This project will shed a new light on the valuation of nature and will thereby contribute to preparing European society for what has been called the Anthropocene. NatUval will develop empirically grounded knowledge on how environmental valuation shapes the roles of, and relations between, people, objects, concepts and methods associated with the management and justification of nature parks. Different valuation practices currently coexist in international institutes for environmental conservation. The objective is to (1) conceptualize how values are attached to ecosystems and landscapes in those institutes and to (2) develop a first typology of environmental valuation practices in order to (3) set the outlines for a systematic and long-term empirical research on the performativity of environmental valuation and its consequences for environmental management. Building on my previous experience and research principles of grounded theory and Actor-Network Theory, my systematic approach will develop and apply an analytical toolbox on two contrasting case studies in order to (1) assess similarities and differences as well as complementarities and frictions between different valuation practices and (2) evaluate the performative work of a selected sample of valuation tools. NatUval combines document analyses with participatory observation of meetings and in-depth interviews of staff and volunteers around two nature parks in Europe and at UNESCO and the IUCN. Insights from these case studies will be used to update the analytical toolbox and develop a typology of valuation tools. Since environmental valuation is core to environmental management, I am highly convinced of NatUval’s societal importance. Different dissemination and communication strategies will be used to maximize impact, including scientific papers, a hands-on report and an innovative educational tool. The purpose is to stimulate a fertile debate on the way we want to relate with nature and conservation.

Developing new capabilities to predict the risk of intracranial aneurysm rupture and to improve treatment outcomes in the follow-up of endovascular repair is of tremendous medical and societal interest, both to support decision-making and assessment of treatment options by medical doctors, and to improve the life quality and expectancy of patients. The proposal aims at identifying and characterizing novel flow-deviator stent devices through a high-fidelity computational framework that combines state-of-the-art numerical methods for fluid-structure interaction modeling (to accurately describe the mechanical exchanges between the blood flow, the surrounding vessel tissue, and the flow-deviator) and deep reinforcement learning algorithms (to identify and to invent a new stent concepts enabling patient-specific treatment via accurate adjustment of the functional parameters in the implanted state). This has never been done before in this context and should thus open both new theoretical and numerical opportunities. CURE takes the vital steps of bringing novel computational and optimization frameworks to the next level capable of studying the selected flow diverter treatment in order to reduce the risk of hemorrhage in cerebral aneurysms, of supporting the decisions of treatment options by medical doctors and finally of providing guidance in the development of new implant design. Such unique capabilities can save millions of lives worldwide, improve the life quality of patients, eliminate lifelong side-effects due to sub-optimal treatment planning and delivery; and reduce the tremendous societal and economic burden linked to poor patient outcome. The proposed work has potential to reshape the future of intracranial aneurysm risk management. It is highly multidisciplinary, and the methods proposed and developed as a part of this research can be quickly adapted to a wide range of engineering and bio-medical applications.

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