The integrated project PACE will explore the utilization of the simplest technically feasible elementary living units (artificial cells much simpler than current cells) to build evolvable complex information systems. We will create, analyse and investigate the applications of such systems that process information by self-organization starting at molecular scales. We will also determine whether life-like properties are necessary for computational systems to be fully robust and adaptive and investigate the tension between evolvable living autonomy and programmable utilization.

We will explore the collective properties of artificial cells and demonstrate that they are the right material for building nanoscale robot ecologies. The particular molecular systems we will consider will have genetically controlled catalytic reactions, self-assembly of complex supra-molecular structures, and energy transduction. We will investigate the stepwise evolution of such complex systems by machine complementation and combinatorial search using a programmable microfluidic interface.

We will provide theoretical and simulation frameworks for understanding emergent computational properties of such systems, and experimental frameworks for programming them by evolutionary exploration of chemical reactions. We will integrate and disseminate multidisciplinary European activities to give it a decisive international competitive advantage in this FET.