Conquering the coronavirus replication centre Coronaviruses use infected cells to make copies of themselves that propagate infection. To replicate their genomes, coronaviruses hijack cellular membranes to build up specialized replication compartments. These work as control centres to make the process efficient and hide it from antiviral cellular defences. Recently, we discovered a unique protein complex that provides a gate in the membranes of these replication compartments. Here, we plan to decipher how this gate and the replication organelles are built and function, which will be key to devise plans to assault these viral fortresses to block virus replication and disease.

Effective policy implementation and inter-state solidarity remain elusive in migration, an area European citizens identify as a key challenge for the EU. I hypothesise that EU migration funding could contribute to addressing these problems. I will test this hypothesis through an original combination of legal and empirical methods. I will undertake a cross-policy (migration and cohesion policies) and comparative (Greece and the Netherlands) analysis of the legal design and administration modes of two types of EU funding: Migration Funds, and Structural and Investment Funds. I will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, combining theoretical concepts of EU constitutional and administrative law, such as federalism and an integrated European administration, with theories of political science, such as polycentric and multi-level governance. I will combine doctrinal legal research with empirical qualitative research, incorporating findings through semi-structured interviews with institutional and civil society experts at EU level, the Netherlands and Greece. Through an evidence-based evaluation of EU funding’s impact to steer policy implementation and realise inter-state solidarity, my research will yield proposals to reform EU migration funding. Conceptually, I will analyse how the changing nature of the European administrative system is revealed through the management of EU funding, theorising the implications of EU funding’s operationalisation modes for the nature of the EU integration project. The project will advance scientific debates on federalism, governance and public policy. Beyond the scientific community, the research will impact policy and practice. Its implementation will create intersectional synergies with societal partners (civil society, national administrations, EU institutions); evidence-based proposals for the reform of EU funding will have an impact beyond academia; and the comparative character of the research will allow policy-makers and administrators to benefit from the insight and experience of different jurisdictions. Finally, communication actions targeting public audiences will raise awareness of EU funding’s role in migration governance.

The purpose of the proposed research is (1) to investigate the co-evolution of the kinship network and the well-being of its members after parental divorce and (2) to identify detrimental and beneficial conditions affecting family members? well-being. Loyalty conflicts among affective ties, substitution mechanisms among support ties, and the multiplexity and multifunctionality of the kinship network will be studied with regard to social and physical well-being. Contextual moderations of this will be investigated for divorced and non-divorced families. Longitudinal sociometric data of complete kinship networks will be collected and analysed with recently developed methods.

The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century is arguably the most important turning point in world history. For the first time in history the standard of living for the general population started to grow consistently. However, recent research studying patterns of per capita GDP between 1300 and 1900 has shown that in Holland and Britain the classic period of the Industrial Revolution was preceded by an earlier growth spurt. Between 1300 and 1700, levels of per capita GDP had already doubled. According to economic theory this phase of pre-industrial growth should have been driven by the accumulation of physical capital, creating the foundations for technological change. The proposed project provides annual estimates of capital formation and the stock of physical capital in Britain during the period 1270-1870 and in Holland during the period 1500-1870, using the Perpetual Inventory Method. The capital stock data are combined with estimates of per capita GDP, human capital, and labour input to provide growth accounts for both countries over the very long run. These data and their analysis will underpin a new understanding of the conditions underpinning the Industrial Revolution.

Technological change and automation are disrupting labor markets in advanced democracies and rekindling fears about technological unemployment and how the future of work will be. While there is little doubt that rapid technological progress has far-reaching economic effects, its political consequences remain largely unexplored. The goal of this project is to study how technological change in the workplace contributes to ongoing deep political transformations (including the surge of populist movements), the adoption of policies to address change, and the political consequences of such policies. The project is organized in four complementary work packages (WP). WP1 examines how workers’ individual economic trajectories and political behavior change when their industries digitalize. WP2 studies how the introduction of technology affects local-level political and electoral outcomes using rich administrative data. WP3 assesses how technological vulnerability affects citizen preferences for a wide range of policies to respond to technological change. WP4 analyses the successes, failures, and political consequences of existing social policies to reduce individual and regional disparities due to technological change. The project will contribute to understanding how the grievances generated by profound technological change manifest themselves politically. It will result in recommendations of politically viable and effective policies to help workers and communities adapt to a fast-changing economic landscape and increased insecurity about what the future of jobs will be, which ensures a high potential for impact. The project helps understand “The evolving politics of threat” (theme 2 of the call) and the underlying causes of “Shifting identities and representation” (theme 4).