Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet PADECOT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A new framework is introduced for control and estimation of traffic flow in freeways and arterials. In the new methodology, feedforward and feedback control designs are developed, based on continuum in time and space traffic-flow models, which assign to the traffic flow the desired shape, with an a priori prescribed convergence rate and for any initial traffic profile. The novel control and estimation algorithms require minimum amount of information since they utilize measurements at the entries and exits of the freeway and arterial links. The designs are accompanied with tools for verification that are introduced, which provide quantified actual performance guarantees and robustness margins of the proposed algorithms. The methodology is validated in simulation, using fictitious and real data of traffic, and/or in a real traffic system.

Mots clés : partial differential equations, nonlinear systems, traffic systems

Participants :
- Technical University of Crete (Grèce) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 152653.2 €
Projet SCEL-TA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A novel lithography technique, the Surfactant-controlled Cation Exchange Lithography (SCEL) will be explored. The underlying mechanism, the Cation Exchange (CE), stems from the colloidal synthesis of nanocrystals (NCs). It allows for the transformation of the chemical composition of readily prepared NCs by exchanging their cation sublattice without changing their morphology. The SCEL relies on the selective inhibition of the CE in NCs that have been exposed to a high-energy radiation, e.g. in an e-beam lithography step or by UV-light. It has been shown that the radiation induces a cross-linking of the surfactants, which then, when exposed to a solution of suitable cations, form an impermeable shell for the cations and thus inhibit the reaction. In the proposed SCEL the cation exchange will be carried out on thin films of NCs (mostly CdS or CdSe), which are then partially transformed into CuXS or CuXSe, respectively. We will investigate on the limits of the SCEL as a competitive lithography method in terms for the production of devices with colloidal nanocrystals as functional elements. Ideally, we will be able to controllably address a small number of NCs by transforming their neighbours into conductive material. The research comprises a study on the mechanism of inhibition of the cation exchange after irradiation and a study on the dynamics of the CE in individual nanocrystals.

Mots clés : nanolithography, colloidal nanocrystals, cation exchange, functional devices, surfactants

Participants :
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 168277.2 €
Projet TrueCell (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A paradigm shift in health-care towards personalized medicine is slowly under way to tailor treatments to each unique individual’s needs. A key avenue for developing this field consists in recreating in vitro models of specific body parts with cells. In particular, cells need to be placed in three-dimensions (3D) to truly recapitulate their normal environment in the body; yet current commercial assays only facilitate culture of cells in two-dimensions, which causes cells to behave very differently thus distorting the results. Microfluidic technology is ripe for facilitating this transition, but does not offer any tool to facilitate the first essential step that consists in embedding cells in gels so that they evolve in 3D inside the gel. To address this need, we propose a novel microfluidic platform that automates cell mixing with biological gels, that overcomes the challenge of mixing liquids with such different viscosities (i.e. gel and cells in liquid), and offers precise temperature control to regulate the gel formation process. This novel tool will automate a tedious procedure that is normally done manually in the lab, which will accelerate the protocol and encourage a wider practice of 3D cell culture, and guarantee the reproducibility of the gel formation around the cells. This project will enable both I and a start-up to acquire new skills in a cutting-edge field, thus driving European innovation. I will gain new expertise in becoming an independent entrepreneur and in fabricating microfluidic tools, which will complement my pre-existing deep knowledge of biological microfluidic applications. This will enable me to transition from academia to industry, from the USA to Europe, and commercialize on my own the many ideas I have been developing over my extensive career in academic research, while Elvesys who wants to enter the growing field of microfluidic cell culture, will gain an expert in 3D cell culture trained in a world-renowned academic laboratory.

Mots clés : microfluidic model, organ on a chip, cell culture, extracellular matrix, cell migration, drug testing

Participants :
- Elvesys (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet ECOFOULPEST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A pesticide is defined as any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. They include herbicides for destroying weeds and other unwanted vegetation, insecticides for controlling a wide variety of insects, fungicides used to prevent the growth of molds, disinfectants for preventing the spread of bacteria, and rodenticides used to control mice and rats. Undoubtedly, the use of a wide range of pesticides has increased crop yields, controlled disease vectors and reduced postharvest losses. However, practically all pesticides are poisons and some of them pose long-term danger to the environment and humans through their persistence in nature and body tissue. Ideally a pesticide must be lethal to the targeted pests, but not to non-target species, including man. In the search for new alternatives, several researches paid attention towards the marine environment. Indeed, marine organisms are in constant competition with other species and any organism being able to produce compounds providing it with an evolutional advantage will prevail. Such products have been optimized through evolution to be highly efficient and represent as many opportunities for us, researchers, to develop "greener" tools to answer the increasing demand for environmentally respectful chemicals. The main goal of the project I propose is to assess the potential of specific marine organisms to produce prototype ecofriendly agrochemical agents, especially herbicides and fungicides, and to further evaluate the potential hits. In parallel, I will investigate the biosynthetic pathway of the natural compound as well as its ecological role towards other marine organisms. I envision to cover several cutting-edge areas both in fundamental and applied research, from bioprospection to ecotoxicology and including biological testing, chemical ecology and medicinal chemistry.

Mots clés : agronomy

Participants :
- Université de Brest (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet SCP-Disorder (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A primary tool to understand the properties of matter is Density Functional Theory (DFT), a reformulation of the many-electron Schroedinger equation based on a functional of the electronic density (rather than the wave-function). Although such formulation is in principle exact, its practical implementation has to rely on approximations, which, despite being successful in explaining many properties of complex molecules and condensed matter, fail when correlation among electrons becomes important. In recent years, the hosting group has developed a formalism to deal with strong correlation in density functional theory, based on the exact DFT limit of infinite coupling strength. The formalism has also been extended to bosonic systems with different kind of long-ranged repulsive interactions with very promising proof of principle results. The underlying fixed point equations that need to be solved are non-standard and very little work on the numerical side (with the exception of primitive proof of principle implementations) has been done so far. The researcher in this project is an applied mathematician with outstanding track record in designing numerical algorithms for several different physical problems. In particular, he has developed a new method to solve the non-linear Schroedinger one-particle equations, called spectral renormalization method, which is the perfect tool to solve the fixed point problem related to the strong-coupling limit of DFT. In this project we will put together the expertise of the researcher and of the host to bring to full maturity the new theoretical framework of DFT for strongly-correlated systems. In particular, we plan to apply the new methodology to study systems with disorder, analyzing Anderson localization in the presence of strong correlation.


Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet DABAT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

A recent paradigm shift is that B cells are pivotal in chronic graft-versus-host-disease (cGVHD), which is the most relevant cause of late non-relapse morbidity and mortality after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. DABAT’s project hypothesis is that 1) DNA-sensing by AIM2 supports cGVHD pathological B cells through autocrine regulations and that 2) their DNase1L3 expression modulates DNA-sensing by AIM2. Doctor Sarantopoulos (Duke University, US, supervisor for the outgoing phase) recently performed a single cell RNA-Sequencing experiment showing that AIM2 is upregulated in cGVHD patient B cells. Upon DNA binding, the AIM2 protein induces AIM2 inflammasome formation that triggers pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion. The survival and function of pathological B cells in cGVHD seem to be based on similar mechanisms to those of marginal zone (MZ) B cells. Doctor Sisirak (Bordeaux University, France, supervisor for the incoming phase) showed that DNase1L3, a major enzyme regulating extracellular DNA exposure, could play a pivotal role in MZ B cells development. The researcher will conduct the DABAT project under the supervision of these two internationally recognized experts in cGVHD B cells and DNase1L3. He will study AIM2 and DNase1L3 in human B cells and in mouse models. This fellowship will provide him with advanced technical training in B cell studies, flow cytometry, transcriptomic, histopathology and animal handling. He could identify intrinsic molecular programs underpinning B cell pathobiology, so that agents targeting B cell can be developed to treat cGVHD. He will be the main spokesperson of the project to a large audience. This fellowship will be a crucial step to extend his knowledge, to develop his communication, management and leadership skills, and to enlarge his international professional network. He will then become a mature and independent researcher enriching EU expertise and networking in Immunology and Transplant Immunology.

Mots clés : allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, chronic graft versus host disease, b cells, inflammasome, dna sensing, aim2, dnase1l3

Participants :
- Université de Bordeaux (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 275619.84 €
- Duke University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet Stim-Plast-O (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A substantial impediment to healthy living in older adults is the compromised functioning of the motor system, and the neuroplastic processes underlying the learning and retention of motor skills in particular. A promising avenue to boost motor-related neuroplasticity in older adults is non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS); however, remarkably little is known with respect to the neural correlates of this intervention. Accordingly, the overarching objective of this research programme is to investigate – via multiple magnetic resonance imaging acquisition sequences and analytic techniques – the effects of NIBS on the neuroplasticity underlying motor learning in healthy older adults (STIM-PLAST-O; STIMulation-induced neuroPLASTicity in Older adults). Such an investigation is essential before NIBS-based interventions can be employed as a viable avenue to mitigate age- or pathology-related declines in motor functioning and is consistent with the European Commission’s initiative to increase the healthy lifespan of Europeans by 2 years prior to 2020. This research programme is the optimal combination of my own experience in lifespan motor behaviour and activation-based functional MRI with the long-standing brain stimulation and brain imaging expertise within the Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group at KU Leuven. Integration within this multidisciplinary team will offer an exceptional opportunity to increase my methodological skill set, including functional connectivity analytic techniques, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the analysis of structural brain characteristics as well as the implementation of NIBS. Moreover, this Marie Skłodowska Curie action will allow me to continue to develop an international network of collaborators and gain in-depth training in project and financial management, supervisory skills and grant writing that will promote my development as an independent researcher and enhance my ability to obtain a permanent position in academia.

Mots clés : motor learning, neuroplasticity, brain stimulation, fmri, magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160800.0 €
Projet FRUITFUL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

A trip to a grocery store exposes us to an outstanding diversity of fruits. While this variety was influenced by human selection during plant domestication, it mainly reflects strategies of seed dispersal that evolved over millions of years. Despite the huge variation in fruit color, shape, and size, common patterns can still be identified, especially the repeated evolution of fleshy fruits (e.g. olives, apples, tomatoes). Though this pattern is well observed, we are still exploring the role of different factors and their selective pressures. These can be intrinsic, as evolution of inherited genes determining fruit traits, or extrinsic, as the environment. To date, studies have focused on one or two major factors at a time, but their relative contributions requires an integrative analysis. FRUITFUL will dissect the evolution of fleshy fruits in the olive family. Oleaceae is the ideal study subject here because it presents a natural comparative set-up for fruit evolution: multiple lineages that independently evolved fleshy fruits; species living in a variety of environments; and diverse seed dispersers. Further, several genomes and transcriptomes of Oleaceae were recently released. In this project, I will: (1) identify independent transitions to fleshy fruit within a comprehensive phylogenetic framework of Oleaceae; (2) use phylogenomic approaches to analyze representative genes in species with fleshy or dry fruits, and test for switches in selective pressures in relation to trait transitions; (3) estimate the historical biogeography of the family, along with current environmental preferences of species, and their seed dispersers; and finally, (4) integrate all results in models of causal relationships, and identify direct and indirect effects, and their magnitudes, among variables and fruit type. FRUITFUL’s interdisciplinary research and novel integrative approach will provide new insights into understanding the patterns observed at a macroevolutionary scale.

Mots clés : macro evolution, oleaceae, olive, plant evolution

Participants :
- Université de Toulouse (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 295061.76 €
Projet ACCESS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

ACCESS aims to establish a new technique to perform precision measurements of forbidden beta-decays, whose spectral shape is a crucial benchmark for Nuclear Physics calculations and plays a pivotal role in Astroparticle Physics experiments. When fundamental conservation laws strongly suppress a beta decay, it features a high transferred momentum, as in the case of neutrinoless double-beta decay (NLDBD). Relying on this similarity, ACCESS will provide groundbreaking insights to evaluate Nuclear Matrix Elements for NLDBD. ACCESS will operate a pilot array of four tellurium dioxide crystals as cryogenic calorimeters. Three of them will be doped with different beta emitters, while the last natural one will be used for effective background subtraction. My experience with cryogenic calorimeters based on semiconductor sensors (i.e. NTD) will be a solid basement for the project, but an essential piece of the puzzle is still missing. ACCESS requires high statistical measurements in an ultra-clean underground cryostat, available for limited time slots. A fast detector is mandatory to collect the required number of signals, keeping the background low, and avoiding the pileup due to the high counting rate. To fulfill this requirement, I will complete my training during the first two years of the action at Queen’s University. Here I will learn to build and operate bolometers based on superconductive sensors (i.e. TES), among the faster sensors used in Astroparticle Physics. I will transfer my NTD-oriented expertise to the local group, and together we will integrate these two sensors for a novel application. In the last year, I will move to GSSI, a research center of excellence recently established in Italy. Here I will perform the final measurements at LNGS (Gran Sasso National Laboratory), a world-leading underground research infrastructure of INFN. My new skills and research network will enrich the local astroparticle group, extending its research field also to Nuclear Physics.

Mots clés : cryogenic calorimeters, forbidden beta decay, effective axial coupling constant, neutrinoless double beta decay

Participants :
- Queen's University (Canada) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- National Institute for Nuclear Physics (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 255768.0 €
Projet ADAPT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

ADAPT explores the theme of decision support for agents negotiations in the complementary environments of electricity markets and smart grids. The EU priority of increasing the penetration of renewable energy sources in the power system has led to the wide acceptance of the smart grid paradigm as the solution for several emerging challenges. Another EU priority is the creation of a Pan-European Energy Market. A relevant step was taken in 2015 with the coupling of several regional European markets. Despite the significant investments in the fields of smart grids and electricity markets, the two fronts are evolving quite independently from each other, evidencing the sector difficulties in profiting from the strong relationships among them. A relevant drawback is the lack of decision support solutions to enable involved players improving their outcomes from energy transactions. ADAPT tackles this gap by proposing a multi-agent decision support system to assist the negotiation process of smart grid and electricity market players. ADAPT is composed by: (i) a portfolio optimization that identifies the most gainful negotiation opportunities, considering the available markets, including negotiations at a smart grid level; and (ii) a decision support method for actual negotiations using novel machine learning approaches to choose the most suitable strategies for each context, considering opponents’ negotiation profiles. ADAPT’s quality and industry-driven nature is assured by the experience and complementary expertise of the candidate and host in the targeted fields, and is further enhanced by the participation of experts in the fields of artificial intelligence and power systems. Besides advancing in the multidisciplinary research fields, ADAPT is expected to impact the EU power sector, the industry and society as a whole, by contributing to the effective integration of smart grids in a market environment, and to the decrease of electricity prices through competitiveness.

Mots clés : adaptive learning, automated negotiation, case based reasoning, decision support systems, electricity markets, portfolio optimization, smart grids

Participants :
- Universidad de Salamanca (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €