Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet GenDecCCR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

For decades the living biosphere has been over-exploited and subjected to a corporate-industrial food system and fossil-fuel extractivism, both practices destroying ecosystems and releasing pathogens. Global South populations – most notably women – are particularly impacted by these inter-connected ecological, social, and economic crises of our time. At the same time, however, women are a pivotal force in mobilising struggles for environmental and climate justice. This project specifically offers the first in-depth exploration of climate justice activism led by women living adjacent to coal mines and coal power stations in a ‘new frontier space’ of coal extraction in South Africa, as emblematic of the crises of our time and transformative responses to such. The project’s overall aim is to contribute towards current climate change and climate justice research and activism, through adopting a unique gendering and decolonising theoretical framework and methodology. It aims to not only develop and conduct a unique approach to conducting interdisciplinary social science research but also to have a concrete impact on the capacity of ordinary women to resist the dire effects of mega-coal mining projects on their lands and communities. The (i) methodological, (ii) theoretical and (iii) concrete objectives of the proposed research are: develop innovative feminist, participatory action research methodologies in response to the climate crisis; produce an original and interdisciplinary history and presence of the Waterberg, drawing on political ecological, feminist and decolonial theoretical frameworks in order to contribute towards understanding the historical and colonial causes of climate change in the Waterberg; support the collective self-organisation of women in the Waterberg who are campaigning against extractivism and climate change; and target future North-South research and civil society collaborations by connecting organisations.

Mots clés : decolonial perspectives, climate change

Participants :
- Newcastle University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet ClusterGal (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For decades, astronomers have known that some galaxies are living in dense associations known as “galaxy clusters”, and that many of their properties, e.g. their morphology, colour, and gas content, differ from those of galaxies living in more isolated parts of the Universe (like our Milky Way). However, understanding the physical origin of these differences has so far proved elusive, constituting a major gap in our understanding of galaxy formation. My proposed research will deliver ground-breaking new insight into this long-standing problem, based on detailed analyses of a tailor-made set of hydrodynamical cosmological simulations - the “Hydrangea” suite - that has been completed under my leadership during the last two years. Specifically, I will investigate 1.) the transformation of spiral discs into elliptical galaxies; 2.) the processes by which gas is accreted in the far outskirts of clusters; 3.) the stripping of gas from galaxies and the resulting quenching of star formation after infall into the cluster. Furthermore, I will use the insight gained in addressing these questions to improve simulation codes beyond the current state of the art, in preparation for even more accurate future simulations. This research has become possible only now, as a result of successful efforts to improve and calibrate simulation codes so that they produce realistic galaxies, computers becoming powerful enough for large simulations like Hydrangea, and the availability of multi-epoch, multi-wavelength observational data sets to test the validity of the simulations in detail. The combination of my experience in simulation analysis and the world-leading expertise at my host, Leiden Observatory, in the development of simulation models and observations of the real Universe, provide the ideal setting to make this project a success and equip me with the skills required to lead independent academic research.


Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet CROWDKNOW (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For decades, scientific activity has been firmly anchored in universities, research centres, or specialized firms’ R&D departments leading to science being considered an Ivory Tower endeavour. Making science more accessible and acceptable to the larger public is one focus of the European Commission. One possible way to achieve this goal is through crowd science, an approach that allows a wide base of (non-scientific) volunteers to participate in research projects. The potential benefit of crowd science is vast, for example, the contribution of ideas and solution by the public can widen the range of research questions that can be addressed and it can increase the acceptance of scientific findings and literacy of science in the society. While the benefit of crowd science is substantial, the vital step to reap this benefit is that scientists pick up on citizens’ suggestions and actually pursue these ideas by transforming them into research projects. Many citizens’ inputs go unaddressed because their relevance is undervalued or not recognized by scientists who are trained to interact with peers rather than layman. This can lead to a loss of valuable knowledge and might discourage citizens to contribute to crowd projects in the future. The first step to mitigate this problem is to understand what type of knowledge scientists pick up, what type of scientist participates in such endeavours and how policy can encourage further scientists in doing so. This project employs an adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) analysis to (i) measure the preferences and costs of scientists to engage in crowd input and quantifies the pick-up rate of citizens’ inputs by scientists, (ii) delineates the scientists’ characteristics that engage with citizens, and (iii) defines relevant incentives for scientists to increase their engagement in crowd science projects to derive policy measures that render future crowd science actions more successful.

Mots clés : organization of science, knowledge transfer, crowd science, open innovation

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €
Projet RESONANCES (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

For human beings, spatial experiences are conditioned by architecture. How we perceive our built surroundings affects our psychophysical wellbeing, feelings, and behavior. This argument is not a new one. However, we have yet to objectively consolidate evidence in this regard. Recently, architecture has started to interact with cognitive neuroscience. Driven by technological progress and informed by other disciplines (such as environmental psychology), their synergy can foster the evolution of the study of how people perceive the totality of sensory properties that constitute a room. The manipulation of ambient conditions (e.g., lighting, colors, and materiality) is presumed to impact our emotions. The emotional potential radiated by the built environment composes that which we commonly call “atmosphere”. The hypothesis is that architectural atmospheres define a state of resonance and identification (emotive and cognitive) between an individual and their built surroundings. This embodiment-based perspective allows us to design quantitative, reproducible methods to analyze atmospheres. The project aims to investigate the effects of architectural atmospheres on our emotional responses that underlie behavioral intentions and feelings, testing an interdisciplinary, evidence-based approach. Physiological recordings and measurements of neural activation integrate psychological self-reports that describe the consciously perceived experience. The value of this proposal lies in the opportunity to assess—through neuroscientific criteria and methodology—the existence of a neurobiological basis of atmospheric perception that would explain the link between specific visual atmospheric stimuli and altered emotional states. The planned experiments will address the current lack of empirical data and test new experimental paradigms, such as the use of virtual reality and electroencephalography technology, in order to formalize an architectural theory concerning atmospheric perception.

Mots clés : spatial perception, architecture, neuroscience, environmental psychology, emotions, atmospheres, evidence based, embodiment, physiological and neural correlates, self reports, vision, virtual reality

Participants :
- University of Genoa (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251002.56 €
- Kansas State University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ENDGAME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

For low viscosity magmas such as basalts, rapid and unpredictable transitions between effusive and explosive activity may occur. These transitions dramatically alter the impact of an eruption and pose a real challenge to policymakers tasked with mitigating the risks associated with basaltic eruptions. Mechanisms controlling these transitions, however, are not well understood, mainly due to the lack of a clear understanding of basaltic magma fragmentation. The ENDGAME project proposes to investigate transitions in eruptive styles at basaltic volcanoes by studying fragmentation of basaltic magmas through a combination of targeted cutting-edge fluid dynamics experiments, new holistic numerical modelling of magma ascent and brand new field observations collected during a basaltic eruption. ENDGAME will aim to: 1) define new constitutive equations for basaltic magma fragmentation by implementing and performing jet flow and shock-tube experiments with a bubble- and particle-bearing analogue material in combination with high-speed Schlieren shadow photography; 2) extend a state-of-the-art 3D transient model of magma ascent to model the evolution of the particle-size distribution resulting from fragmentation through time by using a numerical technique which has been recently applied in volcanology, the “Method of Moments”; 3) use the new 3D magma ascent model to investigate the transitions in eruptive style by comparing numerical results with laboratory experiments and field observations that will be collected during an eruption at Piton de la Fournaise. The interdisciplinary approach that characterizes ENDGAME, e.g. linking cutting-edge fluid-dynamics experiments with state-of-the-art 3D magma ascent modelling and field observations of an active eruption, will allow us to shed light on one of the biggest challenges in volcanic hazard assessment: what parameters and how they control the transition in eruptive style at basaltic volcanoes?

Mots clés : fragmentation, basalt, explosive eruption, magma ascent dynamics, analogue experiments, numerical modelling, fieldwork

Participants :
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet GIVIREVOL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

For more than a century, viruses were considered tiny particles, fully dependent on their host cells to replicate. The recent discovery of giant viruses, containing unusually large genomes, challenged this assumption and blurred the sharp division between viruses and cellular life. It was also striking to learn that many of the giant virus genomes encode translation-related genes, indicating that they are presumably more independent -in terms of translation- as compared to other viruses and potentially infect and replicate in a broad range of hosts. Nonetheless, for most of the giant viruses, the precise host range and natural host species remain to be investigated. In the proposed project, I will investigate the host range and genome adaptation of giant viruses by combining in silico and wet-lab strategies. I postulate that, codon usage is an important factor in the adaptation of giant viruses to their hosts, where well-adapted codon usage provides for superior viral fitness. I will analyse the codon usage preferences among giant viruses and correlate these with the known and presumable hosts they infect. This will allow me to computationally predict the best-suited hosts, and subsequently, experimentally assess my predictions on different laboratory hosts. To further investigate whether codon usage defines the rate of genome adaptation of giant viruses, I will perform experimental evolution over a half year time period. The origin and evolutionary history of giant viruses is controversially discussed. By investigating the evolutionary relationships between giant viruses and their hosts in the context of their codon usage preferences, I will contribute to a better understanding of the factors determining host range and the evolutionary processes shaping giant virus genomes. Disentangling the connection between genomic content and host range will provide important knowledge in the fields of virology, evolutionary biology, genomics, and virus-host interactions.

Mots clés : giant viruses, virus host evolution, genome evolution, fitness, adaptation

Participants :
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186167.04 €
Projet BlochTG (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For the next generation of photonic applications, there is a growing need for solid-state devices operating in the terahertz regime. Bloch oscillations – one of the oldest known quantum phenomena–describes the fundamental behaviour of electrons in crystals in which a strong DC electric-field should cause electron oscillations in real-space that emit radiation. The effect thus provides a unique route towards tunable terahertz technologies. However, experimental studies and the development of technologies based on Bloch oscillations have been hampered due to a lack of suitable materials. Twisted graphene superlattices have recently emerged as an exciting new class of 2D heterostructures whose electronic spectra can be dramatically modified by twisting the crystal layers relative to one another, creating exotic materials that do not exist in nature. In particular, the superlattice potential that is intrinsic to these systems disperses electronic states within a significantly small Brillouin zone, making them ideal candidates for Bloch oscillations. Using a combination of electrical measurements and world-unique cryogenic near-field/far-field terahertz optics, Project BlochTG combines the disciplines of quantum transport and quantum optics to probe the intrinsic light-matter interactions of Bloch oscillations in twisted graphene superlattices. The action will be carried out by the experienced researcher, who is an expert on quantum transport in twisted graphene superlattices, in the lab of Professor Frank Koppens, who has spent the last ten years pioneering the near-field optics techniques described in this proposal. Project BlochTG hence outlines a timely research effort that seeks to understand the foundations of solid-state physics whilst simultaneously investigating novel device concepts for future terahertz technologies, in-line with key objectives of the Horizon 2020 European Roadmap for Graphene Science and Technology.

Mots clés : graphene, moir  superlattices, quantum electron transport, scattering near field optical microscopy, bloch oscillations, light matter interactions, photocurrent spectroscopy, nano optics

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet PLOMAT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : MSCA other
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For the successful implementation of the PLOMAT action, it is vital for the MSCA fellow, Dr Christina Tsouparopoulou, on the one hand to do museum field trips both nationally (London, Oxford) and internationally (Greece, Cyprus, the US, Turkey or Georgia/Armenia) and to perform material analysis on the spot, and on the other hand to collect photos and scans of the material from publications available at Cambridge University’s libraries. Due to the MSCA fellow's impaired mobility, both tasks cannot be performed well and without incurring extra costs to the fellow. The funding requested would allow the MSCA fellow to perform both tasks successfully and achieve the objectives of the PLOMAT action.

Mots clés : museum fieldtrips

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 29026.0 €
Projet CryptoVolatility (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Forecasting cryptocurrency volatility is a topic of interest in quantitative finance. A growing number of studies argue that compared to equty price cryptocurrency prices are to a large and perhaps abnormal degree driven by sentiments. However, econometric studies focus on forcing conditional volatility models developed for equity return volatility to fit on cryptocurrency data despite being aware that estimation techniques developed for analyzing equity price or commodity price volatility lack robustness and do not work as intended. Is it possible to propose solutions to deal with the mentioned shortcomings? Is it possible to suggest a new family of models? If so, how? The purpose of New, realistic and robust models for cryptocurrency volatility is to answer these questions by suggesting new and more realistic conditional volatility models accompanied with reliable cross-disciplinary estimation techniques to forecast cryptocurrency price volatility. What is novel and innovative about the suggested framework is that contrary to the current literature our point of departure is the empirical features observed in cryptocurrency prices combined with a useful tool, namely, artificial neural networks used to measure sentiments. Our aim is to build a machine that produces discrete sentiment phases each day using news articles and internet search data. Once we have identified the number of phases and determined, which phase an observation at a given time-period belongs to following neural network estimation, we can estimate the model parameters, jumps and filter out the continuous conditional volatility process contemporaneously using particle filtering techniques. Besides academics, this proposal is also relevant for regulators and investors as they can learn a great deal by understanding how cryptocurrency volatility actually behaves. Regulators can use sentiment labels from the neural network to design policies to contrast and overcome financial crises in the future.

Mots clés : cryptocurrency price volatility, market sentiment, regulation

Participants :
- Tampere University (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 190680.96 €
Projet MPP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Foreign fighters pose a serious threat to Europe. Western intelligence agencies believe that approximately 400 foreign fighters have returned to the EU from Syria and Iraq, and that at least 250 radicalized individuals have been smuggled to Europe from 2014 until 2016. The major hotbeds of foreign fighters smuggling and recruitment are located in Europe itself, in Bosnia and Kosovo, both of which underwent civil wars that featured foreign fighters. We know little about how foreign fighters behave in the aftermath of such civil wars: why some continue fighting in other wars while others go back to civilian life. This is an unfortunate shortcoming because numerous studies have shown that some foreign fighters have demobilized in the aftermath of wars in Afghanistan and Bosnia, while others left for Chechnya, Iraq and Syria to continue jihad. Those who continued fighting built networks with terrorists who are responsible for recent attacks in Europe. It is, therefore, imperative to understand these dynamics in order to make sound decisions that can prevent terrorism in Europe. This project will remedy this shortcoming by pursuing three goals. First, the project will adopt a fresh theoretical framework for the study of foreign fighters. Drawing on organizational theory, career transition and political violence literature, the project aims to explain post-war pathways of foreign fighters as a function of their role in previous war(s). Such an approach goes beyond standard focus on motivations and will help elicit why foreign fighters demobilize or turn violent in a long-term perspective. Second, the project will obtain new empirical insights into how foreign fighters pursued different paths in two similar, post-conflict contexts (Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo). The third objective of the project is to develop a set of policy recommendations that will assist future policy makers in dealing with returning foreign fighters.

Mots clés : terrorism, foreign fighters, re integration, postwar, bosnia herzegovina, kosovo

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165598.8 €