Evolutionary outcomes are constrained by lineage history. Episodes of drastic shifts in selection, as in cases of radical environmental change, often lead to the loss of traits that were once essential. While the loss of such traits may narrow niche breadth, it also creates opportunities for adaptive innovations. Whether trait losses are compensated by novel adaptations, and the extent to which similar outcomes evolved independently in unrelated lineages is largely unknown. In this project, I will investigate this problem by capitalizing on the recurrent loss of mutualism in land plants. Mutualism with soil microorganisms is ancestral in land plants, and provides plants with facilitated access to nutrients. Instances of secondary loss of mutualism are often linked to novel resource acquisition strategies, such as carnivory or parasitism. Some lineages, however, including vascular and non-vascular plants, have not undergone drastic niche shifts, and yet have largely diversified across the ecological space over time after losing mutualism. In this project, I will use comparative genomics and experimental approaches to test the hypothesis that mutualism abandonment was associated with adaptive genetic changes that compensated for the loss of mutualism. To determine whether the loss of mutualism operated as a source of selection on functions formerly facilitated by the mutualistic association, I will identify gene family expansions and genomic signatures of adaptive evolution that preceded and followed mutualism abandonment. I will then experimentally test this hypothesis in a comparative framework using closely related mutualists and non-mutualists of the liverwort genus Marchantia in conditions expected to differentially affect fitness according to mutualism status. This work will determine how novel adaptations evolve following the loss of a widely conserved trait, and reveal the extent to which similar outcomes originate in lineages with widely different histories.

IMPRESS (Interoperable electron Microscopy Platform for advanced RESearch and Services) aims to co-develop and deliver advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM) instrumentation, methods and tools that will revolutionize the way in which TEMs are used by all new and well-established scientific communities, integrate them with other instrumentation at analytical research infrastructures (RIs) and create new business opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. The core of the project is the development of a standardized cartridge-based interoperable platform for TEM that is based on common interfaces and data formats, is flexible and adaptable and allows users to perform advanced correlative experiments using different instruments and to co-develop methodological options that are not yet satisfied by commercially available electron microscopes. The solutions will be delivered at technology readiness level 8 through a pre-commercial procurement. The project also involves the co-development of new electron sources, techniques based on adaptive optics and event-driven detectors, application-relevant in situ/operando sample environments and software for simulation of experiments and remote access based on artificial intelligence. By the end of the project, these developments will be integrated with the new cartridge-based platform, in order to make them available to all users of RIs and other TEMs owners. An open knowledge and innovation hub for TEM will be created and a training programme will promote the new solution, to initiate RI staff in their use and to provide both materials and life science communities with optimized tools for tackling societal challenges, especially in the energy and health sectors. The project will exploit synergies and collaboration with five RIs of European dimension for the benefit of users from diverse scientific communities and will pave the way towards a new cooperative model for the development and operation of RIs for TEM

The need to mitigate the ecological effects of climate change is accelerating the development of renewable energy technologies. Floating photovoltaic systems (FPV) is an important advance of the energy industry and is spreading fast across the globe. A key challenge remains to ensure that climate mitigation strategies are not triggering novel, unexpected and counterproductive impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems that can counterbalance their ecological benefits. FPV can affect lakes’ ecosystem services through abrupt changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning through changes in abiotic conditions in lakes (e.g., light arrival, water mixing, oxygenation) that can ultimately alter the composition of plant and animal communities, with cascading effects on ecosystem functioning. To date, however, empirical assessments of these impacts are still lacking. ECLIPSE aims to provide an integrative assessment of the ecological impacts of FPV on lakes ecosystems by (1) measuring the in-situ impacts of FPV on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; (2) experimentally quantifying the context-dependency of these effects; (3) predicting the impacts of FPV on lakes under climate change scenarios; and (4) providing evidence-based guidelines for FPV deployment. An innovative combination of methods will be used to quantify food web architecture (stable isotope analyses) and ecosystem functioning (lake metabolism and carbon balance) incorporating in situ lake monitoring, mesocosm experiments, and ecological modeling. ECLIPSE is highly innovative as it will answer an applied question with ecological and socio-economic implications providing fundamental knowledge on ecosystem responses to abrupt environmental changes.

HPV-FASTER-Implement aims to improve cervical cancer (CC) prevention. Although human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and CC screening programmes have significantly reduced mortality, they have reached a plateau because they remain largely inaccessible and underused by vulnerable populations, creating inequalities in the European healthcare system. This adds to the difficulties already faced by vulnerable populations in their efforts to maintain their mental and physical health. HPV-FASTER-Implement will create a Europe-wide knowledge framework on vulnerabilities and the health challenges they pose, as well as the tools to monitor their evolution. HPV-FASTER-Implement will work with stakeholder representatives, primarily from vulnerable populations, to identify context-specific strategies to deliver combined HPV vaccines and HPV-based CC screening to eligible vulnerable populations, thereby reducing the burden of CC in Europe. HPV-FASTER-Implement will develop health education interventions, communication activities and other services to meet the need of vulnerable population with high risk of CC and inadequate access to health services. Through stakeholder engagement, health literacy promotion, mathematical modelling, implementation research, and vulnerability mapping, we will collect, analyse and share knowledge on gaps and opportunities to improve CC prevention in Europe, and progress FASTER towards CC elimination. We will work to ensure that the data we produce are translated into policy recommendations aimed at strengthening national prevention programmes with interventions tailored to vulnerable populations. In this way, we can leverage limited resources to rapidly reduce CC mortality. We aim to reduce health inequalities by offering an innovative prevention intervention to women at risk, with the hope that 50% of those offered the intervention will take it. HPV-FASTER-Implement will make the necessary improvements to European CC prevention policies.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most devastating infectious diseases worldwide, killing over 4,000 people every day. Prevention of tuberculosis infection by novel vaccines would provide the most cost-effective approach to achieve the goals of the WHO End TB strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. While there are few promising TB vaccine candidates available, innovation by new platforms and strategies is needed to ensure that the most effective and affordable vaccines are developed. TBVACHORIZON will innovate and diversify the global TB vaccine pipeline by pursuing four objectives: 1. Define the composition, spatial organisation and functioning of protective immune responses in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected lung. 2. Evaluate whether mucosal re-vaccination with BCG and other live attenuated vaccines improves protective efficacy against tuberculosis infection in mice, non-human primates and humans. 3. Identify host immune response profiles and biomarkers of natural and vaccine-induced immune protection in the lung. 4. Support next generation TB vaccine development by standardised head-to-head testing of selected vaccine candidates in animals and the establishment of novel delivery systems, adjuvant formulations and GMP platforms for live attenuated vaccines. TBVACHORIZON will increase our understanding and develop tools pertaining to immune protection in the lung, the major site of tuberculosis infection. This knowledge will be exploited to develop mucosal strategies for translating towards clinical evaluation and possible implementation. The interwoven activities will consolidate Europe’s leading role in TB vaccine research and innovation, with the ultimate goal of accelerated availability of affordable, accessible and more effective TB vaccines.