Previously pristine, the Western Central Africa and Western Siberian Lowlands are now increasingly impacted by accelerated global changes with the predictable degradation of soil and groundwater systems, which could lead to potentially huge emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and to vast carbon (C) and nutrient exports from land to oceans. Both regions are characterized by mosaics of open (savanna/tundra) and forest vegetation, that show climate-induced, fire-mediated dynamics suggesting tipping points between contrasted vegetation types. Moreover, two soil classes, podzols and anthrosols, prone to C sequestration but fragile, are common to both regions but little-recognized: their impact on C storage, export and emissions need to be better studied. VULCAR-FATE embraces 1) an approach using multi-satellite data calibrated and validated by ground measurements, and contrasted with information from local knowledge, to monitor the water balance, land use/cover changes and C sequestration by vegetation biomass, and to constrain numerical models of geological processes and water flow, and 2) a hydrological continuum approach taking advantage of existing research stations to quantify and model the export of dissolved and/or particulate organic and inorganic C and other nutrients, and subsequently C sequestration and GHG emissions. The stake of the combined local and regional approaches is to predict the ecosystem's state for the next 30-100 years and to develop in cooperation with local stakeholders a set of recommendations on mitigation of the negative climate-induced and globalization effects. Our interdisciplinary public-private partnership (research organisations, businesses, governmental agencies, NGOs and communities) will join forces and intelligence to design scenarios, decision support data/tools and sustainable management options, and will implement capacity building activities for young scientists, land managers and decision makers. Our transdisciplinary work will thus inform management decisions and policies, and benefit other ANR and EU-ERC projects.

Understanding climate systems requires knowledge of climatic effects on C cycling and greenhouse gas dynamics in coupled land-water-atmospheric systems, and in-turn, how these feedback into the climate system. A major knowledge gap is to what extent C released from permafrost soils is transported, processed and emitted as CO2 and CH4 in inland waters vs. exported to downstream costal and ocean waters. Lakes and streams at high latitudes release significant amounts of CO2 and CH4 to the atmosphere. These fluxes are largely controlled by climate dependent factors (temperature, wind, precipitation) and hydrological flowpaths to water bodies, either directly or via its regulation of the terrestrial production and export of C6,7. Of particular importance is the organic C released from thawing permafrost which could largely be metabolized leading to increased CO2 and CH4 emissions. C emission from lakes and streams in areas of discontinuous permafrost has been shown to be comparable to terrestrial atmospheric C exchange and to exceed downstream C export, implying an important role of inland waters in the C cycle. Despite these advances in our understanding of C fluxes in lakes and streams there is a fundamental knowledge gap of climate impact on C transport and cycling in inland waters at high latitudes, and especially when attempting to extrapolate and predict large scale patterns and future trends. This is particularly true for the vast areas of boreal and arctic Russia/Siberia. This project proposes a comparative study of lake-stream networks across a climate gradient (boreal-arctic) in western Siberia (Fig. 2) covering a large range of permafrost conditions (absence-sporadic-discontinuous-continuous). The project includes (1) field surveys of CO2 and CH4 concentrations in approximately 50 lakes and 50 streams, and a more (2) detailed quantification of annual lateral and vertical C fluxes in selected catchments. Methods include a combination of manual and continuous measurements of dissolved organic and inorganic C, CO2, CH4 and gas transfer velocity (k) using chamber and logger techniques. Isotopic tracer (2H, 18O) sampling and modelling will allow hydrological transit times in each catchment and aquatic network to be estimated, and stream flow to be separated into different geographic sources of flow contribution within catchments16,17. Bioassay experiments18 will be used to assess temperature dependency in degradation rates, and in total bioavailability, of river DOC across the gradient. Additional measurements include depth, pH, nutrients, water temperature, wind, and discharge for each region. Most of the equipment needed is already available in the group. The project will have access to established field sites, digital maps of the region and to laboratory facilities at Tomsk State University, Russia. The C footprint of the project will be minimized as far as possible by following the guidelines provided by JPI Climate website for travel, meetings, office and infrastructure. For this project it is of particular importance to minimize travel by virtual meetings, by having local staff for sampling, by planning meetings to minimize travel distances and to enable use of night trains.

The Soviet Gulag was one of the most awesome expressions of penal power in world history. Yet, thirty years after the end of the Soviet Union research into punishment in the former Soviet Union is limited. Whereas criminology as a discipline is burgeoning in North America and Western Europe, in the former Soviet Union varying incarceration rates and the social and cultural legacies of the Gulag's continent-sized system of punishment has not been systematically studied. Yet, the region presents a number of puzzles that touch on our wider understanding of penal policy, cultures of punishment and societal attitudes. We describe these puzzles below. To explore them, we have chosen to compare Russia and Kazakhstan - the two biggest countries in the former Soviet Union that held the most Gulag sites during the Soviet period. Firstly, how do we map and explain change in prison rates and conditions across the post Soviet region? How can we understand why, since the year 2000 and against all predictions, many prison populations across the former Soviet Union have gone into decline? What political economic factors might explain this? How did policy makers in Russia and Kazakhstan go about constructing a penal policy and what shaped their preferences? What might it tell us about the driving factors that can explain decarceration in other contexts? Secondly, what do Russians and Kazakhs think about state-sanctioned punishment? Many political scientists believe that the rise of strong leaders and authoritarianism in Russia is a result of political culture. On this view, Russian attitudes - forged by history, geography and culture - favour particular undemocratic governance forms. Yet, despite the size and scale of the Gulag we know very little about how Russians or Kazakhs think about punishment, its predictability and severity, and how this mediates the relationship of citizens with their states and what citizens want from prisons today. Thirdly, how is punishment constructed culturally in products such as TV shows, films, songs and prison museums? How do Russians and Kazakhs consume these products and what meanings are conveyed through them? Theorists have debated the ways in which punishment is also a cultural practice. Despite the fact that one of the legacies of the Gulag has been a visual and musical culture that has become popularized in the present day, there has been no systematic study of this in the former Soviet Union, still less on the various prison museums that have emerged there. This is an important question as how citizens spectate on prisons and punishment often from afar can help to maintain a system of power. In investigating these questions, this research project aims to produce a unique, in depth study of the construction of punishment through state policy, societal attitudes and cultural forms in Russia and Kazakhstan. The project utilizes mixed methodologies taken from across academic disciplines. The methods include a social survey, interviews with policy makers, documentary analysis and desk-based statistical analysis as well as in situ cultural exploration at museum sites and interactions with cultural consumers. The research speaks to important topics about the nature of punishment, its embeddedness in society, culture and the economy and how this impacts upon prison rates and prison conditions. The project is high impact, generating unique data on: prison population trends, a documentary film on penal spectatorship, a large survey database on attitudes to punishment and focus groups for others to use and analyse. The project works with a number of key stakeholders who wish to better understand the use and meaning of prison in Russia and Kazakhstan today. These include government bodies such as the general prosecutor's office of Kazakhstan, national NGOs in the post-Soviet region, and international organizations such as the Council of Europe.

This EURIZON project proposal is about European scientific and technical collaboration in the field of research infrastructures (RIs), and it includes in addition a special focus on coordination and support measures dedicated to support Ukrainian scientists and Ukrainian RIs as well as strengthening the RI landscape in Widening Countries. EURIZON is in fact the second part, or phase, of a four-year Horizon 2020 project that started in February 2020, under the name CREMLINplus. With the war against Ukraine that has begun in February 2022, the project was confronted with an absolutely extreme case of force majeure: the home country of 10 consortium participants – the Russian Federation – has invaded its neighbour country Ukraine, and has thus brought a devastating war into the heart of Europe. At the time when writing and submitting this proposal, the war is ongoing, and an end is not yet visible. The second phase of the project will keep a very high ambition, and will go beyond the current state of the art of collaboration around RIs, that has been already achieved in the first phase. The project will operate in two directions: (1) Technology development: the project allows European collaborative excellent teams to develop and deliver finest, new cutting-edge technologies for European RI including ESFRI landmarks and for RI upgrade projects currently underway, such as 4th-generation synchrotron projects, or for the instrumentation at modern neutron sources; (2) Strengthening RI landscape in Ukraine and in the Widening Countries: a number of coordination and support measures has been introduced in the second phase of the project to specifically support individual displaced scientists from Ukraine, to train RI staff at RI from Ukraine and Widening Countries, and to explore and develop science diplomacy measures dedicated to support the reconstruction of the Ukrainian RI landscape. The 27 European participants of the project have come together to build the broad and balanced consortium. They are the relevant entities in the domain of research infrastructures in Europe, and thus provide the necessary strength, commitment and power to implement the project plan.