Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet SOLSTORE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this project proposal reversible solid-state chemical reactions (eutectoids, peritectoids) are proposed for the storing of thermal energy at high temperature (300-800 °C). The development of a novel heat storage concept, based on solid-solid reactions, proposed in this project, could contribute to open new scenarios in the thermal energy storage field. To the best of our knowledge, the use of this class of reactions for TES applications has not been explored so far. The goal of this study is the identification of solid-state reactions fulfilling a large number of scientific and technological requirements (high storage capacity, good thermal conductivity, mechanical and chemical stability, complete reversibility of a charging/discharging cycles etc.). For this scope, an interdisciplinary research strategy will be followed involving materials chemistry, physics and engineering disciplines to achieve a complete overview of their behaviour starting from basic research challenges, focused on the material development and characterization (reactivity, stability, kinetic, reversibility, heat and mass transfer etc.), up to arrive to the investigation of their feasibility in real applications (e.g. concentrated solar power technologies (CSP) and waste heat recovery). During the project a two direction transfer of knowledge will be applied. On one side, an intense training will be offered to the applicant by the host laboratory with the objective to increase his scientific and managerial skills. Secondment in one established European technological center with recognized international expertise in concentrating solar plants (CSP) technologies is also planned. On the other side, the applicant will make available the knowledge and competences matured along his career both to give an impulse to the scientific work and fulfil the objectives set in the project and to explore other funding opportunities and collaborations.

Mots clés : thermal energy storage, solid state reaction, structural characterization, thermal characterization

Participants :
- Université de Bordeaux (France) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 40144.26 €
- CIC energigune (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 121445.96 €
Projet EGap (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this project the fellow is concerned with opening out the period of Brezhnev’s Thaw in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, to a renewed scrutiny. Covering art theory, cultural theory, philosophy, and political philosophy, the research will draw on both key and forgotten works, such as those by Evald Ilyenkov, Yuri Davidov, Lev Vigotsky, Georg Lukacs and Mikhail Lifshitz, as well as the critical legacy of Moscow conceptual art in order to better understand the dynamics of Soviet culture and its influence on contemporary culture, politics and art in Europe. This fellowship will challenge the largely negative perception of the cultural and philosophical achievements of this historical period. By using a cross-disciplinary approach, the fellow will demonstrate how the Brezhnev period, contrary to received views, produced a rich array of heterodox social theories, critical thinking, and cultural practices, that are comparable to Western emancipatory thinking and cultural theory of the time, but, remain, in quality, ambition and character, very different to their Western counterparts. The fellowship aims, then, to transform the conventional approach to post-socialist studies within the European academic context, in order to support and enhance a much needed cultural dialogue between the European Union and Russia.

Mots clés : post socialism studies, avantgarde, soviet history, brezhnev s thaw

Participants :
- University of Wolverhampton (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet METACLOAK (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this project we aim to develop the theory to underpin the optimal design of metamaterial devices. We will test the theory by building a metamaterial cloak which surpasses current models in its combination of elastic wave protection and cloaking capacities at frequency band much larger (~1 kHz). The design of the cloak is based on a novel metamaterial that I have co-developed, consisting of a cluster of closely spaced sub-wavelength resonators fixed to a thin plate where flexural waves propagate. The effective properties of this cloak are generated by local resonance effects and they include, besides large band gaps, negative diffraction (refraction) index, sub-wavelength energy focusing and broad scalability in the sound and infrasound frequency range. Contrary to other studies, it does not require an unrealistic composite material to be realised, or a periodic arrangement of resonant elements and hence it should have real practical impact. Two innovative applications concerning control of mechanical vibrations, and seismology are proposed. To refine the modelling, detailed numerical simulations and development of optimisation schemes are required: this will benefit enormously from interaction with several groupings at Imperial College (in Physics, Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering), highly active in elastic waves and metamaterials, that have very relevant expertise. 3D numerical simulations giving quantitative analysis of the cloak properties and performance will guide the construction of laboratory models for experimental validation. The distribution and the structure of the resonators (vertical beams with nominal section much smaller than the wavelength) are the main parameters governing the performances of the cloak. The optimisation strategies that will be implemented will fine tune the cloak within a given frequency band and/or simplify the cloak design maintaining the same performance level.

Mots clés : metamaterials, guided waves

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet SmartMammaCAD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this project, Dr. Ignacio Alvarez Illan proposes to develop a novel automated diagnosis system that supports the radiologist in the breast cancer diagnosis in Dynamic Contrast Enhance-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) by including critical components of the radiological work-flow such as motion compensation, segmentation and diagnosis of breast tumours. The expected results of this interdisciplinary project will definitely have applications and impact in the European society and its health and the overarching goals of the '2020 Vision for the European Research Area’. Specifically, improving diagnosis of major diseases such as breast cancer is a research priority in the European Union. The main goal and overall objective of this project is to develop computer aided diagnosis (CAD) methods, and image processing techniques to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of cancerrelated breast lesions. Non-mass-enhancing lesions exhibit a heterogeneous appearance in breast MRI with high variations in kinetic characteristics and typical morphological parameters, and have a specificity and sensitivity much lower than mass-enhancing lesions. For this reason, new segmentation algorithms and kinetic parameters can be potentially used as an alternative to the methods for mass-enhanced lesions. To develop and implement CAD methods and image processing techniques, three different research objectives are presented in this project. They include basic research, strategic research, applied research and transfer of knowledge: i) Develop non-rigid registration and segmentation techniques to incorporate spatial variations in temporal enhancement. ii) Develop kinetic feature descriptors to quantify significant differences between the benign and malignant lesions. iii) Develop and validate algorithms, interfaces and software implementation for real applications of CAD of breast cancer.

Mots clés : computer aided diagnosis, breast cancer, dynamic contrast enhanced mri, support vector machines, independent component analysis

Participants :
- University of Granada (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 257191.2 €
- State University System of Florida (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet Predict-Plan-Control (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this project, I will develop a robotic planning and control system that performs human-robot collaborative manipulation tasks. The system will enable robots to help a human perform continuous forceful operations on a workpiece---grasping and moving the piece in coordination, in a way that is efficient and comfortable for both the human and the robot. This requires a novel integrated approach involving three components: control, human-interaction, and grasp planning. First, I will develop a cooperative controller that, in addition to responding to human motion and forces, can also explore freedoms natural to a given task, e.g. continuous grasp regions on objects. Second, I will develop probabilistic models for human motion, forces and comfort during interaction with robots. These models will inform the controller about human intentions and needs. Third, I will develop a grasp planner that can evaluate how effective a certain grasp is for the progress of the rest of the task. Such a capable human-robot collaborative manipulation system, integrating control, human-interaction, and grasp planning, is completely novel and does not yet exist anywhere else to the best of my knowledge. The multidisciplinary character of this project will provide me with a unique set of expertise complementing my previous knowledge in cooperative robot control with new skills in human activity prediction and grasp planning. I will be working with Prof. Cohn, an expert in human activity recognition and prediction, and Dr Dogar, an expert in robotic planning. This fellowship will enable the transfer of knowledge between their group and me through hands-on collaborative work and mutual training. It will strengthen my professional reputation and skill set, help me become a world-leading expert in human-robot collaborative manipulation, and will be a critical stepping stone in my career plan to attain a permanent academic position at a leading institution.

Mots clés : cooperative control, grasp planning, human activity recognition and prediction, human robot physical interaction

Participants :
- University of Leeds (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet TurantypeProblems (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this project, we propose to study several Turan-type extremal problems for graphs and hypergraphs as well as related extremal problems on rainbow structures. In Turan-type extremal problems, roughly speaking, we want to determine how dense a configuration (graph, hypergraph, set system, etc.) can be when certain sub-configurations are forbidden. One of the earliest results in the area is Mantel's Theorem from 1908, which says that the largest triangle-free graph on given number of vertices is the balanced complete bipartite graph. This was generalized by Turan in 1941 to complete graphs on any number of vertices. The Turan-number of a graph G is the largest number of edges that a graph on given number of vertices can have without containing G. The experienced researcher in recent years has made several contributions to these problems. On Turan-type problems for bipartite graphs, in joint work with Jiang and Ma, the she made a first non-trivial progress in a while to a conjecture of Erdos and Simonovits regarding the so-called Turan exponents of single bipartite graphs. On hypergraph Turan-type problems, in joint work with Sergey Norin, she has developed a highly effective variant of the classical stability method that allowed them to solve several open conjectures in the field. The TC-supervisor, Dhruv Mubayi, is a world leading expert on Turan-type extremal problems. Working on problems posed in this proposal will allow the experienced researcher to further develop these promising tools with a leading expert. The second set of problems concern rainbow structures in edge-coloured graphs and hypergraphs. The experienced researcher, in joint works with Peter Keevash, and also with others had made several contributions to this area in the last two years. Here there is also a common theme of a series of work done by the MC-supervisor Julia Boettcher, who is a leading expert on the study of spanning structures in graphs and hypergraphs.

Mots clés : extremal combinatorics, turan number, stability method, lagrangian, generalized triangle, extensions, rainbow, spanning structures, latin square, transversal, supersaturation, extremal number

Participants :
- University of Illinois System (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 189099.84 €
Projet MP3 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In this proposal, I introduce a new approach for the synthesis of conjugated polymers comprising anthraquinone and anthracene units in the molecular backbone and their use in ultra-thin film organic electronics. The preparation of these materials is possible via a common multi-potent precursor polymer obtained easily from anthraquinone via nucleophilic attack of an acetylide on the 9,10 position (yielding in a propargyl alcohol fragment) and subsequent polymerization via classic aromatic polymerization routes. Such precursor – whose chemical and processability properties can be tuned by modification of the propargyl alcohol moiety – yields both the final fully-conjugated anthraquinone and anthracene polymers by loss of acetylene or reduction respectively. In this way it is possible to overcome the limitation often fund in the synthesis of high-molecular weight fully-conjugated polymers. Moreover, one can introduce responsive functionalities to trigger the last step using diverse chemical, thermal, and photo stimuli, therefore allowing the realization of fine patterns and architectures via ink-printing, laser writing, and lithographic approaches. I propose to apply this methodology for the realization of ultra-thin inherently-conformable organic electronics devices that can find use in sensing, healthcare, and as electrode materials. Thanks to the orthogonality of the transformations introduced above, the approach described herein allows the preparation of up to three different phases from a single processable material, thus increasing the level of complexity achievable in thin-layer devices.

Mots clés : conjugated polymers, precursor chemistry, organic electronics, organic semiconductors, thin layer devices, responsive materials, anthraquinone, acenes

Participants :
- Italian Institute of Technology (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet AROMAs-FLOW (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In tune with sustainable chemistry, the use of enzymes for synthetic purposes has indeed drawn much attention as it is seen as an eco-friendly process. From another perspective, flow reactor technology represents one of the new strategies introduced in last few years to advance sustainability of organic synthesis and shows many advantages compared with traditional batch methods, including improved heat and mass transfer, efficient mixing of substrates and shorter reactions time. AROMAs-FLOW innovative strategy involves a combination of flow reactor technology and biocatalysis to create an efficient and modern platform oriented to a green production of natural food compounds and capable of extraordinary versatility and reaction innovation. The excellent opportunities offered by using immobilized biocatalysts under flow reaction conditions, represent a research field of certain growth. Twenty target aroma-compounds, three types of enzymes as well as acetic acid bacteria as whole cells have been selected to focus the efforts on specific synthetic problems, and to efficiently implement knowledge transfer to practical applications. The innovative AROMAs-FLOW project will offer an attractive economical incentive to the food industry because of consumers’ preference for natural products, attributed to increasing health- and nutrition-conscious lifestyles, as well as an alternative to traditional agriculture at risk of possible shortages caused by local condition production (climate, pesticides etc.) and the responsible care of natural resources. Furthermore, alternative “natural” routes for flavours production in addition to plants extraction, are becoming increasingly appealing. In agreement with Europe 2020 strategy, the outcomes of my research will reduce the cost of energy consumption and chemical waste with a significant economic and environmental impact on the society.

Mots clés : biocatalysis, flow chemistry, aromas, flavours, sustainable processes, natural products

Participants :
- University of Nottingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet BrEXo-Apt (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Increasing evidences indicate that the release of a great numbers of exosomes by tumour cells play a key role in tumour progression, drug resistance, immune surveillance escape, angiogenesis, tumour invasion and metastasis. For this reason, cancer-derived exosomes are emerging as very interesting targets for cancer therapy and diagnosis. In particular, extracellular exosomes may have great potential as early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for many types of cancer, including breast cancer. Early screening methods for breast cancer are mainly based on instrumental tests, that may cause in many cases a failure to reach particular categories of patients. This failure could be overcome with the availability of specific and predictive circulating biomarkers allowing non-invasive earliest tumour detection on a larger scale of patients. Indeed, progresses in developing nucleic acids-based therapeutic compounds, including antisense DNAs, aptamers, short interfering/microRNAs, and short activator RNAs, have attracted great interest as emerging platforms for precise cancer treatment. Dr Quintavalle has identified aptamers that specifically recognize BC-released exosomes and are able to discriminate between breast cancer derived exosome and glioma or lung cancer derived exosomes. Preliminary data indicates also that these aptamers are able to block the internalization of MDA231 derived exosome on MDA231 cells. To develop a new diagnostic and therapeutic strategy, Dr Quintavalle will aim to exploit the identified aptamers to design an innovative aptamer-based sandwich assay for their specific detection in patient blood samples. Moreover, since the inhibition of cancer exosome uptake by surrounding healthy tissues and organs would represent an effective strategy to interfere with tumour spreading and development, Dr. Quintavalle will aim to generate an affinity plasmapheresis system by using BC specific aptamers for specifically remove BC-derived exosome from patient blood.

Mots clés : aptamer, breast cancer, exosome, elisa, diagnosis, therapy, apheresis, blood, serum

Participants :
- Percuros (Netherlands) (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet MaGNiFi (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Increasing the sensitivity and resolution of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is of fundamental importance in medicine, chemistry, and physics. Diamonds with nitrogen-vacancy centres are promising vehicles to provide NMR with unprecedented sensing capabilities at room temperature; however, hitherto employed nitrogen-vacancy NMR systems exhibit sensitivities orders of magnitude away from theoretical limits and impose impractical experimental conditions. This limitation is largely owing to their limited capability of generating a rapidly changing magnetic field as needed for optimal operation. This action aims to develop a novel desktop NMR device that boosts the sensitivity and resolution of nitrogen-vacancy based NMR by being capable of switching the field strength and direction orders of magnitude faster than existing setups and without needing to shuttle the sample. Among others, such disruptive technology could allow detecting diseases much earlier than ever and gaining insight on the functioning of cells at individual molecular level. Importantly, this device would complement the benefits of existing NMR systems at a fraction of their cost and size. Given the overarching use of NMR in areas such as health, environment and food, this project can have a broad positive impact in the European Research Area. Having developed a number of novel NMR devices, the experience of the fellow will be of great value and complements with that of Host and Partner supervisors, which are top-flight experts on quantum photonics for nanoparticles and spin polarisation dynamics respectively. This multidisciplinary nature of the project would provide fertile grounds for extensive knowledge transfer between all the actors. Importantly, beyond broadening the competences of the fellow in the fast-growing field of quantum sensing, proposed outreach, supervision, and complimentary course activities form a comprehensive training package for the fellow to reach professional maturity.

Mots clés : nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic resonance imaging, dynamic nuclear polarization

Participants :
- Asociacion de investigacion mpc - materials physics center (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €