In postsocialist Central Asia, international migrations mostly towards Russia have been increasing since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. These circulations may sometimes end with the death of migrants. This project will expore the issues raised by deaths that occur during this mobility. It will contribute to explore a region that has been left aside by French anthropology (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and Russia) and to analyse with a multidisciplinary approach the overlooked issues raised by "dying abroad". Our projet aims at exploring new territoriality of migrants' deaths which, as the ones of the living, tend to intensify in an unprecedented way, in both their modality and their frequence. These new forms of circulation encourage the creation of new ritual and economic practices by societies. The REFPoM project will analyze these practices following two lines of research: (a) "Re-territorializing the dead: Symbolic, ritual and economic practices" It will analyze the symbolic, ritual and economic practices of reterritorialization of these deaths which occured during migrants' mobility. In most case, death is followed by body repatriation. Our aim is to study funerary ideology, transnational ritual practices and family relations, a background on which these practices take place during these tragic times. Examining how people chose where to burry a late relative, how to repatriate him/her, and the financial costs that these decisions imply demand to consider also the variety of populations (Uzbeks, Tajiks, Mongols, etc.) and of religions (islam, buddhism, etc.) coexisting in this wide territory. (b) "Funerary rituals, construction of memory and political resistance". Our second research question will focus on the construction of the memory of the dead, and the political dimension of transnational ritual practices. One of the original aspects of our project is based on its political approach: rituals will be taken as sites of micropolitics. Close analysis will highlight how migrations and political processes impact relations between communities, societies, and the institutions ruling them. Notions such as "tactic" (De Certeau) or "infra-politics" (Scott) will serve as starting points to think how rituals can become "arenas of contestations" (Gardner and Grillo, 2002) in times of political and economic unstability, at a more or less conscious level. This project will thus highlight politcal relations between communities and States, relations that are not reflected in institutions but embedded in specific practices - here, funerary ones - which frequently aim at by-passing them.

DEMOSTAF (DEMOgraphy-STatistics-for-Africa) brings together European and African research institutes as well as non academic African national statistics offices (NSOs) in a staff exchange programme, for a period of 48 months, with the aim to advance research on emerging population issues in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). DemoStAf is built around four major population-related themes: fertility, mortality & health, households & families and education. These themes federate the research projects conducted by the partners, and aim to shed light on key contemporaneous questions, with the objective to inform the post-2015 development agenda framed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) currently in discussion. The programme focuses on the articulation between quantitative data from national statistics (censuses and sample surveys) and local data (demographic surveillance systems or local vital registration). Thanks to the close involvement of NSOs, the programme will consolidate and promote public statistics. The programme will finance staff mobility between partners for supporting research projects, while reinforcing training and skill transfers. Collective activities essentially devoted to training, data documentation and scientific dissemination are also planned. DemoStAf involves 17 partners: 4 European academic institutions, well known for their African population expertise (INED and IRD in France, UCL in Belgium, Unige in Switzerland), 12 African partners from Burkina Faso (INSD and ISSP), Kenya (APHRC), Madagascar (INSTAT, INSPC, IPM, UCM), Mali (INSTAT), Senegal (ANSD, UCAD, UZ) and Uganda (UM). Among them, 4 are NSOs. Due to mutual interests in the promotion of demographic data, a Canadian academic institution (ODSEF) is also involved. A scientific advisory committee with 11 members associates key experts and promote international partnerships. In total, 94 individuals participate, 74 are involved in 166 secondments (that correspond to 193 months).

ARCHOR project falls within "Axe 1" of the ANR CULT. This project seeks to reconstruct the genesis of hominin technology as far back as 3 Ma and beyond. This multidisciplinary project will use the extremely rich field data collected by the West Turkana Archaeological Project in Northern Kenya, including the recent discovery (2011) of a stone tool assemblage securely dated at 3.1 Ma (LOM3), which thus represents the oldest archaeological site ever found yet. The goal is to study early hominids cognitive competence and motor skill exactly at the time of the emergence and the first evolutionary steps of a new and unique behaviour among primates: the making of stone tools. In our field of research, this behaviour developed among fossil hominids for which we cannot refer to any living example. The approach for studying the mind of these modern humans ancestors necessarily goes through a technological analysis of their lithic production, using the chaîne opératoire concept as a tool for analysis. We will also try to define what have been the environmental and paleoanthropological conditions which have favored the emergence of such a new behaviour, more than 3 Ma ago in the Turkana Basin. Thus, beyond its first goal which is to elucidate the technological steps which have led some hominids to specific evolution paths, it also contributes to illustrate the impact of global climatic changes on human evolution and to demonstrate the possible ways hominids have chosen to answer the environmental changes. As LOM3 marks the beginning of the archaeological record, some most fundamental questions must be asked anew. How, when, and why did stone tool manufacture and use originate? Did the earliest stone knapping develop naturally from pre-existing bashing behaviors or did it develop more punctually and directly to flaking for cutting edges? What were the first stone tools used for? Which species were the first stone tool makers? Over the last 15 years, new discoveries and studies have revealed unexpected hominin diversity and the complexity of their evolutionary history, during which different species coexisted at the same time in the same regions. In this context, deciphering the phylogenetic relationships between the various species that existed between 4 and 1.5 Ma, as well as assessing the mode and tempo of the emergence of the genus Homo, is challenging. How did biology, culture and environment interact? Which role did these factors and their interactions play in hominin evolutionary history? The emergence of manipulative skills is also still debated and identifying "When stone tool-making, human-like precision grip capabilities emerged" is crucial to the understanding of origins of technology and hominisation processes and one of the ARCHOR goals. The search for the emergence and evolution of the first techno-cultural assemblages and the conditions of this emergence is shared by several teams working in different parts of the world, but essentially within the Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa. However no where else than in West Turkana there is an archaeological record having the following remarkable advantages: (1) it bears the oldest site ever found and the oldest Acheulean site (dated at 1.76 Ma); these two sites will be the terminus ante and post quem of ARCHOR project studies; (2) a large number of sites are distributed all along a sequence ranging from more than 3 Ma to 0.7 Ma; it garantees a thorough diachronical study, although in this project we will limit our time period study to its oldest part, the Oldowan; (3) it bears several Early Oldowan sites among the world oldest (at 2.3 Ma) and a large number of Oldowan sites (1.8 Ma), which guarantees a good synchronic perspective. We thus do think we have the best securely dated data record one can expect for the research domain we want to further explore.

DETECt -Detecting Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives addresses the formation of European cultural identity as a continuing process of transformation fostered by the mobility of people, products and representations across the continent. Because of the extraordinary mobility of its products, popular culture plays a decisive role in circulating representations that constitute a shared cultural asset for large sectors of the European society. The project examines examples of crime fiction, film and TV dramas from 1989 to present, to learn how mobility strategies such as co-production, serialization, translation, adaptation, distribution, and more, have influenced the transnational dissemination of European popular culture. It also investigates how the treatment of specific ‘mobile signifiers’ – including representations of gender, ethnic and class identities – affect the ability of European narratives to migrate outside their place of origin, and be appropriated elsewhere in different and variegated ways. Researching the contemporary history of the crime genre in Europe, DETECt aims to identify the practices of production, distribution and consumption that are best suited to facilitate the emergence of engaging representations of Europe’s enormously rich, plural and cross-cultural identity. The knowledge acquired through a detailed research programme will be used in cultural, learning and public engagement initiatives designed to prompt the elaboration of new transnational formats for the European creative industries. These activities will profit from a set of experimental research and learning resources and innovative collaborative tools, aggregated and organized on DETECt Web portal. A range of activities will be addressed to the general public. In particular, the development of a Web mobile app tools will allow users to contribute to the creation of a collaborative atlas of European crime narratives.