Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet MacMeninges (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Immune responses within the central nervous system (CNS) can drive fatal neuroinflammation and age-related neurodegeneration as seen in the EU but are also crucial to prevent microbial spread into the CNS. It is thus important to understand and control the parameters involved in CNS inflammation. Most studies have focused on the contribution of immune cells localized within the CNS parenchyma. While searching for novel strategies to control neuroinflammation, we and others have found that the nature and activation state of immune cells at the brain surface can profoundly influence CNS inflammation. The parenchyma is enveloped by membranes referred to as the meninges that harbor a vast network of macrophages juxtaposed to blood vasculature, thus ideally positioned to detect pathogens and orchestrate immune cell recruitment into the CNS. The overarching goal of this project is to understand the role of resident meningeal macrophages in initiating and controlling CNS inflammation. To this end, I intend to study the heterogeneity of myeloid subpopulations at steady-state and their differential ability to mount an immune response following a microbial challenge. Furthermore, I will define how natural inflammatory aging impairs the induction of CNS immune responses by meningeal macrophages, and will propose strategies to restore CNS immunity at the brain borders to protect this vital organ. This will be accomplished using combinatorial approaches, including transcriptomics, flow cytometry, histo-cytometry and intravital imaging. Macrophages will be manipulated using transcranial drug delivery and transgenic mice. Sharing skills, expertise, and tools with my host institution will be a key component of this project. Understanding meningeal immunity will open avenues for the treatment of CNS inflammation and neurodegeneration, in line with the H2020 goals of promoting research excellence in the EU to deliver solutions to important societal challenges.

Mots clés : central nervous system, meninges, ontogeny, neuroinflammation, macrophages, barriers, inflammaging

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 38480.8 €
- Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 146227.04 €
Projet PHA-ST-TRAIN-VAC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Doctoral Networks - Industrial Doctorates
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Immunisation is one of the most cost-effective and proven tools to control and eliminate infectious diseases, saving millions of lives each year, yet key challenges remain in order to guarantee the future health of the expanding and ageing global population. For example, effective vaccines are still required for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Group B Streptococcus (GBS), both of which cause significant hospitalisations globally each year. RSV is a common cause of respiratory disease among all age groups; annually it results in an estimated 33.8 million acute lower respiratory tract infections (resulting in 66,000-199,000 deaths) and among the elderly, it results in as many hospitalisations as influenza. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infections also pose a serious risk; GBS is a leading cause of invasive infections in pregnant women, new-born infants, and the elderly. To meet the challenge of developing fit-for-purpose, age-appropriate vaccines against these disease targets, this EID will bring together two cross-sector, world leading teams – GSK Vaccines S.r.L and the University of Strathclyde – with the objective to equip the next generation of vaccinologists with the skills and tools to deliver vaccines for the 21st Century. GSK Vaccines S.r.L is a global leader in vaccine research, development and production and will work in partnership with the vaccine team within USTRATH and the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, who have an international track-record of translatable and innovative research in immunology, immunomodulation, structural biology, and formulation design and pharmaceutical engineering of vaccine systems. PHA-ST-TRAIN-VAC will deliver a unique, multidisciplinary and intersectoral training programme to develop and equip four early stage researchers with the required skills and entrepreneurship to develop new vaccines to protect against RSV and GBS, in a formulation tailored to the age of the patient.

Mots clés : vaccines, antigens, adjuvants, immunization, delivery systems

Participants :
- University of Strathclyde (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 546575.76 €
- GlaxoSmithKline (Italy) (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 516122.64 €
Projet CHEMICROS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Important proliferation of microalgae, the so-called Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), affects aquatic ecosystems. Extensive repercussions of HABs on human health, aquatic species, and aquaculture are yearly recorded worldwide and related economic losses can be measured in millions of dollars. Given their impacts, the increasing occurrence of HABs worldwide constitutes a major ecological issue for the coming decades. The proposed research project CHEMICROS (CHEmically-mediated MICRobial Interactions maintained by OStreopsis) aims to investigate the three essential aspects of the microbial control of Ostreopsis blooms: (i) influence on the specialized metabolism, (ii) commitment with toxins degradation, and (iii) potentiality as bio-agents for blooms control. The proposed research will benefit from the training offered by two renowned institutions, the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA, outgoing phase) and the Laboratory of Oceanography of Villefranche-sur-mer (France, incoming phase), whose research activities focus on natural products chemistry and plankton ecology, respectively. A large part of this project relies on the use of cutting-edge techniques in analytical chemistry, for which I will be trained during the outgoing phase. This knowledge will be transferred to the European host by organizing a technical workshop. The multidisciplinary skillset and knowledge developed through the fellowship will help me gain European and international visibility in the field of microbial ecology and will increase my competitiveness and attractiveness for potential collaborations with researchers in academy or industry, as well as with European managers of aquatic environments. The methodologies developed during the fellowship may be applied to improve our understanding of other HABs species and the dissemination of the results will enable coastal managers to implement preventive measures to safeguard the public.

Mots clés : microbial ecology, harmful algae, metabolomics, molecular networking, toxins

Participants :
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 275619.84 €
- University of California System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet GWsFromEMRIs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In 2016, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration announced its first ground-breaking detections of gravitational waves sourced by binary black hole mergers. These observations herald the beginning of a new era in astronomy: gravitational waves are expected to shed light on many unsolved astrophysical and theoretical problems, such as finding neutron stars' equation of state, modelling the formation and evolution of compact objects and testing alternative theories of gravity. With LIGO's next observational run starting in late 2016 and the prospect of seeing the space-based interferometer eLISA fly in the near future, gravitational wave physics is set to be one of the most active and exciting fields in contemporary science. Black hole binaries are going to be key targets both for LIGO and eLISA: it is thus crucial to perfect the modelling of these systems, as this will enable us to extract the rich information encoded in the gravitational wave signals that will be detected in the years to come. This project proposes the development of a state-of-the-art code to study extreme mass-ratio inspirals into Kerr black holes, including the full gravitational self-force (i.e. both conservative and dissipative effects). The project will contribute to the construction of a template bank for eLISA. Furthermore, it will inform the calibration of effective-one-body (EOB) and phenomenological waveform models which form the basis of LIGO-Virgo data analysis.

Mots clés : gravitational waves, black holes, gravitational self force

Participants :
- Universitat de les Illes Balears (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet WALCHEMY (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In 2017 UNESCO pointed out that only 30% of the world’s scientific researchers are women. One reason for this low statistic (according to UNESCO) is the lack of visible female role models. Feminist scholars such as Sarah Hutton, Alisha Rankin and Meredith Ray have turned to the era of the European scientific revolution – the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – to investigate women’s contribution to the history of science. This research is important because it has spotlighted women scientists from the past and demonstrated that scientific enquiry is not simply a male phenomenon. There is, however, one area in the history of science that is noticeably understudied in relation to women writers but in which they were paradoxically most active: alchemy. Lyndy Abraham and Tara Nummedal have shown that alchemical knowledge – the craft of chemical transmutation, both physical and spiritual – was widely disseminated in this period because of the invention and flourishing of printing. I will concentrate on Anglophone female authors because scholars such as Stanton Linden and Robert Schuler have foregrounded a British male alchemical literary tradition, but have overlooked women’s participation in that tradition. I will produce the first in-depth book-length study to explore the influence of alchemy on early modern Anglophone female authors’ works. In so doing, my project seeks to recover a previously unrecognized female-authored alchemical culture that privileged the transformative power of the female mind, word, body and spirit. By adding the hitherto absent dimension of women’s literary thought and practice to our understanding of the alchemical and holistic mind-set of early modern Britain, this study will make a landmark contribution to the histories of science and women’s writing. As such, it will be a key resource for students and scholars interested in women’s engagement with science and the cross-fertilization between scientific discourses and literary language.

Mots clés : alchemy, early modern women s writing, early modern studies, hermeticism, history of science, religion and medicine

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet IndeSent (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In Denmark, indeterminate sentences are given to people who commit serious offences (murder, aggravated violence, sexual offenses, arson, and robbery) and who are deemed likely to reoffend due to previous offending and their mental state. They are held in prison indeterminately in order to protect the public and enable rehabilitation - a practice which is in line with the Council of Europe’s recommendations. Indeterminate sentences have one particular feature that sets them aside from all other types of imprisonment: there is no guarantee of ever being released. This uncertainty often results in severe pains for the prisoners in question. While there is a fairly rich literature on indeterminate imprisonment in the Anglo-phone countries, the last explorative study of indeterminate imprisonment in the Nordic countries was conducted over 50 years ago, hence our understanding of contemporary experiences of indeterminate confinement remains very limited. IndeSent responds to the Council of Europe’s call for more research focused on the needs of the offender in the light of the negative effects of the often long-term imprisonment. The research project will provide an in-depth examination of the experience of being indeterminately sentenced by a court and of serving an indeterminate sentence in prison. The combination of courts and prison practices is one of the most pioneering aspects of the proposed research, illustrating the connections between the wider aims and functions of the penal state and the everyday practices, experiences and interactions in prison. Usually, there is a sharp distinction between the allocation and delivery of punishment; the first happens in courts and the second in penal institutions. Using ethnographic research methods (participant observation, in-depth interviews and a Dialogue Group), IndeSent will address this gap in the scholarship by focusing on the experiences of the indeterminate sentenced in the two arenas of punishment.

Mots clés : prisons, indeterminacy, courts, interviews, judges, sentencing, participant observation, morality, penal consciousness, dialogue group, prisoners

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet TVISTOFF (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In Europe, tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) causes tick-borne encephalitis, the most important viral life-threatening disease transmitted by ticks. Interactions among the virus, tick and host are inseparable and paramount for a successful circulation of TBEV in an enzootic cycle. Nevertheless, research in this area has predominantly focused on TBEV pathogenesis in vertebrate hosts. Limited knowledge on virus-tick interactions points out to lack of systematic studies and warrants research implementing novel virus-tick models. Therefore, the goal of this fellowship is to investigate the roles of molecular factors of TBEV virulence and tick neurosecretory compounds in adaptation and transmission of TBEV. The innovative concept involves a development of fluorescently labelled TBEV mutants by reverse genetics, implementation of host-free artificial membrane tick feeding system, and characterising components of tick neuroendocrine systems. The interdisciplinary approach of interconnecting the applicant's unique skills in tick physiology and bacterial tick-borne pathogens, expertise of the host group in arbovirology and capacity of partner group in physiology of tick neuroendocrine systems will be instrumental in widening knowledge on virus-tick interactions. Developed tools and obtained results will provide invaluable foundation for research of other neglected tick-borne viruses. Taking together, this fellowship will enable the applicant to reintegrate into the host organisation in his home country, to carry out innovative research, and ultimately to reach professional maturity as an independent investigator.

Mots clés : tick borne encephalitis virus, ticks, pathogen transmission, reverse genetics, reporter virus mutants, in vitro tick feeding, neuroendocrinology, neuropeptides, biogenic amines, receptors

Participants :
- Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovaquie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 155364.48 €
Projet FaMART (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In In the last decades, low fertility rates have increasingly been a policy and societal concern. Fertility rates have been coupled to the development of contraceptive and reproductive technologies, which dramatically affect the transition to parenthood. In Western societies, where contraceptive use is widespread, unintended births are now uncommon events associated with early motherhood, family instability and low socioeconomic status. Concomitantly, the utilization of Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR), which often coincides with delays in childbearing and high socioeconomic resources, has rapidly increased and has revolutionized the way we think about parenthood. Despite growing interest from scholars and policymakers in fertility and MAR, there remains a lack of research on how fertility intentions and the mode of conception affect couples’ mental health longitudinally. By exploiting longitudinal survey data, I will be able, for the first time, to analyse how adults’ mental health changes before, during and after unintended, intended/natural and natural/medically assisted conceptions. Advanced statistical techniques (e.g. ‘distributed’ fixed effects models) will be used to remove the bias introduced by unobserved confounding factors. By examining Swedish Population register data, I will investigate how mental health changes before and after treatment among single women and (both heterosexual and lesbian) couples. The project, which will be hosted at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany), integrates four research areas (sociology, demography, epidemiology and psychology) to produce novel and cutting-edge research on fertility. The aim is to shed light on the effects of fertility intentions and the mode of conception in countries where unplanned births are less common (Germany and Switzerland) and more common (the UK and the US), and where the majority of MAR treatments are funded publicly (the Sweden and Germany) and and privately (U.K.).

Mots clés : fertility, assisted reproduction, mental health, longitudinal analysis

Participants :
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 162806.4 €
Projet Learning2Learn (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In a changing environment the ability to continually and rapidly learn new behaviors is crucial for humans and animals to survive. How the brain stores and integrates new information without forgetting (continual learning, CL) and utilizes prior knowledge to quickly adapt to new situations (fast forward generalization, FFG) remains a mystery. To shed light on this crucial question I propose a novel interdisciplinary approach that derives inspiration from a theoretical machine-learning approach for artificial neural networks (ANN) and simultaneously addresses FFG and CL. In this dual-network model, a so-called meta-network learns to identify the context for all previous tasks and modulates a second, stimulus-processing network, in a task/context specific manner to efficiently solve the task. As a result, similar task contexts elicit the selection of similar stimulus processing networks thereby enabling FFG. In the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is known to receive contextual information (environment, setting), to store task information and to project to sensory areas. This makes it a promising candidate to function as a meta-network in the brain. In the proposed study, I will investigate if and how the mPFC affects sensory processing in a task-specific manner during CL and FFG, functioning as a meta-network. I will utilize cutting-edge experimental techniques including miniaturized microscopes in freely behaving mice to record neuronal populations in mPFC during FFG and CL combined with chemo- and optogenetic tools. To investigate how mPFC affects stimulus processing on the single neuron level, I will combine calcium and voltage imaging in brain slices. This interdisciplinary project will provide novel insights into the possible implementation of meta-learning in the brain to address CL and FFG. Completion of this innovative project in the multidisciplinary environment of my host lab will provide me with the ideal setting to reach scientific independence.

Mots clés : cortical circuits, medial prefrontal cortex, visual cortex, meta learning, gain modulation, plasticity, continual learning, visual discrimination

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet ReCurse (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In a context where the globalization-development relationship is being more re-examined than ever, this study aims to build evidence based theories around and for the better understanding of the so-called Resource Curse, i.e. the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to be associated with lower growth rates, promotion of authoritarianism and worsening living standard. By bringing together Earth Observation (EO) and sociological analysis to the study of mining boom impact in Colombia, I expect three main contribution to the field of international development: (1) to better understand the mechanism under which resource curse may occur in the light of the differences between coal and petroleum and to explain why different types of resources lead to different outcomes; (2) socio-economic impact in highly mining-impacted areas and regardless the national resources income; (3) biophysical changes and self-reported feeling of safety and quality of life across social groups near mining areas; (4) to develop evidence-based policy advice for communities experiencing boom-bust cycles in a context of resource prices volatility, with attention to those affected by conflict and war. Hence, this study aims to become a milestone in the study of resources-development relationship by getting liberated from the narrow question of whether there is a “curse” and will seek knowledge about a full range of outcomes. Fieldwork will take place in highly mine-impacted communities in Colombia. I will significantly benefit from a placement at the University of Copenhagen (KU) as it is one of the key European centers for the study of Resource Extraction and Management. UK houses the Environment & Society in Developing Countries research group, which focuses on EO, the complexity of land use and land cover change, natural resource management and societal processes. I will be affiliated with this group as a researcher representing and bringing insights from sociology

Mots clés : international development, global south, latin america, natural resources management, crime, earth observation, survey, energy, environmental conflicts, risk perception, resource curse, rural studies

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212194.8 €