Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet D BIOME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent decades, samples from mines and boreholes have revealed that our planet’s biosphere extends several miles downwards into the crust. Pores and fissures far below the seafloor and land surface are populated by vast numbers of microorganisms, with broad economic and scientific implications. These implications reach as far as Mars, whose subsurface has provided a potentially habitable environment for billions of years, protected from the hostile conditions at the surface. Although Earth's modern-day "deep biosphere" is now the subject of a major global research effort, almost nothing is known about its variation across geological time, which may have been considerable and highly consequential for planetary biogeochemistry. This project will combine state-of-the-art analyses of fossil and chemical traces of deep life ("deep biosignatures") with experimental and modelling work to elucidate the abundance, activity and geological record of ancient subsurface life on Earth and its possible relevance for Mars. Dr McMahon’s research at the UK Centre for Astrobiology (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh) will be directed towards four main objectives, as follows: 1. To identify and describe ancient deep biosignatures in both marine and terrestrial rocks on Earth, showing how their deep origin can be confirmed, and extending the deep fossil record. 2. To conduct experiments to determine whether and how, if they exist, deep biosignatures could be detected in rocks on Mars by rover instruments—particularly those on the European ExoMars rover. 3. To simulate experimentally the conditions deep below the surface of Earth and Mars and discover which environmental parameters most strongly affect the growth of relevant deep microorganisms and the production of biosignatures. 4. To model how the deep biosphere has changed in size and activity over the history of the Earth, and how a deep biosphere on Mars, if it ever existed, could have done so.

Mots clés : mars, astrobiology, habitability, exomars, fossils, biosignatures, deep biosphere

Participants :
- University of Edinburgh (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet PreSTO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years the presence of pharamceuticals (PhAcs) in wastewater treatment plant effluents, drinking water and groundwater has become an issue of emerging concern.The global concentration of these compounds constitutes an effluent organic matter which often serves as precursor for the formation of hazardous disinfection by-products during conventional water disinfection processes. The potential effects of pharmaceutically active compounds on humans and aquatic ecosystems are not completely understood, especially if it is considered that PhACs co-exist in mixtures with other compounds (chemical “cocktails”).The uncontrolled release of antibiotics to the environment promotes the selection of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), which shade further long-term health risks to humans and animals To address this challenge, the application of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the removal of residual organic matter and microorganisms has become an emerging area of research. In order to overcome the limitation of individuals AOPs the simultaneous application of light based AOPs looks quite interesting. However, in spite of the progress made in fundamental research at bench scale, the practical achievements in the field of environmental photocatalysis have been modest. The PreSTO project deals with the development and demonstration of pilot plants hybrid photocatalytic processes for the simultaneous removal of pathogens & pharmaceuticals from real wastewater effluents. This will be achieved with a step by step investigation of all relevant aspects, including: (a)development of efficient hybrid advanced oxidation processes (i) Cavitation/Solar photo-Fenton and (ii) Solar photo-ElectroFenton at the unique facilities of CIEMAT SPA (b)development & optimization of state of the art analytical methods and biological assays;(c) photocatalytic evaluation for the elimination of antibiotics and pathogens at hybrid pilot scale reactor.

Mots clés : advanced oxidation processes cavitation solar reactor pharmaceuticals hydroxyl radicals solar photocatalysis disinfection micropollutants fenton sonochemistry

Participants :
- Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet HPA4CF (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, more and more scenarios pose challenges that require collective intelligence solutions based on networks (knowledge networks, social networks, sensor networks). New forms of collaborative consumption, collaborative making, collaborative production, all rely on a common task, the formation of collectives. This task is crucial in many real-world applications domains. Notable examples of actual-world collective formation scenarios are Collective Energy Purchasing (CEP), a collaborative consumption scenario, and Team Formation (TF), a collaborative production scenario. Within the Artificial Intelligence literature, current state of the art algorithms cannot provide the level of scalability and the solution quality required by actual-world collective formation problems, hence novel algorithms are needed to tackle these problems. To achieve this objective, we aim at proposing novel algorithms that are capable to exploit modern highly-parallel architectures. On the one hand, highly-parallel architectures have been successfully applied in many different scenarios so to achieve tremendous performance improvements. These advancements encourage the investigation of parallelisation also in collective formation, with the objective of achieving the same benefits. On the other hand, our past research indicates that considering the structure of the collective formation problem leads to notable benefits in terms of scalability and solution quality. Thus, we propose to take a novel algorithmic design approach that considers both the structure of the scenario and at the same time exploits modern highly-parallel architectures. Our algorithms will be evaluated in two prominent collective intelligence application domains: the CEP and TF domains. The choice of these two application domains will serve to show the generality of our algorithmic design approach, since they are representative of two structurally different families of actual-world collective formation problems.

Mots clés : collective formation, collective intelligence, highly parallel algorithms, collective energy formation, team formation

Participants :
- Spanish National Research Council (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet CSI AurkA-MYC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, remarkable advances in cancer research and treatment have been made. Still, little progress is observed in the treatment of specific solid tumours, e.g. hepatocellular carcinoma. The oncoprotein MYC is frequently involved in the genesis and maintenance of human solid tumours and therefore represents a highly promising drug target. Unfortunately, as MYC does not withhold any potential binding cavities for druglike small-molecules, it has been long considered as an undruggable protein. Recently, however, a potential way to target this oncogene indirectly via Aurora kinase A (AurkA) was introduced. When bound to MYC, AurkA shields it from proteasomal degradation. Specific AurkA inhibitors that are conformational shift inducers (CSIs) prevent MYC binding to AurkA, finally leading to MYC’s proteasomal degradation. This type of inhibition holds a great promise for indirectly targeting MYC. However, the precise mechanism of AurkA–MYC binding is unknown and it is unclear what the most important characteristics of a CSI compound in preventing this protein–protein interaction are. These uncertainties are currently the limiting step in the compound design process and hinder the ongoing drug development. To this end, this research project aims to characterize and study the AurkA–MYC interaction and CSI compounds’ binding to AurkA by long-timescale all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The main objectives of this research are to understand the AurkA–MYC interaction on the molecular level and to provide a mechanistic explanation of why the CSI compounds prevent the MYC binding. As a result, this research will guide the design and development of CSIs and thus may provide therapeutic possibilities for cancers with inadequate treatment options. Finally, this will establish a new way to utilize MD simulations in drug discovery and design that may be transferred to other potential drug targets in future.

Mots clés : protein protein interaction, cancer, drug discovery, inhibitor, allosteric effect, molecular dynamics, protein kinase, aurka, solid tumour

Participants :
- University of Tübingen (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174806.4 €
Projet UMAFAE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In recent years, the European Union is facing an unprecedented wave of mass migration and governments and institutions are struggling to keep up. One particular difficult topic is the age estimation of unaccompanied minors: in 2017 there were more than 20.000. Around 90% of them were between 15 and 17 years old and most of them were undocumented. Several scientific publications are addressing the issue of age estimation. The focus is usually a specific anatomical region or a set of them. Regions are then analyzed within different medical image modalities to provide an age estimation. However, the limitations of state-of-the-art methods are as follows: i) subjectivity and lack of sound validation tests; ii) the majority is error-prone and time-consuming; iii) limited sample size; iv) vast population-specific differences in the patterns of maturation, and v) lack of reliability and reproducibility. UMAFAE’s goal is to develop AI-based algorithms that determine the age of a person. This challenging proposal is achievable due to the ER (Dr. De Luca) and supervisor (Dr. Ibáñez) profiles. The ER is one of the most recognized European experts for age estimation, with a vast experience in forensic practice. Dr. Ibáñez is a world pioneer in the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques to Forensic Anthropology, with the largest number of publications and patents in this multidisciplinary field. The know-how of Panacea’s research team in different fields (from forensic and medical imaging to deep learning and computer vision), the equipment and facilities of the University of Granada (UMAFAE’s partner), together with a large list of data providers (agreements with six Universities) and the support of the main leading international experts in the field (Drs. Cameriere, Schmeling, Viner, Márquez-Grant and Garamendi) compose a unique environment to accomplish these ambitious and groundbreaking objectives. The project includes a clear plan for technology transfer.

Mots clés : legal medicine, forensic anthropology, forensic radiology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, biological profile, medical engineering and technology

Participants :
- Panacea cooperative research s coop (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet BioMPCat (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, the development of bioorthogonal reactions has had a profound impact on several research areas such as imaging, drug development, biochemistry, and biotechnology. However, further advances in this topic are hindered by the limited number of biocompatible chemical transformations and by their rather modest reaction rate. BioMPCat (Bioorthogonal Metal-Peptide Catalysis) aims at overcoming the current limitations by establishing metal-peptide complexes as a novel and powerful class of bioorthogonal catalysts capable of promoting unprecedented transformations with remarkable efficiency under physiological conditions. Naturally occurring peptides are ideally suited ligands for metals and, due to the inherent large structural and functional diversity, the chemical properties of their metal-complexes can be tuned to display optimal catalytic features: reactivity, selectivity, stability, and biocompatibility. Using simple and rationally designed combinatorial assays, the BioMPCat project will allow the identification of lead catalysts structures for biomolecules ligations as well as for site-selective cleavage of native proteins. The novel catalytic concepts will be established by: (1) identifying a non-toxic and highly effective Cu-peptide catalyst for the alkyne-azide cycloaddition reaction, which could render such important transformation compatible with the cellular environment; (2) developing a general approach to site-selective cleavage of native proteins based on the identification of a hydrolytically-active Zn-peptide complex. The research proposed herein will allow unprecedented investigations at the interface between chemistry and biology: new perspectives in biochemistry and cell biology will be opened, as well as novel avenues in medicinal chemistry and therapeutics.

Mots clés : bioorthogonal chemistry, catalysis

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175419.6 €
Projet FEMONMETOO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, the interplay of online interaction and female bodies presents an emergent feminist politics that moves away from legal and institutional channels for fighting sexual abuse and gender violence, finding great potential in digital communication and on platforms of the Web 2.0. The goal of this study is to analyze the potentials and pitfalls of the #MeToo campaign that spread around the world as a specific online action repertoire within a broader wave of feminist transnational mobilizations using digital networks. This research is framed in the theory of contentious collective action and social movements in the age of digital communication. How and why has #MeToo spread around the world? Which are its specificities in different national settings? How do women enunciate their experience as part of the #MeToo campaign? What are the semantic frames built in Twitter around #MeToo? Which are the risks and threats of making visible personal sexual aggressions and naming the aggressor online? To discuss the ambivalences in which the #MeToo campaign is embedded for understanding sexual violence as a structural rather than a personal problem is also an objective of this study. Trough qualitative methods, mainly digital ethnography and Social Network Analysis of digital interaction, the frames, ways of organizing and the new threats of this online feminist repertoire of action will be analyzed.

Mots clés : metoo, repertoire of cyberaction, technopolitics, connected crowds, forth wave feminism, hashtag feminism

Participants :
- University of Girona (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet VESYNECH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance of marine microbes, coupled with the discovery of a vast microbial diversity in the oceans. Remarkable examples of this importance are the cyanobacteria, which are responsible for more than 50% of the oxygen production on Earth. Marine picocyanobacteria (i.e., Synechococcus) dominate most phytoplankton assemblages in oceans interacting over different spatial and temporal scales. Interactions mediated by uptake of proteins, lipids or metabolites, quorum signaling, viruses or by the secretion of membrane vesicles, have a large ecological impact on community structure. VESYNECH is an ambitious project with the aim of gaining a comprehensive understanding of the role of marine microbial vesicles of Synechococcus and its implications in the microbial diversity in the ocean. The abundant and ecological importance of these marine microorganisms as contributors of global primary production in the ocean reinforces the relevance of this project. To fully understand how these vesicles are implicated in these interactions, I will characterize the microbial vesicles of different strains of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus. Furthermore, I will determine the potential functions of vesicles from marine cyanobacteria and its role in the horizontal gene transfer. Finally, I will explore the content of these vesicles to unveil possible bioactive potential of genes and enzymes. This project will be carried out at the García-Fernández lab at the University of Córdoba, Spain with the expertise in physiological studies in marine cyanobacteria, providing me with an excellent training through research, acquiring additional research skills and gaining experience in the leadership and management of projects.

Mots clés : microbial marine vesicles

Participants :
- University of Córdoba (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet LANTERN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made to interface cold atoms with nano-photonic systems, with the motivation of scaling down and transferring ideas from macroscopic platforms, such as cavity QED in Fabry-Perot cavities. However, little attention has been devoted to identifying completely new paradigms for light-matter interactions, which take full advantage of the ability to control the dimensionality and dispersion of light in nanoscale optical structures. Within this context, LANTERN makes an ambitious attempt to theoretically propose new techniques to manipulate atom-photon interactions, to design realistic photonic crystal structures that are simultaneously capable of trapping atoms and realizing the desired physical phenomena, and to help guide state-of-the-art experiments in the field. The fellow will show how such structures can be used to induce strong and tunable long-range interactions between atoms, and to realize strong optical nonlinearities at the single-photon level that do not depend on the saturation of an atom. These approaches are expected to overcome major bottlenecks faced by current experiments to use atoms in quantum information processing and quantum simulation. The multidisciplinary perspective of this action will advance the state of the art in quantum optics, nanophotonics and atomic physics, and will lead to fruitful synergies between theoretical and experimental groups. During the outgoing phase of the grant, Ana Asenjo will join the Quantum Optics group lead by Prof. Kimble at Caltech, in the USA. In the return phase, she will team up with the Theoretical Quantum-Nano Photonics group lead by Prof. Chang at ICFO, in Spain.

Mots clés : quantum optics, nanophotonics, photonic crystals, cold atoms, cavity qed, nonlinear optics, quantum simulation

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 257191.2 €
- California Institute of Technology (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NextGEnergy (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, various energy harvesting techniques have been realised to overcome shortcoming of batteries in terms of lifespan, overall cost-effectiveness and chemically safe electronics. Energy harvesters convert different forms of environmental energies into electricity thus making devices self-powered. However, with over a decade’s development, energy harvesters have not been able to overtake batteries yet, although academia and industry are keen to apply it in electronics. One of the reasons is that the power level provided by a single-source energy harvester, which most research has been focused on, is not high or stable enough. Therefore, a crucial and urgent question has been raised – how to release the huge potential of energy harvesting technology? This proposed action is addressing the above scientific/engineering question by exploring multi-source energy harvesting on a single piece of material. Perovskite structured materials are able to exhibit piezoelectric, pyroelectric or photovoltaic effect which has been utilised to harvest kinetic, thermal or solar energy separately. This action will combine these three effects on the same perovskite for the first time ever. Solid-state reaction will be used to synthesise the materials; thick- and thin-films will be deposited through physical methods; the materials and films will be structurally analysed, multi-functionally evaluated and compositionally optimised, to establish new inter principles of kinetic-thermal-solar multi-harvesting. Such a research topic of multi-functional materials and devices is also a ‘‘roadmap’’ of the European Science Foundation. It will conduct an interdisciplinary research across piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and photovoltaics, and will require contributions from materials science, electronics and chemistry. Positive outcome of this action will lead to a breakthrough in the development of self-sustainable devices, and thus leading to a revolution in smart human societies.

Mots clés : micro power energy harvesting, multi source harvesting, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, photovoltaic, perovskite, multi functional, ferroelectric, piezoelectric ceramics, thick film, thin film

Participants :
- University of Oulu (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191325.6 €