Objective
Feral Engines explores the rapid and weakly regulated spread of fossil-fuel motorization in peripheral, extractive territories of South America. While industrialized countries move toward decarbonization, regions like the Gran Chaco, Bolivian Amazon, and Southern Andes are experiencing a combustion-driven boom. The project focusFeral Engines explores the rapid and weakly regulated spread of fossil-fuel motorization in peripheral, extractive territories of South America. While industrialized countries move toward decarbonization, regions like the Gran Chaco, Bolivian Amazon, and Southern Andes are experiencing a combustion-driven boom. The project focuses on the life and afterlife of motorcycles, chainsaws, outboard engines, and mining or agricultural machines in postcolonial contexts marked by infrastructural fragmentation, fuel informality, and multispecies entanglements. Combining ethnographic fieldwork, historical research, and digital modeling, Feral Engines examines how engines circulate, adapt, and reshape social, ecological, and political landscapes. The project investigates their assemblages with humans, animals, fuels, territories, and institutions, and documents forms of mechanical ferality that emerge beyond formal technical and infrastructural systems. The project articulates four analytical axes: material trajectories of machines, techno-ecological configurations, unequal energy regimes, and post-fossil scenarios. Grounded in three regional case studies, the project is carried out by an interdisciplinary team (PI, postdocs, PhD students, associated researchers) and supported by a digital research platform. The project outputs include a systematic corpus, an open-access comparative gallery, and reusable analytical tools. Feral Engines contributes to global debates on energy transitions, technological circulation, and material infrastructures, while developing a replicable methodology for studying contemporary technical materialities in the Global South.
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-2025-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.
75794 Paris
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.