Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet CRY TRSX (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Charge transfer is crucial in many biological processes, including photosynthesis, respiration, and DNA repair. While the kinetics of charge transfer are well studied, the associated protein structural dynamics that guide these reactions remain largely unexplored. This proposal aims to uncover, for the first time, the protein structural rearrangements that occur during charge transfer events, with a particular focus on avian cryptochromes involved in magnetoreception. Our primary objective is to reveal the structural response of two cryptochromes during charge transfer events using cutting-edge time-resolved serial crystallography (SX) at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) facilities. We intend to elucidate the structure and dynamics of the radical pair state in non-magnetoactive ClCRY4 from non-migratory pigeon (Columba livia) (Objective 1) and magnetoactive ErCRY4 from night-migratory European robin (Erithacus rubecula) (Objective 2). Through comparative analysis of the two samples, we aim to identify the structural adaptations that correlate with their differing biological responses to magnetic fields. We hypothesize that highly directed structural rearrangements in proteins occur for stabilizing charge transfer states. This contrast current textbook knowledge. By focusing on radical pair states in cryptochromes, our comparative study between ErCRY4 and ClCRY4 will enable us to determine whether and how structural adaptations are aligned with their biological functions. This research is poised to make a significant impact in charge transfer theory, and will provide the first structural basis to understand magnetosensing in crpytochromes. We anticipate establishing a new paradigm in which protein structural fluctuations actively drive charge transfer reactions, and may reveal evolutionary optimizations in how cryptchromes have facilitated this for optimization of their sensing functions.

Mots clés : time resolved serial crystallography, protein structural dynamics, avian cryptochromes, magnetosensing, charge transfer

Participants :
- Université d'Uppsala (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 236340.0 €
Projet HyQuArch (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

HyQuArch aims to provide top-level scientific outputs and training in the field of solid-state quantum technologies. Its main goal is to set-up the technical foundations of a Hybrid Quantum Architecture that couples a random-access quantum memory, the spins of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in a diamond crystal, to several superconducting flux qubits acting as quantum processors. Superconducting cavities will turn on and off the communication between these components and perform operation and read-out protocols. The outgoing phase will take place at the USTC in Shanghai, while the return phase will develop at INMA in Zaragoza. First, several strategies will be combined to: a) enhance the ensemble-qubit coupling and b) minimize the environmental noise suffered by NV spins. The former goal will be addressed by fabricating the superconducting circuits onto diamond substrates and by using superconducting lumped element resonators to confine and enhance the microwave magnetic fields that mediate the transfer of quantum information. Longer storage lifetimes, thus higher state transfer fidelities, will be achieved by lowering the NVs concentration. Next, the focus will be on designing and implementing complex microwave pulse sequences to operate the quantum components and to exchange quantum information between them. Attaining these targets will enable storing entangled quantum states of two flux qubits in the quantum memory, a milestone that has remained elusive up to now. The return phase will be centred on the standardization of the technologies developed in Shanghai. Via collaboration with private stakeholders, the use of FPGA integrated circuits will lead to the development of low latency libraries for operating qRAMs. These advances will also enrich other quantum technologies pursued at CSIC. In particular, the final prototype will be applied to introduce a qRAM unit and tuneable couplers to boost the computational power of a quantum processor based on spin qudits.

Mots clés : hybrid quantum technologies, circuit quantum electrodynamics, superconducting qubits, spin qubits, quantum memories, nv centres in diamond, molecular spins, superconducting resonators

Participants :
- Université des sciences et technologie de Chine (Chine) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 246384.48 €
Projet CELLIDRECUT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Neuronal loss is at the core of cognitive and functional failures of both acute brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. Direct neuronal reprogramming of local glial cells is emerging as a promising approach for restorative brain therapy. However, in order to use direct glia-to-neuron reprogramming for the treatment of neuronal loss we still need to address a number of challenges, namely reliable and long-term conversion into the desired neuron subtype. In this proposal we aim to generate specific neuronal subtypes using novel fate determinants in glia-to-neuron reprogramming, and to provide a detailed molecular analysis of the newly generated neurons over time. Our data indicate that ONECUT factors may represent excellent novel candidates for astrocyte reprogramming into neuronal fates. To address this possibility, in this proposal we will focus on the thalamocortical system, which represents the main input to the neocortex and it is essential to cortical processing. We hypothesize that the innovative combination of nuclei specific thalamic factors with ONECUT factors could reveal new avenues for the direct reprogramming of astrocytes into thalamic neurons of specific sensory modalities and may inform future strategies for brain repair. Here, we have unique expertise and molecular tools at hand that will allow us to reprogram astrocytes into specific neuron types in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, as our ultimate goal is to reprogram astrocytes to recover neuronal loss, we will test whether astrocytes from a sensory deprived thalamus can be reprogrammed. By using state-of-the-art techniques such as 3D light-sheet microscopy, calcium imaging and transcriptomic analysis, we will determine the fidelity and functionality of the newly generated neurons. This approach will offer us unparalleled advantages for the discovery of novel reprogramming combinations and address important questions about reliable and long-term conversion into the desired neuron type.


Participants :
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet SENSEAIR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This action will provide the first historical analysis of occupational health work in a Chinese context. It will focus on changing understandings of airborne risk, illustrating how state-led industrialisation efforts introduced new ways of knowing and controlling dangerous particles in the air and how these were communicated amongst experts and to lay publics. It will analyse policy documents, educational propaganda, popular science magazines, and scientific journals related to the field of industrial hygiene to investigate how this field became an important context for reconceptualisations of the air and its relationship to the body. Industrial hygiene grew into a prominent area of public health in the early People's Republic of China, with workplaces like factories and mines designated as sites for managing health-related and environmental concerns. The emergence of industrial hygiene as a scientific regime for organising people, production, and environments in twentieth-century China has not yet been studied by historians. In centring this field, the action will reveal how the control of infectious disease, dust-related occupational disease, and emerging knowledge about pollution developed alongside new understandings of the air as well as of worker productivity. Addressing a major gap in histories of modern China, it will demonstrate the crucial role of the industrial workplace as a site for the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. By studying conceptualisations of airborne pathology in the unique setting of socialist China, it will offer novel insights into how the communication of knowledge about risk was reconciled with radical political and economic goals. The action will integrate the history of medicine with histories of labour and environmental histories, making possible an understanding of China’s role in past, present, and future global health events in relation to broader ideological, economic, and cultural shifts.

Mots clés : medical humanities

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

Neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) encompass a diverse group of diseases that severely impact patients' quality of life and reduce life expectancy. Despite the urgent need, only a handful of these disorders are currently treatable. A major barrier to therapeutic development is the lack of humanized models that can accurately reflect the complex neuromuscular phenotypes observed in patients. Recent advancements in cell culture techniques have enabled the development of functional 3D-tissue-engineered skeletal muscles (3D-TESMs), offering a promising platform to study NMDs. However, the integration of motor neurons and neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) in these models remains challenging. In this project, I aim to bridge this critical gap by leveraging my background in developing in vitro muscle models and the host lab's expertise in peripheral nerve biology. Together, we will develop innervated cell models capable of contractile functioning using human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived muscle cells and motor neurons. By integrating 3D-printing technologies and a customized high-density multielectrode array, I plan to generate two innervated 3D-TESM cell models to study both the muscular and neuronal aspects of NMDs. As a proof-of-concept, these models will be applied to study the effects of axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT2), illustrating their potential for investigating NMDs. Overall, the development of innervated 3D-TESMs will represent a significant step forward in creating more accurate humanized systems to study NMDs and accelerate the development of effective therapeutics.

Mots clés : charcot marie tooth disease, neuromuscular disorders

Participants :
- Université d'Anvers (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 200400.0 €
Projet SEEDS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project will tackle an old and much debated topic in historical English: the origin of English do-support (DS). The new approach is within an interdisciplinary framework of language change and grammaticalisation, and views language as composed of constructions, the process driven by the pragmatics. The focus is the tipping point between the construction as semantically compositional, and the later stages where it is predominantly idiomatic. This research is underpinned by widespread evidence that grammaticalisation pathways for auxiliary verbs are often very similar cross-linguistically (Bybee, Perkins & Pagliuca 1994). It is specifically informed by a recent study of a ‘do’-support construction in a different language, the living Romance dialect of Camuno (the researcher’s PhD topic: Swinburne 2021), perhaps currently the only example of DS other than English with sufficient data to indicate a grammaticalisation pathway. There are certain similarities between the more primitive forms of DS in modern Camuno and in (south)-western dialects of historical English (1400-1550). These are: 1) semantic preferences in the type of infinitival verb (activity > stative verb) and subject thematic role (agent > experiencer); 2) expression of reality, certainty and existence (in comparison to both main verb-only and modal sentences); 3) an intensifying meaning employed to express doubt or confirmation of a speaker’s prior expectation (so in this sense its use is ‘presuppositional). Through detailed analysis of certain historical texts, the project explores the meanings and functions of early DS in this period; how these meanings may be predetermined by the lexical meaning of ‘do’; and the extent to which syntax played a part in the early developments.

Mots clés : do support, auxiliary verbs, language change, construction grammar, historical linguistics, middle english dialects

Participants :
- Université d'Anvers (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 200400.0 €
Projet EUSEAGE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The Russia-Ukraine War has elevated the geopolitical significance of the Black Sea. The sea has become a site of military battles, blockaded trade routes, and environmental degradation. The entanglement of this body of water with many contentious developments underscores the need for a deeper and multifaceted understanding of its role in contemporary geopolitics. Yet, the military-strategic analysis, which dominates the academic scholarship on the Black Sea, ignores other important geopolitical dimensions, such as interests and knowledge of the local coastal communities and the materiality of the sea water in shaping geopolitical relations. The project, therefore, aims for a critical, bottom-up and material geopolitical reframing of the Black Sea in which the body of water and its coasts remain both a central object of analysis and a key site of study of geopolitics. Empirically, the research focuses on the Black Sea’s role in the European Union’s (EU) geopoliticization of its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) since 2014. It investigates the Black Sea’s role in the European Union’s geopolitical agenda and practice. Methodologically, the research brings different geographical scales and vantage points on the Black Sea geopolitics together, such as the EU institutions in Brussels, coastal communities on the Black Sea, and the sea itself, in order to capture various elements and phases of EU’s practice of geopolitics from inception to implementation and finally, effect and impact.

Mots clés : black sea eu european neighbourhood policy critical geopolitics maritime geopolitics borders territory assemblage

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191760.0 €
Projet BEST-TEC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

As the world is rapidly adopting wearable technology, the demand for efficient, self-powering devices is becoming increasingly critical. Thermoelectrics (TEs) are important because they can convert body heat directly into electrical energy to power wearable electronics and enable efficient on-skin heating/cooling for applications such as skin thermoregulation. Existing wearable TE devices inevitably face reduced energy conversion efficiency due to 1) high contact thermal resistance at the interface between the substrate and the skin due to non-conformal contact and poor attachment; 2) high parasitic thermal resistance across the substrate, which is typically a thermally insulating flexible polymer; and 3) high electrical contact resistance between the TE legs and their interconnects due to a poor electromechanical interface. In BEST-TEC, I target a 3-in-1 solution to these challenges by proposing novel skin-like nanocomposites with high mechanical compliance and tunable heat/electrical transport across preferential directions. Used as a substrate for skin thermoelectric (sTE) devices, these nanocomposites will result in a tenfold increase in performance. BEST-TEC is innovative because while most sTE research to date has focused on the development of new materials and device architectures, BEST-TEC addresses a largely overlooked aspect that is currently holding back device performance - the substrate and its interfaces. The project is timely because it will enable new wearable biomedical devices, needed more than ever in our aging population. As the project lead, I possess a robust background in wearables, nanotechnology, and device engineering. My customized devices have been used on diverse surfaces, such as marine animals and human skin, new racing cars, and drones, underscoring my ability to deliver versatile impactful solutions. With an understanding of the challenges faced by sTE devices, I aim to pioneer the advancement of the field.

Mots clés : skin thermoelectrics, interface engineering, hybrid nanocomposite, magnetic field alignment, contact resistance

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191760.0 €
Projet MODCHILD (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The project will examine representations of children and childhood in women’s fiction of the modernist period (c. 1890-1950). The concept of childhood became central to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British culture, when the child-figure was used to explore important questions about identity and gender. Scientific investigations of children led to views of childhood as a developmental stage, the role of which was to prepare the child to become a rational and autonomous adult – characteristics associated with ideas of masculinity. The project explores how female fiction writers of the period reshaped and rejected male-centred scientific definitions of childhood in order to reimagine the child, making it a vehicle for feminist ideas and a propeller of new modes of representation. The project will pursue an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on expertise in literary studies, childhood studies, and feminist studies, acquired and consolidated through KU Leuven’s research centres: MDRN (focusing on modernist culture), and LCH2 (Leuven Centre for Health Humanities, with a special focus on representations of age). This expertise will primarily be developed by training-through-research under the supervision of Elke D’hoker, an expert on women’s fiction and modernist literature. The main deliverables will be two journal articles, a monograph proposal, and an edited collection, arising from an international symposium organised at KU Leuven. The research will also lead to the delivery of four conference papers, and communication to non-academic audiences through European Researchers’ Nights, a public lecture, a newspaper article, and a workshop for high school students.

Mots clés : modernist literature, women s literature, childhood, feminism

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175920.0 €
Projet RAPID-AFM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

Two-dimensional polymers are a crucial category of low-dimensional materials that have garnered significant attention from both academia and industry. Despite the synthesis of various types of 2D-COFs reported in the literature, there remains a significant gap in our fundamental understanding of their nucleation and growth mechanism on the surfaces. High-Speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) offers the potential to observe molecular processes in real-time, providing valuable insights into single-molecule dynamics. This project aims to develop scientific and technical methodologies for investigating 2D polymerization processes using HS-AFM on solid surfaces. I target the acquisition of qualitative as well as quantitative data in relation to the nucleation, growth and ripening phenomena transpiring during 2D polymerization. This research will shed light on numerous unknown aspects of dynamic covalent chemical reactions occurring on solid surfaces, which often differ substantially from those in solution or bulk. Complementary techniques such as XPS and AFM-IR will be employed to chemically characterize the material. This comprehensive approach will enhance our understanding of surface-based 2D COF design. The quantitative insight obtained into the 2D polymerization processes will be used to fabricate large domains of defect-free polymer films on various surfaces such as SLG-Si/SiO2, h-BN and mica. The high quality polymer films formed on dielectric substrates would pave way for the direct characterization of their electrical properties such as charge carrier mobility.

Mots clés : scanning probe microscopy, covalent organic framework, boronic acid, thin film, 2d polymer, molecular dynamics, solid liquid interface

Participants :
- Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191760.0 €