Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet RhodoMalta (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Coralline algae are an important group of benthic marine organisms that form unique, but endangered, biotopes on the seafloor. Coralline algae, have been a notable component of the Mediterranean realm for millions of years and persist to this very day. This is in spite of the multiple environmental perturbations that the Mediterranean had experienced, such as its decupling from other oceanic basins in the past to anthropogenic forcing in the present. As such, the deposits from by coralline algae can allow us to study some of the most significant environmental perturbations in the Mediterranean, explore habitat resilience and improve our understanding of this environment in general. To do so, this project will explore multiple occurrences of coralline algae in the south central Mediterranean using a one of a kind comprehensive data and sample set. This includes both extensive seafloor and sub-seafloor acoustic data, over 1.5km of cored material penetrating multiple ancient coralline rich units, ROV dives from modern living coralline biotopes and compilation of data from the rest of the region. The project will implement cross-disciplinary integration of this data set in a holistic fashion, inducting the researcher into seafloor studies. Together, these elements will give the fellow the ability to explore novel and inventive tools for detailed investigation of these deposits. The combined approach will produce a comprehensive model of the behaviour and evolution of corallines in the Mediterranean over key periods of the last 25 Myr. This work will expend the fellows’ multidisciplinary capacity and will promote the career development of this young researcher within the European community. The products of this project will be made available to the public across multiple venues to be used to promote truism and provide bases for planers and dissection makers in respect to the possible effect on coralline algae rich environments.

Mots clés : coralline algae, miocene, oligocene, anthropocene, tethys, mediterranean

Participants :
- University of Malta (Malte) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160049.28 €
Projet Hepatic Thermogenesi (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Core body temperature is among the best-guarded constants in homeothermic species. It results from the evolution of physiological mechanisms capable of regulating the production as well as the exchange of heat with the environment. The objective of my proposal is to define a new role for the liver in adaptive thermogenesis whereby the liver will be involved in heat production under the regulation of the hepatic sympathetic nerve. I will first ascertain that the liver can generate extra heat when adaptive thermogenesis is triggered (Aim 1). Hepatic adaptive thermogenesis will be demonstrated using a combination of interdisciplinary, cutting-edge technologies normally applied to the fields of physics and chemistry. I will then determine the molecular foundation of this hepatic heat production (Aim 2). For this purpose, OMICs data (transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomics) will be generated from cold-exposed liver tissues in order to identify: (1) the hepatic molecular heating mechanism; (2) the expected metabolic rewiring necessary to sustain prolonged heat production from thermogenic hepatocytes. Finally, I will study how hepatic adaptive thermogenesis is regulated by the hepatic sympathetic nerve at the anatomical level and by the adrenergic receptor Adrb3 at the molecular level (Aim 3). For this purpose, I will use a combination of surgical (hepatic sympathectomy) and genetic (generation of liver-specific beta-adrenergic receptor 3 knockout mice) ablation techniques. Longstanding observations, together with my own preliminary results argue for this existence of hepatic adaptive thermogenesis and its molecular characterization would certainly represent a major breakthrough for both our fundamental understanding of homoeothermic physiology as well as for future clinical applications. Demonstrating that the liver is involved in adaptive thermogenesis would certainly open new avenues for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a major disease in Europe.

Mots clés : beta adrenergic receptors, adrb3, liver, sympathetic nervous system, adaptive thermogenesis, hepatocyte, hepatic sympathetic nerve

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203149.44 €
Projet ANTICORPOL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Corruption continues to be a central issue in the governance of institutions (public, private or mixed). The scholars and practitioners working on the topic are facing with two challenges: (1) measurement of corruption, which is a thorny issue on empirical studies of corruption, and (2) the increasing awareness of the failure of most anti-corruption policies. The overarching objective of ANTICORPOL is to introduce a new dimension in the discussion of corruption: the degree of corruption (i.e., the depth as opposed to the spread). The benchmark of ANTICORPOL is this: it is unclear whether a system (organization, public administration) with few individuals who terribly deviate from their duty is less/more corrupt, than one with many corrupt individuals who only slightly deviate from their duty. Therefore, the degree of corruption of its members must be an integral part of the debate about corruption in a system and the development of effective policies against it. This proposal raises the following research questions: (R1) How can the degree of corruption of an individual be defined? (R2) Which policies are effective in reducing the distortion of duties of corrupt individuals? (R3) How can the degree of corruption be incorporated into measurements of corruption, at organization/country level? The proposed research is based on both theoretical and empirical methods and the combination of qualitative, comparative and quantitative analysis. This project is inherently of interdisciplinary interest because corruption is a multifaceted issue with economic, political and sociological dimensions. The research findings will contribute to a deeper understanding of corruption and further to the evaluation of the quality of democracy.

Mots clés : corruption decisions, bribes, degree of corruption, anti corruption policies, public administration, development

Participants :
- Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet ENTER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Countering violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people is a priority for the European Commission, which recognises hate crimes as human rights violations. Increasing numbers of states are responding to this problem by imposing harsher penalties for anti-LGBT hate crimes. In Europe, such laws are being introduced in some South and East European (SEE) coun-tries with poor records in respect to LGBT equality. Most of them cannot, however, evidence that they actively use the new laws to prosecute hate crimes, which raises questions about their com-mitment and the factors behind the adoption of these laws. The introduction of anti-LGBT hate crime laws in some SEE countries follows the increasing attention paid to the issue at international level and coincides with the process of EU integration. It is unclear, however, what role, if any, bodies such as the European Union or the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe play in strengthening national responses to hate crime. Using an innovative methodology, which combines interviews enhanced by diagrams as stimuli, analysis of policy documents and doctrinal analysis, this socio-legal research project will develop a theoretically transferable model explaining how, when and why SEE states address anti-LGBT hate crime. Specifically, the research will illuminate how various actors, including non-governmental organisations, civil servants, scholars and international bodies, contribute to the introduction and enforcement of anti-LGBT hate crime laws. The project will focus on the case studies of Georgia and North Macedonia, two SEE countries which share the re-cent introduction of anti-LGBT hate crime laws but differ in the degree of enforcement. By borrowing from social movement theories and theories of Europeanisation, the research will address a global policy problem, as well as gaps in scholarship, by deepening our understanding of how, when and why states address anti-LGBT violence.

Mots clés : hate crime, europeanisation, sexual orientation, gender identity, qualitative

Participants :
- University of Limerick (Irlande) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet TACOMO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

Cowboys are known all over the world. They embody fantasies of mobility and adventure in the North American West to people around the globe. And naturally, we imagine cowboys as white and male figures who roam the prairies. The innovative action TACOMO takes a new look at cowboydom: It shows how cowGIRLS produce and revise cowboy gender norms in transnational cultural mobilities. Travelling with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show to Germany and Austria at the turn of the 20th century, female performers presented show acts such as trick riding, roping, and sharpshooting. Their acts addressed narratives of the frontier, American womanhood, and the gender norms of their European audiences, both through their performance (dialogue, costume, behavior) and its reception (newspaper commentary, advertising). TACOMO’s objective is to show that the gendered myth of the Wild West was created transatlantically in North America and in Europe. It explores three research questions: first, how did women performers experiment on the cowboy figure at Wild West Shows? Second, how did US cowgirldom interact with continental imperial gender roles? And third, how does their legacy resonate with present-day popular Western cultures in the US, Canada, Austria, and Germany? The action completes the researcher’s previous findings about female cowboys. It theorizes their performance through cutting edge fields of inquiry from Popular and Visual Culture, Mobility Studies and Transnational North American Studies, and it closes a gap in scholarly research on the myth of the American West. TACOMO’s special relevance to the H2020 program includes, first, a strong gender aspect in the diachronic research topic and in the researcher’s and the host’s gender-critical perspectives on academia; second, an appeal to general interest through its popular culture focus; and third, an understanding of culture as essentially mobile and produced in the travelling of ideas, persons, and objects between cultures.

Mots clés : wild west show, gender studies, mobility studies, performance, transnational and transatlantic american studies

Participants :
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186167.04 €
Projet NANODRIVE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Creating novel building blocks, which allow for an easy and large-scale fabrication of complex materials, is a challenge and a central goal of diverse scientific fields, ranging from Physics to Materials Science. In recent publications, I introduced di-block copolymer stars (or telechelic star polymers - TSPs) as novel self-assembling building blocks (“soft legos”), made of a soft core, decorated by a tunable number of functionalized regions or patches. TSPs have a robust and flexible architecture and they possess the ability to self-assemble at different levels. At the single-molecule level, they first order as soft patchy colloids which serve then as “soft Lego” for the emergence of larger structures. At the supramolecular level of self-assembly, the soft colloids form complex crystal structures, such as for example diamond or cubic phases. In this project I propose to investigate how such a novel class of highly versatile tunable building blocks can be applied to the self-assembly of novel and designable soft-materials and how to exploit their self- assembly properties for a controlled adsorption and release of nanomaterial into functionalised predetermined regions. IIn contrast to many functionalised building blocks, telechelic star polymers particles are soft and they self-assemble into patchy structures, without the need for cumbersome synthesis techniques. The quantitative multiscale approach that will be used to carry out the theoretical part of this project, will allow a direct mapping to an experimental realization of the system. The objective of this proposal is to investigate how to induce and control a tunable adsorption of nanomaterial within the intramolecular TSP’s self-assembling process, and to use such particles to perform controllable delivery of nanomaterial into target functionalised regions.

Mots clés : polymers, colloids, simulations, monte carlo, coarse graining, multiscale, theory

Participants :
- Roma Tre University (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 168277.2 €
Projet CreativeMetacognitio (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Creativity, defined as the ability to generate novel and effective ideas, elevates cultural progress and as a basis for innovation is crucial for enhancing economic competitiveness and strengthening society. On personal level, creativity increases well-being, positive affect, flourishing, and plays an essential role in learning. Creative behavior is an agentic decision and it also depends on the conviction about one’s own abilities to manage the creativity challenge and on how much creativity is valued by that person and surroundings. The constellation of beliefs that determine a person’s engagement and performance on creative endeavors called creative self-beliefs. It was proved that these self-beliefs play an intermediary role between creative abilities and creative action behavior So far, of the all components of creative self-beliefs we know the least about creative metacognition, which is defined as a combination of creative self-knowledge (knowing one’s own creative strengths and limitations) and contextual knowledge (knowing when, where, how, and why to be creative). Even though several researchers and theorists pointed out that creative metacognition plays an essential role in the process of creative potential realization, there is still very little research on this topic.Based on available theories and research results, we propose a two-stage research program to extend knowledge about individual differences in creative metacognition (CMC) considering 1) CMC accuracy and 2) CMC regulation facets from a behavioral and neuroscientific perspective. The Maria Skłodowska Fellowship participation will facilitate successful execution of the project, but also target areas, in which I require additional skill development to prepare and position me for a career as an independent researcher, ready to gain habilitation.

Mots clés : neuroscience of creativity, creative metacognition, creative metacognitive accuracy, creative metacognitive regulation, creative self beliefs

Participants :
- University of Graz (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186167.04 €
Projet InWingSpeak (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Crickets and bush-crickets use their wings to produce a wide range of often impressively loud courtship songs highly variable in pitch and temporal patterns. The wings of these insects have evolved to be miniaturised and optimised resonators in order to radiate their highly amplified acoustic signals and therefore offer unique solutions for efficient, light-weight acoustic transducers. Here, I propose a novel combination of state-of-the-art bioacoustic and imaging techniques (among others, laser Doppler vibrometry and micro-computational tomography), comparative morphology and two independent but complementary mathematical modelling approaches (agent-based as well as finite element modelling) to investigate the biomechanic and bioacoustic system properties of cricket and bush-cricket wings. By applying these multidisciplinary techniques and methods to a variety of wings, I will derive mechano-acoustic system properties that will allow unravelling of the relationship between wing morphology and emerging resonance properties underlying sound production. The resulting knowledge, combined with modern modelling and simulation techniques and in silico artificial wing evolution towards desirable acoustic properties, will guide engineers in the acoustic design of innovative, biomimetic miniature loudspeakers as used in, e.g., hearing aids. Furthermore, the project results and the proposed scientific and transferable skills training will positively impact on my career development, contributing the building blocks of my future career as an independent, interdisciplinary researcher and future group leader, successfully combining bioacoustics and its evolution with bioinspired innovations for modern acoustic technologies.

Mots clés : bioacoustics, biomechanics, insects, orthoptera, loudspeaker design

Participants :
- University of Graz (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174167.04 €
Projet BiCoACC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunist fungal pathogen lethal for patient with AIDS. Treatment options are limited and there is an urgent need for the discovery of anti-fungal drugs. The membrane proteins Apt1 and Cdc50 from C. neoformans were identified as potential drug targets since it is involved in antifungal resistance and pathogen’s virulence. Apt1 belongs to the P4-type ATPase family and together with Cdc50 proteins they are involved in the maintenance of phospholipid asymmetry in biological membranes. In this project I plan to biochemically characterize Apt1/Cdc50 from C. neoformans, to identify inhibitors and functionally impaired mutants of this complex. These in vitro findings will be translated in vivo in C. neoformans cultures. I plan to join the Laboratoire des Protéines et des Systèmes Membranaires (LPSM) at the CEA Paris-Saclay, a world-leading lab on P4-type ATPases, where I will set up protocols for the expression and purification of the Apt1/Cdc50 complex expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Furthermore, thanks to my expertise in membrane protein reconstitution in liposomes and functional analysis, I will set up an assay to monitor in vitro phospholipid transport, an expertise still lacking at the LPSM. Using purified functional Apt1/Cdc50 complex we will screen a chemical library to identify inhibitors of this complex. In parallel a structure-function study of the complex using directed mutagenesis will be conducted. Finally, in vitro findings will be translated in vivo thanks to a collaboration with Pr Kronstad (University of British Columbia), a world expert on C. neoformans pathophysiology, where C. neoformans cultures are available. This multidisciplinary project will benefit from the expertise of the host institution on P4-ATPases, my knowledge on membrane protein reconstitution in liposomes, and the experience of Pr Kronstad on in vivo study of C. neoformans. This would allow a 3-ways transfer of expertise.

Mots clés : membrane protein complex, cryptococcus neoformans, flippase, proteoliposomes, p4 atpase

Participants :
- Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet NANOMORT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Cultural Heritage represents nowadays a significant industry in Europe which produces more than 30 billion € in revenues every year. The repair of historic lime mortars is currently being carried out by the application of fresh lime mortars following traditional recipes due to their high compatibility, permeability and flexibility. However, they present some important limitations such as long setting and hardening times, weak mechanical properties and low internal cohesion, which compromise their effectiveness and durability. There is an important need in the EU and worldwide to develop innovative ways to produce mortars for new construction and repair of historic mortars with improved properties, compatibility and sustainability as compared to Portland cement. This research aims to provide the first comprehensive research on the development of the first high ecologic mortar made of nanoparticles of lime (nanolime) and natural organic additives. This research aims to: i) develop a medium-scale reactor for the synthesis of nanolime; ii) characterize nanolime in presence and absence of additives; iii) define optimal nanolime mortar mix. The novel use of nanolime for mortar production will potentially keep the same permeability, compatibility and flexibility, and will reduce the limitations of lime mortars reducing the setting and hardening time. Moreover, the addition of additives will improve their durability and strength. The synergistic interaction formed by the host group, world expert in nanolime, mineralogy and heritage conservation, and the applicant, an expert in nanolime and production of mortars, guarantees the maximization of two ways transfer of knowledge, training and networking possibilities. The outcomes of NANOMORT will have a high impact on the construction and repair of the European Built Heritage; and to the collective interests of mankind for its high sustainable factor, which is one of the main goals of the European Commission on Horizon 2020.

Mots clés : mortar, ecologic, construction, building, repair, heritage, novel, nanolime, nanoparticles, lime

Participants :
- University of Granada (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172932.48 €