Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet PINQUAR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Semiconductor optical microcavities host hybrid light-matter quasi-particles known as polaritons, formed by strong coupling between cavity photons and quantum well excitons. Polaritons are interacting bosons, which above a critical density may condense into a single quantum state. Polariton condensates have enabled fascinating discoveries, yet state of the art experiments remain within the mean-field limit. This means that the physics is governed by a large number of polaritons per mode. We propose to develop polariton systems operating in the quantum regime, where the physics is governed by single or few polaritons. Enhancing the polariton non-linearity is a pre-requisite for accessing the quantum regime. Therefore, our proposal begins with studies of extreme non-linear optical phenomena still within the mean-field limit. In particular, we will study bifurcations, exceptional points, and spin-squeezing. Next, we will enter the quantum regime by exploiting interference effects between coupled polariton modes to generate non-classical light via an effect known as unconventional photon blockade. Our final objective is to demonstrate the conventional photon blockade, wherein a single photon in a highly nonlinear cavity blocks the entrance of a second one. Polaritons IN the QUAntum Regime (PINQUAR) will enable previously inaccessible fundamental studies and applications where photons can be emitted one-by-one, non-classical photon statistics can be engineered in time and energy, and quantum simulations can be performed in a controlled solid-state platform suitable for all-optical integrated circuits.

Mots clés : polaritons, semiconductor microcavities, polariton condensate, non classical light, photon blockade

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet ToothClues (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Several methods are used in Pleistocene paleoenvironmental reconstitution, such as, biochemical, eco-morphologicals, dental wear or pollen analyses. The rigorous comparison and inclusion of several paleoenvironmental proxies in a single study is still in its early stages. Yet, these methods are complementary and their inclusion could bring greater precisions to the knowledge of local and regional paleoenvironmental. Toothclues is a multi-disciplinary and innovative project which aims, for the first time, to compare and combine herbivore paleodiet, eco-morphometry and paleobotanical data, obtaining a clear picture of the environment where Neanderthal groups lived and precise interactions between them and their biotope in three temporal scales. This study will focus on the North-western part of the Mediterranean basin (France and Spain) during the MIS 4 and 3 in order to evaluate Neanderthal adaptations to the climatic instability. We selected three archaeological sites in which both faunal and botanical elements were available in situ and well preserved. This study requests several areas of expertise and tools to be conducted. First, the diet of the ungulates will be determined using dental wear analysis. Then, post-cranial bones of ungulates will be studied through morphological and metric analyses using Geometric Morphometrics. Next, pollen data from the same localities will be compiled with the help of specialists and combined with the faunal proxies through statistical analysis. The development of a new method to combine three proxies which refer to various geographical (local/regional) and time (decades/years/season) scales will bring new information about paleoenvironmental features for the North-western part of the Mediterranean basin during MIS 4 and 3 with a great precision. Ultimately, ToothClues aim to understand the interaction between environment, preys and humans in order to evaluate the adaptability and resilience of Neanderthal societies.

Mots clés : zooarchaeology, tooth wear, middle palaeolithic, palaeodiet, human environment interactions

Participants :
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet TESNinSAB (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Sewage sludge management is one of the most challenging waste issues in Environmental Engineering field due to their highly polluted nature and high volume. On the other hand, sewage sludge, which is also called as biosolids, can be a nutrient resource for the agri-foods which leads to their usage in agriculture as fertilizers. Usage of biosolids as fertilizer is the most desirable management strategy since it provides resource recovery and prevents the usage of synthetic chemicals which can be harmful for human and environment health. Therefore, after the treatment of biosolids to meet the required quality criteria, their ultimate disposal as fertilizer has to be sustained. Up to date, organic, metallic or hazardous pollutants were addressed to be removed from biosolids before land spreading and standards were defined in regulations. However, there are new concerning pollutants for biosolids application to agricultural lands. One of the most recent and biggest concerns is the presence of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which are widely used as biocides in the consumer products and are shown to occur in wastewater treatment plants, mostly, in biosolids. They are, as a source of ionic and nano Ag, among the emerging pollutants which are known to have potential to pose threat to human and environment health and have not been included in monitoring lists, yet. Therefore, the aim of this research is to advance the state of the art in land spread of biosolids through the investigation of the toxic effects and bioacculumation of AgNPs and its transformation products in soil organisms. For excellence in research, the knowledge about the toxic effects is integrated with environmental risk assessment which will enable necessary actions such as proposing guidelines for biosolids applications.

Mots clés : agglomeration, agriculture, bioaccumulation, enchyrtaeus crypticus, engineered nanoparticles, environmental risk assessment, pore water, public health, resource recovery, transformation product

Participants :
- Istanbul Technical University (Turquie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 145845.6 €
Projet SexWarEcol (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Sexual conflict is essential to understand phenotypic evolution in promiscuous species. Yet we know very little about how it operates in the wild and how ecology may help explain the overwhelming variation in sexual traits showcased in nature. I propose an ambitious multi-disciplinary approach combining phenotypic-level measurements with transcriptomic and proteomic tools to study the ecological factors that underlie variation in sexual conflict in Drosophila melanogaster, at a global ecological scale. This is a powerful system because: a) it has a global distribution that spans marked ecological variation, b) it exhibits intense sexual conflict including well studied pre- and post-copulatory traits, c) its sexual conflict traits have been shown to harm females and decrease population viability, d) it affords the use of state-of-the-art molecular techniques and e) despite being a model organism in sexual selection and sexual conflict studies, we know very little about the role of ecology. I will study 1) how temperature, population density, sex ratio and habitat characteristics modulate sexual conflict across different levels of sexual selection (i.e. pre-copulatory vs. post-copulatory) and genetic conflict (i.e. intra-locus vs. inter-locus sexual conflict), 2) the role of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in shaping sexual conflict responses to temperature, 3) how this may impact population viability, and 4) the physiological and genetic mechanisms underlying variation in sexual conflict. Given the novelty and reach of the questions addressed this action represents an important advance in our understanding of how sexual conflict evolves and operates in nature, as well as the consequences in terms of potential eco-evolutionary feedback on population viability. Understanding the latter can be particularly relevant to predict the fate of populations and species facing directional environmental changes, such as those imposed by global warming.

Mots clés : d  melanogaster, sexual conflict, temperature, phenotypic plasticity, population viability

Participants :
- University of Valencia (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet DINO_DON (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Shallow coastal waters in the Baltic Sea, rich in organic matter, are threatened by toxic dinoflagellates blooms, which have deleterious effect on human health and aquatic life. The toxic Alexandrium ostenfeldii blooms in coastal waters where vegetation start to decompose in late summer and release dissolved organic nitrogen (DON). Dinoflagellates are potentially mixotrophic; they are photosynthetic and can use DON. However, the mixotrophic activity for Alexandrium in the Baltic Sea is unknown. The issue will be addressed using stable isotope 15N tracer experiments with enriched substrates from decaying vegetation and visualization of N incorporation pathway (direct uptake or via bacteria) in individual cells using NanoSIMS to determine the mixotrophic capacity of Alexandrium from different geographical sites in the Baltic Sea that differ in vegetation cover and type. A difference in adaptation to N sources may further support the genetic differentiation shown between Alexandrium populations in different areas of the Baltic Sea. The project will provide new understanding to nutritional physiological ecology of toxic dinoflagellates. Our aim is to understand if DON from decaying vegetation can be a source of N for toxic Alexandrium blooms in the Baltic Sea. By matching vegetation and habitat variables with Alexandrium bloom occurrence and mixotrophic activity we will develop a tool to identify potential bloom sites of Alexandrium in shallow coastal waters and to make recommendations for local management. If the application is accepted as IF the training in population genetics and spatial modelling using A. ostenfeldii as a model species, will be a key step for the development of the applicant in light of the research objectives towards modelling how metabolic activity differs with different populations.

Mots clés : baltic sea, harmful algal blooms, alexandrium ostenfeldii, stable isotope 15n don, nanosims, eutrophication, macrophytes and reed, decaying vegetation, population genetics, spatial modellin

Participants :
- Ministry of the Environment (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 191325.6 €
Projet MOrPhEM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Shape-shifting systems would offer unique innovation capabilities which have inspired fiction and driven exciting science and engineering research over the past decades. Such adaptable, multi-functional, shape-shifting creatures that could freely assume any desired form, mimic natural or engineered systems and even perform tasks beyond the capabilities of any human or conventional machine are indeed exciting prospects which could change the way we see world around us and interact with it. Yet shape-shifting systems, which include soft and reconfigurable robots, remain in their infancy. We are still to estimate physical limits for such technology and thus remain unable to predict which of all the exciting potential applications are actually achievable. In this project, through a continuous interaction between Robotics, Soft-Matter Physics, Computer Science and Computational Mechanics, with my host, I will devise novel theories and algorithms, implemented in open-source software which will enable to effectively control shape-shifting systems. Such predictive and control tools remain the major obstacle to designing and constructing actual shape shifters with unique and adaptable properties. The impact of shape-shifting devices would span the whole of engineering and medicine. Such systems could be used in communication and entertainment to physically reproduce virtual moving and interacting entities. In medicine, they could be injected into the blood stream, adapt to physiological conditions, enter the most remote, sinuous and confined areas in organs, treat them or invest them with required enhancements, e.g. cochlear implants for earing aids. These exciting opportunities, however, require the ability to effectively control these shape-shifting and adaptable systems, which is the aim of this Fellowship.

Mots clés : model order reduction, acceleration, computational mechanics, finite element analysis, numerical methods, modelling and simulation, modular robotics

Participants :
- University of Luxembourg (Luxembourg) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet JUSMOVE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Should the movement of people across borders be restricted? Should it be permitted? Should it be promoted? These questions are ubiquitous in daily discourse in our societies, politics and academia, and became subject of an increasing amount of policies regulating movement during the present COVID-19 health crisis. JUSMOVE is a pioneering philosophical project on human movement attempting to answer these fundamental questions, suggesting that a comprehensive study on human movement is highly significant for how we will answer. What is the value of movement for a contemporary person? And according to which conception of just movement should movement be restricted, protected or promoted? JUSMOVE will establish the grounds for a Just Theory of Movement that overcomes the underlined dichotomous view opposing ‘closed’ to ‘open’ borders and, in turn, societal trends, which presently contributes to the highly polarized debate on migration and mobility. JUSMOVE’s potential impact is fourfold: first, it contributes to the scholarly debate with a novel theory; secondly it proposes an experimental methodology, by combining tools from rigorous ethics and philosophy with potent big data, which lays the grounds for novel cross-disciplinary cooperation; thirdly, it informs the debate of the main stakeholders and decision-makers, such as the European Commission (EC); while also lastly aiming at influencing public debates. JUSMOVE aims to propose a paradigmatic conceptual twist to nearly thirty years of contemporary philosophical debate around migration and states borders, with substantial implications for existing views and for policy making.

Mots clés : movement, borders, states, refugee, economic migration, liberalism, freedom, equality, justice, data, mobility, integration, citizenship, covid 19 movement restrictions

Participants :
- Pompeu Fabra University (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 241398.72 €
Projet ShrimpLLH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) aquaculture industry is the fastest-growing sector of the global aquaculture is threatened worldwide by viral diseases, of which White Spot Syndrome is the most harmful and bacterial diseases, of which Vibriosis is the most damaging. Therefore, appropriate biosecurity and management measures in shrimp aquaculture are important in preventing diseases. Stimulating the immunity in shrimp is another factor that can help shrimp in surviving infectious attacks. Although the immune system of invertebrates has been well studied in insects, much less information is currently available for crustaceans. The general concept in a crustacean is that there are three types of haemocytes in the circulating haemolymph, but recent research in the laboratory of Prof. Dr Hans Nauwynck indicated that the haemocytes of P. vannamei can be separated in five distinguished subpopulations, of which two subpopulations were previously not described. The cells of these two subpopulations resemble mammal lymphocytes and are therefore designated lymphocyte-like haemocytes (LLHs). Against this background, it is paramount to investigate the immunological function of these LLHs in depth. ShrimpLLH project objectives are (i) to isolate, (ii) to characterize and (iii) to analyze the immunological functions of haemocyte subpopulations. This project will further fill the knowledge gap in shrimp immunity, more specifically, it will provide information on the immunological role of LLHs. Since this project is multidisciplinary, it will increase the competence of the candidate in advanced immunological techniques and experience in crustacean innate immunity research. The new knowledge gained in this project will facilitate to develop a technique to screen products that can aid the shrimp haemocytes in their fight against different infectious diseases. ShrimpLLH project is in line with the EU strategy for the development of sustainable aquaculture.

Mots clés : aquaculture, penaeus vannamei, haemocyte subpopulations, lymphocytes like haemocytes, immune functions

Participants :
- Ghent University (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €
Projet SILVERPATH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Silver(II) fluoride is a strongly correlated charge transfer insulator, with characteristics remarkably similar to those of parent high-temperature superconducting cuprates. AgF2 has the potential to be the basic building block to a new class of strongly correlated materials with fascinating properties. The purpose of SILVERPATH is to develop appropriate models to characterize and predict magnetic, metallic and superconducting properties by combining analytical and computational methods. In collaboration with leading chemistry and experimental groups silver fluorine based materials and heterostructures will be designed, possible routes to metallization explored, and their properties studied. The project will ensure large progress in understanding low-dimensional quantum magnetism and has great potential to contribute to the discovery of a new class of high-temperature superconductors. The project will give the ER the opportunity to follow all the processes in the construction of a theory for a quantum material, from the model building and parameter determination to the prediction of physical properties, putting her in a position of leadership in this class of correlated materials and ready to attack any new material in the field. Moreover, SILVERPATH will contribute to strengthen the transfer of knowledge between condensed matter physics and chemistry communities.

Mots clés : silver fluoride materials, material engineering and design, non linear optical properties, high tc superconductivity, cuprate analogues, spin peierls

Participants :
- National Research Council (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet POUR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Since its birth in East Asia during the Late Pleistocene, ceramic technology has become almost universal, allowing the exploitation of new environments and fostering different kinds of cultural expressions. This worldwide relevance for human development has positioned the uses of early pottery as one of the most debated topics in archaeology. Traditional models that linked this technological breakthrough to the development of farming and sedentary lifestyles are currently being revisited, and new data from the Northern Hemisphere suggest that it would have been a hunter-gatherer innovation widespread by the processing of aquatic resources during sporadic episodes. However, some key regions of the Southern Hemisphere have remained unexplored. This is the case of the southernmost limit of pottery dispersal in America, the Patagonia region, where pottery was spread by foragers over a vast and marginal environment during 2000 years, but it remained as a scarce and low-scale technology. What was the initial motivation that drove Patagonian foragers to use and spread this technology in such an environment without engaging in intensive production? Could the stability of aquatic resources trigger this process and delineate a world-wide trend that transcends the ecological and cultural settings? By applying the latest biomolecular analysis and data interpretation methods, POUR seeks to answer this unsolved question implementing the first large-scale systematic research on the uses of early pottery in this part of the world.

Mots clés : south american archaeology, early pottery, biomolecular analysis, stable isotopes

Participants :
- University of York (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet SOLFORPLAS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Since the 1970s, the mismanagement of plastic waste has been increasingly threatening our health and environment. Rather than been reduced, plastic production is growing exponentially. By 2050, the estimation of plastic waste in landfills or in the natural environment verges on 12 billion metric tons, if current production and waste management trends continue. Societies are raising awareness about this concern, although our dependency makes nearly impossible to imagine a world without plastics. This urges for a solution making plastic production and degradation sustainable. To date, important efforts have been made to isolate and identify unique microorganisms capable of utilizing plastics as a carbon source. Although there is empirical evidence of it, the rates of biodegradation are still very low. In SOLFORPLAS project, we will apply cutting-edge biology tools, including fermentation and analytical processes, together with state-of-the-art methods in industrial microbiology research, to investigate plastic biodegradation using a highly-optimized strategy that combines an extruder and a bioreactor. The innovative combined strategy will integrate physical, chemical and biological treatment, which will mimic the whole biodegradation process taking place in worms. Multiple polymer characteristics will be monitored to determine/quantify its biodegradation. Overall, SOLFORPLAS project aim at stablishing a combined strategy to carry out plastic biodegradation as a solution for plastic pollution, one of the biggest environmental that humans are facing in this century.

Mots clés : extrusion process

Participants :
- Institut national des sciences appliquées de Toulouse (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184707.84 €