TransJudFare deals with two challenges for welfare states in the European Union (EU): the transnationalization of citizenship and welfare rights and the judicialization of politics. European case law significantly broadens the eligibility of non-economically active EU nationals to non-contributory welfare services. Yet while these rights and their potential are widely discussed, there has been no systematic study of their actual impact on member states? welfare states, the gap that this project aims to fill. TransJudFare focuses on social assistance measures and study grants and asks how member states respond to European case law at the level of lower courts, the administration, and the legislature. Teams of political scientists and lawyers in four member states will map changes in five western EU member states according to a unified approach, joining forces in the analyses along different dimensions. Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK are chosen as they are all targeted by migration flows but differ in important respects such as welfare state type and judicial system. By mapping and explaining reactions to case law, TransJudFare will enrich the political science literature on Europeanization, and law scholars? analyses of the workings of the integrated European court system. It will give a systematic account of the relevance of judicialization and EU citizenship rights for member states? welfare state reforms. TransJudFare cuts across several core themes outlined in the ?Welfare State Futures? call, addressing the question of social citizenship, increased heterogeneity among EU member states, the new politics of the welfare state, and potential shifts of welfare responsibility to the European level.

Mutualisms - cooperative interactions between species - are central to the survival and reproduction of most organisms on earth. Despite their ubiquity, explaining the evolutionary persistence of mutualisms remains one of the greatest challenges for evolutionary biology. The first problem is that selfish individuals can exploit mutualisms, reaping benefits while paying no costs. So, why cooperate at all? A second problem is that the costs and benefits of cooperation depend on a suite of external factors, which vary hugely over time and space. This context-dependence makes it difficult to develop and test predictive theory. Although scientists have developed approaches to test the short-term responses of mutualisms to environmental changes, we lack the tools to predict the long-term evolutionary consequences of context changes. In a series of manipulative, multi-generational experiments, I will test how context modifies evolutionary selection for cooperation. I will utilize the arbuscular mycorrhizal mutualism, arguably the world?s most abundant mutualism and responsible for massive global nutrient transfer, to ask: (i) Partner Context: Do hosts consistently choose the best partner over evolutionary time?(ii) Resource Context: Does high resource availability select for non-cooperative behavior?(iii) Network Context: Can species that eat fungi be co-opted by plant hosts to consume non-cooperative fungal partners? My work is possible through the development and exploitation of novel methodologies: stable isotope probing to track the allocation of host resources to diverse fungal assemblages, root-organ cultures to experimentally evolve fungal genotypes in varying resource conditions, and rhizosphere microcosms to follow population dynamics of non-cooperative mutualists as a food source for fungivores. Mutualisms are evolving in a rapidly changing world - there is a critical need for research linking environmental changes with the evolutionary dynamics of these widespread partnerships. Can mutualisms adapt? My research will provide crucial insights into how ecological context alters the evolution of cooperation.

This innovative project adopts a holistic approach to understanding the dynamics of inequality across the life-course. We analyze how education, labor market and family choices interact to structure accumulated advantage and disadvantage over the life course. Using panel data from five EU countries for over 20 years and cutting-edge statistical methods, including multichannel sequence analysis, we take a comparative approach to exploring how cross-country economic and institutional differences affect inequality outcomes and life courses. Early adulthood is a crucial period of transition where people face multiple choices - about education, jobs, partnerships and childbearing – determining future life. We focus on key turning points, examine their interrelation and explore the cumulative impact on individual and group inequalities. Focusing on transitions during early adulthood, into education, jobs and family formation, we address the following project call themes: “Labor market and family trajectories and the growth of inequality,” “Early adult transitions into tertiary education, vocational training and economic activity” and “Early life influence and outcomes.” The research team of the PI, four CIs, postdoctoral fellows and PGR students will meet regularly and provides appropriate leadership, skills, and capacity building. Academic impact will be achieved by going beyond the state-of-the-art, the research producing new empirical findings and contributing to theory building. Potential for policy impact is high. We will establish early contact with key national and EU stakeholders and engage through meetings, the media, research briefings and social media.

This project examines the role of foreign large scale land acquisitions in shaping development, conservation and sustainability practices in Madagascar, Ethiopia and Uganda. The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa?s arable land, sparking new international debates about land grabbing. While proponents argue that land deals lead to economic growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection, detractors point to livelihood losses, cultural changes, land dispossession, and environmental degradation. However, an empirical basis upon which to prove or disprove such assertions is lacking. This project aims to fill this gap by generating an analytical and theoretical framework to analyse the global drivers and local impacts of large-scale mining in Madagascar, foreign food production in Ethiopia, REDD initiatives in Madagascar, and Chinese investments in Ugandas Lake Victoria Free Trade Zone. The project integrates an interdisciplinary (history, anthropology, geography, GIS/Spatial Analysis, political science, ecological economics, linguistics) team of experts active in land studies. Results will be made available and discussed with all relevant stakeholders (smallholders, NGOs, government officials, policy-makers, private sector). Findings should reveal various local realities and implementation processes of land deals thus far lacking in the literature. The research has four aims. First, we will analyse the global actors, networks and interests (e.g. political, economic, social, cultural, environmental) driving foreign land acquisitions, examining the role of the state, neoliberal reforms and donor interests in facilitating land access. Second, a grounded stakeholder analysis will detail local impacts, perceptions and responses to land deals. Third, we will map, through our theoretical model, zones of intermediality, the ontological grids of (inter)national - local stakeholder encounters where diverse ideologies, discourses and practices of land use and valuation are mediated. Fourth, we will use this model to capture commonalities between stakeholders and potential areas of contestation. The four aims are anchored in two phases. Phase I (aims 1, 2) will construct an inventory of stakeholder land claims and intangible/material valuations of land (e.g. heritage, source of identity, biodiversity, food security). Phase II (aims 3, 4) will define zones of intermediality where various cultural paradigms and land claims meet on the same playing field, and imperatives of local cultural references, practices and discourses encounter those of external actors. We posit that this model will neutrally unravel the complexities of stakeholder interaction whilst identifying conflict resolution strategies to mitigate or resolve adverse impacts of land deals.

This innovative project adopts a holistic approach to understanding the dynamics of inequality across the life-course. We analyze how education, labor market and family choices interact to structure accumulated advantage and disadvantage over the life course. Using panel data from five EU countries for over 20 years and cutting-edge statistical methods, including multichannel sequence analysis, we take a comparative approach to exploring how cross-country economic and institutional differences affect inequality outcomes and life courses. Early adulthood is a crucial period of transition where people face multiple choices - about education, jobs, partnerships and childbearing – determining future life. We focus on key turning points, examine their interrelation and explore the cumulative impact on individual and group inequalities. Focusing on transitions during early adulthood, into education, jobs and family formation, we address the following project call themes: “Labor market and family trajectories and the growth of inequality,” “Early adult transitions into tertiary education, vocational training and economic activity” and “Early life influence and outcomes.” The research team of the PI, four CIs, postdoctoral fellows and PGR students will meet regularly and provides appropriate leadership, skills, and capacity building. Academic impact will be achieved by going beyond the state-of-the-art, the research producing new empirical findings and contributing to theory building. Potential for policy impact is high. We will establish early contact with key national and EU stakeholders and engage through meetings, the media, research briefings and social media.