The proposed action titled “ECoSync” aims to incorporate computational modelling as a pivotal framework for elucidating the intricate dynamics of social bonding. This new framework is crucial for the European Work Programme in the current global crises. The action perfectly aligns with the Programme's vision of addressing pressing societal challenges for the well-being and stability of European communities. Recognizing the profound impact of emotions on human well-being, this research endeavors to uncover the underlying mechanisms that govern the emergence of social bonding. The action includes training in computational modelling and fundamental research in musical performance. It highlights interpersonal synchronization as a method for cultivating strong interpersonal connections. Understanding the interplay between emotions and interpersonal synchronization in musical interaction opens up new avenues for exploration, supporting resilience and recovery in the context of global adversity through social bonding. To quantify the processes underlying the formation of social bonds, we will execute a sequence of three work packages (i.e., WP2-WP4). These work packages will synergistically integrate cutting-edge methodologies from nonlinear dynamical systems, social and affective neurosciences, and music psychology. WP2 will focus on the computational mapping of emotional effects on interpersonal coupling. In WP3, we will validate and refine the model through empirical dyadic musical interaction, leveraging advanced motion capture and physiological techniques. In WP4, we will investigate how emotions influence group synchronization and its subsequent impact on social bonding. Finally, the action’s international mobility and training in research will broaden the applicant's academic portfolio and develop extensive experience as well as professional connections, furthering the advancement of the applicant's career as an independent researcher.

This project proposes to investigate the resurgence of intentional fallowing as a practice for soil regeneration and as a tool for sustainability policies in Europe. It will deploy an interdisciplinary approach grounded in philosophy and multispecies ethnography to analyse the contemporary resurgence and mutations of intentional fallowing practices in European agriculture and policies, as well as the cultural, social, and scientific consequences of this shift. It combines qualitative research on European farms conducting experimental intentional fallowing, a genealogical analysis of the historical and political context in which these practices are re-emerging, and an exploration of the adjacent spaces in which fallowing and fallowness are studied, such as microbiology, conservation biology, and bioengineering. By combining these three lines of inquiry, the project demonstrates that fallowing is a marginalised practice currently under re-evaluation and potential re-integration into projects and policies that go beyond agricultural concerns. It will analyse the biopolitical and cosmopolitical dimensions of this renewed interest in alternatives to synthetic fertilisers and intensive agriculture by showing that fallowed soils are a site where a variety of interests and projects converge, and by tracing how these practices take up, replay, and extend questions of productivity and idleness, growth and alternatives to economic expansion. This project will combine qualitative methods, in particular in-depth interviews with practitioners in the field, with an extensive engagement with literature in agricultural science, microbiology, conservation biology, and ecology, producing an analysis of fallowing that cuts across what is usually deemed “cultural” and “biological” domains and studies the role, promises, and implications of fallowing practices in times of mass extinction and soil depletion.

TeCh-Coast aims to understand how past populations have used tools and what technological choices they have made to deal with the coastal environment. On the southern Norway seashore, the Late Mesolithic (6300-4500 cal BC) sites constitute a unique knowledge repository of coastal hunter-gatherer populations, in which stone-knapped tools are the most frequent artifacts. However, very little is known about the use of these to exploit coastal resources. How and for what were these tools used? How does their use reflect socially transmitted technological knowledge to exploit coastal resources? Through an innovative and interdisciplinary techno-functional approach, TeCh-Coast aims to bring new functional data on the use of lithic tools to further understand the technological choices of coastal populations. Analyses of the plastic deformations on the surface of the tools due to their use (i.e. use-wears) will be performed on three preselected lithic assemblages. In addition, an experimental analytical program will be set to identify quantifiable wear attributes in lithic tools resulting from the exploitation of marine animal resources by means of confocal scanning microscopy. Finally, by combining observations with a dynamic technological approach and landscape archaeology, the project will aim to identify the technological choices of the coastal groups. More widely, the present project will provide a broader perspective on the Atlantic European seashore, allowing cross-regional comparisons with other coastal groups. The TeCh-Coast project results will have an important impact on the research of the coastal Stone Age hunter-gatherer populations, as well as bring new methodological perspectives to use-wear studies. The results will be disseminated by open-access publications and outreach activities. Through a prehistoric perspective, the project aims to engage in the social debate about the role of technology in the exploitation of environmental resources in the present.

This project "Barents Sea Arctic Cenozoic Evolution and Paleogeographical Reconstructions (BRAVO)" aims to reconstruct the Barents Sea Gateway since the Cenozoic (the last 66 Myr). To do so, BRAVO’s objectives are to 1) reveal the effect of sediment loading–unloading, lithospheric strength, and surface-mantle processes on shaping the Cenozoic paleobathymetry-topography of Barents Sea, to 2) constrain the timing of the formation of the BSG, to 3) identify the interplay between climate dynamics and tectonics in erosion and deposition of sediments in the paleo-Barents Sea, and (4) compare the development of the BSG and Fram Strait, as well as the regional to global consequences of the Arctic-Atlantic shallow water connection. BRAVO will achieve these objectives by numerical modelling (inc. finite element and volumetric methods) using open-source platforms of pyGPlates, pyBadlands and high-resolution 2D–3D seismic, well, gravity and magnetic data analyses. BRAVO’s results will be self-consistent 4D Earth models (space and time) of paleobathymetry-topography of Barents Sea Gateway and corresponding sedimentary pathways and accumulation. BRAVO’s ambition is to provide the most reliable paleobathymetric-topographic reconstruction of the Barents Sea Gateway for the Cenozoic. BRAVO will quantify the role of Barents Sea Gateway in exchanging Atlantic–Arctic water, highlight the significance of erosion–deposition of sediments in shaping the gateway, and form the basis for updated global oceanographic and climatic simulations. BRAVO’s pioneering model of the complete Cenozoic source-to-sink analysis for the regional Barents Sea will be a breakthrough for Arctic seabed characterization for offshore wind turbines and mapping slope failure geohazards.