Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet Epiquant (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The physical properties of materials are determined by the interactions of their constituents and the emerging band structure. Ultracold atoms have emerged as a powerful tool to simulate these quantum many-body processes in a highly controlled environment. In this project, I will explore exotic phases in bosonic mixtures of ultracold potassium by engineering the interplay of single-particle dispersion relation and interactions via Raman dressing. My research will focus on two distinct scenarios: the continuum and discretized chains. In the continuum case I will focus on the celebrated supersolid stripe phase, which simultaneously displays superfluidity and a spontaneous breaking of translational symmetry. I will characterize the collective crystal modes of the phase, a smoking gun for supersolidity, as well as realize a novel quantum liquid with supersolid characteristics. In the discretized case, I will explore the effects of strong interactions in artificial gauge fields by realizing semi-synthetic flux ladders, a minimal instance of the Hofstadter model. This model is famous for capturing the fractional quantum Hall effect, but displays a myriad of strongly interacting, yet experimentally scarcely explored phases. The project will demonstrate the vast potential of Raman-coupled systems by deepening our understanding of supersolids and providing new insights into strongly correlated systems in the presence of artificial gauge fields. By using a common mechanism that gives rise to both supersolidity and artificial magnetic flux, the project will, at large, reveal connections between these two important topics.

Mots clés : ultracold potassium, spin orbit coupling, supersolidity, raman dressing, artificial gauge fields

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet ONAIR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

11.6% of world deaths are related to air pollution. The first step to tackle this problem is mapping the air quality with high resolution on a large scale. This task requires a distributed network of miniaturized, inexpensive and efficient gas sensors, not available today. In our project, we aim at demonstrating a new quantum sensing measurement scheme on a photonic chip. This would enable low cost, mm2 footprint and efficient gas detection, suitable for distributed sensing networks.  The quantum process at the basis of our sensing proposal is called “undetected photon quantum spectroscopy (UPQS)”, where entangled photon pairs are used, one of them in the visible (VIS) while the other in the mid infrared (MIR) range. UPQS exploits the indistinguishability between two sources of entangled pairs. By measuring the visible photon, one can realise MIR absorption spectroscopy without the need of measuring the MIR photon. In this way, it is possible to overcome the limitations of MIR technologies while having access to the nonpareil spectral information of the MIR range, where molecules exhibit unique and strong vibrational absorption bands.  The proposed project will demonstrate UPQS on a silicon chip, for the first time. By leveraging the maturity of CMOS technology and silicon platform, the new UPQS scheme would enable a new class of sensors, integrable on smart devices and accessible to the scientific and technology community at large. The vision is to enable new devices for a wide range of applications, from industry to medicine, and to make possible a new approach to distribute sensing for highly resolved air quality monitoring. Moreover, the demonstration of on-chip UPQS would provide new insights into integrated quantum photonics, MIR photonics and quantum sensing, developing a platform for fundamentally new lines of research in fundamental and applied quantum photonics.

Mots clés : quantum sensing, optical gas sensors, on chip photonic gas sensors, gas sensing, absorption spectroscopy

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet HLPA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Proton accelerators are in significant demand due to their widespread societal applications, for instance clinical cancer therapy, as the protons target deep-seated tumours with negligible damage to the surrounding healthy tissues. High capital and operational costs associated with the conventional accelerators make proton therapy poorly accessible, which has triggered interest in search for affordable alternatives. In this context, proton acceleration employing high power lasers has recently emerged as a promising alternative to the conventional techniques. In addition to their compactness and cost effectiveness, the laser-driven sources deliver high doses in an extremely short-time period (one billionth of the second), offering a unique prospect for radiobiological studies. The key challenge, however, is to overcome broad energy spread and large divergence of the laser-driven proton beams. This project aims to control these shortcomings by employing a novel target arrangement at PW class laser, which can effectively tailor the spatial and spectral profile of the beam at the source, importantly at high repetition rate (1 Hz). Transporting the beams to large distances away from the laser interaction region will be demonstrated by using a system of magnets, as a step towards building dedicated beamlines for multidisciplinary applications. The high-quality proton beams with energies required for therapeutic applications ( > 50MeV) will be deployed, for the first time, in in-vitro radiobiological studies on cancer breast cells at dose rate of ~ 100 Gy/min. The timeliness of the project is underpinned by the on-going developments of high-power laser facilities globally, e.g. the pillars of the pan-European Extreme Light Infrastructure, EPAC (UK), and ZEUS (USA). Notably, this cutting edge research would reinforce Europe's leading role in the development of 'all-optical' accelerators and and position me at the forefront of this emerging field.

Mots clés : laser plasma interactions, laser driven ion acceleration

Participants :
- FZU  Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166278.72 €
- Istituto nazionale di fisica nucleare (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet MechQSim (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Electron-phonon interactions lead to a plethora of phenomena in strongly correlated solid-state systems such as superconductivity and charge-density waves. However, the complex dynamics manifesting these phases can be beyond the reach of computational modelling, especially when taking into account electron-electron interaction. Therefore, one of the outstanding challenges in the field of correlated-electron physics is a widely tuneable model system that can mutually couple several electronic and phononic degrees of freedom. To date, no such system has been experimentally realized. While previous efforts have mostly focused on cold-atom configurations, nano-electromechanical systems are naturally suited to address this challenge. One of the most challenging requirements to engineering such a system is the achievement of ultrastrong electromechanical coupling, which has been recently demonstrated for the first time in a capacitively coupled carbon nanotube. Leveraging this capability, we propose to engineer a model system in which electronic degrees of freedom are defined within four quantum dots and coupled to vibrational modes of a carbon nanotube. If successful, the project will enable the first experimental platform for quantum simulation of electron-phonon coupling. The proposal combines techniques from different fields to create a hybrid quantum system that significantly extends the state-of-the-art in nano-electromechanics. The Quantum NanoElectronics & NanoMechanics group at ICFO is one of the two only research groups to experimentally demonstrate ultrastrong electromechanical coupling to date and is the world leader in the fabrication of ultraclean carbon nanotubes. These capabilities, combined with my strong background in both experimental and theoretical nanomechanics, place us in a unique position to realize this milestone.

Mots clés : carbon nanotube quantum simulator nanomechanics

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet HDEFONE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Functional neuroimaging is important for understanding brain health, assessing pathologies and guiding therapeutic interventions. Fundamental to neuroimaging is the neurovascular unit (NVU) which relates delivery and consumption of oxygen to neuronal activity. Dysfunction of NVU is associated with pathologies like stroke as well as dyspraxia. Estimating the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) that describes NVU activity, requires estimates of oxygen saturation in cerebral blood as well as cerebral blood flow (CBF). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the current gold standard for functional neuroimaging, is expensive, lacks portability and provides only surrogate estimates of CBF. Recent advancements in diffuse optics and functional near-infrared imaging paved the way for non-invasive neuroimaging using diffuse optical techniques. Development of high-density diffuse optical tomography (HDDOT) for imaging oxygen saturation and high-density speckle contrast optical tomography (HDSCOT) for measuring CBF have enabled imaging at spatial resolutions comparable to fMRI. However, combining independently obtained CBF and oxygenation values to compute CMRO2 leads to artifacts and systematic errors. A hybrid imaging modality providing more accurate CMRO2 quantification via co-dependent estimates of oxygen saturation and CBF is needed to tap into potential of optical neuroimaging to paradigms like continuous cerebral monitoring in clinical and naturalistic settings. In this project, we propose development of algorithmic frameworks for such a modality i.e., hybrid HDSCOT/DOT for concurrent estimation of blood flow and oxygenation through (i) development of an inversion algorithm for hybrid imaging, (ii) development of frameworks for selection of optimal acquisition configuration and (iii) numerical and experimental validation of the developed frameworks. This research will closely follow ongoing hardware and system development in the Medical Optics group at ICFO.

Mots clés : optical tomography, functional neuro imaging, reconstruction algorithms

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet QCORE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Amid global uncertainties and evolving geopolitical tensions, ensuring the secrecy of critical communications and safeguarding European technological sovereignty has become paramount. The vulnerabilities of traditional encryption methods have already been exposed and there are indications that certain countries are already employing the "harvest now, decrypt later" principle, emphasizing the urgency for enhanced digital security measures. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) offers a revolutionary approach to secure key exchange, harnessing the principles of quantum mechanics to provide perfect secrecy. However, the widespread adoption of QKD still faces significant obstacles, including compatibility issues with existing telecom infrastructure and the current low secure key rates (SKR).  Recent manufacturing advancements in multicore fibers (MCF) place them as a compelling answer, as they offer a host of advantages. For instance, they provide support for spatial-division multiplexing, enabling to reach the SKR capacity demands; they facilitate the integration of quantum and classical networks within a single fiber with a smaller footprint compared to bundles of standard optical fibers; and they enable the distribution of entangled photons, opening the door for multiparty communication. With these capabilities, MCFs assume a pivotal role in constructing the foundation of the future quantum network.  This research explores the potential of MCF for next-generation quantum networks. It aims to introduce and implement a novel space- and wavelength-division multiplexing scheme for high-dimensional (HD) QKD, offering an increased channel capacity and enhanced security. Further, this project studies the distribution of entangled photons over a deployed MCF link and seeks to perform QKD between multiple users. Additionally, it aims to explore the coexistence of quantum information along with real-valued internet traffic.

Mots clés : quantum key distribution, multicore fibers, entanglement distribution, telecom infrastructure

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet OliPFUEL (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Olive pomace waste from edible olive oil industry cannot be currently used due to its acidic pH, high salinity, high phenolic contents, and phytotoxic properties. Its disposal is challenging and creates environmental pollution. Utilization of olive pomace waste for biofuels production is one of the promising solutions. However, conventional methods for production of olive pomace biofuels are using expensive enzymes, corrosive & toxic acids, and are not effective due to high inhibitors content. OliPFUEL will demonstrate a more environmentally friendly and effective process to produce olive pomace biofuels without the use of any toxic chemical. OliPFUEL research on novel integration of " water hydrolysis, hydrothermal treatment and thermo-resistant H. polymorpha yeast mediated fermentation" processes to improve reaction kinetics, yield and quality of olive pomace biofuels (solid biofuel-hydrochar, liquid biofuels-bio-oil and bioethanol). Exclusive collaboration and unification of complementary technical expertise of the researcher (thermal processes), supervisor (H. polymorpha fermentation, olive pomace), host institute (University Institute of Research in Olive Grove and Olive Oils, University of Jaen), and a Bioenergy company (Bioliza—recursos estratégicos de Biomasa, S.L.) will ensure project success, research development and transfer of knowledge. I will gain training in fermentation, hydrothermal process, chromatography techniques, project management, and entrepreneurship skills, whereas I will transfer my knowledge on pyrolysis and thermal plasma process to the host. The OliPFUEL will establish proof of concept and could be fundamental for future research for the development of advanced biofuels from waste olive pomace from the olive oil industries, befitting to present EU priorities and UN sustainable development goals - 2030 related to waste resource recycling, clean environment, and renewable clean energy.

Mots clés : non food biomass, waste feedstocks, hydrolysis, hydrothermal treatment, fermentation, hydrochar, bioethanol

Participants :
- Université de Jaén (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
- Recursos estratégicos de biomasa s.l. (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet eNeuroMus (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Stem cells and organoids have revolutionized our ability to build tissues and organ-like structures ‘in a dish’. Organoid models of a wide range of human tissues are increasingly applied to drug and treatment development and to fundamental and translational studies. However, the challenge of simultaneously growing more than one different tissues in a single functional organoid remains. Human neuromuscular organoids (NMOs) represent a landmark discovery toward building more complex and physiologically relevant human tissues in vitro. NMOs closely capture the cellular repertoire and structural and functional properties of the neuromuscular system, but, similar to other organoids, they do not reach adult tissue stages of maturation, at least in part, due to lack of connectivity and in vivo-like sensory inputs, including bioelectrical cues, essential in physiological phenomena. In a multi-disciplinary approach, the eNeuroMus project aims to test the hypothesis that delivery of brain-like input, currently excluded from NMO models, will enhance the complexity and maturation status of NMOs toward adult tissue stages. To this end, NMOs will be interfaced with conformable multielectrode arrays, based on organic conducting polymers, to expose NMOs to brain-like input via electrical stimulation and to record NMO electrophysiological activity in a growth stage-dependent manner. To decipher the effects of electrical stimulation on tissue maturation, electrophysiology assays will be combined with cutting-edge technologies, including spatial transcriptomics, optogenetics and advanced imaging. This analysis pipeline will result in a rich dataset, unravelling the long-term effects of electrical stimulation and the molecular pathways involved in the maturation of human neuromuscular organoids. Overall, the eNeuroMus project will deliver a novel and sophisticated framework for engineering the next generation of biohybrid organoids as tools for modelling human development and disease.

Mots clés : organoids, neuromuscular system, tissue maturation, organic bioelectronics, electrical stimulation, bioelectrical cues, neural networks

Participants :
- Max Delbrück Center (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173847.36 €
Projet HOLO-CWEED (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Global change is expected to increase the arrival of opportunistic macroalgae, as well as the rate and extent of blooming events, causing severe negative impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems. Opportunistic macroalgae may represent a particularly interesting source of secondary metabolites, as they adapt to highly variable environments and have a withstanding capacity to cope with environmental stressors. Valorization could be a key solution to transform this huge biomass of opportunistic species into a potential for biotechnological and socioeconomic innovation. Before this, it is crucial to have a full understanding on how seasons, life stage and environmental variability modify their metabolome and thus, the quality of their biomass. In this regard, the holobiont perspective (relationship of macroalgae with their microbiome) is paramount to understand comprehensively the macroalgal ecophysiology and the environmental factors modulating their metabolome, all along their life-cycle until their degradation. HOLO-CWEED aims to study opportunistic macroalgae as holobionts to: 1) shed light on the opportunistic macroalgal ecophysiology, 2) assess the intrinsic (microbiome) and extrinsic (environment) factors affecting the quality of their metabolome along their life-cycle, and 3) assess the impact of massive macroalgal strandings on the surrounding seawater. This work will require an inter-disciplinary methodological approach gathering microscopy, biochemistry, metabolomics and metabarcoding, to have a complete understanding of macroalgal holobionts. The host institution facilities and expertise will be essential for stepping from fundamental research to applied research through the valorisation of macroalgae. HOLO-CWEED provides an original scientific approach to understand how opportunistic macroalgae thrive in a changing environment and assess how their massive degradation changes the seawater quality.

Mots clés : seaweed, holobiont, microbiome, bacteria, fungi, macroalgal blooms, coastal health, 

Participants :
- Université de Bretagne Occidentale (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195914.88 €
Projet EGFR_Cryo-ET (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

According to the latest estimates from the European Cancer Information System, the incidence and mortality from cancer is projected to increase in the next 20 years. Therefore, there is a strong urge to design safe and effective therapeutic approaches to manage cancer progression and ease the burden of the disease. Although the etiology of cancer is highly complex and multifactorial, disruption of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) function is commonly associated with the development of several types of cancers. Despite being in the spotlight since its discovery in the late 70’s, several important aspects of EGFR function (e.g oligomerization and receptor bias) still remain largely unexplored. Inspired by this gap of knowledge, the main aim of this proposal is to shed light into the molecular mechanisms governing EGFR oligomerization and signaling. EGFR in dimeric and oligomeric assemblies will be resolved by Cryo-Electron Tomography (Cryo-ET) in near-native conditions. As substantial differences in the transmission of response between dimer and oligomeric EGFR states can arise (receptor bias), these aspects will also be extensively validated/analyzed in vitro. Cryo-ET is revolutionizing the field of structural biology, as proteins can now be resolved without laborious purification protocols which potentially alter structure and function of target proteins. Although promising, this technique is still at early stages of development and only large proteins have been successfully resolved. By resolving the structure of a relatively small and flexible protein, the boundaries of this technique would be expanded and be more applicable for the structural characterization of transmembrane receptors. From the biological point of view, knowing the conditions in which EGFR assemblies are formed and that these assemblies have distinct signal properties, specific therapeutic approaches can be designed to treat cancer minimising the occurrence of side effects.

Mots clés : egfr, cancer, structure, cryo electron tomography

Participants :
- Max Delbrück Center (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 202125.12 €