The lion population of East Africa is declining due to several reasons, and pollution listed as one of the current threats by IUCN. However, no data on exposure routes of pollution from mining on lions in East Africa are available and metal pollution in terrestrial ecosystems in East Africa is understudied. The current proposal aims to fill this gap by looking at both metal exposure in lions and their main prey close to mining areas and in reference areas away from suspected pollution. In addition, non-invasive sampling of fur will be assessed as biomonitoring tool for metal exposure. Finally, we will provide recommendations to local authorities and communicate our findings to local communities. This project will give me the opportunity to apply my previous knowledge on metal pollution in wildlife and to gain new expertise working in African ecosystems and with African communities, as well as gain new practical skills, such as sampling large carnivores. Furthermore, my supervisors at the Norwegian University of Science in Technology (NTNU) provide interdisciplinary expertise within ecotoxicology (Prof. Jaspers) and conservation ecology (Prof. Røskaft). LEOTHREAT’s main research question is: What are the main exposure routes for metals in East African lion populations? I hypothesize that lions inhabiting mining sites may be exposed to metals due to the ingestion of contaminated prey and water. The exposure to toxic metals may cause adverse effects on their health, thus contributing to population declines. Me and local collaborators will study metal exposure by sampling blood and fur from lions inhabiting areas close to mines as well as from lions ranging areas unsuspected to be contaminated.

Establishing a sustainable supply chain for raw materials is a must for creating an industrial ecosystem aligned with the goals of the European Green Deal, which emphasizes energy conservation and reducing environmental costs in primary production. Elements such as Al, Si, Mg, Ce, La, Eu, Y, and Tb have been included in the EU's strategic and/or critical material lists due to their economic significance and high supply risk. The recycling rate of these strategic and/or critical materials is low because supplied scrap and End-of-Life (EoL) products, such as Zorba scrap, solar cells, light metal scraps/chips, Si-kerf, glass polishing powders, and fluorescent lamp waste, contain a mixture of various metals. Estimations show that the amount of Al scrap will rise to approximately 125,000 metric tons per year by 2035 and 246,000 metric tons per year by 2050. Additionally, projections anticipate that End-of-Life (EoL) solar panels will amount to 1.7 to 8 million tons by 2030, with this growth expected to increase to 60 to 77 million tons by 2050. However, the complex structures of scraps/EoL products, containing a wide range of elements, pose significant challenges for the recycling process of these metals. Waste2Space aims to develop a holistic recycling process for mixed scraps/EoL products, ensuring the mix to be a benefit rather than an obstacle. A straightforward and cost-effective approach to utilizing mixed scraps and EoL products will be developed with the aim of producing CCAs for the aerospace and automotive industries.

Our research focuses on the study of geometric and analytical aspects of various classes of weight functions that are ubiquitous in harmonic analysis. The main goals of this project are to substantially improve some of the well-known fundamental norm inequalities for Muckenhoupt weights (the Reverse Hölder Inequality) and BMO functions (the John-Nirenberg estimate), to continue developing the theory of Békollé-Bonami weights in all dimensions, and to describe the geometry of the extension domains for both classes of weights. Our methods combine classical tools in harmonic and geometric analysis with more sophisticated probabilistic techniques that have been employed in the theory of Calderón-Zygmund operators in the setting of non-doubling measures, and in sharp maximal inequalities. The proposal is based at the Department of Mathematical Sciences (IMF), NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, with Karl-Mikael Perfekt as the supervisor of the fellowship. In addition to the research outcomes, the plan include lecturing and supervising activities, dissemination of the results in conferences, and participation in outreach activities organized by the NTNU. The research will be carried out within the research group "Fourier Analysis and Multiplicative Analysis", at the same department, whose Principal Investigator is Kristian Seip.

The aim of this study is to develop piezoelectric ceramics for the use as bone replacement materials utilizing their piezoelectric behaviour to stimulate bone and vascular cell growth. The work is based on the finding that mechanical and electrical stimuli exert a strong influence on the osseogenesis on the cellular level. As piezoelectric ceramics develop electric surface charges under mechanical load it is expected that they accelerate the healing process and support the development of a strong bond between bone and implant. The quality of bone and vascular ingrowth is determined by various factors such as biocompatibility of the replacement material, surface morphology and electric surface states. Especially the porosity of the ceramic is of crucial importance as the pores have to be large enough and of open structure to allow ingrowth of both bone and vascular cells. However, increasing porosity is likely to alter the local piezoelectric behaviour and by this the local surface charges responsible for cell growth stimulation. To pave the way for the development of piezoelectric implants it is crucial to understand the influence of microstructural features such as porosity and grain size on the piezoelectric properties. I will approach this task by developing biocompatible ceramics with a wide range of microstructural characteristics. I will investigate the influence of porosity and grain size on a macroscopic scale using piezoelectric testing techniques, on a mesoscopic scale employing Piezo Force Microscopy and on the structural scale via diffraction studies. The biocompatibility as well as the influence of the piezoelectric behaviour on the osseogenesis will be clarified by in-vitro cell experiments on unpoled and electrically poled ceramics. The knowledge gained will form the basis for the development of a new class of implant materials exploiting the piezoelectric characteristics to improve the healing process and to create long lasting interfacial bonds.

The marine ecosystem covers around 70% of the planet. Today, every single part of this vast ecosystem is affected by at least one anthropogenic driver of change. This fact should cause us to pause and think: such a huge space, yet habitat and species loss are occurring at an unprecedented rate. The marine ecosystem provides us with a wealth of services and has an economic value exceeding 20 trillion US Dollars. In addition, the marine ecosystem is considered crucial for our sustainable future and is often regarded as the “next economic frontier”. However, despite its importance for humankind, the marine ecosystem is significantly underrepresented in sustainability research. We currently have no holistic approach to quantify the impacts caused by a large number of human pressures in the marine ecosystem. A powerful tool for identifying such impacts is life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is the best available tool to assess potential environmental impacts of products and processes in a comprehensive way. However, methods have never been properly developed for including marine impacts in LCA results. I will contribute to closing this substantial research gap by developing novel models for quantifying impacts on ecosystem service losses (“whales”), as well as impacts of marine plastic debris (“waste”) and of marine invasive species (“sea walnuts”) within the LCA framework. These models will be developed based on impacts on species richness and ecosystem service potential. Including ecosystem services will be a paradigm extension and a substantial advancement for the LCA framework. All models will be tested in an overarching case study. Currently we are unable to determine whether planned marine activities and processes are sustainable. By developing these models, we will be able to do so with a holistic perspective. This is of unprecedented importance, if we want to manage this vital ecosystem in a sustainable way and preserve it for future generations.