Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet IPBMNES (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In order to understand the nature of complex and collective dynamics of pedestrians during normal and evacuation situations, mathematical models and simulation tools are essential. Compared to vehicular flows, pedestrian movements show a more complex behavior, mainly because they are essentially two-dimensional and not limited to specific lanes. Moreover, in pedestrian dynamics, collective dynamics will be formed from individual human nonlinear interactions. Specifically, pedestrian behavior is the result of a series of interdependent decisions which are based on a specific plan. The plan is a latent (unobserved) variable resulting in a series of (observed) actions. However, in state-of-the-art pedestrian flow models, the latent plans and some observed actions are ignored. When it is implemented in simulation software, this leads to an unrealistic representation of individual pedestrian movements and collective crowd dynamics. In order to overcome this issue, a framework for integrated pedestrian behavior modeling based on the concepts of a short-term plan and action, is proposed. This framework integrates the following sub-models: Target Destination Choice Model, Pedestrian Route Choice Model, Pedestrian Pace State Model, and a Pedestrian Movement Model. It captures pedestrians' planning capabilities and interdependent decisions. The parameters of all the components of the framework are estimated jointly by observed pedestrian trajectories using maximum-likelihood theory. Finally, the above behavioral models will be incorporated in the traffic simulator, MovSim (Multi-model open-source vehicular-traffic Simulator developed by Technical University Dresden -TUD) to simulate the normal and evacuation pedestrian environment. This tool will be useful to develop guidelines for local authorities and organizers of mass events in larger cities of Europe and for designing the pedestrian facilities.

Mots clés : pedestrian behavior, pedestrian dynamics, self organization, crowd turbulence, simulation

Participants :
- TU Dresden (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171460.8 €
Projet GeminiDECODER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In plants, RNA interference (RNAi) is involved in processes ranging from development to stress responses. The core element of this regulatory mechanism, the small RNA (sRNA), has been characterized as a mobile molecule able to spread the RNAi beyond the initiation sites, acting as a cell non-autonomous process. Examples of mobile sRNAs are known: mobile small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) deriving from viruses spread throughout the plant, and are responsible for the activation of the viral silencing in uninfected tissues; other siRNAs, together with microRNAs (miRNAs), have been described to move through different cell layers, acting as morphogens; finally, some miRNAs have been shown to move through the vasculature under stress conditions, activating protective responses. Mobile sRNAs are therefore of capital importance for plant biology, and many approaches have been followed to analyze them; however, the number of mobile sRNA/target pairs fully characterized is scarce. Recently, the C4 protein from Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) has been shown to interfere specifically with the cell-to-cell movement of RNAi, affecting neither accumulation nor activity of the sRNAs. In this project, C4 will be used as a novel and powerful tool to isolate mobile sRNAs and their targets, under different conditions (basal vs viral infection) and in different plants (Arabidopsis and tomato), in a large scale and with unprecedented resolution. By using C4-expressing plants, out-of-location mobile sRNAs as well as increased levels of their unprocessed targets are expected to be easily detected. Thanks to this viral probe, a whole picture of the different populations of mobile sRNAs and their targets will be obtained, and the biological relevance of the most prominent candidates will be assessed. As a result, relevant new knowledge about the regulation of key biological processes in plants will be obtained, which may open new avenues for the design of more productive crops.

Mots clés : rnai, silencing, mobile srna, cell to cell movement, systemic movement, sirna, mirna, tomato, tylcv, geminivirus, plant pathogen interactions, srna seq, rna seq, arabidopsis, grafting

Participants :
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chine) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Universidad de Málaga (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 237065.28 €
Projet WOMPOL-AFRICA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In post-conflict periods in Africa, as a result of women’s limited access to means of meaning production, and various forms of censorship, patriarchal gender hierarchies are often restored and reinforced in part through scripts written primarily by men, and women are relegated to supporting actors, whose roles reflect masculinist notions of women’s proper 'place'. This impacts on women’s claim to political legitimacy since, in many African countries, political parties and leaders often justify their political authority morally by emphasizing their roles in liberating their nations from, for example, colonialism and dictators. Much of the current research on the topic of women in African politics tends to focus on increasing women’s political participation through quota systems and other formal mechanisms, or examining the relationship between women’s political influence and gender discrimination in society and social institutions. There is minimal focus on the experiences of women politicians and the precarious positions they often find themselves in their struggles for political legitimacy. Focusing on four African women politicians, my proposed study, WOMPOL-AFRICA, will fill this gap by examining how representations in various sites of meaning production, of the women’s roles and experiences, impact their claims to political legitimacy. The sites of meaning production to be examined include history books, news media, documentaries, biographical films, published biographies and recorded interviews. My main aim is to explore the insights that these sites of meaning production offer in relation to the struggle over meaning and women’s political legitimacy. The project intersects multiple disciplines, including history, postcolonial, political, cultural, gender and feminist studies. Research results therefore promise strong potential for dissemination, communication and exploitation across academic and development and international institutions in the EU and abroad.

Mots clés : african women, political participation, political legitimacy, meaning production, struggles over meaning, political conflict, postcolonial, postconflict, political influence, political power, politics

Participants :
- Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet FLYELEC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In quantum optics, a single photon source as well as a single photon detector is the elementary building block for the manipulation of information coded into a quantum state, a qubit. When combined with beam splitters, polarizers etc., photonic qubits can be manipulated to process quantum information. A well-known example is quantum cryptography, a secure way to transmit information. In analogy with photons, similar experiments should be possible with single flying electrons in a solid-state device. The advantage of performing quantum optics experiments with flying electrons is the existing Coulomb interactions between the electrons. Photons are basically non-interacting quantum particles and they therefore have a longer coherence time than electrons. However, due to the absence of interactions it is more difficult to construct a two-qubit gate, which operates at the single photon level. This represents a fundamental limitation to the development of quantum computation with photons. Recent experiments have now demonstrated that quantum optics with single flying electrons is in reach. Indeed, it has been shown that a single electron can be transferred on-demand between distant quantum dots. In these experiments, flying electrons have been transported by a sound wave and high fidelity for single electron emission as well as single electron detection has been demonstrated. This opens the possibility to perform quantum optics experiments with electrons in solid-state devices, which we aim to realize with this proposal. Due to the fact that electrons in solids are strongly interacting particles, new quantum entanglement schemes can be envisioned, not possible with photons.

Mots clés : mesoscopic physics, quantum dots, nanoelectronics, single electron physics

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet NN-OVEROPT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In recent times, overparametrized models where the number of model parameters far exceeds the number of training samples available are the methods of choice for learning problems and neural networks are amongst the most popular overparametrized methods used heavily in practice. It has been discovered recently that overparametrization surprisingly improves the optimization landscape of a complex non-convex problem, i.e., the training of neural networks, and also has positive effects on the generalization performance. Despite improved empirical performance of overparametrized models like neural networks, the theoretical understanding of these models is quite limited which hinders the progress of the field in the right direction. Any progress in the understanding of the optimization as well as generalization aspects for theses complex models especially neural networks will lead to big technical advancement in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. During the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship-Global Fellowship (MSCA-IF-GF), I plan to study the optimization problem arising while training overparametrized neural networks and generalization in overparametrized neural networks. The end goal for this project is to provide better theoretical understanding of the optimization landscape while training overparametrized models as a result of which to provide better optimization algorithms for training as well as to study the universal approximation guarantees of overparametrized models. We also aim to study the implicit bias induced by optimization algorithms while training overparametrized complex models. To achieve the objective discussed above, I will be using tools from traditional optimization theory, statistical learning theory, gradient flows, as well as from statistical physics.

Mots clés : optimization theory, statistical learning theory, deep neural networks, machine learning, theory of neural networks

Participants :
- University of Illinois System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 257619.84 €
Projet DDM-GNI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years it has been realised that the preservation of certain structures and properties of mathematical equations is of utmost importance when bringing them in a form understandable by computers. Ignoring such properties often leads to incorrect results in the corresponding simulations. In plasma and fusion physics this is especially true as the mathematical equations are highly complex and direct comparison with the experiments is very difficult. Still, the application of structure-preserving numerical algorithms to plasma physics has not gained much attention and todays computer codes do not use such methods. Consequently, these codes are not able to reproduce important physical effects observed in the experiments, hindering progress in research. This project is devoted to the development of a flexible and general framework for the derivation of geometric numerical integrators, referred to as discrete Dirac mechanics, which will be applicable to many problems from plasma physics, but also to equations from other research fields such as optimal control, meteorology, oceanography, geo dynamics, fluid dynamics, elasticity, solar physics, astrophysics and cosmology. This framework will be used to derive novel numerical methods for important systems used in plasma and fusion physics modelling. After successful prototype implementation, verification and validation of the new methods, these will be implemented in an open source library and transferred to leading application codes in order to improve their predictive capabilities and physical correctness. By combining the expertise of all participants, it will be possible to establish an innovative line of research which will lead to numerous applications and strengthen the European leadership in scientific computing. The know-how acquired through the proposed actions will complement my theoretical, technical as well as transferrable skills and put me in a position to establish an independent research group.


Participants :
- Waseda University (Japon) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181002.6 €
Projet CoCoNat (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, an algorithmic theory of natural and biological systems has been increasingly advocated as providing a much needed framework for investigating complex self-organising processes in nature. This project contributes to this research program by employing the distributed computing lens to model natural phenomena. Biological systems exhibit many properties also studied in distributed computing: they comprise several independently acting entities, tend to operate in noisy and dynamic environments, thus requiring them to be highly-resilient and adaptive, solve intricate coordination tasks, and display sophisticated communication techniques. This project aims to develop the theory of distributed synchronisation and coordination tasks in restricted models of distributed computing. These tasks are some of the most fundamental problems in distributed computing, as they are essential in computer networks as well as numerous other areas of engineering and computing. In addition, they are ubiquitous in natural and biological systems, ranging from molecular to population-level systems, which are known to solve various synchronisation and coordination tasks: examples include symmetry-breaking during the development of the nervous system, consensus decision making in species communities, and synchronisation in firefly populations and embryonic development. Unlike computer networks, biological distributed systems have unique features: (1) the agents typically have limited computational abilities, (2) communication is unreliable and restricted, (3) the system has a dynamic spatial structure, and (4) the environment may be noisy. Currently, distributed computing models that consider all aspects simultaneously are lacking. The proposed research approaches this goal from multiple angles by developing new models and analysis methods for determining the limitations of synchronisation and related tasks in both strong and weak models of computing.

Mots clés : distributed algorithms, clock synchronization, consensus

Participants :
- Institute of Science and Technology Austria (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174167.04 €
Projet MicroFrac (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, large spills from oil pipelines and tankers, leaks from nuclear reactors and the constant need for lighter and stronger materials in the transportation industry illustrate the need for materials with improved fracture resistance. Recent reports also suggest that the costs of fracture in Europe reach 4% of Europe’s gross domestic product which mean about 500 billion Euros. These facts show how fracture of structural materials can have detrimental effects in terms of health and safety, the environment, and the economy. One key elements that prevents better fracture predictions is a lack of information on fracture at the microscale. Indeed, fracture takes place by the formation and growth of microvoids and how these voids grow is still unknown and prevents the development of accurate fracture models. This proposal aims at providing a significant contribution towards our understanding of fracture at the microscale through a combination of state-of-the-art experiments and models. Microvoids will be introduced in metallic single crystals and their growth will be followed in-situ at high resolution. The effects of void size and crystal orientation will be investigated and the results will be used to validate dislocation dynamics and crystal plasticity models. The outcomes of the project will be new experimental evidence of fracture at the microscale and the creation of an improved crystal plasticity model that can take into account size effects to better predict metal fracture.

Mots clés : fracture, microvoids, void growth, crystal plasticity

Participants :
- Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 85060.8 €
Projet TerraPINN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In regions of high seismicity, it is essential for society to understand the associated seismic hazard. A cornerstone of seismic hazard assessment is the ability to predict what kind of ground shaking occurs from a particular type of source at some given location; however, given the immense expense of full 3D viscoelastic seismic wavefield simulations, researchers typically rely on empirical relations that do not capture the path effects of wave propagation, which can significantly increase ground shaking by waveguiding and other effects. I propose to use a novel development in scientific machine learning - Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) - to solve the 3D viscoelastic wavefield propagation problem. A fully trained network will drastically reduce the time required to compute the seismic response for arbitrary sources and receivers, enabling fully physics based seismic hazard in a probabilistic framework. PINNs utilize our knowledge of the physics, in this case the equations of motion for continuous media, to regularize learning, which reduces the required amount of training data by many orders of magnitude. We will utilize the PINN wavefield solver in a testbed study of physics based seismic hazard assessment for Southern California, with the goal of producing a framework that is computationally accessible to apply across the world.


Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet EWTEK (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In rural Morocco, women are the gatekeepers of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) linked to natural resource management.Women have been underestimated for their important contribution to producing and securing food, managing natural resources, and their ability to earn an income through these activities. Even though massive aid budgets from the major donors, including the European Union, are allocated to expand Morocco’s programmes to combat poverty, social exclusion and gender inequality, rural women are still poorly integrated in Moroccan society. Using an original interdisciplinary approach of ethnobiology, development studies and geography, this study will explore whether women are able to gain social status and economic development through applying their traditional ecological knowledge in the context of the Green Morocco Plan in two rural communes of Rhamna Province. The study will cover the two main issues: 1) an analysis of the socio-historical, political context of the country, to assess the interests and motives of the Moroccan government to address gender issues; 2), an ethnographic investigation into women’s traditional knowledge activities looking in particular at the transfer of women’s traditional knowledge and environmental practices to new income generating activities. The policy relevance of the study lies in its aim to ensure that a gender aware ‘rural traditional dimension’ is included in programme policies with concrete proposals on how to overcome rural women’s socio-economic stagnation, and improve the working conditions of rural women in Morocco. It will contribute to the current debate of gender analysis, environmental practices and women’s integration in development programmes. The Fellowship is expected to deliver a curriculum to expand this new field of enquiry to resolve issues of social exclusion. It will open up perspectives of employment for the researcher in a European academic institution or a policy research institute.

Mots clés : natural resource management, poverty alleviation, rural women s socio economic development, traditional ecological knowledge, women  s empowerment

Participants :
- University of Illinois System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 236257.7 €