Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet DocumeNDT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

DocumeNDT aims at developing improved characterization, documentation and dissemination strategies for the architectural and archaeological masonry heritage, by offering a new approach to evaluate, record and present buildings and archaeological ruins. The project proposes to develop an improved methodology for the in situ non-destructive evaluation of the masonry built heritage, based on wave propagation Non-Destructive Techniques (NDT), namely sonic, ultrasonic and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) tomography. Tomographic techniques allow visualizing and documenting the interior of masonry construction elements, typically hidden to our naked eye. In combination with existing state-of-the-art technologies developed for the accurate visual 3D reconstruction of our monuments, such as photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning, this information can provide a precise characterization of the exterior and interior morphology of the masonry element. The project ultimately aims to offer a complete 3D reconstruction of monuments. The complete 3D reconstruction of both the exterior surfaces and interior of masonry heritage and archaeological ruins has three fundamental purposes: (i) material mechanical characterization of historical masonry by obtaining specific correlations among elastic properties, geometry (internal and external), and wave propagation attributes, acknowledging that the velocity of waves propagating through a material is related to its physical and mechanical properties; (ii) documentation of the cultural heritage with full 3D digital models with unique information on the construction know-how of ancient builders, reconstructing the monuments on an almost stone-by-stone basis; and (iii) virtualization of the cultural heritage by implementing the digital models into a web open access virtual repository freely available to enhance accessibility to cultural heritage for all, both the general and specialized public.

Mots clés : architectural heritage, archaeological heritage, historical masonry, conservation, non destructive testing, material properties, documentation, virtualization, tomography, 3d digital modelling

Participants :
- Spanish National Research Council (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet MUIMME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Donor human milk banks are expanding around the world at an exponential rate, which is directly linked to global increases in premature births. The importance of human milk for prematurely born infants has been extensively identified, even among the recent social scientific work that has questioned the efficacy of human milk and health considerations. In addition, research also shows that a significant percentage of these mothers, at least initially, experience lactation problems. Europe is taking a leadership role in expansion of human milk banks, although issues associated with alcohol consumption and maternal donations are a concern for clinicians and health care staff, given the increasing problems associated with drinking among women of childbearing age. Europe with the highest alcohol per capita consumption rates in the world, makes these issues particularly immediate. The United Kingdom (UK) with its long history and current global leadership role is an ideal place to study these considerations which will inform these larger issues of human milk for the prematurely born infant. A leader in this century old intervention, supporting not only one of the oldest hospital based banks in Europe, but also an important cross-border collaborations on the island of Ireland, along with a research based national bank in Scotland, each representing different cases contributing significantly to the re-birth of the medical control of human milk. The UK is poised to offer the world vital information regarding donor human milk banking, maternal bodies and ‘trust’, an important sociological social theoretical concept which will be used to frame the triangulated data collected for this project (including interviews, archival data, and ethnographic information). Supporting an excellent experienced female researcher to return to the academy following a maternity/career break, this project directly supports women and science in society. MUIMME is an old Irish word for wet-nurse.

Mots clés : maternal and infant health and nutrition

Participants :
- University of Central Lancashire (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet RUMIC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dr. Greta Reintjes proposes to work with Dr. Wade Abbott at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to investigate the Prebiotic Functional Enhancement of Rumen Microbiomes (RUMIC). Ruminates, specifically cattle and sheep, are significant contributors to food production systems worldwide, with the EU alone producing 7 million tons of beef per year. This major agricultural sector faces significant economic obstacles due to increasing food safety and public health concerns over antimicrobial use in livestock. RUMIC aims at addressing these concerns by investigating the promising strategy of prebiotic application in livestock production systems for improved animal health and production. Prebiotics function by modulating the gut microbiome of ruminants towards improved metabolism of feeds, competitive exclusion or mitigation of pathogens, and enhanced overall animal health. RUMIC will employ novel methods in, molecular ecology, analytical chemistry, bioinformatics and super-resolution and live-cell imaging to i) visualise and quantify the uptake of prebiotics by rumen isolates, ii) to culture-independently analyse the effect of prebiotics on simplified artificial rumens, and iii) to isolate and characterise microorganisms with specific carbohydrate degrading potentials to discover novel metabolic pathways and enzymes, with the overall goal of providing evidence-based solutions for rumen microbiome enhancements. RUMIC will facilitate a mutually beneficial, interdisciplinary exchange of scientific skills and knowledge between two leading research institutes in Canada and Germany. Furthermore, it will provide a unique research platform for Dr. Reintjes, an early career researcher, to pursue an independent research project, enabling the acquisition of new knowledge, improved communication skills, establishment of new collaborations, and widening her career perspectives to the academic and industrial sector.

Mots clés : microbiome, prebiotics, glycan metabolism

Participants :
- Government of Canada (Canada) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 0.0 €
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 251434.56 €
Projet RICC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dr. Kevin Buckley (KB) was awarded his PhD from University College London (UCL) in 2011. At UCL he had worked to develop Raman spectroscopy as a tool for bone-disease diagnosis and he subsequently took a position as a Laser Spectroscopy Scientist, at the Rutherford Appleton Lab (RAL) in Oxfordshire, England, to continue this work. After leaving RAL, KB moved to the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. At UBC he worked to develop a Raman spectroscopy-based instrument for detecting chemical changes in (donated) human red blood cells as they age in plastic blood-bags. He has recently (Aug 2015) returned to his home country of Ireland and the primary aim of the proposed Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship is to reintegrate him with the research community there. The primary scientific objectives of the fellowship to develop novel analytical methods based on Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) for applications in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It is proposed that this interdisciplinary research take place under the supervision of Dr. Alan Ryder (AR) in the Nanoscale Biophotonics Lab (NBL) at the National University of Ireland, Galway. The combination of KB’s SORS expertise with AR’s biopharma expertise has the potential to deliver innovative science; KB is one of the few researchers in the world who has years of experience with SORS of complex materials (he trained under the inventor of SORS, Prof. P. Matousek FRSC, at RAL) and AR is an international leader in the development of quantitative analytical methods for biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes. In addition to scientific objectives, the fellowship programme has been designed to develop KB’s career and enhance his ability as a scientist. He will be provided with opportunities to develop academic teaching skills and will prepare a specific career development strategy. AR will also mentor KB as he prepares post-fellowship grant proposals and begins his independent academic career.

Mots clés : raman spectroscopy, spatially offset raman spectroscopy  sors, biopharmaceutical manufacturing

Participants :
- National University of Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175866.0 €
Projet INCISIVE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Driverless cars on the roads, packages delivered by drones and robot lecturers–these prospects give rise to worry that occupations may disappear or significantly change. Despite the increasing prevalence of occupation insecurity in Europe and worldwide, there is no clear conceptualization and both academics and practitioners lack a measurement tool. The aims of INCISIVE are one) to provide a clear definition of the phenomenon, considering interdisciplinary perspectives from both organisational psychology and gerontology as well as gender aspects, and two) to develop an assessment tool for occupation insecurity, which will be validated across three European languages (i.e., English, French and Dutch). This will allow researchers to establish a nomological network of the concept and provide practitioners with an assessment tool to implement appropriate interventions to support Europe’s working population. INCISIVE’s objectives address the timely issue of occupation insecurity, including dissemination of findings to the research community and engagement of a broad public audience with the aim of supporting people in the changing world of work. INCISIVE’s work plan includes bi-directional transfer between myself, KU Leuven and my secondment host, the University of Oxford. Both KU Leuven and Oxford will provide me with a stimulating and international scientific environment, access to resources and specific training, such as advanced methodology and project management skills. Through these, INCISIVE will allow me to reintegrate myself as a researcher in Europe and enhance my career prospects within the EU to undertake higher risk research in the future and impact European science-based knowledge.

Mots clés : occupation insecurity, labour market, work psychology, scale development, changing world of work

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet RHAPSODY (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Driving behaviour analytics is an emerging field with new potential for addressing the human factors that are persistently causing a huge burden of traffic injuries. However, there is need for new insights regarding driving profiles and patterns identification and a robust relevant methodology is lacking. The objective of RHAPSODY is to provide evidence for a shift of focus in driving behaviour models, targeting to identify not only the unsafe but also the optimal driving, through the analysis of the dynamic evolution of driving behaviour on both macro- and microscopic levels. Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques will be applied on existing European naturalistic driving data to identify different driver profiles and driving patterns, their rapid changes under different conditions and their variability over individual drivers and populations. Ultimately, RHAPSODY will recognize the benchmarks of optimal driving and investigate the conditions under which drivers may demonstrate best performance. These can be applied for the improvement of safety of both conventional drivers and human-mimic autonomous vehicles (AVs). Hosted at Delft University of Technology, RHAPSODY will allow the Fellow to enhance his individual competences by acquiring new skills on transport safety analysis, AVs, human factors, data management, AI and ML, as well as on responsible innovation, impact creation and commercialization. RHAPSODY will thus strongly benefit his interdisciplinary expertise and ensure his high employability as a transportation R&D data scientist. A two-way transfer of knowledge is guaranteed since RHAPSODY combines his expertise in transportation data analysis with the host’s expertise in safety, human factors and responsible AI application. Therefore, RHAPSODY will contribute to Europe’s knowledge-based growth and societal benefit, through both its novel research outputs and the development of a highly skilled Fellow on transport safety.

Mots clés : transport safety, human factors, naturalistic driving data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles

Participants :
- Delft University of Technology (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet droplet-small-seq (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Droplet-based single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies have penetrated almost all branches of life sciences and have significantly advanced our understanding of cellular processes and organism development. However, despite their astonishing impact, most of the scRNA-seq technologies reported to date rely on poly(A) tail capture and thus are mainly restricted to the protein-coding RNAs, while neglecting a substantial proportion of the transcriptome, including small non-coding RNAs. As a result, very little is known about the non-coding RNA expression and function in individual cells, and especially their role in the establishment of cellular phenotypic diversity. Small RNAs contain a variety of classes, of which miRNAs are the most common and these act as regulatory molecules by suppressing translation of mRNAs. In addition, loss-of-function studies of miRNAs uncovered their involvement in development of nearly all tissues, including hematopoiesis. However, most studies exploring miRNA dynamics reported to date relied on bulk cell assays, thus disregarding the individual cell types and their heterogeneity. In the scope of this proposal, we aim to develop a high-throughput droplet-based single-cell small RNA-seq (droplet-small-seq) for simultaneous miRNA and mRNA capture and sequencing. We will apply this newly developed technique to investigate the regulatory roles of miRNAs in cell fate decision during hematopoietic development at a single-cell level.

Mots clés : mirna, microfluidics, scrna seq, droplet small seq

Participants :
- Vilnius University (Lituanie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 146112.0 €
Projet REFOREST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Drought has been identified as an important driving factor for forest decline, hence the long-term tree-level growth assessment in relation to drought events is necessary to understanding resistance and resilience of forests. In addition, the seedling physiological responses (photosynthesis and respiration) to varying growing conditions are key to forecast the future composition of temperate forests in Europe. Younger stages of a tree’s life cycle are more sensitive to climate variations than the adult stage. Recent studies demonstrate the important role of transgenerational epigenetic effects for the adaptive capacity of a tree. Although the epigenetic control of gene expression during drought has been shown in trees at the molecular level, little is known at the physiological level. In this context, the overall objectives of this study are to quantify radial growth of Scots pine and oak along a latitudinal gradient from southern France to northern Germany with particular focus on the effects of extreme events, and to quantify the potential role of epigenetic effects on seed germination, seedling establishment and survival in variable growing conditions (temperature, light and water). The objective-1 will be based on annually resolved tree-ring data covering the entire gradient. The distinct role of epigenetic changes on seedling growth and survival (objective-2) will be accomplished applying transplanting experiments with seed from long-term irrigated trees (13 years) and trees growing under natural dry conditions, in the field and in the laboratories of WSL, Switzerland. The project will explore the adaptive strategies used by Scots pine trees to drought events, which will strengthen our understanding on the complex relations among climate and ecophysiological mechanisms, essentially benefiting the development of sustainable forest management strategies under climate change in Europe.

Mots clés : extreme drought, dendroecology, stable isotopes, regeneration, climate change, scots pine

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 187419.6 €
Projet ReadyToGo (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Drought is a major constraint on crop production and food security. Plant adaptation to water scarcity induces stress responses and the reduction of shoot growth to preserve and redistribute resources. Abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonate (JA) signalling pathways are central to modulate growth rate to match the environment. This involves a transient growth arrest upon drought, an ambivalent so called READY-TO-GO (RtG) state, which is instated by chromatin-mediated regulation of gene expression. It is not known how general this growth adaptation is, and what mechanisms apply to modulate fruit growth. This multidisciplinary project will bring together the researcher’s expertise in ABA and drought stress biology, that of chromatin regulation and high-throughput data analysis, JA signalling and cell cycle control of the host at RHUL, and tomato germplasm, TILLING, crop stress physiology and phenomics of the non-academic partner Agrobios. The objectives are 1) to establish how growth rate is reset upon controlled drought stress in tomato fruit, 2) the involvement of JA and chromatin modification to co-ordinately regulate stress tolerance and growth, 3) functionally characterise the transcriptional repressor complex, 4) use high content phenotyping to establish whether modulating the expression levels of central transcriptional repressors can lead to yield benefits during drought. To achieve these aims we shall: apply controlled watering and phenomics platforms to monitor leaf and fruit growth; detail growth and cell cycle analysis at cellular level; genome scale profiling with RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq to establish drought and JA dependent histone modifications and gene regulation; TILLING and modulated expression of HDA6, HDC1 and RBR to associate the chromatin modifications to central regulators and establish their impact on fruit yield during drought. The results will have undiscussed impact on the cultivation of an important crop in the changing climate environment.

Mots clés : jasmonates, coi1, tomato, drought adaptation, organ growth, plant epigenetics, chip seq, rnaseq, cell cycle

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet WATER DROP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Drought risks and water scarcity are expected to intensify as a result of human-induced climate change. Some areas in Europe, notably the Mediterranean countries are more prone to prolonged drought spells than others. Understanding and properly measuring the overall and sector-wide economic impact of those episodes at the geographically most disaggregated level is of crucial importance for the design of disaster risk management instruments and other policy-related issues. At the same time, it becomes necessary to assess whether this response varies over time. In other words, we need to know whether we are somehow adapting to climate change. Adaptation in the context of climate change is a concept that raises many questions: empirical estimates are scarce and highly desired by scientists and institutions like the IPCC; how this adaptation mechanism can be embedded into economic models of climate change is also an unresolved issue. I will try to address both in this project. The objective of my research is twofold: on the one hand, obtain quantitative measures of the economic impact of droughts and test for the existence of adapting behaviour and, on the other hand, respond the demands of the IPCC that urge for progress in the integration and modelling of adaptation into climate-economy models. To do so, in a first stage I will apply econometric techniques envisaged by the new climate-economy literature to regional, European-wide data to obtain estimates of the economic consequences of droughts and unveil potential adapting behaviour. Then, I will resort to sophisticated climate-economy models, like CGE and IAM models, to shed light into the modelling of adapting behaviour under deterministic and stochastic scenarios.

Mots clés : adaptation to climate change, dynamic programming under uncertainty

Participants :
- Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 42069.3 €
- Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 126207.9 €