Objective
"In recent decades, samples from mines and boreholes have revealed that our planet’s biosphere extends several miles downwards into the crust. Pores and fissures far below the seafloor and land surface are populated by vast numbers of microorganisms, with broad economic and scientific implications. These implications reach as far as Mars, whose subsurface has provided a potentially habitable environment for billions of years, protected from the hostile conditions at the surface. Although Earth's modern-day ""deep biosphere"" is now the subject of a major global research effort, almost nothing is known about its variation across geological time, which may have been considerable and highly consequential for planetary biogeochemistry. This project will combine state-of-the-art analyses of fossil and chemical traces of deep life (""deep biosignatures"") with experimental and modelling work to elucidate the abundance, activity and geological record of ancient subsurface life on Earth and its possible relevance for Mars. Dr McMahon’s research at the UK Centre for Astrobiology (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh) will be directed towards four main objectives, as follows:
1. To identify and describe ancient deep biosignatures in both marine and terrestrial rocks on Earth, showing how their deep origin can be confirmed, and extending the deep fossil record.
2. To conduct experiments to determine whether and how, if they exist, deep biosignatures could be detected in rocks on Mars by rover instruments—particularly those on the European ExoMars rover.
3. To simulate experimentally the conditions deep below the surface of Earth and Mars and discover which environmental parameters most strongly affect the growth of relevant deep microorganisms and the production of biosignatures.
4. To model how the deep biosphere has changed in size and activity over the history of the Earth, and how a deep biosphere on Mars, if it ever existed, could have done so."
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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry alkaline earth metals
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planets
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences meteorology biosphera
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry biogeochemistry
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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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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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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.
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF
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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) H2020-MSCA-IF-2016
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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.
EH8 9YL Edinburgh
United Kingdom
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.