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

Finding a non-aggressive treatment against Cancer is one of the most important challenges that medicine has nowadays. Immunotherapy has emerged as one of the best options to overcome the current problems of chemotherapy. By the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAb), immunotherapy is able to block regulatory checkpoints and, therefore, the immune response against tumoral cells could be modulated. Trastuzumab, pembrolizumab and nivolumab are some of the mAb approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their use against several cancers. Trastuzumab recognizes the overexpressed protein HER2 in breast cancer, whereas the pembrolizumab and the nivolumab recognize the Programmed Cell Death-1 (PD-1) receptor and are used in several cancers such as refractory melanoma. However, there are reported important issues concerning cancer resistance to these mAb, thus, modifying their characteristics became necessary. Unlike it happens with small molecules, there are several limitations to functionalize an antibody to improve its characteristics. In this context, chemical mutagenesis turns into a powerful tool because it allows the modification of an antibody directly with highly specific chemical reactions, and achieve changes onto its structure that would not be possible by using other techniques such as protein engineering and genetic encoding. In this proposal I envision the use of nanobodies able to recognize HER-2 protein and PD-1 receptor in order to improve their affinity to their targets by chemical mutagenesis via alanyl radical. The success of this project would provide solutions to the cancer resistance to current immunotherapy.

Mots clés : chemical mutagenesis, nanobody, site selective protein modification

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet METADRUG (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Finding the most efficient and cheapest drug-excipient complex for an increased or modified release kinetics profile of drugs in the body is a current technological challenge in the pharmaceutical industry, especially to improve the treatment of high prevalence and third-country diseases. In this context, it is highly interesting the research on adsorption and diffusion of organic compounds in the surface or internal spaces of clays or related systems. The aim of this proposal is to apply the unique enhanced sampling metadynamics computational tool to properly analyse the processes involved at the nanometric scale, leading not only to rational principles but also to predictions of the pharmaceutical properties. Initially, a computational strategy based on metadynamics simulations will be defined to reproduce known drug release kinetics in drug-clay complexes. A program to automatize all the computations and data management (METADRUG) will be developed after that and in a subsequent step it will be applied to predict unknown release kinetics of relevant drugs from laminar, porous and nanotubular clays. The overall results shall allow determining the clay structural parameters and drug-clay interactions which modulate the release energetics, contributing to the development of new drug delivery systems and novel analysis processed in pharmaceutical technology. The comprehension and accurate prediction of drug increased or modified release phenomena will contribute in this manner to the EU to gain a competitive edge in this area. By means of the proposed project, the fellow will reach a great expertise in the field of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry by strengthening her skills in the use of classical and quantum chemistry methods, acquiring experience with the employment of metadynamics approaches, and learning about programming in Lammps and Plumed. The fellowship will also allow the applicant to develop a promising scientific career to the European level.

Mots clés : metadynamics, clay minerals, antiparasitic, antimicrobial and antidiabetic drugs, schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, diabetes, drug release, pharmaceutical technology, force fields

Participants :
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet FINISTERRAE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Finisterrae adopts a state-of-the-art landscape archaeology approach to reassess the changing character of Roman imperialism and its impact on local landscapes and societies on the western fringes of the Roman Empire. The peripheral landscapes of NW Iberia and SW Britain, previously interpreted as marginal, will be explored as examples of alternative imperial narratives and as landscapes of opportunities, through a bespoke interdisciplinary methodology. This integrates archaeology, remote sensing and palaeoecology and is aimed at natural and cultural proxies, in order to deliver an innovative inter-provincial, multiscalar and multivocal, yet holistic understanding of these landscapes. It will (a) allow a broad scale understanding of the strategies and the impact of Roman imperialism, and of the discrepant responses of native societies, and (b) shed new light on the Roman conquest and provincial organisation in the Roman frontier. This will be achieved by building upon the applicant’s previous research and expertise in Roman and aerial archaeology and enhanced by new skills he will acquire in ground-based landscape approaches. This training-through-research project at Exeter University, with its unique integral range of expertise in landscape archaeology from paleoenvironmental to ground and above-ground approaches will enable the applicant to receive high-quality training. The contributions of Finisterrae to understand the processes leading to social change, marginality and border-related socio-environmental stress are extremely timely in today’s worldwide order. Several high-impact publications and further dissemination beyond the academic environment will increase the impact of the project and contribute, alongside newly acquired skills and experiences, to enhance the researcher’s future interdisciplinary and international career perspectives in line with the Horizon 2020 Programme’s aims to promote EU excellence through top research and a knowledge-based society.

Mots clés : late iron age and roman archaeology, landscape archaeology, remote sensing, palaeoenvironment, geoarchaeology

Participants :
- University of Exeter (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet TADFNIR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

First-generation fluorescent and second-generation phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) can achieve maximum internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 25% and 100%, respectively. Phosphorescent OLEDs with complexes based on iridium and platinum realize 100% IQE due to the heavy atom effect. However, there are limitations, including but not limited to their scarcity and toxicity profile. The third generation OLEDs based on a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) process can be realized in purely organic materials and produce devices with 100% IQE. So far, there are examples of high-performance blue, green and red TADF OLEDs; however, limited attention has been paid to deep red (DR) and near-infrared (NIR) TADF emitters (650-750 nm). Such DR and NIR emitters find applications in night vision displays, sensors and information-secured displays etc. Current NIR OLEDs are associated with issues related to efficiency roll-off, lifetime and purity of emission color. Most importantly, the materials contain osmium, iridium, or platinum metals and therefore these OLEDs suffer from the same issues as visible light phosphorescent counterparts. This proposal seeks to address the above issues by rational design of purely organic novel DR and NIR TADF emitters. Our design comprises of yet unexplored rigid anthrone-based strong electron acceptor decorated with suitably substituted donor carbazoles. Emission color tunability can be achieved as a function of donor choice and position and varying the strengths of either the donor or acceptor. The rigidity of the molecular components, the strengths of the acceptor/donor, the twisted conformation, and the presence of tertiary butyl groups on the carbazoles altogether will work coherently to furnish good device stability, reduced efficiency roll-off, narrow emission spectra and an improved lifetime of the OLEDs. Overall, this proposal is anticipated to provide a major breakthrough in DR and NIR TADF emitters.

Mots clés : tadf, oleds, deep red, near infrared emitters, optoelectronics, luminescence

Participants :
- University of St Andrews (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet CharmingAntimatter (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Flavour physics, and the study of antimatter in particular, is one of the most exciting fields at the frontier of fundamental physics research. It is driven by the question of what happened to the antimatter after the Big Bang and is a recognized long-term priority as part of the CERN European strategy for particle physics. Nature provides particles that contain both matter and antimatter quarks as ideal laboratories for the discovery of matter-antimatter asymmetries (CP violation). This proposal will focus on the least explored of these particles, charm mesons; CP violation discoveries in strange and beauty mesons have already led to Nobel Prizes. The centrepiece of the action is a measurement based on data from the LHCb experiment, the world's leading player in flavour physics. The analysis will use one of the most complex techniques for the most sensitive decay mode of charm mesons. The determination of the decay-time dependence of the phase-space structure of this decay gives access to fundamental parameters of nature governing both matter-antimatter oscillations and CP violation. This multi-dimensional analysis involving millions of charm particle decays is computationally extremely challenging. This will be overcome by the development and exploitation of novel techniques of parallel programming on graphical processing units. For the needs of the analysis, the project includes a required improvement of the Geant4 Monte Carlo generator software to allow more efficient and more accurate simulation of matter-antimatter differences. The proposal also includes studies to find the optimal method for statistical combination of charm oscillation and CP violation measurements to combine the results of all LHCb measurements involving different decay modes and methods.

Mots clés : cp violation, flavour physics, lhcb

Participants :
- University of Manchester (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet PEACH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Flexible working practices can help parents to maintain household income whilst not compromising time spent with their children. Such working arrangements also help parents maintain a balance between work and family life leading to increased productivity and improved well-being. However, there are costs involved, such as lower wages, job security, opportunities for career advancement, and training. In addition, the leisure time of parents is likely to fall as parents spend an increasing proportion of their time on domestic and work activities. Applying microeconometric methods, the project PEACH will analyse the causal effect of flexible and non-standard working practices on both child and parental outcomes by analysing two specific policies which allow individuals to relax the full-time and the standard hours commitment to their job. 1. The German Part-time and Fixed Term Employment Law 2000 2. The UK Right to Request and Duty to Consider Flexible Working Specifically, PEACH will pursue the following research objectives to explore the flexible working practices in the UK and Germany R1: Examine the uptake of flexible working practices on mother and father employment, R2: Examine the effect of flexible working practices on the parents’ (i) total hours of domestic and labour market activities, (ii) long-run career, and (iii) mental health. R3: Examine the effect of flexible working practices on child cognitive and health outcomes R4: Create a network and Disseminate results to a broader audience. PEACH involves mobility for the researcher, with a secondment at DIW, Berlin, Germany. This will enhance Sarah's network and establish Sarah as an expert of the German data. PEACH involves training, including microeconometric methods, labour economics and data analysis from experts in York and external courses. Sarah will develop a detailed personal career development plan, to improve her skills and attain success in her future career.

Mots clés : labour, child outcomes, well being, work flexibility

Participants :
- University of York (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet EDGE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For over 3 million years, stone tools were central to the survival of hominins (fossil and modern humans). Their ability to cut, pierce and scrape materials opened new ecological niches, facilitated exploitation of novel resources, and allowed hominins to survive in hostile environments. Accordingly, there were strong pressures for stone tools to be effective, reliable, durable, and efficient. Modern cutting tools are produced according to similar principles and there is >80 years of research dedicated to designing mechanically-optimised tools and understanding the principles of cutting. However, Palaeolithic stone technologies have yet to be investigated with similar mechanical or theoretical rigour. EDGE will integrate advanced engineering analytical techniques, principles and design theory with large-scale archaeological experiments to investigate how the morphology, microgeometry, and raw material choice of stone cutting tools influences their performance and fracture mechanics. In archaeological firsts, EDGE includes controlled cutting tests, empirical analyses of stone tool sharpness, and finite element analysis (FEA) of cutting processes. Palaeolithic artefacts will be examined to assess whether our hominin ancestors actually designed mechanically-optimised tools, or, alternatively, whether other factors (e.g. cultural variation) underlie the tool type, form and raw material variability observed across the Palaeolithic archaeological record. The ground breaking nature of EDGE is its integration of advanced engineering techniques and principles with archaeological experiments and artefact analyses to address fundamental questions concerning early human behaviour. Results will provide a fundamental shift in how functional archaeological experiments are performed, establish fracture mechanics theory and FEA within archaeological research, and present a robust mechanically defined framework necessary for understanding artefact variation across the Palaeolithic.

Mots clés : palaeolithic archaeology, stone tool, function, cutting, fracture mechanics, design, prehistoric behaviour

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 253052.16 €
- University System of Ohio (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet LIVE-I (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Doctoral Networks - Industrial Doctorates
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

For several decades, vehicles have seen their weight increase to meet more demanding requirements of safety and comfort. At the present time, manufacturers need drastically reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing any safety or comfort. Each vehicle element must be considered for weight reduction. In this regard, gear transmissions are a first choice candidate. They form a reliable, versatile, and efficient way to transfer power while representing a significant fraction of the vehicle’s mass. LIVE-I project main objective is to achieve breakthrough technological progress in the design of lightweight gear transmission and to build an innovative training network in order to educate early stage researchers in this hot topic. The technical objective of LIVE-I project is to demonstrate a significant weight reduction of transmission using advanced modeling tools and digital twins together with advanced materials and systems. This objective will be pursued along different ways, each starting with mass reduction and exploring ways to achieve compromises between weight, efficiency, noise and vibration impacts. The modeling will cope with physical complexities of the problem, connected to non-linearities, multi-scale character among others. The weight/NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) and efficiency improvements of gear transmissions will be tackled by introducing new paradigms in the design of housing and components, using new meta-materials and meta-structures, studying the robustness of a given optimization with respect to real manufacturing conditions, developing smart concepts. Numerical simulations and experiments will be carried out to validate the solutions. In addition to the described technical approaches a tight integration of the individual ESRs into the overall research program is taken care of and a specific training plan devoted to their up to date education in gearboxes design and optimization is offered.

Mots clés : greenhouse reductions, lightweight constructions, gear transmissions, noise and vibration harshness, efficiency, knowledge based design, robust design, digital twins, metamaterials, smart systems

Participants :
- University of Naples Federico II (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 784499.04 €
- Centrale Lyon (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 824406.12 €
- Powerflex srl (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Adaptronica zoo sp (Pologne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Technical University of Darmstadt (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 758365.2 €
- Compredict gmbh (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- Vibratec (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet DimerCat (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For the first time in human’s history, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached the highest level of 415.26 ppm on May 11, 2019. This results in severe climatic change throughout the world. Electrochemical CO2 reduction can convert this harmful CO2 to value-added carbon-based chemicals and is a carbon-neutral method of storing renewable electricity in the form of chemicals. This proposal aims to investigate carbon catalysts doped with metal-dimers as catalysts for CO2 reduction to higher-carbon (C2) products. Carbon-based catalysts are selected because of their high selectivity towards CO formation and the doped metal dimers are expected to favor the CO-CO coupling leading to the formation of C2 products. This would emulate the functionality of the nitrogenase enzyme, where V-V dimers are able to catalyze the formation of ethylene and other C2 products. The world-leading expertise of Prof. Magda Titirici (host) and Dr. Ifan Stephens; and the vibrant scientific community and state-of-the-art equipment at Imperial College, provide the perfect environment to successfully host my project despite its challenging nature. The deep expertise I have acquired during my Ph.D., in nanosynthesis and in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy of electrocatalysts would strongly complement my hosts’ expertise in carbon synthesis and operando testing. The bottleneck in the catalytic cycle will be identified and addressed. This new fundamental understanding will not only empower the scientific community but also enable the development of efficient electrocatalyst for higher-carbon product formation during CO2 reduction. Secondment will be carried out at Johnson Matthey that would allow us to scale-up the technology, developed at Imperial. Thus, the proposed project will try to solve the three major challenges of catalyst design, selectivity, and scalability and would equip me with scientific, technical and managerial skills to become a leading independent researcher.

Mots clés : electrochemical co2 reduction, intermediates, electrocatalysis, electrolyzer, multi carbon products

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet Retinoic AC-DC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

For the past years, it has become undeniable that environmental signals have a great impact on the intestinal immune system. Among them, the Vitamin A (Vit A) has a central role in intestinal immunity. Consequently, the Vit A deficiency (VAD) is associated with an increase of infectious diseases and the supplementation of Vit A to pregnant mothers and children is a protocol defined by the World Health Organization. The vit A is mostly absorbed in the small intestine and derived into Retinoic Acid (RA), especially by conventional dendritic cells (cDC). Studies on the impact of RA on intestinal immunity, including in the host laboratory, have highlighted a major impact of RA produced by cDC on the homing and the polarization of effectors cells, although the effect of the RA on specific cDC subsets remains unknown. The understanding of this effect is an essential step for manipulating the system while avoiding secondary effects, usually triggered by impacting such central metabolites as RA. We propose to define this specific action of the RA on cDC using cutting edge technologies and state of art techniques both developed in the laboratory and brought by the candidate. These techniques will allow the investigation of the RA effect on specific intestinal cDC subsets at transcriptomic and phenotypic levels under homeostatic and pathologic states. The host laboratory will develop the professional skills of the candidate by reinforcing his individual competences, including laboratory techniques, writing, critical and innovative thinking, and communication abilities. Those will be further enhanced by the participation to many national and international collaborations enabled by Dr. Agace’s strong network. The high-quality infrastructure provided to the candidate and his complementary profile and techniques, acquired during his PhD, will ensure a solid project development and allow him to acquire all the abilities needed to become an efficient independent researcher.


Participants :
- Lund University (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191852.16 €