Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet PreNeolithicMalaria (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tertian malignant malaria (or malaria for short) currently kills more than 400k people per year in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria probably became endemic in that region during the Neolithic transition, due to the spread of agriculture, thus imposing a strong selective pressure on the human genome. As a consequence, sickle cell anemia, a genetic disease that protects against malaria, is thought to have been selected and maintained at high frequencies among sub-Saharan farmers (Bantus) by balancing selection since the Neolithic. However, recent observations provide grounds for challenging this predominant view. Indeed, the high incidence of the sickle cell trait in sub-Saharan hunter-gatherers (Pygmies) and a pre-Neolithic origin of the human malaria parasite suggest that malaria infections affected humans much earlier than the Neolithic. Using genetic data from a cohort of Bantu and Pygmy populations, I will here test the alternative hypothesis that the sickle cell trait was selected and spread among African hunter-gatherers before the Neolithic. If proved correct, this hypothesis would indicate that human genomic resistance to parasitemias exacerbated by the spread of agriculture could have facilitated the Neolithic transition, rather than being its consequence. This new knowledge would allow us to re-evaluate the long-term role played by genetic adaptation to malaria in human evolution and to put into a new perspective a classical case study of gene-culture co-evolution.

Mots clés : neolithic transition, malaria genetic resistance, evolution and demography, balancing selection

Participants :
- University of St Andrews (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet ECOTRAIT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Testate amoebae, shelled unicellular eukaryotes, are common in freshwater and moist terrestrial environments. Their shells preserve well in the fossil record and species assemblages have been shown to be sensitive indicators of water quality change, and thus useful in environmental monitoring. Whilst the ecology of the group is reasonably well understood, a determination of their role in specific ecosystem processes has been hampered by taxonomic uncertainties. As the living cell quickly decays after death, taxonomic divisions have relied on shell morphology. This approach is problematic as genetic analysis has shown that some species display morphological plasticity, partially in response to environment, whilst other specimens with similar morphologies have been demonstrated to be distinct ‘cryptic’ species. This project will utilise techniques used by the two research communities to develop more refined methodologies to characterize test morphology (e.g., notably functional trait analysis) to provide a powerful new framework for understanding microbial food-webs and community responses to ecological stressors over multiple time-scales. Specifically, the project will apply these interdisciplinary methodologies to examine the controls on morphology in Arcellenida, the dominant testate amoebae found in lakes to: 1. examine causes of functional trait variability in modern and palaeolimnological settings; 2. develop novel biometric trait delimitation approaches using SEM imagery and 3D imaging software; 3. use genetic sequencing on select morphospecies, to test the hypothesis that variations in shell morphology are a response to environment; 4. evaluate the significance of trait-based approaches for understanding temporal changes in species composition. This research will significantly contribute to the training of the researcher, enhancing future career opportunities, as well as expanding the collaborative research network and skills of the host.

Mots clés : palaeolimnology, microbial ecology, water quality, functional traits

Participants :
- Queen's University Belfast (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet AIRLOOM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest crafting activities in human history, linking the use of natural resources and technological innovations to complex cultural and social processes. Despite the enormous economic importance of textile production, marred by its severe health impact, long-term perspectives on the history of this craft are elusive in the archaeological record, due to the perishable nature of the evidence it leaves behind, and the lack of specific and reliable skeletal markers of past occupations that would allow the osteoarchaeological identification of textile workers. AIRLOOM addresses these issues by investigating the human mouth and the respiratory tract as a ‘depositional environment’ where concentrations of textile fibres, dyes and other environmental particles can accumulate and preserve inside mineralised dental plaque (dental calculus) as a result of accidental ingestion and inhalation during manufacturing. AIRLOOM will employ cutting edge cross-disciplinary methods to skeletal collections and natural mummies from ancient Egypt, Sudan, and Lebanon (4000 BC-1000 AD). These regions are home to well-documented crafting traditions and technologies (metal, glass, textile, stone work, art), underpinning enormous inequality of living conditions for the labourers (today and in the past). AIRLOOM will integrate approaches from bioarchaeology, archaeological materials studies, ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology and environmental sciences to generate a novel multidisciplinary understanding of textile manufacturing in antiquity and its impact on health, with important direct implications for the practising of traditional textile work today. AIRLOOM is the first project of its kind in bioarchaeology, pushing current boundaries and establishing a novel archaeological focus on textile manufacturing, from ‘how and where’ textiles were made to ‘who’ made them, and at what human cost.

Mots clés : bioarchaeology, osteoarchaeology, environmental archaeology, pollution, respiratory health

Participants :
- Cyprus Institute (Chypre) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 157941.12 €
Projet THALLMORPHAL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Thallusin was the first compound identified to induce thallus differentiation in macroalgae. This intriguing chemical mediator is produced by bacteria that socialize with algae in their natural habitat. Thallusin exemplifies a fundamental symbiotic chemical communication between macroalgae and epiphytic bacteria in the marine environment. However, its general impact on the underlying microbial communities and its chemical mode-of-action remains to be clarified. Therefore we propose a multifaceted research program to study the morphogenesis-inducing mechanism of algae by chemical morphogen. The proposed project will focus at four different objectives. 1) methodology development (heteroarylative/cyclization cascade), that allows the efficient and concise synthesis of thallusin. This will be achieved by ligand directed transition metal catalysis based on good literature precedent. The first objective is scheduled to be completed in first six month of the project. 2) development of novel, concise, scalable, and efficient asymmetric synthesis of (‒)-thallusin and its analogues. This will be accomplished by enantioselective polyene cyclization and heteroarylative/cyclization cascade as key steps. The second objective is scheduled to be completed from months 6-12 and 17-20. 3) structure-activity- relationships studies and 4) understanding the mode-of-action of thallusin in algae. The objective 3 and 4 will be completed in collaborations. The labeled tool compounds and dye conjugates will be synthesized from promising candidates that will allow tracing the metabolism and degradation of thallusin in algae. The 3 and 4 objective is scheduled to be completed from 9-24 months. The results that will be obtained during the course of our research will have the potential capacity to enlighten the cross-kingdom cell-to-cell chemical signaling and will provide room for further studies at the fundamental and applied levels in green algae and symbiotic bacteria association.

Mots clés : algae, bacteria, morphogen, thalluisn, total synthesis, chemical biology

Participants :
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet HOL-DEEP-SENSE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The "Holistic Deep Modelling for User Recognition and Affective Social Behaviour Sensing" (HOL-DEEP-SENSE) project aims at augmenting affective machines such as virtual assistants and social robots with human-like acumen based on holistic perception and understanding abilities. Social competencies comprising context awareness, salience detection and affective sensitivity present a central aspect of human communication, and thus are indispensable for enabling natural and spontaneous human-machine interaction. Therefore, with the aim to advance affective computing and social signal processing, we envision a "Social Intelligent Multi-modal Ontological Net" (SIMON) that builds on technologies at the leading edge of deep learning for pattern recognition. In particular, our approach is driven by multi-modal information fusion using end-to-end deep neural networks trained on large datasets, allowing SIMON to exploit combined auditory, visual and physiological analysis. In contrast to standard machine learning systems, SIMON makes use of task relatedness to adapt its topology within a novel construct of subdivided neural networks. Through deep affective feature transformation, SIMON is able to perform associative domain adaptation via transfer and multi-task learning, and thus can infer user characteristics and social cues in a holistic context. This new unified sensing architecture will enable affective computers to assimilate ontological human phenomena, leading to a step change in machine perception. This will offer a wide range of applications for health and wellbeing in future IoT-inspired environments, connected to dedicated sensors and consumer electronics. By verifying the gains through holistic sensing, the project will show the true potential of the much sought-after emotionally and socially intelligent AI, and herald a new generation of machines with hitherto unseen skills to interact with humans via universal communication channels.

Mots clés : affective computing, social signal processing, computational paralinguistics, deep learning, multi modal fusion, multi task learning, human machine interaction

Participants :
- Technical University of Munich (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 193184.0 €
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Augsburg (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 6644.2 €
Projet NSINC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The "N'Sinc" project aims to study novel soliton synchronization and interactions in a coupled Kerr soliton cavity network and to demonstrate dual-comb technologies enabled by these novel interactions. Temporal dissipative Kerr solitons (DKS) in micro-resonators have recently emerged as a powerful platform for both fundamental nonlinear science and ground-breaking technologies. While nearly all efforts thus far have focused on single isolated Kerr cavities, coupled Kerr cavity systems offer compelling new physics and technologies including that of passively phase-locked dual-comb spectroscopy, ranging and ultrastable RF sources. The applicant recently developed a numerical model which predicts novel soliton interactions in such a system, among them soliton synchronization and soliton “hopping” wherein a soliton abruptly hops from one cavity into an adjacent cavity. This proposal will fabricate a coupled two-cavity network and investigate its capability for the predicted effects and for other novel effects such as non-identical FSR locking. This will be pursued using both Magnesium Flouride crystalline resonators and Silicon Nitride microresonators, which are well-established technologies in the host group. This project comes at an exciting time for the Kerr soliton combs field since single Kerr cavities have become well understood and new tools have been developed which can enable the precise fabrication and control of two-cavity systems. Many of these tools have been developed in the host group. It is one of the top groups in the world and the only group in Europe capable of such a project and has been responsible for establishing the Kerr soliton combs field in Europe. Whereas many U.S. groups are pursuing similar goals, the applicant has made the first numerical predictions of such a system. This project will ensure continued European competitiveness in this field and establish the applicant as a pioneer in this exciting area in photonics sciences.

Mots clés : kerr, solitons, self organization, frequency combs, micro resonator, networks

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187419.6 €
Projet ADIFF (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The 'Diff is how Cardiff is affectionately known. ADIFF is a European Researchers’ Night event, celebrating how EU-funded researchers are ‘making a difference’ to Welsh communities and beyond. This will be the first ever European Researchers’ Night celebration in Wales. The capital, Cardiff, is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK. Many people from the surrounding area travel to Cardiff for work, shopping and entertainment. The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) encompasses the whole of South East Wales, home to a range of diverse communities including seven of the top ten most deprived areas in Wales. Over half of 16-24yr olds in Wales live here. Over 90% of 12/13 yr olds in the UK aspire to ‘help others’ in their working lives. Yet only 15% want to be a scientist. By focusing on how researchers are 'making a difference' to our lives and city we will engage a diverse range of young people and their influencers. Cardiff University is a large research-intensive institution, ranked 2nd in the UK for the impact of its work. Researchers will develop engaging hands-on activities supported by, award-winning specialists, Science Made Simple. These activities will be trialed at summer festivals, online where necessary, reaching some of the 20 million annual visitors to Cardiff and generating media coverage in the run-up to the main event. Researchers will also interact with schools online and/or in person to raise awareness and encourage young people into research careers The team will work with researchers and their community partners to create content to be delivered at the European Researchers’ Night celebrations in 2020. Unexpected encounters with researchers and pop-up events will take place in public spaces across the city centre and/or online over the weekend – bringing the researchers and their work to the public and showing how they are making a difference to the lives of people in Wales.

Mots clés : outreach, public engagement, researcher engagement, stem

Participants :
- Cardiff University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 40435.0 €
- Science made simple (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 59375.0 €
Projet ARGUE_WEB (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The (World Wide) Web hosts a wide range of argumentative text from resources of multiple disciplines and online debates. Also, tools (such as Debadepedia and Twitter) encourage the communication of arguments in social and scientific settings. With the exponential growth of the Web and its users, a vast amount of argumentative text on the Web remains hidden. In order to query the Web for structured arguments included in web pages, it is necessary to address both of the following issues: (1) the deployment of technologies that enable an automatic extraction of the components of natural language arguments and the representation of their meaning and (2) the deployment of a pragmatic argumentation formalism that takes into account the uncertain and inconsistent nature of data on the Web to reason with structured arguments. State-of-the-art research in natural language processing (NLP) recently engaged in the deployment of technologies for learning the semantic similarity between statements and for the extraction of probabilistic beliefs and logic expressions from natural language text. This is a promising direction forward, toward the automatic extraction of the components of argumentative text online. Additionally, research on probabilistic formalisms supporting argumentation reasoning is at the heart of state-of-the-art research in knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR). The goal of the “ARGUE_WEB” project is to develop a scalable probabilistic argumentation system for the retrieval, for the principled management of points of view derived from argumentative text on web pages, and for query answering from such points of view. One of the central aspects of this scalable approach is the representation of structured arguments using an ontology language and the development of a formalism which is tolerant to uncertainty and inconsistency.

Mots clés : argumentation, knowledge representation and reasoning, semantic web, ontology languages, natural language processing

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 168166.9 €
Projet Light Night (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The 20th Century was characterised by a tremendous growth in our capability to develop ever more sophisticated electronic devices, which have fundamentally transformed the way society functions. We now sit on the threshold of a similar revolution due to developments in photonics, which seeks to exploit the photon – the elementary particle of light – in the same way that electronics is ultimately concerned with controlling the electron. Photonics has been identified as a “Key Enabling Technology” by the European Commission. Within Europe there are over 5,000 photonics based small companies and the sector employs nearly 300,000 people. In addition to forming the backbone of the Internet, the technology is already starting to revolutionise manufacturing, healthcare, lighting, displays and sensing. This proposed Researcher Night – Light Night - will coincide with the UNESCO Year of Light 2015, it will bring together the Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AIPT), Aston University, with the Library of Birmingham and Community Arts Group, the Flatpack Film Festival, to deliver an afternoon and evening of public engaging content, informed by EC funded research, to raise the enormous importance of photonics research to local schools, community groups and library visitors. Light Night is designed to engage adults and young people in a programme which enables them to identify the importance of light to their lives, and experiment in light based activities. The Night will end with a performance by international sound electronic music artist Pantha du Prince, who will perform his most recent album Elements of Light at the Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Mots clés : photonics, public engagement, research

Participants :
- Flatpack Film Festival (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 24676.0 €
- Birmingham City Council (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 25906.0 €
- Aston University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 33825.0 €
Projet 2DMAGICS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The 2DMAGICS project is aiming at solving actual problems related to the microscopic description, theoretical prediction, and dynamical control of magnetism and magnetic interactions of advanced two-dimensional materials and layered three-dimensional heterostructures. The main objects of investigation constitute two-dimensional group V semiconductors, transition metal dichalcogenides, layered nodal-line semimetals, and artificial surface systems represented by regular atomic structures localized on substrates. These materials will be described in terms of model Hamiltonians and studied using the state-of-the-art theoretical approaches and new theories that will be specially developed within the framework of the 2DMAGICS. Such a combination is to provide a realistic multiscale description of physical processes in the systems under investigation. The results expected will allow an accurate description of magnetic properties of realistic materials that exhibit different types of electronic and competing collective phenomena that affect magnetism. A special attention is given to magnetic properties of two-dimensional semiconductors, which are not typical in this class of materials. One of the promising problem concerns spin excitation phenomena in materials composed of heavy elements with strong spin-orbit coupling. On the other hand, the 2DMAGICS addresses practically important aspects, such as finding the possibilities for improvement and tunability of applied characteristics. Thus, an accurate description and control of already known and novel spin-spin interactions will allow to access nontrivial magnetic phases of technological importance. Realization of the 2DMAGICS is closely connected to the development of effective numerical methods, which is necessary to capture the essential role of competing collective electronic fluctuations that affect magnetic properties of materials.

Mots clés : novel two dimensional systems, magnetism, spin spin interactions, magnetic properties, spintronics

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 53730.8 €
- École polytechnique (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 114746.24 €