Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet HoTRiverS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

River temperature is important to many freshwater fish species which are highly intolerant of temperature extremes. The growing influence of climate change on European rivers means that fluvial organisms are increasingly threatened by high temperatures, and temperature-driven declines in fish populations are already being observed across Europe. Despite this, ecosystems in certain rivers are resilient to climate change due to the presence of alternating warm and cool habitats. Rivers with high thermal habitat heterogeneity will therefore be increasingly important in sustaining fluvial biodiversity in areas affected by climate change, and a better insight into the drivers of river temperature heterogeneity is essential. However, little is currently known about the spatio-temporal variability of river temperature heterogeneity, and understanding both the nature of this variability and its fundamental driving processes remains a key problem in the river sciences. In light of this, the aim of HoTRiverS is to quantify the spatial and temporal scales of thermal heterogeneity in UK rivers and to infer the controls and processes driving these space-time patterns. This research theme will be addressed following four key objectives: 1. Quantify variability in temperature heterogeneity across the UK using thermal infrared remote sensing. 2. Attribute observed patterns of heterogeneity to key landscape properties using a spatial statistical network model approach. 3. Understand how these landscape properties drive water temperature heterogeneity through using deterministic water temperature models to analyse the energy transfers associated with different landscape types. 4. Explore the sensitivity of river temperature heterogeneity to change by modelling future climate and land-use change scenarios. Through these objectives, we hope to achieve a better understanding of river temperature heterogeneity with a view to preserving critically threatened freshwater habitats.

Mots clés : river temperature, heterogeneity, landscape properties, climate change, remote sensing

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet WALKEr (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Robotic assisted gait training (RAGT) for stroke rehabilitation is promising but it has not met the expectations of the clinical community yet. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach, but, as now, RAGT has not been demonstrated to be superior to standard gait training. The research community is thus focusing on developing novel training methodologies for RAGT in order to fully exploit its potential. Emphasis has been given to training methodologies that promote and maximize the active participation of the patients. The Error Augmentation (EA) paradigm has been successfully developed and proved effective for the upper limbs. In the EA paradigm, perturbations are used to amplify the movement error of the patient in a way that induces a compensatory motor plan that rejects the augmented error. This approach has been applied to the lower limbs by means of split-belt treadmill training, where the speeds of the belt are set in order to amplify gait asymmetries and promote an adaptation toward a less asymmetric gait pattern. However, EA has not been applied in RAGT. Its implementation in RAGT can extend the target of this therapy to several other gait parameters. In WALKEr we plan to develop the EA paradigm on both a robotic ankle device and a six degrees of freedom (DoFs) exoskeleton for gait rehabilitation. Both developments will then be tested on healthy subjects and chronic stroke survivors to assess the potential of this technique in improving motor adaptations, motor learning and rehabilitation.

Mots clés : rehabilitation, robotics, error augmentation, motor adaptations

Participants :
- Universitätsmedizin Göttingen (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet CoMoRoC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Romances of chivalry are one of the most representative literary genres of Spanish Golden Age, which gained great popularity in XVI century. In the last few years, critical studies have stressed the importance of the uniformity of this corpus, which includes many imitations, sequels, and prequels resuming the threads of the narration where they were dropped. The main consequence is that the genre involves a great deal of stereotyping of the same situations, contexts, even episodes, which became common motifs and recognizable formulas for the readers. The fictitious biography of a knight-errant, a Christian prince who establishes his heroic credentials, finding love and power, is only the basic thread of a structure which presents a reiterative pattern where themes and motifs are usually combined in the same fashion. A motif is the smallest narrative unit of a tale, that shows persistence in the tradition, where it survived with a specific identity, and can be included in different contexts; it is a recurrent unit with a fixed narrative or descriptive content; generally, it concerns a specific episode or accident: the main action is consistent in every manifestation of the motif, but details can (and do) change. The main focus of this proposal is the analysis and categorisation of comic motifs (jokes and pranks) in the corpus of chivalric novels, starting from its most famous cycles. The research is also meant to study poetic and literary treatises of XVI-XVII centuries, to develop a reflection on the value, function and meaning of comic expression at the time. The comic elements of the genre will be then compared to the parody of the romances of chivalry realised by Cervantes in Don Quixote. This research will consolidate the general paradigm of the genre, studying its morphology; the concept of motif will be used as the interpretative key to approach both the formal aspect of the genre and its ideological background.

Mots clés : spanish golden age literature, romances of chivalry

Participants :
- Universidad de Zaragoza (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet SAFER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Doctoral Networks - Industrial Doctorates
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

SAFER will train 5 ESRs, PhD students, to obtain ample scientific, business and transferrable skills, arming them with the expertise to translate knowledge into products and services with importance for European industry and society. All ESRs will first train together at one university to develop complementary skills and basic research data; and subsequently move to two SMEs for applied and commercial research. The ultimate scientific goal for the SAFER program is to gain molecular understanding and improve selectivity in treatments of CNS-related disorders. This will be done through an interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach, building on a strong complementarity between partners, with a particular focus on the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor – the primary target for many pharmaceuticals and hallucinogens. SAFER will generate and cross-interpret pharmacology and crystallographic data, and construct computational mechanistic models and databases that can explain and guide its experiments. Thus, SAFER will gain new insights into molecular mechanisms that are fundamental to understand the biological and therapeutic effects, and to develop safer drugs. SAFER ESRs will be highly competitive on the job market and much in demand. In particular, crystallography and biased signalling pharmacology of G protein-coupled receptors (e.g. 5-HT2A) are new and highly active research fields, today mastered by only a very few research groups worldwide. The timing and location of SAFER are particularly opportune, taking advantage of the new synchrotron MAX IV in Lund, Sweden, which is world leading for the study of challenging crystals. SAFER will seek to exploit innovation opportunities from novel molecular mechanisms, ligands, and crystal structures. The results will be integrated into a public community resource, GPCRdb, giving a unique potential to achieve community impact and long-term sustainability.

Mots clés : gpcr, computational drug design

Participants :
- Enamine (Ukraine) (Ukraine) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 483878.16 €
- SARomics Biostructures (Sweden) (Suède) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 512670.9 €
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 290081.88 €
Projet SCIMFONICOM 2020 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

SCIMFONICOM 2020 is a seven-month organized by the Faculty of Physical Chemistry and Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade. Within this project, Researchers’ Night event will be organized around the theme "Lighten up your mind" in 12 cities and 3 rural communities in Serbia. The project is supported by prominent educational institutions such as Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Regional Centre for Talents. The program planned to be organized on September 25 and 26, 2020 is envisaged to include a range of highly interesting and stimulating activities, from Power up the World (series of interactive demonstrations in the area of physical sciences); Power of life (series of interactive demonstrations in the area of life sciences); Power of mind (series of interactive demonstrations and workshops in the area of social sciences); Treasure Hunt (win an award by completing hands-on experiments); Science Up (short lectures and demonstrations regarding the scientific principles behind the things we use in our daily lives); Open Lab (visit to a research laboratory with opportunity to see researchers in action); Around the World in 60 days (interactive digital media workshop) and 10 most exciting scientific experiments (interactive lectures); European Corners (interactive display of EU projects in Serbia and trivia game challenging visitors knowledge) to Science Vans (mobile researchers’ teams in rural areas). SCIMFONICOM 2020 is expected to continue contributing to the raising of public awareness about research (both in the area of natural and social sciences) and to bring researchers closer to the visitors by offering new activities and locations while obtaining greater support of educational institutions and other organizations towards RN main ideas. The project will take part in the regional RN network, bringing greater synergy at the regional and European level and emphasizing European character of RN.

Mots clés : renewable energy, great science adventure, treasure hunt, science vans

Participants :
- Institut za molekularnu genetiku i geneticko inzenjerstvo (Serbie) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 50137.5 €
- University of Belgrade (Serbie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 57875.0 €
Projet SIMREC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

SIMREC (Simulating Roman Economies) is an inter-disciplinary project that will explore the most hotly debated questions about the Roman economy: was the Roman Imperial trade market equally integrated as nowadays? How important were social networks for structuring this flow of information? It will address two methodological issues currently preventing scholars from answering these questions: limited use of archaeological big data and the lack of quantitative comparisons of complex hypotheses. SIMREC will combine recent advances in computational network science and simulation methods with increasingly available archaeological big datasets, enabled through focused training in these methods at the host institution. In doing so, SIMREC will significantly add to the accumulated knowledge on the Roman economy and will enable for the first time essential quantitative comparisons between the centuries-long Roman record and modern-day economies. The training and research offered by SIMREC will position the experienced researcher (ER) as an expert in network science and computational modelling for the study of the past, and will enable him to significantly influence paradigms and practice in Roman archaeology and history.

Mots clés : archaeology, roman archaeology, roman economy, computational archaeology, digital humanities, network science, agent based modelling, digital data, ceramics

Participants :
- University of Barcelona (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet SPONGE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

SPONGE aims at contributing to improve safe recharge of urban aquifers expanding the Sponge city strategy, in which runoff water could be collected not only to reduce waterlogging but also to foster the recharge of stressed aquifers. In this framework, great attention must be paid to water quality by focusing on microplastics contamination and its relationship with other organic and inorganic emerging contaminants. SPONGE will increase the global scientific know-how on emerging contaminants and unconventional aquifer recharge nexus in urban environments, impacting both in terms of improved water management and environmental protection. The project will open new frontiers for research on runoff and wastewater management to increase the resilience of urban aquifers to climate changes. The main expected results are: (i) quantification of microplastics contamination in rain and runoff water, assessment of their variability in time and evaluation of the relationship between microplastics and other contaminants; (ii) definition of microplastics and emerging contaminants occurrence in groundwater through the realization of experimental models; (iii) evaluation of the stored runoff water as a source to increase the resilience of the urban aquifer to the groundwater scarcity. Outcomes will be assembled in guidelines defining the best practices to manage the urban runoff and evaluate its suitability for aquifer recharge in a sponge city. In the first two years at SUSTech University (China), the researcher will perform field activities and analysis, improving his knowledge of emerging contaminants; in the third year of the project, at the University of Pisa (Italy), the fellow will finalize the elaborations and the set-up of a numerical model of the aquifer recharge. Communication and dissemination actions will be realized in English and Chinese in order to guarantee the maximum diffusion, not only to researchers but also to the civil society and relevant stakeholders.

Mots clés : microplastics, sponge city, emerging contaminants, antibiotics, groundwater, urban aquifer, aquifer recharge, surface runoff, batch tests, micro ftir, lc ms, pyrolysis gc, numerical models

Participants :
- University of Pisa (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 242335.68 €
- Southern University of Science and Technology (Chine) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet SURFACE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

SURFACE is an international, trans-disciplinary action combining approaches from archaeology, geomorphology and remote sensing to develop novel approaches to the analysis of the distribution of surface artefacts in arid landscapes. It will use these to address models of human-environment-landscape interactions in Palaeolithic Arabia and their implications for global dispersal of hominin populations. At a key crossroads of global dispersals, and with a proven but little-studied record of Palaeolithic occupation, Southwestern Saudi Arabia possesses a surface record vital to understanding Pleistocene dispersals out of Africa. How different Homo species (H. erectus, H. sapiens), utilised their landscapes, and subsequent implications for their abilities to disperse from Africa is poorly understood, and interpretation of past hominin landscape use from present-day artefact distributions is not straightforward. Distributions are the sum of varying behaviours over time, while landscape evolution alters the distribution and availability of resources linked to these behaviours (e.g. water, raw materials) and the preservation and visibility of archaeological evidence. It is only by developing a robust, well-dated model of landscape evolution, and detailed recording of surface artefacts in relation to the geomorphological units comprising the landscape, coupled with theoretical paradigms that engage with the variable time depth of surface assemblages that the potential of this record for informing on past hominin-landscape interactions can be realised. SURFACE brings together researchers from the UK and Australia at the cutting edge of developing approaches to the surface record. It will train the ER in these interdisciplinary methods to enable her to fully exploit the globally significant Palaeolithic record of SW Saudi Arabia, and to further develop methodological and theoretical approaches to the surface record, with implications far beyond the time period in question.

Mots clés : palaeolithic, arabia, landscape archaeology, geomorphology, surface artefacts, hominin dispersals

Participants :
- Macquarie University (Australie) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of York (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 216512.4 €
Projet SURE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Safe Unmanned Robotic Ensembles (SURE) Self-driving personal cars that coordinate themselves to eliminate road accidents while doubling the capacity of highways; swarms of autonomous flying machines that quickly map and explore critical areas during emergency response; fleets of service robots that inspect, clean or repair large infrastructures or vessels in a fraction of the time needed to do this manually. These are just a few examples of so called robotic ensembles, and that have the potential of revolutionizing our life in a short time span. But a key factor that can prevent them to deliver their expected benefit, is un-safety. What if such complex collective systems may be made unusable, or even dangerous, by failures or misbehaviours of a few, or even a single of their members? Threats may come from simple and inevitable physical damage occurring to individual units, or may even be the result of the deliberate action of compromised ones, due to malicious cyber-attacks directed at disrupting the service provided by the ensemble. Eradicating such scenarios is precisely the objective of the present proposal, that by directing the fellow research effort to the conception and analysis of an innovative multi-scale, adaptive and distributed diagnosis approach, will actively contribute to the creation of Safe Unmanned Robotic Ensembles (SURE). Delft University of Technology (TUD), combining top-level expertise in modelling and control of vehicular traffic flows, in distributed robotic applications, and in the conduction of robotic test-beds at its world-class experimental facilities, is a unique institution. The one where the researcher will be able to prove the effectiveness of the proposed safety techniques by operating a laboratory scale robotic test-bed. This will pave the way, within the Dutch Automated Vehicle Initiative, for trials on actual cooperative self-driving cars, a motivating example that is projected to be worth 71 billions of Euros in 2030.

Mots clés : fault diagnosis, autonomous vehicles, robotic swarms, large scale systems, distributed systems, traffic networks

Participants :
- Delft University of Technology (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet TRANSPOLOTL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Salamanders are unique among tetrapods in that they possess the unrestricted capacity to fully regenerate limbs upon amputation. Why is this the only tetrapod taxon harbouring such a striking regenerative potential and how did it evolve are two of the biggest outstanding questions in regenerative research. Over the past two decades, transposable elements (TEs) have emerged as one of the major drivers of regulatory evolution, and it has yet to be explored whether their spectacular numbers in salamander genomes might provide a rationale for the emergence of such an extraordinary phenotype. The first aim of this work will be to develop an ensemble of state-of-the-art, long-read sequencing compatible approaches to profile the highly-repetitive Axolotl genome and identify the full complement of cis-regulatory-elements (CREs) driving limb regeneration. Two methyltransferase-based technologies for the profiling of chromatin accessibility and histone modifications will be developed, applied to the regenerating limb at different timepoints and later used to identify TE-derived CREs. This approach will not only shed light on the evolution and molecular mechanisms of limb regeneration but will also set the stage for the provocative possibility of using TEs to rewire mammalian gene-regulatory-networks (GRNs) and enable regeneration. While extensively employed in a wide range of genome engineering approaches, TEs have yet to be harnessed for the regulatory rewiring of GRNs in a directed evolution context. As part of the second aim of this work, I will establish an innovative, TE-based system for the regulatory rewiring of GRNs and employ it to screen for synthetic GRNs capable of reprogramming mouse fibroblasts into a limb-bud-like state, just as it occurs during regeneration in axolotl. Ultimately, by understanding the evolutionary mechanisms behind the emergence of limb regeneration, this work aims to provide an uncharted avenue for the development of regenerating mammals.

Mots clés : axolotl, transposable elements, limb regeneration, directed evolution

Participants :
- Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 174167.04 €