Seed funded projects

The objective of the Circle U. seed funding scheme is to foster new collaborations across institutions in the Circle U. alliance. It is a mechanism that provides academic and research staff and students with opportunities to develop projects across the alliance, to strengthen the alliance and to drive bottom-up initiatives.

Circle U.lympics, a warm up for Paris 2024

The Circle U.lympics is a programme that delves into the theme of the Olympic Games and explores it from a host of different academic angles. The programme is divided into two phases; 1) a series of online webinars and 2) a physical conference in Paris, the host city of the 2024 Olympic Games.

The first phase includes four online lectures from January to April 2024. In the online webinars, students and researchers get to share their exchange research topics and expertise. The webinars cover a broad range of interesting and relevant topics: e.g. exploring the Olympic Games and their similarities with religion; considering issues around ethics, sustainability, gender, and governance; discussing whether Russian and Belarusian athletes should be excluded from the competition; or understanding the impact of mindset and nutrition on physical performance.

In the second phase, a 5-day trip to Paris will take place from April 22 to 26, 2024 at Université Paris Cité’s Sports Science Department (STAPS). The programme will include workshops, debates, site visits and sporting challenges for students.

  • Participating universities: Université Paris Cité, Aarhus University, King's College London, University of Belgrade, UCLouvain, University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Trocellier Zumreta, Université Paris Cité
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Circle U.lympics (au.dk)

One Health or Many Health? A Multidisciplinary, Multicultural Approach to Global Health

A workshop on challenges and perspectives related to global health will be organized in Belgrade by PhD students from partner universities who will give short talks from different backgrounds and viewpoints such as epidemiology, law, ethics, social medicine, and history of medicine regarding the diverse approaches to global health, as well as the challenges present in different countries and cultures. The workshop will also be live-streamed for increased visibility and accessibility for students from different universities. The target audience are undergraduate and postgraduate students of all partner universities. The participants will be asked to fill in pre-tests and post-tests in order to assess the change in knowledge and attitudes of participants regarding the diverse issues in global health. A manuscript will be drafted after analyzing the results of the pre- and post-tests and submitted to an open-access journal to facilitate the visibility of the collaboration.

  • Participating universities: University of Belgrade, University of Vienna, King's College London
  • Project promoter: Aleksa Jovanović, University of Belgrade
  • Budget awarded: 4192 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Science, Environment and Gender: The Reception of "Silent Spring" nowadays

The aim of SEGRETI is to organize a multisession online workshop divided in three appointments to celebrate Rachel Carson and her most famous literary work “Silent Spring”.

  • Participating universities: University of Pisa, Aarhus University, University of Belgrade
  • Project promoter: Claudia Pisuttu, University of Pisa
  • Budget awarded: 
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

“Silent Spring” presented by Claudia Pisuttu (unipi.it)

Working on Inclusive Identities, Intersectionality & Diversity in Teacher Education (WIIIDE)

The project aims to establish a multidisciplinary, open, bottom-up network of teacher educators, MA, and doctoral students interested in the diversity and intersectionality of teacher identities. The mission of the network will be to share information about teachers' multiple identities and to initiate activities aimed at exploring and teaching about them. One focus thus lies in the discussion and reflection of valuable and innovative approaches that can be used in both research and teaching to explore identities, sensitize for the topic, and foster the reflection of one's own (teacher) identity, in order to learn how to better engage and work with the diversity of students. To actively address oppression, teachers must become aware of the interconnectedness and contextual situatedness of their identities. Thus, the central activity of the WIIIDE project is an on-site mapping workshop with teacher educators from the three partner universities. By exploring the complexity of our own social identities, we may recognize the inclusiveness of our identities as individuals may share a common group membership on one dimension but belong to different categories on another. These reflections and their relevance for teacher education lie at the heart of the WIIIDE project.

  • Participating universities: University of Vienna, University of Belgrade, University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Eva Kleinlein, University of Vienna
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

WIIIDE (univie.ac.at)

TENet - Teacher Education Network

The Teacher Education Network - TENet - aims to highlight and promote high-quality education and research in initial teacher education across Circle U partner universities. Building on the work of the former CU Think-and-Do-Tank on the future of higher education, the Teacher Education Network will implement a seed-funding project in 2024 focusing on the theme of student co-research. This project seeks to raise awareness among CU researchers, teaching staff, administrators, and teacher education students about opportunities for research-driven, interdisciplinary and cross-border collaboration in the area of teacher education. Our commitment is to strengthen the internationalisation of teacher professional development by designing a model course which connects the principle of involving students as co-researchers to practices of international exchange and collaboration in initial teacher education.
The TENet will explore the links with the work done in the four CU Knowledge Hubs, in the platforms of the CU.mil, and the CU.erc links with the tenets and aims of teacher education. The TENet participates in the CU.til and cooperates closely with the CU Open Campus. The Network is open to individual researchers and students as well as to representatives of institutional units in initial teacher education across Circle U.

  • Participating universities: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, University of Vienna, University of Belgrade, King's College London, UCLouvain, University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Stephan Breidbach, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Generative AI, health literacy and well-being of citizens

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, refers to a technology, which delivers fast and comprehensive information about all aspects of human life, including health. People may use generative AI to inform themselves about health topics, to get advice or interact with AI about their concerns, or to diagnose/treat diseases. Generative AI is considered to have large disruptive potential, necessitating new understandings of potential risks and benefits. Drawing on humanities, business, social sciences, and public health research, our aim is to establish a comprehensive understanding of the health-related risks and benefits of generative AI. We particularly focus on implications for inequality, with respect to gender, age, and minority status, looking at variations by country.

  • Participating universities: University of Vienna, Aarhus University, Université Paris Cité, University of Belgrade
  • Project promoter: Jörg Matthes, University of Vienna
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024
Meeting room with people watching a presentation on a large screen
Photo: Claudia Iasillo, TIME4CS project

Accelerating the Societal Dimension of Open Science Training through Citizen Science (ASDOST-CitSci)

The project will be linking the three participating universities in improving the training in the area of Open Science. Specifically, the need to share knowledge in the area of participatory and citizen science, which is a central part of the societal engagement pillar of the European Union formulation of open science and the UNESCO recommendation for Open Science.

The project will bring the results of three European Commission-funded projects and ensure they are used for teaching and training across each university and the wider university sector. Researchers with experience in data aspects of citizen science (KCL) and training researchers in citizen science (AU) will develop training material. This will be utilised by UP.

The expected outputs include training content for students and staff on two topics (data and project management), and training that is delivered to 30-50 early career researchers (MSc to PhD level) at the three universities.

The project is aiming to enhance the capacity in supporting citizen science at the university sector and potential material that can be integrated with the Open Campus Initiative of the Circle U. consortium.

  • Participating universities: Université Paris Cité, King's College London, Aarhus University
  • Project promoter: Muki Haklay Université Paris Cité
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Accelerating the Societal Dimension of Open Science Training through Citizen Science

Evolution of colloid transfer during river ice break-up in permafrost catchments

In cold regions, rivers are ice-covered during the winter, and the transition to the open water period is called the river ice break-up. This key hydrological event occurs earlier over time in a warming Arctic. Arctic rivers drain permafrost catchments facing extensive thaw and thereby unlocking frozen organic carbon.
Metals such as aluminum and iron can bind to organic carbon released from thawing permafrost and influence its availability for decomposition by the microbial communities. Silicon is a key indicator of freeze-thaw processes. These chemical elements can be transferred as dissolved or as nano-sized particles (colloids) in rivers. The challenge is to estimate the fluxes of colloidal transfer at river ice break-up, a large contributor to the annual export of organic carbon and metals, with key implications for organic carbon decomposition and the associated greenhouse gas emissions.
By combining the expertise from three Circle U. Universities, the aim of the project CEDRIC is to better quantify the transfer of colloidal elements during an ice break-up event. This project, born from the thematic seminar “Climate Change and Water” of the Circle U. Knowledge Hub Climate in Berlin, crosses disciplinary boundaries between cryospheric sciences, geochemistry, hydrology and remote sensing.

  • Participating universities: UCLouvain, University of Oslo, Université Paris Cité
  • Project promoter: Sophie Opfergelt, UCLouvain
  • Budget awarded: 9870 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

The Genealogy of Mathematical Concepts

The project aims to connect the research strengths of four Circle U. institutions around the theme of the genealogy of mathematical concepts. Mathematics deals with abstract concepts, such as the concept of set. However, such concepts are the outcome of a complex historical, formal, and philosophical development. New issues arising in the analysis of a concept – such as the search for new axioms for the concept of set – call for a constant reassessment of its genealogy. The project will investigate all three aspects of the genealogy of mathematical concepts. 

  • Participating universities: King's College London, University of Pisa, University of Vienna, University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Carlo Nicolai, King's College London
  • Budget awarded: 
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Building a New Generation of Young Researchers to tackle climate issues and air quality

We want to form a new generation of young researchers (YR) to better understand the aerosol formation, a key issue for air quality and climate. We will conduct preliminary research activities to explore the influence of water on atmospheric pollutants such as methyl phenols in relation to aerosol formation, and to integrate these two previously separate fields of research in climate science. In our project we will mix chemistry, physics and environmental sciences, combining quantum chemistry calculations, molecular physics, high resolution spectroscopy, aerosol formation and simulation chamber expertises to answer fundamental questions.

  • Participating universities: Université Paris Cité, Aarhus University, King's College London
  • Project promoter: Isabelle Kleiner, Université Paris Cité
  • Budget awarded: 
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Consumption Reduction to Induce Social and Environmental Sustainability

The acceleration of climate change necessitates a reduction in consumption by Western consumers. However, appealing to individuals to change their consumption habits does not always lead to positive results. Many people tend to reject the idea of consumption reduction and may even exhibit hostile behavior. Therefore, it is important to understand how people react to calls for reduced consumption, who is willing to make voluntary changes, and who may exhibit reactant behavior. However, research in this area is lacking when it comes to considering consumption reduction in a social context. Thus, the objective of our research project is to better understand the social dimension of consumption reduction. We propose that consumer responses to the call to reduce consumption can be driven by an egosystem or an ecosystem. The egosystem represents a self-centered perspective in which an individual focuses on their own needs and feelings. On the other hand, the ecosystem represents a more interconnected way of functioning in which individuals consider their relationship to others and the environment. Our research project aims to investigate how these different perspectives influence how individuals respond to calls to reduce consumption in Austria, Denmark, and Serbia.

  • Participating universities: University of Vienna, Aarhus University, University of Belgrade
  • Project promoter: Arnd Florack, University of Vienna
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Federated Learning for multi-center AI research in Dentistry

The primary objective of this multicenter research project is to harness the power of federated learning to enhance the development of diagnostic AI tools for dental imaging. By bringing together dental institutions and associated researchers, we aim to create a collaborative ecosystem that advances the accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility of dental radiographic diagnoses. Specifically, our project aims to:

  1. Develop a federated learning framework for dental radiography that allows multiple institutions to collaboratively train AI models without sharing sensitive patient data.
  2. Design and optimize AI algorithms for the automatic detection, classification and segmentation of dental anatomy and pathology. 
  3. Evaluate the performance of federated learning models against centralized models.
  • Participating universities: Aarhus University, UCLouvain, University of Oslo
  • External partners: Ludwig Maximilian, University of Munich
  • Project promoter: Ruben Pauwels, Aarhus University
  • Budget awarded: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

Co-creating Cultural Competency Education – Transcending multilingualism and multiculturalism

This project aims to 1) build a cultural competency co-creation consortium across four Circle U institutions 2) in order to co-create an innovative online interactive module on cultural competency. The collaboration may lead to the future development of an MA programme and research initiatives. Co-applicants include academics, e-learning developers and students from four countries. CitizensUK as a non-academic partner will also contribute to the co-creation and provide consultancy. 
Cultural competency (CC) is a core value at KCL’s vision for internationalisation, and an essential professional quality for the future workforce that will serve increasingly diverse societies around the globe. King’s Cultural Competency Unit (CCU) is a new strategic establishment, responsible for developing CC education and research in order to support King’s internationalisation agenda, which is also shared by other Circle U institutions. Therefore, the consortium we propose to establish will offer an important international network to enable a collaborative and co-creative approach to CC education and research. This bespoke Level 6 credited CC module will make an immediate contribution to education. It will be available firstly to the partner institutions and Citizens UK. However, other organisations may find it useful.

  • Participating universities: King's College London, University of Pisa, University of Belgrade, Aarhus University
  • Project promoter: Shuangyu Li, King's College London
  • Budget awarded: 10,000 €
  • Project period: 1 December 2023 – 30 November 2024

The Sustainable Change-Makers Programme

We equip students working in multidisciplinary and international teams to become sustainable change-makers. Using critical thinking approach and flipped classroom method, students learn more specifically to identify and critically evaluate sustainable innovation issues within various environments, utilizing a wide range of techniques, concepts and models, and then come up with and present innovative solutions and apply competitive strategies using an entrepreneurial mindset.

  • Participating universities: Université Paris Cité, Aarhus University, University of Oslo, University of Belgrade, King's College London
  • Project promoter: Amélie Jacquemin, UCLouvain
  • Budget awarded: 20.000 €
  • Project period: 5 October – 14 December 2022

News from the project:

How to interpret global health curricula: a survey across nine European universities

Due to their truly intersectional character, topics related to global health are being taught in a variety of disciplines, using differing intellectual approaches, and against historical backdrops usually pertinent to national historiographies. In our project we shall analyse and discern communalities and differences in the teaching of Global Health against the matrix of academic settings, cultural practices, and historical traditions, namely that of previous colonial traditions.

In the first place we are going to map and analyse global health topics integrated in medical curricula and in other disciplines along the methodological lines previously established at Charité – Berlin (see Schuster et al., 2020).

  • Participating universities: All nine partner universities
  • Project promoter: Pascal Grosse, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Budget awarded: 18.038,46 €
  • Project period: January – December 2023

Impactful Democracy Scholarship: Jumpstarting collaboration between King’s College London and the University of Belgrade

The aim of this project is to jumpstart collaboration between University of Belgrade - Faculty of Political Science and King’s College London (KCL) in the framework of the Circle U. in the field of democracy and democratisation. In particular, the two institutions aim to achieve the following goals: First, to explore collaboration in the field of knowledge transfer on how to achieve greater policy impact in the field of democracy and democratisation. Here, the two institutions will learn from each other how to translate academic research into policy impact but also jointly explore new avenues for impactful democracy research. Secondly, the two institutions aim to establish jointly-organized public-events series in the field of democracy and democratisation. These events will aim to draw upon the cutting-edge research in the field of democracy and democratisation in order to revive a wider public debate on the dangers of on-going democratic erosion worldwide but also innovative ways of rejuvenating democracies and making them more resilient in the 21st century.

  • Participating universities: King's College London and University of Belgrade
  • Project promoter: Nemanja Dzuverovic, University of Belgrade
  • Awarded budget: 5.153,85 €
  • Project period: January – December 2023

Democratic principles, tax administrations and citizens’ involvement

The project aims at developing comparative interdisciplinary methodology between law and political science – with inputs from other disciplines (behavioral economics, sociology) – to analyze how national administration (tax authorities) contribute to the strengthening of democratic values and principles (the constitutional principles aiming at protecting taxpayer rights) in their relationship with citizens and other stakeholders, such as lawmakers.

  • Participating universities: UCLouvain and University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Edoardo Traversa, UCLouvain
  • External partners: Belgian and Norwegian Tax Authorities
  • Awarded budget: 5.153,84 €
  • Project period: 

Circle U. Tax Forum

Climate Hub "Happy Hour Events"

The overall objective of this seed-funding initiative is to strengthen the partnership between Circle U. units within the “Climate Change Knowledge Hub”. We  jointly organize a series of scientific events referred to as ‘The Circle U. Climate Knowledge Hub, Happy Hour Events (HHE)’. A HHE is a short scientific event (typically lasting no more than 3 hours), consisting in two keynote lectures (one from the natural sciences and one from the human science domain), followed by a debate, a set of small pitch presentations and a final debate. The HHE is targeted to young researchers and doctoral students of the different partners. The participation in an HHE is certified by the organisers and can be included in the participants’ portfolio of research training.

  • Participating universities: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Université Paris Cité, University of Belgrade and UCLouvain
  • Project promoter: Marnik Vanclooster, UCLouvain
  • Awarded budget: 10.307,69 €
  • Project period: September 2022 – October 2023

Corruption, State Capture and Anti-Corruption Polices and Institution in Serbia

The call to establish Independent Anti-Corruption Agencies (IACAs) first appeared on the international agenda in the late 1990s, and since have become a condition for membership of the European Union. Successes are few and there is no consensus in the literature of which type of institution and policies work. The project addresses this gap by questioning under which conditions anti-corruption institutions and policies in Serbia contribute to good governance. A second goal of the project is to contribute to talent development by embedding student-led research. 

  • Participating universities: Aarhus University
  • Project promoter: Lars Johannsen, Aarhus University
  • Awarded budget: 2.576,92 €
  • Project period: October 2022 – October 2023

People, Populism and Democracy: Toward a Socio-historical Approach

The project "People, Populism and Democracy: Toward a Socio-historical Approach" is a collective publication project, destined to become a scientific reference, which will be given to a major English-language publisher for publication in June 2024. Composed of about fifteen texts, the book will bring together the main international specialists on the issue of populism.

  • Participating universities: Université Paris Cité
  • Project promoter: Federico Tarragoni, Université Paris Cité
  • Awarded budget: 2.576,92 €
  • Project period: 

Democracies in digital news markets: Tackling information challenges

This project will develop two specific activities: a three-days Master class dedicated to the issue of (mis)trust in news media and disinformation, hosted by the UCLouvain, and a research seminar (four sessions) addressing these questions from various disciplinary perspectives. These two activities are built as a first step in a mid-term project establishing an interdisciplinary knowledge hub on the interplay between the functioning of democracies and the news markets.

  • Participating universities: UCLouvain
  • Project promoter: Olivier Standaert, UCLouvain
  • External partners: Anthony Bellanger (International Federation of Journalists), Lutz Kinkel (ECPMF)
  • Awarded budget: 2.576,92 €
  • Project period: 

Conceptualising and operationalising ‘sustainable education’ (COSE)

The research project COSE focused on how the concept of ‘sustainable education’ is being conceptualized and translated into practice in higher education. It did this by conducting a review of the literature and teasing out implicit assumptions through 22 interviews with members of relevant international and national organizations, university leaders, academics and students; mapping the different arguments around sustainable education. The wider aim is to make a central contribution to Circle U.’s overall effort to create and promote education for a sustainable world by creating a conceptual basis for the work of the Circle U. Think and Do Tank on the Future of Higher Education. While the resulting report discusses different meanings of sustainable education and argues for innovative educational practice, the project was also conducted as an example of master students and PhD candidates being co-researchers. Both the literature review and the interviews were conducted by Circle U. co-researchers from seven Circle U. universities who were guided by six Academic chairs from the Think and Do Tank.

  • Participating universities: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Project promoter: Anne Enderwitz, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  • Awarded budget: 10.000 €
  • Project period: February 2022 – April 2023

Lights of Tuscany 2023

Lights of Tuscany 2023, organized by the Italian Association of Physics Students, gives the possibility to STEM students from across the world to visit and learn the most recent research conducted in Photonics and Material Physics. Through conferences and visits to the laboratories of Pisa and Florence, students can approach the researcher’s life and discover what are the current fields of study in the physics of light. With its wide application from biophysics to electronics to quantum computing, being able to look at the best centers of research is an amazing opportunity for master’s students, opening many paths and giving many ideas for the development of newer and sustainable technologies.

  • Participating universities: University of Pisa, University of Belgrade and Aarhus University
  • Project promoter: Giulio Carotta, University of Pisa
  • Awarded budget: 2500 €
  • Project period: 28 April – 2 May 2023

Lights of Tuscany 2023

Listening to the song of melting glaciers

Svalbard, an island at the heart of the Arctic, is witnessing temperatures rising 4 to 7 times faster than the global average. This rapid temperature change has a wide range of impacts and cascading effects at local (e.g., melting glaciers, avalanches, landslides) and global scales (e.g., sea level rise, ocean circulation). In this project we focus on Kongsvegen, a glacier showing clear signs of collapse. We use an innovative approach based on seismic methods and machine-learning to investigate the movement of the glacier from its surface crevasses to its core, 350m below the surface. Our goal is to understand the transition from a stable to an unstable regime. The changing cryosphere has far-reaching implications and we are also working to communicate our findings beyond academia to raise awareness about the impact of climate change on our world.

  • Participating universities: Université Paris Cité, UCLouvain and the University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Ugo Nanni, University of Oslo
  • Awarded budget: 9.955 €
  • Project period: 3 April – 29 September 2023

Listening to the song of melting glaciers

Occupational health in the EU: an interdisciplinary analysis of health inequities within the labour market

The research aims to evaluate whether the European Union's actions effectively reduce health disparities in the labour market and promote European integration. This will be achieved through an interdisciplinary approach examining how the EU and its member states (MS) collaborate to address health disparities in the labour market, focusing on migration and social class. The analysis will be carried out within a complex framework that distinguishes different levels of involvement from European, national, and societal actors, ranging from limited European competencies in health policies to the possibility of enacting legislation on safety and health at work. This multi-faceted framework poses numerous questions that cut across several research fields and will be explored using an interdisciplinary approach. To gain practical insights, the research will also include semi-structured qualitative interviews with officials from EU actors, MS representatives, NGOs, and labour union representatives, in addition to desk research. These interactions aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the roles of the Union, MSs, and civil society in addressing health disparities in the labour market.

  • Participating universities: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, UCLouvain, Università di Pisa and the University of Vienna
  • Project promoter: Ruben Della Pia, University of Pisa
  • Awarded budget: 10.000 €
  • Project period: 1 January – 30 September 2023

The HELA Project’s Outcome (unipi.it)

Normative Political Theory Cluster on Climate Change

Climate change and climate policies are often analyzed through the lens of climate science and economics. Yet, they also raise crucial questions in terms of ethics and political theory. Our project aims at jumpstarting collaboration in research and education on the normative questions raised by climate change policies, starting with four universities: Aarhus University, King’s College London, UCLouvain and the University of Oslo. It involves short research stays between partner universities, a series of work-in progress online research seminars, and exploring the prospects for an elective online course on climate ethics for PPE students at UCLouvain and University of Oslo.

  • Participating universities: Aarhus University, King’s College London, UCLouvain, and the University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Axel Gosseries, UCLouvain
    Co-promoter: Pierre André, UCLouvain
  • Awarded budget: 9.460 €
  • Project period: 1 January - 30 September 2023

Exchange of experiences around the start of study and student integration

This is a student-led project with a focus on student integration when students start at a new university. Here, three students who work with student integration at each of their respective universities meet to present how student integration is solved at their university, so that we can exchange experiences and learn from each other.

  • Participating universities: Aarhus University, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the University of Oslo
  • Project promoter: Pål Henrik Thorsteinsen, University of Oslo
  • Awarded budget:  1.500 €
  • Project period: March–July 2023

Building a research network to reconcile the taxonomy of the Bacillus cereus group (CereNET)

A robust microbial taxonomy has profound implications for understanding pathogenicity, and effectively setting appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks. Thus, objectively delimiting microbial species boundaries remains an important challenge and becomes urgent when unresolved taxonomy threatens food security and public health. An example of this is the taxonomic situation for the Bacillus cereus group. This bacterial group includes the opportunistic pathogen B. cereus, frequently implicated in food poisoning and food spoilage worldwide, Bacillus anthracis, the cause of the lethal disease anthrax, and Bacillus thuringiensis, an insect pathogen which is the world’s most widely used biological pesticide. Over the last decade, 23 additional species have been proposed in the group based on numerous genetic analyses, leaving the B. cereus group taxonomy in collapse. However, the B. cereus group “species” definition and multiple parallel taxonomic proposals are causing, at present, a potentially dangerous confusion with regards to regulatory issues governing the group members. This project aims at defining a framework for the taxonomy of the group, that accommodates the phylogenetic approach and reconciles the contribution of mobile genetic elements, while still retaining some of the clinical, environmental, and socioeconomic aspects associated with the classical species.

  • Participating universities: Aarhus University, University of Oslo and UCLouvain
  • Project promoter: Annika Gillis, UCLouvain
  • Awarded budget: 9.550 €
  • Project period: 1 January - 30 September 2023

Current use of Airway Clearance Techniques in hOsptitalS – CACTOS

People with a common respiratory disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often experience chest infections that require hospitalisation. Airway clearance techniques are ways and devices that health care professionals and patients use to clear someone’s lungs from phlegm (sputum). However, the airway clearance techniques that are used in different countries can greatly vary. Our universities aim to work together in establishing an understanding on what is currently used worldwide and facilitate optimum care, independent of regional changes.

  • Participating universities: King’s College London, Aarhus University, UCLouvain
  • Project promoter: Dr Arietta Spinou, King’s College London
  • Awarded budget: 10.000 €
  • Project period: January 2023 - September 2023

Rethinking the Soviet experiment: Ukrainian and Russian perspectives (RSE)

The Soviet experiment pretended to offer opportunities for modernization and nation-building, some of which were put to use creatively by artists and scholars in Ukraine and in Russia as well as also in other Soviet republics. From today's perspective and against the backdrop of the attack on Ukraine, these processes are once again subject to reconsideration.

The proposed project “Rethinking the Soviet experiment: Ukrainian and Russian perspectives” (RSE) brings together scholars of 20th c. Soviet culture and society who had to flee the ongoing war in Ukraine and its catastrophic aftermath. RSE will be organized as a cooperation between the University of Oslo, the Humboldt University in Berlin, and the University of Belgrade and aims to provide opportunities of networking and intellectual exchange for Ukrainian, Russian, and Ukrainian-Russian scholars currently based in Europe.

RSE will convene two workshops designed to serve as platforms for networking, exchange, and scholarly conversation among researchers working in the fields of Soviet and Post-Soviet society and culture who are currently refugees or exiles, unable to return to their countries. The workshops aim to provide a base for developing new ways of thinking about the recent history and the future of the humanities in Eastern Europe.

  • Participating universities: University of Oslo, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the University of Belgrade
  • Project promoters: Boris Maslov and Vera Faber at the University of Oslo
  • Awarded budget: 9.975 €
  • Project period: January–October 2023