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

In quantum information science and technology, two main encodings of information are traditionally used: a ‘discrete-variable’ (DV) approach, based for instance on single photons, and a ‘continuous-variable’ (CV) one, which relies on continuous degrees of freedom such as amplitude and phase of a light field. A mostly unexplored area combines these two different approaches to create ‘optical hybrid schemes’. Recently, entanglement between particle-like and wave-like optical qubits, i.e. CV-DV entanglement, has been generated for the first time by the host group. This resource holds the promise of heterogeneous quantum networks where the two encodings can be combined or interconverted. In this context, the proposed research activities aim at investigating, harnessing, and using the potential of this yet unexplored photonic resource.

Mots clés : entanglement, continuous variable, non gaussian states, teleportation

Participants :
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet CAPPERAM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In radiation therapy, proton therapy has a more favourable dose distribution than conventional radiotherapy with photons and electrons. However, in order to fully exploit this dosimetric advantage, it would be required to verify the range of protons in the patient with mm accuracy. The most used strategy for in-vivo range verification in protontherapy relies on positron emission tomography (PET) activation. As they progress through the patient, proton beams undergo nuclear reactions than can produce radioactive isotopes, some of which are positron-emitters. This induced radiactivity can be detected in commercial or dedicated PET scanners and used to deduce the delivered dose distribution in the patient. While a promising technique, two main challenges have so far limited its clinical implementation: first, the proton interaction cross sections of the elements making up the body (C, O, N, H) are relatively low, which causes the positron dissintegration counts detected by the PET scanners to be about 1 or 2 orders of magnitude lower than the usual numbers in nuclear medicine. And second, the spatial and temporal distributions of PET emitters follow a very complex relation with the dose depositions which complicate the range verification process. The CAPPERAM project aims at solving these two problems by using Zn-based contrast agents in the patient during irradiation. Zn has a very high cross section for proton interaction peaking at very low proton energies, which produces a very high concentration of PET emitters near the end of the proton range. The action, comprising both computational simulations and phantom experiments, will take place in Sedecal Molecular Imaging, a company dedicated to the fabrication of high-precision PET devices, with a 6-month secondment at the group of Nuclear Physics of the Complutense University in Madrid, which specializes in applications of experimental nuclear physics to medical imaging.

Mots clés : protontherapy, proton therapy, particle therapy, hadrontherapy, hadron therapy, in vivo range verification, in vivo range monitoring, contrast agents, positron emission tomography

Participants :
- Sedecal molecular imaging sl (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet AGORA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years the global financial crisis and the consequent austerity measures have triggered protest movements all over the world. In Southern Europe there has been a strong wave of mobilizations directed to defend public welfare provision. These anti-austerity movements have been characterized by a call for social justice framed in solidarity and inclusion, against the perception of a reduced capacity by the state of addressing citizens’ needs. This low level of trust in institutional politics has triggered the creation of alternative spaces of deliberative and participatory democracy, directed to experiment with different political expressions. A crucial question is whether and how this claim for different forms of democracy has been translated by social movements into organizational forms that bring increased democracy also into the economic sphere. In order to address this still underinvestigated issue, AGORA focuses on those entrepreneurial activities that originate from the civil society, in this specific case as a direct expression of anti-austerity movements, that are characterized by the prevalence of social objectives over profit maximization. AGORA will investigate the organizational dynamics and characteristics of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) organizations that emerged in Spain and Portugal in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The general objective of AGORA will be to assess how SSE is politically framed by investigating the linkages between social movements and SSE. Starting from a social movement perspective, AGORA will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, by finding synergies between social movement scholarship, economic anthropology, organization studies and SSE scholarship (which is per se interdisciplinary), with the aim of integrating different approaches proposed by these disciplines.

Mots clés : social and solidarity economy, social movements, austerity, portugal, spain

Participants :
- University of Coimbra (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160635.6 €
Projet SPHEROTOX (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, an increasing number of emerging pollutants were identified in aquatic ecosystems, and one of the major concerns is the presence of sex-steroid hormones and mimics which act on aquatic organisms as endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). The proposed multidisciplinary project will have focus on in vitro testing of complex of EDCs mixtures: the EU watch listed pollutant ethinylestradiol with emergent progestins drugs (levonorgestrel and megestrol acetate), taking into account a standard versus a warming scenario, as a major global change issue. This will be done by developing and exploiting cutting edge in vitro fish toxicity test tools: single-cell and (new in fish studies) multi-cell type 3D spheroids of liver cells (hepatocytes, stellate cells and biliary epithelial cells) of brown trout (Salmo trutta). The project will explore the advantages of 3D cultures, which have been proved to be much more biologically realistic than common 2D cultures, in order to study: (i) their morphology and viability using light and electron microscopy, including immunocytochemistry; (ii) multi end-point biochemical assays in combination with Raman microspectroscopy (novel in 3D culture); (iii) mechanistic insights of disruption and eventual (still unavailable) biomarkers of fish exposure/effect as to progestins. Quantitative gene expression is the method of choice for this task, targeting specific genes related to lipid-metabolism, yolk and eggshell proteins and androgen/estrogen/progestin receptors. An additional innovative contribution of this project is developing new tolls for enforcing the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement) in fish research. The project will bring to another level the collaboration between the applicant and the host mentor by bidirectional transfer of skills and expertise, while conducting a scientifically innovative project. The strategy will benefit persons while establishing grounds for long-term institutional benefits.

Mots clés : in vitro methods, cell spheroids, fish toxicology, biomarkers, hepatotoxicity, climate change, endocrine disruption, sex steroid receptors, lipid metabolism genes, raman microspectroscopy

Participants :
- University of Porto (Portugal) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 79907.52 €
Projet MIPhmotors (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In recent years, the use of toxic pesticides in agriculture has been intensified to fulfill the increasing demand for food, at the expense of a heavily polluted environment. Growing of food using polluted water causes serious risks for human health. Therefore, Europe has introduced increasingly stringent regulations on food production quality, which require a sensitive and selective screening system that can detect pesticides in water and food. Micro/nanomotors, combining the enhanced physicochemical properties of micro/nanoscale materials with their autonomous motion capability, have demonstrated a great potential for the fast degradation of pollutants into electrochemically detectable products. Still, there is no control on their degradation ability, as they "shoot and degrade" any pollutant on their path, leading to a non-selective detection. Moreover, the motion is generally achieved by using toxic fuels or through the decomposition of motors themselves, limiting their practical applications. The present MSCA IF project "MIPhmotors" aims to selectively and sensitively detect toxic pesticides in water and food by employing for the first time the molecular imprinting technique for the preparation of photocatalytic micro/nanomotors with various sizes and shapes. This innovative class of motors will be able to exploit a renewable and abundant resource as light to move and, at the same time, selectively photodegrade the imprinted pesticide via the specific recognition sites created by molecular imprinting. Then, the electro-active degradation product will be detected by electrochemical measurements using commercial screen-printed electrodes. The proposed research activity can be extended for the detection of other pollutants, and will open new opportunities in the field of micro/nanomotors and in their application for water purification, sensing and biomedicine.

Mots clés : nanomaterials, micromaterials, photocatalytic semiconductors, molecular imprinting, photodegradation, electrochemistry, sensors, pesticides

Participants :
- Brno University of Technology (Rép. Tchèque) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 156980.64 €
Projet RFFD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In regions of moderate and high seismicity such as Europe, steel concentrically braced frames (CBFs) are considered a cost-effective lateral force resisting system to withstand seismic and/or wind loading. Comprehensive building-specific economic loss assessment suggests that the expected annual losses of steel CBF buildings are mainly associated with repairs of acceleration-sensitive building components, which in turn results into building functionality disruption after an earthquake. Higher building vibration mode effects and the complex asymmetric inelastic behaviour of steel braces make it challenging to prevent soft-storey mechanisms that potentially lead to global collapse even in capacity-designed steel CBF buildings. The proposed project aims to address the aforementioned issues by developing an innovative dissipation device, named Recentring Friction Floor Dissipator (RFFD) to control the earthquake-induced vibration and demands in steel CBF buildings through its diaphragm response instead of the lateral load resisting system that is traditionally attempted. This will minimize the variability of the inertia force demands along with the earthquake-induced life-cycle costs. The device realization will be achieved through physics-based computational simulation-based design validated to full-scale testing. Macro-models will be developed to facilitate, for the first time, time-dependent nonlinear building simulations that will be benchmarked to a landmark system-level experiment. A graphics-based design tool will be developed that will combine in a single format economic loss metrics with multiple building performance indicators to aid decision-making for enhanced building service life in seismic regions. After having acquired extended experience in the field of earthquake engineering in New Zealand and Japan, the applicant wants to reintegrate to Europe to consolidate his career in a leading European University.

Mots clés : earthquake engineering

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet FOSICAV (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In relation with the study of both moduli and enumerative problems in complex algebraic geometry, we propose the geometric study of various families of subvarieties of certain complex algebraic varieties of small dimension, and mainly of families of (possibly singular) curves. The Severi varieties are a typical example: they parametrize curves of given degree and geometric genus in the projective plane; the general such curve has a prescribed number of ordinary double points and no further singularity. Apart from exploring their dimensions, smoothness, and irreducibility properties, we have in mind to determine their Hilbert polynomials (which among other things encode their degrees, the latter being important enumerative invariants). A central feature of our project is to conduct this analysis by degeneration: to study families of subvarieties in a given variety X, we let X degenerate and look at what happens in the limit. For instance, to study curves on a general K3 surface, we can let it degenerate to a union of projective planes, the dual graph of which is a triangulation of the real 2-sphere. We shall consider the following kind of families of subvarieties: families of curves with prescribed invariants and singularities in surfaces (with special attention to the two cases of the projective plane, and of K3 surfaces), families of hyperplane sections with prescribed singularities of hypersurfaces in projective spaces, families of curves with a given genus in Calabi-Yau threefolds, and families of surfaces in the projective 3-space containing curves with unexpected singularities.

Mots clés : severi varieties, enumerative geometry, calabi yau threefolds, noether lefschetz loci

Participants :
- University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 180277.2 €
Projet ASISA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In space, infrared detectors are used for many applications such as Earth observation, post-launch satellite tracking, space-object surveillance or climate monitoring. According to the Planck's law, cold object detection requires a material with a longer wavelength λ to address the Very LongWavelength InfraRed (VLWIR, λ > 12 μm) spectral domain. The current state-of-the-art includes the Mercury-Cadmium-Telluride (HgCdTe) material. Although, the HgCdTe technology is already well established and manufactured by many European companies, it suffers from poor uniformity, stability and operability at longer wavelength due to compositional issues caused by the strong dependence of the energy bandgap with the Cadmium mole fraction. Efforts have therefore been driven to develop alternative infrared materials such as the Type-II InAs/GaSb SuperLattice (T2SL) that can theoretically outperform the HgCdTe technology. Even though, the T2SL has proven to be a successful approach in the mid-IR and long-IR, extending the cut-off wavelength to the VLWIR range is a new challenge to take up. The VLWIR-T2SL technology will be developed in the newly-established Institute for Compound Semiconductor (ICS) laboratories at Cardiff University (CU). If successful, this fellowship will produce a real breakthrough in the field of infrared detectors. The VLWIR-T2SL technology has a strong industrial potential, the candidate will thus engage European collaborators in early stage to demonstrate a focal plane array. This will lead to a reliable route to commercialise devices through the newly-funded Compound Semiconductor Centre. This fellowship will leverage the large investments by the Welsh and UK government and CU in the general area of compound semiconductor. The candidate will have the managerial and technical support from Prof. Diana Huffaker, as well as staff members of ICS and the School of Physics and Astronomy.

Mots clés : infrared detectors, superlattice, iii v material

Participants :
- Cardiff University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet CIAO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In subduction systems, there is an intermediate mantle zone in the overriding plate, located between the wedge and the neighbouring back arc. This zone is influenced by both subduction-related and ocean spreading processes, resulting in a remarkable geochemical heterogeneity of the mantle sources that ultimately generate a wide variety of melts. They in turn will feed the volcanoes on the surface, most of them highly explosive. Our knowledge of these peculiar geodynamic settings is very limited and ophiolitic complexes provide an almost unique opportunity to investigate their chemical-physical features at large scale. CIAO will study the amphibole-bearing peridotites of Nain ophiolite (Iran). This ophiolite includes magmas from MORB to Boninite and suggest that it was formed in an arc/back arc system. We use this unique opportunity to study the physical-chemical conditions of these peculiar peridotites, measuring major, trace and volatile element concentrations in hydrous and nominally anhydrous minerals. Volatile speciation, water activity and oxygen fugacity will be also measured. This study will improve our knowledge of mantle volatile species and circulation mechanism. It will allow to constrain the mass transfer between the two colliding plates, ultimately leading to a better understanding of the input/output budget of the subduction systems. Within Earth Sciences, CIAO combine disciplines as diverse as petrology, crystallography and geodynamics. It will employ a variety of state of the art analytical techniques. The applicant will work in a synergetic network of highly motivated experts that will guarantee high-quality output and a significant impact on the perspectives of her career. A better understanding of the petrological features of this geodynamic setting, together with its chemical-physical processes will greatly improve our knowledge of volcano eruptions, hoping to reduce the hazards for thousands of people living around volcanic areas.

Mots clés : subduction zone, back arc spreading, mantle volatile cycle, mantle melting

Participants :
- University of Ferrara (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 180277.2 €
Projet AMO-dance (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In the "AMO-dance" project, the researcher, Dr. Elham Khosravi and the host supervisor, Prof. Angel Rubio, aim at deriving non-empirical history-dependent functionals for the time-dependent density functional theory to study the strong field dynamics of atoms and molecules. Furthermore, towards accounting for the electron-nuclear coupling and quantum features of the nuclear dynamics in molecules, AMO-dance proposes an in detail investigation of Kohn-Sham potentials of the multicomponent density functional theory. AMO-dance project will involve fundamental theory development, numerical implementation as well as application to real systems.

Mots clés : strong field dynamics, time dependent density functional theory, multi component density functional theory, history dependent functionals

Participants :
- University of the Basque Country (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet Speedingrisk (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In the EU, road accidents are in the top three causes of deaths and hospitalizations . WHO finds it crucial to discourage speeding, because it is a main cause of road accidents. The Fellow’s research in the psychology of human factors engineering shows that people underestimate the risks of accidents from speeding and overestimate how much time is saved through speeding. Public campaigns have typically not yet sought to correct these misunderstandings but rather have focused on emotional fear-appeals to reduce speeding. The Supervisor’s work on risk communication provides a systematic method for correcting such decision-relevant beliefs, which has been successfully applied to a variety of contexts, but not to the design of dashboard tools. We take the novel approach of combining the Fellow’s and Supervisor’s fields to design dashboard tools and public campaigns that discourage intentions to speed by correcting drivers’ misunderstandings of the risks and benefits of speeding. This project will benefit from Fellow's experience in leading projects on informing driver perceptions with dashboard tools, and her ongoing partnerships with the car industry and governmental agencies. The project will lead to knowledge transfer between the Fellow’s Swedish Transportation Institute, partners at Volvo Cars and government agencies as well as the Supervisor’s Centre for Decision Research and the associated Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds (UK). The project will boost the Fellow’s academic career progression, as she aims to become a world-leading expert in evidence-based interventions that improve driver safety and save drivers’ lives.

Mots clés : risk communication, speeding risk, drivers  safety

Participants :
- University of Leeds (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €