Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet H2E (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Heat-to-power conversion can be achieved by thermoelectric generators (TEGs), devices that exploit the Seebeck effect to build up an electric potential across a stack of semiconductors subjected to a temperature difference. This physical effect has long been known, but widespread application has remained limited because of the low efficiency (less than 5%) and high cost of available semiconductors, often containing rare metals and featuring high toxicity and poor thermal stability. Compared to alternative technologies for valorisation of low-grade heat, e.g., the Organic Rankine Cycle, TEG technology has substantial advantages, including lower weight and absence of moving parts. This leads to high reliability and low-maintenance, crucial attributes for the chemical process industry. Using less expensive semiconductor materials and increasing efficiency are the main challenges to broaden the application field of TEGs. H2E proposes a new approach to enable improved TEGs using a thermo-electrochemical-hydrogen production device (TEC-H) based on recently discovered, robust, low cost, non-toxic porous semiconductor materials. These new semiconductors are implemented in an original design, mounting them in stacks to produce a TEC-H device that is modular and exhibits good scalability. The resulting disruptive increase in efficiency will enable power generation with a decreased cost per unit power. H2E will valorise low-grade waste heat in the temperature range below 100 °C, a range currently not exploited in industry. Besides industrial waste heat, also low-grade geothermal heat represents huge potential. H2E aims to innovate the production of two end products: renewable electricity and green hydrogen - by water splitting. H2E will contribute to a more energy-efficient and low-carbon future, in line with Europe’s long-term strategy to become climate-neutral by 2050 as set by the European Commission in The European Green Deal.

Mots clés : thermoelectric generator, thermocouples, energy conversion, seebek effect

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191760.0 €
Projet pH4HIF (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Oral administration followed by intestinal absorption is the preferred way to deliver drugs to the body. Therefore, estimating the correct oral dose to achieve a therapeutic effect is an important challenge when developing drug products. Predicting intestinal drug absorption needs to consider multiple influencing factors, including properties of the drug, the formulation, and the human intestinal fluids (HIF). One of the critical factors of HIF is pH, as it may influence intestinal drug absorption both directly and indirectly. The direct effect of pH on a drug’s ionisation state and, subsequently, intestinal absorption is widely known. However, the effect of pH on the solubilisation and absorption of lipophilic drugs by changing the colloidal structures present in HIF, has not yet been systematically analysed.  Understanding this indirect pH effect is especially needed to improve dose predictions for drugs with a narrow therapeutic window such as anticancer drugs, and address both inefficiency and potential side effects. The proposed project therefore aims to understand and predict the pH effect on colloidal structures in HIF and how it affects the absorption potential of anticancer drugs in both fasted and fed state conditions.  To achieve its goal, the project combines the expertise of the host group at KU Leuven in absorption profiling using in vitro and in vivo methods with the applicant’s experience in predictive in silico modelling. This approach will provide unique insights into the indirect pH effect on drug absorption and contribute to the development of in silico predictive models to guide the early-stage formulation and dose optimisation of anticancer drugs. As such, the project will have important value for pipelining new anticancer drugs and will benefit the European Commission priorities for 2019-2024, such as the pharmaceutical strategy and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

Mots clés : ph, human intestinal fluid, qspr, colloidal structure, solubility, permeation, predictive models, anticancer drugs, fasted and fed state

Participants :
- Université Saint-Clément-d'Ohrid de Sofia (Bulgarie) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet SPARKLES (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Photovoltaic technology stands as a beacon in the challenge to reduce CO2 emissions by maximizing the use of solar energy. Over the past decade, perovskite materials have emerged as game-changers, offering a powerful combination of affordability and high efficiency. In addition, their remarkable properties make them prime candidates for solar cell applications and are called to revolutionize photovoltaic technology. However, there is still room for improvement in enhancing their light management capabilities. Numerical simulations in perovskites have shown the potential of nanopatterning for the enhancement of light management, but the current landscape of nano- and micropatterning techniques is often time-consuming and unsuitable for large-scale industrial applications. This bottleneck hampers the realization of the full potential of perovskite solar cells.  SPARKLES is a pioneering project aimed at revolutionizing perovskite technology. The main objective is to develop an innovative approach that enables rapid, large-area patterning of perovskite thin film surface in a single and efficient step for enhancing light management. This is possible thanks to femtosecond laser processing, a cutting-edge technology that creates Laser-Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS). This finely tunable periodic line-pattern promises to optimize the light management capabilities of perovskite solar cell devices. LIPSS are the result of an interference phenomenon which allows patterning large areas in the blink of an eye, making them a perfect fit for industrial-scale production. The novel strategy proposed in SPARKLES achieves mask-less patterning without the need for harmful chemicals, ensuring a clean and sustainable process. SPARKLES is poised to illuminate the future of perovskite-based solar energy, making stride towards a greener and more efficient tomorrow.

Mots clés : perovskite, fs laser processing, lipss, light management, mass production

Participants :
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet SPATHS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Difficulties in learning maths usually begin at the start of education and are robust over time. The number of students not reaching basic levels of maths achievement remains a major societal challenge, at a time when societies are increasingly demanding maths skills due to scientific and industrial progress. Research examining the key cognitive foundations for successful maths learning has identified spatial skills as a promising potential contributor to maths development. Nevertheless, how and why SPatial skills contribute to mATHS learning remains elusive. SPATHS will therefore develop a new framework that aim to understand the causal mechanisms via which spatial skills impact maths learning. This will be done firstly by using graphical causal models, in particular Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG), to draw causal inferences from observational data. This technique, originally developed for computer science and novel to cognitive and developmental psychology, is a way of visually representing and testing a priori causal assumptions. Various spatial skills and maths abilities will be tested and causal pathways between the different abilities will be estimated in a cross-cultural context, which varies in the extent to which children start formal school (start at 5 vs. start at 6 years) and allows us to generalise findings across different educational contexts. Second, to empirically validate the findings from the causal models, a training experiment will manipulate the learning of spatial skills in 5-and 6-year-olds. SPATHS will unravel long-awaited knowledge about the mechanism underlying the spatial-maths association. This is essential for future research into efficient interventions to improve maths and to make spatial training programs more effective. Moreover, by introducing DAGs to cognitive and developmental psychology, SPATHS will provide the possibility to test causality in natural environments (e.g., schools) in which experimental data are difficult to obtain.

Mots clés : numerical cognition, spatial skills, mathematics

Participants :
- Université d'Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet IMEIV (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Though it has long been known that activated lymphoid cells upregulate insulin receptors, the functional relevance of insulin signalling in immune cells has only recently begun to be explored. This includes the recent finding that insulin-stimulated activation in the PI3K/Akt/mTOR promotes immunometabolic reprogramming of T cells, thereby promoting antigen-specific immunity. Similarly, in liver cells, insulin receptors have been shown to translocate to the nucleus where they participate in regulating genes involved in viral response and epitope presentation. What's more, various lines of evidence have implicated inulin signalling in the development of coagulopathies, via its effect on the expression of cytokines, complement and clotting factors, whiles also affecting platelets and endothelium. Taken together, these and other observations implicate an under-appreciated immune-regulatory function of insulin. Yet, even basic questions regarding insulin signalling in immune cells (e.g., do T cells develop insulin resistance?) are currently unknown. In the proposed study, we will investigate the effect of insulin signalling in immune and non-immune cells to evaluate the impact of insulin signalling on these immune-related functions. Firstly, we will leverage publicly available proteome and transcriptome data to re-interrogate these data sets from an immunological perspective. Complimenting these activities, we will also conduct detailed cell culture experiments to evaluate the effect of (a) does and (b) duration of insulin on the release of clotting factors, cytokines and complement, as well as immune cell activation and polarization. Finally, we will conduct a vaccine trial on a rodent model to evaluate the effect of insulin on vaccine efficacy. Beyond T1D and T2D, these findings will also impact diabetic care in organ transplant, gestational diabetes and the development of pre-eclampsia, immunotherapies, and intensive insulin therapy in critical/intensive care.

Mots clés : vaccine, immunology, insulin

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet LibMOF (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) offer the possibility to tailor their nano-pore environment and capture only specific molecules, making them an ideal candidate as a receptor in gas sensors. In order to mimic human olfaction, several receptors with different selectivity toward volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are combined in an array of sensors to form a so-called electronic nose (e-nose). High-quality thin films of MOFs are required for their integration in these sensor arrays; however, their synthesis has proven challenging due to a large number of parameters that influence the film quality. In the LibMOF project, a high-throughput (HT) synthesis method will be developed to screen the synthesis conditions for MOF thin films. The HT approach will be about 25-times faster than conventional synthesis and produce about 100-times less chemical waste. In addition, with the developed method, it is possible to deposit multiple different MOF films on a single substrate, which enables the use of HT characterisation of the functional performance (dielectric properties, adsorption isotherm and diffusion measurements of volatile organic compounds, VOCs). The synthesis conditions of the selected MOFs and their functional properties will be gathered in so-called libraries. These libraries will also contain negative results and will be shared publicly to facilitate faster development of MOF-based electronics. Finally, an electronic nose composed of an array of chemically-diverse MOF sensor elements will be fabricated and evaluated for sensing of complex VOC mixtures in real-world applications (targeting indoor air quality monitoring and human breath analysis for disease diagnostics).

Mots clés : metal organic frameworks

Participants :
- Institut Jožef Stefan (Slovénie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 155559.36 €
Projet EC-MAXene (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

To minimize the consequences of climate change, stopping greenhouse gas emissions and thus decarbonization of the energy supply chain is crucial. A highly promising solution is the utilization of fuel cells, which require hydrogen for energy generation. The supply of hydrogen by green technologies like water splitting is not economically feasible yet. To resolve this issue, cheap and efficient catalysts to drive this reaction are required. In the recent years, 2D materials moved in the focus of research as some of them show excellent catalytic activity to support the electrochemical splitting of water to obtain hydrogen. Among the vast field of 2D materials, MXenes are potential earth-abundant candidates with high stability and a broad range of potential applications, including the catalysis of water splitting. To date, 30 different MXenes have been synthesized, while more than 100 of them are predicted. However, established protocols use hazardous chemicals for the synthesis. Among the different methods, electrochemical etching of MAX phases to MXenes has the highest potential for an environmental approach. Thus, the main effort of this project is to develop electrochemistry-based synthesis routes for MXenes using environmentally friendly chemicals. The developed techniques will be evaluated in terms of yield and the structural and electrochemical characteristics of MXenes will be correlated. The etching process will be further optimized using scanning electrochemical microscopy. The technique enables the analysis of the localized electrochemical activity and the electrocatalytic activity towards the hydrogen evolution reaction. This will provide a deeper knowledge about the etching process in two regards: The minimum time required to achieve full conversion of MAX phase to MXene on an electrode surface can be determined, and local differences in catalytic activity can be spotted and correlated with structural and chemical deviations.


Participants :
- Université des technologies de Brno (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 150438.72 €
Projet PHILANTROPIC-ELEMYCO (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tropical mountains are biodiversity hotspots where a zonation of biota occurs with environmental conditions as one ascends. Patterns of vegetation types are well documented, as is the decline of plant-available nitrogen (N) relative to phosphorus (P) with elevation. However, how absolute and relative availabilities of essential elements beyond the well-studied N, P and carbon (C) vary in such mountains remains poorly understood, despite evidence that base cations and micronutrients do indeed affect tropical forests’ and other ecosystems’ functioning. Potentially important but overlooked factors that may confound elevational patterns of elemental availabilities are the type, dominance and abundance of mycorrhizal fungi, which in turn are also affected by biogeochemical cycling, directly or through shifts in vegetation. Here, I address these knowledge gaps by investigating patterns of C, N, P, potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and micronutrients, and their association with mycorrhizae across three distinct Philippine tropical mountains. While fungal and particularly plant biodiversity in these areas are well documented, biogeochemical patterns remain largely unexplored. PHILANTROPIC-ELEMYCO will test the hypothesis that absolute and relative availabilities of these elements are associated with both elevation and mycorrhizae. Specifically, the project will (1) analyze concentrations and stoichiometry of species- and community-weighted leaf, litter and soil elements along elevational gradients, (2) assess the co-occurrence thereof with association type, abundance and diversity of mycorrhizae, and (3) conduct a systematic review comparing mycorrhiza-nutrient relationships among tropical regions. By uniquely integrating expertise and approaches from tropical forest ecology, biogeochemistry, botany, mycology and molecular biology, I aim to contribute to an improved understanding of plant-soil-mycorrhiza-stoichiometry patterns in tropical mountains.

Mots clés : tropical forests, elemental stoichiometry, soil, nutrients, mycorrhizae, elevational gradients, mountain ecology, plant biodiversity

Participants :
- Université des Philippines (Philippines) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 200282.64 €
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 305239.92 €
Projet OFUC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This research aims to enhance global agricultural sustainability by improving nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) use efficiency (NUE and PUE) in major crops. While the widespread adoption of ammonia synthesis and industrial phosphate mining has significantly boosted the use of inorganic N and P fertilizers, their efficiency has declined over time. From 1961 to 2018, the dramatic increase in fertilizer application surpassed sustainable thresholds, leading to environmental challenges such as phosphate rock depletion, eutrophication, and soil acidification. Existing knowledge’s for assessing NUE and PUE often overlooks regional differences and specific agricultural practices, limiting their effectiveness.  This project addresses these gaps through three key work packages. First, the N(P)UEdiff method will be used to analyze historical NUE and PUE trends from 1961 to 2020 for major crops worldwide, identifying critical breakpoints. Second, machine learning models will predict the spatial distribution of NUE and PUE from 2000 to 2020, factoring in environmental and management variables to reveal driving factors. Lastly, future climate change scenarios will be integrated into these models to project NUE and PUE changes through 2100 and propose optimal agronomic strategies.  The innovative combination of the N(P)UEdiff method with dynamic data across 205 countries allows for the first comprehensive analysis of NUE and PUE trends and projections. This project will offer valuable insights for optimizing fertilizer use, increasing yields, reducing costs, and mitigating environmental harm, supporting global food security. The host’s expertise in global change ecology, coupled with the fellow's agroecology background, ensures successful implementation, while the interdisciplinary approach and open science practices will maximize the research’s impact and dissemination.

Mots clés : nitrogen, phosphorus, grain yield

Participants :
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 194074.56 €
Projet MMTENG (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The triboelectric effect is always considered a negative phenomenon in daily life, and this perception was altered when the first triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was proposed in 2012 as a new energy source. To date, the TENGs are well developed by thousands of researchers across the world, utilizing human activities, water waves, wind, and rain drops. However, there is still a gap between triboelectricity and other energy sources, for example, chemical energy and light. Inspired from natural immunocytes, artificial micromotors (MMs) referred to microscale particles capable of converting different energy sources into kinetic energy were well developed since 2004. The objective of this project is to apply MMs in TENG design (MMTENG) as an alternative strategy for electricity generation, which is expected to build up a bridge between other energy sources and electric energy through triboelectricity. The project will focus on i) the fabrication of the dielectric MM and the motion analysis under required circumstances with different propulsion mechanism; ii) the assembly of a freestanding TENG with metal electrodes and electrifiable polymer membrane; iii) the measurement of the triboelectricity converted from different energy sources. This interdisciplinary project will be supported by i) a world-renowned expert in micro/nanomachines and electrochemistry, Prof. Martin Pumera, as the host, and the facilities at Central European Institute of Technology; ii) colleagues specialized in electrochemistry and triboelectricity; iii) excellent trainings for both scientific skills and soft skills, workshops, and seminars, together with the researcher’s own experiences in MMs. In research aspect, it is always of great importance to develop new energy sources. In career aspect, with the international working environment and the inspiring research topics in the interdisciplinary field, this project will be a boost to the researcher's future academic career.

Mots clés : triboelectric nanogenerator, micromotor, electricity generation, triboelectricity

Participants :
- Université des technologies de Brno (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 150438.72 €