The effects of global warming are particularly pronounced in drylands, leading to their fast degradation and hampering the capacity to support active life. In an era of fast desertification, DRYLIFE seeks to identify those conditions that determine the dry limit for microbial life in the US Western drylands where a temperature increase up to 3°C associated to increases in aridity is expected by the end of the century. DRYLIFE will answer the key question using endolithic communities, simple and stable microbial communities dwelling inside rocks ubiquitous in drylands worldwide, as paradigmatic model system. In hyper-arid regions, in particular, once the threshold of dry tolerability for plants and soil microbes is crossed, endoliths represent the latest possibility for life, regulating water retention and nutrient cycles and creating positive feedback for ecological successions. DRYLIFE will be carried out in leading US and EU research laboratories by undertaking an interdisciplinary approach to address fundamental questions about how tiny microbes may have global-scale impact. This bottom-up project will combine amplicon sequencing, shotgun metagenomics, micro-environmental monitoring, geomicrobiology, and machine learning. Data generated will be translated, for the first time, into predictive models to better understand endolithic communities functioning and adaptations under global change, addressing a key knowledge gap. While my previous pioneering studies on Antarctic endoliths laid the basis for DRYLIFE, this Action will broaden my research and training skills and widen my professional networks, leading to a critical career development boost as an independent researcher. DRYLIFE will likely have the potential to improve projection of future climate impact on drylands, help tackle a timely global challenge of outmost importance to the Horizon Europe program, inform the next-generation of drylands ecologists, and, finally, provide evidence for policy makers.

In the Mediterranean areas, Citrus is an important agricultural crop, with about a production of 10 million tons/year. Citrus production is seriously threatened by Phytophthora diseases. Chemicals are widly used to control Phytophthora diseases. However, due to their negative impacts on environment, humans and the development of resistant races, there is an urgent need for biological alternatives. WaBioNaPhy aims to formulate new biofungicides (bio-AlgNPs), which combine agriculture waste -nanotechnology, essential oils (EOs) and fungal metabolites to protect Citrus from Phytophthoras. In the current project, the biomass of agricultural wastes will be used as resources for the extraction of EOs. Different extraction methods will be optimized for EOs yield and chemical traits. Alginate nanoparticles (AlgNPs) charged with EOs and fungal metabolites will be produced and tested for Phytophthoras control in in vitro and in vivo assays. The Environmental and health impacts of the Bio-AlgNPs will be analysed. SLU ( secondment period) will participate in the implement of the proposal. WaBioNaPhy will have a great scientific, economic and social impact. The proposal fits with the European policy for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. It will impact the well-being and health of citizens by providing healthy food and soil, which are benefits improved by the European Green Deal. The proposal perfectly fits in UN Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), Goal 15 (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss).

Advances uncovering the links between language and cognition, along with recent research in ecolinguistics, have revealed that speech communities may conceptualise landscape features and spatial coordinates in different ways based on culture-specific categories, beliefs, and customs. Core lexical items for landscape elements, also embedded in place names, may reflect diverging mental images, worldviews, and knowledge systems. LandVoICE compares and contrasts landscape vocabulary in selected languages of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and neighbouring non-Iranian languages spoken in two distinct regions of Iran: the Zagros mountains and the Southern desert/semi-desert. The project combines approaches in Iranian philology and lexicology with analytic methods inspired by ethnophysiography, an interdisciplinary framework for studying culture-bound human cognition of the world we inhabit. LandVoICE supplements data assembled from existing databases and published literature with fresh materials collected through collaborative research with local communities. Among its key objectives is the development of culturally appropriate technological tools (mapping systems, ontology-based GIS) to visualise research findings and account for local landscape-related knowledge, engage communities in ecosystem conservation, and support the preservation of the intangible heritage associated with landscapes. Qualified supervision of Prof. Ela Filippone (Tuscia University, Viterbo, Italy: beneficiary), Prof. Erik Anonby (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada: outgoing host) and Prof. Matteo De Chiara (INALCO, Paris, France: secondment host), in synergy with research partners and training providers at host institutions, will allow the researcher to develop core scientific and technical skills in open science and digital cartography. The MSCA experience will prepare the fellow to compete for a tenure-track position and expand her career prospects within and beyond academia.

FoodStore investigates food storage systems in the Northern Fertile Crescent (western inner Syria, south eastern Turkey, northern Iraq) during the late fifth, fourth and third millennia BC, in order to define the relationship between storage practices, socio-economic complexity and ecological conditions. During these millennia, the area experienced different trajectories leading to the emergence of complex societies, and the storage of food staples was central to these developments. The project has a multi-level design that combines the collection of published data, with the direct study of storage facilities from key archaeological sites. These features will be investigated through a combination of traditional macro-archaeological methods with micro-archaeological techniques from applied geological, chemical, and biological disciplines: microstratigraphy, Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy, and phytolith analysis. Key objectives for FoodStore are the establishment of a robust analytical protocol to investigate food storage practices in archaeological contexts; to develop an interdisciplinary framework to tackle issues connected to food preservation; to contribute to the collaboration between archaeology, anthropology and natural sciences; and to enhance the relevance of archaeology to support traditional rural heritage and food management practices.