Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet NEUROBUKIMI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The Uncanny Valley hypothesis (UV), proposed already 45 years ago, suggests that too humanlike robots or other artificial characters will elicit feelings of eeriness (Jpn. ‘bukimi’) in human observers. Existing psychological and neuroimaging studies have focused on the humanlikeness dimension of UV but neglected its emotional experience, which was at the heart of the original hypothesis. This interdisciplinary project will develop a thorough model for the emotional dimension of UV, consisting both of subjective verbal descriptions and observed neuronal activation patterns. A series of neuroimaging experiments will be carried out at the Brain and Emotion Laboratory of Maastricht University (UM): the first experiment will test the neuronal correlates of negative emotions elicited by semi-realistic virtual characters, and the second experiment will take a step beyond the original UV hypothesis by comparing the neuronal activation patterns of real and virtual emotional expressions. A self-report questionnaire for verbalizing the emotional experience of UV will be developed during a secondment period at Eindhoven University of Technology (Tu/e). By explicating the emotional experience of UV and by providing open tools for both research and industry, this project will be an important turning point for the future development of all humanlike technologies. Consistently, direct and concrete contacts with the animation industry are planned during the project. My supervisor Prof. de Gelder from UM is one of the thought leaders in the field of affective cognitive neuroscience, and my secondment supervisor Prof. Ijsselsteijn from Tu/e is renowned for his work in human-technology interaction. I am an experienced researcher with a dual background in both of these disciplines, as well as specific background in UV topic. This interdisciplinary synergy will maximize this project’s impact on the European society and help establish my position as a leading independent scientist.

Mots clés : uncanny valley

Participants :
- Maastricht University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet WeCanIt (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The WeCanIt project’s is to think afresh women’s labor market participation in the maritime sector in 20th century post-war transitions – WWI (1918-1925) and WWII (1945-1950) – in the Upper Adriatic area in an intersectional perspective. The research will focus the situation of five localities: Trieste (Italy); Koper, Piran and Izola (Slovenia); Rijeka (Croatia). The primary objective of the research is to estimate quantitatively and qualitatively women’s labour market participation in the maritime industry in order to go beyond the traditional historiographical approach on the region which has neglected some aspects (the interrelation among e.g. gender, social class, nationality) focusing – almost exclusively – on the consequences of the balance of power among States on the peoples of the area. The proposal is structured in three research objectives: 1) quantitatively estimating the scope of the maritime industry in order to identify all major actors involved; 2) quantitatively estimating women’s maritime labour market participation according to the intersectional approach in a longitudinal perspective; 3) identifying – through case studies – the factors that influenced women’s maritime labour market participation, in order to understand the point of view of women. As for the approach, intersectionality has never been applied to the Upper Adriatic area, a strongly characterized region for its multiethnic/linguistic dimension, mobility, different state structures, political violence and a significant access to labor and services markets by female population. The approach moves across disciplines, national boundaries and genders. The proposal represents a significant “unhooking” from the conventional – and conservative – perspective of research on the Upper Adriatic during the 20th century for the choice of the subject (maritime history), the approach (intersectionality), and the research object (women’s labour market participation).

Mots clés : upper adriatic, labour history, maritime history, transitions, post world wars periods, transnational history

Participants :
- University of Ljubljana (Slovénie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 150040.32 €
Projet Lifestyle Analytics (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is spearheading the promotion of healthy diets and increased physical activity as it claims that these are the leading factors affecting health and well-being in Western countries. This claim rests on numerous clinical studies which linked lifestyle-related factors (e.g. nutrition, physical activity, smoking) to good or bad health outcomes. Corresponding data are generally based on questionnaires, and the usefulness of these data strongly relies on the honesty of participants and how well they remember past exposures. However, it is known that when it comes to lifestyle, participants tend to overestimate habits that are generally considered as ‘good’ and, in turn, underestimate those that are considered as ‘bad’. There is thus a need for more objective research methods to measure these habits in order to gain better and more reliable insights in how they affect our health. Such methods can furthermore become valuable tools in clinical practice by contributing to the prevention or even treatment of diseases through lifestyle changes. In this project, I aim to identify low-molecular-weight compounds, including metabolites, nutrients, and toxicants, that associate with lifestyle-related parameters using state-of-the-art ‘metabolomics’ techniques. For promising compounds or compound combinations, I will then develop high-throughput, targeted methods and validate them according to regulatory standards. These methods can subsequently mature to clinical-grade laboratory tests which would help in cutting health care costs and improving health and well-being. At last, for the proposed work I will be carrying out an innovative project at a top-level European university. I will accordingly be granted the opportunity to gain new experiences, learn new techniques, expand my network, and mature as scientific researcher which will support me in my ambition to become an independent research group leader in the near future.

Mots clés : lifestyle, preventive medicine

Participants :
- University of Geneva (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203149.44 €
Projet AgainstResistance (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The World Health Organization recently added Acinetobacter baumannii at the top of the priority list of emerging and critical pathogens, against which the number of effective antibiotics is alarmingly low. I propose to find novel antimicrobial targets for A. baumannii by discovering haem related systems that contribute to its survival. Bioinformatics will be used as a powerful tool to explore A. baumannii haem metabolism-related genes. The role of these genes will be tested through microbiology and biochemistry approaches, and their contribution to virulence will be analysed in host-pathogen interaction assays. This multidisciplinary research programme will boost my scientific skills and act as a pipeline to launch my career as an independent researcher. Furthermore, this proposal has the added value of including a custom-made training programme on leadership, management, dissemination and outreach activities. Hence, “AgainstResistance” will be the ideal framework to enhance my competences, maturity and independence as a competitive researcher, and crucial to boost my career prospects as a future group leader in the field of antimicrobial resistance, which is one of the critical current and future health challenges. The proposal will make a real difference in European excellence and competitiveness by materialising its leadership and expertise in multidrug resistance of human pathogens.

Mots clés : haem homeostasis, acinetobacter baumannii, multi drug resistance, nitrosative stress

Participants :
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 147815.04 €
Projet EvolMAX (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The ability of pathogens to escape plant immune system recognition and host defenses is a significant driver of disease emergence. Small proteins secreted by fungal pathogens, named effectors, play a key role in the ability of pathogens to infect novel hosts. Fungal pathogens harbor large and highly diverse repertoires of effectors. This tremendous effector repertoire variability within and between species has hindered the characterization of effectors for their role in adaptation to novel hosts, which is limited to a tiny fraction of effectors. EvolMAX aims to lift this methodological barrier by focusing on one of the first large family of effectors discovered in fungi in order to identify the molecular processes underlying changes in virulence and adaptation to novel hosts. Building on the recent discovery of the MAX (Magnaporthe Avrs and ToxB) family of effectors in the multihost pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, this project will jointly characterize and infer the evolutionary history of reasonably-sized sets of effectors. Using comparative genomics, population genomics, large-scale pathogenicity tests and genome-wide association mapping in host-specific M. oryzae lineages, EvolMAX will identify candidate loci involved in adaptation to novel hosts and raise understanding of the origins, diversification history of fungal effectors. The molecular processes underlying pathogen evolution and host adaptation are essential to design efficient and sustainable disease control strategies.


Participants :
- Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet ViCoZe (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The ability to learn and memorize information in a constantly changing environment is essential for survival for most species. Two forms of associative learning have been described, elemental and configural, but despite advances in our understanding of their mechanisms, we are still far from having a detailed view of the difference between these two strategies. For the first time, a systematic comparison of elemental and configural learning will be performed in adult zebrafish tested in an automated setup that I previously developed. By pairing the learning experiments with approaches combining pharmacology, neural imagery, biochemistry and genetics, I will aim at identifying brain areas, molecular pathways, especially those involving dopamine and noradrenaline, and genes involved in both forms of learning. Thanks to this project, I will gain invaluable experience from learning new approaches (particularly HPLC, staining and imaging, and RNA sequencing), and improve myself in project management, supervision, and scientific communication; skills required to develop my own independent line of research. By exploring cognition in zebrafish, a model with a high genetic homology with human and that possess an evolutionarily conserved brain, the results from this project will have a major impact on the advancement of different research areas such as psychology, medicine and evolution of vertebrates. In addition, by giving open access on the automated tank system to the whole zebrafish field, the project will ensure a standardization of the methods in the future and provide a powerful tool for many other topics using zebrafish. This project is a unique career opportunity, enhancing my understanding of cognition, and expanding my network to the medical and animal welfare community. This will help me to become a recognised expert in animal cognition in different research areas, and to develop a complete and dynamic research group in the future.

Mots clés : zebrafish, learning, memory, cognition, automated system, dopamine, noradrenaline, gene expression

Participants :
- University of Gothenburg (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191852.16 €
Projet FUNPROBE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The ability to monitor and investigate intracellular processes is crucial for biomedical, cancer and aging research, and has direct applications in disease diagnosis, and drug development. The investigation of such processes requires tools capable of accurate and quantitative monitoring of an array of dynamically changing physical and chemical properties in specific cells at subcellular resolution and with minimal disruption to the cell. Despite significant recent advances in the field, implementing multiple functions in a single device while maintaining the required subcellular spatial resolution is a major technological challenge, as the entire probing instrument tip should not exceed submicrometer dimensions. Therefore, existing tools are limited in their sensing capabilities to single properties. The main objective of FUNPROBE is to develop a multifunctional nanoscale probe, which will combine controlled intracellular delivery and extraction, sensing of temperature, selective ion concentration, and electrical recording, whose various functions can be operated simultaneously to enable quantitative monitoring of intracellular processes in real time, with minimal damage to the cell, in a single device. To achieve this goal, a new fabrication method will be developed, enabling, for the first time, to create a high aspect-ratio nanometric tip with integrated open-ended nanochannels, and their combination with conductive and insulating layers at the tip. The development of such techniques is in alignment with the European Commission's aims of developing multifunctional nano-enabled products for different applications. The project will take full advantage of the unique combination between the applicant’s expertise in developing open-space fluidic and electrokinetic probes and the host laboratory’s expertise in nanofluidics, nanofabrication, and single cell electrophysiology.

Mots clés : nanofabrication, open nanofluidics, intracellular sensing, single cell analysis

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet I2 RAMP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in military practice has been famously portrayed as the third revolution in military affairs, after gunpowder and nuclear weapons. While lethal autonomous weapons might be an emerging reality, AI is already present on the battlefields, in the form of, inter alia, decision support systems and risk-assessing predictive algorithms. Just like any other means and methods of warfare, AI-based technology might (and will) lead to human rights and international humanitarian law violations. There is no consensus on the horizon regarding how, to whom and based on what principles international responsibility for such violations could be assigned, let alone implemented. This is particularly conspicuous in the European Union, where the political focus has largely been on the possible applications of AI in business and public services, while the examination of military applications is lagging behind; in fact, the core policy document on the matter, the 2020 European Commission White Paper on AI explicitly excludes “the development and use of AI for military purposes” from its scope. 'Implementing International Responsibility for AI in Military Practice' (I2 RAMP) Action fills this void through bridging theory and practice to comprehensively analyze ethical and legal challenges military AI raises, who (individuals, States or both) can be held internationally responsible and how this responsibility can be implemented with a view to produce both academic and viable operational outputs. This will be achieved by adopting an interdisciplinary approach combining, on the one hand, the Researcher’s academic knowledge of international law and hands-on experience as a military legal adviser, and on the other, the expertise in ethics and computer science of researchers working on the Designing International Law and Ethics into Military AI (DILEMA) Project at the Asser Institute.

Mots clés : autonomous weapons, law of state responsibility, international humanitarian law, principle of humanity, internationally wrongful acts

Participants :
- Asser Institute (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 263358.72 €
Projet DEBBIE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The advent of material science and manufacturing techniques in the last century has led to the development of thousands of novel biomaterials, with potential to revolutionise health care. However, the vast majority of biomaterial studies do not progress beyond the stages of design and testing, and therefore a substantial amount of scientific data is only available in the form of research publications. To date, there is no database curating the experimental data generated by testing novel biomaterials in vitro and in vivo, representing a loss of a valuable big (experimental) data. In here, we propose an open-access database of experimental tissue scaffolds, indexing design features, cellular and tissue responses, thus creating an exhaustive inventory of experimental scaffolds. Such a dataset would enable scientists to efficiently search and interpret relevant information from past studies across all tissues and models, as well as create computational tools to predict and optimise cell-material interaction. A comprehensive map of research activity and findings should also make it easier to identify areas where data is missing or lacking. A systematic, up-to-date overview of the field will also be a useful tool for science policy making. The novelty of the project lies not only in the concept of curating data from laboratory evaluation of experimental biomaterials (rather than just approved medical implants), but also in attempting to face the methodological challenge of extracting and structuring information from the heterogeneous and vast field of experimental biomaterials. One of the keys of this interdisciplinary project is crowd-sourcing biomaterial scientists, thus engaging their expertise and understanding their needs, in order to create a comprehensive, relevant and useful tool to enhance research in the field.

Mots clés : biomaterials, database, cell material interactions, tissue scaffolds, tissue engineering, in vitro, in vivo, biomedical materials, experimental data, data analysis, text mining

Participants :
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet GReCS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The advent of single cell technologies has enabled the characterization of cell types and developmental processes. Observations from different cells allow one to identify underlying patterns at higher resolution than convoluted bulk data, and integration of different omics data can yield a more differentiated picture of mechanistic connections. In this proposal, Gene REgulatory Cell States (GReCS) from multi-modal data, I plan to develop a computational method that combines these aspects to generate insights into gene regulation at the level of single cells. Measurements of chromatin accessibility in single cells are becoming increasingly common. The method I propose to develop combines sc/sn-ATAC- and scRNA-sequencing data to characterize gene regulation. My approach will integrate and use transcriptomics and open chromatin data to filter comprehensive prior information about candidate interactions and predict cell-specific gene regulatory network versions using machine learning, while sparse single cell measurements are imputed using local cell similarities. In this way, rare measurements across cell types and a larger condition space for network inference can be exploited, using the natural potential of chromatin accessibility data as a filter to map interactions into a cell-specific context. A distinguishing feature of the proposed method is the characterization of local gene regulatory states, which allows the observation of continuous changes throughout a cell-cell similarity embedding. This will be useful to examine changes during cell differentiation and along gradients in spatial reconstructions, for example of embryonic development. The developed methods will be made available to the community as a computational toolkit to improve the characterization of gene regulation by combining different types of data.

Mots clés : single cell data, computational method, multi modal data, gene regulatory network, chromatin accessibility

Participants :
- Wellcome Trust (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 224933.76 €