Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet SOS2030 (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

SOS2030, aligns with the EU Biodiversity Strategy's ambitious 30x30 target, aiming to protect 30% of EU oceans by 2030. Despite the global push for marine conservation, the target of designating 10% of EU seas as strictly Protected Areas remains elusive, highlighting the urgent need for more effective strategies, especially when near 500 million people depend on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods.  SOS2030 sets out to address the shortcomings of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Europe. Many MPAs, though legally designated, fall short of achieving their conservation goals, earning them the term "paper parks." Against the backdrop of no standardized assessment methodologies and limited enforcement of MPAs, SOS2030 follows a threefold approach. Firstly, comprehensively assess and map the number of paper parks that are in EU waters that are at least 10 years old, diverse in terms of geography and with a management plan. Secondly, SOS2030 creates an Assessment Tool to identify and evaluate paper parks, bridging the gap in methodology and considering ecological, social, institutional, and economic factors contributing to paper parks. Thirdly, a documentary showcasing three ineffective MPAs will harness the power of scientific communication to amplify the voices of coastal communities living within paper parks. It will recognize the critical role of small-scale fisheries and youth, among others, empowering them and encouraging public engagement in marine governance and environmental decision-making.  SOS2030 deliverables, i.e., database, assessment tool, roundtables, multilingual documentary, newspaper and website, holistically present for the first time the common elements, behaviours and patterns that are found in paper parks. This will yield tools and lessons learned of which coastal communities and policymakers in the EU and around the world can spot a paper park and how it can be avoided in both the present and future to build a more sustainable livelihood.

Mots clés : marine conservation protected areas assessment tool science communication stakeholders engagement

Participants :
- Université de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 262393.2 €
- WWF Italia (Italie) — Partner, associated partner, Autres, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NIOT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The precise digital reconstruction of natural networks such as blood vessels or plant roots is crucial to ensure the quality of simulation-driven predictions. However, these structures can often be accessed only via noninvasive techniques, leading to artifacts that compromise the reliability of the data and the derived simulations. No technological solution is currently able to recover digital reconstructions of "real" networks from corrupted images.  The NIOT (Network Inpainting via Optimal Transport) project aims to fill this technological gap by defining for the first time a robust mathematical formulation of the image network reconstruction problem. Thanks to the most recent advances of the optimal transport theory, we will finally encode into equations the well-known fact that several natural networks are designed to transport resources with the least effort possible. We will adopt a variational image processing method, where the reconstructed network is obtained as the density minimizing the sum of the discrepancy with the observed data and a branch inducing functional. As such, our proposed methodology builds a bridge between the image regularization and optimal transport communities.  A major ambition of the project is to pair the theoretical analysis with robust simulation tools that are capable of handling real data arising from MRI acquisition techniques. This will require exploitation and development of dedicated components to handle large datasets, both from a data handling and a multiscale simulation perspective. Our algorithm will be tested on a sequence of increasingly channeling problems. We will start from simple synthetic networks, then we will use an high-quality map of the blood vessel network of a mouse brain. The final benchmark will be to reconstruct of corrupted vascular networks in MRI scans of human patients.

Mots clés : optimal transport, branched transport, networks reconstruction, image processing, inpainting, brain blood vessels

Participants :
- Université de Bergen (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 210911.04 €
Projet MixUp (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Modeling reactive transport of solutes in aquifers and other porous formations is a field with key applications for a wide range of problems in contaminant transport, soil remediation, subsurface CO2 sequestration and geothermal energy. The wide range of scales at which fluid flows are governed by physical heterogeneities in porous media is a major obstacle in developing practical and accurate reactive transport models. The local mixing process governs (and may limit) the ability of reactants that are at close distance to establish direct contact and enable chemical reactions. However, continuum-scale reactive transport models typically neglect the role of mixing at the pore scale (and any other model-unresolved scales). This is partly because the precise link between a porous medium's micro-structure and its resulting mixing behavior has not been rigorously established yet; but also due to a lack of robust, generalized models and tools to account for local mixing and its upscaled effects. The goal of MixUp is to develop a first-of-its-kind upscaled transport modeling approach for mixing and reaction, founded on the underlying micro-scale physics, that can accurately account for local mixing in granular media, and that can be readily integrated within existing continuum-scale reactive models and codes. This will be attained by taking advantage of the recent "A Closer Look" simulation dataset, which contains the results of high-resolution Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations of pore-scale transport and mixing in granular media columns with an unprecedentedly large domain size, and also features different degrees of grain-size variability. A first implementation of the upscaled approach will be used to evaluate the importance of local mixing for reactive processes within mountain hillslopes.

Mots clés : mixing, porous media, granular media, computational fluid dynamics, fluid mechanics, reactive transport, upscaling, high performance computing, lamellar mixing, heterogeneity

Participants :
- Université de Rennes (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 211754.88 €
Projet THAISIS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project examines the uses, abuses, and controversies of the early Christian figure of Thais, sex worker turned saint, as a transformative lens onto the complex cultural intersection of sex and religion in the Middle Ages. THAISIS aims to answer two questions: how did this severe, shocking narrative, depicting a repentant woman walled up as a recluse, function across medieval European culture as a representation of sex work, conversion, and religious solitude? And how can modern scholars and others engage more productively with such a difficult, even offensive story? My research into Thais, an understudied example of the 'harlot saint' trope which originated in the stories about the early Christian Desert Fathers, pays attention both to the medieval incarnations of her life and identity, and to how she has evolved beyond the Middle Ages. My methodology incorporates the concerns of the burgeoning field of medievalism studies, along with more traditional literary and historical methods, to create a picture of the Thais figure as it evolved and continues to evolve. This was a story calculated to provoke strong reactions in its own time, and it continues to do so in the modern day, from the cynical novel portrait by Anatole France in 1895, to the portrayal of Thais's story as a psychodrama under patriarchy in Time's Up, Jenna Soleo-Shanks's 2019 adaptation of the tenth-century play by Hrotsvit of Gandersheim. Building on foundational work carried out during two short research fellowships, THAISIS will develop and refine my ongoing research into this saint and her story towards two key goals: shaping and completing a groundbreaking monograph on Thais's role in medieval and postmedieval literature and religious culture, and developing public engagement opportunities to bring the difficulties and complexities of her story to a wider audience, offering new ways to engage with aspects of history that disturb or even offend.

Mots clés : manuscript studies, literary theory, medieval history

Participants :
- Université de Bergen (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251578.56 €
Projet DISCOVER (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

Mechanobiology explores how physical forces affect cellular processes, providing insights into areas like embryogenesis and tumor growth. While most studies focus on cells responding to forces stemming from elastic materials, biological materials are viscoelastic. Single materials elastically resist deformation while viscously relaxing with a multitude of relaxation times. Whereas viscoelasticity is increasingly acknowledged in mechanobiology research, its effects on cell behaviour remain poorly understood. This project aims to uncover the mechanisms behind viscoelastic mechanotransduction, by considering cell dynamics and multiple relaxation times within the cell environment. I will engineer hydrogels with tuneable viscoelastic properties, culture fibroblasts on them and employ cutting-edge (live cell) fluorescence microscopy and computational modeling of the cellular mechanotransduction. The hydrogels' elasticity will be tuned by the 3D crosslinked network, and viscosity by linear polymers within the network. Considering properties of gel and force-sensitive proteins inside the cell a stochastic simulation will predict and explain cell behavior, a data-driven model will infer properties from experimentally observed cell behavior. Experimentally, I will characterize mouse fibroblast mechanotransduction on these gels, focusing on adhesion, cytoskeleton, and YAP/TAZ activity, using fluorescent proteins and confocal microscopy. Chemical perturbations of the cytoskeleton will validate the model. Spanning experimental and theoretical methods from material science, cell biology, and computational sciences, this project will shed light on a crucial but underexplored aspect of mechanobiology. As mechanical changes in the cell enviroment are a hallmark of many tumors, this research is particularly relevant for oncology. Further, the models and insights gained will have an impact on the study of organoids in viscoelastic 3D matrices, as well as fibrosis and would healing.

Mots clés : viscoelasticity, elasticity, viscosity, substrate, clutch model, hydrogel, polyacrylamide, cell mechanics, mechanobiology, mechanotransduction, modelling

Participants :
- Université de technologie de Delft (Pays-Bas) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 194074.56 €
Projet LifeLink (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

LifeLink will devise a totally new concept for an interactive artificial placenta (AP) that can provide safer and more efficient oxygenation to pre-term babies giving them the chance to bridge until the point they can breathe on their own. Pre-term birth is the leading cause of death in children under five, with over 1 million deaths annually due to complications. To address this, pre-term infants require continuous oxygenation as they would receive in the womb, yet no extracorporeal oxygenator currently exists for this purpose. LifeLink aims to fill this gap by developing an innovative AP platform that overcomes two key challenges: hemocompatibility and the excessive cardiac stress caused by high flow resistance. The project pioneers a bioinspired, endothelium-mimetic coating that integrates the three key endothelial functions—stealth, modulation, and interaction—into a single hemocompatible layer. This design reduces the need for anticoagulants and minimizes thrombogenicity. The coating, featuring antifouling brushes, FXIIa inhibitors, and tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), mimics the natural endothelium’s ability to prevent clot formation, regulate coagulation, and promote fibrinolysis, making it ideal for blood-contacting devices like oxygenators. LifeLink will enhance gas exchange and flow dynamics using triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) designs, such as gyroid structures, to lower cardiac stress and eliminate the need for external pumps. These 3D membranes will be fabricated via centrifugal casting and tested for gas transport, hemocompatibility, and clot-dissolving capabilities, with polymer brush coatings to boost performance. This interdisciplinary approach, structured across three work packages—developing endothelium-mimetic coatings, designing TPMS-based membranes, and conducting hemocompatibility and gas transfer tests—seeks to revolutionize pre-term care, providing a validated solution for AP systems and improving outcomes for premature infants.

Mots clés : hemocompatibility, polymer brushes, biomimetics, biomedical devices, artificial placenta

Participants :
- Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 194074.56 €
Projet DILEMMA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

DILEMMA will orient fundamental research to fill a gap in diabetes mellitus (DM) biology, by addressing a relevant biomedical problem in a cross-disciplinary manner, with great societal and economic impact. I will use a unique combination of advanced nanoscopy with protein biochemistry and cell biology. Clinical studies identified stiffening in vascular, muscle and connecting tissues as particular mechanical fingerprints for DM. In diabetic patients advanced glycation end products are clinical biomarkers of DM that correlate with increased heart failure risk, but the mechanism of action bridging the mechanical alterations at molecular and tissue levels remains elusive. Current techniques used to inspect biochemical regulation of proteins fall short at describing the interplay between their dynamics under force and biological function. An in-depth multiscale characterization of the mechanical landscape in DM is a promising approach to identify new mechanical biomarkers able to advance therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. DILEMMA will study the fundamental link between tissue stiffening and protein glycation modifications in DM at multiple scales relevant for mechanobiology. I will explore the hypothesis that in diabetic patients lamin proteins are modified by glycation, which disrupts nuclear mechanical homeostasis. DILEMMA will have a strong impact in DM biology by providing new tools to understand how protein glycation and nuclear mechanics set the mechanical properties of cells and tissues in pathophysiological conditions. I will receive training and education to acquire or strengthen my technical, scientific, and soft skills. This action will impact my career, representing a jump that will advance my future goal of becoming an independent young leader and establishing a unique research line at national level. DILEMMA could improve future clinical practice and reduce economic burden on the health system.

Mots clés : nanomechanics, cell mechanics, single molecule, atomic force microscopy, magnetic tweezers, nucleus, diabetes

Participants :
- Ministry of Health (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet RASPO (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Relativistic jets from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) have fascinated astronomers for decades. Despite its importance for multi-messenger astronomy, astroparticle physics, and galaxy evolution, the physics of relativistic jets is not fully understood. According to a widely accepted paradigm, relativistic jets extract the rotational energy of the black hole via electromagnetic stresses, and transport it out to large distances in the form of Poynting flux. However, we do not understand how the Poynting flux is converted into the non-thermal radiation that we observe. Since relativistic jets have huge Reynolds numbers, turbulence could naturally dissipate the magnetic energy and accelerate a population of non-thermal particles, which emit the observed radiation via synchrotron and inverse Compton cooling. Developing concrete jet emission models based on such scenario has recently become possible due to the advent of large-scale fully kinetic simulations of magnetically dominated plasma turbulence. A crucial finding of these simulations is that particles have a strong pitch angle anisotropy (namely, particles move nearly along the direction of the local magnetic field), contrary to the textbook (and ad hoc) assumption that the radiating particles in relativistic jets are isotropic. I propose a project aiming to investigate "non-thermal Radiation from AStrophysical jets: from theory of Plasma turbulence to Observations" (RASPO). In this project, I will develop models for the pitch angle and energy distribution of the radiating particles that rely on fully kinetic simulations (rather than ad hoc assumptions), and fit these model to the non-thermal spectra of AGN and GRB jets. I will study the apparent contradiction between fitting of non-thermal spectra with existing isotropic models, which suggest that the emission region is matter dominated, and theoretical expectations, which suggest that jets should be instead magnetically dominated objects.

Mots clés : relativistic jets blazars gamma ray bursts non thermal radiation turbulence magnetically dominated plasmas

Participants :
- National Institute for Astrophysics (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 188590.08 €
Projet ENVINTRADOT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Infrared technology has found widespread applications across various fields, including remote controls, telecommunications networks, and thermal imaging etc. Traditional semiconductor alloys like indium gallium arsenide, mercury cadmium telluride and indium antimonide have been commonly employed as active materials in infrared devices. However, the manufacturing and assembly processes for these materials are highly complex and costly. To overcome these challenges and potentially replace expensive epitaxially fabricated devices, colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) have emerged as a promising alternative. In contemporary scientific exploration, there has been a surge of interest in narrow bandgap CQDs, thanks to their remarkable capacity to finely adjust excitonic transitions within the mid-wave infrared (mid-IR) spectrum. The discovery of intraband transition (1Se/h-1Pe/h) has opened as an alternative source of narrow energy transition occurs in the quantized conduction/valence band states of CQDs. Numerous research groups have extensively investigated the fundamental aspects and practical applications of HgE (where E = S, Se, and Te) CQDs. Leveraging numerous recent scientific breakthroughs in the domain of intraband (1Se-1Pe) active colloidal quantum dots, we will integrate state-of-the-art material processing techniques across chemistry, physics, and engineering. We will assess the dynamics of charge carriers through the utilization of femtosecond mid-IR transient absorption spectroscopy. In addition, we will focus on optimizing the required surface environment capable of maintaining intraband transitions under ambient conditions, at the same time offering adequate optoelectronic properties (mobility, conductivity) for their implementation in photodetector devices. Ultimately, our objective is to produce mid-IR photodetector devices incorporating the highly compatible non- toxic Ag2Se and core-shell CQDs.

Mots clés : non toxic mid ir quantum materials, core shell qds, intraband transition, mid ir fs pump probe, auger process, mid ir photodetector fabrication, high detectivity and responsivity

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet QURES (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

We are currently at the midst of Second Quantum Revolution, a transformative era harnessing various quantum resources for the efficient execution of communication and computational tasks previously unattainable through classical means. During the recent past the point-to-point communication scenarios have seen extensive exploration and practical realization of quantum resource benefits across diverse quantum architectures. Within the realm of network scenario, typical communication systems involve multiple distant parties seeking to exchange information. In the present project, our primary objective is to delve into the advantageous applications of several quantum resources, including quantum superposition, quantum entanglement, quantum steering, and quantum nonlocal correlations, in the context of network communications. Our focus is particularly directed at two broad channel categories in the network scenario: the Multiple Access Channel (MAC), featuring multiple senders and a single receiver, and the Broadcasting Channel (BC), comprising one sender and multiple receivers. A fundamental goal lies in examining how distinct non-classical correlations, achieved from multipartite quantum systems, can enhance the effectiveness of the limited communication channels available to both senders and receivers. In this endeavor, we intend to uncover a deeper connection between quantum information theory and quantum thermodynamics. While the intricate link between these domains has been highlighted by the work of Szilard, Landauer, and Bennett, our aim is to explore this connection within the quantum realm to its broadest extent, with a specific focus on network communication scenarios. In addition to introducing a novel avenue for quantifying and detecting quantum resources through experimentally measurable thermodynamic quantities, this undertaking also offers insights into why quantum theory holds a special status among mathematically allowed models.

Mots clés : quantum thermodynamics, quantum information theory, quantum communication, quantum network, quantum foundation

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €