Project description
Opening the debate on existential risk to empirical enquiry
The ERC-funded PREFER project will open the scientific debate on existential risk – i.e. risk that threatens humanity as a whole – to empirical enquiry. The PREFER team will identify how the ethics of ordinary people manifest themselves in non-Western communities faced with extreme threat. Local terminal risks due to the collapse of regional ecosystems will serve as proxies for global existential risks. This pioneering project will obtain, for the first time, empirical evidence on how ordinary humans evaluate and cope with real-life terminal situations – i.e. situations that threaten their way of being in the world, and thus may threaten humanity’s way of being in the world. Fieldwork will be conducted in Greenland, Vietnam and Colombia.
Objective
The main objective of the PREFER project is to open the scientific debate on existential risk to empirical enquiry. The PREFER team will identify how lay ethics (the ethics of ordinary people) manifest themselves in non-Western communities faced with extreme threat. Local terminal risks due to the collapse of regional ecosystems will serve as proxies for existential risks. Thus, this pioneering project will obtain, for the first time, empirical evidence on how ordinary humans evaluate and cope with real-life terminal situations. Existential risks concern humanity as a whole: it is essential to add to the variety and number of voices heard in scientific deliberations. A broader discourse on existential risk will contribute to better governance and decision-making around existential risks. The PREFER team will conduct field work in two diverse geographical areas whose inhabitants are experiencing the collapse of life-sustaining ecosystems: the Arctic and the Mekong Delta. Three communities in each area will serve as case studies. Preparatory fieldwork has revealed that members are aware of the terminal threat and have expressed fears that they are facing the end of the life they know. Community transdisciplinary research (the co-production of knowledge with and for local communities) will be accompanied by ethnographic work. Data will be collected in the form of narratives which will be analyzed as sources of information on how local communities appraise the multiple dimensions of local terminal risk, including descriptions, the meanings drawn from these and involvement in impact mitigation actions. These results will then be applied to existential risks, all the while analyzing the appositeness of the PREFER proxy-based approach. Finally, although the main focus is on widening the discourse on existential risks, PREFER will also contribute to the urgent empirical analysis of terminality in the face of collapsing regional ecosystems.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
78035 VERSAILLES
France
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.