The European Research Council at Annual meeting of the New Champions 2015, "Summer Davos" World Economic Forum 9 - 11 September 2015, Dalian ERC Speakers Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon Prof. Núria Sebastián Gallés European Research Council (ERC) President ERC Vice-President ERC Grant holders Prof. Panayiota Poirazi, Director of Prof. Frédérique Battin-Leclerc, Research Research, Institute of Molecular Biology and Director, Centre National de la Recherche Biotechnology, Foundation of Research and Scientifique, head of the Chemical Kinetics Technology-Hellas FORTH (GR) Group, Département de Chimie Physique des Réactions (FR) Dr Ellen Backus, Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (DE) Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Associate Professor, Institute of Materials, Ecole Prof. Santiago Badia, Associate Professor, Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona Tech; adjoint researcher, International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (ES) **** Prof. Michael Bronstein, Assistant Dr Bjorn Schuller, Senior Lecturer, Imperial Professor, Institute of Computational Science, College London (UK), Chair of Complex and Faculty of Informatics, University of Lugano Intelligent Systems, University of Passau (CH) Prof. Sriram Subramanian, Professor of Dr Sohini Kar-Narayan, Lecturer, University Human-Computer interaction, University of of Cambridge (UK) Sussex (UK) **** ERC Grant holder also attending AMNC - of which 12 as part of the Young Scientists programme: Prof. Flemming Besenbacher, Dr Adrien Desjardins, Dr Mikael Ehn, Dr Mark Howarth, Dr Victor Panaretos, Dr Anna Scaife, Prof. Christoph Stampfer, Prof. Fabio Sciarrino, Dr Marianna Obrist ERC DELEGATION BIOGRAPHIES Below is an overview of the AMNC sessions with the 11 ERC representatives as panellists or discussion leaders. Please also consult the WEF official programme as changes may occur. ERC Press contact: Madeleine Drielsma [email protected] Mobile: +32 498 98 43 97 ERC Programme Wednesday 9 September Socially disruptive technology 11.00-12.30, DICC, Workstudio Simultaneous interpretation in English and Mandarin Chinese Description: From brain mapping to genome editing to advanced robotics, where are the new scientific fault lines in society? Speakers: Brett Solomon, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Accessnow.org Jonathan Jackson, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Dimagi George Chen Guoqiang, Professor, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University Fahmy Tarazi, Professor, Harvard Medical School Sriram Subramanian, ERC Grantee; Prof. of Human-Computer Interaction, University of Sussex, UK Pascale Fung, Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Laura Furmanski, Senior Vice-President, Business Area Bioinformatics, QIAGEN NV, USA Nita A. Farahany, Professor, Law and Philosophy, Duke University Kees Aarts, Chief Executive Officer, Protix Biosystems Marjolein Helder, Chief Executive Officer, Plant-e BV Hugh Martin, Chief Executive Officer, Sensity Systems Inc. Gene Lee, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Avellino Labs Inc Ronen Gadot, Chief Executive Officer, ElMindA Ltd. Moderator: Mariette DiChristina, Editor-in-Chief of Scientific American Unexpected Discoveries with Nature 13.15-14.30, DICC, Ideas Lab Simultaneous interpretation in English and Mandarin Chinese. The session is filmed and on the record Description: How are young scientists uncovering surprising new paths of discovery? Speakers: Joe Palca, Science Correspondent, NPR, USA Mande Holford, Associate Professor, Chemical Biology, Hunter College, City University of New York Saul A. Villeda, Sandler Faculty Fellow, University of California, San Francisco Ozgur Sahin, Associate Professor, Columbia University Sohini Kar-Narayan, ERC Grantee; Lecturer, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, UK Moderator: Sir Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief, Nature 2 *** Press issue briefing *** European Research Council: AMBITIOUS RESEARCH, A KEY INGREDIENT FOR EUROPE’S GROWTH Wednesday 9 September, 14.15-14.45 DICC, Press conference room Description: The speakers will discuss one of Europe’s ingredients for innovation and growth – investing in top researchers through the European Research Council (ERC). With over €13 billion from 2014 to 2020, it supports the most daring research at the frontiers of knowledge. As science is a global venture, the ERC also encourages the best brains worldwide to exchange ground-breaking ideas, most recently through a deal signed with China. Speakers: Carlos Moedas, EU R&I Commissioner Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President Prof. Panayiota Poirazi, ERC Starting Grant winner investigating memory formation Simultaneous interpretation in English and Mandarin, the session is on the record and live steamed To schedule interviews with ERC speakers or grantees, please contact Madeleine Drielsma, ERC Press Advisor ([email protected]; tel +32 498 98 43 97) Virtual Reality: Clouds over Sidra 15.45-16.16 DICC, Virtual Reality Dome The film is available in English and Mandarin and can be seen outside of scheduled session times Description: Experience the cutting-edge in virtual reality as you embark on an immersive journey into the daily life of Sidra, a young Syrian girl living in a refugee camp in Jordan. Clouds Over Sidra was commissioned by the United Nations and created by Gabo Arora and Chris Milk. Speaker: Prof. Sriram Subramanian, ERC Grantee, Prof. of Human- Computer Interaction, University of Sussex, UK Moderator: Gabo Arora, Filmmaker and Senior Advisor at UNDP 3 Thursday 10 September Countering Brain Drain 12.15-12.45, DICC, Innovator Hub 1 Description: How can ailing economies sustain a vibrant environment for science, research and development? An informal dialogue, designed and facilitated by members of the Forum’s New Champions community. Speaker: Prof. Panayiota Poirazi, ERC grantee; Research Director, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, GR Friday 11 September Ingenuity is not enough 09.00-10.00, DICC, Arena Simultaneous interpretation in English and Mandarin, the session is filmed and on the record, open for media Description: What enables complex, collaborative and long-term innovation? Speakers: Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President Bruce Andrews, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, US Department of Commerce Andrew Fursman, Chief Executive Officer, 1QB Information Technologies (1QBit) Eric Chen, Founder and Director, Vitargent Moderator: Mariette DiChristina, Editor-in-Chief, Scientific American Ideas Lab New Energy Sources with the European Research Council 11.00-12.15, DICC, Simultaneous interpretation in English and Mandarin Chinese, the session is on the record Description: How are the latest advances in research transforming energy generation? Discover in the Ideas Lab: Idea 1: Cleaner combustion of hydrocarbons Idea 2: Nano-engineering boost for solar power Idea 3: Supercomputing for nuclear fusion Idea 4: Hydrogen fuels, water emissions Introduction by Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, ERC President Speakers – ERC grantees: Prof. Frédérique Battin- Leclerc, CNRS Research Director at DCPR, Nancy, FR Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Associate Professor, Institute of Materials, EPFL, CH Prof. Santiago Badia, Associate Professor, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona Tech, ES Prof. Ellen Backus, Group Leader, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, DE Moderator: Sir Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief, Nature 4 How to build an intelligent machine 12.00-13.00, DICC, Betazone Simultaneous interpretation in English, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, the session is on the record Description: Explore how advances in computer science research, from machine vision to speech processing and human motions, are transforming artificial intelligence Speakers: Michael Bronstein, ERC grantee; Associate Professor, Institute of Computational Science, Faculty of Informatics, University of Lugano (USI), Switzerland Bjorn Schuller, ERC grantee; Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London, UK Louis-Philippe Morency, Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science; Carnegie Mellon University, USA Moderator: Justine Cassell, Associate Vice-Provost, Carnegie Mellon University Being Human 13.30-14.30, DICC, Betazone Simultaneous interpretation in English, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, the session is on the record Description: How are new research findings, from neuroscience to microbiology, redefining what it means to be human? Speakers: Amit Etkin, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Stanford University, USA; Núria Sebastián Gallés, ERC Vice President; Professor, Department of Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, ES Rob Knight, Professor, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA Moderator: Justine Cassell, Associate Vice-Provost, Carnegie Mellon University, USA 5 *** European Research Council (ERC) Set up in 2007 by the European Union, the ERC stimulates scientific excellence in Europe by encouraging competition for funding between the very best, creative researchers of any nationality and age. The ERC is already seen as a success story for Europe. The ERC supports leading researchers and their most innovative ideas with up to €2.5 million per grant. It operates by an 'investigator-driven', 'bottom-up' approach, which allows researchers to identify new opportunities in any field of research. The ERC has become a "benchmark" for competitiveness