLund (the host of GenerationNano); the worlds brightest synchrotron MAX IV; ; the start of institute- and pilotfabrication operations (ProNano) within nanotechnology in Lund by RISE, to bring nanotech innovations from proof-of-concept all the way to production; and multiple nanotech companies.