Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ExVib (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Exploring Chemistry under Vibration Strong Coupling: In the past several years, it has been shown experimentally that a cavity quantum electrodynamics phenomenon called vibrational strong coupling (VSC) can change chemical reactivity. This includes modification of reaction kinetics, product distributions and binding thermodynamics. VSC relies on the formation of hybrid light-matter states created by coupling molecular vibrations to photonic cavities. VSC utilizes light-matter interactions, without the need for any light as such, to modify the molecular wavefunction. The possibility of modifying chemical reactivity with VSC has generated considerable excitement in both academia and industry around the world. However, nobody is yet able to predict the outcome of chemical reactions under VSC. We lack an established theoretical framework and have only a limited number of experimental studies to rely on. This poses both a fundamental question and an impediment towards any future application. There is now a clear need for a systematic approach to reach a new level of insight and understanding of the underlying mechanisms at play in this phenomenon. This project proposes a systematic approach to study chemical reactivity under VSC in order to establish when and how VSC affects reactions and their mechanism. A single reaction, acyl substitution, which occurs on many structurally different substates will be examined in depth using tools like Hammett mapping and Eyring analysis. Subsequently, different reactions of a single functional group, being the carbonyl group, will be screened for VSC effects. All of this serves to uncover any pattern of effects experimentally and will generate a rich data set which can be used by theory groups construct new models and verify existing ones.

Mots clés : hybrid light matter states, polaritons, strong light matter interaction, photonic cavities, organic reactivity, reaction mechanisms, spectroscopy

Participants :
- Université de Jyväskylä (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 199694.4 €
Projet AFFECTIVE-PRS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

This proposal aims to understand, through the conceptual lens of home, tenants’ and landlords’ practices in ‘hidden’ private rental sectors, where informal transactions increase risks and hide vulnerability away from state regulatory gaze - as the Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly exposed across much of the globe. Taking the post-communist context as an example of an emerging and hidden PRS and drawing on a specific view of home as assemblage of materials, money, relations and affects, this research project aims to: Understand a hidden social world, by asking why tenants and landlords engage in the sector, whether their practices permit making a private tenancy home, and how they construct ideas of power, risk and trust; Nuance existing concepts of space and propose new concepts of time as they unfold in a privately rented home; Inform the national and international debate on PRS regulation. To achieve its aims, the proposal takes a qualitative multi-disciplinary approach, creating synergies between methods developed from meta-ethnography (critical interpretative synthesis), sociology and visual studies (qualitative questionnaires and photo-elicitation interviews), and public policy (scenario building). Through its focus on rental housing, a mechanism that generates important inequalities of wealth, health and wellbeing, the project aligns with the European Union strategy of creating a more resilient and inclusive society, and its concern for addressing inequalities.

Mots clés : housing private renting sector post communism rhythmanalysis assemblage theory tenants landlords

Participants :
- Université de Bucarest (Roumanie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 133735.68 €
Projet SIHAFA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

SIHAFA explores the late Ottoman (1890s–1918) Arabic ideosphere of the Eastern Mediterranean through its periodical press. SIHAFA transcends the individual periodical for a systematic and computational study of the periodical press as a discursive field and at scale in order to better understand both the intellectual history of the Eastern Mediterranean at a crucial historical juncture and periodical production itself. As MSCA fellow, Dr. Grallert will receive crucial training at Universität Hamburg and will scrutinise a digital corpus of seven Arabic journals from Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo and Damascus with more than 7 million words (the result of his current research) through a combination of stylometric authorship attribution, social network analysis, and close reading of bio-bibliographical dictionaries. He will evaluate theoretical and methodological approaches, workflows, and tools developed in the Global North for their applicability to cultural heritage of the Global South. A secondment at Uniwersytet Jagielloński will provide methodological training in stylometry. The research objectives are to: (1) fill a gap in research by developing and evaluating methods for the study of Arabic periodicals; (2) challenge established narratives of the Arabic Renaissance (nahda) by re-introducing non-Syrian and Muslim authors and periodicals from beyond Cairo and Beirut commonly ignored by scholarly literature through the leading research question "What were the core nodes of authors and periodicals in this ideosphere and how did they change over time?"; (3) help establish the field of Arab Periodical Studies through community building across the postcolonial north-south divide. SIHAFA is committed to FAIR data and open access. Dr. Grallert will produce and publish: ground-breaking research to be published in English and Arabic; improved digital scholarly editions; authority files; an OCR model for Arabic periodicals; and a plain text corpus of authorship candidates.

Mots clés : middle east studies, digital humanities, periodical studies, social network analysis

Participants :
- Université d'Hambourg (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 189687.36 €
- Université Jagellonne (Pologne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ConfiMet (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Selective functionalization of C-H bonds in hydrocarbons is a grand challenge that chemists have tried to address for decades drawing inspiration from enzymatic oxidation reactions, with limited success. The mimicry of metalloenzymes has typically focused on the metal center, overlooking crucial aspects of the enzymatic machinery: secondary coordination effects, molecular recognition, and confinement within the isolated active site of the protein. Herein, well-established coordination manifolds for Fe- and Mn-based oxidation of C-H bonds will be melded to a synthetic molecular receptor. The novelty of the resulting metallo-cavitand receptors lies in the positioning of the reactive metal center in close proximity to a binding pocket with robust molecular recognition features. The proposed reactions will exploit a structured microenvironment based on carefully designed non-covalent interactions. The designed hosts will bind hydrocarbons and related substrates in a confined space in close proximity to a reactive metal species, promoting site-selective oxidation dictated by the orientation of the substrate within the receptor rather than by the innate reactivity of the different C-H bonds in the structure. ConfiMet will deliver unprecedented site-selective functionalization reactions in molecules with multiple chemically equivalent C-H bonds, of important impact in the development of sustainable production methods for drugs and other chemical specialties. This project is a unique opportunity for the researcher to combine existing skills in coordination chemistry and transition metal catalysis with supramolecular chemistry concepts. The stimulating environment provided by the Institute of Computational and Catalysis, a research unit of excellence at Universitat de Girona (Spain), will allow the candidate to develop leadership, communication, and independent thinking skills, enhancing her career prospects in the transition to an independent academic position.

Mots clés : transition metal catalysis, bioinspired oxidation, molecular recognition, cavitand receptors

Participants :
- Université de Gérone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
- Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet MolPPS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The biggest contributor to ‘global warming’ is CO2 emission by burning fossil fuels. It is feasible to achieve carbon neutrality by recycling CO2 to fuels, which has a negative carbon footprint. It is not economical to recycle CO2 under the traditional circumstances, which involve extreme conditions. (Photo)-electrocatalytic CO2 reduction using thin-film semiconductor at room temperature is promising. For CO2 reduction, molecular catalysts are beneficial, because of easy structure-function correlations, but they lack recyclability and durability. CO2 reduction catalysts will be produced by the EU-funded MolPPS project through heterogenization of molecular catalysts in porous matrix with 3D crystalline architecture. Due to heterogenization, the proposed catalyst will possess inherent activity and gain stability. MolPPS will help elucidate the principles leading to heterogeneous molecular catalyst designing.  This proposal will implement two distinct heterogenization methods for iron/tin porphyrins containing carboxylic acids and hydroxyl groups into porous covalent organic framework. Porphyrins are well-known CO2 reduction catalysts. The microenvironment around porphyrins will be tweaked to tune the (photo-)electrocatalysis to produce methane and formic acid, drawing inspiration from the effects of extended coordination spheres and proton management commonly exploited by the biological enzymes. Electrochemical theories will be expanded to decipher mechanistic information, and develop catalytic models. Working for MolPPS will aid the experienced researcher achieving his goals for an independent research career by: (1) scientific training in organic synthesis and catalysis, (2) mentorship training via supervision of PhD students, (3) fund management training, and (4) develop long-lasting collaborations.

Mots clés : catalysis, coordination chemistry, electrochemistry, molecular chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, porous materials, photocatalysis, structural properties of materials, supramolecular chemistry

Participants :
- Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 165312.96 €
Projet PLUDEM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Who controls public opinion online? Research shows that an influential minority on social media spreads illiberal antidemocratic ideas by silencing opposing views to undermine support for liberal democracies. This minority, by being highly vocal and active, creates the illusion of representing a larger share of society. Bots and generative AI amplify this illusion, allowing the minority to shape public discourse and erode support for liberal democracy. This phenomenon reflects the ‘spiral of silence’ theory, which posits that individuals refrain from expressing their views when they perceive the majority to oppose them. However, robust, causal evidence testing this mechanism and its effect on liberal democratic behaviour is lacking. Equally unanswered is how to reverse this trend. PLUDEM addresses this gap by testing whether the ‘spiral of silence’ explains the silencing of pluralist voices and whether this process can be reversed to revive liberal democratic discourse online. The project hypothesises that increasing the visibility of pluralist voices in prominent debates will encourage silenced groups, including women and minorities, to re-engage, promoting pluralist political expression and strengthening democratic behaviour and attitudes. PLUDEM breaks new ground in computational political science by combining large-scale computational analyses, Large Language Models, machine learning, real-world social media and commenting experiments, in a collaboration with a pan-European grassroots network of pro-democratic volunteers. The project will provide robust causal evidence on factors contributing to the erosion of democratic behaviour and attitudes, and explain how to strengthen them. A non-academic placement with a leading European pro-democratic NGO will directly exploit the findings to ensure that PLUDEM’s impact extends beyond the project duration. In sum, PLUDEM explains how to bolster liberal democratic support in a time of acute global democratic recession.

Mots clés : liberal democracy, democratic attitudes, political behaviour, counterspeech,  online field experiment, survey experiment, hate speech, polarisation, social media, data science, machine learning

Participants :
- London School of Economics and Political Science (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 325434.9 €
- Bertelsmann Stiftung (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet I2I-StrokeCal (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the European Union. The use of microwave imaging (MWI) for brain stroke diagnosis has attracted growing interest in the past decade thanks to its non-invasiveness and low costs. Furthermore, thanks to its portability, brain MWI holds significant promise for widespread adoption in-ambulance, dramatically reducing intervention time. Data calibration still holds a strong limit to this application, where the need for a physical phantom of the patient head is the main bottleneck.  I2I-StrokeCal will develop and validate a novel method to perform data calibration relying solely on the patient measurement, thus without additional phantom measurements. This step-change will be attained through 3 specific objectives: (O1) development of the first dataset of brain MWI data in the literature; (O2) training and test of an image-to-image translation (I2I) tool which calibrates synthetically generated MWI data; (O3) training and test of the final I2I model which calibrates experimental MWI data. The proposed methodology applies cutting-edge computer vision techniques (I2I) to address a MWI problem (data calibration) applied to the medical field (stroke diagnosis).  The main host will be POLITO, home to the most advanced brain MWI prototype (TRL-4) within academia. The fellowship will also include two 4-months secondments. The first will be at the University of Manitoba (Canada), where the Researcher will be trained on the integration between machine learning and inverse scattering. The second will be at the École Polytechnique (France), to gain experience on machine learning and computer vision. The results will then be exploited during a 6-months non-academic placement at UBT S.r.l, an Italian startup that is conducting clinical trials with a TRL-6 brain MWI prototype. The acquired skills will shape the Researcher into a mature, independent scientist with interdisciplinary expertise and international recognition in medical MWI.

Mots clés : microwave imaging electromagnetic imaging brain stroke diagnosis calibration image to image translation

Participants :
- Umbria bioengineering tecnologies societa a responsabilita limitata (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université du Manitoba (Canada) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- École polytechnique de Turin (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 242054.1 €
- École polytechnique (France) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet METtoFUEL (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This proposal, titled "Green Fuel Production, via direct and low-energy Methane Oxidation" (METtoFUEL), will tackle the urgent and large-scale environmental problem of methane emissions, by converting methane to methanol, electrochemically and locally; simultaneously reducing GHG emission and obtaining a green liquid fuel. High selectivity for methanol and fast reaction rates will be achieved with 4 steps: 1) elucidation of the reaction mechanism, 2) development of dual-site catalysts, 3) electrolyte engineering and 4) achievement of industrially relevant currents with gas diffusion electrodes. This project will combine the applicant's (Dr. Silvia Favero) expertise in engineering the electrode-electrolyte interface, study of reaction mechanisms and some operando characterization techniques (SEIRAS and XAS), with the supervisor's (Prof. Maria Escudero Escribano) competence in methane electrochemical oxidation, her knowledge in operando characterization of electrocatalysts (Raman, ECMS, SEIRAS, SECS), and her experience in gas diffusion electrodes. Prof. Escudero-Escribano is an ICREA Professor at the ICN2, and has recently received an ERC-consolidator grant for the study of methane electrochemical activation and coversion into valuable chemicals, such as methanol. She has developed a laboratory with a unique combination of electrochemical expertise and operando characterization techniques; and is ideally positioned at ICN2, a Severo Ocha centre of excellence, with access to advanced material synthesis and characterization facilities, as well as extensive career support, ensuring the project's success. METtoFUEL will target >80% methanol selectivity, with >5% single-pass conversion and >100 mAcm-2 current density, which will ensure competitiveness against traditional methanol production approaches. If sucessful, this project will be spinned out, exploiting Prof. Escudero-Escribano IP experience, and ICN2 "Business and Innovation Department".

Mots clés : electrocatalysis, electrochemical methane oxidation

Participants :
- Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 194074.56 €
Projet RESPONSE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

Cytokines, such as TNF-α, hold immense significance as protein biomarkers, pivotal for diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic management across various clinical disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, sepsis, and cancer. Nonetheless, prevailing techniques like enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) prove to be expensive, time-intensive, and reliant on specialized personnel, intricate instrumentation, and infrastructure. Furthermore, the performance of present biosensing techniques necessitates refinements in terms of real-time outcomes, sensitivity, affordability, and user-friendliness. Within this context, the RESPONSE project sets out to forge an innovative approach, intertwining Janus graphene derivatives (JGDs) and Single Atom Catalysts (SACs), or atozymes, for Point-Of-Care (POC) biosensors for cytokine detection. This undertaking involves the strategic utilization of selectively and densely functionalized JGDs, serving dual roles: i) as signal transducer immobilized on a paper lateral flow electrochemical sensor (LFES), and carrying the cytokine bioreceptor (primary/capture antibody; Ab1) and ii) as signal amplifier JGDs, housing the SACs and the secondary/signal antibody (Ab2), which binds to a different epitope of cytokine. The binding between TNF-α and JGDs-Ab1 initiates the sandwich formation with SAC-JGDs-Ab2 complex at the test region. Here, the SACs catalyze the oxidation of an appropriate reporter molecule, liberating electrons and thereby significantly amplifying the signal output which can be quantified through an integrated electrode system. REPSONSE offers affordability, point of care readiness and commercialization potential. Importantly, RESPONSE’s strategy defines the blueprint for transitioning from the current, symptom-focused and late-stage diagnosis to the next-generation prognostic biomarker-guided preventative or therapeutic treatment management, and improve life-quality of millions of people worldwide.

Mots clés : atozymes, janus graphene, bioreceptors, electrochemical sensor, microfluidics, cytokines

Participants :
- Université Palacký (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166278.72 €
- Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €