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

Computational advancements and the development of powerful agent-based simulation frameworks have allowed us to model unprecedented realism in mosquito-transmitted diseases – a threat that millions of people face every year. While this enhanced realism has already provided important insights, agent-based models are still often outperformed in disease forecasting by their idealized mathematical counterparts. This might be caused by a lack in our fundamental understanding of how spatial dynamics need to be appropriately modeled. To date, in depth sensitivity analyses of complex agent-based models that would help to address this issue are hardly conducted, because these complex models are very parameter rich. Thus, the required model recalibration and comparisons are very runtime intensive. I introduce Gaussian processes as a powerful statistical framework that will significantly advance sensitivity analysis for agent-based models and allow us to assess the relative input importance of different model parameters in unprecedented detail. The proposed research could further deepen our understanding of how spatial structure affects host-pathogen dynamics and be a valuable contribution to the field of sensitivity analysis for agent-based models. I expect to find that spatial structure changes disease transmission potential profoundly and can cause spatial-specific model dynamics. I hope that my findings contribute to the improvement of disease forecasting and evaluation of proposed intervention strategies.

Mots clés : spatial population structure, sensitivity analysis with gaussian processes

Participants :
- Cornell University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 252349.44 €
Projet ReReDMFT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Computational chemistry (CC) methods supply approximate solutions to the Schrödinger equation (SE) and make it possible to compute a wide range of chemical properties. A problem is, however, that the work horse method in CC, Kohn-Sham Density Functional Theory, cannot always describe the process of chemical bonds breaking or formation accurately (the errors produced in H2 dissociation are a simple example). Wave function-based methods are more reliable but their computational cost is prohibitive for large systems. Recent advances in reduced density matrix functional theory (RDMFT) have demonstrated the potential of this methodology to treat such non-dynamic electron correlation effects (near degeneracies occurring in bond dissociation) at reasonable computational cost. In this project I aim to explore RDMFT in an area in which a proper treatment of non-dynamic electron correlation effects is essential: the chemistry of heavy elements. For compounds of such elements, near-degeneracies of electronic energies is the rule rather than the exception, and RDFMT emerges as an excellent alternative in relativistic CC to wave function based and DFT methods . An important complication is the importance of relativistic effects requiring the use of the Dirac equation (DE) instead of the SE. In this project, I will work on transferring RDMFT to this domain by taking the following steps: a) set up the required theoretical background, b) analyze the performance of the currently available RDMFT approximations (for two-component Hamiltonians), c) develop a RDMFT approximation for the DE (four-component Hamiltonian), and d) make this methodology available to the scientific community by implementing it in the DIRAC code. I expect that RDMFT will predict energies accurately for the DE, and it can become a powerful method to predict properties of novel materials formed by heavy elements.

Mots clés : dirac equation, four component methods, two component methods, rdmft, dynamic and non dynamic electron correlation, heavy elements, dirac code

Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet MaLeR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Computational chemistry and materials science rely on accurate methods for calculating the thermodynamic and kinetic stabilities of different compounds. In order to model large and realistic chemical systems, computationally efficient methods like force-fields are needed. Force-fields have physically motivated functional forms, but are not flexible enough to accurately describe most chemical reactions. Here, we intend to alleviate this problem by combining a state-of-the-art reactive force field, ReaxFF, with artificial neural networks (NNs). NNs constitute an example of machine learning (ML) methods, and are extremely fast to compute. Due to their very flexible functional forms, NNs can be parameterized to reproduce any other target function, which here is the error made by ReaxFF. By combining ReaxFF with the variant of NNs known as high-dimensional neural networks (HDNNs), the resulting “ReaxFF+HDNN” method will provide an all-purpose computationally efficient method for applications in chemistry, biochemistry, and materials science. The developed method will first be applied to unravel high-temperature fullerene reconstruction mechanisms, a notorious case where the original ReaxFF functional form has been shown to be inadequate. The combination of HDNNs with the more computationally expensive semi-empirical density functional based tight-binding method, DFTB, will also be explored. The development and implementation will take place at SCM in Amsterdam, which has a long-standing history of modern ReaxFF method developments.

Mots clés : molecular dynamics, reactive force fields, reaxff, machine learning, high dimensional neural network potentials, dftb

Participants :
- Scientific Computing & Modelling (Netherlands) (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 165598.8 €
Projet PhotoCloth (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Computer Graphics is the area of computer science that studies methods for digitally synthesizing and animating visual content. Among all the potential contexts where computer graphics techniques can be used, cloth animation is a particularly interesting case since, in the real world, clothing is far more than just the physical objects that we wear; clothing is a key element to show someone’s expressiveness and motion, it even defines his or her identity. However, cloth animation is a complex and extremely high-dimensional problem. To digitally synthesize cloth animation, a large number of properties that affect the way cloth behaves need to be estimated: textures, deformations, collisions, materials, illumination, etc. Current approaches for cloth animation tried to overcome this challenging problem following two main trends: image-based methods use captured data to construct a low-dimensional model to digitally synthesize new animations, however they can only sample a small portion of the high-dimensional space of cloth and poses; the physics-based methods aim to simulate cloth only using mathematical equations that express physics laws, however, they are computationally expensive and have trouble replicating real-world behavior. This fellowship will investigate a new model for cloth simulation that combines a physical-based method with image-based infomation to generate real-time believable cloth animation. The new model will use a multi-scale framework to handle the dynamic geometry and appearance at different levels of detail. The most salient dynamic geometric properties of the animation will be handled by a low-resolution representation of the cloth using a physics-based model, which reduces the high-dimensionality of the pose space to a lower-dimensional subspace. Mid- and fine-scale details such as shading, wrinkles and appearance will be incorporated by an image-based approach, using the input imagery to learn to predict those properties.

Mots clés : computer animation, cloth animation, image based animation, physically based simulation

Participants :
- King Juan Carlos University (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet SOCELL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Concentration gradients of biomolecules are essential in important biological events such as morphogenesis, inflammation, wound healing and cancer. As a consequence, devising methods to generate highly controlled biomolecular gradients for studying cellular behaviour is a major scientific endeavor. However, state-of-the-art approaches based on microfluidics suppress cellular signalling by washing molecules away, limiting their biological significance. To solve this issue, this proposal will develop an original method to create biomolecular gradients that influence cellular behaviour without interfering with cellular communication. This method relies on recent DNA nanotechnology developments in the host group that create complex ssDNA concentration gradients autonomously, through a reaction-diffusion mechanism. The goal of this proposal is to demonstrate that such self-organized concentration patterns of DNA strands can modify the gene expression of human cells in vitro. Antisense technology will be used to couple extracellular DNA gradients with changes in cellular behaviour. As a proof of principle, a two-band concentration pattern of DNA will be created, which will induce in vitro a similar pattern of fluorescent protein expression on a HeLa cell monolayer. As an application, biomolecular gradients will be used to control wound healing assays, allowing the patterning of cell culture. These results would open doors to control and study cellular behaviour while maintaining crucial cellular communication mechanisms. In the long run, this technique, that combines the self-organization of synthetic molecules and living cells, could be advantageously used in tissue engineering.

Mots clés : dna nanotechnology, chemical biology, synthetic biology, biomolecular gradients, cell, signalling, reaction diffusion mechanism

Participants :
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet PVFIFTY (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Concentrator photovoltaic solar collectors have the potential to generate electricity at costs as low as 6¢/kWh, a price where they compete favourably with wholesale electricity prices. To achieve this, a solar cell with an efficiency in excess of 50% is required and will require considerable development over the present state of the art. In particular, a new semiconductor absorber layer with a 1eV band-gap will be required in addition to solar concentrations in excess of 1000X. The proposed research addresses both of these areas. Preliminary work has identified the use of bismide semiconductors to achieve the required 1eV semiconductor junction. A 1eV GaAsBi0.062 layer can be grown that has only 0.6% mismatch to GaAs, as compared to conventional In0.3GaAs that introduces >2% mismatch. We will develop high-performance photovoltaic devices based on this material. We will characterise the optical and electronic structure of these new materials using spectroscopic ellipsometry and photo/electroreflectance. The nature and concentration of defects will be determined using time-resolved optical spectroscopy and correlated with solar cell performance data by extending existing computer models. To achieve high efficiencies at high concentrations, it is necessary to reduce the resistive loss. Here, we propose to exploit lateral emission in tensile quantum well (QW) layers to provide a parallel radiative transport pathway that delivers photogenerated charges to the electrical contacts. A series of InGaP/InGaAsP QW test structures in compressive, tensile and unstrained configurations will be grown to control the directionality of emission, which will be confirmed using spectroscopic measurements. Concentrator solar cell device structures will be processed and the effective sheet resistivity evaluated using electroluminescent imaging. Front grid structures we be redesigned to account for radiative transport.


Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet TRAC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Staff Exchanges
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Concrete is the main construction material used on earth. The increasing population and urbanization has led to construction of new high-rise buildings and demolishing existing old low-rise ones. This has become not only the cause of natural resources depletion at an alarming rate but also gradually becoming a challenge for environmental preservation. Concrete industry consumes a majority of natural resources and produces a large amount of construction waste. In order to ensure sustainable, cost-effective but still profitable concrete production, extensive research is needed to investigate how concrete industry can produce green concrete by using less nature resources and producing less waste. The aim of the proposed research is to develop tailor-made concretes by using more recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) for structural applications. The use of RCA as granular material in pavement design has been a long history. However its use in structure concrete has not been widely accepted, primarily due to the poor quality found in RCA. To overcome this technical difficulty one has to understand the behaviour of RCA and to find a way in which the quality of the RCA can be improved and controlled during its mixing process. This requires a systematic research into various specific aspects of RCA and recycled aggregate concrete products. This proposed RISE programme is to bring together an international team of researchers with a wide variety of skills, to tackle the challenges faced by construction industry. The proposed research covers the fundamental study of cementitious materials as well as their applications in different construction fields. The outcome of the research will provide vital information on how to revolutionise the production of concrete materials and how to engineer concrete mixes using various different components to tailor-made the properties of the resulting concrete.

Mots clés : construction technology, durability, fire safety, concrete mix design

Participants :
- Chalmers University of Technology (Suède) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 238500.0 €
- Shenzhen University (Chine) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Phranakhon Rajabhat University (Thaïlande) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Plymouth (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 211500.0 €
- Ton Duc Thang University (Viêt Nam) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet COLLHEAR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Conductive hearing loss is a pathology that affects about 15% of the worldwide population and more than 40% of the elderly. So far, passive implants, made of titanium and hydroxyapatite, are the preferred solution to restore the middle ear function. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of extrusion still occurs (up to 40% in the long term) due to reduced biocompatibility. The applicant (i.e. experienced researcher, ER) studied ear micro-prosthetics during his PhD and aims at developing a new generation of 3D printed bulk micro-prostheses for the middle ear made of collagen type 1 and hydroxyapatite, namely, the native components of the ear bones, to improve the quality of life the European citizens, who are highly prone to conductive deafness due to their longevity. To achieve this ambitious goal, thus maximising the acoustic behaviour of the composite material from its basic unit, the ER needs to learn multiscale design (i.e. from the atomic- to the macro-scale), which will be addressed during the outgoing phase at MIT. Therefore, a dedicated study will be carried out on 3D printing techniques in order to fabricate a set of new prototypes, which will be challenging due to the small size versus high performance of the ossicular prostheses. The ER will investigate and characterize the newly designed prostheses from a topological and acousto-mechanical standpoint at University of Antwerp (2-month secondment) and through a dedicated bioreactor, designed and manufactured on purpose at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (Beneficiary) to be used for a biologic assessment at University of Pisa (4-month secondment). The multidisciplinary approach involving acoustics, materials science, engineering, biology and otology will enhance the development of innovative clinically oriented prototypes and will contribute to the ER’s scientific and personal growth in view of a future academic or industrial independent position, based on high specialized skills and international networking.

Mots clés : ear prostheses, micro fabrication, 3d printing, bioreactor, cell coltures, acousto mechanics, computational modelling

Participants :
- Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 244269.0 €
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NanoBeat (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Conductive polymers (CP) appear as promising stimulus-responsing electroactive biomaterial for profileration of cells. CP are versatile materials that can be synthesized in different shapes and morphologies, offering a wide range of application in biosensing, implants, drug delivery and tissue engineering. Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) have become promising advanced materials and gained increasing importance for applications in nanomedicine, such as diagnosis, disease treatment, imaging, and tissue engineering. CNTs can interact with cells, cross the biological barriers, and modify their functions and biology. More recently, CNTs have become a new tool to specifically interact with the central nervous systems and support tissue repair after brain damage. Take into account of such findings, we hypothesize that CNTs exert functional effects on networks of cardiac myocytes and, in addition, the combination of those two materials will generate an outstanding scaffold for other electroactive cell growth, such as cardiac cells. In my current research, I have developed 3D scaffolds of CNT with a CP skeleton (polypyrrole or PEDOT) and aftewards, the goal of my research and thus the aim of the current proposal is to test such scaffolds for cardiac tissue regeneration. More specific aims are: 1) Adapt already developed smart “scaffold-matrix supports” for heart tissue engineering and test its viability, comprising CNT and conductive polymers. 2) In vitro and in vivo studies of healthy and genetically modified cardiomyocites (CM) of neonatal and adult rat hearts to determine the interactions between cells and the smart scaffolds and demonstrate that such devices promote heart cell growth and change their electrical properties. 3) Test other carbon nanomaterial scaffolds generated in the host group as supports for cardiac tissue engineering.

Mots clés : carbon nanotubes, polypyrrole, pedot

Participants :
- University of the Basque Country (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 257191.2 €
- University of Colorado System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet beyondRCFT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Conformal Field Theory (CFT) in low dimensions is one of the most active branches of modern physics, it is amenable to rigorous "axiomatic" formulations, hence it is naturally connected to various areas of mathematical research. For example, to CFTs one can associate braided tensor categories (describing superselection sectors, defects, topological field theories) and subfactors, i.e., inclusions of von Neumann algebras with trivial center (describing extensions, duality properties and exotic charge localizations). All these areas are independently pairwise correlated, e.g., subfactors with CFTs, subfactors with tensor categories, and they have their own history and an extremely profound literature. The aim of my research project is to analyze models of CFT, together with the associated mathematical objects, which are not necessarily "rational", i.e., which may admit infinitely many superselection sectors ("particle" excitations of the vacuum). Examples of non-rational CFTs (which are the majority among all CFTs) come from Virasoro minimal models with central charge bigger than one (there are continuously many), and global gauge theories with respect to a compact non-finite group of internal symmetries. Non-rationality of a CFT also implies that the "size" of the associated categories and subfactors have to be infinite, namely one is led to consider categories with infinite spectrum and subfactors with infinite Jones index. These mathematical objects are natural generalizations of their "finite" counterparts (modular and fusion categories, finite index subfactors), they are physically motivated, but they attracted the attention of researchers only in recent times. This research project aims to study structural properties of non-rational CFTs using modern machinery (e.g., generalized Q-systems, ind-categories, planar algebras), to study infinite braided tensor categories and infinite index subfactors arising from them, and exploit their interplay.

Mots clés : algebraic conformal field theory, operator algebras, unitary modular tensor categories, index for subfactors, mathematical physics

Participants :
- Vanderbilt University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 262269.0 €