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

Design and synthesis of molecular materials whose physical properties can be controlled by external stimuli are of the most advanced research interests. In this project we aim to synthesize and study in-depth a family of molecular compounds with adjustable electronic properties based on an intramolecular electron transfer (ET) mechanism. The ET phenomenon defines two stable states that can be controlled by temperature, light, electric field, pressure or a chemical stimulus and can be used to design new molecular switches. Following an innovative bottom-up approach, we will generate a family of new switches from the association of donor (LFe(CN)x) and acceptor (L’Co(solv)) building blocks. The obtained systems will be then associated within assemblies in order to produce functional networks with specific, sought-after electronic, optical and magnetic properties, such as photo-induced Single-Molecule Magnet behavior. The ET phenomenon has a high potential technological importance since the photo-induced changes in optical and magnetic properties could in principle allow the design of storage devices with exceptional high density.

Mots clés : electron transfer, photomagnetism, switchability, photoinduced single molecule magnet behaviour

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet LowCollICM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite advances in both instrumental and computational capabilities, there still exists a mismatch between the observations of and theory describing galaxy clusters – the most massive gravitationally bound objects in the Universe. Galaxy clusters are used as probes for cosmological models and thus are important to our fundamental understanding of the Universe. Some differences clearly originate from an incorrect treatment of microphysical processes in large-scale cosmological simulations. This applies, in particular, to the intracluster medium (ICM). Particle collisions are rare in this hot, diffuse, magnetized plasma. In simulations the ICM is typically treated as a fully collisional fluid with an isotropic pressure. Hence, small-scale physics that stem, for example, from an anisotropic pressure, are missing. With this action the researcher will pave the way for the development of a model that allows for the incorporation of these small-scale effects into large-scale cosmological simulations. To achieve this, the researcher will implement anisotropic viscosity and thermal conduction in a next-generation, exascale simulation code. This code will then be used to conduct and analyze simulations of different aspects of the ICM covering both idealized, turbulent subvolumes and global isolated galaxy clusters. In doing so, the researcher will determine which effects are dynamically important, how they affect observables such as Faraday rotation measures and surface brightness discontinuities, and how to model them. Ultimately, future cosmological simulations employing a more accurate model will facilitate a more fundamental understanding of the magnetized Universe.

Mots clés : turbulence

Participants :
- Universität Hamburg (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174806.4 €
Projet FlavourFIPs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite all its successes, the shortcomings of the Standard Model of particle physics are well-known: for instance the origin of its flavour structure, the absence of a dark matter candidate, or the strong CP problem. While many of the new physics models aiming at solving them rely on new particles around the TeV scale, this is neither a requirement nor the simplest solution in many cases. In fact, new light but Feebly Interacting Particles (FIPs) often represent the most straightforward solution, with deep implications for flavour physics, dark matter, astrophysics and cosmology. As particle physics enters a new era of “precision”, dozens of experiments, ranging from the High Luminosity LHC to neutrinos experiments, will have the potential to search for such particles. FlavourFIPs aims at exploring the uncharted links between such versatile new physics candidates and the Standard Model flavour problem. The applicant will develop novel cutting-edge theoretical tools to study the GeV-scale phenomenology of FIPs, including in particular a unified effective field theory description of new flavoured light particles at this scale. Postulating the existence of a UV-theory designed to solve the flavour problem, FlavourFIPs will then reshape the FIPs parameter space for current and upcoming intensity frontier experiments. In particular, the project will explore how a long-lived FIP could be produced via flavour-violating processes then detected in neutrinos or dedicated LHC-based detectors. Closing the loop, FlavourFIPs will finally investigate if FIPs can participate in creating the flavour anomalies potentially observed in B-mesons decays, and beyond, investigate FIPs role in complete theories of flavour. Throughout the fellowship, the dissemination activities will reinforce the position of Europe in the intensity frontier international community and will participate in shaping the future experimental landscape, in particular for future HL-LHC-based experiments.

Mots clés : flavour physics, feebly interacting particles  fips, long lived particles, light dark sectors, dark matter, axion, flavour experiments, flavour observables, collider searches, neutrinos experiments

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet ComBATageing (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite being one of the most familiar biological process affecting our lives, little is known about the molecular mechanics of ageing. A better understanding of ageing and related diseases is today crucial to face its deleterious effects on our growing older population. Among mammals bigger species typically live longer than smaller ones. When corrected for body size, almost all mammals have the same longevity quotients, exception made for the chiroptera. Bats are capable of living up to 10 times longer than expected despite their characteristic high metabolic rates. During my doctorate, I discovered the presence of a distinctive behaviour in bats' autophagic pathway, suggesting that these animals may rely on an improved system for intracellular proteostasis accounting for the flight-associated high metabolic stress. The same evolutive adaptation could ultimately have played a role in allowing bats to achieve exceptional longevity. Here I propose to carry out an in-depth analysis of the proteostatic system, and in particular of the autophagic pathway, in bats. Samples from wild populations of bats will be used to derive primary cell lines allowing to characterise bats’ intracellular phenotype and proteostatic activity. Thanks to the expert personnel and cutting-edge facilities of the hosting institute, I will exploit imaging and proteomics tools to isolate bat-specific molecular features of adaptation in proteostasis and unveil their role in determining their unique ageing pattern. A complementary phylogenomic analysis will be performed to detect traces of adaptive selection in proteostasis-associated genes in bats and other mammals. For the first time, the complexity of interactions behind proteostasis and ageing will be examined from a privileged, integrative perspective. This innovative project holds huge potential as it could lead to a greater understanding of the role of protein homeostasis in mammalian ageing contributing to dampen its effects on our society.

Mots clés : bats, autophagy, proteostasis, phylogenomics, longevity, proteomics

Participants :
- Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 183473.28 €
Projet OPTIMAPIC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Despite being the most accessible subcortical auditory structure, little is known about the dorsal cortex (ICd) of the inferior colliculus. Limited physiological evidence hints at functions regarding detection of frequency-modulation, novel sounds and selective attention. This project tries to address three fundamental questions regarding the ICd, namely: (1) what are optimal stimuli for the neurons in the ICd, (2) why is the neuronal activity in ICd important for the organism and (3) how does the neuronal circuit achieve the necessary computation. Taking advantage of state-of-the-art in vivo optical imaging, I will search for effective stimulus features through a population-wide stimulus optimization approach (WP1). The ability to measure neuronal activity over weeks expands the range of sound stimuli researchers can deliver, providing a basis for a more unbiased stimulus search. Moreover, groups of cells that respond to similar features can be detected, while extra efforts can be diverted towards identifying optimal stimuli for the remaining cells. Secondly, a behavioural paradigm will be developed to probe the effect of selective attention on neuronal activity of the ICd (WP2). At the same time, comparing neuronal and behavioural response will help us understand how neuronal representations translate into percept and actions of the animal. Finally, I will investigate how neuronal activities in the ICd are shaped by projections from other brain regions, through the imaging of synaptic terminals from these inputs and, subsequently, optogenetic manipulations. The results will lead to a major understanding in the sensory processing at the auditory midbrain and the functional significance of its interactions with other brain regions. These research outcomes are not ends in themselves, but will provide the Fellow with a basis for further research as an independent group leader.


Participants :
- Erasmus MC (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165598.8 €
Projet NOSCAR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite significant progress in drug therapies for breast cancer, about one fourth of patients still do not survive the disease. Modern, targeted therapies have been proposed to cure the more advanced and aggressive cases of breast cancer. However, non-genetic and genetic mechanisms of drug resistance currently limit the promise of targeted therapy. NOSCAR aims to define the oncogenic Ras/Erk and PI3K/Akt signalling states relevant to breast cancer oncogenic mutations, and delineate the mechanisms which enable development of cancer resistance to targeted therapies. NOSCAR’s objectives are: Using a quantitative cell biology framework that combines a multiplexed biosensor system that reports on Erk/Akt dynamics at single cell level, computer vision, and statistical modelling, I will: (1) produce an atlas of single-cell Erk/Akt dynamic signalling patterns that are associated with a compendium of clinically-relevant breast cancer mutations; (2) measure the signalling states in cells perturbed with clinically-relevant drugs that target different components of the Ras/Erk and PI3K/Akt pathways to evaluate how the oncogenic signalling network is rewired by drug treatment; (3) measure signalling dynamics in 3D spheroid cultures and patient-derived organoids to explore how a self-organizing cellular ecosystem can spatially control signalling at the single cell level to locally control fate decisions, and how the latter process is compromised by an oncogenic mutation. This will provide new insights about tumor heterogeneity and signaling network structures that confer robustness against drug perturbations. We expect to identify vulnerabilities that might be efficiently targeted by drug combinations, providing new avenues to treat breast cancer. The planned research together with training and mentoring that I will receive thanks to the fellowship, will enable to successfully restart my career in research and will significantly benefit my further academic career prospects.

Mots clés : biosensors, spatiotemporal signalling, breast cancer, targeted therapies

Participants :
- University of Bern (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 304724.16 €
Projet VacTrack (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite successful reduction of the burden of many infectious diseases by vaccination and the strong improvement of vaccine safety, there is a strong need to improve existing vaccines and to develop new affordable vaccines with greater efficacy. Particle-based vaccines are one of the recent advances, with potentially a promising impact on global public health. Besides being investigated for their protective potential, the knowledge about their mechanism of protection is still scarce. VacTrack is designed to investigate this by innovatively combining state of the art in vivo imaging with global transcriptome analyses. I aim to dissect the route vaccines acquire inside the host along with the spatio-temporal changes in gene expression following vaccine exposure to the host, by utilizing pneumococcal antigens grafted to outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) as model formulations in imaging-assisted in vivo mouse vaccination and challenge infection models. VacTrack is expected to generate insights about novel pathways triggered in host following vaccination which will be further validated by an ex vivo approach via stimulation of murine and human whole blood. By exploiting systems biology, high resolution in vivo imaging and immunological approaches VacTrack will provide a blue print for the approach to study mechanism of protection of vaccines in general. Comprehension of correlates of protection by combining in vivo and ex vivo analyses will 1) help devise new pneumococcal vaccines, 2) improve existing vaccine formulations, 3) transform the direction of vaccine research by allowing targeting of specific novel pathways identified via VacTrack. Taken together, this proposal holds great potential in advancing the vaccine research to devise new and better vaccines to save and improve human lives on a global level.

Mots clés : vaccination, immunity, particle based vaccines, pneumococcal vaccine

Participants :
- Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 281358.72 €
- Radboud University Nijmegen (Pays-Bas) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet HYPERBIO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Despite the continuous progress in computer simulations, the typical time and size bottlenecks are nowadays still heavily affecting the feasibility of large-scale simulations of complex biological systems at the molecular resolution accuracy. The current proposal aims at formulating a new hybrid particle-field approach including explicit treatment of electrostatic interactions for computational modelling of complex biological environments. The proposed method will combine the computational advantages of a self-consistent field approach (linear scaling cost for computation of intermolecular interactions, easy parallelization), becoming increasingly popular in polymer and soft-matter simulations, with a rigorous treatment of particles and explicit electrostatics. The proposed approach will allow fast and reliable simulations of polyelectrolyte mixtures, including biological charged membranes, multi-phase systems, and biological polymers (polysaccharides, proteins, nucleic acids etc), and it will make it possible to break by orders of magnitude the current limits for biomolecular simulations both in time and size. The project will have a main development part, where the self-consistent field formalism with electrostatics will be derived and implemented, and an applicative part, where the new methodology will be tested on lipopolysaccharide moieties. These large amphiphilic and chemically complex molecules constitute the outer membrane of Gram- bacteria, and are to date one of the major research targets to in antibiotic resistance studies. This project is multidisciplinary and involves international collaboration. This project would have a great positive impact on the applicant’s early stage researcher career, identifying her as one of the key players in the opening a new pathway into molecular simulations of biological systems.

Mots clés : multiscale modelling, coarse grained, mesoscale systems, biomolecular simulations, self consistent field theory

Participants :
- University of Oslo (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196400.4 €
Projet HERMES (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite the development of novel technologies such as millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications and 5G New Radio, current cellular networks will face difficulties to serve their users in ultra-dense scenarios due to the unprecedented growth of the mobile data traffic from various emerging data services. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that carry telecommunication equipment are able to enhance the wireless connectivity in such scenarios through an on-demand redistribution of the network resources. However, their progress is still hindered by three significant issues, i.e., the lack of a consistent UAV communication framework, the energy supply, and the efficient orchestration. To that end, the HERMES project proposes a holistic approach to tackle the limitations of aerial networks by employing state-of-the-art tools and a coherent research methodology. More specifically, mmWave, optical wireless, and sub-6 GHz communication technologies along with novel multiple access techniques will be investigated to define a comprehensive communication architecture. Solar-powered charging posts with wireless power transfer capabilities deployed around the serving area will be proposed and studied to encounter the energy supply issue. Also, artificial intelligence-based tools will be leveraged to provide an efficient and profitable orchestration of the UAVs by taking into account weather and user mobility patterns. In the end of the project, a proof-of-concept demonstration and a techno-economic analysis will unravel the intrinsic characteristics of aerial networks to showcase the significant advantages of the HERMES vision that will aid the fellow to network with industry and academia, and to empower him to become a research and development innovator.

Mots clés : aerial networks, unmanned aerial vehicles, free space optics, non orthogonal multiple access, stochastic geometry, optimization, artificial intelligence, hardware and software engineering

Participants :
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Grèce) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 153085.44 €
Projet BECAMP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Despite the fact that migration figures do not support calls to emergency, the European political discourse is still highly dominated by the idea of a “refugee crisis”, a concept on which several right-wing parties have built their political capital. BeCAMP’s main goal is to analize migration management in two countries of first arrival, Italy and Spain, in order to investigate how the migrants’ reception system, on the one hand, and the daily coping strategies of these subjects living inside or at the edges of such system, on the other, shift accordingly to the variations of politics and policies. By bridging the three key topics of border regimes, enduring liminality and everyday geopolitics, the proposed project aims at offering a well-informed, ethnographically rooted account of the life within and at the fringes of the Italian and Spanish migrants’ reception system, in order to counterbalance the dominant hate narrative and help build more human rights oriented policies.

Mots clés : borders, border regime, enduring liminality, everyday geopolitics

Participants :
- Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 269002.56 €
- The new school corporation (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet FEET (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Despite the global effort for providing proper sanitation service to the habitants in less developed regions, still massive amount of faecal waste is disposed of in-situ resulting in serious health problems and environmental contamination. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) technology which converts wet organic feedstock into valuable carbonaceous products under pressurized conditions in a relatively mild temperature range (180-220 ̊C) has been suggested as a capable option for faecal waste treatment for those places in need. However, the technical and financial barriers hamper the practical implementation of the technology. In order to overcome these challenges, this research project aims to develop an appropriate low-cost HTC system for faecal waste treatment. Batch HTC reactors will be developed employing common pipe-fitting materials, and their standard operation regime will be established. Strategies for affording the energy demand of the system will be developed based on the products from previous treatments: combustion of solid material (hydrochar) and biogas generation from liquid material (process water). Also, basic properties of the hydrochar and process water will be investigated regarding their potential use as fuel, fertilizer and adsorbent. This two-year-long project will generate new knowledge based on the specialties of participants: Zurich University of Applied Sciences (Zurich, Switzerland, host organization), Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bio-economy (Potsdam, Germany, host of 6 months secondment) and the applicant. The applicant will receive necessary technical training in both institutions and play a role as a medium for inter-institutional knowledge transfer. The output of this project will contribute to the provision of communal toilet facilities in less developed communities and provide technical evidence for the potential of low-cost small-scale implementation of HTC system in both less developed and developed countries.

Mots clés : hydrothermal carbonization, faecal waste, faecal sludge, sanitation, waste treatment, biogas, biochar, fertilizer, adsorbent, wash

Participants :
- Zürcher Fachhochschule (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €