Objective
Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is a flea-borne disease that caused at least three devastating pandemics in the last two millenia[Stenseth08]. Plague is endemic in wildlife rodents, and the ecological and epidemiological dynamics of the rodent-plague system are the underlying cause of outbreaks in human populations. However, our current understanding of this system is insufficient to mitigate the risk. In this project the researcher will uniquely combine the disciplines of theoretical biology, molecular/evolutionary genetics, epidemiology and ecology to address this important issue.
The Centre of Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES) in Oslo, Norway has access to unique archives on plague outbreaks in rodents and humans in Central Asia and China. These archives, and the available expertise on the genetic phylogeography of the plague at CEES, provide a great opportunity for the applicant researcher to integrate epidemiological and genetic knowledge of plague with his expertise on dynamic modelling of ecosystems. In return, CEES researchers will benefit from being exposed to these simulation models, and their application in analysing complex ecosystems, as well the contact network of the applicant researcher with modelling groups in the Netherlands and Europe. This project would both significantly strengthen plague research, and would have important corollary impacts on public health and risk assessment.
The project will use individual-based models of small rodent ecologies through which plague can spread, and observe the changes in the genetic variance of plague. These changes will be abstracted into a Cellular Automata (CA) [Hogeweg10], a modelling formalism that is suitable for simulating large ecological systems. The ecological and epidemiological dynamics of plague within the CA model will be studied in detail and under different hypothesis of plague spread, and compared against the observed genetic variance in plague in Asia.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health epidemiology pandemics
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF
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Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
0313 Oslo
Norway
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.