GRANTS

Dr Pierrick Bourrat, from the Discipline of Philosophy in the School of Humanities, has been awarded a John Templeton Foundation Grant of $1,007,072 for the project ‘Cognition All The Way Up?’'

Evolution has been marked by a small number of major transitions that explain the emergence of new structures. This idea has been applied to both individuality and cognition. In both cases, a transition changes the system undergoing the transition; hence, there is a difference in forms on either side of a transitional boundary.

Most of the transitions proposed for cognition and individuality have resulted in more complex forms. However, it is unclear what criteria ought to be used to assess whether a transition has occurred. This project will examine how and why complexity in forms increases across major transitions. In particular, the project will assess the idea that all levels of organisation are composed of agents with agendas and the implications of this proposed unificatory principle for evolutionary transitions in both individuality and cognition. The team will then appraise, using social bees as an example, cases that can be defined as a transition in both individuality and cognition.

"Our project is significant as it will unite expertise in the evolution of hierarchical complexity, changes in individuality, and the evolution of cognition to examine how agency, goals, and purpose might arise in biological systems,” says Dr Bourrat.

Professor Katie Barclay, from the School of Humanities, has been awarded funding from The Leverhulme Trust for the project ‘A History of Hurt Feelings and the Law’, together with Professor Chloë Kennedy (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Alice Krzanich (University of Aberdeen). This interdisciplinary project will examine how courts have identified, defined and provided redress for injured ‘feelings’ across the modern period (c. 1750-the present), using Scotland as a case study. The Leverhulme Trust is an independent charity that seeks to fund blue skies research and scholarship which has the potential to generate new ideas and research breakthroughs that benefit society.

Dr Raphaël Millière, from the School of Humanities, has been awarded an AI2050 Early Career Fellowship from Schmidt Sciences to advance research into AI. Dr Millière’s project aims to establish a rigorous framework for understanding how AI systems process information by identifying and overcoming ‘interpretability illusions’ that mislead us about their inner workings. The goal is to guide the development of AI systems whose reasoning is transparent and reliable, which is an important step towards ensuring advanced AI remains safe and beneficial.

Dr Lauren Tynan, from the School of Communication, Society and Culture, together with Dr Emily Flies (University of Tasmania) has received funding from the Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) Network for the project ‘Changes to Country, changes to wellbeing: Insights from Tebrakunna community.’' This project will work with Melaythenner Teeackana Warrana Aboriginal Corporation to apply a community-created wellbeing framework to understand climate impacts on community wellbeing and support the Tebrakunna community to develop potential climate adaptation strategies.

Dr Pierrick Bourrat, from the Discipline of Philosophy in the School of Humanities, is part of a research team led by the University of Exeter which has received funding from the John Templeton Foundation for the project ‘Does Earth’s habitability for life exist due to or in spite of Darwinian evolution by natural selection?’' This project will apply both Earth system modelling techniques and themes from the philosophy of biology to evaluate in detail the nature of the impact of Darwinian evolution of the stability of Earth's climate and, by implication, the long-term persistence of life on Earth.