Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet AHEAD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Current EU and international policies dictate the gradual disengagement of industry from fossil fuels within the next three decades. In order such a transition to become a reality, novel fuel delivery and combustion concepts capable of efficiently utilising biomass-derived fuels must be designed and developed. Advanced diagnostic techniques must be implemented and validated for characterizing the relevant flow processes. The current state-of-the-art referring to fuel/spray flow diagnostics is lacking quantitative data referring to the transition of liquid renewable fuels and their blends into vapour. The main objective of the proposed MSCA programme is the simultaneous experimental characterisation of the phase-change processes within fuel injectors (cavitation and flash boiling) and at the nozzle exit (evaporation and trans/supercritical phase-change) under realistic injector configurations and air thermodynamic conditions for liquid biofuels, as well as their blends with fossil fuels. Several optical and laser-diagnostics techniques will be employed comprising high-speed shadowgraphy/Schlieren flow visualisation, long range microscopy and time resolved LIEF and LE measurements for the quantification of the liquid/vapour volume fraction. Moreover, radiography and neutron measurements will be conducted in the Argonne National Lab (US) and Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland), respectively. The obtained measurements will guide the formulation of novel numerical models quantifying the relevant mass/heat transfer processes. These will be implemented in advanced CFD flow solvers for the prediction of phase-change in realistic injector/atomizer layouts. The project innovative nature spans across diverse research aspects with emphasis on renewable alternatives for Diesel and gasoline; it is expected to assist EU energy and automotive industries to meet the goals imposed regarding the utilisation of renewable fuels.

Mots clés : renewable fuel, fuel injector, flow visualisation, laser diagnostics, radiography, cavitation, flash boiling, phase change

Participants :
- Sandia National Laboratories (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251857.8 €
Projet STIMUSURE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Current methods for directly measuring the connectivity between brain regions are lacking. A causal measurement of a functional connection between two brain regions requires stimulation of the first region whilst measuring the response from the other. Stimulation with high spatio-temporal resolution can be delivered with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), but there are no suitable methods for simultaneously measuring the response with high spatio-temporal resolution. The state-of-the-art functional neuroimaging modalities have either too low spatial resolution, too low temporal resolution, or, in case of magnetoencephalography (MEG), are considered incompatible with TMS. With STIMUSURE, we aim to solve this incompatibility issue between TMS and MEG and build the first TMS–MEG device. During this two-year project, I will design magnetic shielding to enable TMS inside a magnetically shielded room (MSR) and build TMS-compatible resilient optically pumped magnetometers (OPM) based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) technique. Unlike earlier ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors, these NMOR-OPM sensors can tolerate the magnetic field pulses due to TMS. Ultimately, such a device would allow accurate measurement of the functional connectivity and quantifying its task-specific modulation, which would benefit both cognitive neuroscience and the study of brain disorders.

Mots clés : transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnetoencephalography, optically pumped magnetometer

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

Current process methodologies for mineral and metal processing depend on a significant amount of energy, which is mostly produced by the combustion of fossil fuels. The mass flow and energy efficiencies of these processes are poor, leading to a large volume of solid, liquid and gas waste residues. Although, transition to low-carbon technologies is essential to combat climate change, this will also lead to an increasing demand for strategic minerals/metals. Consequently, if we continue using conventional technologies, high operational cost and rise in CO2 emissions can be expected. In this context, ionometallurgy may provide more efficient and selective processing opportunities, as it makes use of ionic solvents to process metals. ELECTROION will use the so called deep eutectic solvents (DESs), which are mixtures of salts such as choline chloride with hydrogen-bond donors such as urea. These are environmentally benign and the components are already produced in large quantities at low cost. Previous studies have already demonstrated the capability of DES to dissolve metals from a variety of raw materials. Due to their high ionic strength, they also allow the recovery of metals from the solution by electrochemical methods. Hence, the integration of mineral dissolution and metal recovery in ionic solvents can significantly improve space-time yields. Yet, the properties of DESs may be compromised over time, which may inhibit their reuse/recyclability. Also, the effect of oxidising agents on the electrochemical stability of the ionic solvents have not been studied yet. Techno-economic analysis shows that the use of DESs is very reliant on efficient recovery of the liquid. The project will focus on efficient digestion and recovery of all of the economically important streams in the process with the aim of creating a closed loop for the winning and recycling of elements. This new knowledge is vital for the whole closed loop manufacturing chain.

Mots clés : ionometallurgy, deep eutectic solvents, green chemistry, sustainable metallurgy, process design, electrocatalysis

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

Currently, animal models are still widely used in the pre-clinical stage of drug development to mimic human diseases or predict the human body’s response to candidate drugs. However, their use should be minimized as much as possible due to ethical issues and since only 9.6% of drugs entering phase I of clinical trials end up being commercialized. Therefore, the goal of this action is to develop a novel proprietary 3D in vitro cardiac assay. The SmartHeart will retrieve several of the most important read-outs commonly assessed to study the impact of drugs at the cardiac level in the pre-clinical phase. The all in one assay will be based on a microstructured gel where cardiac cells, as cardiomyocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells will be cultured. The SmartHeart will answer to the shortcomings of academic and commercial available in vitro assays, by enabling the qualitative and quantitative measurement of several parameters, as contractility and Calcium transients. Simultaneously, the assay will enable sub-cellular structure observation via high-resolution imaging techniques. Furthermore, the 3D nature of the assay will contribute to the efficient maturation of the induced CMs, which is still a limiting factor when not using cardiac human cells, but rather induced CMs, in in vitro assays. The ultimate aim of the project is to make this device available to screening platforms, e.g. Pharma or CROs. The technology will be implemented in multiwell plates compatible with the standards of HTS/HCS and will be available to early-users, from whom feedback will be acquired, enabling to fine tune the specifications of the final device. This project will meet the best of the ER competences in physics, with the expertise of 4Dcell in 3Dcell culture systems. With this project, the ER will reach a level of maturity on several technological, managerial and industrial aspects providing her a new career angle and put her a step closer to act as a leader in research.

Mots clés : 3d cell culture, microfabrication, cardiomyocytes, polyacrylamyde gels, toxicology and drug screening assay, product development

Participants :
- 4Dcell (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet DIPLOWAR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

DIPLOWAR is an interdisciplinary research project that uses practice theory to illuminate the changing relationship between diplomacy and warfare. The central conceptual move of the project is to conceive of diplomacy and warfare not primarily as political or legal relations between states but as structuring principles of peaceful and violent political practices. This reconceptualization allows integrating insights from the literatures on the ‘new diplomacy’ and the ‘new wars’ which so far have not been brought into a dialogue. Through an explorative study of foreign policy decision-making in the United States and Germany from 1945 to the present, the project will demonstrate that practices of diplomacy and warfare which once were neatly separated have increasingly formed hybrid constellations. As a result, we are today confronted with a situation in which neither diplomacy nor war can be clearly grasped at the level of inter-state relations anymore. DIPLOWAR seeks to both sharpen our analytical vocabulary and deepen our empirical understanding of these processes of hybridisation to help scholars, practitioners, and the public to come to terms with the new realities of war and peace. The outgoing phase of the project will be hosted by the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute for War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, New York, the return phase by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Mots clés : international political sociology  ips, practice theory, diplomacy

Participants :
- Columbia University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Goethe University Frankfurt (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159795.6 €
Projet DIRAE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

DIRAE is an action designed to explore the Dirae, a largely neglected anonymous Latin poem, probably from the first century B.C. Transmitted as part of the so-called Appendix Vergiliana, it is among the most corrupt Latin poetic texts surviving from antiquity. Being anonymous and of uncertain date of composition (in fact, it may consist of two separate poems, possibly by different authors), the poem lacks secure links to a specific context of production. DIRAE aims to bring the Dirae within the orbit of current classical scholarship by creating a set of fundamental and innovative research tools: a comprehensive philological and literary commentary, and an open-access digital critical edition. The core objective of the action is to reconstruct the poem’s text by employing a wide range of research measures, from fresh inspection of all primary sources and thorough use of earlier textual scholarship to conjectural emendation. In addition to solving textual issues, the commentary will explore the Dirae’s complex intertextuality with other poetry, both Latin and Greek. A minute analysis of linguistic, metrical and literary features will aim to establish the poem’s context of composition, to answer the question of unity (if not authorship), and to uncover its implicit poetic programme. DIRAE’s research outputs will include the publication of a commentary in monograph form and the creation of an open- access web resource hosting a digital edition of the poem accompanied by a comprehensive repertory of conjectures and a collection of digital images of all primary manuscripts. While the commentary can be expected to become the standard reference work for all subsequent research on the Dirae, the impact of the digital edition will potentially be even wider: being one of the first of its kind, it can serve as a model for future digital critical editions of classical authors.

Mots clés : latin poetry, bucolic poetry, classical commentary, textual criticism, digital classics

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

DNA methylation (DNAm), an epigenetic effect, changes with age in a site-dependent way. DNAm score, integrating methylation state at many sites, has recently emerged as a superior marker of biological age in epidemiological studies: it predicts remaining lifespan markedly better than chronological age (CA). Identification of factors that contribute to ageing-related methylation has thereby become of importance for understanding healthy ageing. In this project, I will use a large existing set of biological samples of a free-ranging animal (jackdaw, Coloeus monedula) with known life-histories, monitored longitudinally throughout their lives, to reveal causes (experimental approach) and consequences (lifelong monitoring) of DNAm variation. By integrating expertise from evolutionary ecology, quantitative genetics and biomedicine, I will develop an epigenetic clock to build a comprehensive understanding of shifts in DNAm and their ultimate fitness consequences, unravelling extragenic mechanisms of inheritance and phenotypic evolution in an ecologically relevant setup. Specific objectives, implemented through dedicated work packages, are: O1-Groundwork: Develop an epigenetic clock of CA for wild jackdaws. Method WP1: wet-lab analyses of DNAm and identification of CpG sites where methylation changes with CA to be combined in a DNAm score of age. O2-Causes: Identify environmental and quantitative (epi)genetic causes of DNAm variation, leveraging a long-term brood size manipulation experiment that affected ageing in parents (mortality) and offspring (telomere dynamics). Method WP2: analysis of longitudinal age-corrected DNAm data and the pedigree. O3&O4-Consequences: Study the link between the DNAm and its results on life-history traits according to the manipulation (O3,WP3a). Quantify transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (O4, WP3b). Method: longitudinal data analysis of phenotypic traits and transgenerational effects to unravel consequences of variation in DNAm.

Mots clés : methylation, ageing, life history, epigenetic clock, biological age, phenotypic evolution

Participants :
- University of Groningen (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet NutriCoRe (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

DNA replication is a fundamental biological process enabling the transmission of genetic information to progeny. In bacteria, its initiation involves a set of genes whose regulation is critical to ensure genome stability, both under optimal conditions and in response to environmental cues, including changes in nutrient availability. The highly conserved bacterial initiator protein DnaA has been proposed as a primary target for the nutritional control of DNA replication. Nevertheless, surprisingly little is known about the molecular mechanisms modulating its activity in response to nutrient limitation. Previous work showed that the synthesis and degradation of DnaA are both subject to control mechanisms that respond to environmental changes in the model organism Caulobacter crescentus. The 5’-UTR of dnaA mRNA was discovered to be required for the downregulation of the protein and the block of DNA replication initiation in response to nutrient depletions by a so far unknown post-transcriptional mechanism. Based on my preliminary in silico analysis I hypothesize that the 5’-UTR of dnaA can assume distinct conformations with different ribosome binding site accessibilities. Switching between these conformations is likely triggered by a trans-acting factor, either a small RNA, an RNA-binding protein or a metabolite, that is produced in response to nutrient availability. The present project proposal aims to elucidate the precise molecular mechanism underlying the post-transcriptional control of dnaA and to determine its consequences on DNA replication and cellular survival by combining classical biochemistry and genetics with cutting-edge molecular biology techniques. I expect that this work will contribute to the development of new strategies for bacterial growth control in industry and medicine. Importantly, the results of this study will provide key insights for the understanding of one of the most important biological processes: the regulation of DNA replication.

Mots clés : caulobacter crescentus, dnaa, dna replication initiation, mrna, posttranscriptional regulation, metabolism, cell cycle, translation, ribosome binding site, nutrient, 5  untraslated region, growth

Participants :
- Stockholm University (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173857.2 €
Projet ORI NUMBER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

DNA replication must be regulated in eukaryotic cells to ensure that the genome is precisely duplicated. The process is split into two non-overlapping stages: origin “licensing” and origin “firing”. During licensing in G1, ORC loads MCM2-7 onto DNA, and during the firing stage in S phase MCM2-7 is activated to drive replication forks. To prevent re-replication of DNA no new origins must be licensed once S phase begins. Since replication forks can irreversibly stall, it is crucial that sufficient origins are licensed before S phase entry. The “licensing checkpoint” prevents cells in G1 with too few licensed origins from entering S phase. A number of different MCM and ORC mutations have been identified, leading to cancer susceptibility, proliferation defects and/or developmental abnormalities. However, it is hard to explain the spectrum of defects caused by specific mutations, such as in Meier-Gorlin Syndrome. In this project, I will use genome editing to engineer iPS cells with specific mutations in MCM and ORC proteins to determine the effects on origin licensing, licensing checkpoint activation and genome stability. I will use state-of-the-art quantitative proteomics, next generation sequencing and flow cytometry to unravel the molecular mechanisms underpinning the licensing checkpoint and to define the core molecular pathways that coordinate DNA replication and the cell cycle. A comparison of the effect of ORC and MCM mutations in clinically-relevant cells derived from iPSCs and in cancer cell lines will allow me to understand cell-type specific differences in regulation of DNA replication and explain the effects of these mutations on human patients. These new results will open new possibilities to develop specific anti-cancer drugs against selected components of the licensing checkpoint system. Moreover, it will allow me to merge neurodevelopment, DNA replication, stem cell biology and cancer research, laying the foundations upon which to build my future career.

Mots clés : licensing, developmental disorders, chromatin, replication origins

Participants :
- University of Dundee (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet NANOREMOVAS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Staff Exchanges
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Daily intake of arsenic polluted water by cattle in Argentina is becoming of increasing concern, especially due to the important size of the livestock export market where EU is a main customer. Because natural forage or alfalfa grown without irrigation is used to feed livestock, drinking water is considered the main source of arsenic for cattle (several studies reveal arsenic concentrations in phreatic water samples above 0.15 mg/L, the level that suggest causing chronic intoxication in cattle). Therefore, as it has been demonstrated, there is a risk of exposure for the human health due to the introduction in the food chain through milk or meat. In view of arsenic toxicity and the large number of people exposed to its effects worldwide, there is a clear need for the implementation in remote exploitations of affordable and sustainable treatment methodologies to provide potable water to cattle. To face this problem and provide a solution, NANOREMOVAS pursues to develop and implement a pilot plant for the remote treatment of arsenic polluted waters based on the application of state-of-art advanced multifunctional nanostructured materials, already tested at the laboratory level. In this sense, NANOREMOVAS includes the cooperation between the industry and academia of partners from Europe and Argentina. Besides the required research and innovation to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of the developed water recycling technique, the seconded researchers will carry out a series of tasks and outreach activities, promoting entrepreneurship culture and support of young innovative companies in order to set-up technological partnerships within the water and livestock sector. Furthermore, NANOREMOVAS represents a significant contribution to knowledge and technology transfer from the academia to the industrial sector, through the partners well established reputation as transfer hubs, that will led to quickly creating designs and industrial equipment/processes/model

Mots clés : advanced multifunctional nanostructured materials, arsenic polluted groundwater, pilot plant for the remote water treatment, entrepreneurship culture

Participants :
- Autonomous University of Barcelona (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 369000.0 €
- Aeris tecnologias ambientales sl (Espagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 99000.0 €
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Suède) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 121500.0 €
- Mergus promotion handelsbolag (Suède) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 36000.0 €
- Business Innovation Centre (Italie) — Partner, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 63000.0 €
- National University of Mar del Plata (Argentine) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- National Institute of Industrial Technology (Argentine) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €