Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet DIRECT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

River fragmentation and biological invasions are driving extirpations of cold-water fishes in Europe, with extirpations exacerbated by climate change. River barriers that cause fragmentation can prevent invasive species from dispersing further upstream (by forming an impermeable invasion front), but also impede the upstream movements of cold-water fishes (such as salmonid fishes), preventing their access to cooler waters towards the headwaters. The facilitation of movements of salmonids above barriers can be achieved through building fish passes on the structure, providing an easier route upstream, but this also opens up the invasion front for the invasive species. This Action explores this conservation disjuncture between alleviating river fragmentation through fish pass construction that aims to conserve threatened populations of cold-water fishes through reconnection and access to cool waters versus the fish passes opening up the extant invasion front to a highly invasive and impacting fish. Using the River Teme, Western England, as our study system, European barbel Barbus barbus as the model invader, and brown trout Salmo trutta and endangered Atlantic salmon Salmo salar as the model cold-water salmonid fishes, our objectives are to (i) compare and contrast the spatial and thermal ecology of barbel at the invasion front versus their core range, and identify the risk of their upstream dispersal over barriers via fish passes according to phenotypic variability; (ii) quantify the ecological interactions of salmonids and barbel throughout the study river and across different population abundances; and (ii) develop novel predictive models that predict conservation outcomes by simulating how river management schemes to promote salmonid conservation might instead drive the further invasion of a highly invasive fish. The Action has high complementarity between its outstanding European researcher and his host research group with expertise in fish invasion ecology.

Mots clés : acoustic biotelemetry, biological invasion

Participants :
- Université de Bournemouth (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 276187.92 €
Projet Bayhadron (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) and Transverse-Momentum-Dependent PDFs (TMDs) encode our knowledge of the nucleon internal structure in terms of their elementary constituents, quarks and gluons. They are determined by means of global analyses of experimental data which require the development of suitable fitting methodologies. PDFs and TMDs represent an important input for precision studies at current and future accelerator facilities. The development of reliable fitting methodologies and their subsequent validation, in order to ensure the soundness of the corresponding results, is therefore a crucial problem in high-energy physics. Thanks to the wealth of new data and fitting methodologies, the accuracy to which PDFs and TMDs are known is rapidly improving. With the reduction of the uncertainties, an increasing tension has been observed among results from different groups, making the discussion around the determination of faithful uncertainties all the more urgent. This research proposal, Bayesian tools for one-dimensional and three-dimensional hadron structure (Bayhadron), develops a new methodology based on Bayesian inference and a set of statistical validation tools for PDF and TMD determination. The main goals of Bayhadron are two. 1) The development of a fully Bayesian methodology for PDF determination, providing a valid alternative to the methodologies based on parametric regression currently used within the community, and the release of a first PDF set based on it. 2) The application of validation tools developed within the PDF community to validate the fitting methodologies currently used for TMD determinations and their possible improvement by means of a Bayesian approach. Both goals of Bayhadron concur to a faithful determination of PDF and TMD errors, introducing a set of innovative statistical tools in the field and making the proposal particularly timely in light of current and future experimental and phenomenological efforts.

Mots clés : parton distribution functions, transverse momentum dependent functions, global fits, gaussian processes, bayesian inference

Participants :
- Université de Turin (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172750.08 €
Projet EMBODIMENT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project explores Chinese women writers’ articulations and recollections of pain from the 1950s through the 1980s. The focus is on heretofore neglected or understudied life writing by women who had become established cultural workers before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and had witnessed or suffered punishment in the mid- or late 1950s. Mei Zhi’s (1914-2004) account of her husband Hu Feng’s political exile in Sichuan and Ding Ling’s (1904-1986) memories of her experience at a labor camp in Beidahuang, Manchuria, are a few examples of women writers’ personal narratives of Mao-era suffering, and among the key texts that this project intends to analyze. Traditionally marginalized within Chinese literary histories and canons, these texts offer a unique entry point into how Chinese women have brought life writing to bear on experiences of suffering. Drawing on literary and gender studies, memory theories, pain studies, and histories of emotions, senses, and experience, this project highlights the potential of these texts for rethinking the place of the female body in life writing that stems from or evokes authoritarian and disciplinary contexts. In historicizing these women writers’ embodied articulations and recollections of pain, this project adopts an interdisciplinary methodology centered on the notion of affective experience to reveal the dynamic relationship between context, lived experience, and writing. This relational model will draw attention to women’s creative strategies of negotiation and survival from within the system, beyond clear-cut divisions between compliance and resistance under duress. Finally, by attending to a wide range of emotions and solidarities that can grow out of pain situations, this project will unravel the therapeutic potential and the limits of life writing, with far-reaching implications in the interdisciplinary fields of gender studies, pain studies, and medical humanities, as well as in society at large.

Mots clés : chinese literature life writing pain

Participants :
- Université de Tallinn (Estonie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 189905.52 €
Projet VELOCARE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Within Europe, women spend up to twice as much time on unpaid care work as men do and mobility related to care tasks represents a significant part of women’s daily travel. Escorting children tends to be unequally distributed amongst parents and they are much more likely to travel with their mothers than with their fathers. By introducing the novel concept of affective vélomobilities of care that focuses on the use of bicycle for accompanying children to their everyday activities, VELOCARE addresses a critical research question that is often ignored in most cities: how does the urban environment either contribute to or exacerbate gender disparities by facilitating or impeding the mobility of women who escort their children? Through the implementation of a policy-oriented interdisciplinary approach and innovative methodology that builds on sensory data, the research examines the broader implications of these dynamics on the emotional bonding of the mother and child, and on women’s choice to adapt cycling as an environmentally sustainable mode of transportation in Tallinn, Estonia. Putting emphasis on the ‘soft’ aspects of everyday travel, the research will advance knowledge that will help put affect and care at the centre of mobilities planning and make cities more inclusive of the needs of women and children.

Mots clés : mobility of care, affective atmospheres, gender sensitive planning

Participants :
- Université de Tallinn (Estonie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 167741.76 €
Projet Manx prose (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Emergent linguistic norms and translated religious prose in eighteenth-century Manx  Manx Gaelic, the native Celtic language of the Isle of Man, was a largely unwritten oral language until the development of an English-based orthography for religious use from the seventeenth century, This process culminated in authorized translations of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (1765) and a complete Bible translation (1772). This late flowering of Manx literature paradoxically came at a time of increasing language shift to English, which was largely complete by the late nineteenth century. The gradual standardization of the Manx written tradition is attested in an extensive, but hitherto largely unstudied, corpus of manuscripts preserved in the Manx Museum in Douglas, including most notably a large corpus of over 600 sermons dating from the end of the seventeenth century until the mid-nineteenth century, and manuscript drafts of around a fifth of the Bible translation. The latter are extensively annotated by the editors and offer a rich insight into processes of textual interpretation and translation; orthographic, morphological and terminological standardization; and revision and preparation for publication. There is also an extensive body of correspondence between the Manx clergy and an international network of intellectuals and ecclesiastical patrons. This project will build on previous work on the orthographical development of Manx in the sermon corpus, to examine wider processes of linguistic standardization and translation in eighteenth-century Manx, with a particular focus on the Bible translation project completed between the 1720s and 1770s. The project will place these processes in the wider sociohistorical and intellectual context of the eighteenth-century in the Isle of Man and further afield, as well as comparing processes of standardization and translation in Manx with those of other linguistic contexts, especially those of other Celtic languages.

Mots clés : gaelic celtic studies historical sociolinguistics language history preaching early modern sermons bible translation palaeography corpus linguistics language variation and change isle of man

Participants :
- Université d'Édimbourg (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 276187.92 €
Projet FREEMEN (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Nanochannel membranes with 1-nm/sub-1-nm channels provide an energy-efficient and sustainable way of solvent separations for global process-based industries that operate on solvent mixtures. Channel modifications by binding selective functionalities are a widely adopted strategy to improve membrane selectivity, but it often compromises target solvent’s permeability, presenting a persistent and undesired “trade-off” dilemma. This is largely due to the relatively fixed position of the functionalities, whose steric hindrance unavoidably retards molecular transport at this scale. In contrast to previous designs, this project aims to develop a novel nanochannel membrane featuring rotatable functionalities. It takes advantage of functionality dynamics - rotations - to facilitate target solvent transport while blocking competing solvent, effectively overcoming the “trade-off”. The demonstration and verification of this idea are based on 3 steps, including (1) development of a prototype membranes using a 2D layered MXene assembly as backbone and ammonium ions (NH4+) as functionalities due to their intrinsic ultrafast rotation in solvents (e.g., water); (2) evaluation of the solvent separation performance (e.g., water-ethanol) of such membranes against MXene membranes functionalised by slow-rotating ions or no ion (pristine); (3) elucidation of the relation between functionality rotation and solvent transport/separation by coupling experimental results, key characterizations, and computational modelling.  Project success will advance the state-of-the-art in practical, conceptual, and mechanistic aspects. A high-performance solvent separation membrane that breaks “trade-off” will be fabricated. A new nanochannel membrane design principle involving functionality dynamics will be established. Most importantly, a “functionality rotation-mediated” transport mechanism will be proposed as a new perspective to understand 1-nm/sub-1-nm mass transport in future membranes.

Mots clés : membranes technology, solvent separations, synthetic nanochannels, mxene

Participants :
- Université d'Édimbourg (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 260347.92 €
Projet MECHGEN (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Beyond its role in encoding the primary structure of proteins, the sequence of DNA also determines its mechanical properties such as shape and flexibility. This sequence-specific mechanical code significantly influences interactions between the cellular machinery and the genome, affecting critical processes such as gene regulation and chromatin organization. However, the extent to which this MECHanical GENome drives biological function remains largely unexplored. MECHGEN seeks to bridge this gap by leveraging a recently developed coarse-graining methodology to construct a multi-resolution molecular dynamics (MD) model that integrates sequence-dependent elastic properties of DNA. This model will enable efficient simulations of genomic length DNA, chromatin, and other biologically relevant systems.  Using this new methodology, we propose to study two aspects of chromosomal organization. The first will investigate how DNA sequence influences the distribution of topological strains and how sequence context determines the exposure of DNA damage in supercoiled DNA, offering new insights into genomic stability and repair mechanisms. The second line of investigation will explore how DNA sequence shapes chromatin structure and function, focusing on nucleosome positioning and higher-order chromatin architectures. By combining coarse-grained simulations with experimental data, MECHGEN aims to clarify the role of sequence variations in chromosomal organization and gene regulation. These findings could significantly impact our understanding of genomic function and stability, with potential applications in the study and treatment of genetic diseases.

Mots clés : polymer physics, dna, chromatin, supercoiling, coarse graining

Participants :
- Université d'Édimbourg (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 260347.92 €
Projet DroneMTB (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Given the prevalence of cancer, it is of utmost importance to develop new strategies to treat it. One of the most ambitious approaches is the use of microrobots, self-propelled microscopic devices capable of propelling themselves and being guided towards tumours where they can then effectuate a therapeutic action. Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are non-pathogenic aquatic microorganisms that synthesize intracellular magnetite nanoparticles within organelles called magnetosomes, and are ideal candidates to serve as microrobots for cancer theranostics. Suitably, they are highly motile, have preference for low oxygen conditions such as the inside of tumours, and can be externally guided, detected, and actuated by magnetic fields thanks to their chain of magnetosomes.  In this project I propose a new approach to boost the therapeutic abilities of MTB by genetically engineering MTB to express immunotherapy-mediators on the surface of magnetosomes, and to create a triggered-release mechanisms to deliver these magnetosomes within the tumour microenvironment. This strategy, yet to be exploited, is more sustainable and cost-effective than the chemical-based approaches proposed to date. Specifically, new generations of MTB will maintain the genetic modifications without further need of surface modification or therapeutic loading steps. The perfomance and effectiveness of genetically modified MTB to swim towards and release the immunotherapy-mediating magnetosomes will be tested in vitro in 3D cancer cell models placed within microfluidic devices to mimic tumours and surrounding vasculature.  DroneMTB is a highly interdisciplinary project that combines methods from materials science, microbiology, genetic engineering, biochemistry, microfluidics, microscopy, and cell biology. After carrying out the project I will have acquired necessary skills to become an independent scientist and to lead research projects in the field of biomaterials and biomedical applications.

Mots clés : magnetotactic bacteria, microrobots, nanotechnology, biotechnology

Participants :
- Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet FLUTE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Classical thermodynamics is a long-standing successful theory using macroscopic average quantities like pressure, volume, and temperature to describe the behaviour of everyday thermal machines. In nanophysics, it is often the case that fluctuations can become dominant over average quantities, which are therefore no longer sufficient for an accurate description of nanoscale and quantum systems. Advances in nanoelectronics have allowed researchers to engineer devices that can turn fluctuations from a nuisance into a resource to power nanoscale quantum machines. However, many questions on these fluctuation harvesting mechanisms are still open. With the theoretical project FLUTE, I will address these questions by investigating the impact of fluctuations on the performance of quantum thermal machines in nano-electronic conductors powered by unconventional resources and exhibiting topological properties. Specifically, I will consider nonthermal resources and exotic quasiparticles, called anyons, hosted in two-dimensional conductors. FLUTE seeks to generate a deeper understanding and provide novel insights on how the efficient harvesting of fluctuations at the nanoscale can be achieved. Crucially, it will bring together in a novel way the physics of anyons found in condensed matter systems with a thermodynamical analysis aimed at exploiting them as fuel for useful machines. This interdisciplinary project will combine techniques from quantum transport and strongly correlated systems, on which I am an expert, to stochastic thermodynamics and open quantum systems, on which I will receive further specific training at the host institution. FLUTE will unveil novel connections between different research fields in quantum physics. The outcomes of the project will be relevant for the design of novel types of quantum devices exploiting unconventional resources, thus contributing to the emerging field of quantum technologies, driven at the European level by the Quantum Flagship.

Mots clés : quantum thermodynamics for nanoelectronic devices, quantum transport, quantum trajectories, nonequilibrium fluctuations, anyons, fractional quantum hall effect

Participants :
- Organisation des Nations unies pour l'éducation, la science et la culture (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 193643.28 €
Projet ROSE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Robotic surgery is being rapidly and widely incorporated into surgical practice, with the current focus of training on equipment, mechanics, and technical skills. The operating theatre setup for robotic surgery is inherently different from the traditional arrangement, with the operating surgeon at a console that is remote from the rest of the surgical team and patient. The team faces significant challenges due to this physical separation and the visual barrier imposed by the robotic operating equipment. As a result, leadership and team communication are dynamically altered. Nonverbal communication and cues need to be replaced by explicit and descriptive communication. The overarching aim of my project is to examine what comprises effective communication by robotic surgical teams. I will observe verbal communication of surgical teams being trained in robotic surgical skills in a simulated operating theatre in the world-class RCSI SIM. I will also interview them about their experiences of effective and ineffective communication in performing robotic surgeries. I will develop a taxonomy of communication behaviours and contextual factors that facilitate or inhibit effective communication, their descriptions, and examples. Using the taxonomy, I will observe live robotic surgeries in RCSI hospitals and code the frequency, time, and sequence of communication behaviours and contextual factors using an innovative method called event coding. The taxonomy from my research will serve as training materials for simulation training focusing on communication for robotic surgical teams, and will contribute to the continuous improvement of modern surgery and the quality and safety of patient care. With the support of Dr Claire Condron and Prof Walter Eppich, this fellowship will help me pursue a successful career as an academic scientist or director of a simulation centre that makes meaningful impacts on the performance and well-being of healthcare professionals and patients.

Mots clés : communication, surgical teams, robotic surgery, simulation training, health education

Participants :
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 199694.4 €