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

Developmental language disorder (DLD) is a public health concern affecting millions of children across Europe. Still, the basis for efficacious preventative interventions for it are largely unknown. To fill this gap, we must: 1) investigate mutable and least-mutable risk and protective factors for DLD, 2) develop prediction tools based on them, and 3) investigate risk and protective factors that are associated with the severity of outcomes of DLD. DLD prevention and intervention (DLD-PI) aims to tackle these questions by using high-quality, large-scale registry data available in Finland. The research will be conducted through multidisciplinary, inter-sectoral, and international collaboration with the universities of Turku and Oulu, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki University Hospital, and Newcastle University, UK. Piloting has already begun with the 1987 and 1997 Finnish Birth Cohorts. These findings will be validated in a new open-access generic cohort with an unprecedented number of variables from different registers, including an expected 150,000 children with DLD out of almost 2 million children. The results of DLD-PI will have wide impact because they enable better prediction of individual trajectories of DLD. With the ultimate aim of providing a tool to use in predicting DLD, this knowledge will enable more efficient targeting and timing of preventative interventions. The results will be essential, generalizable, and advance the field of research for other developmental and learning difficulties as well. They will also be disseminated and communicated accordingly. DLD-PI adds significantly to both research in the European Research Area and the priorities of Horizon 2020. The fellow already has extensive experience in DLD research and its methodology, and the two-way knowledge transfer will prepare her to conduct and lead future epidemiological studies in a field critically lacking specialists.

Mots clés : developmental language disorder, prevention, intervention, social inequalities, longitudinal, cohorts

Participants :
- University of Helsinki (Finlande) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 55615.28 €
- University of Turku (Finlande) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Eastern Finland (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 135065.68 €
Projet DIRECT Therapies (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Diabetes Immunoengineering: Redesigning Encapsulated Cell Transplant Therapies Diabetes remains a global healthcare challenge, affecting 370 million people worldwide. Islet transplantation offers the potential to restore insulin function in diabetes-1 patients, and is proving successful in human clinical trials. However a major limitation is the requirement for patients to take global immunosuppressive drugs, often daily, for the remainder of their lives. These drugs can impact the quality of life for the patient, and may lead to an impaired immune system at risk of opportunistic pathogens. The scientific aim of this project is to develop innovative multifunctional materials for diabetes-1 cell therapies; those that can better support islet function and also direct the host immune system, removing the need for global immune suppression and enhancing transplant lifetimes. This project connects a talented young researcher with a background in chemistry, biomaterials science and immunoengineering, to a host institution with expertise in drug delivery and tissue engineering (Nottingham), and an internationally renowned outgoing institution (Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School) with expertise in transplant encapsulation and diabetes therapies. Combining the localised drug delivery expertise of the host institution, the diabetes-1 cell therapy transplant knowledge of the outgoing institution, and the researcher’s own expertise in immunoengineering presents a unique opportunity and new approach to addressing this healthcare challenge, and facilitates development of the researcher's career through a specified training-in-research program. Bridging the gap between the transplant immunology, biomaterials and drug delivery fields in this way meets the “Open Innovation, Open Science, Open to the World” EU vision towards Open Science and follows the road map for integrative research proposed by the UK Medical Research Councils for regenerative medicine research.

Mots clés : stem cell transplants, induced tolerance, nucleic acid and drug delivery

Participants :
- Boston Children's Hospital (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Nottingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 269857.8 €
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ISEBI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Differences between individuals are the substance on which natural selection acts; and individual variation has been identified in many ecological dimensions including diet, habitat use and other behavioural traits. It is therefore surprising that this variation is rarely considered within an invasion biology framework, particularly given the enormous biological and economic costs imposed by established invasive species – those introduced by humans that aggressively expand outside their native range. Little is known about how individual traits influence established invasions, to the extent that it has been argued that either bold, highly competitive individuals, or individuals that are cautious and less aggressive, may be successful. The impacts of different individual invader phenotypes as risks for native biota are also largely unknown, yet this knowledge is key for effective management. This project will, for the first time, determine: i) the extent, covariance and persistence of variation in multiple traits (dietary, behavioural and cognitive) in individual invasive rats simultaneously and in the wild; ii) the impact of the fundamental ecological processes of competition and predation on effective trait combinations i.e. individual phenotypes; iii) the consequences of different phenotypes for native biota. With invasion rates continuing to increase globally, this multidisciplinary approach draws upon cutting-edge techniques from behavioural ecology, comparative psychology, conservation and invasion biology. It provides novel empirical tests of theory, examining hypotheses untested in individual invaders or individuals of any species in natural contexts. The results will have important implications for theoretical understanding of natural selection, and will integrate individual and community processes in the study of invasive species. They will also be of major importance for applied conservation management actions addressing a key EU and global problem.

Mots clés : invasive species, applied management, trophic interactions, individual specialisation

Participants :
- University of Exeter (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 263943.0 €
- University of Auckland (Nouvelle-Zélande) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet MEFCPFS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Digital platforms have dramatically accelerated the global circulation of popular music, creating a new geography of production and consumption in which the so-called ‘language barrier’ between ‘national’ cultures is constantly repositioned. Whilst English has been the dominant language of the global popular music industry since the 1960s, nowadays any artist can speak to a global audience in their own idiom through the use of streaming services and social media. However, despite the apparent immediate and transnational circulation of music, frontiers still exist between countries, and so export remains a crucial category of action for music professionals. Moreover, states’ foreign cultural policies increasingly play a crucial role in music export as part of soft power strategies, thus adapting and contributing to new definitions of national identities. Indeed, whether such policies are related to safeguarding supposedly ‘authentic’ or ‘indigenous’ musics or strengthening the infrastructures of a domestic musical industry, they are confronted with one crucial problem: the meanings and roles ascribed to ‘local’, ‘domestic’, ‘national’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘minorities’ in music. This environment necessitates thorough review of export models applicable to a variety of localised music industries, with a critical approach to contemporary relations between arts and politics. This project aims to examine the nature and characteristics of French and Spanish music export activity within contexts of digitalisation and globalisation, with a specific focus on cultural diversity and a critical stance on the market-driven vision of music export. A comparative study across two non-anglophone nations with official languages of international significance but substantially different attitudes to public spending and linguistic protectionism will serve as a pilot for greater awareness of the social impact of European and global music export.

Mots clés : music exports, cultural policy, france, spain

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

Disasters differ markedly in their speed and pattern of manifestation, which in turn greatly affects how researchers as well as authorities interpret and respond to them. While theoretical innovations made by disaster researchers over the last century have almost exclusively been developed for the study of large rapid-onset disasters, disaster assessments reveal that elusive and slow-onset disasters affect more people on aggregate. I recently carried out a preliminary study suggesting that slow-onset disasters have primarily been addressed as something ‘other’ than conventional disasters, and have fallen outside of the scope of most disaster studies. We therefore lack theoretical frameworks capable of describing the policy dynamics of slow-onset disasters, largely because existing studies focus on individual slow-onset hazards (e.g. climate change, pandemics or droughts). In this project, I will address this gap by studying the ways in which two types of slow-onset disasters vary through a political response and health policy lens. By contrasting the political response trajectories of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and Ebola I will investigate how incremental slow-onset disasters (such as AMR) differ from cyclical ones (such as Ebola) with implications for policy response. The project will be hosted at Roskilde University (RUC), Denmark. Empirically, the project employs a health sector focus where the global- and EU-level political response to AMR is juxtaposed with the Ebola response using process tracing analysis. This provides both novel insight on how an incremental slow-onset disaster (AMR) differs from a cyclical one (Ebola), as well as new knowledge on the dynamics of AMR and pandemic policymaking. The overarching puzzle and ambition of the action is therefore to understand how different slowonset disasters vary and which implications this variation has for precautionary planning and policy.

Mots clés : disaster politics, slow disasters, political saliency, global governance, pandemics, crisis response, antibiotic resistance

Participants :
- Roskilde University (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet Nexus (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dispersal is a fundamental trait for the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of any given species. In marine systems, the primary means of connectivity among fragmented habitats is pelagic larval dispersal (LD). Due to the inherent difficulty of tracking minute larvae in the ocean, we are still lacking critical insights into the internal and external causes and consequences of LD. Here, we propose the development of an experimental infrastructure, the Nexus, composed of 25 interconnected larval rearing/settlement tanks, designed to study larval movements as a model of dispersal. We aim to use the Nexus framework to investigate central questions in LD theory that, up to this point, have been difficult to assess: (1) Do marine organisms exhibit condition-dependent dispersal strategies? (2) If so, how does the interaction of phenotype and environment affect dispersal behaviours (context-dependence)? (3) How will climate change affect condition- and context-dependent dispersal in offspring via parental effects? These are timely issues to address, as a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms regulating LD will help predict species’ responses to rapid environmental change. The intended framework will facilitate the holistic assessment and controlled manipulation of the entire LD process, from the natal environment to post-settlement selection, thereby paving the way for novel research avenues in aquatic dispersal ecology. Each tank in the network can independently be controlled for the type of habitat it provides and corridors can flexibly be opened, closed or made directionally permeable. The versatility of the Nexus offers a high degree of experimental flexibility and control to address key issues in spatial meta-population ecology.

Mots clés : metapopulation, connectivity, climate change, phenotype, parental effects

Participants :
- Southern Cross University (Australie) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Curtin University (Australie) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 276107.4 €
Projet MobileLinks (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dispersal through anthropogenic habitats (i.e. the matrix) is necessary for the inter-population connectivity and the colonization of vacant habitats after disturbance, thereby for the long-term persistence of species in fragmented regions. A critical question for conservation is whether differences among species in dispersal translate into biodiversity loss through biotic homogenization. The ability of fleshy-fruited plants for dispersal though the matrix relies on their capacity to interact with those frugivore species that move across its habitats providing key seed dispersal services. Organisms that connect habitats in the landscape are termed “mobile links” and are considered essential for ecosystem resilience. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the mobile-link function in seed dispersal networks and its role on biotic homogenization. This proposal aims at filling this gap by providing a large-scale and integrative assessment of seed dispersal by avian frugivores through fragmented landscapes of Europe. Specifically, it aims at assessing empirically (1) whether interaction constraints between plant species and those frugivore species that act as mobile links are a driver of long-term biotic homogenization in fragmented regions; and (2) whether certain phenotypic plant traits that favour interactions with mobile-link frugivores could be used to predict ‘good dispersers’ and ‘poor dispersers’ of target plant communities. This proposal includes several study sites scattered through Europe, assuring generalization of the results. It combines field sampling and ground-breaking DNA-barcoding techniques for resolving seed dispersal networks, which will provide unprecedented information about the functional value of specific frugivore species in fragmented landscapes. Resulting knowledge can be incorporated into management and policy-making decisions for preserving woodland biodiversity in fragmented regions.

Mots clés : habitat fragmentation, biotic homogenization, matrix, seed dispersal, avian frugivores, mutualistic networks, dna barcoding, migratory birds

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet ACCORD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Distributed ledgers (DLs), also called blockchains, have the potential of transforming the ways individuals and businesses interact. While today a trusted third party, such as a bank, is required to guarantee that transactions among these entities are performed correctly, with DLs it is possible to delegate this task to a distributed computer network that relies on cryptographic operations and sophisticated distributed consensus algorithms to ensure that transactions are recorded durably and in a tamper-free manner. As a result, DLs have the potential to reduce the cost of transactions and the associated latencies dramatically. However, the adoption of DLs outside of crypto-currency use-cases has been slow partially due to their low performance compared to traditional data management systems. This stems mostly from the constraints and design choices inherited from the first public blockchains, that targeted public, geo-distributed, operation. Today, however, most industry use-cases require permissioned access to the ledger and involve nodes that are geographically close to each other (e.g. in a shipping port). This prompts a redesign of DLs and allows for using various hardware acceleration features to increase their performance. In the ACCORD project, we aim to increase distributed ledger throughput by at least an order of magnitude, while lowering latencies by a similar factor. To achieve this, we focus on the core component of DL systems, namely, distributed consensus that is used to establish an absolute order of transactions. This ordering operation (service) is typically the main performance bottleneck in DLs. To fully exploit emerging network technologies and to overcome stagnating CPU performance, we will use hardware acceleration (i.e., FPGAs) to offload the steps required by the ordering service. The outcome of this project is a DL design with performance that allows it to be deployed in use-cases in which DLs are inadequate today (e.g., trading).

Mots clés : distributed systems, hardware acceleration, distributed ledger, networking

Participants :
- Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet FriendCoop (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Diverse lines of theoretical and empirical research are converging on the notion of humans as the ‘cooperative species’. Compared to even our closest living biological relatives, chimpanzees, human cooperation is both qualitatively and quantitatively unique. Early in ontogeny, human children in cultures across the world develop a suite of psychological adaptations to establish, maintain, and repair cooperative relationships. Friendship is often seen as the prototypical cooperative relationship. While central theories of human evolution highlight the relevance of our species’ cooperative abilities, we have very little knowledge concerning the contribution of friendship to cooperation. To address this major gap in the literature on cooperation, this proposal presents a series of targeted experiments to test for the understudied role of friendship in cooperation in chimpanzees and human children. In answering this question, the present proposal marshals an innovative combination of methods from psychology, biology and anthropology, and the most auspicious conditions at Yale University and the University of Göttingen. By comparing the behavior of children and chimpanzees this proposal will isolate what aspects of friendship may be uniquely human and will theorize about the evolutionary trajectory of friendship from the time humans and chimpanzees shared a common ancestor. Studying the expression and role of friendship in children from 3 different cultures will contribute to our understanding of the ontogenetic development of friendship and in addition, is especially valuable as it acknowledges cultural influences on friendship allowing for a more thorough understanding of cooperative behavior and its complexities. The proposal offers powerful tests of the role of friendship in cooperation from a comparative and cross-cultural developmental perspective and will open up new avenues for the study of cooperation and the contribution of long-term cooperative relationships.

Mots clés : comparative psychology, friendship, cooperation, developmental psychology, cross species comparisons, cross cultural comparison, reciprocity, norms, chimpanzees, children

Participants :
- Yale University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Göttingen (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 239860.8 €