Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet HATS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Weyl semimetals (WSMs) are a recently discovered class of materials featuring an exotic array of properties, with potential applications including the building of novel electronic devices. The electrons in some WSMs interact strongly with one another, making their theoretical study challenging. One tool for modelling strongly interacting systems is holography, also known as the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence. Holography has been used to model WSMs before, but there are open problems to do with holographically describing important features of real WSMs. In this project I will develop a new generation of holographic models and techniques, capable of addressing several of these problems:  1. The effects of imperfections in a WSM’s crystal structure on its electronic properties, particularly when the imperfections cause the electrons experiencing an effective curved spacetime. 2. Certain non-trivial physics that occurs at the boundaries of WSMs, partly arising due to their topological properties. 3. Holographically modelling a WSM with equations that are invariant under time reversal, as is the case for the equations describing many real WSMs.  The project will be carried out at Nordita, a joint department of Stockholm University (SU) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The supervisor, Alexander Krikun, is an expert in holographic approaches to condensed matter physics. Through the research and training in the project I will obtain new skills, such as numerical techniques for solving boundary value problems in partial differential equations. SU and KTH both have condensed matter theory groups researching WSMs, from which I will gain expertise in non-holographic methods. The project includes a secondment at Instituto de Física Teórica-CSIC/UAM in Madrid, with a group with expertise in anomalous transport, an important aspect of WSM physics. This secondment will support the research and training, and foster new international collaborations.

Mots clés : holographic duality, ads cft correspondence, weyl semimetals

Participants :
- Université de Stockholm (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 222727.68 €
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet BioZincPower (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

We stand on the brink of a significant energy transition, marked by the phasing out of coal, the rise of electromobility, and the increasing reliance on renewable energy sources. Li-ion batteries (LIBs) and electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) are pivotal in driving this technological shift, dominating the commercial power supply market and powering a wide range of applications. However, these conventional energy storage solutions are not without their drawbacks, including concerns over operational safety, rising production costs, potential scarcity of natural resources, and challenges related to universal waste disposal. Zn-ion rechargeable power sources, encompassing both batteries and supercapacitors, present a compelling alternative to traditional LIBs and EDLCs. This emerging technology boasts several advantages, including high gravimetric and volumetric theoretical capacities, affordability, enhanced safety, and environmental sustainability. Despite these benefits, zinc-ion systems face significant hurdles that impede their widespread adoption for commercial applications. These challenges include the need for optimized electrode designs, the risk of liquid electrolyte leakage, rigid construction, and the reliance on synthetic polymer-based components. The BioZincPower project seeks to address these challenges by pioneering the development of biopolymer-based Zn-ion systems. This research will focus on transforming biopolymers into specialized components such as active materials, binders, and gel electrolytes, and integrating them into zinc-ion energy storage devices. This innovative approach promises to deliver a technology that is efficient, safe, cost-effective, non-combustive, flexible, and environmentally sustainable. The project will emphasize overcoming the performance and environmental limitations associated with LIBs while also exploring the potential for wearable energy storage solutions through cutting-edge biobased technological advancements.

Mots clés : biopolymers polysaccharides aqueous rechargeable batteries hybrid supercapacitors and batteries wearable energy storage devices

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 216240.0 €
Projet CoEvoLens (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Coevolution, characterized by reciprocal trait changes driven by mutual selection between interacting species, is pivotal in shaping biodiversity. However, understanding the genetic basis and mechanistic processes underlying coevolution in natural populations remains challenging. This project aims to bridge this gap and connect coevolutionary theory to empirical data by using the well-established Lithophragma-Greya moth pollination system as a study model. By identifying and quantifying the genetic variance of key traits mediating this interaction, we will assess their potential to evolve, a critical aspect in coevolutionary dynamics. Additionally, we will investigate natural selection in this system, considering both female (seed set) and male (siring success) fitness components, and examine how ecological context, including the presence of copollinators, affects selection. We will employ ecological network analysis and interaction effectiveness measurements to determine the significance of specific interactions in driving coevolutionary processes. This research will enhance our understanding of the genetic underpinnings and ecological factors influencing trait coevolution in pollination interactions, shedding light on the evolutionary dynamics within complex ecological networks. CoEvoLens will provide valuable insights into a species’ ability to adapt to a changing world, where the loss of species interactions is a major concern.

Mots clés : lithophragma spp greya spp evolvability, plant pollinator interaction, evolution through natural selection

Participants :
- Université de Lund (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 206887.68 €
Projet FLOTSAM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The digital technologies that shape our present also shape our past. Rapid advances in archival digitisation promise unprecedented access to manuscripts exposing histories of ordinary people across archives at a global scale. However, the way we digitally store, retrieve and analyse historical data can marginalise vital intersectional histories of gender, race, sexuality and disability- casting them adrift as digital flotsam on currents of algorithmic or terminological biases and our under-theorised use of computational methods. Transformative studies of race and gender have shown how we can begin to undo this bias, e.g. redesigning machine learning tools to capture people rendered nameless by the violence of the colonial archive. FLOTSAM’s core aim is to further integrate methods for recovering hidden histories with the digital methods and interoperable systems transforming the humanities and cultural heritage, balancing and raising our awareness of power inequalities and marginalisation in our use of digital technologies. It uses eighteenth-century seafaring disability, impairment and difference to: 1) interrogate the roots and action of intersecting biases –global mobility, gender, class, work and abled-ness– inscribed in the original records and imposed externally by digital tools for data organisation, retrieval and analysis, alongside, 2) developing a method to ethically model historical knowledge as interoperable data without imposing pre-existing or new problematic systems of categorisation on marginalised people. As part of DigitalHistory@Lund and the Lund Assembly for Universal and Global History, I gain critical training in computational methods, produce vital Use Cases and an annotated corpus of maritime impairment/difference, developing my new interdisciplinary method for digital hidden histories with specialists in interpreting subaltern experiences across disparate international sources sensitive to archival power structures and marginalised voices.

Mots clés : disability history digital humanities maritime history

Participants :
- Université de Lund (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 236340.0 €
Projet ExpandTILs (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Cancer affects 2.6 million people each year in the European Union, making it the second leading cause of death. Immunotherapies have revolutionized the treatment of cancer, seeking to re-arm immune cells against tumors. However, current immunotherapies are mostly inefficient in low immunogenic and solid tumors, which account for more than 80% of cancers in adults. A promising approach is to collect tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from patient’s resected tumor tissue, and expand their function in vitro before reinjecting them to achieve antitumor immunity. This therapy is currently involved in many clinical trials and received a first FDA approval in 2024 for advanced melanoma treatment. Yet, a major challenge remains to amplify the diversity of tumor reactive TILs rather than the non-specific TILs. The aim of the ExpandTILs project is to selectively amplify tumor-reactive TILs to enable personalized, targeted and effective tumor killing. I will use the unique system designed by the host team, reprogramming the patient tumor cells into antigen presenting dendritic cells, to amplify tumor reactive TILs. I will establish an optimized coculture protocol with reprogrammed cancer cells to expand antigen-specific TILs, then train in cutting-edge techniques to characterize and compare their antitumor efficacy to standard-of-care TILs. This interdisciplinary approach, combining cellular reprogramming with cancer immunology, will increase our knowledge about tumor-specific TILs responses and allow us to obtain the proof-of-concept for a tumor reactive TILs expansion platform. This should lead to the creation of a new company, allowing me to learn how to bring new technologies to clinic. Therefore, this fellowship will significantly contribute to my professional growth by allowing me to develop complementary skills in project management, leadership, communication, and entrepreneurship.

Mots clés : immunotherapy, adoptive cell transfer, tumor infiltrating lymphocyte, dendritic cell, neoantigens, cell reprogramming, cancer immunology

Participants :
- Université de Lund (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 236340.0 €
Projet SafeCom (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The present research proposal aims towards developing a Deep Learning (DL)-based inverse delamination damage assessment approach in complex industrial composite structures from Ultrasonic Guided Wave (UGW) responses under extreme and varying operating and environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, pressure). The proposal consists of a number of important innovative components, such as a) Developing an efficient model for easy incorporation of single and multiple interface delamination b) Utilizing a mesh-free method to overcome the drawbacks of finite element method c) Modelling accurate wave-damage interaction under extreme and varying environments d) Constructing a DL-based robust inverse approach to perform effectively under varying structural complexity and operating environments e) Validating the approach for real-life/ laboratory samples. Meshfree models will provide sufficient flexibility to model geometric complexity and damages besides significant reduction in computational cost. DL's capability of handling large data sets and predicting optimum output from raw response will provide a superior approach to predict damages from raw UGW responses. Therefore, this proposal will pave pathways to develop the next generation of ‘online’, fast and robust delamination assessment tools for industrial complex composite structures under varying operating environments. This will further enhance European industrial competitiveness and leadership through reducing the inspection cost by assessing the structural integrity of a complex structure without stopping its normal operations. The Fellow's expertise in delamination modelling and assessment and the Supervisor's expertise in modelling UGW propagation in complex structures will create two-way knowledge transfer between them, which will create major scientific, social and economic advancement in European aviation, energy and civil industries by providing online and accurate diagnostic and prognostic technologies.

Mots clés : composite structures, ultrasonic guided wave, delamination, mesh free method, deep learning, structural health monitoring

Participants :
- Université Nationale Technique d'Athènes (Grèce) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet SURF-CHIR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

An object, or a molecule is said to be chiral if it can be distinguished from its mirror image. Chirality plays an important role in many areas of chemistry, biology, and physics. Many chemical processes involving solid surfaces such as catalysis, crystallization, adsorption, and so forth, are sensitive to chirality. Thus, surfaces are not fertile playground studying chirality, but they can also be used to promote the separation of mirror-image molecules, i.e., enantiomers, due to additional constraints created by the two-dimensional (2D) environment. Because of the reduced symmetry at the interface, these constraints enhance the expression of molecular chirality, allowing not only chiral molecules, but also prochiral molecules to produce chiral superstructures. Even so, recognition processes based on non-covalent interactions could be used to separate enantiomorphs in 2D systems. This new method could be used to resolve racemic mixtures. In this project, nanoconfinement conditions created using scanning probe nanolithography will reveal how the shape and size of the confinement, as well as the nanolithography process itself, affect the chirality of on-surface crystallization processes. Robust chiral surfaces will be created using covalent functionalization of graphite and applied for enantioselective separation. Also, bulk chiral graphitic materials will be synthesized and used as stationary phase in chiral chromatography. SURF-CHIR will allow me to pursue a highly innovative research line in surface science, providing me a perfect platform for my personal development in terms of research and training in a topic of key importance, i.e., chirality, and state-to-the-art imaging techniques. This project will also allow me to strengthen my team-working and leadership skills as well as widen my scientific network and collaborations. In summary, this MSCA grant will be a positive turning point in my academic career towards scientific excellence.

Mots clés : scanning tunneling microscopy, surface chirality, nanoconfinement, self assembly, covalent modification

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191760.0 €
Projet CoDaCo (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project provides the first global intellectual history of Denmark as a colonial state. Utilising an innovative methodology combining global intellectual history and the history of knowledge, the project will show how a series of reforms in Denmark and the Danish colonies 1784-1807 aimed at (re)constructing Denmark as a coherent colonial state, an empire in global contexts. It will show how the discourses of natural law and statistics were a key intellectual resource in this endeavour, drawing on networks circulating and producing colonial knowledge. Thus, the project will make an innovative contribution to global intellectual history, the history of Scandinavian colonialism, and the history of knowledge, as well as a path-breaking re-inscription of Denmark into its early modern global history. It will be carried out at a university that is the most thriving research environment on Scandinavian colonial and global history, and history of knowledge. Finally, it is specifically designed to provide the scholarly output and training needed to advance my career onto the next, crucial step.

Mots clés : state building, empire, global intellectual history, denmark, greenland, india, west africa, caribbean

Participants :
- Université de Lund (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 222727.68 €
Projet RePLASTIC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Cellular reprogramming has revolutionized stem cell biology by allowing the generation of stem cells, progenitors, or somatic cell identities with small combinations of transcription factors (TFs). Currently, the limited understanding of how these different degrees of plasticity are established and maintained keeps on hold the application of reprogrammed cells in the clinic. With the RePLASTIC project, I propose to uncover novel regulators that define degrees of plasticity and control cell identity, with an interdisciplinary approach merging the fields of gene editing, stem cells and immunology. I will develop an innovative platform to evaluate the impact of gene knockout across the process of cell reprogramming in human cells, comparing multiple cell conversion scenarios: pluripotency, multipotency (hematopoietic stem cells) and unipotency (dendritic cells). For this, I will carry out a CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screening coupled with next-generation sequencing using custom-designed sgRNA libraries targeting TFs, chromatin regulators, and RNA modifiers. After sequencing, I will determine the molecular targets that are relevant by comparing the three reprogramming systems. Genes involved in cell conversion will be defined as regulators of plasticity, and top hits will be validated to study their molecular mechanism and role. Certainly, RePLASTIC will open new research avenues on the basic principles of cellular plasticity and provide ground-breaking technologies that may contribute to immunotherapy, regeneration and cancer. I will pursue this project as an incoming researcher supervised by Dr. Filipe Pereira (Lund University, Sweden). During my stay, I will acquire hands-on expertise in cutting-edge techniques: direct reprogramming, hematopoietic/immune cells, gene editing, deep sequencing. I will also gain experience in mentorship and writing skills and expand my network by attending national and international meetings to present my work and foster new collaborations.

Mots clés : degrees of plasticity, cellular identity, direct cell fate reprogramming, crispr cas9, hematopoiesis, dendritic cells, transcription factors

Participants :
- Université de Lund (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 222727.68 €
Projet AFROPEMOTIONS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

AFROPEMOTIONS investigates how the emotional entanglements depicted in 21st-century Afropean women’s fiction in English enable discussions of emotional encounter, inequality, and resistance. The project analyses selected novels (2005–2024) set in different European contexts and depicting the experiences of Afro-descendant (im)migrant women exposed to multiple forms of oppression. Emerging studies reveal how prejudices and discriminatory attitudes/practices stem from the proliferation of negative emotions produced by specific habits or patterns of judgment in predominantly white Western/European societies. By combining an affective approach with gender, intersectional and postcolonial critical perspectives and literary and empirical analysis, the project: 1) proposes the first extensive comparative study of 21st-century Afropean women’s fiction in English with a focus on emotions and their socio-cultural and political implications; 2) aims to raise readers’ awareness about the multiple forms of discrimination faced by African (im)migrant women in Europe, in both fictional narratives and real-life contexts; 3) uses Afropean women’s fiction as a critical site to engage in broader conversations about emotions, inequality, and resistance that move beyond mere literary debates. This two-year action will be undertaken under the supervision of Prof. Elisabeth Bekers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and includes two short secondments in Berlin: at Freie Universität (FU), supervised by Prof. Jan Slaby, and at the Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur-und Kulturforschung (ZfL), supervised by Dr. Gianna Zocco. The project will comprise transversal training, the acquisition of transferable skills, and targeted dissemination and communication activities, including the organisation of focus groups with VUB’s international students, aimed at discussing innovative ways to engage European citizens in the ‘‘Gender Equality’ and ‘Reduced Inequalities’ goals of Agenda 2030.

Mots clés : afropean women s fiction in english anglophone african and diaspora women s fiction emotions affective criticism women and gender studies intersectional studies

Participants :
- Centres des sciences humaines de Berlin (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université libre de Berlin (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 200400.0 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €