Project description
Redefining life in an era of ecological transformation
The concept of life was once defined through biological criteria. Today, it is increasingly being challenged by ecological disruption, technological advances, and diverse cultural understandings of human-nature relationships. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the VITAE project will investigate how concepts of life are constructed across scientific and Indigenous knowledge systems, combining philosophy of biology, biosemiotics, cognitive linguistics, and ethnographic research. Through fieldwork with Indigenous communities in Colombia and comparative analysis with scientific perspectives, it will develop a framework for understanding life and explore its implications for European environmental policies. By creating conceptual models, open research resources, and public engagement outputs, VITAE will contribute to more inclusive, ethically grounded approaches to ecological governance.
Objective
VITAE investigates how the meaning of “life” is being redefined in an era marked by ecological crisis, technological innovation, and cultural pluralism. Despite major advances in biology, astrobiology, and AI, no shared or operational definition of life exists, over 100 competing definitions, as collected in The Handbook of Astrobiology, reveal a fragmented landscape. This uncertainty has direct consequences for biodiversity governance, legal personhood, and rights-of-nature policies, affecting the implementation of the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and UNESCO’s initiatives on biocultural diversity.
The project asks a fundamental question: What forms of life do environmental policies aim to protect, and why? It addresses this by bridging Western scientific models with Indigenous ecological cosmologies through an innovative, interdisciplinary methodology. Fieldwork in Colombia with Embera, Misak, and Kogi communities will generate an Indigenous Ecological Corpus, analysed through biosemiotics, philosophy of biology, and cognitive linguistics, and compared with a Scientific Corpus. This analysis will inform a definitional model of life, tested through a cross-applicability matrix to assess implications for European governance.
VITAE pursues two objectives: (i) to empirically evaluate how environmental governance would change if Indigenous perspectives, where rivers, mountains, and ecosystems are recognized as living agents, were integrated; and (ii) to develop a trans-ecology as a new epistemological framework for ecological responsibility.
The project will produce scientific outputs (open datasets, publications, definitional model) and public-facing results (short film, exhibitions), advancing the state of the art while supporting Horizon Europe priorities in Clusters 2 and 6. VITAE strengthens Europe’s leadership in sustainability science and delivers inclusive, coherent, and ethically robust frameworks for future ecological governance.
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.
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy epistemology
- humanities languages and literature linguistics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences sustainability sciences
- social sciences sociology governance environmental governance
- social sciences economics and business economics sustainable economy
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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.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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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-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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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.
116 36 Praha 1
Czechia
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.