Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet NgCHEM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

This project aims to study noble-gas compounds by X-ray charge-density analysis and explore the structural behavior of selected noble-gas species under high-pressure in GPa range. Experimental electron-density distribution of reactive fluorides is rarely studied and no experimental charge-density analysis on noble-gas compounds has been reported to this date. Moreover, there is a genuine interest in noble-gas chemistry under extreme conditions of high pressure. However, the vast majority of studies are computational predictions and experiment significantly lags behind the theory. The project results would constitute the first X-ray charge density analysis on noble-gas compounds. This would provide new insights into the chemical bonding of noble-gas compounds and nature of their intermolecular interactions. Moreover, diamond anvil cell experiments would significantly advance our understanding of the hitherto unknown high-pressure chemical and structural behavior of noble-gas compounds. An ambitious, but challenging, experimental charge-density analysis of noble-gas compound under high pressure in diamond anvil cell will also be undertaken. Special experimental methods and techniques will be employed for the synthesis and structural characterization of reactive and air-sensitive noble-gas compounds. The two-way transfer of knowledge and skills, therefore represents an important aspect of this project.

Mots clés : noble gas compounds, charge density analysis, high pressure research, diamond anvil cell, fluorine, fluorides, crystal structure

Participants :
- École polytechnique de Milan (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Institut Jožef Stefan (Slovénie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 85699.68 €
Projet OncoNanoR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly aggressive disease, where chemotherapy remains the standard of care, enabling an overall survival (OS) of 12 months. Anti-PD-1-based immunotherapy has not improved the patient's OS, while providing only a response rate of 21%, owing to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The originality of this proposal relies on engineering a novel form of immunotherapy for the treatment of MPM, through activating the innate and adaptive tumor microenvironment, upon one single intravenous injection of self-amplifying RNA, intracellularly delivered by a targeted LipidNanoparticle, which has recently proven to successful target small drugs to orthotopic MPM. This proposal challenges a major dogma in onconanomedicine – targeting nucleic acids to extra-hepatic tumors - where I will have the guidance of Prof. Moreira from CNC, UC, who holds more than 25 years of experience in the field of targeted delivery to solid tumors, being a successful entrepreneur. Supervision will be complemented with the guidance of an immunologist (APaiva), clinical pathologist (ACarmo), expert on physical-chemistry of colloids (BSilva) and drug development (Sérgio Simões, supervisor at Bluepharma Pharmaceutical Industry). This Marie Sklodowska-Curie European Fellowship, in line with Europe Mission on Cancer, is a life time opportunity to gain a number of different transferable skills, mentoring and leadership, networking and knowledge dissemination, exploitation and communication. These will enable me to become a highly qualified researcher, able to generate and integrate differentiated and interdisciplinary knowledge, and with know-how on how to translate it towards the market and the patients. As such, a wide avenue of opportunities will be open to further pursue a career either in Academia as Principal Investigator/Group Leader or Senior Scientist in the R&D department of a company dedicated to cancer immunotherapies and/or complexes injectables.

Mots clés : targeting, lipid nanoparticles, self amplifying rna, tumor microenvironment, mesothelioma

Participants :
- Bluepharma - industria farmaceuticasa (Portugal) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Coimbra (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 215773.2 €
Projet PlastiFuel (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Plastics are playing indispensable parts in the modern civilization. Given its beneficial characteristics, it would be hard to envisage a world without plastics. However, a more sustainable method to manage plastics after usage is critically needed in the present scenario. So far wide variety of plastics have been produced over 8 billion tons, out of which about 40% have been superfluous. The plastic waste ends up as a litter, in the environment will become small fragments as microplastics (MiP)/ Nanoplastics (NiP) and only degrade slowly in natural environments and persist over years. In past decades, scientific community has investigated the efficient remediation technologies towards MiP waste. However, contemplating the MiP waste reforming to value added material, still has profound knowledge gaps. The chemical upcycling suggests a promising approach to deal with the challenges triggered by plastic wastes. Hydrogen could become an excellent energy carrier to appease the energy demand of humankind as a sustainable future alternative energy economy. The conversion of MiP into value added hydrogen fuel by photo-reforming is a newly emerging field with enormous economic potential. To better combatting the global challenges of MiP contamination, heterogenous nanomaterials play vital role due its surface functionality. The present proposed work underlines the on-site upgrading of MiP with self-propelled heterostructured 3D carbon nanofibrous based architectures (carbon-MXene/Fe-Mo2N) will be used for hydrogen evolution by photo-electrocatalytic method. These present approaches help to demonstrate ‘trash to treasure’ generation of clean H2 fuel on plastic upcycling to overcome the economical hurdle and building a pollution free economy. It helps inspiring more electrocatalytic process based fuel production in future energy.

Mots clés : 3d hybrid nanofibrous materials microplastics water pollution photo electro reforming hydrogen evolution

Participants :
- Université des technologies de Brno (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166278.72 €
Projet GENARTMENT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project explores how arts-based methods and community-based research principles can strengthen civic engagement among young people and enhance the digital participation of older adults. Positioned at the intersection of sociology of childhood/youth, ageing and cultural sociology, the study focuses on youthful narratives to facilitate two-way knowledge transfer through intergenerational communication, using a life course perspective. The main objectives are: exploring children's digital citizenship experiences by understanding the interaction between analog and digital realms; strengthening intergenerational relations through arts-based methods to foster solidarity; and enhancing civic participation and participatory culture among young people as a crucial democratic heritage. The first two objectives are interconnected through arts-based methods, while the second and third are linked through intergenerational communication and collaboration. The first and third objectives promote democratization through digitalization and use art as a tool for emancipation. Art and literature aim to evolve perspectives on childhood and empower participatory culture by sharing reciprocal youthful narratives. GENARTMENT targets small communities, including children, youth, and older adults, engaging them in the research process through co-design and co-implementation with a citizen science approach. The project involves several stages: creative data collection, integrating participatory and arts-based research methods, enhancing methodology through collaboration with children, conducting interviews to explore their digital experiences, and story collection with children and their elders through creative workshops. These stages aim to develop tools for building connections between people of various ages, exploring their past and present childhood experiences, memories, and adult imaginaries of the present and the future.

Mots clés : sociology of childhood childhood and youth studies qualitative research participatory research

Participants :
- Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation en Santé de l’Université de Porto (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191343.12 €
Projet NEC2-MABs (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The most critical challenges faced by human beings are shortage of green and sustainable energy. One of the most critical aspects of research has focused on the generation of clean and sustainable energy and storing these energies for further use. The European Union's, 8th EAP 2050 priority objective is to achieve climate neutrality in the union and aims to accelerate the green transition and restore the environment. It can be achieved by emerging new technologies in energy generation and storage systems. The battery devices that have aesthetic appeal and multi-functionality inspired the rapid development of sustainable energy sources. State-of-the-art commercial lithium-ion batteries have an energy density of 300 Wh kg-1, which falls short of the expected energy target i.e. 400 Wh kg-1. Metal-Air batteries (MABs) e.g. Li-O2 aqueous battery shows higher theoretical specific energy (3582 Wh Kg-1) and energy density (2234 Wh I-1); it is about 10 times higher than most batteries in the market today, but only two-fold improvements have been practically reached to date. Therefore, there is a lot of scope for the development of MABs. It has the capability to fulfill the energy demand rising from portable electronic devices, electrified transportation, and grid-scale applications as immersed by the European Battery Alliance. The most challenging issue in the development of MABs is the use of precious metal catalysts and insufficient catalytic activity toward the cathode catalysis. Therefore, we need to develop new cathode catalysts in the field of rechargeable MABs that are environmentally benign, safe, possess high energy density and long cycle life, and consist of low-cost materials. In this project, we aim to develop a transition metal-based, Ni-rich advanced cathode catalyst with engineered morphology and improved catalytic active surface area for cathode catalysis. The resulting MABs can store maximum energy while keeping the high power density and long life cycle.

Mots clés : metal air batteries, oer, orr, zrn, nico ldhs, galvanic replacements, kirkendall diffusion, engineered morphology

Participants :
- Université des technologies de Brno (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166278.72 €
Projet CONTESTED BIOS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Autobiographical narratives about contested conditions have been published in Western media, which often highlight personal experiences of dismissal in health care and public. Scholarship in medical humanities argues that illness narratives can give voice to affected communities and provide evidence of the experience of illness and disability. This approach emphasizes the performative power of personal storytelling and the need to witness, but risks to promote a reading of autobiography as a social good rather than as a complex, mediated and cultural practice. Specifically, what is insufficiently accounted for, is the role of mediality and materiality in autobiographical practices and politics of chronic illness. My project is a nuanced study of autobiographies of two chronic conditions: Long covid, the continuous illness after an infection with covid-19, and the chronic condition of myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are contested and debated in polarized ways in contemporary biomedicine and culture, leading to stigmatization and reduced quality of care for those affected. I closely examine a selected number of emerging autobiographical forms such as collective storytelling, virtual exhibition, and artistic microblogs which have been published in Germany and in the US (2015–2023). By analyzing new strategies of communicating illness experience I ask how these media forms and material practices affect and are affected by politics of chronic illness and disability. I will integrate a wide variety of methodological approaches from media studies and concepts from disability studies and medical humanities to claim that closely examining mediated and material practices of autobiography opens overlooked relations between illness, media and politics that are obscured by the focus on representation. The project aims to reframe autobiography within questions of stigmatization and inequality and to reconsider how autobiography is conceptualized and approached in medical humanities more generally. Combined with innovative approaches of public engagement, the project seeks to impact the cultural bias against unexplained illness and to expand my transdisciplinary research expertise at the intersection of cultural studies and medicine.

Mots clés : medical humanities english, german and polish cultural studies contemporary autobiography stigmatized illness illness narratives as media practice

Participants :
- Université de Wrocław (Pologne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 139953.6 €
Projet Microprot (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Microplastics (MPs) of various morphologies ranging from 1 µm - 5.0 mm in size have been ubiquitously detected in the environment, food, drinking water, and biota and may pose a threat to food safety, and human health. The highest reported concentration of MPs comes from the processing of foods in plastic packaging. MPs exposure to humans is more prevalent in infants than in any other age group due to the use of polypropylene (PP) based products in formula preparation. The difference in food intake and digestive physiology between infants and adults have been indicated as key contributors to the distinct patterns of proteolysis. In spite of MPs being frequently consumed with food proteins, data on the digestion process of cow’s milk in the presence of MPs are not available. The broad aim of the proposal is to investigate the effect of MPs from plastic packaging material on the digestibility of proteins in adults and infants. The project will focus on specific objectives: comparative digestibility of cow’s milk proteins in the presence of MPs (and aged MPs) in adult and infant digestion models; digestion of infant formulas in the presence of MPs in infant digestion models. The proposed study will use methodology applied in prior research and harmonised protocols for adult and infant digestion. To achieve the proposed aims, the researcher will get training through know-how transfer and research in digestion models, protein analysis, and digestomics from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Chemistry and get knowledge on MPs preparation and characterization during the short visit to Maastricht University Polymer Department. The proposed project aims to study an issue that has attracted global attention and therefore, the communication and dissemination measures will be oriented both to the scientific society and the wider public. The project will generate new knowledge on the impact of MPs on human nutrition and provide data that may be adopted by policymakers.

Mots clés : microplastics, protein digestion, adult and infant digestion models, infant formula, food packaging

Participants :
- Université de Belgrade (Serbie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 140187.84 €
Projet EIHEUDL (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This research proposal aims to investigate the effectiveness of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in enhancing inclusivity in higher education. Inclusivity ensures that all students, regardless of their backgrounds, have equitable access to learning opportunities and can fully participate in the academic community. UDL is an educational framework that promotes flexible learning environments to accommodate individual learning differences. Furthermore, the study will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative surveys and academic records analysis with qualitative interviews and focus groups. The sample includes students, educators, and administrators from selected higher education institutions in Portugal and the UK. Moreover, the research objectives include assessing the current level of inclusivity in higher education, evaluating the implementation of UDL principles, identifying barriers to successful adoption, and measuring the impact of UDL on student engagement, retention, and academic performance. Furthermore, expected outcomes include a detailed assessment of inclusivity, an evaluation of UDL's effectiveness, identification of implementation barriers, and evidence-based recommendations for enhancing inclusivity through UDL. This research will provide valuable insights for educators and policymakers, contributing to the development of more inclusive learning environments and supporting the academic success of all students.

Mots clés : inclusivity, higher education, universal design for learning udl , educational framework, flexible learning environments, mixed methods approach, student engagement, learners differences

Participants :
- Université nouvelle de Lisbonne (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191343.12 €
Projet PHERON (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Colorectal cancer (CRC) was estimated to be the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Europe. CRC can be classified into subtypes based on distinct molecular and clinical features, termed consensus molecular subtypes (CMS 1-4). The proportion of CMS4 was 38.5% in CRC stage IV patients, only 6% of whom had a 5-year survival rate. CMS4 CRC is highly malignant and characterized by a richness of stromal fibroblasts and, consequently, an increased expression of mesenchymal genes. The sialylation of CRC stromal cells, as well as tumor cells and fibroblasts, has been verified as a key factor in forming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), which is also the main challenge for immunotherapy responses. Establishing multicellular CMS4 CRC spheroids helps unravel the mechanism of CRC TME and test the drug efficacy. 3Fax-Peracetyl Neu5Ac (SI) is a sialyltransferase inhibitor capable of reversing sialylation in the TME. It can disrupt the immunosuppression of TME through desialylation and thus activate T cells and natural killer cells (NK cells). A growing body of evidence has proven that sialylation-included glyco-immune checkpoints are more widespread in tumor tissue and have a greater potential for application than PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors currently in use. Notwithstanding, nephrotoxicity remains an unsolved problem in its application. PHERON aims to develop a photodynamic liposomes-encapsulated hydrogel to achieve the controlled release of SI at the colorectal tumor site, through a novel CRC multicellular spheroid model.

Mots clés : immunotherapy, colorectal cancer, nanoparticle, hydrogel, desialylation, phototherapy, drug delivery, pharmaceutics, organoids, spheroids, nanomedicine

Participants :
- Université nouvelle de Lisbonne (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207183.12 €
Projet SynLip (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients stay in a prodromal phase over many years before robust cognitive decline. During this phase, complex molecular events lead to cellular alterations, resulting in aberrant synaptic activity and chronic inflammation which leads to neuronal death and cognitive impairment. My unpublished work, shows that melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) regulates synaptic function and revealed that the MCH system is impaired in a mouse model of early AD and AD patients. I showed that MCH regulates the neuronal expression of multiple immediate early genes that control neuronal activity, and more interestingly the expression of Ptgs2/COX2. COX2 catalyzes the formation of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins from arachidonic acid but upon activity change it produces specialized pro-resolving mediators. Thus, precise COX2 levels and activity are essential to regulate the synthesis of bioactive lipids involved in the initiation and arrest of inflammation. Ptgs2/COX2 is expressed in excitatory neurons and a link to synaptic function, seizure and neuroinflammation-associated to seizure has been established. My preliminary data shows that excitatory neurons from a mouse model of early AD that displays MCH-system dysfunction, aberrant synaptic activity and neuroinflammation have altered Ptgs2 expression. Together with genetic studies that place lipid metabolism as a mediator of microglia-mediated neuroinflammation, this suggest that COX2 can play a critical role in the neuron-microglia interaction during the prodromal phase of AD. I hypothesize that impaired MCH system leads to aberrant neuronal activity and increased Ptgs2 expression, increasing pro-inflammatory mediators and recruiting microglia activation. Here, I will study how MCH-system/Ptgs2 interaction affects neuronal lipid metabolism and test if it regulates neuron-microglia communication contributing to neuroinflammation and to the onset of cognitive decline.

Mots clés : alzheimer s disease, neuron, microglia, lipids, synapse, neuroinflammation, cox2

Participants :
- Université du Minho (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 156778.56 €