Results of the ITEM 2021 AAP

Laureate projects - edition AAP 2021 "the transition in action

• BioExtracT: BIOmimicry for the EXTRACTION of Rare Earths from secondary sources

In a context of increasing pressure on strategic metal resources, this project proposes to develop innovative extraction processes of critical metals, based on biological mechanisms, in order to valorize industrial and mining residues.

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• ICCA-RE: Indigenous and Community Conserved Area for social-ecological REsilience?

This project aims, from interdisciplinary work on mountain pastoral communities in Andalusia, to participate in current debates on the interests, limits and potential of areas managed collectively by local populations to ensure the resilience of functional socio-ecological systems.

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• RhizoCarbone+: Stimulating the plant-microorganism-mineral continuum to store carbon in soils

In the context of climate change mitigation and global food security, the storage of organic matter (and associated carbon) in soils is a major issue that was translated at COP21 into the international '4 by 1000' initiative. This initiative aims to show that agriculture, and in particular agricultural soils, can play a crucial role in food security and climate change. While it is well established that increasing organic matter inputs is one of the major agro-ecological levers in terms of practices to be implemented, the levers concerning their maintenance in soils (stabilization) are not established to date. The RhizoCarbone+ project seeks to remove this obstacle.

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• BiodivAquArt: : Aquatic Biodiversity in Art

The BiodivAquArt project, for Aquatic Biodiversity in Art, consists in using past representations of biodiversity to better understand the relationship between Man and Nature, in a situation of environmental transition that has been sensitive for several millennia in Europe. The result of a collaboration between a historian and a biologist, this transdisciplinary project proposes to apply the quantitative methods of ecology to the exceptional group of works of art produced in the Mediterranean since antiquity. As a historical ecology project, BiodivAquArt assumes that a better knowledge of past situations will allow a better understanding of contemporary issues of biodiversity conservation and management of aquatic resources.

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May 2022 - First results and perspectives: summary

Doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships, internships

The selected projects allow the financing of 5 PhD scholarships of 36 months as well as 2 post-doctoral scholarships (12 and 18 months) and 6 internship grants.

Access to the job offers

Results of the AAP ITEM 2020

Winning projects - AAP 2020 edition "transition in action

• ALCOVE: AgricuLture bioContrôle biOfertilisant ViticolEs: evaluation of biocontrol products and a biofertiliser in viticultural systems.

The ALCOVE project "AgricuLture bioContrôle biOfertilisant ViticolEs" aims to develop new agricultural practices that respect human health and the biodiversity of agrosystems, which are the basis for the sustainability of these environments, based on a circular economy and involving stakeholders in changes in practices. In this sense, it is part of the environmental transition approach: the need for a paradigm shift and the development of innovative integrative solutions for our society. This project will focus on optimizing the production and testing the efficacy and safety of a cocktail of biocontrol products (BCP) and a biofertilizer designed from known know-how based on solid-state fermentation (SSF) of agricultural by-products. It will thus feed a crucial theme of the environmental transition: the development of innovative practices increasing the sustainability of agrosystems by means of strategies combining consideration of human and environmental health, concerted action by socio-economic actors, and the circular economy."

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• RAPMED: Automated Plankton Recognition to identify Ecological Transitions and Shifts in the Mediterranean.

The RapMed project aims to study the effects of recent environmental changes, over the last two decades, on planktonic communities in the sentinel region of the Gulf of Lion. A recent transition of planktonic communities, with a decrease in plankton size, is synchronous with a drastic decrease in fisheries. To understand the processes involved, the project will explore the dynamics of planktonic communities at high resolution, at all size scales, based on the application and standardization of high-throughput image processing methods. RapMed will implement an innovative processing chain, based on machine learning approaches (convolutional neural networks). The results of RapMed will allow to better understand the variability of planktonic communities and their resilience to environmental changes.

• POP Transition: From regulatory to emerging pollutants - Impact of management policies on ecological transition in the Mediterranean coastal zone.

Amongst global changes, the increasing, multiple and evolving contribution of anthropogenic contaminants in coastal areas implies that scientists effectively develop sentinel tools and methods to respond to biodiversity loss and environmental health risks. The POP Transition project focuses on the contamination of the Mediterranean coastline by brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which are listed as priority hazardous substances, known as orphans or belonging to the group of emerging pollutants. The development of sampling tools, multi-scale sampling stations, biological indices and field surveys will allow to evaluate their impacts on the chemical quality of the environment, the coastal habitat, the benthic ecosystem and the fisheries resource, as well as their consequences on fishing. These monitoring tools will help to qualify the effect of water resource management policies, to improve industrial and societal support towards the ecological transition.

Doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships

The selected projects allow the financing of two 36-month thesis grants and four 18-month post-doctoral grants

Access to job offers

Winning projects - AAP 2020 "Schools of Transition" edition

For more details, see our "OUR TRAININGS" section

• BIODIV: Urban and peri-urban wastelands: what are the challenges for a new trajectory of biodiversity?

• ECOCOMPLEX : Complex systems and global ecology: from fundamental to operational.

• POLEMIL : Pollution and environments - two themes: "SOL-EAU" and "ATMO" (Atmosphere-Plants Interaction).

• VIPERES : Vulnerability of Alpine grassland interaction networks to the evolution of pastoralism: an interdisciplinary field school for learning the scientific approach through research.