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

With the responsibility for financial decisions shifting from institutions to individuals, the ability to understand financial information (known as ‘financial literacy’) is paramount. Having reduced financial literacy results in higher risk of over-indebtedness, and in reduced ability to manage one’s wealth. Text simplification, involving the use of plain language, is one of the strategies adopted to meet the needs of low-literacy readers. The comprehensibility of financial texts has received attention at the European level. An action plan developed as part of the EU policy on consumer financial services lists opaque terms and conditions among the concerns raised by customers when conducting cross-border shopping. Despite plain language efforts, the comprehensibility of financial content has not been increasing consistently. Scholars have therefore emphasised the need to train business (communication) students in text simplification and provided resources to that end. There is, however, lack of empirical evidence on the benefits (or lack thereof) of plain language training. This project aims to address this research gap by investigating the impact of plain language training on: (i) how financial texts are simplified by business students; and (ii) the resulting comprehensibility of simplified financial texts among lay readers with different levels of financial literacy. To do so, I will conduct two experimental studies. For the first study, focusing on the simplification process, I will use keystroke logging, retrospective interviews, and screen recording. For the second study, dealing with the comprehensibility of financial content, I will use multiple-choice questions. This project can identify simplification-oriented revisions that are implemented by business students and that are beneficial for comprehension of financial content. Ultimately, these findings can guide financial institutions in their efforts to meet the needs of readers with low financial literacy.

Mots clés : plain language, business students, financial literacy

Participants :
- University of Antwerp (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet HA-HA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

With the wide-scale adoption of speech-based applications, the research community has started focusing on ways to improve naturalness and expressiveness of human-machine interactions. Among the directions pursued, the study of paralinguistic phenomena in conversation plays an important role. This project proposes to investigate conversational laughter, both from a fundamental research perspective as well as from an application viewpoint. The addressed research question concerns the context in which social laughter occurs, in particular the use of acoustic-prosodic cues in marking it. The findings of this investigation will directly feed into a spoken dialogue system, with the aim of increasing its perceived naturalness. In a first step, phrase- and turn-level analyses will be performed to identify the range of cues used by speakers to mark the use of laughter in conversation. Next, state-of-the-art signal processing methods combined with prosodic information will be used to automatically detect and segment laughter. This will allow the analysis of a larger number of conversational corpora which would, in turn, improve the generalizability of the results. Finally, a laughter-enhanced dialogue system will be implemented and its naturalness will be tested through perception experiments. It is expected that the laughter-enhanced system will be perceived more natural and that documented gender differences found in the production of laughter will be found also in its perception.

Mots clés : conversational laughter, automatic laughter segmentation, situational cues to laughter, spoken dialogue systems

Participants :
- Bielefeld University (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet WISENIGHT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

With this project, we aim to bring researchers closer to the general public and stimulate the interest in science careers among young people. Citizens of all ages will be able to discover research focusing on three natural environments permitting them to exchange ideas and experiences with scientists. The events take place in various inspiring locations in Brussels, capital of EU, so it is also a place-discovery of historic and natural landmarks to conduct research. The unique features of the WISENIGHT proposal are: Focus on gender diversity in scientific careers by showcasing women role models; Link between sciences and the arts by movie screenings and integrating a photo exhibition created for the occasion; Inclusive in all its aspects by involving many types of research actors in the local ecosystem (French and Dutch) and addressing a diverse public (all ages, all socio-economic backgrounds). To achieve this, we will organise more than eighty activities engaging the audience like Demonstrations focused on sustainability and climate change; Arts & Science exhibitions portraying female scientists, Workshops focusing on new trends in science and technology such as water and solar power & food of the future, A movie aiming to present issues related to gender equity. Our awareness campaign will be one of the successful key points in this project. A dedicated media plan has been designed and a specialized press office will be involved to promote the activities in the most important newspapers and TV channels at national level, also promoting our outreach events throughout the whole year on social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). In order to evaluate the impact of our project, we will analyse the target audience reached during the WISENIGHT; measure the increase of knowledge and promotion of the researcher's figure; evaluate how much and which media have influenced the dissemination activities; and understand the level of appreciation of the events.

Mots clés : natural sciences, space sciences, science outreach, science education, gender diversity, sustainability, european research and innovation

Participants :
- Ekoli (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 19150.0 €
- Royal Observatory of Belgium (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 45710.0 €
- Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 68221.25 €
- Jeunesses scientifiques de belgique (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 1500.0 €
- Bewise, femmes et sciences en belgique-vrouwen en wetenschappen in belgie (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 55250.0 €
- GoodPlanet Belgium (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 15000.0 €
- Bos+ vlaanderen vzw (Belgique) — Partner, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 4250.0 €
Projet GRAPHNANOGEL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

With this proposal, I propose a new chemical approach inspired by DNA gel electrophoresis to slow down DNA translocation through a graphene nanopore or a nanogap, and to reduce the mechanical fluctuations of the graphene membrane as DNA translocates. Thus far using graphene nanodevices to sequence DNA molecules in real time has been hampered by two major drawbacks: i) the too fast translocation of single DNA molecules through a graphene nanodevice, and ii) the very large low frequency electronic noise presumably due to mechanical vibration of the free-standing graphene membrane in aqueous buffers. Both these phenomena prevent single nucleotide identification (at least compared to biological nanopores). The direct chemical functionalization of graphene film with functional polymeric hydrogels will i) induce electrostatic and chemical affinities between DNA and the functional polymer hydrogel and ii) stabilize mechanically graphene from vibrating. The host group of Dr. Schneider was the first to propose graphene nanopores as single molecule DNA sensors in 2010 and has gained a lot of experience in this field. Dr. Schneider’s group is now approaching DNA sequencing with graphene nanostructures with a strong chemistry component. Schneider’s lab in Leiden is therefore, at the moment, the best place in the world to make this research proposal a success. I do believe this proposal has the potential to lead toward ground-breaking applications in nanopore-based biosensors, particularly for high throughput next generation sequencing applications with graphene nanogaps.

Mots clés : graphene, nanopores, nanogaps, dna sequencing

Participants :
- Leiden University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet Print2fly (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Within the field of aircraft manufacturing and aerospace sector, there is an increasing emphasis on thermoplastic composites and Additive Manufacturing (AM). However, current thermoplastic AM techniques are not suitable to manufacture parts with required reliability. These products suffer from poor mechanical performance stemming from the inherent weakness of printable polymers, high void content and weak bonding between printed layers. Current thermoplastic AM techniques are thermally-driven processes with serious limitations in processing of engineering thermoplastics due to high melt viscosity and process temperature of such polymers. Therefore, Print2fly is devoted to developing a new extrusion-based AM method named Reactive Liquid Deposition Modelling (RLDM) to fabricate reliable and high-performance continues fibre reinforced thermoplastic composites at room temperature. The RLDM technology employs photopolymerization of a liquid resin with tailored flow-ability and polymerization kinetics instead of the conventional melt processing. Print2fly conceptualizes a novel interphase formation between the freshly deposited layer and solidified layers and bridges the nano/micro-structure to the bonding performance and composite macro-mechanics. Print2fly will be a futuristic composite manufacturing technique to produce durable, robust, complex and recyclable parts for the aircraft industry. The chance to perform this multi-disciplinary project within a world leading thermoplastic composites laboratory will give me the opportunity to excel my competencies in polymer chemistry, mechanics of composites and advanced characterizations. This will extend my scientific knowledge in thermoplastics and AM and augment my professional maturity and independence, helping me to grow my professional network. The fellowship will open excellent career possibilities for me to reach a group leader position in the materials science and production technology fields as a future prospect.

Mots clés : thermoplastics, composites, additive manufacturing, 3d printing, fibre reinforced composites, bonding strength, microstructure, mechanical performance

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

Within the framework of DNA-ENC SYNCELLS I will develop a synthetic inheritable genome capable of Darwinian evolution which encodes for the phenotype of self-replicating synthetic cells. The defining principles of life, namely compartmentalisation, replication and evolution, will thus be realised in a completely synthetic system for the first time. Two types of DNA tiles – a stiff and a soft tile – arranged in a lattice will serve as bits of information, replicating, without any enzymes, via mechanical scission. The DNA lattice will further act as an artificial cytoskeleton specifying the mechanics and shaping the phenotype of synthetic compartments assembled on a microfluidic chip. After sequentially adding the DNA tiles and catalysts for lipogenesis, the synthetic cells will be subjected to multiple growth and mechanically initiated division cycles. Variations in the mechanical properties will influence the division rate and thus lead to evolution in heterogeneous populations. The evolutionary trajectory of the system will be studied under different selection pressures. Within this two-year fellowship, hosted at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg and supervised by Prof. Joachim Spatz, I will contribute to the fundamental knowledge of synthetic cells and enhance its applicability using programmable man-made materials. Greatly profiting from the synergy between my expertise on DNA nanotechnology and the host’s high-quality research on microfluidics, synthetic biology and biophysics, this interdisciplinary project will open up broad perspectives for cellular machines capable of autonomous cargo transport, pathogen recognition or as substrates for 3D-bioprinting and tissue repair in vitro and in vivo – the envisioned focus of my subsequent career in research.

Mots clés : bottom up synthetic biology, dna nanotechnology, dna origami, dna tiles, protocells, synthetic cells, microfluidics, lipid vesicles, guvs, self replication, genotype to phenotype evolution

Participants :
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet WolAntiS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Wolbachia is a widespread, intracellular symbiont of arthropods and filarial nematodes, inducing reproductive distortions and antiviral protection in insects. Wolbachia is currently being deployed in disease vector control programs and is also a target in the treatment of lymphatic filariasis. Despite its prevalence, fascinating phenotypes, and applied importance, Wolbachia biology remains poorly explored, as it cannot be cultured or genetically manipulated. To date, antisense RNA and a transfection reagent that knock down Wolbachia gene expression have been deployed in cell culture, but the effect was modest and likely very transient. In order to achieve a robust and lasting antisense inhibition in Wolbachia, applicable in an in vivo system, I will utilize developments from drug delivery and gene manipulation in other members of the Rickettsiales. This will involve the use of nuclease resistant nucleic acid analogs, which can strongly inhibit transcripts for many days. This technology will be combined with attachment to different transporter molecules, known to deliver nucleic acids to other intracellular bacteria and parasites within host cells and organisms. I will then use this system to interrogate the genes putatively involved in host-microbe interactions in cell culture. I will focus on genes underlying symbiosis and those directly conferring the trait of antiviral resistance. The technology created will be widely applicable in studies of host-symbiont interactions, and in determining the mechanisms underlying the diverse phenotypes and symbioses observed. This project will thus both enable discovery science and allow better human disease prevention and treatment.


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

Women Songwriters of the Victorian Fin de Siècle: Exploring the Sentimental Voice This project contends that investigating an unexplored musical repertoire – that of Victorian and Edwardian parlour ballads – will uncover a larger story about marginalised musical voices, and will shed light on the musical history of London as a transnational and imperial city. The period 1860 to 1930 witnessed a flourishing of women’s creativity and commercial acumen within the popular genre of the sentimental parlour ballad. Today, much of this once ubiquitous repertoire now survives as historic sheet music collections, publisher’s records and sound recordings held in archives in the US and the UK. Through in-depth research into individual case studies, I propose to explore women songwriters and their networks within a burgeoning transatlantic music industry. The project entails three objectives, which are connected through a need to revaluate sentimentality as a defining aesthetic of parlour songs written by and for women. First, I will explore the figure of the popular woman songwriter within the context of modern musical discourse, drawing connections with critical attitudes to the sentimental in literature and film. Second, I will undertake contextualised close readings of individual songs and songwriters based in London, interpreting women’s compositional and performing voices in relation to race and colonialism. Third, I will address the legacy and afterlife of particular songs in the early twentieth century, exploring how aesthetics of sentimentality and nostalgia were mediated in performance through new technologies of sound reproduction. By combining archival research with critical theoretical approaches to the politics of musical voices, the research seeks to revise our understanding of a pivotal turning point in music history.

Mots clés : women composers, song, popular music, sentimentality, london, voice, blackface minstrelsy, sheet music, recorded sound

Participants :
- University of California System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 271732.8 €
Projet WomenWritingSaints (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

WomenWritingSaints is an interdisciplinary project exploring the religious literature authored by different categories of early modern women writers in post-Tridentine Italy (1563-1700), bringing together literary studies, cultural history, the history of ideas and women’s studies. The sacred writings authored by women writers provides extraordinary grounds for challenging the misapprehension that the Counter-Reformation was an era of overarching repression and censorship. WomenWritingSaints will argue against this premise through an inquiry into the hagiographical production of lay and religious women that will disclose unexpected proto-feminist and political patterns in their writings. By exploring a diverse range of understudied material, including prose writing, hagiographical texts, letters and autobiographical confessional accounts, the fellow, Dr. Stella will revise our understanding of the Counter-Reformation and thoroughly recast the accepted picture of post-Tridentine religious production through a close focus on the key role of female agency. The research, to be based at the Norwegian Institute in Rome, will encompass extensive archival searches in Central Italy (Rome, Florence and Perugia) and will create an open-access database with valuable data on the circulation and ownership of the materials examined. The project will be supervised by Unn Falkeid, Professor of History of Ideas at the University of Oslo, who manages the international interdisciplinary research project, ‘The Legacy of Birgitta of Sweden’ funded by the Research Council of Norway (2018-2021). There is undoubted potential to generate significant valuable research synergy given the overlap in aims and time frame between the two projects. Beyond its scholarly value, the project aims to disseminate important alternative narratives of the history of women, countering oppressive patriarchal discourses which still pervade parts of contemporary Italian and European society.

Mots clés : early modern women writers, female saints, hagiography, religious literature, italy, florence, rome, counter reformation

Participants :
- University of Oslo (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 202158.72 €
Projet TAMYOCAL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

X-linked centronuclear myopathy (XLCNM) is a severe congenital myopathy caused by the absence of lipid phosphatase myotubularin. XLCNM affects 1/50.000 male births, there is no treatment and many cases lead to premature death. Thus, treatments are needed. Tamoxifen (TAM) is a selective estrogen receptor modulator that mimics estrogen signalling in skeletal muscle. Pilot study and previous results from the hosting group, have shown that TAM improve muscle symptoms and survival rate in XLCNM mouse model. Results strongly support the idea that TAM protects skeletal muscle via enhancement of estrogenic signalling positively modulating multiple pathways linked to muscle function. However, the exact mechanism(s) is not yet understood. This project aims at elucidating the mechanism(s) of action of TAM and evaluate further its efficacy in XLCNM mouse model. Two specific aims are proposed. First, to determine how TAM acts on pathways and key players involved in XLCNM. Estrogen signalling, phosphoinositide balance, autophagy and mTORC1 signalling will be determined in wild type and XLCNM mice treated and non-treated by TAM. Second, to investigate the pre-clinical efficacy of TAM combined with other compounds in XLCNM mice. TAM extends the lifespan of XLCNM mice according to the pilot study but it prevents only partly leg muscle atrophy, restricting complete functional rescue. Thus, TAM will be combined with other approved drugs that target muscle atrophy (everolimus, creatine, IGF-I and steroids). These parallel approaches will provide knowledge about not-yet explained events related to XLCNM and TAM effects, from molecular to in-vivo level, and instrumental information for other myopathies and rare diseases where lipid phosphatases are missing and phosphoinositide are unbalanced. This knowledge might provide the rationale for new therapeutic options for these dramatic conditions, being highly relevant to patients and families.

Mots clés : skeletal muscle, x linked myotubular myopathy, tamoxifen, molecular mechanisms, pre clinical study

Participants :
- University of Geneva (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175419.6 €