Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet FOREST 3D - ECOCARB (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tropical forests are being destroyed at a rate of 1.5 acres every second due to human activities, thereby accelerating climate change through impacts on the carbon cycle and causing the extinction of species dependent on these habitats. Over the past 20 years the EU has been the largest net importer of 'embodied deforestation', significantly ahead of trading powers like China or North America. This trend is at odds with EU commitments to halt forest loss and mitigate climate change over the next 20 years. In the face of such immediate and globally significant issues, there is a lack of robust scientific knowledge on how tropical deforestation and degradation affects ecosystem stability and carbon pools. There is a need to develop systems that can rapidly assess tropical forest structure and relate this to carbon stocks stored in tree biomass and to habitat quality for keystone species, like primates. Remote sensing systems, such as those available from Earth observation satellites or aircraft, can deliver data on forest structure and composition. This project will utilise innovative new methods of acquiring detailed 3-dimensional data of tropical forests at a landscape-scale, using remote sensing systems on aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in order to model primate habitat and measure forest carbon stocks. The project will, for the first time, link forest structure in 3-D directly to primate behaviour and forest use, and will develop cost-effective remote sensing methods using UAVs for monitoring changes in habitats and forest carbon stocks. This innovative project brings together a researcher with expertise in the processing and analysis of data from airborne remote sensing systems, with an internationally recognised group with expertise in remote sensing, geospatial analysis, ecological modelling and primate ecology to evaluate and develop new methods to support a managed and appropriate balance of conservation and economic aims for tropical forests.

Mots clés : tropical forest primate ecology and carbon stock assessment by remote sensing

Participants :
- Bournemouth University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet RESCATA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tropical forests face an extinction crisis. Increasing temperatures and drought events jeopardize the survival of thousands of plant species, and the response of tropical forests and their species to climate change is one of the most pressing current questions in Ecology. The Andes and the Amazon are among the most important ecosystems on Earth in terms of carbon storage, biodiversity, and climate regulation. However, despite being adjacent and contiguous ecosystems, they have been studied as distinct entities and thus, our knowledge on regional ecosystem processes and species-level distribution and dynamics is truncated, limiting our ability to understand the effects of climate change in these forests. In RESCATA, I will combine ¬– for the first time– the world’s largest networks of Andean and Amazonian vegetation monitoring plots (RAINFOR and sANDES) and perform innovative species-level analyses. The goal is to identify the drivers behind plant species survival or extinction under climate change conditions in the Amazon-Andes region and to reveal ongoing and future macroecological changes in these forests. We will test the role of initial species abundance, distribution range, functional traits, and phylogeny on species success or failure. In addition, we will pioneer the standardization of Andean and Amazonian data in order to increase usage, collaboration and accuracy. Fadrique will work alongside world-leading researchers Prof. Phillips and Prof. Cayuela in order to gain macroecological knowledge, alongside new skills in big-data analysis and individual-based modelling as well as multidisciplinary connections to establish herself as a leading climate-change scientist in Europe. The results of this project will be of high interest far beyond the scientific community including government entities, policy makers, conservation agencies and the general public and I will engage them via different activities such as publications, policy reports, webinars and workshops

Mots clés : plant species, tropical forests, species success, carbon storage, functional traits, biodiversity, extinction

Participants :
- University of Leeds (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet ORIGINSOFTRUST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Trust is essential for cooperation to flourish and for societies to function. While trust-based cooperation has been investigated extensively in fields as diverse as economics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology hardly anything is known about its ontogenetic and phylogenetic roots. The planned action will fill this gap and thereby make a significant contribution to the behavioral sciences. In a first step (outgoing phase), I will conduct innovative behavioral experiments with young children to uncover the developmental emergence of trust-based cooperation over the preschool years. Particular emphasis will be placed on the mechanisms by which children generate trust in cooperative interactions, how this is enabled by the development by key cognitive capacities (future planning, inhibitory control, theory of mind), and how this changes over course of development. In addition, I will conduct comparative studies with chimpanzees – one of human’s closest living evolutionary relatives – to elucidate the evolutionary origins of trust. By using cutting-edge experimental methodologies, the action will uncover the psychological foundations of one of the key proximate mechanisms underlying human cooperative activity and help reveal which aspects of trust-based cooperation are unique to humans. In a second step (incoming phase), I will apply the newly acquired knowledge to state-of-the-art decision-making research. By combining the strengths of two highly prolific research fields the action will generate fruitful theoretical synergies and provide new insights into how decision makers manage to overcome the social risks inherent in cooperative activities by selectively adopting a trusting attitude towards specific partners.

Mots clés : trust, cooperation, decision making, development, evolution, children, chimpanzees

Participants :
- University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 239860.8 €
Projet Slow growth (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), responsible for 1.5 million deaths per annum. Moreover, due to the ability of Mtb to persist in the host, a further one third of the world population is latently infected and at risk for disease later in life. So far, the major vaccine against TB (Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine) has a limited impact on the global TB epidemic, as it does not always prevent pulmonary infections in adults. Furthermore, drug resistant strains have emerged and spread worldwide, threatening to render the actual 6-month treatment ineffective. In this context, studying the molecular mechanisms underlying mycobacterial virulence and persistence are crucial to develop new strategies to treat TB. A hallmark of Mtb is its slow growth rate. Recent phylogenetic studies have demonstrated that ancestral mycobacteria were first fast-growing bacteria, before an evolutionary separation into fast- and slow-growing mycobacteria. Intriguingly, all the main human mycobacterial pathogens, including Mtb, are slow-growers, suggesting the importance of slow-growth as a successful evolutionary step to become professional human pathogens. Using cutting-edge multidisciplinary approach, combining real-time single cell techniques and genetic approaches, I will, in collaboration with the Brosch lab, decipher the molecular mechanism(s) which led to the evolution of Mtb towards a slower growth, by taking advantage of the fast-growing M. canettii, closely related to the ancestor of Mtb and genetically tractable. I will also directly investigate the biological importance of slow growth on the virulence and persistence of Mtb by genetically engineering Mtb strains with different growth rates. Altogether, this work will lead to new perspectives and insights into host-Mtb interaction, important for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches.

Mots clés : mycobacterium tuberculosis, growth rate, evolution, virulence, persistence, fluorescence dilution, genetic screen

Participants :
- Institut Pasteur (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet MART (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), kills up to 1.5 million people every year. Despite sustained scientific attention, there is no effective vaccine, multidrug-resistant Mtb strains are on the rise, and impoverished people with little access to long, expensive treatments continue to bear the brunt of disease. A critical barrier to the development of an effective TB vaccine is our incomplete understanding of what constitutes a protective immune response. Accumulating evidence suggests a role for B cells and antibodies in preventing and alleviating TB. Existing studies show that some Mtb-specific antibodies found in blood may confer protection against infection. However, whether such protective antibodies exist at the site of infection and in what quantity remains unknown. The goal of this project is to characterise antibody responses in the lung mucosa of mycobacteria-infected mice and humans, and to assess their relationship to protection versus disease. First, I will identify the antigenic targets of antibodies isolated from lung and lymphoid organs of infected mice by proteomics. Then I will use tetramer-based enrichment and single cell RNA sequencing to investigate the dynamics, transcriptional regulation and B cell receptor repertoires of lung-resident, antigen-specific B cells – the source of lung mucosal antibodies. Finally, I will translate these findings from the mouse model to humans, using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from a clinical study of TB patients with different grades of TB susceptibility. This approach will allow me to assess the existence of these mucosal antibodies in humans and to investigate their function and protective potential. Combining the mouse infection model with this unique TB patient cohort represents a unique opportunity to address the impact of humoral immunity in the lung mucosa, thus providing a sound basis for the development of mucosal airway vaccines against TB.

Mots clés : tuberculosis, antibodies, b cells, mucosal immunity, vaccine targets

Participants :
- University of Basel (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203149.44 €
Projet BREFMC2017 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by the infectious agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is a devastating disease and one of the leading causes of death in the developing world. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a key role in anti-mycobacterial immunity and express a range of pattern-recognition receptors which are involved in the recognition of Mtb antigens. Dr Olivier Neyrolles’ lab has characterised a number of these receptors, with the most recent being, and the focus of this project, the Dendritic Cell Immunoreceptor (DCIR). They have demonstrated that compared to wild-type mice, mice with a knockout in the DCIR homolog (mDCIR1) display increased antimycobacterial immunity as a result of an impaired response to type I interferon and an increased production of IL-12 in DCs. Consequently, mDCIR1-KO mice control Mtb better than their wild-type counterparts, but also develop increased lung inflammation. Based on these findings, it is hypothesised that DCIR is a key regulator of the balance between type I and type II interferon responses. The aim of this project is to implement a multidisciplinary strategy to investigate i) expression and function, ii) signalling, and iii) trafficking of DCIR in the context of Mtb infection. These studies will be focused on the aforementioned mDcir1 in addition to a second murine DCIR homolog mDCIR2, to evaluate the extent to which they play redundant or complementary roles in Mtb immunity. This will be accomplished using i) mDcir1- and mDcir2- KO mice to assess bacterial burden and the subsequent inflammatory response, ii) large-scale phosphoproteomics and transcriptomics to assess signalling events associated with DCIR-ligand binding, and iii) immunoelectron and immunofluorescence microscopy to examine the trafficking of the DCIR-ligand complex. This research will form a fundamental basis for the future exploitation of DCIR as an immunomodulatory checkpoint for the design of novel therapeutics aimed at reducing lung inflammation.

Mots clés : tuberculosis, interferon response, dendritic cells, c type lectin receptor, th1 response

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet MYCONEUTROPHILS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tuberculosis has afflicted humans for about 70,000 years and continues to take a huge toll on human health. The increase of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the limited effectiveness of the existing treatments make urgent a deeper understanding of its immunopathogenesis. The role of macrophages in the disease has been intensively studied, but little is known about the involvement of neutrophils. Recent findings indicate that neutrophils play crucial roles in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis that are unknown until the present. Thus, in this project I will use the recognized zebrafish-Mycobacterium marinum infection model, available in the host lab, to study the role played by neutrophils in mycobacterial infection. I propose to use this infection model combined with in vivo imaging of the interactions host-pathogen, gain and loss of gene function strategies, the use of zebrafish transgenic and mutant lines, gene expression analysis, and multitude of other techniques available in the host lab to study (1) how mycobacteria can evade neutrophil recruitment and phagocytosis, (2) what is the origin of the two functionally different neutrophil populations observed in mycobacterial infection, (3) how neutrophils can kill mycobacteria in the absence of macrophages and without any physical interaction, and (4) why neutrophils act as macrophage scavengers. The elucidation of all these questions never studied before will allow me to shed light on the involvement of neutrophils in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis, and will represent a relevant improvement in the field with biomedical implications. Moreover, it will be a crucial step in my scientific career thinking of becoming a group leader in the field of immunology and infectious diseases, since I will have the opportunity to work in a relevant biomedical question, with the support of the main experts in the field, in an unsurpassable scientific environment, and with the best facilities.

Mots clés : tuberculosis, mycobacterial infection, neutrophils, involvement of neutrophils in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis, zebrafish, mycobacterium marinum infection model

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet Tumor-Treg-Targeting (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Doctoral Networks - Industrial Doctorates
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tumour immune-therapy has made dramatic improvements in recent years, saving the lives of cancer patients who just a few years ago would have been considered untreatable. It thereby became apparent that one specific type of immune cell, so called regulatory T-cells, critically hampers the efficacy of tumour immune-therapy. Tumours, however, attract and exploit the immune-regulatory function of Tregs to dampen local immune responses and to induce local tolerance. In recent years, inhibitors that directly target immune-suppressive mechanisms of T cells have found clinical application with great success. The clinical application of these so called “check-point inhibitors”, however, is accompanied by severe side effects in treated patients. Thus improvement of the efficacy of current immune-therapeutic treatments is a major unmet need. This proposal will employ the newest developments in antibody design to target the next generation of biologics right towards tumour-residential Tregs or directly into the tumour micro-environment itself. In this way we will be able to specifically shift the local immune suppressive environment within tumours, while leaving tissue homeostasis in noncancerous tissues unaffected, and thus diminish treatment associated side-effects. The here proposed project combines the expertise of fundamental immunologist, tumour immunologists and cell biologists with that of a life-science biotechnology company and that of experts in clinical cancer research to address this aspect. This group will lead a training network that aims at educating a new generation of researchers, who will be able to bridge the innovation gap between, on the one hand, early discoveries in tumour-immunology as well as in antibody technology and, on the other hand, the efficient translation and clinical validations of these findings in patients.

Mots clés : tumour immunotherapy

Participants :
- University of Navarra (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 247872.96 €
- Onena medicines sl (Espagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 13770.72 €
- University of Navarra (Espagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 247872.96 €
- Utrecht University (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 21281.19 €
- Leiden University Medical Center (Pays-Bas) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Iomedico (Germany) (Allemagne) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Aduro biotech europe bv (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 249699.3 €
- University of Edinburgh (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 493436.45 €
Projet SYRREFTDHS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide. According to the Turkish Directorate General for Migration Management (TDGMM), 3.61 million Syrian refugees resided in Turkey as of August 2020. While studies examining the effect of refugees on natives’ outcomes have recently burgeoned both in the Turkish setting and elsewhere, we know very little about the Syrian refugees themselves— despite the massive size of this refugee influx. This is mostly due to the lack of representative datasets. A tremendous new opportunity comes up with the 2018 wave of Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS), which provides a representative sample of Syrian refugees based on a household screening procedure using the official registry records from the TDGMM. Using the representative and rich data provided by this dataset, the purpose of this project is to understand the key educational, labor market, demographic and health outcomes of Syrian refugees in Turkey. This project will significantly progress the research beyond the current state-of-art first by conducting a rigorous econometric analysis of key outcomes of the biggest refugee group in the world using a representative dataset for the first time, and second by uncovering the channels underlying the observed patterns in these outcomes. Particularly, this project will address four main topics: (i) schooling, (ii) employment and living conditions, (iii) marriage and fertility, (iv) infant and child health.

Mots clés : refugees, education, employment, demography, child health, applied econometrics, demographic and health surveys, turkey, syria

Participants :
- Boğaziçi University (Turquie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 155310.72 €
- Brown University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet CRAFT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Turkey’s authoritarian drift under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) receives an unprecedented attention. However, the existing studies lack novel primary data ergo methodological depth and focus mainly on macro-structures and partisan institutions. This research project seeks to investigate the causes and consequences of ‘politicisation of civil society and the judiciary’ -the control and utilisation by political authority to consolidate power and eliminate potential dissent. The aim is to understand the lasting repercussions of politicisation of nonpartisan institutions on state-society relations and to explain how authoritarian governance takes root at institutional, civic and societal levels. The project also seeks to develop a set of policy recommendations for the EU on the question of how to re-route its government-oriented support for the judiciary and civil society, and to empower actors of reform and democratic resistance from bottom-up. Grounded in case study design, the project focuses on 3 major issues: (1) dependent-CSOs and politicised associational sphere (2) a systematic measure of to what extent high courts' judicial output reflects the incumbent’s interests and other non-legal variables (3) the implications of politicised judiciary and civil society on the EU-Turkey relations. The project analyses original data through mixed methods research, combining statistical measurement with field research, interviews and documentary analysis. Its inter-disciplinary approach and methodological rigour aims to contribute to the understanding of democratic regression and authoritarian governance in Turkey, and to advance the applicant’s career towards professional independence. Findings will be shared with the academic community, civil society, international organisations, and the European and Turkish publics. The project will also increase the research and teaching impact and output of the host institution.

Mots clés : turkey, authoritarianisation, hybrid regimes, politicisation, judiciary, civil society, eu turkey relations

Participants :
- University of Graz (Autriche) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 59385.6 €
- Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 118771.2 €