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

There is increasing scientific evidence that interacting with nature improves cognition and boosts feelings of emotional well-being. However, as more of the world is being developed, people's exposure to nature is being threatened. With that comes potentially harmful effects on human cognition and mental health. The Attention Restoration Theory suggests that nature is beneficial because it captures bottom-up attention moderately - enough to be interesting and not boring - giving the attention system a chance to restore itself, improving cognition and mood. However, the existing research has not clearly defined how or why nature captures attention “moderately”. Theories of aesthetic pleasure begin to answer this question by introducing the idea of disfluency reduction. The process of disfluency reduction leads to an aesthetic experience. Too much or too little disfluency or complexity within a scene results in feelings of confusion or boredom, respectively. Here, I aim to investigate the psychological mechanisms that account for the cognitive and emotional benefits of interacting with nature by integrating the attention restoration research with the aesthetic pleasure research. Specific objectives are: (1) assessing the behavioural and neural outcomes of immersion in nature using virtual reality combined with eye tracking and electroencephalography (EEG); (2) assessing the outcomes of isolation from nature using deep convolutional neural networks and machine learning; and (3) assessing the visual features that account for the above outcomes. Through understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying the benefits of nature exposure, we will be able to fully harness nature’s benefits and to forecast the negative impacts that further urbanization and indoor confinement may have on well-being. We can then use this knowledge to incorporate the important elements of nature in the design of new urban and indoor spaces, in order to minimize the negative impacts.

Mots clés : cognition, emotion, attention, visual aesthetics, scene perception, virtual reality, eye tracking, nature

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €
Projet E2D3S2 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

There is little clear and easily applicable advice and practical support for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) designers and developers about how to design digital systems and services for older people. Yet the ageing population is acknowledged, and this means we need digital systems and services designed so that they are usable by older people. Otherwise, older people will increasingly be unable to use many of the services such as e-government and online financial services that are becoming an integral part of the everyday life of citizens. These systems and services also include those technologies that enhance interpersonal communication, such as social media. ICT designers and developers are key to implementing what policy makers, user organisations, and business and market strategists have been advocating for some time, namely: digital systems and services that are Designed for All. ‘Design for All’ is the term adopted by the European Commission to describe a design approach that: “encourages manufacturers and service providers to produce [..] technologies that are suitable for the elderly and people with disabilities, as much as the teenage techno wizard.” Although there are guidelines about developing accessible systems and services, but many are not useful to or usable by ICT designers and developers because they are: •outdated: not applicable to newer technologies (Web 2.0 applications, mobile web) •unreliable: not based on good empirical evidence from older users •unusable: not easily understood and used by designers and developers and do not fit into their working practices. Thus they fail to motivate designers and developers in sustained meaningful ways. The research will address these issues in order to create engaging, useful and usable assistance for designers and developers in the form of new evidence based guidelines encapsulated into a MOOC, with the goal of improving digital systems and services for older people in Europe.

Mots clés : digital systems and services, needs of older people, design for all, web accessibility, guidelines for designers and developers of systems and services, guidelines, massively open online course mooc

Participants :
- University of York (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet GetToKnowPneumo (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

There is much truth in the ancient Chinese saying; “if you want to win the battle, you have to know your enemy”. When it comes to bacterial infections, we often don’t know our enemy very well and we are losing. Despite our best efforts to combat Streptococcus pneumoniae infections, this opportunistic pathogen remains a serious threat to human health, killing over 826 000 children each year and causing severe illness in 14 million more. Mankind is therefore in desperate need of novel therapies that can eradicate S. pneumoniae infections. The search for these therapies, however, is impeded by the lack of insight into the life cycle of this important pathogen. In this proposal, I therefore aim to generate unprecedented insight into the S. pneumoniae cell cycle. I will do so by performing an innovative pooled CRISPRi (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats Interference) screen combined with FACS (Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting) to assess the effect of downregulation of all S. pneumoniae genes on important cell cycle parameters such as cell morphology, DNA content and the formation of the Z-ring that is required for cell division. This genome-wide screen will reveal several gene products that are important for the correct progression of the S. pneumoniae cell cycle. I will further characterize the most promising targets to unravel their cell cycle-related function at the molecular level. Moreover, newly-identified gene products that are important for cell cycle progression could be interesting novel drug targets. The efficacy of these prospective targets will be validated in an in vivo infection model in Galleria mellonella (wax moth) larvae. In the future, these candidates can be used as a starting point for the development of novel and effective therapies. Besides generating valuable fundamental insight into the S. pneumoniae cell cycle, the results of this project will thus also assist in our fight against this notorious pathogen.

Mots clés : streptococcus pneumoniae, cell cycle, crispri, cell division, chromosome segregation

Participants :
- University of Lausanne (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet NeuroBid (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

There is widespread impression in Western societies that monolingualism is the norm, but in fact most people function in multilingual and/or bi-dialectal settings. Recently, there has been an upsurge of research on the cognitive effects of bilingualism, with several studies reporting an enhancement of executive control skills in bilinguals. In contrast to bilingualism, however, bi-dialectalism has so far received essentially no research attention. In this context, NeuroBid proposes a multidisciplinary approach that uses both cognitive assessments and electrophysiological measures (Event-Related Potentials) to achieve four goals. The first aim is to characterise the profile of bi-dialectals at both the cognitive and the neural level, focusing on a specific neuro-cognitive system, executive control (EC). In achieving this goal, a second aim will be accomplished, to establish the effect of language similarity on the neuro-cognitive outcomes of bilingualism. The third goal is to explore previous failures to replicate the bilingual cognitive advantage in EC with young adults and to determine whether a bilingual benefit will indeed surface when an experiment that avoids several methodological drawbacks of previous research is implemented. The final aim is to provide data to adjudicate between theoretical accounts regarding the specific locus of the bilingual EC benefit. With a fellowship to implement NeuroBid, the Candidate will provide results and publications that will contribute to a better understanding of the bi-dialectal mind and brain, and will answer important, theory-relevant questions in the neuro-cognitive research on bilingualism; he will also acquire new competences in neuroscientific tools, and receive training in key transferable skills. This will strengthen his academic profile and help him secure a permanent academic post in Europe.

Mots clés : bi dialectalism, multilingualism, executive functions, event related potentials

Participants :
- University of Cyprus (Chypre) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 151648.8 €
Projet SmartCloudsODC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

This Action, entitled “SmartClouds Orbital Dynamics and Control” (SmartCloudsODC), will deliver radical new methodologies for orbital dynamics and control of multi-spacecraft systems to investigate new easy-accessible space-based products and services for Europe. Thanks to the advanced in Miniaturised Electromechanical Systems technology, a new class of low-cost, low-risk space missions - based on multiple cooperative elements - is arising. Assuming smart-clouds of vast numbers of femto-spacecraft, this Action will move from the classic - deterministic - celestial mechanics approach to a new paradigm in space mission design - based on stochastic analyses. Through the excellent inter/multi-disciplinary quality of the training by world’s leading academic experts in Astrodynamics at the Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, this Action offers novel research methodologies and solutions to orbital dynamics problems including real-world uncertainties. Moreover, a crucial inter-sectoral Secondment at Dinamica Srl, a highly specialized Italian SME in space mission design at large, generates an ensemble of knowledge and resources, enabling the Experienced Researcher to fully develop his potential. This Action will enhance the ER capabilities to devise radical new space concepts in order to broad space-access to a wider European user’s community, also beyond the Aerospace sector, at extremely low-cost. The opportunities offered by this Action will boost the ER’s career allowing him to emerge as an independent researcher and as a leading actor in the game-changing the space sector.

Mots clés : femto spacecraft, orbital dynamics and control, uncertainty management, space based applications

Participants :
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet DIMMs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This Fellowship aims to train a professional researcher to become a leading EU based scholar in sustainable infrastructure area through a multidisciplinary project entitled as “Durable Infrastructure Materials Modified by self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials” (DIMMs). This interdisciplinary project is focused on using self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials to realize the microstructural aligning of both cement and asphalt concrete, thus improve their durability when exposed to the aggressive environment such as corrosion along with freeze/thaw attacks. Furthermore, an integrated model will be developed to describe the percolation process of the aggressive agents in cement and asphalt concrete by combining a microstructural analysis to illustrate the underpinning nano modification mechanisms. This project will shed a light on the microstructural control of infrastructure materials through nanotechnology, by developing the correlations between the microstructures and engineering properties of infrastructure materials in a various and aggressive service environments. The Fellow will be intensively trained in the multidisciplinary fields of chemical engineering, materials science, microstructural analysis and civil engineering. The Fellow’s professional skills will be significantly elevated in the project and intellectual property management, outreach and networking via an inter-sectoral training. The training will be provided by a multidisciplinary supervision team at the host – Aston University, two academic secondment institutions – University of Nottingham and TU Delft, and two industrial secondment partners Nynas Sweden and Nanoco UK. The international academic and research experience gained by the Fellow will also enrich EU's Research area in the fields of producing sustainable infrastructure materials through nanotechnology and bringing new ideas for development of the infrastructures with low energy consumption.

Mots clés : concrete, asphalt, nanotechnology, durability, microstructure

Participants :
- Aston University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet fastHDX for IDPs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

This Fellowship proposal will design, fabricate and test novel microfluidic chips for the study of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) by Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange coupled with Mass Spectrometry (HDX-MS). The research program will use thiol-ene polymerisation to form all components of the microchip allowing fast, reproducible and cheap fabrication. The microchips will incorporate multiple microfluidics channels of varying length and spatially restricted monolith plugs to allow sub-second HDX reactions to occur on-chip. The microchips will circumvent the extensive and error-prone sample pre-treatment steps of current commercial HDX-MS methodology. I will be trained in state-of-the-art HDX-MS technology and will learn how to perform site-specific, light-activated thiol-ene click-chemistry reactions. The microfluidic chips will be used to probe the transient conformational changes of three challenging IDPs of biological and pharmaceutical relevance: a-synuclein, proNerve Growth Factor (proNGF) and Epsin1. α-synuclein is an extensively characterised model IDP, shown by numerous biophysical techniques including HDX-MS to possess some regions of transient structure. α-synuclein will be used during microchip development, providing valuable proof-of-concept and a framework for which to further optimize microchip design if needed. I will then characterise the conformational states and interactions of proNGF; the cleavable pro-element is reported to be disordered, but there is little knowledge of its cellular roles. Previously unreported structural elements of Epsin1, an IDP shown to mediate lipid membrane curvature, will also be probed. HDX-MS will be complemented by electron transfer dissociation (ETD) and ion mobility separation (IM-MS).To be added

Mots clés : hydrogen deuterium exchange, microfluidics, intrinsically disordered proteins, protein structure

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 200194.8 €
Projet LINSEC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

This MSCA research project on the logic of informal security cooperation (LINSEC) combines the research fields of security studies, IR, international history, and intelligence studies to answer the project’s overarching research question: What drives and sustains informal counterterrorism cooperation? To answer this question, LINSEC builds on the University of Southern Denmark’s (SDU) expertise in security studies, my research experience in history and intelligence studies, interviews with intelligence officers, and my recently obtained unprecedented access to over 30,000 intelligence records from 1971 to 1979. These records are from a counterterrorism intelligence-sharing framework called the Club de Berne, which is still today’s main cooperation platform for informal intelligence-sharing on terrorism. To understand the logic of informal security cooperation, the project analyses four different aspects. (1) The prerequisites: what internal and external factors determine whether policymakers seek informal security cooperation. (2) Cooperation mechanism: how agencies react to terrorist threats and adapt their habits and modes of security cooperation. (3) Formal versus informal: the conditions under which these actors prefer informal over formal security cooperation, and how informal counterterrorism cooperation ties in or comes into conflict with formal alliances. (4) Continuity over time: what made informal counterterrorism cooperation effective in the 1970s and what makes it effective today? Each of these elements form one objective, which then contain a corresponding research, training, and dissemination subobjective. This project aligns squarely with the Horizon 2020 security research area and its aim of fostering secure European societies. Providing a better understanding of the factors that enhance interstate security cooperation will benefit scholars, security professionals, and policymakers alike.

Mots clés : security, cooperation, counterterrorism, intelligence, club de berne, european, multilateral, international, antiterrorism, history, politics, coalition, alliance, security governance

Participants :
- University of Southern Denmark (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet EIS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This MSCA research project ‘Empathy and International Security' (EIS) uses an interdisciplinary approach combining international relations theory, history, and political psychology to ask: How can a more nuanced understanding of empathy inform more human-centric approaches to security? Despite growing awareness of the importance of empathy in international relations, no research has yet examined the tensions inherent in the concept, or how it can be used to both alleviate and transform, or perpetuate or entrench, insecurity. EIS addresses this gap. To answer this question, I examine the multifaceted nature of empathy through four distinct case studies. I use two interconnected episodes from the Cold War (Modernization and Vietnam war) to reveal that empathy is not a novel concept, but one whose meaning and application has changed over time. I will then turn to the case of recent refugee flows into Europe and the response to the global pandemic to analyze empathy's significance to contemporary security challenges and political leadership. Using a qualitative research methodology that draws on archival materials, discourse analysis and elite interviews, I compare and contrast these cases to demonstrate how empathy connects with ideas of power, interests, politics, security and gender as part of an original conceptual framework and typology. EIS combines the expertise at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and the Centre for War Studies (CWS) on human-centric approaches to international security, with my experience as a qualitative scholar on empathy in IR, and my fifteen years experience in international security policy and politics. It will combine academic research and theory development, with an applied and policy-relevant approach to make an innovative contribution to growing debates about the importance of empathy in creating more sustainable solutions to contemporary security challenges, in line with the priorities of Horizon 2020.

Mots clés : empathy, emotions, international security, power, theory, strategy, policy, politics, human centric approaches, applied history

Participants :
- University of Southern Denmark (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207312.0 €
Projet low Pt loading FCCHP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

This Marie Sklodowska Curie Individual Fellowship will bring a researcher from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Dr Sheng Sui with extensive experiences in the electrocatalysis, membrane electrode assembly (MEA), stack, and system integration for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), to work with the host research group which have the leading expertise in the field of low carbon/eco- building technologies, combined power, heating and cooling system, advanced heat transfer enhancement methods and fluid dynamics modelling. The overall objective of the project is to establish scientific and engineering merits for the development of new PEMFC systems with high performance, low cost and long durability using a novel Pt-nanowire electrode technology. The proposed project will make significant contributions for a fundamental understanding of the Pt-nanowire growing and crystallisation in microstructure and Pt-nanowire electrode kinetics in PEMFC. A 1kW fuel cell stack will be developed based on the Pt-nanowire electrode technology and demonstrated in the Creative Energy Homes at the University of Nottingham. The project has been carefully chosen to match Dr Sui’s expertise in innovative fuel cell system with that in sustainable energy and buildings technologies at the University of Nottingham so as to maximize the benefit to Europe. The proposed R&D activities on fuel cell system will assist in reducing high cost of fuel cell system and maintenance interval for low carbon and renewable energy buildings. Application of this new fuel cell system on the eco-buildings in Europe could also increase customer awareness and bring the low carbon or zero energy building idea to be realised.

Mots clés : fuel cell, low pt loading, pt nanowire, micro combined heat and power  mchp, low carbon building

Participants :
- University of Nottingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €