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CyI the proud host of four prestigious programmes

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In the latest evaluation results for the highly competitive and prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme announced in February 2021, an unprecedented four proposals in the Individual Fellowships (IF) category were selected for funding, and will be hosted at The Cyprus Institute over the next few years.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships provide EU-funded support to promising researchers at an early stage of their careers, regardless of age and nationality and across all disciplines, based solely on the quality of the proposals, the supervisors, and infrastructure of the host institution. Project leaders are international researchers who have chosen CyI as the host institution to carry out their work.

The successful projects are:

Sachrofics: Sacrificial food in Classical, Hellenistic and Roman Cyprus: an interdisciplinary diachronic approach in an island laboratory.

This project will carry out an interdisciplinary study of sacrificial food in Classical, Hellenistic and Roman Cyprus in order to fill gaps in our knowledge of animal sacrifice, a major institution for meat distribution in Classical, Hellenistic and Roman societies. The project aspires to achieve high-resolution insights into animal treatment before, during and after sacrificial events through a methodological suite spearheaded by zooarchaeology and complemented by stable isotope, dental microwear and archaeobotanical analyses. Project leader and MSCA Fellow is Dr Angelos Hadjikoumis from the University of Sheffield (UK), who will be working with assistant professor Evi Margaritis.

Airloom: A novel bioarchaeological approach to ancient textile manufacture

The Airloom project will combine approaches from bioarchaeology, archaeological materials, ethnoarchaeology, environmental science, and experimental archaeology to explore textile manufacturing in ancient times and its impact on health, with important implications for the practicing of traditional textile work today. Project leader and MSCA Fellow is Dr Anita Radini from the University of York (UK), and at CyI will be working under the supervision of assistant professor Efthymia Nikita.

Metals: Metallurgical traditions in West Africa: technology, production, and exchange of iron and copper in Nigeria from 700 BC to AD 1800

Metals explores early metallurgy in West Africa with emphasis on the technology, production, and exchange of copper in Nigeria. The project will select materials from collections in museums both in Nigeria and Europe, for an in-depth study of metallurgical production and development taking place at The Cyprus Institute. Project leader and MSCA Fellow is Dr Abidemi Babalola, currently at Cambridge University, who will be working with professor Thilo Rehren, the A.G. Leventis professor for archaeological sciences.

Mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites via multi-scale modelling: towards non-classical properties – Nanamec

This project addresses challenges in the development of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) by proposing a multiscale computational methodology to predict the mechanical properties of PNCs, which involves microscopic simulations, homogenisation approaches and continuum models. Project leader and MSCA Fellow is Dr Hilal Reda from Lebanese University in Beirut, who will be working with ERA chair professor Vangelis Harmandaris.

“The awarding of funding for four MSCA IF proposals is a tremendous success for The Cyprus Institute, and is a testament to its quality and status as a world-class research and educational institution. This achievement is the latest in a string of important EU funding successes for the institute over the past few years”, noted CyI president George Christophides.

Instrumental in the completion and submission of these proposals was the assistance from the office of research and innovation management and support of The Cyprus Institute, headed by Vassilios Tsakalos with the assistance of Michalis Papadopoulos.

“Prominent researchers from prestigious institutions around the world have chosen The Cyprus Institute as their host institution and were selected in a very competitive process to come here and expand their work and increase their research scope. We look forward to working with them and with our staff to strengthen our research activities that ultimately benefit society”, said Tsakalos.

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