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

Forests play a major role in the global carbon cycle. They uptake carbon through photosynthesis, return much of it through respiration, and accumulate some fraction as structural biomass (Bst). The forest carbon sink offsets nearly 30% of anthropogenic carbon-dioxide emissions, with Bst being the primary contributor to this sink due to its slow rate of turnover (years to centuries). However, climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of drought events and negatively impacting both photosynthesis and Bst. As these two processes are interconnected but independently modulated by environmental variables, it is imperative that we track the fate of forest carbon through its lifecycle from uptake to allocation. In TERRACARB, we will investigate the interactions between climate, photosynthetic carbon uptake, and carbon allocation to Bst during drought across spatial and temporal scales (tree to global; hourly to decadal). To do so we will use an innovative interdisciplinary approach that combines remote sensing, eddy covariance, tree-rings, and point dendrometer derived estimates of productivity. First, we will investigate the decrease in photosynthetic carbon uptake during atmospheric and hydrologic drought. Next, we will examine the mechanisms by which drought events leave behind ‘legacy effects’ of below normal carbon accumulation. Finally, we will use a network of point dendrometers to evaluate the relationships between photosynthetic carbon uptake, tree radial growth, hydration, and climate variables at sub-seasonal timescales (hourly to daily) at five eddy covariance sites in Europe. The findings from TERRACARB will help us better predict how forests will continue to accumulate carbon in the face of climate change.

Mots clés : remote sensing, tree rings, eddy covariance, dendrometers, drought, forests, carbon cycle, photosynthesis, biomass, allocation

Participants :
- CERCA Institution (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet CASE-CO2 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Former agricultural lands, also known as old-fields, can have great potential as carbon (C) sinks and could act as naturally occurring, low cost mechanism to mitigate CO2 emissions. However, many studies on C fixation have focused on mature forests, not properly considering abandoned agricultural lands. Through this project, the experienced researcher (ER), Dr. Eduardo Velázquez, aims to; (i) study the process of C accumulation in old-fields over ecological succession, predicting their C sequestration potential over the long-term, (ii) estimate old-field C stocks at regional scale in a region characterized by farmland abandonment. These objectives will be attained (i) through sampling in 50 permanent plots, performing vegetation and soil laboratory analyses, and adaptating the forest model IBERO, and (ii) through the conjoint use of field measurements and radar backscatter data. The ER will work in the IUFOR (Palencia), supervised by Felipe Bravo. He will collaboratewith ECM and perform a secondment in Edinburgh. He will be trained in the calculation of C stocks, the development of allometric equations, the parameterization and calibration of forest growth models, and the analysis of radar backscatter data. This project proposes a multidisciplinary approach among Forest and Systems Ecology, forest modelling and remote sensing, and aligns within several cross-cutting issues and focus areas of H2020 Work Programme. The results of CASE-CO2 could be applied to develop new laws and directives regarding the most suitable management practices in order to enhance mitigation of atmospheric CO2 emissions in old-fields, and to improve the assessment of regional and national carbon budgets. This project will increase the leadership and scientific network of the ER, the quantity and quality of his publications, the impact of his scientific activity, and his possibilities to obtain funds, enhancing his possibilities of reaching a position of professional maturity within the ERA.

Mots clés : farmland abandonment, mediterranean region, aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soil organic carbon, soil biota, radar backscatter data, carbon maps, forest models

Participants :
- University of Valladolid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet REDTEAR (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Free extracellular DNA (FED) is DNA dissolved in waters and in soils, where it arrives after being excreted by living organisms or following the disruption of living cells. FED can be the most prominent fraction of DNA in waters subjected to strong disturbances, where the mortality rate of microorganisms is high, e.g. wastewater treatment plants effluents. FED are composed by a variety of DNA fragments including resistance genes and mobile elements. There are early evidences than FED can represent a very important, although neglected, source of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment, where the bacterial community can access FED and incorporate extracellular DNA by horizontal gene transfer. If this process will be confirmed and quantified by dedicated researches, our understanding of the cycle of antibiotic resistances into the environment and back to human pathogens could change dramatically, calling for a whole rethinking of the wastewater treatments nowadays applied. The Project REDTEAR will tackle the issue and will clarify the role of FED in the spread and the persistence of ARGs in open waters in central Europe, offering a unique opportunity for a correct management of this problem, already identified as one of the major challenges for human health in the next century.

Mots clés : antibiotic resistance, free dna, resistome, microbiome, wastewater

Participants :
- National Research Council (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 183473.28 €
Projet LakeMP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Freshwaters are increasingly contaminated with a variety of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care product ingredients and industrial chemicals referred as “micropollutants” (MPs). Most of these MPs are poorly retained by wastewater treatment plants, and thus are released into natural water bodies, where they can travel all the way to the raw water of drinking water treatment plants. Very little information is currently available on the persistence and transformation of MPs in lake ecosystems. This project aims to investigate the fate of twelve MPs in lake Greifensee in Switzerland by measuring their transformation rates at different depths and seasons. To this end, lake water will be sampled at different depths in Lake Greifensee, and natural microbial communities (bacteria and phytoplankton) will be exposed to a mixture of different MPs using semipermeable plastic bags that will be redeployed to their original depth. The bags will let gases, salts and ions be exchanged with the outside environment, but will retain MPs and microorganisms inside the bag. At regular intervals, MP concentrations and their transformation products in the bags will be determined in order to calculate biotransformation rates of MPs at different depths of the lake. Phytoplankton and bacteria communities will be analyzed to assess the role of microorganisms in MP transformation using cutting edge “omics” methods such as metagenomics. This project will be unique in that it actually quantitatively describes the extent of MP biotransformation in situ, and thus eliminates many of the uncertainties involved in estimating in-field biodegradation based on laboratory experiments. It will also bring more in-depth knowledge on the drivers of biotransformation, whether they are of bacteria or phytoplankton origin. This project will hence foster improved risk assessment and management of the release of contaminants into the environment.

Mots clés : micropollutant, bioremediation, biotransformation, phytoplankton, bacteria community

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 175419.6 €
Projet EPISTOP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

From a methodological point of view, the history of the classical sciences is often presented as a triumphant march of experimentation anchored in the science of Newton and the Newtonians. The historiography of 18th-c. scientific methodology tends moreover to portray each form of persistence of metaphysics as the sign of resistance to modernity or as some obsolete archaism. The aim of my research project is to bring a twofold shift to this traditional interpretation. First, by shedding light on the presence of other experimental traditions, some older than, some contemporary with the Newtonian one, that explain how Newton's natural philosophy was received and, second, by showing that within a certain number of 18th-c. scientific methodologies there was a fertile interaction between experimentation and metaphysics. The idea of the project is to propose a novel historiographical hypothesis about the epistemic values of Enlightenment science. My research hypothesis is based on an innovative methodological idea: namely that one should study epistemic practises in order to identify communities of shared epistemic values. This proposal will go beyond the classical divisions which have long dominated accounts of Enlightenment science (e.g. rationalists versus empiricists, Cartesians versus Newtonians, etc.). It will focus on the Dutch Republic from 1690 to 1750, because the aim is to scrutinize how Newton’s Principia and Opticks were received within an already existing experimental context. The focus here will be on two questions that occupied 18th-c. scientists: What knowledge do experiments provide us with? And, how can it be rendered certain? To understand how the development of experimental philosophy in the Dutch Republic managed to reconfigure epistemic concerns without totally erasing metaphysical preoccupations. My intention is to test a research hypothesis: the epistemic optimism of 18th-c. natural philosophy.

Mots clés : experimental philosophy, metaphysics, enlightenment, newtonianism, empiricisms, epistemology, methodology

Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet SASC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

From a very young age, infants can infer the probable meaning of a new word from its syntactic context (e.g., she blicks –>blick is an action/verb). What is the learning mechanism that enables this link from specific syntactic contexts to different semantic categories? This project investigates the influence exerted by the content words already present in the mental lexicon (i.e., the semantic seed) along with the child’s distributional learning skills. In the first line of research, I investigate how preverbal infants can use known words (i.e. semantic seed) to help them categorize a new word as a noun or a verb. Inspection of cross-linguistic universals reveals that across the world’s languages, certain conceptual categories are often marked in morphosyntax (eg. object/action, animate/inanimate), while others not (e.g. color). The cause of the regularities might thus be that since morphosyntax helps infants to learn word meanings, only those morphosyntactic regularities that mark conceptual distinctions that are noticeable by infants would be selected for human languages (i.e. core knowledge). In Study 2 and 3, infants will be taught novel syntactic contexts (e.g., a new article) along with words they already know (semantic seed) to test if they can subsequently predict the meaning of a novel word that would appear in the same contexts (e.g., object). Study 2 will use distinctions already marked in French (i.e. object/action), and Study 3 will use distinctions that are not marked. I will test the hypothesis that core knowledge distinctions (i.e. animacy) are easier to map onto morphosyntactic markers than non-core knowledge distinctions (i.e. color). Taken together, these studies will demonstrate the presence of synergies between the lexicon and the syntax during language acquisition. This project will also give us insight on the distinctions that are easy to associate with morphosyntactic markers, which would explain the patterns in world's languages.

Mots clés : language acquisition, learning mechanism, grammatical categories, conceptual development, semantic, syntax

Participants :
- École normale supérieure PSL (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet Light UP (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

From beacon fires in early civilizations to emerging light networked wireless communication in modern society, optical wireless communication technologies (OWC) continues to play a pivotal role for mankind. The emergence of flexible and wearable electronic applications are now posing novel challenges to OWC whereby clothes, mechanically flexible design materials and even the human skin are increasingly being considered as possible supports for multifunctional applications. Light UP has the ambition to transform the scenario of wearable OWC by developing a conceptually new class of ultrathin and flexible photodetectors with an expected time response as fast as a few tens of picoseconds, greatly surpassing any rivalling present wearable technology. The groundbreaking innovation that will enable this breakthrough will be based on the realization of a so-called “wide quantum well” in high quality atomically thin materials in which the ultrafast formation of a charge dipole upon light absorption will lead to a fast on/off optical modulation of the electrical signal in transistor geometries. Atomically thin materials will be engineered ad hoc by exploiting surface chemistry to heal defect and to exert a superior control over their energy band structure in order to obtain well-suited electronic, optical, and physical properties. This ambitious interdisciplinary exploration will thrive on the unique synergy of the complementary expertise and skills by the applicant and host group encompassing nano-chemistry, material science, engineering and physics. Hence, this project will address a forefront research program pioneering (1) the development of a scalable solution-phase scheme for chemical engineering of defect states in atomically thin semiconductors; (2) the implementation of defect-free atomically thin semiconductors in ultrafast photodetector; and (3) the realization of atomically thin ultrafast photodetectors onto technological relevant flexible substrates.

Mots clés : two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides

Participants :
- University of Exeter (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet SOOCCESS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

From early childhood, many poor children brought up in segregated communities observe socio-economic failures such as poor living conditions, liquidity constraints, extremely high unemployment and low education levels attained by adults. Enhancing their aspirations is believed to be a tool capable of breaking one of the poverty feedback loops: poverty has been identified as a cause of the failure to aspire to one’s own potential, and at the same time, low aspirations are among the potential causes of persistent poverty. Consequently, adolescents from areas of high deprivation are generally believed to have low aspirations, though, in fact, their aspirations vary considerably, and may be generally high. This signals two main aspiration biases: aspirations failure and aspirational gap. This project is aimed to investigate how stimulating success/failure environments can reduce aspiration biases of the segregated poor, which, according to theory, should increase their chances to escape the poverty trap. The project has an interdisciplinary character: it is aimed to investigate the psychological construct of aspirations in the economic context in educational environments. Using cutting-edge methods from behavioural and experimental economics, we will experimentally investigate to what extent exposure to success/failure environments will lead to a significant decrease/increase in aspirational biases. From the methodological perspective, we will first design a novel approach to the experimental elicitation of aspirations, then we will design an experiment manipulating success/failure to assess their effects on aspirations. From the empirical viewpoint, using experimental data, the project will shed new light on the relationship between socio-economic background and aspirational biases, and thus test the predictions of economic theory. To address the concern of external validity, the proposed experiments will be conducted in different cultural settings.

Mots clés : aspirations, poverty, segregation, minorities

Participants :
- Monash University (Australie) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Durham University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 277940.16 €
Projet RNADOMAIN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

From junk DNA to genomic dark matter, the road to understanding RNAs that do not encode for proteins has been full of surprises. Compared to 19,000 protein-coding genes, recent estimates point that our genome contains between 25,000 and 100,000 long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) genes. Far from being inert, some lncRNAs are involved in development and disease, particularly, cancer. It has also been shown that the function of a lncRNA can be associated with its localisation in subcellular compartments. Nevertheless, to experimentally characterize and validate interesting lncRNAs is an arduous task. Computational approaches based on machine learning could be designed to complement and scale-up such efforts. Based on recent experimental discoveries, it has been proposed that lncRNAs are separable into functional domains, and that these domains are intimately related to transposable elements and repeats. Nevertheless, how functions are encoded in primary RNA sequence is a fundamental unsolved problem. I propose to develop the first high-throughput computational approach to map lncRNA domains across metazoan genomes. Domains will be first identified according to statistical evidence supported by current biological insights. Putative domains will be queried against state-of-the-art databases on lncRNA function, localisation, and disease. Machine learning algorithms will then be employed to predict new functional domains, and new mechanistic insights will be offered for promising candidates. Lastly, the obtained maps will be stored and disseminated in a database, that will be regularly updated and readily accessible for the research community. This will be a foundational resource to finally shed light on the role of lncRNAs, their regulation and involvement in disease.

Mots clés : long non coding rna, transposable elements, repeats, functional domains, disease association, cellular localisation, machine learning

Participants :
- National University of Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196590.72 €
- University of Bern (Suisse) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet INDSOC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

From the mid-1950s through the 1970s, the notion of the ‘good life’ associated with increased socio-economic prosperity for the broad population generated individualising dispositions in socialist East and Southeast Europe. Starting from the hypothesis that post-World War II paradigms of socialist modernity and in particular the Yugoslav model of self-management socialism were shaped by such an individualising habitus, this project examines individualising agency, expectations and memories, and emotions of ordinary citizens in interaction with state driven socialist transformation of society. The analysis follows four axes: (1) socialism as an ideological paradigm, (2) the political endeavour of establishing Yugoslav statehood, (3) patterns of identification and collective solidarity, and (4) memory. Drawing on the methodology of Alltagsgeschichte (history of everyday life), the project conducts a micro-historical study of individual agency and emotions in relation to intersecting temporal, spatial, and institutional processes in the city of Mitrovica in the North of Kosovo from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. It conducts archival research, oral history, and focus group interviews, and situates these findings against statistical data on the socio-economic situation in the area under scrutiny and secondary studies of state socialist transformations in East and Southeast Europe. Through training-through-research and a set of hosting arrangements focussing on the development of a diversified research profile incorporating insights from micro-history, social anthropology, and social sciences and adopting an explicit transnational and European approach, the furthering of transferrable skills in communication, project development, and didactics, and a strong public outreach component, the action will make a significant contribution to the career development of the researcher and strengthen the profile of the host institution.

Mots clés : yugoslavia, kosovo, mitrovica, socialism, social change, post war, modernity, ideology, everyday life, micro history

Participants :
- Leibniz Association (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 159460.8 €