Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Uzbekistan (UZ), China (CN) and Tajikistan (TJ) are in the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), the fastest growing area in the world by far what increases the needs for further cooperation among HEIs. UNiversity Internationalisation in Central Asia and China – UNICAC- aims to enhance the potential for international cooperation (IC) among HEIs from UZ, TJ and CN through a set of capacity building activities for International Relations Offices in partner countries (PC) HEIs, thus contributing to better international networking and better exploitation of their potential cooperation in Teaching, Learning and Research (T/L/R). Specifically, the project aims at: a) benchmarking the potentials for cooperation and development of national and regional recommendations for IC in T/L/R in the 3 PC; b) enhancing strategic, human and infrastructural capacities for the management of IC in 7 PC HEIs, and the modernisation and development of institutional frameworks for IC in UZ, TJ and CN (Strategic Plans for International Cooperation; training modules and equipment updating); and c) developing a multi-regional network as a platform to boost a regular dialogue and identification and exploitation of synergies in shaping IC in HEIs in Central Asia and China (together with the organisation of 3 network conferences, one in each PC).The proposal also foresees the development and implementation of dissemination tools and strategies (at international and national levels, especially in PC), an evaluation and quality assurance strategy (collection of feedback, monitoring and external evaluation) and sustainability actions (National Roundtables in PC, signing of agreements among HEIs and official approval of structures created in PC). The Consortium is composed of 11 institutions from 3 EU countries (Spain, Italy and Finland) and 3 PC countries (UZ, TJ and CN), including 10 HEIs of which 7 are Central Asian or Chinese. UNICAC will be coordinated by the University of Seville.

EUCLEG aims to reduce Europe and China’s dependency on protein imports by developing efficient breeding strategies for the legume crops of major economic importance in human food and animal feed. The objective is to improve diversification, crop productivity, yield stability and protein quality of both forage (alfalfa and red clover) and grain (pea, faba bean and soybean) legumes. Using diverse and extensive genetic resources and taking advantage of advanced molecular tools, EUCLEG aims to identify and develop the best genetic resources, phenotyping methods and molecular tools to breed legume varieties with improved performance under biotic and abiotic stresses in the representative European and Chinese agro-ecological areas. The potential for new uses of forage species for human nutrition will be explored. Searchable databases will be developed or built to host passport, agronomic and genetic data facilitating exchanges and use of genetic resources. The evaluation of genetic resources in multi-site trials will allow to broaden the breeding material and extend agro-ecological adaptation. The genetic architecture of key breeding traits will be analysed using association studies in order to identify molecular markers related to phenotypic traits. Finally, genomic selection strategies will be assessed for their potential to improve genetic progress. Practical tools for genotyping, data management and calculation will be provided to breeders to implement marker-assisted selection and genomic selection leading to the creation of new varieties in the long-term. The partnership gathered in EUCLEG, combining public institutes and private companies of Europe and China, guaranties the transfer of knowledge from research to seed industry.

This project aims at the control of wave properties through the control of disorder, an objective that can be achieved with waves that propagate in macroscopic media. It builds on a fruitful Chilean-French collaboration that goes back ten years, that has provided a solid theoretical backbone to our understanding of wave propagation in complex media. In addition, both sides have developed a close interaction with experimental groups in their respective countries. This proposal raises the ongoing collaboration to a new level of ambition, by bringing the experimental groups into a jointly articulated initiative. Research activities will be both of a theoretical and experimental nature, and carried out symmetrically in Chile and France. There will be significant cross-talk among the various participants in the different labs and countries, reflecting the existing culture of collaboration. Extensive use will be made of current communications technology to link the various groups, and face-to-face meetings will be organized to enable the type of communication that can only be achieved through personal, collective contact. The propagation of waves in complex media is a vast subject. Particularly, lack of quantitative understanding, much less control, of the role of disorder, hampers progress in many fields, from the technology of amorphous semiconductors, to the control of turbulence in fluids, to the characterization of granular materials in the mining, food, and pharmaceutical industries. In this proposal, two specific topics have been chosen for research: 1) Wave propagation in slightly disordered periodic media, and 2) Effect of nonlinearities on wave propagation through disordered media. Available theory will be revisited and expanded as needed and suggested by currently available numerical capabilities and experimental hardware. Specific experiments will be performed with centimetric microwaves in a metallo-dielectric metamaterial; with acoustic waves in a wave guide endowed with a chain of resonators; with surface waves on a fluid, and with ultrasonic waves in solid materials. The criteria that have been used to arrive at these topics are: A) Familiarity of proposers with one or several recently developed, and available, technologies that enable unique data-gathering capabilities. B) Ease of control of disorder in the propagating medium. C) Close relation between theoretical and experimental capabilities of proposers. D) Track record of successful collaboration among participants.

Wild pollinators are a key part of European biodiversity and provide a wide range of benefits to crops, wild plants, and human wellbeing. In Europe and globally, wild pollinators are facing multiple threats, however, the full extent of declines, their complex causes, and the most effective ways to respond to them are not well understood. Safeguard brings together world-leading researchers, NGOs, industry and policy experts to substantially contribute to Europe’s capacity to reverse the losses of wild pollinators. Safeguard will significantly expand current assessments of the status and trends of European wild pollinators including bees, butterflies, flies and other pollinating insects. We will use state-of-the-art models to predict the impacts of pressures on pollinators, paying particular attention to emerging threats, multiple and interacting drivers, long-term and cumulative effects, and multiple spatial scales. Safeguard will establish empirical research for a systematic multi-scale assessment of multiple pressures on pollinators and the context-dependent effectiveness of interventions. Working with our stakeholders, we will provide an improved understanding of the diverse values of European pollinators, and develop and test new approaches using multiple interventions to benefit pollinators, from field to landscape scales across agricultural, natural, and urban systems. We will co-develop with stakeholders an integrated assessment framework and tools that incorporate multiple types of evidence to address pollinator declines and direct mitigation strategies at the local, national, and EU levels. Safeguard will use the significant advance in knowledge to inform national, European, and global policies and decision-making. Finally, Safeguard will increase awareness of wild pollinators and their societal values with the public, policy makers, scientists, industry, and NGOs, to mobilise concerted multiple actions towards reversing pollinator declines across Europe.