Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet carbodoH2 (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The exhaustible nature of fossil fuels places our society in seek for alternative and renewable energy carriers. Hydrogen has attracted significant attention as it holds the highest specific energy density of any known fuel. In addition, it is a clean fuel that, whose consume produces only water, electricity, and heat. Water splitting through electrolysis is an environmentally responsible, carbon-free alternative technique for hydrogen generation. Water splitting takes place in an electrolytic cell (or electrolyzer). The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) occur at the cathode and the anode of the cell, producing gaseous hydrogen and oxygen molecules, respectively. Heterogeneous electrocatalysis is a process that can accelerate these electrochemical reactions on the surface of catalysts materials. For the production of H2, the design and development of efficient catalysts towards the HER is of fundamental importance. Up today, noble metals of the platinum group (e.g. Rh, Pt, Ru) are the most attractive electrocatalysts for HER. Nevertheless, the high cost and scarcity of these materials limit their potential applications. Earth-abundant transition metals (TM) based catalysts also show great potential for the HER. Especially transition metal carbides (TMC) are very promising materials for this application, thanks to their performance and availability. In order to increase H2 generation per electrode surface area, it is beneficial to engineer catalysts with high active surface area (offering an increased amount of active sites). The present project is prepared placing this necessity in its core and aims towards the design of novel nanostructured TMCs which can exhibit a very efficient activity towards the HER. To address this challenge, we propose a novel synthetic approach which promotes the preparation of nano-engineered TMCs films standing on graphene-based highly conductive templates that exhibit very high active surface area.

Mots clés : hydrogen evolution reaction, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Participants :
- Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (Grèce) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet AI-DIAGNOSE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and debilitating mental disorder, that affects 2-3% of the population. It impacts quality of life, cognition, and is a leading cause of suicide and all-cause mortalities. Most patients are taken into clinical care during acute episodes, which puts the burden on psychiatrists to make fast, yet accurate diagnostic decisions. However, unlike most medical conditions, psychiatric diagnoses are subjective. This paired with the complexity of its clinical presentation, BD is the most misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed psychiatric condition. More objective scales used in research lack clinical application, due to time constraints and high burden on the patient. AI-DIAGNOSE wants to disrupt the state of the art of BD diagnosis through a completely novel approach: developing an automatized and fast tool for objective detection of BD and psychotic symptoms based on physiological audiovisual biomarkers and machine learning (ML). The timing of the project is supported through recent evidence, from the host, the applicant, and others, showing that speech and eye movement are promising physiological biomarkers. In a pilot study, I found that ML algorithms based on speech patterns could predict the presence of psychiatric diagnosis, and differentiate patients with and without psychosis. Eye‐tracking datasets provide insights regarding information processing patterns, and have shown potential as diagnostic biomarkers. Although eye movement and speech patterns are promising biomarkers as they can be acquired fast and without putting high burden on the patient, they have not been combined yet for psychiatric diagnostic purposes. The project will be the first to develop such a multi-modal ML diagnostic tool for BD and psychosis in BD. We will test its accuracy against the research gold standard in the field within a large patient cohort (140 patients, 70 controls). If successful, this will a major step towards precision medicine within BD and psychiatry

Mots clés : psychiatric diagnosis, bipolar disorder, digital biomarkers, psychotic symptoms, speech analysis

Participants :
- Université de Tel Aviv (Israël) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet PHOTO-ATROP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Chiral molecules containing axes of chirality (known as atropisomers) are present in natural products, bioactive molecules, and functional materials. Their increasingly important role in pharmaceuticals means that effective asymmetric strategies are needed for their preparation. However, the available catalytic methods rely on ionic pathways, which limits the diversity of atropisomers that can be achieved. This project seeks to close this gap in asymmetric methodology by providing new catalytic techniques for atropselective synthesis, based on radical chemistry, to greatly boost the impact of axially chiral compounds in drug discovery. We aim to develop methods that combine enantioselective organocatalysis with visible light photochemistry, two powerful strategies with extraordinary potential for the sustainable preparation of chiral molecules. Achieving this target would also address the key synthetic challenge of developing light-driven atropselective processes proceeding via radical pathways. The research will combine the host’s expertise in photochemistry and radical reactions with the applicant’s background in asymmetric organocatalysis. The resulting strategies will be used as a platform for assembling libraries of atropisomeric compounds that, together with biological screening carried out in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Bayer AG, will increase the probability of success in identifying drug-candidate structures. The PHOTO-ATROP project is unique because it provides training in “organocatalysis” and “photochemistry applied to drug discovery”, thus contributing to European excellence and sustainability. Its multicultural nature will broaden the fellow’s competencies and place him in a competitive position for his next career move

Mots clés : asymmetric organocatalysis atropselectivity radical chemistry photochemistry axially chiral biaryls enantioselective catalysis

Participants :
- Université de Bologne (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186720.08 €
- Bayer (Germany) (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ABRB (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The 2023 Brazilian national abortion survey highlighted that, despite legal restrictions, abortion remains prevalent, with one in every seven women undergoing the procedure by age 40. A racial breakdown of the data revealed that Black women were 46% more likely than white women to have an abortion. Access to safe abortion is an essential reproductive rights issue and a vital public health concern. The magnitude and criminalization of abortion in Brazil exacerbate the already existing class, gender, and race inequalities in the country. Reproductive health research shows that Black women face the greatest individual and institutional barriers when attempting to access sexual and reproductive care services. This group is also more likely to die from abortion-related causes and face arrest and stigma. These further stark racial disparities make access to safe abortion a matter of racial justice in Brazil. Studies on abortion in Brazil with a racial focus are scarce. In particular, little is known about how Black people in rural communities navigate and challenge legal restrictions, cultural stigma, and racial discrimination when seeking an abortion in a setting that is structurally designed to exclude them and has historically despised their fertility. This project aims to understand the experience and processes of accessing and having an Abortion in Black Rural Brazil through the lens of local pregnant people. Based on anthropological and interdisciplinary studies on reproductive health, gender, and critical race theory, this timely research will investigate how they confront the multifaceted challenges surrounding abortion access and reproductive rights in contemporary Black rural Brazil. By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork this study will generate practical evidence to improve rural abortion services in Brazil, enhance the anthropology of reproduction through concepts of stigma, justice, and autonomy, and engage civil society on this urgent matter.

Mots clés : black rural communities, brazil, abortion, reproductive rights, stigma, autonomy, inequality, racialization, gender

Participants :
- Universidade Federal da Bahia (Brésil) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 205635.14 €
Projet REGIME (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Wildfires in the Mediterranean region pose a critical impact on human lives, ecosystems, and socio-economic stability. Understanding the multidimensional nature of wildfires is crucial for assessing future ecosystem dynamics and fire management strategies. The underlying coupled mechanisms of the interaction between fire, climate components and atmospheric drivers that affect regional fire regime characteristics (fire frequency, seasonality, severity, extent etc.) are still poorly understood. Therefore, there is an urgent need for interdisciplinary approaches to address climatic and atmospheric drivers of fire occurrence, especially, in fire-prone areas with diverse regional climate conditions such as the pyrogenic forest ecosystems of the Mediterranean Basin. The main goal of REGIME is to disentangle the complex relationship between fire occurrences, and the climatic and atmospheric drivers in the Mediterranean Basin in the past and ultimately model the future probability of fire occurrence. To do so, a unique network in terms of spatiotemporal resolution of fire history of the Basin will be created combining documentary records and tree-ring-based fire reconstructions (WP1). The major modes of large-scale climatic drivers, atmospheric circulation patterns, and teleconnections that modulate fire occurrence will be analysed to understand the complex link to fire occurrence (WP2). Lastly, the potential future changes in fire occurrence over the 21st century will be evaluated to understand the driving factors and the potential consequences (WP3). REGIME's multidisciplinary nature is novel and unique which involves a combination of well-developed dendrochronology, atmospheric sciences, and fire ecology. Comprehensively studying climate-fire interactions, climate teleconnections and modelling future fire occurrence based on climate scenarios will seek to inform effective fire management strategies, policy development, and climate adaptation measures across the Basin.

Mots clés : wildfires, wildfire hotspot, atmospheric circulations, drought, tree rings

Participants :
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet DisC-PP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

A better understanding of high-latitude terrestrial carbon (C) cycling is essential for predicting global climate futures. This urgency arises from the large C stocks present in permafrost soils and the rapid regional warming observed during the past decades. Complexity introduced by strong coupling between hydrology, soil temperature, and biogeochemical processes in these systems impedes efforts to close the C budget and understand the fate of newly thawed soil organic C. Notably, groundwater discharge of C (GDC) stands out as a significant source of uncertainty in the high-latitude C budget because these fluxes are difficult to measure, highly heterogeneous, and strongly impacted by permafrost thaw.  The main objective of the DisC-PP project is to improve understanding of GDC fluxes within permafrost peatlands. Groundwater plays a key but uncertain role in the functioning of these distinctive, C-rich wetland ecosystems. By combining field measurements with ecosystem modeling, DisC-PP will address three knowledge gaps: (1) what are dominant drivers responsible for spatial and seasonal fluctuations in GDC from permafrost peatlands?, (2) how will climate-induced changes to hydrology and C cycling impact GDC?, and (3) what is the contribution of GDC to the overall C balance of permafrost peatlands? The project will be conducted at Stordalen Mire, an intensively characterized permafrost peatland in subarctic Sweden. The modeling component will employ ecosys, a validated process-rich mechanistic ecosystem model that has demonstrated applicability in high-latitude ecosystems.  DisC-PP would significantly advance my career via relevant skill development, exposure to different high-latitude ecosystems, and establishment of new relationships with leading experts in ecohydrology. Additionally, the project will enhance comprehension of how lateral C fluxes via groundwater discharge impact high-latitude C cycle and climate feedbacks – a current gap in global climate models.

Mots clés : groundwater discharge, permafrost peatlands, carbon export, ecosystem modeling

Participants :
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet OriGAMA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

One of the most fundamental questions in evolutionary biology is centred on our ancestors: How did animals originate? Recent advances in various disciplines have refined this question of whether the most profound divergence in the animal phylogenetic tree, estimated to have occurred approximately 800 million years ago, was between the sponges (Porifera) or the comb-jellies (Ctenophora), and this remains a contentious point of discussion within the scientific community. This is important as it influences our understanding of the evolution of the nervous, muscular and digestive systems. Did the ancestor of all animals already possess complex systems, or did these systems evolve at a later stage? The project described in this proposal aims to answer this question through multiple crucial steps, firstly by improving the genomic quality data from the animal clades in contention and their closest relatives, then by applying innovative and state-of-the-art phylogenomics, comparative genomics and molecular dating techniques, and thirdly through harnessing the power of hidden diversity in the environment through metagenomics. We will use our novel high-quality data to infer the animal tree of life, and importantly, to reconstruct the gene content and metabolism of their last common ancestor. Thanks to the use of complete sets of proteins, we will be able to address this question, for the first time, from a higher hierarchical level, rather than merely looking at the differences between gene histories. We can use our inference of these interacting metabolic networks, which are more conserved across deep time, to understand the evolution of the group and reconstruct the metabolism of the last common ancestor of animals.

Mots clés : metagenomics, phylogenomics, animals, ctenophores, protists, bioinformatics, molecular clocks, systematic error, tara oceans

Participants :
- Nederlandse organisatie voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek (Pays-Bas) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet SoMoWalk (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In the EU, stroke is the second most common cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability, affecting the ability to walk in 60%-80% of people suffering a stroke. In 2017, the cost associated with stroke was estimated at €45 billion. As populations continue to live to an older age, the corresponding costs are expected to increase dramatically. New non-invasive motor learning techniques based on sensory-based rehabilitation are needed. Movement sonification implies a translation of movement signals into sound, thus allowing communication of movement performance through sounds. The long-term goal of the present project is to open new avenues for introducing a new sensory rehabilitation approach, based on sonification, which will allow for inducing body illusions and creating virtual environments, treating motor disorders, as well as for inducing changes in distorted body representation after a brain injury. To date, none investigated the impact of sonification associated with a walking movement on the motor and sensorimotor cortex. On a neural level, EEG can be used to measure motor learning and bodily sensory integration, which is linked to body representation. Our short-term goal is to develop a deeper characterization of the type of sounds that can be used for motor learning through sonification, and how this will impact the sensorimotor and motor cortex, focusing on the rehabilitation of the walking ability. The project has the following specific aims: 1_Evaluate the impact of sonification on walking ability as indexed by neural markers on the sensorimotor and primary motor cortex in healthy subjects(WP2); 2_Characterize the specific sounds that will be tested for walking rehabilitation through an interactive shoe interface system in patients with stroke(WP3); 3_Investigate the possible correlations between the improvement in gait parameters and changes in body representation and bodily experience in patients with stroke when using sonification(WP3).

Mots clés : sonification, technological interface, sensory learning, neurorehabilitation

Participants :
- Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (France) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
- Université Charles-III de Madrid (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet RISA-VLC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The vast development of smart communication devices for the Internet of Things (IoT) is incurring an ever-increasing demand of wireless data services and energy sources. It is expected to witness a growth of connected IoT devices in the next few years, reaching up to tens of billions. Currently, these devices rely on batteries for its operation, but the battery recycling is a delicate matter that has a negative environmental impact due to their chemical components. Thus, it is reasonable to think that future communication systems must comply with energy-efficiency standards by minimizing the use of batteries, and then reduce its carbon footprint. The main objective of RISA-VLC is to enable battery-free IoT devices by engineering, thanks to reflective intelligent surfaces (RIS), the propagation channel of the Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology. To this end, I will retrofit the pervasive deployment of indoor LEDs to provide a robust communication link and an enhanced light power received at IoT devices. In the outgoing phase at University of Virginia I will characterize RIS to perform the additional channel path, which I will also model. Then, I will study its effect in the communication and lighting performance. In the return phase at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid I will research novel signal-processing and communication techniques to exploit the manageable channel proposed during the outgoing phase. Besides, I will establish guidelines for creating battery-free VLC-enabled IoT devices. The training activities proposed are fundamental for the achievement of RISA-VLC and my personal career goals. RISA-VLC guarantees a three-way transfer of knowledge since it combines my past experience in theoretical VLC techniques and VLC prototyping, with supervisors' expertise on optimization of systems, VLC reflection exploitation and advanced signal processing and communication techniques.

Mots clés : visible light communication, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, energy harvesting, line of sight link blockage

Participants :
- Université de Virginie (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Charles-III de Madrid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 261380.64 €