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

The key goals of the RF-MAFS project are: the training of the Experienced Researcher (ER) Dr. Javier Alonso-Valdesueiro, in the fast growing field of Scientific Instrumentation, where the host and partner institutions have critical knowledge and expertise and the design, development and optimisation of a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine based on the concept of Radio-Frequency Magic Angle Field Spinning (RF-MAFS). The aim of the research project is to design and develop a novel type of portable MRI scanner which enhances the image resolution by applying a rotating magnetic field. This project brings together Engineering Skills, Magnetic Resonance (MR) Knowledge and Medical Imaging Insights. Therefore, it will clearly have a broad positive impact on the European Research Area (ERA). The interdisciplinary and intersectoral training program includes specific training in RF power devices, magnet design and training in transfer of knowledge from academia to industry. Then, it will enhance and broaden Dr. J. Alonso-Valdesueiro´s expertise in Applied Scientifc Instrumentation, increasing his exposure to both academia and industry. The Fellow is a talented researcher who has gained much expertise in engineering applied to NMR during his postgraduate career. This background is of great value for the optimization magnet design for medical imaging. But for further boost his career, Javier needs to gain expertise in prototype construction for scientific applications in which the University of Basque Country has a world-recognised expertise. Additionally, through the three-month secondment at University College London he will have contact with the medical image processing part of the action. Therefore, The multidisciplinary project activities including outreach activities, supervision, and complimentary course outlined in the work plan, reflect all training objectives and will assist Javier in acquiring necessary competences and reaching professional maturity.

Mots clés : magnetic resonance imaging scanner, portable imaging devices, radio frequency, magnet

Participants :
- University of the Basque Country (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet ULTRACONTROL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The key objective of this ambitious and adventurous program of research is to develop an entirely new method of spacecraft orbit transfer and orbit control using solar sails, driven only by solar radiation pressure. The new method will enable ultra-low cost libration point missions, with numerous applications in space science, Earth observation and telecommunications. To achieve this goal, orbit transfer and orbit control for such libration point missions will be investigated using modern dynamical system theory with solar radiation pressure. This provides a key advantage over conventional thrusters, since a solar sail does not require propellant, thus reducing spacecraft mass and launch costs while significantly lengthening mission duration. Through this programme of research, practical control strategies will be evaluated and engineering requirements on solar sail size and performance assessed. The programme of research will be supported by the interdisciplinary Space Glasgow Research Cluster and the host’s extensive network of international collaborators on solar sailing (ESA, NASA, NOAA). The host supervisor is the acknowledged international leader in the rapidly developing field of solar sailing. The therefore project offers a golden opportunity to link the Experienced Research’s prior work on real-world solar sail mission operations at the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) with the host’s extensive expertise in solar sail orbital dynamics.

Mots clés : spacecraft orbit control, dynamical system theory, solar sail

Participants :
- University of Glasgow (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet PIL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The key objective of this fellowship proposal is to develop the first ever porous ionic liquid (PIL) at the molecular level and to explore their properties as Type I permanently porous liquids. Transition-metal coordination cages, in which organic ligands coordinate to metal cations to form a molecular capsule, will be used as scaffolds for permanently PIL. Such coordination cages have been developed by the Nitschke group. In the target PIL, the cations will be coordination cages and will thus contain an empty cavity. The strategy employed to synthesize permanently PIL will be functionalizing a task-specific coordination cages with imidazole cations together with the selection of proper anions in order to liquefy coordination cages at room temperature . The researcher will also explore the guest encapsulation properties of these new liquid capsules by monitoring guest uptake in neat permanently porous liquid.

Mots clés : porous liquids, ionic liquids, coordiantion cages

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet Hidden life (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The kingdom Bacteria represents the most widespread and diverse life form on Earth. On the 89 recognized bacteria phyla, 60 lack a cultivable representative, being thus considered as candidate phyla, or “microbial dark matter” (MDM). Accumulating evidence suggests that a substantial fraction of these elusive microbes is associated with (eukaryotic) hosts. The candidate phylum TM6 represents a major MDM phylum; its members are globally widespread and frequently detected in natural and man-made environments. The draft genome sequence of an uncultivated TM6 member suggested a potential symbiotic lifestyle with protist hosts. This was recently confirmed with the first TM6 isolate obtained by co-cultivation with amoebae. In line with these observations, I recently isolated and cultivated a free-living amoeba species naturally harbouring TM6 bacteria as endosymbionts, making it the first TM6 bacterium isolated with its natural host, and the second worldwide to be cultivated in laboratory conditions. While members of the TM6 phylum are ubiquitous and thought to be involved in major biological processes, their ecology and biology remain at this time unexplored. Through the use of state-of-the-art genomics, bioinformatics, super resolution microscopy, proteomics and innovative metatranscriptomics approaches, I aim to uncover the ecology and biology of TM6 bacteria. The proposed research, facilitated by my ability to cultivate TM6 bacteria within their natural hosts in laboratory conditions, is relevant and urgently needed, because i) it will improve our general understanding of MDM’s poorly known ecology, and ii) it will help uncover the lifestyle of a ubiquitous group of intracellular microbes, their strategies to infect and thrive within eukaryotic hosts. Carrying out this project will undoubtedly place me in an excellent position to develop a successful and top-level career in the field of host-microbe interactions and symbioses.

Mots clés : microbe host interactions, protists, microbial dark matter

Participants :
- University of Vienna (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178156.8 €
Projet CriTiClean (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The lack of donor organs and tissue constitutes a health and social problem. In 2014 about 119.873 organs were transplanted, that is less than the 10% of global needs. Critical patients do not survive the waiting time while transplanted people must receive lifelong immunosuppressive therapy with severe side effects. Also, there is a risk to lose the new organ to chronic rejection, which is linked to the presence of cellular components e.g. glycolipids and lipoproteins in the donor tissue. There is currently no process to remove lipids and lipid antigens from soft tissue prior transplantation. Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is known to extract lipids from solid matrices, while polar molecules of high molecular weight, such as structural proteins in soft tissue, are insoluble. In this project we will explore the use of scCO2 to remove lipid compounds from soft tissue (i.e. pulmonary arteries) as a novel process for tissue preparation in order to suppress the main cause of rejection associated with transplantation. Fundamental studies on solubility of lipids in scCO2-water-ethanol mixtures are necessary to evaluate the extractability of lipids from fresh tissue, and will be performed by 'in-situ' Raman spectroscopy. Our approach avoids the use of current chemical and biological treatments that risk damaging the tissue and pose a toxic threat to the recipient organism. The mechanical properties of the “cleaned” tissue, the immunoresponse that provokes and its capacity for recellularization will be studied 'in vitro' and related to the amounts and type of remnant lipid compounds. The project brings supercritical fluid technology into the biomedical field. This work will lead to efficient methodologies to “clean” all kind of organs/soft tissue and will enable safe animal-to-human transplantation, a current dream that will increase the hope of critical patients and improve life-quality after transplantation by removing the need of immunosuppression.

Mots clés : supercritical carbon dioxide, tissue delipidation, in situ  raman spectroscopy, method development, soft tissue, pulmonary artery, immune rejection, recellularization

Participants :
- Lund University (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173857.2 €
Projet NeuralCon (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The lack of objective and robust measurements of motor recovery is a general problem in stroke rehabilitation. After the ischemic event, the motor impairment is assessed using clinical scales that provide only a general overview of the patient’s conditions, without detailed information on the activation of the individual muscles and the pathological co-contractions. In recent years, the hypothesis that the coordination of multiple muscles is wired at the neural level in a synergistic way has received strong experimental evidence. Therefore, the possibility to better understand the recruitment of multiple muscles and use this information for the assessment of motor recovery is extremely relevant for stroke rehabilitation. The project NeuralCon aims to investigate the neural mechanisms behind the control of multiple muscles of the lower limb in healthy individuals and its degeneration in acute stroke patients. The project will address the characterization of the neural coupling between muscles using innovative signal processing approaches applied to the high-density surface electromiographic signals during voluntary contractions. From the electromiographic signals, we will extract information regarding the coupling between multiple motor neurons in different motor pools. The final aim will be the development of a new generation of biomarkers based on the concurrent neural activation of several muscles in the lower limb of acute stroke individuals. The project will combine expertise in several fields: neuroscience of human movement, clinical neurophysiology, stochastic signal processing and computational neuroscience. The NeuralCon project will produce substantial progress toward a better understanding of the neural pathways involved in the coordination of voluntary movements and its modifications in cerebrovascular diseases.

Mots clés : rehabilitation, synergy, stroke, motor unit, multichannel, biomarker, motor neuron, computational neuroscience

Participants :
- University of Brescia (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 168277.2 €
Projet X-LAW (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The lack of successful reforms of the internal dimension of migration policies, as witnessed by the stalemate of the recast of the ‘Dublin Regulation’ and by the disappointing fate of ‘relocation schemes’ for migrants across Member States, creates a fertile ground for proliferation of policies of externalisation of migration controls. These aim at creating transnational governance structures geared at sharing the administration of the preventive containment of migration flows directed to Europe. In the words of a layman, Europe pays to keep migrants away from its territories (see EUObserver article ‘Will the EU continue paying to keep migrants away?’, 9/9/2019). The informalisation of readmission and cooperation agreements with third states, the increased relevance of executive governance actors in border controls, the cooperation with Third Country governments in operational settings (information-sharing for risk analysis, return operations) are trends growing exponentially. These recent externalisation practices suggest the creation of governance avenues characterised by a transfer of functions and responsibilities to third-country organs and/or delocalisation of control practices to third-country territories. In this way law, European law specifically, is being set aside (X-LAW). In a first phase, the described tendencies will be mapped and their specific features will be conceptualised. In the second part, the project will analyse the legal consequences of externalisation practices previously mapped. In the third part, the project will focus on accountability mechanisms for the transnational governance systems created. X-LAW is relevant for the Work Program 13: ‘Europe in a changing world’ of the H2020 Work Programme 2018-2020, in particular for the calls Migration 02-2018 and Migration 07-2019.

Mots clés : migration, externalisation, executive governance, informal law, accountability

Participants :
- European University Institute (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175673.28 €
Projet NExtNCNaBatt (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The large and increasing demand for energies with a low CO2 footprint has prompted intense research and development on renewable energies as well as on sustainable electrochemical energy storage systems to fully utilize them. This requires the development and understanding of battery chemistries from earth abundant low cost raw materials, which can be easily synthesized, with Na-ion batteries (NIBs) at the forefront of meeting these requirements. While in Na-ion batteries most efforts are made to investigate materials that are essentially derivatives of Li chemistry, there are opportunities to look at very different chemistries which were not explored for Li ion batteries or just work much better in Na batteries. The goal of this NExtNCNaBatt project is the investigation of designed novel materials based on the N=C derived anions and their application as electrodes for sodium ion batteries. The major objective is the establishment of a fundamental understanding of the Na to N=C interactions in Novel Extended solids based on the NC chemistry for Na-ion batteries which will be achieved through the study of structural changes in the bulk by in-situ x-ray diffraction studies, as well as local changes in the atomic environment followed by advanced spectroscopic studies. Na-ion batteries are just at the birth of commercialization, and therefore materials developed in this project could be timely incorporated into next generation prototypes and first commercial Na-ion batteries. Additionally, these new materials and the understanding of the alkali to NC interactions will be relevant to many other areas of research where electrochemical transformations occur, such as other battery chemistries, capacitors, electrochromic displays, and as photocatalysts, all systems where the understanding of the heterogeneous reactions between the solid electrode and ions from a liquid electrolyte are of critical importance.

Mots clés : energy storage, na ion batteries, carbodiimides, cofs

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet NPTC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The last two hundred years have seen new anthropogenic emissions dramatically change the chemical composition and chemistry of the troposphere, creating a diverse set of atmospheric conditions based on location and level of human population. Reducing climate change and reversing the negative impacts humans have on the atmosphere is a clear European Commission target moving forward towards 2020. Alkenes are common to pristine, clean air environments (biogenic sources) and polluted, urban environments (anthropogenic emissions). The removal of alkenes from the troposphere predominantly occurs through reaction with ozone, generating a wide range of products including OH, CO and CO2, which have a significant impact upon the chemistry of Earth’s atmosphere. Despite the abundance of alkenes in the atmosphere, the atmospheric ozonolysis of alkenes is still poorly understood. Dr Beames intends to use this Fellowship to build a new research group at Cardiff University, using advanced physical chemistry techniques to study an elusive intermediate species in these ozonolysis reactions, which are known as Criegee intermediates (carbonyl oxides). Criegee intermediates are a dominant source of night-time OH• (a ‘tropospheric detergent’) and are implicated in aerosol formation. These species have only recently been directly detected, and have become a hot topic in both atmospheric chemistry and physical chemistry fields. During his time as a Dreyfus Post Doctoral Fellow in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Beames pioneered the spectroscopic research on Criegee intermediates, leading to several high profile publications. He will continue to investigate their chemistry, and their role in aerosol formation, using novel, highly selective and sensitive, infrared cavity ring down spectroscopy. This will combine his existing knowledge of infrared spectroscopy and cavity ring down spectroscopy.

Mots clés : atmospheric chemistry, aerosol characterization, criegee intermediate chemistry

Participants :
- Cardiff University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet STRoNA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The latest achievements in artificial intelligence and neural networks, especially deep neural architecture in large-scale neuromorphic hardware implementation such as SpiNNaker, and in cognitive robotics and neurorobotics, with the widespread use of robots such as iCub and the latest Pepper platform, provide the opportunity to significantly advance our understand human cognition and brains and to reach human-level artificial intelligence. One of the key success factors in deep learning is its hierarchical structure inspired by biological processes in the primate visual cortex, as with convolutional deep networks able to learn rich representations. They are grounded in optimization methods with high precision for training may consume large training datasets and computational resources to learn complex tasks. That gives human level performance in static image recognition but raises adaptation issues. SpiNNaker is a neuromorphic computer architecture in massively parallel computing platform based on spiking neural networks (SNNs) in which neurons communicate by temporal code. The aim of STRoNA (Spatio-Temporal Representation on Neuromorphic Architecture) is to define the technology that will map a computational architecture onto neuromorphic computing circuits, hence to develop a cognitive model with spatio-temporal representation and learning algorithm for humanoid robots. The principal research objectives of the project are: (i) to investigate which spatio-temporal representations of spikes (or neural action potentials) can be used to achieve human level performance on visual perception; (ii) to develop a novel method to process spatio-temporal representation on a neuromorphic architecture to enable learning in online and interactive contexts; and (iii) to validate and adapt the developed system in real world robotics applications.

Mots clés : cognitive robotics, neural networks, neurorobotics

Participants :
- University of Manchester (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet EpiSil-IBC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The leading technology in the photovoltaic market today is the single junction crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell. Since there is little room for further improvement beyond current efficiency records and to reduce material costs, the industry trend in c-Si technology is pushing towards thinner and thinner cells, which are harder to handle without breaking. The aim of this proposal is to realize a solar cell based on ultra-thin (<50 µm) silicon foils with contacts on the back side of the cell. New processing techniques are required in which the foils are bonded to a glass substrate, such that they are never handled free-standing. The goal of this innovative solar cell is to surpass the current state-of-the art efficiencies of thin silicon foil solar cells by using, low-cost and high yield processing.

Mots clés : epitaxial silicon foil, crystalline silicon solar cell, interdigitated back contact

Participants :
- IMEC (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160800.0 €