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

In 2017, the Cambridge dictionary picked ‘populism’ as its ‘word of the year’. This is of no surprise. In the European context in particular, populism is blamed for serious problems, such as the polarisation of political life, the decline of trust towards institutions, political instability, and the aggression and stridency seen in the public sphere. However, the wide use of the term raises questions about what exactly is captured by it, and whether it offers a fruitful way of framing all these developments. Despite the impressive growth we see in populism research in the last decade, little attention has been drawn to how traditional liberal-centrist political and media actors counter the challenge of populism – i.e. to anti-populism. What often goes unnoticed is that the negative valence that ‘populism’ has acquired, and its elevation to a central political frame may itself be contributing to polarisation by solidifying a new divide along the populism/anti-populism line. Anti-pop will explain the role of anti-populism in political and media discourse and its confrontation with populism, and the implications of these for democratic debate. It will do this by developing an innovative interdisciplinary approach combining tools from linguistics with rhetorical analysis and concepts from political theory, and deploying it for the analysis of a large and varied body of data. Anti-pop’s findings and dissemination approach will foster in-depth reflection and assessment of this framing in European media, political, and institutional discourse, and will contribute to the nuancing of public debate.

Mots clés : populism, anti populism, democracy, eu politics, discourse theory, political rhetoric, discourse analysis, media and politics

Participants :
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €
Projet CO2COFs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In CO2COFs project we will meet the world’s need for new heterogeneous catalyst materials for catalytic CO2 hydrogenation to formic acid (FA) by developing novel metallophthalocyanine (MPc)-based covalent organic frameworks (COFs) with high crystallinity and large surface area for renewable hydrogen storage in formic acid (FA). Althought heterocatalytic CO2 hydrogenation to FA is one of the most promising conversions, relatively few catalytic materials have been reported for this transformation. Furthermore, there are many studies of the development of the homogeneous catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to FA, but heterogenization of homogeneous Ru complexes by incorporating them onto supporting material is essentially unexplored. In CO2COFs project we will answer the demand by synthesizing MPc-based 2D- and 3D COFs which are highly crystalline materials offering a defined porous structure with definite binding sites for organometallic complexes. Prepared materials will be fully characterized and investigated in hydrogenation of CO2 to FA. One of the main targets of CO2COFs is to achieve recyclable heterogeneous catalysts with catalytic activities and efficiencies among the best reported worldwide. The results of CO2COFs project is expected attract the attention of companies related with catalysts and formic acid processing.

Mots clés : phtahlocyanine, catalytic co2 hydrogenation to formic acid

Participants :
- International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 239722.56 €
Projet MULTIFUNSOME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In Europe, breast cancer is by far the most important cause of cancer death among women. In particular, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive histological subtype with limited treatment options and associated with poorer prognosis than other breast cancer subtypes. MULTIFUNSOME proposes the use of an anti-Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody-conjugated thermoresponsive liposome to deliver simultaneously an anticancer drug and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO) to TNBC cells for thermo-chemotherapy. We will investigate: 1) the effect of combining anti-EGFR targeting and magnetic hyperthermia (MH) on TNBC in such thermo-chemotherapy and 2) how chemical-physical properties of the SPIOs and liposomes influence the therapeutic activity of the formulation. By conjugating anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody to a liposomal delivery system for targeting, drug and SPIO internalization into EGFR overexpressing TNBC cells will be greatly enhanced. SPIO co-encapsulation in the drug nano-cargo will induce a thermal dose to the TNBC cells when an alternating magnetic field is applied. MH will make TNBC cells more sensitive to chemotherapy and trigger the release of drugs intracellularly by enhancing the lipid membrane permeability. As a result, the effectiveness of chemotherapy could be synergistically enhanced by the concurrent application of MH and chemotherapy. The core size of SPIO will serve as a design parameter that can be readily manipulated to maximize the heating efficient of the multicore SPIO so as to minimize the necessary iron oxide content and maximize the drug encapsulation efficiency. The fellowship program will include a comprehensive training which will help the fellow to develop a unique multidisciplinary expertise. Furthermore, the project will generate important knowledge, impacts and collaborations in the European Research Area and could potentially address the critical need for a more efficacious TNBC therapy.

Mots clés : thermo chemotherapy, liposome drug delivery, targeted delivery, triggered release, magnetic hyperthermia, triple negative breast cancer

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet Primer (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In European temperate regions, predicting how climate change will affect rates of biological invasions is crucial for conserving native biodiversity. A European Regulation adopted in 2014 aims to prevent new introductions and stop existing alien species from developing invasions. This requires robust predictions on how introduced alien species will respond to climate change and the management actions designed to prevent invasions. Predictions of ‘invasiveness’, the ability of an introduced alien species to invade, tend to be based on climate envelope models, but these lack environmental and biological complexity and so produce erroneous predictions. Our primary aim is thus to develop novel agent-based models (ABMs) for predicting the consequences of climate change and management actions for the invasiveness of introduced alien species in Europe by integrating climatic, environmental, management and hydrological data. Model regions are Great Britain and France, providing a large latitudinal and climatic gradient suitable. Model species are alien freshwater fishes, as they strongly represent invasive animals in Europe. The experienced researcher (ER) will complete the following research objectives to meet the primary aim: (O1) select the species for modelling and collate the data for modelling; (O2) develop an initial ABM for current climate conditions; (O3) parameterise, for each model species, the initial ABM to predict current invasion probabilities; and (O4) use these final ABMs to predict, via simulations of climate change and management actions, the future invasiveness of the model alien fishes in freshwaters. As the ER has high expertise on invasive species then strong knowledge exchange activities in the Fellowship will: (1) provide the ER with new competencies in predictive ecology and modelling to enable completion of this novel and innovative research, and (2) enable the hosts to develop new research agendas on biological responses to environmental change.

Mots clés : non native species, climate change, invasiveness, invasion management

Participants :
- Bournemouth University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet FRAGMENTOME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In Fragment-Based Lead Discovery (FBLD) highly sensitive biochemical and biophysical screening technologies are used to detect the low-affinity binding of low-molecular-weight compounds (the so-called fragments) to biological targets that are involved in pathophysiological processes. Knowledge of the molecular interactions between fragment hit(s) and the target protein allows the rational generation of high-quality leads for drug development. Thus, high-resolution (e.g. X-ray crystallography) and relatively high-throughput structure determination technologies are key to this approach but they can become a limiting factor for both technical and economical reasons. As a matter of fact, when the experimental characterization of binding mode fails, the success rate of FBLD approaches drastically drops. To overcome current limitations in FLBD, here we propose the development of a computational framework based on advanced-sampling molecular dynamics simulations to map the binding of fragments to protein surfaces on the proteome scale---thus generating the Fragmentome Altas. For each individual target this will allow to: a) systematically identify fragments binding to protein surfaces and cryptic pockets; b) reconstruct the mechanism of binding with atomistic spatiotemporal resolution; c) characterize the molecular determinants of affinity and kinetics in fragment-protein complexes. This insight is fundamental for optimizing and evolving fragments to lead compounds with desired thermodynamics and kinetics features. To date, neither experimental nor computational approaches can provide such information at affordable costs while maintaining the high throughput needed for screening campaigns. The successful implementation of this ambitious project lies in the unique combination of expertise of its participants, and it will allow a novel state-of-the-art for modern drug discovery to be established. The Fragentome Atlas will be a freely accessible on-line server.

Mots clés : fragment based lead discovery, enhanced sampling molecular dynamics, free energy, calculations, computer aided drug design, protein ligand interactions, biophysics

Participants :
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 158121.6 €
Projet REPLICIAS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In Southeastern Europe, a region parcelled into nation-states with exclusive definitions of identity, architectural heritage has often been recruited in the service of politics. Shared layers of history have been split among competing historiographies and, in a period marked by crisis, conservatism and 'East-West' dilemmas they are still in the core of heated debates today, impeding visions of European integration, prosperity and peace. Anchored on on-going projects in three cities in the region, this research explores the ways heritage is claimed through its reproduction. In some cases this corresponds to a recurring wave of revivalism, resulting to large replica buildings installed in the heart of the city, such as in Istanbul (where the reconstruction of the barracks on Gezi park led to the riots of Taksim square in 2013) or in Skopje (‘Skopje 2014’ project). In other cases the production of copies is politicised on a small scale, as the copies of the Elgin Marbles in the New Acropolis Museum and the copy of the Alexander’s Sarcophagus in the Skopje Archaeological Museum testify. The research aims to ask, how does ‘replica architecture’ intersect with questions of national identity and economic policy? And how is its relationship with the original transformed, lost or, at times, irrelevant? Moreover, in a region of strongly defined borders, how do such reconstructions connect to each other, addressing local and international audiences? Through interviews with the actors involved and analysis of the visual and textual discourses surrounding these projects, the research will unpack instances of politicisation of heritage in the above-mentioned geography, while inviting into dialogue the disciplines of architecture, history, museology, art conservation, and political sciences. In so doing, it will contribute to the goal of competitive, innovation-based European research and to a knowledge-based society while profoundly advancing the career of the researcher.

Mots clés : politics of heritage, identity politics, replicas, architecture, istanbul, athens, skopje

Participants :
- Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (Grèce) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 152653.2 €
Projet BioRail (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In a number of European countries, old railway transport infrastructure earthworks are suffering from serviceability problems or failures and need continuing and costly maintenance/remediation works. This is becoming a major constraint for railway owners and operators, especially in the light of the increased risk of hazards posed by climate change. The hypothesis of this research is that biocementation (a technique that uses natural biological processes to bind soil grains) is a viable and sustainable technique for improving the structural stability of railway earthworks, and hence, the resilience of the EU’s transport infrastructure. The hypothesis will be tested through the application of the technique on earthwork materials of the UK rail network. After establishing improved microbial systems and processes, the project will involve advanced soil testing. The testing will give high quality data on the hydromechanical properties and behaviour of biocemented soils. Careful consideration will be given to the behaviour of the soil under unsaturated soil conditions (soil voids partially filled with water) which has not been researched. The data will be interpreted by constitutive modelling of the soil behaviour. The model will be implemented to commercial software, giving researchers and engineers a useful predictive tool for the analysis and design of biocemented soils. Having assessed the technique and the durability of the biocementation in the laboratory, a significant advance of this research will be the pilot application of the technique on actual railway assets, made accessible by a major owner and operator of railway infrastructure. This novel technique is proposed to be environmentally superior to conventional grouts (which are toxic) and other common soil stabilisers, e.g. cement or lime (linked to high CO2 emissions). Overall it is more sustainable because the micro-organisms used are renewable, environmentally friendly and safe (non-pathogenic).

Mots clés : geotechnical engineering, railway earthworks, ground improvement, biological treatment

Participants :
- London South Bank University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet VirtualSync (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In addition to impairments in episodic and spatial memory, a lack of awareness for one’s memory deficits (also referred to as anosognosia) may be considered a crucial cognitive marker of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). However, although a growing body of interesting models have been proposed to explain this early symptom, what is still missing is a unifying theoretical framework able to elucidate the complex mechanisms underlying anosognosia. To overcome this issue, it has been recently proposed by the experienced researcher of this project that anosognosia may be related to a break in the synchronization between spatial reference frames (i.e., the Mental Frame Syncing). Starting from these theoretical premises, rooted in neuroscience research field, the major objectives of this interdisciplinary proposal are: a) Investigating the role of “mental frame syncing” in explaining anosognosia in patients with early AD; b) Designing and developing a new “embodied machine” for reducing symptoms of anosognosia; c) Testing the new “embodied machine” (VirtualSync) in a development-of-concept trial for AD patients suffering from anosognosia; d) Disseminating the activities of the project to the scientific/clinical community and to the general public.

Mots clés : bodily self, space, self awareness, egocentric representation, allocentric representation

Participants :
- University Hospital of Lausanne (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 175419.6 €
Projet NHNME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In answer to the secularization and Islamization of Europe, traditionally perceived as the main stronghold of Christianity, Pentecostal and Charismatic groups from South America and Africa are today planning the re-evangelization of the “old continent”. Indeed, in the last three decades these regions have served as hubs for the development of new forms of proselytization based on new media and smart technologies. Leveraging new media expertise, new monastic communities of religious media managers (hereafter MCMMs) have become actors of primary importance in both established institutions, such as the Catholic Church, and the global religious market at large. The overall aim of the proposed research is to advance my career through the completion of the present research project, which examines the rise of the use of online video for proselytization purposes and the emergent role of MCMMs in organized religious institutions. From online sermons to ISIS beheadings, online video-sharing platforms are today a central arena in which MCMMs of different faiths compete for users' attention and attempt to disseminate their religious creeds. This raises the question: how do established religious institutions act to shape users' worldviews and renegotiate authority on a global level via online video-mediated communication? To investigate the ways that religious institutions construct users' experience and negotiate its meanings on new media platforms, the study focuses on the Canção Nova's online activities. Drawing upon the legacies of both Semiotics and Sociology of Religion, this study proposes an innovative socio-semiotic approach which combines semiotic analysis of video with web content analysis and workplace ethnography. This analytical method has been designed to enable the description of the new ways in which religious imagery is strategically constructed and disseminated through the Internet.

Mots clés : digital religion, informal education, online community, religious leadership

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 270327.36 €
- Fundacao sao paulo (Brésil) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet TIMPANI (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In both speech and music perception, the auditory system decomposes sounds that overlap in time and frequency into distinct perceptual events and streams, which is referred to as auditory scene analysis (ASA). Hearing-impaired listeners suffer from severely compromised ASA, as illustrated by their immense difficulties to understand speech in noisy environments. Although the central role of ASA in shaping the experience of music is widely acknowledged—perceptually organizing sounds from multiple instruments or voices into melody and accompaniment, for instance—the role of hearing loss in musical scene perception remains largely unexplored. At the same time, hearing aids are typically designed for speech perception, not for music perception. Adopting a transdisciplinary approach that employs methods from music perception, auditory modelling, and signal processing, this Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action aims to Test, Predict, and Improve Musical Scene Perception of Hearing-Impaired Listeners (TIMPANI). Firstly, a series of music perception tasks will be designed to assess the effects of hearing loss on musical scene perception abilities. Secondly, an auditory model will be developed in order to predict normal and hearing-impaired listeners’ performance in ASA tasks. Finally, algorithms for scene-aware music mixing will be developed for improved music perception of hearing aid users. This research is timely and addresses the H2020 challenges to improve demographic change and wellbeing in European societies: The rise of hearing loss calls for scientific and technological breakthroughs in order to include hearing-impaired individuals in the cultural resource of music listening and making.

Mots clés : music perception, hearing loss, auditory scene analysis

Participants :
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171460.8 €
Projet PCHYPERs (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In cells, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is deliberately produced and is key for a healthy cellular metabolism, and an adequate H2O2 production and delivery is required for correct cellular and tissue functions. The majority of this H2O2 production occurs in cellular microdomains, and the signalling actions in these microdomains are restricted to a very confined area. Most of these discoveries were made possible thanks to the use of genetically-encoded fluorescent biosensors that detect the changes in H2O2 concentration, including the HYPER family of biosensors. However, the details of these microdomains are missing because these biosensors rely on conventional fluorescence microscopy methods, which are limited in spatial resolution. This project aims to overcome the resolution limitation in H2O2 imaging by developing photochromic variants of the HYPER biosensors, known as PCHYPERs, that can be utilized in super-resolution microscopy. This will enable to discern the gradients of metabolic H2O2 at a high resolution, helping identify the role of H2O2 as a cellular messenger in signalling pathways and the functional implications of its disturbance.

Mots clés : hydrogen peroxide, fluorescent proteins, biosensors, photochromism

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178320.0 €