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

Predictions that the Arctic Ocean might be ice-free by the middle of the 21st century are of major social, economic, political and scientific interest. Making sensible decisions on European Arctic economic development requires that scientific knowledge and data are more accessible and usable by both academics and non-academics alike. ARCGATE aims to obtain innovative physical and biogeochemical budgets for the Arctic Ocean based on the Arctic gateway observations. Integrating Arctic gateway observations the applicant has recently developed an innovative method to obtain quasi-synoptic and time varying comprehensive budget estimates using a box inverse model. The main objective of ARCGATE is to extend the inverse box model methodology to calculate multi-year Arctic heat and fresh water (FW) budget variations during 2004-2010, including import of heat, export of FW and storage of both. Over 20 million euro has already been spent on Arctic observations during this period. The host institute of this proposal holds about half of historical Arctic gateway observations. The obtained budget estimates will be disseminated and exploited through an open data policy. Furthermore, ARCGATE aims to push disciplinary and sectional boundaries. By applying the same pan-Arctic approach, the total alkalinity budget for summer 2005 will be calculated. A sound estimate of the total alkalinity budget will significantly advance understanding of the entire carbonate system of the Arctic Ocean. Mobility from UK to Germany is key to the success of ARCGATE enabling synthesis of the pan-Arctic inverse box-model developed in UK over the last six years with state-of-the-art estimates of Arctic Ocean heat, FW storage changes in time, and a new interpretation of total alkalinity all developed at the host institute for this project. Close links to the commercial Arctic shipping sector will be developed by disseminating the results of ARCGATE at international shipping conferences.

Mots clés : time evolution of the arctic ocean heat and fresh water budgets, carbonate system, ocean acidification, open data policy, box inverse model, sustainable arctic boundary monitoring system

Participants :
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171460.8 €
Projet PREGAFTERPL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Pregnancy loss (PL) occurs frequently and has negative psychological effects on women and their partners. Medical treatment after a PL is focused on emptying the uterus with no attention to psychological needs. There is limited knowledge on how to prevent and reduce the negative mental health consequences of PL, especially how to cope with the stress and anxiety during a subsequent pregnancy. Given a 25% PL rate, it stands to reason a number of pregnant women and partners may be vulnerable given their reproductive history. Interventions to support couples during a pregnancy after PL are non-existent. The proposed project aims to better understand couples’ experience and needs during a pregnancy after PL using repeated qualitative interviews. This form of data collection is ideal given pregnancy is a process where desires and needs can change over time. Couples with prior PL will be interviewed four times during their pregnancy (i.e., after positive pregnancy test and once in each trimester). The findings will inform the development of: a) recommendations to medical professionals on how to enhance the quality of health care during pregnancy after PL based on couples’ accounts of their experiences and needs across a pregnancy; b) an intervention in cooperation with the target group to increase couples’ knowledge of what to expect and how to cope during pregnancy after PL. I will significantly benefit from a placement at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Public Health, which houses the Copenhagen Pregnancy Loss Research Programme; an international, interdisciplinary research group that aims to reduce the negative impact of PL on physical and mental health and improve clinical practice related to PL. The proposed project will contribute key psychological and clinical insights not currently represented in the host group, whilst diversifying my competency into the public health and intervention development fields in which I will focus my future career.

Mots clés : qualitative research, mental health, public health, reproductive health, pregnancy loss, pregnancy, fertility

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207312.0 €
Projet METAFORA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Preventing and treating progressive microvascular loss (i.e. rarefaction) is a major challenge in cardiovascular medicine. Microvascular disease is a multifactorial disease with no effective treatment. Long-term exposure to adverse metabolic and haemodynamic conditions such as hypertension, obesity and diabetes can cause microvascular destabilisation, loss of tissue capillaries, and eventual organ failure. Interestingly, not all diabetic patients develop kidney failure. The missing link to developing effective strategies for treating multifactorial diseases, including microvascular disease, is detailed mechanistic insight into the relationship between disease pathogenesis at the organ/cellular level at the systemic/organism level. This project, METAFORA, aims to develop novel and analytical technologies to allow a new approach to understand the pathology of microvascular disease. METAFORA will develop a miniaturized metabolomics workflow to study metabolic pathways in an in-vitro microfluidic 3D microvasculature platform with organotypic functionality (the so-called organ-on-a-chip) to create personalised in-vitro models based on patient-derived human cells. This platform will enable the assessment of biochemical disease processes at the cell/organ level in the ‘whole-patient’ context by perfusing the patient’s own blood through the vasculature model. METAFORA will use and optimize a novel separation and preconcentration method, depletion zone isotachophoresis, for the miniaturised analytical platform, which will be combined with mass spectrometry for metabolite profiling.

Mots clés : miniaturization, organ on a chip, microvascular disease

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet DIVERT-AD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Preventing or delaying late life cognitive impairment and dementia through lifestyle interventions is one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century. The long preclinical phase of dementia offers an ideal time window for prevention measures, but the best timing and target group is not known. In this regard, it will become essential to understand why some elderly at-risk individuals are resistant to developing significant brain pathology and why in those with manifested brain pathology, some individuals are resilient against cognitive decline. In DIVERT-AD, I aim to unravel how modifiable lifestyle factors contribute to resistance and resilience to dementia by exploiting longitudinal population brain imaging. The key objectives are to determine whether a favourable lifestyle profile in mid- and late-life can attenuate (1) higher early-life risk of developing neuropathology, and/or (2) the adverse effect of neuropathology on cognition and then (3) to apply this knowledge to one of the first population-based positron emission tomography investigations of amyloid pathology, the key hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. To achieve these goals, I will combine genetics, lifestyle, neuropsychology and brain imaging data from three large population-based cohorts, the Rotterdam Study, Framingham Heart Study and UK Biobank, including a total of ~47,000 participants. Neuropathology will be first determined by magnetic resonance imaging techniques measuring neurodegenerative and vascular pathologies and will be later refined by molecular imaging of amyloid plaques (~700 participants). Advanced epidemiological methods will be used to account for time-varying effects of lifestyle measures and confounders. Results from DIVERT-AD will provide unique insights into the impact of lifestyle factors on the brain and cognition in the preclinical phase of dementia. In turn, these insights are of major importance for developing targeted prevention strategies.

Mots clés : population imaging

Participants :
- Erasmus MC (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 253052.16 €
- Harvard University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NARESICA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Previous research has identified stress exposure as a key factor influencing health state and ageing rate. The overall aim of the proposed project is to investigate the precise mechanisms linking stress exposure to accelerated cellular ageing (using telomere length as a biomarker of ageing), and to identify potential mechanisms allowing some species to better prevent stress-induced ageing than others. To this aim I will use two avian species (Japanese quail and king penguin) to investigate (1) if chronic stress affects telomere shortening differently between species exhibiting contrasted stress resistance, (2) if glucocorticoid ‘stress’ hormones are directly responsible of the stress-induced alterations in telomere dynamics, (3) by which mechanisms (i.e. alterations of mitochondrial function, oxidative stress and DNA damage, impaired mTOR cellular signalling or telomere maintenance) stress exposure is accelerating telomere shortening, and if king penguin have specific mechanisms preventing/limiting stress-induced telomere shortening, and (4) if chronic stress / glucocorticoid hormones modify the acute oxidative stress responses of individuals. To this end, I will employ experimental approaches manipulating stress exposure and glucocorticoid hormones in captive Japanese quail and wild king penguins, and measure the resulting impact on telomere shortening and its potential cellular drivers (mitochondrial function, oxidative stress, mTOR cellular signalling). This project will enable a two-way transfer of skills and competences between the applicant and the host, by providing training to the applicant regarding mitochondrial biology, cellular signalling and gene expression, and by providing the host with the opportunity to integrate an ageing component through the use of telomeres in his current and future projects.

Mots clés : telomere, mitochondria, oxidative stress, glucocorticoid hormone, bird

Participants :
- Université Claude Bernard - Lyon 1 (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet CourtEscape (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Prioritising the most urgent goal according to the context and physiological needs is crucial for the success of any organism. Action-selection processes are often disrupted in neuropathologies, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and addiction; however, the underlying neuronal mechanisms are not well understood. Crucially, how the brain evaluates sensory conflicting options and selects an appropriate action remains unknown. I will tackle this question using a novel assay in which Drosophila fruit fly males are confronted with visual threats during courtship, which creates a conflict between survival and reproduction. Capitalising on refined genetic tools, I aim to unravel neural mechanisms that govern the selection between competing options. I will carry out a behavioural screen to identify neurons that allow the fly to choose between courting a mate and escaping a threat. From an in silico screen of Gal4 fly lines targeting defined cells, I will select lines based on their potential connectivity with courtship-command neurons. Using optogenetic tools, I will identify neurons that, when activated or inhibited, prevent males from blocking courtship in response to the threat. Next, I will ask if these cells respond to the threat in live Ca2+ imaging studies, and test if they are linked with the courtship circuitry using pre and post-synaptic markers and GRASP (to test potential synaptic connections). To probe if candidate neurons are functionally linked, I will manipulate the activity of upstream cells, and test the responses in downstream cells with Ca2+ imaging. This will allow me to build a map of the neural network of action-selection. Finally, I will test how external and internal state variables modulate action-selection. This study will provide insights into fundamental brain processes that may work in other animals, including humans.

Mots clés : drosophila, decision making, neural circuits, action selection, optogenetics, calcium imaging, defensive behaviour, courtship behaviour, confocal light microscopy, connectome, neurogenetic dissection

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet RESpECT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Private Security Companies (PSCs) have a bad reputation, with well-known allegations of human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other conflict zones. The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers, created to deal with these problems, merges public and private governance by using auditing to measure human rights compliance by PSCs. Nationally, States responded via public and private legislative and policy options to regulate PSCs operating in conflict zones including licensing, authorisation and contracts. However, there is a major problem with these regulatory regimes. The international market for security is expanding due to increased privatisation and outsourcing of public functions and services. PSCs are now offering international security services that are: (a) often in non-conflict zones; and (b) in areas that have been traditionally within the sole domain of the State e.g. prisons, immigration detention centres. Thus the current regulatory regime does not fit current needs. It is not known or understood how effective these private governance approaches can be in ensuring public roles, in this case, safeguarding human rights for marginalised groups, in particular women, children and migrants. The objective of RESpECT is to assess the perceptions, understanding and effectiveness of current international and national regulatory and policy frameworks that deal with PSC-related human rights violations against marginalised groups, using desk-top normative analysis and social research methods to gather empirical data to provide new insights into the area. These insights in turn will generate outputs and alternative regulatory models to help policymakers, governments, PSCs, auditors, and civil society actors to understand and improve public and private regulatory frameworks for international PSCs with the aim of securing tangible benefits for those vulnerable and marginalised groups worst affected – women, children and migrants.

Mots clés : private security companies, security, international regulation, human rights, business and human rights, marginalised groups  women, children, migrants, public, private regulation, new governance

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 328968.0 €
Projet LiSDMA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Problem: Muscle atrophy is defined as a decrease in muscle mass, and is a major problem in many patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Previous studies have linked a fatty liver to the development of muscle atrophy in T2D patients, but the exact mechanisms are unknown. Background: Many T2D patients are characterised by hepatic steatosis. We have preliminary data to suggest that secretion products from the steatotic liver play an important role in the development of muscle atrophy. Aim: we will identify how hepatic steatosis affects the liver secretory profile, and we will determine the impact of these secretion products on muscle protein metabolism. We will also identify novel liver-secreted proteins that are causally related to muscle atrophy, and validate these proteins in patients with hepatic steatosis and T2D. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that hepatic steatosis changes the liver protein secretion profile which negatively impacts muscle mass. We also expect to identify proteins that are causally related to muscle atrophy, and to validate these proteins in patients with liver steatosis and T2D. Methods: We will use a translational approach in which leads from human studies will be investigated in cell- and animal experiments and subsequently tested again in human subjects. We will combine functional metabolic assays, high-throughput molecular biology approaches, cell biology and in vivo studies to investigate whether secretion products from the liver play a role in the development of muscle atrophy. Outcome: This project is the first to investigate whether secretion products from the liver directly contribute to the loss of muscle mass in T2D patients. Our research is innovative and will provide crucial proof-of-concept information to further develop therapeutic approaches to treat or prevent muscle atrophy in T2D patients.

Mots clés : muscle atrophy, liver steatosis, type 2 diabetes, proteomics

Participants :
- Maastricht University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165598.8 €
Projet PROFILE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Profiling may threaten values that the law aims to protect, and undermine goals that the law aims to achieve. Profiling involves automated processing of personal or other data to develop profiles that can be used to make decisions about people. Profiling can be used in different contexts. For instance, (i) with retail price discrimination, online shops charge different consumers different prices for the same or similar products. (ii) Lenders use profiling to estimate a consumer’s creditworthiness. Lenders can adapt interest rates to certain consumers, or refuse to lend to them. (iii) Predictive policing refers to the use of profiling technology to predict criminal behaviour.However, profiling has drawbacks. For instance, profiling can discriminate unintentionally, when an algorithm learns from data reflecting biased human decisions. Additionally, profiling is opaque: people may not know why they are treated differently. Making profiling transparent is difficult, among other reasons because of the complexity and the possibly ever-changing nature of algorithms. The project’s overarching research question is: considering the rationales for the rules in different sectors, is additional regulation needed, and if so: how should profiling be regulated? The project aims to develop guidelines for regulating profiling. I examine profiling in three sectors: retail price discrimination, consumer credit, and predictive policing. For each case study, I analyse current rules that apply to profiling. Next, I analyse these rules’ rationales, which are partly different for each sector. A rule may, for example, aim to protect a human right, or express a legal principle, such as equality, contractual freedom, or the right to a fair trial. Rules may also have economic rationales, which are different for each sector. Drawing from the three case studies, I develop guidelines to regulate profiling. Policymakers, NGOs, and other stakeholders expressed great interest in the results.

Mots clés : profiling, discrimination, human rights, fundamental rights, privacy, data protection, fairness, price discrimination, algorithmic decision making, machine learning, predictive policing, big data

Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet CARBS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Programming languages with probabilistic features are used extensively in computer science and beyond, to model uncertainty, perform quantitative analysis, inference and much more. To analyse programs in such languages, it is essential to have effective tools and techniques for approximate reasoning: for instance, determining the chance of congestion in a network, or the chance of failure of a system component. CARBS proposes a general mathematical framework of compositional proof techniques for approximate reasoning, with two essential points of focus: general applicability, to deal with the wide variety of different quantitative languages and models, and compositionality, to deal with large-scale systems. A motivating case study and application for the developed proof techniques is ProbNetKAT, a probabilistic language for describing randomized protocols and analysing quantitative properties in networks such as throughput or chance of failure. Approximate reasoning about such network programs is an important but also challenging problem, and the abundance of possible case studies will allow to immediately evaluate and apply the developed proof techniques. Approximate reasoning requires to move from behavioural equivalence to behavioural metrics, formalising how far apart two programs are. CARBS is based on integrating behavioural metrics in bialgebraic semantics, a categorical approach for a systematic study of languages and calculi based on the combination of algebra and coalgebra. Coalgebra allows to define behavioural metrics, in a general manner, whereas algebra integrates compositionality in the associated proof techniques. The overall envisaged result of CARBS is an extension of bialgebraic semantics to quantitative systems, providing on the one hand fundamental insights about quantiative coalgebras and compositionality, and on the other hand concrete, effective proof techniques for approximate reasoning.

Mots clés : coalgebra, bisimulation, behavioural metrics, quantitative systems, probabilistic systems

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 91727.4 €