Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet QuantumSolarFuels (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The efficient use of solar energy is vital for the future of our Planet and to ensure to the next generations our and even superior welfare standards. Photoelectrochemical water splitting is a promising way to convert solar light into storable fuels, such as H2. However, an ideal photoanodic material for the oxygen evolution half-reaction has not been identified yet. Technologies based on solution-processed colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising for producing effective photoanodes because of their low manufacturing costs and the possibility of controlling the band gap of the material through the quantum size effect. The main scientific aim of the QuantumSolarFuels project is the preparation of photoanodes for water splitting based on CdSe, CdTe and CdSeTe CQDs and their protection against photocorrosion. The CQDs will be assembled in flat electrodes effectively protected against photocorrosion and activated toward water oxidation through: a) the deposition of amorphous TiO2 and subsequent coating with metal based oxygen evolution catalysts or b) by direct coating them with the oxygen evolution catalysts. Further objectives are: 1) the identification of the optimal CdSeTe composition and CQDs size for the preparation of efficient photoanodes; 2) the use of Cd-chalcogenide CQDs in solar cells and photo- and electro-catalysis for renewable fuels production. Thanks to this action the researcher will become a World expert in these areas, in particular in the innovative use of CQDs for photoelectrochemical water splitting applications. Taking full advantage of the complementary competences of the two involved research groups, the one at the beneficiary institution expert in the fundamental chemical aspects of photocatalysis and the partner group more focused on the engineering and industrial exploitation of CQD science, the QuantumSolarFuels project will provide crucial achievements for the future preparation of industrially compelling photoelectrochemical devices.

Mots clés : photoelectrochemistry, photoanode, quantum dots, nanocrystals, cdse, cdte, water splitting, solar, light conversion

Participants :
- University of Toronto (Canada) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Milan (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 237768.0 €
Projet 2DTWISTMDs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The emergence of graphene in 2004 gave rise to the isolation of a new myriad of 2D materials with many different properties. In addition, the stacking of different 2D layers, forming Van der Waals heterostructures, has shown the possibility to modify and expand the features of the final hybrid materials. An important ingredient for the final attributes of these heterostructures is the alignment of its constituents. As a consequence of the difference in lattice constant and the relative angle between the 2D layers, a moiré pattern arises. This moiré pattern can give rise to new physics not present in the original materials. This has already being proven in twisted graphene heterostructures, and its study is exploding in popularity these days. On the other hand, twisted heterostructures of semiconducting TMDs have received less attention. This project aims to realise and understand new correlated electronic phases of matter in twisted heterostructures of atomically thin semiconductors. Specifically, the project aims to: (1) thoroughly characterize the electronic structure of twisted semiconductor heterostructures; (2) understand how correlated electronic phases arise from interactions in twisted semiconductor heterostructures; and (3) search for new electronic phases such as spin liquids and topological phases. These new electronic phases will radically alter the conductivity of the heterostructure, and are expected to be highly sensitive to the electron density in the moiré superlattice and hence can be tuned via electronic gates, creating novel low-energy switches. The heterostructures will be characterised using electronic measurements, and low temperature scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy measurements. While this fellowship would allow the experienced researcher to learn new techniques and expand his knowledge and networks, the topic of this proposal is also in line with the goals of Horizon 2020, Graphene Flagship and Quantum Flagship EU programmes.

Mots clés : 2d materials, transition metal dichalcogenides, heterostructures, devices

Participants :
- Monash University (Australie) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Aalto University (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 266813.76 €
Projet DigiMat (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The emergence of green and eco-friendly resources, coupled with demands for advanced digital technologies for conceptual structures/designs, are causing changes in the scale and distribution of the construction industry. The increasing resource constraints that the EU is facing strongly affect its competitiveness and the quality of life of individuals. Important gains in resource efficiency can be made by replacing current linear economic models with circular models of production and consumption, which results, at the same time, in a substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This project will combine multidisciplinary efforts from various subject areas and innovative technology of 3D printing to design and develop an environmentally friendly cementitious feedstock, driven from construction/demolition waste and industrial by-products suitable for the manufacturing of structural load-bearing building blocks. Dr. Chougan (the Fellow) will join Dr. Ghaffar’s (host Supervisor) research team at Brunel University London (BUL), Additive Manufacturing Technology in Construction group. This is coupled with guidance in the form of two secondments at the West Pomeranian University of Technology and Eindhoven Technology University. This project will provide a tremendous opportunity for the Fellow to expand his research career and further outspread his network with academic and industrial stakeholders. The Fellow will be supported throughout by other global-leading academics and non-academic including short scientific visits to Nanesa S.r.l. (Italy), Washington State University (USA), and the University of Rome Sapienza (Italy), all of which will equip him with a unique insight into eco-sustainable cementitious composite formulations for 3D printing in the construction industry. The training will broaden the Fellow’s skills and career prospects in the academic and industrial construction materials and 3D printing technology fields.

Mots clés : digital fabrication, 3d printing, concrete, environmentally friendly, building blocks, bio based additives, structural performance, rheology, geopolymer, design of experiment

Participants :
- Brunel University London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet NovInDXS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogens is a serious global problem. In this alarming situation, novel targets for which inhibitors with an unprecedented mode of action can be developed are urgently required. This proposal aims at the development of selective and potent inhibitors of the important and underexplored anti-infective target DXS, an enzyme from the 2C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway that is entirely absent in humans but is essential for medically relevant pathogens (e.g., Plasmodium falciparum, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Despite substantial efforts dedicated to the discovery of inhibitors for DXS, to date very few active compounds have been reported and none of them fulfil the requirements as an ideal candidate for further development. To address these issues and maximise the chances of success, we will use dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) as a hit identification strategy for the first time for the enzyme-DXS. To explore hitherto unexplored parts of the chemical space, we will pioneer the use of chiral heterocyclic building blocks in DCC for the discovery of potent inhibitors of the enzyme DXS. Use of chiral heterocycles in DCC will allow to rapidly access novel scaffolds. These chiral heterocyclic scaffolds will be evaluated for their biochemical activity on bacterial DXS. The most promising candidates will be tested in in vivo cell-based assays in bacteria. The proposed approach for the design of chiral heterocyclic inhibitors for novel targets such as the enzyme DXS will enhance the knowledge about this underexplored target and will open up access to various potent inhibitors. Hence, this research programme will greatly improve the chances of idnetifiying new anti-infective agents with a novel mode of action, leading to socio-economical benefits for the health care sector in the European Union and also globally.

Mots clés : dynamic combinatorial chemistry, chiral heterocycles, anti infectives, enzyme dxs, hit identification, medicinal chemistry, methyl erythritol phosphate pathway

Participants :
- Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171460.8 €
Projet PATIOS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The emergence of sedentary life ca. 13,000 years ago marked the development of mudbrick architecture and the transition to new forms of human ecology based on plant and animal domestication. In this context, settlement open areas played a vital socio-economic role as the loci of discard practices, outdoor activities, and human-animal-environment interactions. However, while built environments are a recurrent research theme for this period, open spaces remain less studied. This oversight is partly due to the methodological and interpretative problems posed by open areas, often displaying complex stratigraphies consisting of superimposed microlayers and excavated in arbitrary units that do not represent units of deposition. The aim of PATIOS is to explore the constitution of open spaces to investigate how the earliest sedentarising and sustained sedentary communities operated at supra-household levels. The specific project goals are: 1) to develop a new multiscalar and interdisciplinary methodology for an improved identification of microscopic and molecular residues of organic nature in open sequences; 2) to characterise the variety of formation and taphonomic processes affecting open areas; and 3) to provide a wide diachronic and geographical understanding of the concepts and transformations of open spaces and the socio-cultural aspects related to their use. PATIOS will focus on early Holocene semi-mobile and sedentary communities in the Near East, one of the core areas of the Neolithic Transition. Through a multi-proxy methodological approach that combines spatial analyses, geoarchaeology, plant science, biochemistry and ethnoarchaeology, this project will explore the heterogeneity of the earliest settlement open areas, opening up a much-needed comparative path for the examination of local trajectories in their creation, transformation and use. Thus, PATIOS will contribute new insights into the rise and evolution of anthropogenic landscapes and ecologies.

Mots clés : neolithic, near east, sedentism, open areas, geoarchaeology, bioarchaeology, ethnoarchaeology, spatial analyses, domestication, sanitation, diet, landscape, ecological strategies

Participants :
- Spanish National Research Council (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 241398.72 €
Projet COMPRESS NETS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The emerging Compressed Sensing theory provides an entirely new perspective on the basic principles governing data acquisition, compression, and reconstruction. The main goal of this project is to understand the fundamental design principles and investigate the ultimate capabilities of Compressed Sensing techniques in wireless sensor networks. What distinguishes this project from prior related work is that it addresses large sensor networks that rely only on wireless interconnections and are subjected to arbitrary temporal and spatial variability (caused, e.g., by channel fading, addition/removal of nodes, node mobility, etc.). We propose an optimization-based methodology which integrates compressed sensing and wireless data transport into a unified optimization framework which will serve as the mathematical basis for a systematic design and, ultimately, will reveal the performance limits. This work will provide: 1) mathematical characterizations of the optimal tradeoffs between different fundamental performance criteria (e.g., energy versus sensing accuracy), and 2) practical algorithms and hierarchically structured network protocols (i.e., key enablers for Internet of Things (IoT) applications) able of handling large amount of data with lower energy and bandwidth consumption than in existing systems. The ultimate goal is to develop the foundations for a general theory of compressive sensing in wireless sensor networks which includes all aspects mentioned above. Such theory will have a breakthrough-making impact both through direct application on the wireless sensor networks, and in the science of network and data processing in other fields, including economics, transportation, biology, etc. From a career development perspective, the main goal is to strengthen the researcher’s interdisciplinary competence and research-leadership skills for pursuing the next level of career: becoming an internationally recognized, top-tier research leader in ICT.

Mots clés : compressed sensing, wireless sensor networks

Participants :
- Linköping University (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 185857.2 €
Projet GeNoSOS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The emerging field of quantum cavity optomechanics (QCOM) aims to probe and control mechanical oscillators in the quantum regime, offering exciting and innovative new directions in metrology, quantum information science and fundamental questions in physics. Having recently entered the quantum regime by cooling mechanical oscillators to their ground state, we aim in this proposal to take QCOM a major step forward. We will generate a manifestly non-classical state – a single phonon Fock state – in the mechanical oscillator. This achievement is expected to usher a new era in QCOM, where mechanical quantum states are manipulated. Goals such as mechanical qubits stored in oscillators, remote entanglement of mechanical oscillators, and tests of fundamental quantum mechanics will now be within reach. The host scientist, Prof. Tobias Kippenberg, is a world leader in the field, having first demonstrated optomechanical coupling in microresonators in his postdoctoral work at Caltech in 2005, which led to an explosion of activities worldwide. Prof. Kippenberg was the first to demonstrate backaction cooling and resolved sideband cooling, which since serve as the basis for all optomechanical experiments. He also produced many milestone results in the field, which are now highly cited papers. The applicant, Itay Shomroni, has a proven track record in cavity QED and atomic physics, having done his PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and is first author on Science, Nature Physics and PRL papers. His move into this emerging field at the interface of quantum optics and atomic and condensed matter physics, is expected to greatly benefit both himself and the host group. With the new possibilities created by the successful fulfillment of this proposal and by the expertise gained through his postdoctoral work in a leading group, he is expected to be in an excellent position to launch is own career as an independent researcher and contribute to European scientific excellence.

Mots clés : cavity optomechanics, single phonon, nanophotonics, mechanical oscillators

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175419.6 €
Projet ESTIMABLeNANO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The emerging interest in hybrid materials whose properties can be significantly changed in a controllable fashion by external stimuli (ES) is the result from their increasing potential applications in a variety of areas including energy conversion, drug-delivery systems, hybrid electronics and catalysis. The external control of self-assembling systems has attracted considerable interest, as it does not require additional components and triggering can be easily achieved in a completely remote manner where and when required. The main goal of this proposal comprises the development of multi-stimuli (i.e. light, electrochemical, temperature) responsive supramolecular systems based on semiconducting and metal nanoparticles (NPs) and their subsequent use in the reversible, controlled assembly of organic-inorganic architectures in water. This will be accomplished by employing one of the most promising self-assembly motifs based on the barrel-shaped cyclic oligomer of cucurbit[8]uril (CB[8]) that can bind within its cavity ES-responsive molecules, i.e. derivatives of viologen (MV) and/or photochromic second guest molecules displaying light-control binding affinity for a MV•CB[8] complex. In the first stage of the project a variety of NPs functionalized by ES-sensitive derivatives will be prepared, which will be further used as nanostructured building units for ES-triggered self-assembly/dissembly of supramolecular discrete NPs systems and complex organic-inorganic networks. The inherent part of the research will be characterization of properties and phenomena occurring within the obtained nanoparticulate assemblies. The initiatives of the project encompass problems across the fields of inorganic chemistry, host-quest interactions, self-assembly processes, materials science, as well as interface and colloid chemistry. The results of the project hold potential applications in materials science, energy conversion, drug-delivery systems, hybrid electronics and catalysis.

Mots clés : dynamic nanomaterials, external stimuli, host guest systems, nanoparticles, self assembly, supramolecular chemistry

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet PEROPTO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The emerging methylammonium lead halide perovskites are near-ideal semiconducting materials. They can be easily formed in to thin semiconducting films, suitable for use in a wide range of optoelectronic devices including solar cells and light emitting diodes, giving them huge potential to replace existing semiconductors in these roles. However, the films normally used in those devices are polycrystalline, containing a high density of grain boundaries and defects which intrinsically limits the performance of these otherwise exceptional materials. The ultimate goal of this fellowship is to integrate ultrathin large scale perovskite single crystal into optoelectronic devices for the first time, leading to a step change in device performance, comparable to that realized when single-crystal silicon was first achieved. This development will be underpinned by a detailed experimental investigation to determine the impact of single-crystal preparation on the electronic and spectroscopic properties of perovskite film, particularly exploring charge carrier diffusion in a material with low defect density and minimal grain-boundaries. Ultimately, we will establish whether a cheap, printable material can achieve optoelectronic devices at the thermodynamic limit – a goal of the community for the last quarter century. This project will tackle first the synthetic challenges of producing single crystalline perovskite materials with controllable dimensions, and subsequently their integration into optoelectronic devices. This proposal takes advantage of the unique opportunity afforded by the skills of the applicant in the synthesis of controlled dimensional single crystalline perovskite materials and the fabrication of optoelectronic devices, with the world-class materials and spectroscopic characterization expertise at the Cavendish Laboratory. The success of this proposal will place Europe at the forefront of research in the disruptive and dynamic field of perovskite optoelectronics.

Mots clés : perovskite solar cell, single crystalline perovskite nanostructures, light harvesting, diffusion of charge carriers

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet CeleSte (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The enteric nervous system (ENS), neuronal and glial cells, development and function can be influenced by the microbiota. Germ-free mice have defective maturation of enteric glial and neuronal cells; colonization with microbiota rescues these defects. Production of neuroregulatory molecules by these neuronal cells involved microbial product sensing via MYD88. Importantly, glial-specific or neuron-specific deletion of Myd88 leads to decreased intestinal neuroregulators and consequent impaired innate lymphoid cell (ILC) activation. The identity of commensal microorganisms and the neuronal and glial cells sensing molecular pathways that could influence neuroregulators secretion affecting neuroimmune interactions are unknown. By using neuronal-specific mutants and their colonization with distinct microbiota, the present project aims to understand how glial- and neuron-derived regulators are influenced by particular commensal microorganisms and how this active neuronal sensing impacts of defined neuroimmune cell units, notably on the glial-ILC3 and neuron-ILC2 interactions. For this purpose, we will take advantage of a strong collaborative environment and cutting-edge techniques, including gnotobiotic animals, cre-lox technology, and neurosphere-derived organoids. Deciphering these new pathways of ENS-microbial crosstalk will improve our understanding of this equilibrium and will contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies in mucosal diseases. This highly innovative and interdisciplinary project will allow me to expand my conceptual and technical knowledge of the host-microbiota dialogue, acquire new technical skills and reinforce my scientific network.

Mots clés : enteric nervous system, microbiota, innate lymphoid cells, glial cells, neuro immune interaction, neuroregulators, neurons

Participants :
- Champalimaud Foundation (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 147815.04 €