Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet GEOLAKE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The overriding aim of GEOLAKE is to disentangle the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities on the environment and to highlight the long-term adaptation of populations in the Upper Jordan Valley (Israel) using sedimentary, palaeoecological and geochemical proxies from the lake Hula as unique case-study example. The lacustrine archives of the Hula will facilitate a high-resolution reconstruction of human-environment dynamics since the emergence of the region’s first complex societies in the Early Neolithic. In this part of the Levant, the Holocene is a key period during which environmental changes and human pressures profoundly transformed local ecosystems providing new key knowledge to constrain the concept of the Anthropocene in the region. The comparison of palaeoenvironmental data generated within the framework of our project with archaeological and historical evidence will allow us to develop an innovative “local human occupation index” to understand the evolution of the human pressures in the Hula catchment and to propose models looking to: (1) understand how ancient societies perceived and reacted in the face of environmental and climatic changes; (2) understand how they lastingly modified their environment; (3) estimate how their methods of environmental management were influenced by external variations. The Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) is the ideal institutional environment to develop the proposed research during the course of the fellowship and beyond. The researcher will be trained and integrated into in a strong collaborative and multidisciplinary network. This fellowship will reinforce the research experience, transferrable skills, audience and outreach, and will thus be crucial for his future career. Furthermore, the project will rest upon strong collaborations with Israeli scientists who are excavating in the region since several decades.

Mots clés : geoarchaeology, anthropocene, human environment interactions, human adaptation, molecular biomarkers, environmental dynamics, climate change, jordan valley, lake hula, levant, fertile crescent

Participants :
- Autonomous University of Barcelona (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet OXFLUX (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

The oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the atmosphere has crucial effects on aerosol particle formation, hence on the budget of cloud condensation nuclei, and thus on climate. The oxidation of certain biogenic VOC can quickly lead to highly oxygenated organics with very low volatility that have recently been found to play critical roles in all stages of aerosol formation. However, only a fraction of the underlying oxidation mechanisms is currently known, and open questions remain about how the full distribution of oxidation products interacts with the aerosol phase. Moreover, the problem of VOC oxidation is highly interdisciplinary, as it is subject not only to chemical reactions, but also to precursor emissions, natural climate feedbacks and anthropogenic perturbations, depositional losses, and mixing. The aim of OXFLUX is to reveal the formation mechanisms and subsequent fates of important VOC oxidation products, to better quantify their impacts on atmospheric chemistry, in particular on aerosol formation and growth, and ultimately on cloud formation and climate. The Experienced Researcher (ER) will address this challenge experimentally by combining novel mass spectrometric techniques, able to directly measure hundreds of VOC oxidation products, with flux measurements. Fluxes will be measured from towers in temperate and boreal forests, as well as from aircraft. These ambient measurements and their interpretation will be supported by laboratory studies and chemical transport modelling. During the return phase in Europe, the ER will establish continuous flux measurements of oxidised organics in a boreal forest in Finland, and collaborate with atmospheric modellers to include his findings in boundary layer simulations. The ambitious project’s host organisations are world leaders in the field of research and the involved experimental and analytical techniques, maximising the chances of the project’s success and its beneficial impact on the ER’s career.

Mots clés : oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds, atmospheric mass spectrometry, new particle formation and growth, secondary organic aerosol

Participants :
- University of Washington (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Helsinki (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 267793.2 €
Projet TAML-ArM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The oxygenation of inert C-H bonds is a highly challenging reaction that has an enormous untapped potential for the European chemical industry. Indeed, it offers attractive means to upgrade cheap hydrocarbons into high value-added products. Nature relies on iron-based enzymes and oxygen to perform such transformations. In a biomimetic spirit, catalytic alkane hydroxylation is best achieved using iron-based catalysts and H2O2 as oxidant. Compared to natural enzymes, however, such systems display modest performance. In the TAML-ArM project, we aim to the development of a novel approach that consists of creating an artificial alkane monooxygenase by introducing a highly active iron complex within a protein scaffold. This strategy, pioneered in the Ward group, has ample precedent for less challenging reactions, and it potentially represents a significant step forward in bioinspired hydroxylation chemistry. To achieve this goal artificial metalloenzymes merge homogeneous- and enzymatic catalysis, two traditionally complementary strategies. We envision that this approach will: i) improve the catalytic activity by protecting the highly reactive Fe=O-moiety by shielding it from undesirable side-reactions and ii) provide novel selectivities, owing to second coordination sphere interactions between the protein and the substrate. Thanks to this innovative catalytic approach, we will develop a paradigm shifting technology for the selective hydroxylation of hydrocarbons: the reactions will be performed in water at room temperature using benign H2O2 as oxidant.

Mots clés : artificial metalloenzymes, bioinspired, alkane hydroxylation, iron, high throughput screening, green chemistry

Participants :
- University of Basel (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175419.6 €
Projet GEOCA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The past decades have brought fascinating technological improvements of medical imaging techniques. This rapid development is accompanied by a growing need for computer based algorithms to align and extract markers from medical images. The days of heuristically engineered computer algorithms are, however, over; competitive, state-of-the-art medical imaging software must be based on rigorous mathematics to ensure accuracy, efficiency, and stability. Our research project lies at the forefront of computational anatomy (CA), a truly interdisciplinary field within medical imaging, combining differential equations theory, numerical analysis, computer vision, statistical methods, and differential geometry. CA is an emerging field that harbours a wealth of challenging problems. In particular, to develop image registration algorithms capable of handling heavily nonlinear deformations. In this project we construct image registration algorithms beyond state-of-the-art, adept of tasks where today's methods are inadequate. This is achieved by combining the knowledge of Professor Stig Larsson (scientist in charge) with the knowledge of Dr Klas Modin (experienced researcher). Larsson is a world-leading expert on numerical methods for partial differential equations. He has a large network of international collaborators as well as close connections to the medical imaging industry in Sweden. Modin has extensive expertise on geometric integration (GI), infinite-dimensional geometry, and CA, acquired via two post-doctoral positions at top research groups in two third countries. He thus brings state-of-the-art knowledge to the European research area. In particular, Modin's mastery of large deformation diffeomorphic metric matching (LDDMM) and Euler--Arnold equations is essential; it provides the link between image registration and PDEs. This link is the basis of the new, exciting methodology in the project: to apply state-of-the-art numerical PDE techniques to image registration.

Mots clés : geometric numerical integration, computational anatomy, lie poisson equations, euler arnold equations, geodesics, image registration, medical imaging

Participants :
- Chalmers University of Technology (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 185857.2 €
Projet NAZM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The past, present, and future of the International Order are recurrent subjects of exploration and studies in International Relations, Middle East Studies, and History. Yet, most of such studies fail to grasp particularities and changes across time, space, and languages. In fact, International Order is traditionally discussed as an extension of the West or understood as a purely American-led phenomenon. How can we talk and study international order without grasping particularities of the concept across different geographies and histories? Relying on a universal concept and the Eurocentric and Anglophile analyses of the international order undermine the agency of the non-Western states and societies, obscures history, and limits the scope of our knowledge production by focusing on just a few cases. Attempts to go beyond the West are also usually framed as a way to assess the risks to ‘Western’ order or policies. By focusing on the case of Iran, this action challenges the assumption that 'International Order' has the same meaning across times, spaces, languages, and cultures. The action's state-of-the-art contributions to International Relations, conceptual history, and Middle East studies are manifested in its main objective to argue for investigating not just different conceptions of the international order but also analysing various usages of concepts to make sense of and order the international. The project asks how is international order conceptualised? Where does the order come from? What distinguishes a new order from an old order? It seeks to understand origins, conceptions, and evolutions of the international order at a time when the future of the order is being debated. Through conceptual history, Iran's distinct language and religious discourse also enables us to have a better understanding of the role of religion and temporality in the international order.

Mots clés : international order, iran, conceptual history, international relations, temporality, middle east

Participants :
- University of Oslo (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 202158.72 €
Projet OptoFeedback (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

The perception of complex visual scenes requires active processing by the brain. The visual cortex is hierarchically organized in several areas which are linked by connections projecting from lower to higher areas (feedforward) and connections projecting from higher to lower areas (feedback). More complicated processing occurs in higher areas such as V4, where neurons encode which side of a border belongs to a figure. Feedback connections are large in number but their function is poorly understood. An important role for feedback has been proposed in probabilistic inference, whereby cortical areas “infer” the reality in the external world based on the sensory information they receive from lower areas, combined with prior hypotheses projected down from higher areas. In this project we propose a causal study of the role of feedback connections from area V4 to lower areas in the inference of figure location. We will record neural activity simultaneously in V4 and V1, and V4 and V2, using microelectrodes in the awake rhesus macaque, during the presentation of figures on a background, while we reversible activate or suppress a well-defined patch in V4 using an opsin. By training the animal to perform a figure detection task we can link the perturbation of neural activity to perception. The beneficiary is the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, where the researcher will be advised by Prof. Pieter Roelfsema, an internationally recognized expert in visual neuroscience with experience with neurophysiology, behavioral studies and computational neuroscience. There will be an outgoing phase of two years, during which the researcher will perform animal experiments in the laboratory of Prof. John Reynolds in the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, who has extensive experience with optogenetics and viral targeting.

Mots clés : feedback optogenetics visual border ownership

Participants :
- Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 242929.8 €
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet TransGeNo (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The perception of pain is crucial for our survival, enabling avoidance of harmful physical and chemical insults. Pain initiates in primary sensory neurons, which are highly variable cells innervating the skin, mucus membranes and internal organs. These neurons express combinations of receptor molecules decoding adverse mechanical, thermal and chemical stimuli. Receptor molecules sensitive to these cues decode such inputs into action potentials, which are then relayed to the central nervous system. Uncovering the identity and regulation of these sensory receptor molecules has long been of high interest to the neuroscience community. Being the first point of possible intervention in the signalling process that leads to the perception of pain, therapeutics designed to target these molecules have high promise. Many such receptors have been identified in the past decades. The thermo- and chemosensory TRP channels, intricately involved in our perception of inflammatory pain and injury-induced hypersensitivity, are at the focus of intensive investigations. The recently identified Piezo proteins have significantly advanced our understanding of how sensory nerves decode light touch and proprioception. Many receptors in this system, however, remain to be identified. Among them are mechanoreceptors of painful tactile stimuli, as well as those responsible for the tingling, numbing sensation induced by alkaloids found in Sichuan peppers. Identifying these would open new areas of pain research and provide new, promising targets for analgesic therapy. Here I will employ a new method, Transposon-Activated Genome-wide Screening (TAGS), to identify these receptors. Inspired by the process of evolution, TAGS creates random genetic mutations in vast cell populations and enlists the law of large numbers to identify the role of individual genes. In the long-term, I will broaden the scope of TAGS to enable gene discovery across multiple disciplines in biomedical sciences.

Mots clés : transposon, random activation mutagenesis, genome wide screening, mechanotransduction, chemosensation, somatosensation

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

The plant rhizosphere contains an abundant and diverse array of microbes, and plants interact with this microbial community in diverse ways, from mutualistic to neutral to pathogenic . It is proposed that future agricultural systems should strategically incorporate mutualistic plant-microbe associations, whereby high-performing combinations of plant genotypes and microbial populations are co-cultivated to promote improved nutrient use efficiency and decreased fertiliser application . Currently, there is a poor scientific understanding of the precise biochemical transformations and exchanges that occur in mutualistic associations between plants and microbes, and it is also unclear which specific microbial species are the most effective for supporting plant growth and nutrition. There is evidence that plant genotypes exhibit differing capacities to shape their rhizospheric microbiome , but our poor mechanistic understanding of this phenomenon prevents breeding strategies to select crop varieties that will host favourable microbial interactions. Therefore, this project proposes to address these gaps in scientific knowledge, by undertaking co-cultivation experiments that investigate which specific bacterial species are most effective for enhancing plant uptake of nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) from organic sources, as well as which specific Arabidopsis accessions are the most receptive hosts for these interactions. Next, isotope labelling and metabolic flux studies will be undertaken in the best and worst performing plant-microbe combinations, to define the specific biochemical routes of N & S transfer that are favourable for plant nutrition. Also, genetic investigations will be undertaken to find the key genes responsible for favourable plant-microbe interactions. This project combines the complementary expertise of its participants to deliver high-quality training to the researcher, which will enhance his professional maturity in this strategically important field.

Mots clés : plant microbe interaction, plant nutrition, metabolic fluxes

Participants :
- University of Cologne (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet HURIME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The popular Arab Spring uprisings in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and their recent developments have proved the significant emancipatory potential of human rights and moved the human rights issue to the forefront of academic and political debates. This project deals with the human rights discourses and practices in the MENA region undergoing transition through the course of so-called Arab Spring by conducting a comparative analysis of two key countries; namely Egypt and Tunisia. The project has three main objectives. First, it aims to provide an in-depth knowledge of the characteristics and developments of human rights in the region. Second, it strives to explore the main political and social conditions that constitute the shift and persistence in the discourses of human rights. Third, it aims to explore the impact of the shift and persistence in human rights discourses on the actual practice of human rights in the region, with the ultimate aim of identifying the best ways for improving human rights practice in the region. To achieve the objectives of the project: First, in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources will be conducted to discover the main patterns and characteristics of the emerging human rights discourses in post-uprising Egypt and Tunisia. Second, political, legal and social conditions influencing the human rights discourses will be explored by looking comparatively at situational variables.Third, the impact of the shift and persistence in the discourses on the human rights practice will be explored by comparatively examining the human rights situation in the post-uprising countries. The project will enhance the knowledge of academicians and politicians on the new tendencies of human rights discourses and practices in the region and will offer a valuable insight into the main patterns and political conditions of emerging human rights discourses and practices.

Mots clés : human rights, middle east and north africa, egypt, tunisia, discourses

Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet PIANISM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is essential for higher cognitive tasks such as learning, decision making and, in particular, working memory (WM). To fulfill these tasks, PFC neurons express several serotonin (5HT) receptor subtypes that are modulated by a high density of serotonergic axons projected from the raphe nuclei. Alterations of the neuronal mechanisms within PFC lead to an impaired top-down regulation, causing cognitive dysfunctions in mental disorders such as schizophrenia. A key cellular mechanism related to WM formation and maintenance in the PFC is sustained action potential firing of neurons that outlasts the initial excitatory drive. Persistent firing is likely enabled by synaptic networks and intracellular ionic mechanisms, including voltage sensitive sodium and calcium inward currents or G-Protein-coupled receptor mediated TRPC/ CAN currents. Moreover, experimental data supports a link between dysfunctional serotonergic modulation in the PFC and WM deficits, but yet, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, I plan to gain a mechanistic understanding of the serotonergic modulation of WM at the cellular level including the link between 5HT receptor activity and prefrontal cellular circuits dependent WM formation and the role of 5HT in WM-related persistent firing. I will perform patch-clamp electrophysiology and optical voltage imaging (genetically encoded voltage indicators) of prefrontal pyramidal and GABAergic cells (PV-, SST-, VIP-subtypes) in acute slices from naïve and WM deficient mice (chronic ketamine model of schizophrenia), and examine how the activity of these cell types are modulated by optogenetically and pharmacologically controlled 5HT signalling. These experiments aim to understand the serotonergic transmission and intrinsic properties within the PFC involved in WM formation, maintenance and deficiency. Better understanding of these mechanisms will help to develop new and specific therapeutic targets for WM deficiencies.


Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 17744.48 €
- The Francis Crick Institute (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 195189.28 €