Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet DUX4 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Somatic expression of the retrogene DUX4 in skeletal muscle is associated with the development of the common myopathy facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). As FSHD patients mainly present with muscular symptoms, research in the FSHD field has focused on unraveling the functional consequences of DUX4 expression in skeletal muscle. Research on DUX4 expression in non-muscle tissues is limited, but increasing evidence suggests a biological function for DUX4 in somatic tissues. I aim to characterize DUX4 expression in non-muscle tissues, to determine the genome-wide transcriptional consequences of DUX4 expression, to identify DUX4 target genes in these tissues, and to establish whether treatment with DUX4 antisense oligonucleotides negatively impacts somatic tissues in which DUX4 has a biological function. First, I will use a combination of quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR, immunofluorescence staining, and flow cytometry to establish which tissues and what cell types express DUX4 in human and mouse. Next, I will use the innovative technique of single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the autonomous and non-autonomous functional consequences of DUX4 expression in DUX4-positive tissues. In parallel, to establish which genes and pathways are direct targets of DUX4 and whether tissue-specific differences exist, I will employ DUX4-chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing. Finally, I will determine the effect of DUX4 suppression in vitro and in vivo. The proposed work will provide in depth analysis into the biological function of DUX4 in somatic tissues, contribute to the long-standing enigma in the field why FSHD presents as a muscle-specific disease, and provide guidance to DUX4-targeted therapies that are currently being developed.

Mots clés : dux4, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy

Participants :
- Leiden University Medical Center (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 177598.8 €
Projet MORPH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Sound morphing has the potential to provide critical new insight into our understanding of timbre perception, and to deliver innovative virtual hybrid musical instruments for the creative exploration of the sonic gap which exists between traditional musical instrument sounds. Timbre, a highly complex perceptual phenomenon traditionally associated with musical instruments, is considered one of the last frontiers of auditory science. Sound morphing holds enormous promise for the investigation of timbre perception because it can gradually blur the categorical distinction between sounds by blending their sensory attributes. In this groundbreaking multidisciplinary project that fuses signal processing, experimental psychology, and music technology, I propose to use sound morphing to create continuous timbre spaces by filling the gaps between traditional musical instruments and therefore breaking the categorical perception of musical instrument timbre by the auditory illusion of hybrid musical instruments. This radically novel approach will integrate a touch user interface to enable the creative exploration of sound morphing with original virtual hybrid musical instruments that push the creative boundaries of musical expression by moving beyond the physical limitations of acoustic musical instruments and the traditional digital musical instruments that rely on them. The impact of this project will be felt across three prominent, complementary research domains, namely: signal processing; timbre perception; and musical interaction. First, this project will advance music signal processing by developing new modeling techniques specifically tailored for musical instrument sounds. Second, it will provide powerful analysis tools to further our understanding of musical timbre perception. Finally, the project aims to revolutionize musical expression by fostering new musical results through the creative exploration of continuous timbre spaces and hybrid musical instrument sounds.

Mots clés : musical instruments, musical timbre, timbre perception, musical interaction

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 244385.28 €
- McGill University (Canada) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ERN14-15SVK (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Sovva, n.o. has been organising the festival of science Researchers´night in Slovakia since 2007. The recent festival featured more than 1000 researchers and attended by nearly 177000 visitors. To continue in this succesful effort we have prepared the new concept for ERN 2014-15 with the following lead ideas: Science is Adventure and Experience the Science. The target is to challenge people to face the Science and to discover its beauty with aim to attracting the young generation to study science. The festival will present the most interesting research findings in Slovakia by leading Slovak universities, research institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences as well as representatives of innovative companies supporting R&D activities. The science shows will be held in shopping malls, but there will be also a number of side events in museums and observatories as well as discussions, lectures and various competitions. A wide range of activities will cover all country´s territory (Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, Zilina, Kosice, Tatranska Lomnica). All festival venues in the five cities will offer opportunities to spend the day and night visiting the interesting presentations and lectures, test scientific applications, get in touch with the latest research outcomes and to speak with researchers. Thanks to the direct discussions with them people can discover their "human face". Since efforts during the event and also during awareness campaign will focus mostly on examples showing how interesting and important the career of researcher is, we believe the ERN 2014-15 will help us to tackle the still existing stereotypes about researchers and science and encouraging young people to embark on scientific careers. To support the ERN impact, event venues will be linked through live streaming and as a member of Eusea we will use also this platform to provide the virtual and real connections between cities, venues and countries for exchange and collaboration.

Mots clés : science, scientists, researchers, science show, science party, students, children, adventure, experience

Participants :
- Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (Slovaquie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 7500.0 €
- Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovaquie) — Partner, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 40000.0 €
- Slovenska organizacia pre vyskumnea vyvojove aktivity zdruzenie (Slovaquie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 95000.0 €
- EurActiv (Slovaquie) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 7500.0 €
Projet VestibVis (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Spatial navigation requires the integration of visual and vestibular inputs to build a representation of space. Connectivity studies have shown that the secondary visual cortex (V2) of mice receives bottom-up inputs from primary visual cortex and anterior thalamus, conveying respectively visual and vestibular information, and feedback top-down inputs from the retrosplenial cortex. The aims of this project are to determine the visual and vestibular tuning of layer 5 pyramidal neurons in V2, how these inputs are recruited and interact when the mouse is engaged in a spatial navigation task, and how they are modulated by retrosplenial inputs. This will be accomplished using a combination of population calcium imaging or whole-cell patch-clamp recordings of layer 5 neurons, coupled with sensory stimulation and optogenetic activation or inhibition of sensory or top-down inputs and behavioural experiments.

Mots clés : visual cortex, vestibular, retrosplenial cortex, layer 5, two photon imaging, spatial navigation

Participants :
- The Francis Crick Institute (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet GLASSphase (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Specialty glass manufacturing is annually a €30 billion industry worldwide and transparent oxide glasses are one of the most important engineering and functional material families owing to their unique features, such as tailorable physical properties. However, at the same time, intrinsic brittleness continues to be their main drawback, which severely restricts many applications. In the proposed project, we will explore the possibility to improve the fracture toughness and damage resistance of oxide glasses through controlled nanoscale phase separation, as the presence of inclusions can lead to crack deflection or trapping. The size of these heterogeneities needs to be small enough (<50-100 nm) to maintain transparency. To this end, we will tune the composition of calcium aluminosilicate glasses to enable controlled phase separation with respect to the size and composition of the nano-domains (Work Package 1). Then selected mechanical properties (stiffness, hardness, fracture toughness, and crack resistance) of these new glasses will be explored (Work Package 2). These experiments will be guided by a combination of atomic scale (molecular dynamics) and microstructural scale (peridynamics) simulations (Work Package 3). The project will provide the scientific breakthrough for elucidating the toughening mechanism induced by phase separation and its impact on macroscopic crack propagation. The complementary expertise of the applicant and supervisor and the research and training environment provided by the host organization (Aalborg University, Denmark) will ensure the achievement of this timely and innovative project as well as the dissemination and exploitation of the expected results. These research outputs will accelerate the design of new fracture-resistant glasses, which can be used in various fields. The applicant will emerge from the project with new skills, and the capability to launch her own research group.

Mots clés : glasses, fracture toughness, structure property relation

Participants :
- Aalborg University (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207312.0 €
Projet PlantCellMech (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Specific cell and tissue form is essential to support many biological functions of living organisms. During development, the creation of different shapes fundamentally requires the integration of genetic, biochemical and physical mechanisms. In plant, a stiff pecto-cellulosic network encapsulates cells and counterbalances stress created by turgor pressure inside the cell, thereby controlling cell shape. It is well established that the cytoskeletal microtubules network play a key role in the morphogenesis of the plant cell wall by guiding the organisation of new cell wall material. Moreover, it has been suggested that mechanical stresses orient the microtubules along their principal direction, thereby controlling wall architecture and plant cell shape. Nevertheless, to fully understand how plant cells are shaped and how mechanical stresses influence this process, a quantitative approach needs to be established. In this project, we aim to provide new fundamental knowledge on the role of mechanics in plant development at the cellular scale. New experimental and imaging methods are now available to achieve this aim. We will combine experimental approaches and mechanical modeling to study quantitatively how single plant cells respond to mechanical signals and how they are integrated by the cell into changes in genetic expression. The outgoing host at Caltech, and the candidate have had success developing a custom-made micro-wells device to mechanically disrupt single plant cells. By coupling this approach with mechanical modeling and using a novel software developed by the returning host at the Sainsbury Laboratory, this project will lead to fully develop a computational model of plant cells and tissues morphogenesis, as they respond biologically to changes in directions and amounts of physical stress. The success of this project will have a significant societal impact on improving our understanding of how plants grow, and can grow in agricultural settings.

Mots clés : plant, mechanics, cell shape, gene expression, imaging, modeling

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251857.8 €
- California Institute of Technology (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet COUPE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Spectroscopic characterization of matter is ubiquitous in modern material science. Increased resolution and precise control over radiation sources have led to numerous discoveries of previously inaccessible spectroscopic signatures, often linked to complex excitation processes. The main challenge in their interpretation is the fact that excitations are coupled through interactions. A striking signature for this is that spectra often consist of one or more dominant peaks (called quasi-particle), followed by a series of secondary structures (called satellites). The latter, which can be very strong, are pure interaction effects and may be interpreted in terms of coupling of a quasiparticle to a bosonic excitation of the material: a plasmon, exciton, phonon, or any other boson. To solve the electron-boson problem, and, first of all, to set up the description in terms of the most pertinent quasiparticles and bosons, is a major challenge of condensed matter theory. COUPE will face this challenge. Today, quasiparticles are most often described in the GW approximation to many-body perturbation theory, whereas for bosonic excitations one can resort to time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT). Only a few approaches exist to describe the coupled problem, with severe limitations. For example, a cumulant expansion on top of GW describes plasmon satellites, but cannot couple to spin excitations, and there is yet no systematic way for improvement. COUPE proposes a new combination of GW and TDDFT which couples quasiparticles to all kinds of bosonic excitations. This combination relies on a recently developed “connector theory” (CT), which allows using results from the homogeneous electron gas to describe inhomogeneous materials. COUPE will further apply it to the simulation of phase transitions in magnetic and superconducting materials under study at the synchrotron SOLEIL in Paris. Preliminary model results confirm the great potential of the approach envisaged in COUPE.

Mots clés : theoretical spectroscopy, many body perturbation theory, photoemission

Participants :
- École polytechnique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet SpiL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Spillover, or cross-species transmission, of pathogens from wildlife to humans is the major cause of emerging infectious diseases such as HIV, Ebola virus or SARS. Yet despite this relevance spillover as a natural process is little known, and there is a pressing need for general theory on spillover. We propose to develop a new conceptual framework for spillover, by using an interdisciplinary approach to analyse an exceptionally complete dataset of Leptospira spillover from California sea lions to endangered Channel Island foxes. Guided by the OneHealth vision, we will combine concepts and methods from human epidemiology, disease ecology and island biology to create a model of Leptospira spillover risk that will provide a unique opportunity to develop and extract general concepts. Through this process, Borremans, the applying experienced researcher, will acquire a strong set of skills that will boost his expertise and significantly advance his professional profile. He will be guided by two high-profile researchers, Lloyd-Smith (UCLA) and Hens (UHasselt) and will benefit from collaborations through their extensive international networks, ensuring Borremans’ visibility at an international level.

Mots clés : leptospirosis, emerging infectious diseases, cross species transmission, zoonosis, marine terrestrial transmission, island ecology

Participants :
- Hasselt University (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 240530.4 €
- University of California System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet 2DSPIN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Spintronics, which aims at using the spin state of electrons to process information, is a promising route to supplement conventional electronics. The field is rapidly diversifying into Molecular Spintronics where magnetic molecules are the core of the devices and Organic Spintronics where spin currents are injected from ferromagnetic metals into organic materials like graphene. The electrical control of the molecular magnetism and the spin injection are however still limited and not well understood. In my proposal 2DSPIN, I propose to push Spintronics beyond the state-of-the-art by merging new magnetic 2D materials (Fe0.25TaS2) with magnetic molecules (0D) in hybrid mixed-dimensional (0D-2D) devices. I aim to achieve a full control over the spin of individual molecules by injecting spin polarized currents from all-2D devices. The electrical addressing of the spin of magnetic molecules with spin polarized currents is expected to open a new route to address and switch the molecular spin. As a proof-of-concept of this control, my proposal aims at fabricating spin filters based on individual organic radicals linked to Fe0.25TaS2 electrodes. Along the road, I expect to achieve enhanced and robust spin injection in non-magnetic materials, like graphene, and a controlled tuning of molecular magnetic properties through the interaction with magnetic layered materials in van der Waals heterostructures. The use of intrinsically magnetic 2D materials will overcome present limitations set by technological difficulties like the oxidation, the low spin polarization of traditional ferromagnetic metals and the dimensionality mismatch between molecules and electrodes

Mots clés : spintronics, 2d materials, molecular magnetism

Participants :
- Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet SDD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Spirit possession cults puzzle Western observers, particularly when they appear in supposedly secular urban environments. Muslim migrants from North Africa, seeking to establish new lives in Southern Europe, have to negotiate the continuity of such ritual practices with the constraints and expectations imposed on them by their new social contexts. But the legitimacy of these cults is contested also in their homeland, where they face increasing pressures by religious fundamentalism. Space and its organization, especially in urban settings, play an important part in these disputes. In Morocco, spirits are thought to reside in particular places, such as tombs, sanctuaries, or street corners. How do possession cults continue to be practiced when spirits’ spaces of residence have to be abandoned or undergo demolition? This research compares the continuities and ruptures in cult performances as the spaces that host them are affected by both forced displacement and voluntary diasporic migration. I will observe the resettlement of a slum in Casablanca, and compare it with two Southern European neighborhoods where Moroccan practitioners of spirit cults struggle to maintain their specific version of Islam in multicultural, post-colonial and post-secular urban settings, exposed to disruptive processes such as gentrification. By applying an ethnographic methodology to comparative urbanism, I aim to shed light on how different spatial transformations affect ritual performances that are meant to protect communities from social disintegration. I argue that different urban policies on both sides of the Mediterranean mutually reinforce, resulting in an overall transformation of cultural practices in transnational communities. Examining how migrants adapt localized ritual practices such as spirit possession cults to increasingly transient urban settings, furthers our understanding of the spatial and cultural dimensions that enable or prevent integration.

Mots clés : urban renewal, informal housing, displacement, gentrification, morocco, moroccan diaspora, migrant studies, mediterranean, post secularism, multiple modernities, alternative islam, spirit possession

Participants :
- University of Leicester (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 269857.8 €
- Harvard University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet SMERUPOL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Sports mega events (SME) have raised major interest in Russia and are massively invested by the current political power, as demonstrated by the personal implication of V. Putin in the Russian application to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the 2018 Football World Cup. SME are efficient tools of legitimacy for the political power, however, they are also an object of controversy. While the hosting of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the good performance of the Russian football team generated enthusiasm within the Russian society, doping and corruption scandals still tarnish Russia in the international sporting arena. Additionally, the pension reform adopted during the last World Cup resulted in vivid criticism within the Russian society. Following this observations, SMERUPOL aims at answering the following question: to what extent and how do Russians politicise their point of view around the theme of SME? Thus, SMERUPOL aims at filling a gap in the literature on the construction of the relationship towards politics in contemporary Russia; a field that remains widely understudied. More broadly, it intends to contribute to the study of the politicisation processes in authoritarian contexts. Building on the Experienced Researcher’s (ER) expertise in Russian politics as well as in sports and politics in Russia, the Individual Fellowship will provide the ER with a chance to access and participate in international researchers’ networks, while diversifying her scientific expertise, training in new scientific and transferable skills, thus reinforcing her maturity as an IR scholar, as well as the host institution’s own visibility in the European Research Area.

Mots clés : russian politics, sports mega events, individual politicisation

Participants :
- Université Paris Nanterre (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184707.84 €