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

When are people willing to save strangers? With ongoing political tensions and conflicts in a number of countries, often aggravated by catastrophes such as droughts and famine, the provision of aid and other forms of support (including military support) remain contentious and contemporary foreign policy issues. I study the provision of support and aid through a new lens; that of ‘social distance’. Social distance connotates the extent to which we relate to, or identify with, certain others. Whilst common sense has it that our moral obligation to provide assistance extents equally to all people, my expectation is that social distance creates socio-emotional hurdles and impacts people’s engagement with the hardship of others. To put it bluntly, people do not care equally for all human suffering and this influences their, and therewith countries’, political priorities. This project has two central objectives: a) To show how socio-emotional distance impacts people’s perceptions of, and reactions towards, international crises and catastrophes; b) to theorise and analyse how such micro-level and personal responses are translated into foreign policy decisions on the national level. To achieve these goals, I first develop a distance/emotions dictionary to study how people express social proximity/distance and associated emotions. Second, I conduct a comparative analyses, studying if and how social distance shapes the narratives about, and people’s engagement with, the current crisis and hardship in Venezuela in Colombia, the USA and the Netherlands. Third, I study how these engagements shape foreign policy decisions in these countries. This project promises to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the socio-emotional mircofoundations of international relations. It offers a perspective that complements, but at the same time significantly advances, earlier approaches, and it forms a critical stepping stone for me to a senior academic appointment.

Mots clés : emotions, constructivism, discourse, humanitarian aid and interventions, mircofoundations

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet Repower Democracy (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

When in 2013, a multinational energy corporation started to set up a drilling site in Żurawlów – a village in eastern Poland– residents sprang into action to protest the plans to use fracking (an unconventional method of shale gas extraction). Like social movements in the recent global wave of protest (such as Occupy, Indignados), they engaged in egalitarian organising. Finally, the corporation abandoned the village but the residents' activism did not end. Like the citizens in Żurawlów, similar anti-fracking groups in Europe are working on initiatives to build democratically-run renewable energy solutions. This project investigates the potential of such groups for a repowering of democracy, i.e. a reformulation of democratic models and a reorganisation of energy production along more egalitarian lines. The main objectives of the research are: (1) to investigate the forms of politicisation and imaginaries of egalitarianism in Polish and British communities and (2) to build interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral collaborations and draw up research-led strategies for local and systemic social innovation in the field of democratic self-organisation of energy initiatives. I will employ ethnographic research, local historical and rural sociological investigation to identify best democratic practice models of the communities. Through participatory action research and together with research participants we will develop and implement a framework for the assessment of community's energy potential. The projects' interdisciplinary nature contributes to critical enquiry into the possibilities of more democratic futures and their interrelationship with transitions of energy systems. The core focus is on the local dynamics of grassroots organising and its intersections with (inter)national structures. The overarching aim is to repower democracy in Europe– to help its citizens to be actively engaged in democratic processes by taking responsibility for tackling major societal challenges.

Mots clés : community activism, renewable energy, egalitarianism, direct democracy, direct action

Participants :
- University of Bergen (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196400.4 €
Projet PremotorPerception (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

When inspecting a visual scene, we make a succession of saccadic eye movements to analyze objects of interest with the high precision of the fovea. Each saccade drastically shifts the image on the retina. As the acuity of the fovea markedly decreases with eccentricity, to maintain a stable percept, the visual system needs to seamlessly integrate blurry peripheral representations with their high-resolution equivalents once brought into the fovea by the saccade. We hypothesize that this integration is achieved by predictive and selective tuning of feature sensitivity shortly before the eye movement, to assimilate pre and postsaccadic percept. Combining a new psychophysical protocol that enables a continuous assessment of visual sensitivity throughout the view field with a powerful reverse correlation approach, we will conduct a systematic investigation of human presaccadic orientation and frequency modulations across space and time. We will establish whether local feature information is predictively modulated shortly before a saccade to enable a stable, continuous perception across the eye movement, and contrast the observed presaccadic modulations to the dynamics elicited by the preparation of goal-directed hand movements. Furthermore, using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) we will selectively disrupt the functioning of early and higher visual areas to reveal their temporal interplay and characterize their respective contribution to both presaccadic attention and covert attentional orienting in the absence of eye movements. Understanding how the human visual system seamlessly integrates foveal and peripheral feature representations is not only critical to further our understanding of healthy and impaired human perception, but also forms the basis for artificial vision. Our findings will help constrain computational models of perception and attention and could improve the design of safer human-machine interfaces, e.g. for driving and air traffic control.

Mots clés : presaccadic and covert attention, oculomotor preparation, hand movement programming, reverse correlation, transcranial magnetic stimulation  tms, orientation gain, tuning, spatial frequency processing

Participants :
- New York University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 246669.12 €
Projet REWID (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Whereas past histories of European music have been presented largely in terms of an all-male endeavour, this interdisciplinary project will take the lived experiences of widows as an impetus for developing a new kind of historiography, framed in terms of the history of emotions, that restores women’s individual agency and artistic integrity to the music-historical record. The research will introduce a paradigm shift to gender studies in musicology in two particular respects: first, by rethinking the ways in which widowhood proved to be a catalyst for creative endeavour that was a product both of loss and of a sense of liberation; and secondly, by engaging with widowhood as a lens through which to reconsider the contributions of women who have been overlooked in the dominant narratives of music history. In doing so, the project will address major European policy objectives, particularly those recommended by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 10, to promote gender equality and to reduce social inequalities in all aspects of society.

Mots clés : music, widowhood, emotion, and gender

Participants :
- National University of Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 257561.28 €
- University of California System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NMJ (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

While Europe is still missing publishing researchers working on brain-a-chip devices, scientists and pharmaceutical companies growing interests in investing in organ-on-a-chip devices urges because these lab-on-a-chip devices offer highly accessible systems for proof-reading and testing hypothesis-driven research. Chips allow ultra low-cost test benches for medication and offer flexibility to healthcare. This biotechnology set the first milestone for bio-prosthesis and in situ implants. In the scope of this H2020 MSCA Fellowship, I propose to elaborate a neuromuscular-junction-on-a-chip, induce Parkinson with the well known α-synuclein and proactively test medication proposed by Novartis and Glaxosmithkline on the chip. The proposed schematic is designed to bring closer academia and industry, research and innovation, from design to market. Elvesys, microfluidic center innovation in Paris is the beneficiary of this H2020 MSCA Fellowship. Elvesys team is creating a microfluidic valley in France, with the vision focus on Regenerative Medicine. During this project, I am aiming at improving Europe's stance as a leading organisation in bioengineering and an attractive destination for research.

Mots clés : brain on a chip, blood brain barrier, neuromuscular junction

Participants :
- Elvesys (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet QLO-QG (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

While a full theory of quantum gravity remains yet elusive, one can still make quantum-gravitational predictions by treating gravity perturbatively around a fixed classical background. This approach is particularly important in cosmology, where tree-level predictions have been confirmed in observations, and next-generation experiments measuring the 21-cm hydrogen line are very likely sensitive enough to test loop corrections. The objective of this proposal is the study of correlation functions at fixed geodesic distance. These observables possess two desirable properties: a) they are confined to a region of finite physical size, and thus measurable, so that one can test the predictions of any theory of quantum gravity against them; and b) they are gauge-invariant, and thus can be used to separate physical effects from gauge artefacts in many gauge-fixed loop calculations that have been carried out in cosmology. The main open problem about these observables is how to renormalise them, which has not been solved even at the one-loop order in perturbation theory. To solve this problem, we apply ideas from the study of Wilson loops in non-Abelian gauge theories, the only other nonlocal observable in quantum field theory which has been investigated in detail. Since these observables are also potentially important in AdS/CFT correspondence, we study them for all maximally symmetric spaces, i.e. Minkowski, de Sitter as well as anti-de Sitter spaces.


Participants :
- University of York (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet ROJAVA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

While extremely graphic images from the Syrian civil war appearing at the world media, smiling young Kurdish female guerrillas at the cover of magazines such as Elle, Marie Claire presented another picture. Kurdish fighters have become driving forces in offensives against ISIS and gained worldwide news coverage. However, the story of the Kurds in Syria is more than this. The Kurds who had been deprived of their fundamental national rights, including the citizenship had no status in Syria. With the collapse of the central state, they carved out three enclaves, named them Cantons and declared a de facto autonomous region in northern Syria. So, rather than talking about the ‘jihad’, as most of the other rebels did; they engaged in creating a self-governing model based on this area, called Rojava in Kurdish. That model based on criticizing the existing nation-states in the region promoted the equality between different (ethnic/religious) groups, advocated the empowerment of women and functioned on the bottom-up constructed local councils as the main sites of governance. This project which looks at how alternative spaces of governance are created investigates the emergence of that model in that autonomous region, tracing back to its ‘founding ideas’ and also look at the influence of the self-governing experience of the Kurds in Syria on the Kurds in Turkey and Iraq. So it aims to contribute to the understanding of the behaviour of the groups in a civil war and of the possibilities in creating a successful transition to a post-war context. In doing this, it aims at bringing the different perspectives and scales into the same analysis. Furthermore, the project aims to connect discussions of place making and constitutive politics with that of social movements.

Mots clés : kurds, syria, turkey, iraq, rojava, cantons, spaces of governance, autonomy

Participants :
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet SEArch (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

While marine resources played a crucial role in Mesolithic societies, the role of coastal adaptations associated with the first Neolithic farmers is still poorly known. The present project aims to investigate Mesolithic and Neolithic shell midden formation using sedimentary microscopic signatures on anthropic deposits from Atlantic Iberia. SEArch will apply state-of-the-art developments on lipid biomarkers and stable isotopes analysis of organic molecular data stored in archaeological sediments. The main objective is to understand behavioural and environmental changes associated with the exploitation of aquatic resources. SEArch will achieve this goal with a three-fold approach: (1) by reconstructing formation processes at key shell midden sites; (2) by identifying (macroscopically invisible) fish and shellfish to infer foraging locals and processing strategies, and (3) by inferring temporality of foraging behaviour using C and N stable isotopes. The project will create experimental datasets on thermal alteration of bioclasts and construct a novel marine biomarker database for archaeologists. The SEArch project seeks to contribute to the debate on the Neolithization process of western Europe by taking a contextualized approach to the study of coastal adaptations and their role as possible resilient behaviours during the Neolithization process.

Mots clés : geoarchaeology, prehistoric coastal adaptations, archaeological micromorphology, archaeological biomarkers, stable isotopes, mesolithic, neolithic, shell middens

Participants :
- University of Algarve (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 147815.04 €
Projet MoSeLit (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

While the hostile attitudes towards LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) people in Eastern Europe are often attributed to the legacy of the Soviet past, scholarly research on the history of sexuality and its management in state-socialism is still lacking. The main goal of this research project is to provide the first rigorous historical analysis of the construction of queer sexuality as “deviance” in medical, criminological, educational, and other discourses and practices in Soviet Lithuania (1945-1990). Besides from this goal, additional objectives of this project are: 1) to analyse the production of queer subjectivities and the boundaries of agency of queer people in the context of socialist modernization, thus questioning the assumption about the Soviet period as merely repressive; 2) to contribute to a more nuanced and less heteronormative historical understanding of the development of modern sexuality in the Soviet Union through a close engagement with queer and feminist theory; 3) to develop a conceptual toolbox, informed by postcolonial and decolonial approaches, to the historical study of sexuality in the context of Soviet Lithuania, in this way broadening the Western-centered theoretical framework of queer studies; and 4) to join the scholarly debates on sexuality and gender within the Cold War context, the modern history of sexuality in Europe, and the cultural history and intellectual history of state-socialism. In order to achieve these goals and objectives, the project combines archival research with oral history in the examination of the construction of sexual “deviance” and the limits of queer resistance in the context of Soviet Lithuania. Employing the insights from queer and postcolonial studies, the research will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the development of modern discourses of sexuality and contemporary queer identities in Europe, and will question the narrative of modernization as sexual liberation.

Mots clés : history of sexuality, queer theory, baltic studies, lgbtq studies, lithuania, history of state socialism, soviet history, eastern europe

Participants :
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174167.04 €
Projet RESP-AI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

While there is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) will bring about an unprecedented transformation of work, researchers are still hotly debating how AI will transform work. The AI-pessimists warn against massive unemployment and the risks that AI deskills and enslaves humans. The AI-optimists laud AI’s potential to improve working lives and to enable innovating as never before. Both camps seem to ignore that the future of work is still open: this future very much depends on how AI is deployed in organizations. The future of work can be bright for both organizations and workers if organizations start right now responsibly reskilling and retraining workers to collaborate with AI, unleashing the extraordinary innovative potential of this new form of collaborations while providing workers with more meaningful work. Today, there is, however, close to no scientific work to guide organizations in responsibly transforming work when adopting AI. My interdisciplinary research project addresses this urgent gap. Combining innovative and cutting-edge qualitative, quantitative, and conceptual methods, I will deliver three scientific papers and a roadmap to fulfill two broad objectives. My first objective is to provide an in-depth understanding of the state of affairs regarding the AI-driven transformation of work in multiple organizations and across multiple sectors (How is work transforming? How is this transformation affecting workers? How responsible has the transformation been so far?). Then, based on a good grasp of both organizations’ and workers’ needs linked to the AI-driven transformation of work, my second objective is to provide a roadmap to guide managers on how to transform work responsibly to unleash AI innovative potential and ensure a bright future for workers. The project is not only highly scholarly innovative, it is also highly relevant for the competiveness of EU firms and for EU workers (special attention will be paid to women).

Mots clés : responsible management, artificial intelligence, future of work

Participants :
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet RhinalMultiSense (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

While watching a movie or listening to a friend, our brain integrates information from all the senses to build a coherent neural representation of the experience. This allows our brain to assign a voice to each character in the movie and localize it in the visual space, or to anticipate the meaning of our friend’s speech from hers lip movements. This function of the brain is called multisensory integration (MSI) and is a core function of the nervous system. In the mammalian cortex, MSI occurs in associative areas such as prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex and perirhinal cortex (PER). The role of PER in MSI is supported by neuroanatomical data, however the investigation of the circuits underlying MSI in PER has been hampered by technical limitations in manipulating neurons processing a specific information. In RhinalMultiSense I will combine novel technological tools to disentangle the architecture of MSI in PER. I will combine engram technology and viral tracing to describe the inputs impinging onto perirhinal neurons activated by a specific modality. I will then combine engram technology and optogenetics to investigate the output connectivity of these neurons. The results of RhinalMultiSense will inspire new hypothesis and investigation on the function of PER circuits in sensory processing in health and disease.

Mots clés : multosensory, somatosensory, vision, perirhinal

Participants :
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214158.72 €