New program combines environmental engineering and international cooperation

With the new Erasmus Mundus Joint Master, students move between Lisbon, Valencia and Trento and obtain multiple master's degrees. This new international opportunity is now accepting applications

Università di Trento

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Three countries, two years, an international perspective: EESIC, the 120‑credits master's degree in Engineering for Environmental Sustainability and International Cooperation, trains environmental engineers for a sustainable future. The programme is very dynamic, as students spend the first semester of study in Lisbon, the second in Valencia and the third in Trento. The fourth semester is dedicated to thesis research and includes a field experience in international cooperation in the area of environmental engineering in collaboration with a local organization. The new Erasmus Mundus Joint Master is one of the few coordinated by an Italian university, in this case the University of Trento. At the end of the programme, the participants obtain master's degrees in Italy, Portugal and Spain: three different diplomas that will help them start a professional career with an international horizon.

The call for applications has just been published. Applications for this first edition of Engineering for Environmental Sustainability and International Cooperation must be submitted by 10 February 2026. To participate, candidates must hold an undergraduate degree in civil-environmental engineering or a related field and have proficiency in English. The selection committee will also consider the applicants' motivation, experiences and performance in an online interview.

The new profile combines solid education in engineering with interdisciplinary and global skills, such as open-mindedness, a problem-solving attitude, intercultural understanding, and complex problem management skills. The programme helps create a European and global hub for sustainability in environmental engineering in view of international cooperation. The goal is to find context‑appropriate solutions that are sustainable in every sense and consider criteria that are not purely technical or technological. The consortium of partners offers students the opportunity to engage with very different communities across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

The international mobility programme, with high academic standards, was approved at the end of a very competitive selection, as only 37 out of 195 project proposals received European Commission funding in the 2025 Erasmus Mundus call (Erasmus+). Coordinated by Marco Toffolon of UniTrento's Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, the programme brings together three partner universities, the University of Trento, Instituto Superior Técnico da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal) and Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). Supporting this consortium are 48 associated partners from all over the world, including universities, research centres, NGOs and engineering companies of all sizes.

The total European allocation for the programme is 4.6 million euros to fund 70 scholarships for four cohorts of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master, starting from the 2026-2028 cohort. Each scholarship provides 1,400 euros per month for the duration of the programme. The most deserving students who are not awarded a scholarship will receive a 75 percent tuition reduction, and will therefore pay 2,000 euros per year instead of the standard 8,000 euros. The first cohort will begin in September 2026 with classes in Lisbon and continue the programme in autumn 2027 in Trento, after spending one semester in Valencia.

Information on the master's degree in Engineering for Environmental Sustainability and International Cooperation and the call for applications can be found at: https://eesic.eu/

Rethinking global governance and human security

University of Cologne

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The University of Cologne, in partnership with Nuffield College (Oxford University), is launching the Konrad Adenauer Synergy Research Project titled “Rethinking Global Governance and Human Security: Lessons from the Pivotal Decade of the 1990s”. Funded by the Alfred Landecker Foundation with 4.4 million euros over five years, the project explores how the multifaceted history of the 1990s shaped today’s international order — and what lessons this decade holds for the future of multilateral cooperation.

While the 1990s are within living memory, they remain a remarkably underexplored period of recent history. As newly accessible documents shed light on key crises and conflicts of that era — from UN peacekeeping operations and humanitarian interventions to the redefinition of sovereignty, democracy, and human security — the project seeks to uncover how the “long 1990s” forged the frameworks of global governance that still, for better or worse, structure world politics today.

The initiative combines rigorous historical research with a strong practice-oriented dimension. A distinguished Advisory Council brings together leading figures from international organizations, global governance institutions, and policymaking to ensure sustained dialogue between scholarship and practice. The project will also serve as a hub for training and mentoring the next generation of researchers working at the intersection of history, law, and international politics.

Professor Fabian Klose, Director of the Cologne Center for Advanced Studies in International History and Law (CHL), Professor of International History at the University of Cologne, and Principal Investigator of the project, says: “Understanding the 1990s is essential for understanding the world we live in today. It was a transformative decade of extraordinary opportunities, but also of remarkable disappointments and setbacks. The end of the Cold War gave rise to ambitious hopes for global order and stability and fueled the search for new norms of international responsibility. Our project aims to illuminate this transformative decade and, by doing so, contribute to more informed and resilient global governance.”

Professor Andrew Thompson (CBE), Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College, Associate Head of Division for Research and Innovation in the Humanities at Oxford University, Professor of Global and Imperial History, and Principal Investigator of the project, adds: “Our understanding of contemporary global governance is incomplete without a deep appreciation of the 1990s — a decade when humanitarian norms, geopolitical alignments and the structures of aid and intervention were all being radically re-assessed and re-shaped. In this project we will trace how the legacies of empire, the abrupt end of the Cold War, the expansion of transnational networks, and the emergence of new forms of intervention converged during that period. By doing so we aim to shed light on how the institutions and practices born then continue to define our responses to conflict, migration and global inequality today.”

Lena Altman, Co-CEO of the Alfred Landecker Foundation, remarks: “Today, not only democratic institutions are under strain — entire states, systems of governance, and mechanisms of conflict resolution are undergoing profound change. As a multipolar world demands increasingly complex responses, understanding how we got here becomes ever more urgent. By examining the conflicts and transformations of the 1990s in depth, we believe this project will help inform decision-making and strengthen our ability to navigate today’s global challenges.”

The Konrad Adenauer Synergy Research Project continues the successful strategic partnership between the University of Cologne, Nuffield College (Oxford University) and the Alfred Landecker Foundation. Together, these institutions seek to establish a model for collaborative, historically informed research that links academic excellence with policy relevance — a bridge that will be vital for addressing today’s global challenges.

Urea: The hidden fuel for ocean microbes

New study reveals how ammonia-oxidizing archaea thrive in nutrient-poor waters

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

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Science at sea comes with some beautiful sunsets.

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Credit: Tim Ferdelman / Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are some of the most abundant microorganisms in the ocean and play a key role in nitrogen cycling. Yet, despite their ubiquity, scientists have long puzzled over how these microbes can flourish in the nutrient-poor waters of the open ocean, where their main nitrogen and energy source, ammonium, is often vanishingly scarce.

A new study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, now uncovers a key part of this mystery: Some AOA rely on urea, a common organic nitrogen compound, in addition to ammonium as both an energy and nitrogen source.

The research team studied the two dominant AOA groups in the oceans: Nitrosopumilus, typically found in nutrient-rich coastal waters, and Nitrosopelagicus, which dominates in the open ocean. The study combines data from expeditions to three very different ocean regions: The Gulf of Mexico, where ammonium is plentiful, the open ocean waters of the Angola Gyre, where ammonium is almost entirely absent, and the Black Sea, which has high ammonium concentrations in deeper waters and almost no ammonium in its shallow parts. Their results, published in Nature Communications, reveal why different groups of AOA thrive in these distinct marine environments and how these differences drive their global distribution.

Two microbes, two strategies

The study shows that the coastal genus, Nitrosopumilus, prefers ammonium and uses urea only when ammonium is scarce. “Nitrosopumilus grows fast when ammonium is available. It is thus well-equipped for life in high-ammonium coastal waters,” says first author Joerdis Stuehrenberg.

The open-ocean genus, Nitrosopelagicus, behaves very differently. It uses both ammonium and urea equally well, and keeps using urea even when ammonium is plentiful. These archaea seem perfectly adapted to life in nutrient-poor waters. “Nitrosopelagicus cells have more options,” says Katharina Kitzinger, co-first author of the study. “If both ammonium and urea are present, they may even double their growth rates by using both at once.” 

Most studies focus on ammonium-based nitrification, but this research suggests that urea and potentially other organic nitrogen compounds may play a much larger role in sustaining ocean productivity than previously thought. “We may be underestimating nitrification rates in the vast, nutrient-poor ocean,” says co-author Hannah Marchant.

Single-cell evidence for different lifestyles

To pinpoint which AOA were using which nitrogen sources, the researchers needed to tell Nitrosopumilus and Nitrosopelagicus apart, which existing molecular tools couldn’t do reliably. Thus, the team needed to design new, highly specific probes to visually distinguish the two groups under the microscope. With these probes in hand, the researchers were able to track how each group assimilated nitrogen at the single-cell level, using NanoSIMS-imaging. “The new probes allowed us to see who was doing what in mixed communities like those in the Black Sea,” says Stuehrenberg. “Combined with the NanoSIMS analyses, we show that Nitrosopumilusgrew mainly on ammonium while Nitrosopelagicus readily used both ammonium and urea, and continued to use urea even when ammonium was abundant.” 

Implications for global nutrient cycling

AOA, in particular Nitrosopelagicus, are among the most abundant microorganisms in the oceans. Their ability to use urea and other organic nitrogen sources could significantly influence marine nutrient availability, primary productivity in the open ocean and the global carbon cycle.  

“Understanding what fuels these microorganisms is crucial,” says Marcel Kuypers, senior author on the paper. “They are major players in nitrogen cycling, and their activity helps regulate the nutrient availability in the ocean and the global carbon budget.”

Preparing the pump-CTD in the Black Sea. 

Credit

Jana Milucka / Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Joerdis Stuehrenberg sitting at the epifluorescence microscope marking target cells for subsequent NanoSIMS analyses. 

Credit

Carolin Otersen / Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-025-67048-1 

Article Title

Urea use drives niche separation between dominant marine ammonia oxidizing archaea

Article Publication Date

6-Dec-2025

Keynesian economics

Taxing homes in an economic boom and subsidising them in a crash could prevent the next housing crisis

University of Surrey

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Financial crises may be made worse by current mortgage and housing tax systems according to new research from the University of Surrey. The study argues that the country should consider taxing housing purchases during strong economic periods but providing temporary subsidies on housing during recessions.  

The study, published in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, argues that, without targeted intervention, borrowers are forced to sell homes at depressed prices in downturns which triggers deeper crashes and tighter borrowing conditions that harm both families and the wider economy. The findings show that today’s credit rules make the economy more vulnerable to sudden shocks and unnecessarily deepen recessions.  

Ricardo Praca Cavaco Nunes, co-author of the study and Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey, said: 

 
“The biggest gains come from helping households recover after a downturn rather than trying to restrict households before a crisis happens. If we cushion house price collapses, we protect borrowers at their most vulnerable moment which in turn protects the wider economy.” 

The study used a quantitative economic model and simulated thousands of possible economies where house prices are used as collateral for mortgage borrowing. The method looked at how taxing housing purchases in high productivity periods and subsidising them in low productivity periods affects house prices credit conditions and consumption. The model included two types of household, borrowers and savers, and tracked how each group fared under alternative tax policies. The approach compared a world with no policy to a world with state contingent interventions. 

The findings show that taxing housing in good times does very little to prevent excessive borrowing but subsidising housing investment in recessions lifts house prices exactly when the system is at greatest risk. It prevents fire sales and severe price collapses easing the collateral constraints that normally destroy access to credit when families need it most. Surprisingly, both borrowers and savers end up better off in the long run because more stable housing markets improve access to credit and build stronger household balance sheets over time. 

Professor Ricardo Praca Cavaco Nunes continued: 

“What really makes the difference is what happens after a crash. Instead of trying to limit people before a downturn we should be helping them recover once it hits. Our results show that modest temporary support during recessions can protect living standards and prevent the long-lasting financial damage that families so often face after a crisis.”  

  

[ENDS] 

 Note to editors 

• Professor Ricardo Praca Cavaco Nunes is available for interview, please contact mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk to arrange.   

• The full paper is available in the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control

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Journal

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control

DOI

10.1016/j.jedc.2025.105223 

Method of Research

Observational study

Article Title

Optimal credit market policy

Article Publication Date

11-Dec-2025