Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet NETBIO-GE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Epilepsies are common and highly disabling diseases characterised by recurrent seizures. They constitute a relevant health problem: ~2 million adults suffer from active epilepsy in Europe, leading to significant direct and indirect costs (estimated to be ~14 billion euro (2010)). The scientific objective of this fellowship, to be carried out at the Division of Neuroscience at King's College London and the Centre of Predictive Modelling in Health Care of the University of Exeter, is to develop a novel type of diagnostic biomarker for idiopathic generalised epilepsies (IGE), an important group of syndromes that affects 25-30% of patients, particularly young adults. This will be achieved by conducting a cross-sectional case-control study that will use advanced quantitative neuroimaging techniques to measure alterations of brain network connections in IGE patients and healthy controls, and machine-learning algorithms to (1) classify patients with different seizure types according to these alterations, (2) predict their seizure risk, as assessed with long-term electroencephalography (EEG), and (3) model the effect of network disruption on brain dynamics, using computational modelling. The educational objective is to equip the fellow with the skills needed to become an independent clinical scientist in epileptology. This will be achieved through a comprehensive clinical and scientific teaching programme that will include: (1) part-time participation in clinical rounds and clinical long-term EEG monitoring of complex epilepsy, (2) training in the neuroanatomy and quantitative measurement of white matter connections of the human brain,(3) training in computational neuroscience, and (4) courses in scientific writing and project management. This programme is expected to broaden and diversify the fellow's skills, strengthen the ties between the cooperating research centers and yield novel insights that might help improve clinical management of a highly relevant disease group.

Mots clés : idiopathic generalised epilepsy, diffusion imaging, quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, machine learning algorithms, generative modelling of brain dynamics

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

Eukaryotic algae evolutionary history is still fairly unknown. Thanks to state-of-the-art evolutionary models, next-gen sequencing and high computational capabilities, we are going to shed some light on the matter. Corallinales (red algae) and Dasycladales (green algae) are two extant living groups of calcareous algae with a rich fossil record (~140 and ~500 myr respectively). The lack of sufficient molecular data for these groups makes impossible to use such species in eukaryotic phylogeny and dating studies. This project has been planed to cover 2 objectives or evolutionary questions: The 1st objective aims 1) to generate de novo transcriptomic data for about 10 species corresponding to different Corallinales and Dasycladales lineages in order to perform phylogenomic analyses with 2 established datasets (one of 200 nuclear-coding plastid markers, and the other with 258 non-plastid genes) and the broadest possible eukaryotic taxonomic sampling; and 2) to perform molecular clock analyses using known fossil calibrations and hence provide robust divergence times for the whole eukaryotic tree but focusing on primary and secondary plastid endosymbiotic acquisitions. For both post- phylogenomic analyses (dating and divergence steps), already established collaborations will ensure proper method implementation. Using the results from the first objective, the 2nd one aims 1) to track history of plastid evolution (plastid-based dataset) comparing it with deep eukaryotic speciation events (non-plastid marker tree); and 2) to estimate diversification rates in distinct photosynthetic lineages in order to find if rate shifts correlate among them. AlgDates will allow us to establish the order, timing and correlation of events in such deep evolutionary transitions, but the knowledge acquired during this project will also provide information regarding reef formation and evolution, which can be useful when addressing or predicting calcareous ecosystem adaptations to climate change.

Mots clés : phylogenomics, plastid endosymbiosis, molecular clock, fossil record, calcareous algae, divergence rates

Participants :
- Université Paris-Saclay (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet DivPredSkill (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Europe is vulnerable to climate extremes and climate change, making predictions valuable to political and economic stakeholders. The European winter climate depends a lot on sea level pressure differences between Iceland and the Azores, described by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Thus, many modelling centres working on predictions, focus on improving NAO predictions. Recent studies find the NAO could be highly predictable, much higher than suggested by individual models - calling for a better process understanding to improve models and predictions. The major source of our ability to make predictions for years and beyond are slow ocean processes, e.g. linked to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Both, AMOC and NAO are considered key for North Atlantic decadal variability and predictability. They interact, especially via the NAO driving AMOC, but also vice versa. Consequently, prediction skill is reduced by uncertainties in the NAO-AMOC relationship, but also by severe mean state biases common among models. As of yet, not much effort has been made to understand skill difference across models - motivating the proposed research: The overarching research objective is to understand the causes for inter-model differences in interannual-to-decadal prediction skill - with a focus on the role of the model-dependent NAO-AMOC relationship and mean state biases. Specific objectives are to: (i) identify model differences in the NAO-AMOC interaction and their effect on differences of the potential to predict the North Atlantic; (ii) assess the role of mean state biases for model differences; (iii) link these findings with North Atlantic forecast skill. The proposed research comprises: the novel idea to relate predictability to model biases via NAO-AMOC interaction; and the innovative approach to link findings from long, uninitialised simulations to initialised predictions, enabling new insights valuable to the climate modelling and prediction community.

Mots clés : climate prediction, predictability, north atlantic, cmip, atlantic meridional overturning circulation, north atlantic oscillation, modelling errors

Participants :
- University of Reading (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet TUASPA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

European adults are in dire need of increasing their physical activity (PA) levels. Leading an active lifestyle helps to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and improve mental health and cognitive function. The WHO estimates that physical inactivity is responsible for more than one million premature deaths/year in the European region alone, as 40% of European adults fail to reach PA recommendations. Living in obesogenic environments is one culprit for the lack of PA and one that has been extensively studied by environmental epidemiologists. A second cause of physical inactivity, is lack of time, but despite being frequently cited in studies and surveys, time use and time pressure have been seldom addressed in relation with the built environment. PA campaigns can be easily spoiled if people have no time available to invest in exercising. And in our contemporary societies, time availability is also deeply rooted on the built environment and the characteristics of our activity spaces. Factors such as how long our commute is, or whether one can connect home-work-school with public transit are going to affect both how much time we have left, and how much PA do we gain from active transport. This project aims at addressing this glaring gap in the literature, by incorporating time availability and time perceptions to the study of the associations between PA and the built environment. It does so by recruiting 150 employed adults (50% women; 33% with children) in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona and tracking their PA patterns during a week, using a GPS and accelerometer devices. Time availability is assessed using daily EMA surveys aimed at describing their subjective use of time in relation with their physical activity. By triangulating GPS, accelerometer, GIS and EMA measures this project will build informed activity spaces that will allow to examine the associations between the environment and PA through the new lens of time availability.

Mots clés : human geography, health, time use, transportation, active transport, physical activity

Participants :
- Autonomous University of Barcelona (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet MORA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

European colonialism in Muslim societies represented a turning point for the powerful European influence that was widespread throughout the Middle East. With European Jews acquisition of land in Palestine, Arab nationalism started to incorporate antisemitic ideology into their texts and discourses. The creation of the Jewish state in 1948 accelerated this process. Thus, paradoxically, while the presence of antisemitism among European societies has been marginal since the end of World War II, socially and politically discredited, and even prosecuted, antisemitic voices have gained ground in the Middle East. With the immigration of the North African populations (both Jewish and Muslim) from the second half of the twentieth century, some conflicts have arisen in Europe as well, particularly, but not exclusively, in France. Therefore, the colonial period is crucial to understanding not only when, how and why European antisemitism entered northern Africa, and later returned to Europe, but above all how it interacted with the local notions and prejudices about Jews in Muslim societies. Further research is required to analyse in detail what the integration of a foreign ideology means and involves for native popular ideas and local prejudices. In this research project, the researcher will address these issues through historical anthropology and ethnography in the context of inter-religious relations in Spanish Colonial Morocco.

Mots clés : antisemitism, european colonialism, north of morocco, muslim, jewish relations

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

European governments often rely on social media to manage their international relations. This is what scholars of international relations have called Public Diplomacy (PD): the effort of diplomatic actors to influence foreign affairs by reaching out to international audiences through actor-to-public interaction. Rather than being a modern invention, historians such as Helmer Helmers and William T. Rossiter have demonstrated that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries printed media were already widely used for PD. Knowledge of this tradition helps to increase historical awareness about ideas and practices of diplomatic communication and collaboration prior to the foundation of the European Union. However, regularly overlooked in scholarship on the early modern history of PD and diplomacy in general is the important role that the performing arts—much like social media today—played in managing foreign affairs. My research project aims to redress the balance and expand knowledge about the diplomatic function and reception of the early modern performing arts within the context of the state journeys that the English and French royal crown made into the Low Countries between 1577 and 1642. Never been studied in depth before, the theatrical entertainments given for the voyages, including tableaux vivants, triumphal processions, and mock naval battles, constitute an excellent example of early modern PD. I will produce the first book-length student to analyse how the theatrical entertainments served as both lubricants in negotiations between representatives of the Low Countries, England, and France, and as tools for promoting collaboration between those countries to a European audience of diplomats, nobles, and commoners. By bringing together the fields of early modern diplomacy and the performing arts, my monograph boasts a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to the state journeys that is essential to understanding the historical development of modern PD.

Mots clés : early modern diplomacy, public diplomacy, performing arts, pageantry, royalty, travel, ceremonial entries, low countries, england, france, europe

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet SO-CUP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The Southern Ocean (SO) is a disproportionately important region, relative to its size, for mitigating the consequences of the anthropogenic climate change, being responsible for 43% and 75% of the ocean uptake of anthropogenic CO2 and heat, respectively. The Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) and Antarctic Intermediate Waters (AAIW) effect the bulk of this uptake. Yet the dynamical processes that control the formation of these water masses in the thick winter mixed layers to the north of the SubAntarctic Front (SAF), and the associated drawdown of carbon, are not well understood, primarily as a result of the scarcity of data during winter in this remote region. Hence, the present and future evolution of the SO carbon sink remains the subject of vigorous debate. The main goal of the SO-CUP project is to identify and quantify the processes that control the amount of inorganic carbon that is subducted with the SAMW/AAIW. To do so, the work plan integrates the use of recent in situ observations from biogeochemical Argo floats and a state-of-the-art data-assimilating, high-resolution coupled biogeochemical-physical ocean model (B-SOSE). Through analysis of these novel datasets, which allow for unprecedented data coverage of the SO in winter, the SO-CUP project will produce a major step forward toward understanding the ventilation and carbon uptake processes in the SO, and will help to predict their response to ongoing and future climatic changes. This proposal will also enable Dr. Fernández-Castro to decisively broaden his expertise on ocean physics and biogeochemistry, and to gain experience in the state-of-the-art technologies in these disciplines. These new skills and knowledge will propel Dr. Fernández-Castro’s career toward a status of independent scientist with high international visibility. Further, the SO-CUP project will establish new links between the EU and US communities for the investigation of the fundamental role of the SO in the climate system.

Mots clés : southern ocean, meridional overturning circulation, carbon cycle, mixed layer, ocean ventilation

Participants :
- University of Southampton (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet LoopAnsatz (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The Standard Model of Particle Physics is impressively consistent with the experimental measurements at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva. In the coming years, with increased experimental statistics, precision will rise even further, allowing a unique opportunity to uncover new physics. A necessary component of this pursuit is a set of theoretical predictions made at the per cent level for a broad range of observables. In the past decade, previously unthinkable availability of precision predictions incorporating the leading quantum corrections has been made possible by technological leaps. Nevertheless, to match the discovery potential of the LHC in the near future, further theory advances will be needed. In my recent work, I combined geometrical insights with exact numerical techniques, to perform world-first computations of the analytic form of a plethora of five-point, two-loop scattering amplitudes in both phenomenologically relevant and formally interesting theories. In this project, I will apply this technology to a range of QCD processes, culminating in new results with immediate relevance for next-to-next-to-leading order corrections at the LHC and improved fundamental understandings of scattering amplitudes. First, I will systematically apply the approach to the computation of non-planar five-parton amplitudes in QCD. Second, I will calculate the non-planar master integrals relevant for all two-loop five-point processes with one massive leg, for example the production of a Higgs boson with two jets. Then, I will break current complexity thresholds by computing the phenomenologically relevant scattering amplitudes for the production of a W, Z, or Higgs boson, each with two associated jets. To achieve these lofty goals, I will draw on insights into the mathematical and physical structures underlying scattering amplitudes and employ modern tools such as finite-field arithmetic, analyticity-inspired techniques and computational algebraic geometry.


Participants :
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet TIME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The TIME project aims to ascertain the time at which the toxicity observed in classic galactosemia begins, particularly if it begins prenatally. Recent advances in the molecular bases of classic galactosemia have taken research a step further towards therapy development. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to elucidate when the damage accurately begins, in order to define the time at which therapy should be initiated so that it can effectively prevent the development of long-term complications. The Galactosemia Research Group (GRG) in Maastricht has recently developed a zebrafish model of classic galactosemia, which is particularly indicated for studying developmental processes. I will use transient embryological- and whole life-knockout galt-zebrafish to analyze damage in target-organs at different stages of pre- and post-natal development and compare them to the wild-type fish, which will allow determining the exact time of damage onset in classic galactosemia. The GRG is a world-renowned multidisciplinary group that will strongly enhance my professional and personal qualifications as a researcher. In turn, I will contribute with my expertise in molecular bases of rare metabolic disorders. This project constitutes a major milestone for this disorder, as it will allow the development of an effective treatment, which in turn will decrease galactosemic patients' requirement for medical assistance and by making them fit to work and to fully engage in the society. Prof. Patrick Cunningham (Trinity College, Dublin) once said: To be a researcher is not just to be in the laboratory, you work for the world, you work for the society. This sentence illustrates what I have always felt to be my purpose as a researcher. Ever since I initiated my scientific career that I am fully committed in taking research in rare disorders towards the improvement of patients’ health and lives, and this fellowship constitutes an important step towards that commitment.

Mots clés : classic galactosemia, rare disease, prenatal toxicity, postnatal toxicity, brain impairments, fertility impairments

Participants :
- Maastricht University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet GENDISC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China was strategic on the ancient Silk Road. Expeditions by European explorers in the 19th and 20th centuries found ruins of ancient oases settlements around the circumference of the Taklamakan Desert. Amongst the ruins were artefacts, many documents and manuscripts written in different scripts and languages, some previously unknown. All attest to the cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of the region. The focus of GENDISC is on the Niya Documents, a collection of approximately 1000 documents and document fragments dating to around the 3rd century CE found around the southern Tarim Basin, but mainly around the Niya ruins. Three-quarters of the documents were written in the South Asian Kharosthi script and Gandhari language, earlier used in ancient Pakistan, Afghanistan and north India for inscriptions, manuscripts and coins. Whilst politics, trade and religion are well-studied, there has been little examination of ancient society in the Tarim Basin because the sources are viewed as limited. GENDISC will challenge this assumption by addressing social issues raised as legal disputes in the Niya Documents, including infanticide, adoption, witchcraft allegations, slavery, murder and marriage transactions. It will identify gender roles (O1), the types of legal cases (O2) and the wider context of issues (O3), and will take a statistical and etymological approach (WP1), study religious texts (WP2) and examine other Tarim Basin documents (WP3) to establish if the documents are indicative of gender biases and discrimination. GENDISC is interdisciplinary, incorporating studies of language, religion, gender, society and law within the broader field of archaeology and Asian studies. It is trans-regional in scope and will identify connections between now politically- and culturally-sensitive territories. The findings will be disseminated through conferences, seminars, workshops, articles and a blog.

Mots clés : document and text studies, kharosthi, central asia, tarim basin, early historic, niya documents, gender, discrimination, legal disputes, social issues

Participants :
- Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166320.0 €