The language of crisis has become ubiquitous in contemporary sustainability discourse, associated with the proliferation of terms such as 'climate emergency'; 'tipping points'; 'catastrophic threat' and 'societal collapse'. While the political effects, and governance implications of crisis framings in the context of specific sustainability issues have been long recognized and critiqued, there has been little systematic attention paid to the relationship between crisis and the collective imagination more broadly. In the absence of sufficient theorising of these dynamics, there is a risk that sustainability discourse and practice becomes complicit in closing down imaginative spaces of possibility through allowing crisis thinking to dominate the map of possibilities. Empirically grounded in the context of imaginaries of agricultural transformation in the Galapagos Islands, the present project seeks to examine the ways in which crisis narratives shape imaginaries of sustainability, and with what implications. The project will bring together STS scholarship on sociotechnical imaginaries, feminist and decolonial scholarship on the politics of crisis, and insights from affect theory, with a view to deepening conceptual understanding of the relationship between narratives of crisis and imaginaries of possible futures, and contributing to academic and policy debates around 'transformations to sustainability' in Galapagos and beyond. In the tradition of sustainability action-research, the proposed project sets out to learn from and intervene in Galapagos context: to build theoretical insights with broad academic and societal relevance 'from the ground up' through detailed ethnographic fieldwork with diverse actors working to re-imagine agriculture in Galapagos at the confluence of multiple narratives of crisis; and to open up 'spaces of possibility' for imagining sustainable food futures in the archipelago.

The primary objective of the Latin-american Alliance for Capacity buildiNG in Advanced Physics (LA-CoNGA Physics) proposal is to modernize the educational platform in eight Latin-American higher education institutions (HEI) from the four countries in the Andean region (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela), using high-energy physics (HEP) as a model. The aimed modernization relies strongly on the development of an innovative e-learning platform based on low-cost open-access tools, installing connected instrumentation laboratories, a flexible problem-solving-oriented syllabus structured on modules for a one year master program and on the strengthening of cross-institutional relations among the target HEI's.We propose to build capacity in the Andean region by teaching advanced physics during a one year master/specialisation and creating a Virtual Research and Learning Community (VRLC), complemented by training opportunities at 3 leading European research centers, start-up and technology companies in the Andes and Europe, support to career development from the US. HEP is the science of understanding the smallest components of matter and the origin of the universe, looking for answers to key questions of our age. Impressive machines and detectors are needed to achieve the goals of HEP. They are based on breakthrough technologies with the potential to contribute in key areas like healthcare, big data, electronics, open-access collaborative tools, and solid ground for innovative entrepreneurs.In the past, voluntary crowdfunded efforts have been set up to have remote teaching of HEP in some of these HEI from researchers/professors at the beneficiary, i.e. the CEVALE2VE (Centro Virtual de Altos Estudios de Altas Energías in Spanish).This project proposes to create a VRLC by leveraging networks which already exist (CEVALE2VE, LatAm-EU-CERN, RedCLARA) and inexpensive, online teaching technologies. These will be made available to the country HEIs to be used in other fields.

Hepatobiliary malignancies represent a major cause of mortality globally and are uniquely aggressive in Latin America. The most common tumors are: hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) affecting young individuals in Latin America and being the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide; cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) with minimal survival upon diagnosis and largely understudied in the region; gallbladder cancer (GBC) being a rare tumor worldwide but representing the second most common cause of cancer-related death in women in Chile. Key factors related to the excessive mortality of these tumors are the lack of reliable screening methods and the complexity of diagnosis, which requires advanced imaging technology and difficult-to-access tissue. These barriers are amplified by poor accessibility present in resource-limited regions, all of which leads to tumors being diagnosed at advanced stages in which curative therapy is not an option. To overcome these barriers, we propose to: A) validate immune-related markers in serum to predict HCC in South America and evaluate factors associated to early HCC development; B) define the utility of extracellular vesicles in serum as biomarkers for diagnosis of CCA and determine genetic and infectious factors that increase risk for this cancer; and C) identify biomarkers for GBC detection and evaluate novel immune factors that affect the geographical impact of this tumor. This project advances the field by focusing on a unique approach to screen and diagnose tumors based on serum detection of biomarkers before a tumor is visible on imaging, allowing for early tumor detection in a cost effective manner that will lead to implementation of curative therapies. In addition, this project addresses modifiable risk factors for hepatobiliary tumors that could be targeted for prevention. This project will result in novel tools that are easily accessible and will dramatically reduce the burden of cancer-related mortality in Latin America.