Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet MusicalSpeech (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Given the immature cognitive abilities of infants at birth, caregivers connect with them by producing stereotyped infant-directed (ID) forms of speech and songs in which the acoustic features are modified. Although ID vocalisations are fundamental for establishing social and affective bonds, key aspects of infant–caregiver interactions are still poorly understood. One of the goals of the Musical Speech project is to identify distinctive acoustic adaptations of ID speech and songs by implementing machine learning models to cross-culture recordings from diverse societies, and track the evolution of those acoustic markers over the first year of life. In addition, recent evidence shows that the rhythm of ID singing acts as an effective cue for infants to attend to emotionally and socially-relevant content, such that infants look more to the caregiver’s eyes during on-beat moments of the songs. This project aims to determine whether rhythm in ID speaking similarly attunes infants’ attention and whether ID speech elicits distinctive patterns of attention before and after 6 months (as it serves more of a linguistic purpose). Using audiovisual recordings of adults speaking/singing to infants, this project will implement cutting-edge eye-tracking measures to samples of Canadian and Spanish infants. Finally, prematurity and individual differences in neural coding of rhythm, measured with a state-of-the-art EEG paradigm, can affect early interactions. Thus, the eye-tracking outcomes of terms and an additional sample of preterms will be correlated with the EEG signal elicited by rhythmic stimuli. The cross-laboratory studies proposed in this innovative project will comprise training on advanced statistical techniques and leadership, as they rely on the coordination of an international network. The project can contribute to basic and applied fields with unprecedented, high-quality insights and an experimental paradigm shift to compare early language and music perception.

Mots clés : infant directed speech and songs, acoustic features, eye tracking, visual attention

Participants :
- Université McMaster (Canada) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 252724.32 €
Projet PreVision (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Prior knowledge plays a central role in shaping our perception and interactions with the world. Predictive coding theories represent an influential framework formalizing the neural computations that underlie the integration of prior knowledge into perception. One central tenet of predictive coding is the computation of prediction errors, which signify the discrepancy between predictions, derived from our prior knowledge, and incoming sensory input. Despite ample empirical evidence supporting the existence of prediction errors, such as heightened sensory responses to unexpected compared to expected stimuli, several unresolved questions persist. One pivotal question pertains to the nature of the surprise encoded in sensory prediction errors across the visual cortical hierarchy. Does the computation of prediction errors reflect local surprise, specific to each level in the visual hierarchy (e.g., surprising orientations in primary visual cortex)? Alternatively, is the coding of surprise inherited top-down, aligning with the notion of predictive coding that predictions are relayed from higher to lower areas? Furthermore, it remains unclear whether the computation of surprise dynamically adapts to our goals or remains a static feature of cortical tuning. Lastly, the networks and temporal dynamics that underlie prediction and prediction error computations are poorly understood. Within the scope of the PreVision project, my objective is to address these critical knowledge gaps through the integration of advanced neuroimaging techniques and artificial intelligence methodologies, thereby shedding light on the fundamental neurocomputational mechanisms that drive perception. Consequently, this project represents an excellent opportunity for me to engage in innovative and pioneering research, investigating pressing questions within contemporary cognitive neuroscience, and significantly advance my scientific career.

Mots clés : cognitive neuroscience, predictive coding, vision, perception, artificial neural networks, task goals, eeg, fmri

Participants :
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet eCat-MOF (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

As the consequences of the anthropogenic contamination become more evident and irreversible, there is an increasingly urgent need to switch towards more sustainable paradigms in the chemical industry. In this context, the utilization of renewable energy sources via electrocatalysis has emerged as a highly active field of research during the past decades, although further efforts are required to provide economically viable technologies with practical applications. eCat-MOF project aims at developing efficient electrocatalysts for chemical reactions based on reductive protonation. These processes are ubiquitous to a large number of industrially relevant transformations such as reduction of olefins, carbon dioxide or dinitrogen. An electrocatalytic approach will offer a sustainable alternative to harness renewably sourced electricity to power such transformations, avoiding current harmful processes that pose important obstacles towards a circular economy. The strategy of eCat-MOF project is based on accessing concerted proton-electron transfer (CPET) reactions due to their energetic benefits allowing operation at milder potentials and thus outcompeting the otherwise dominant hydrogen evolution reaction. To this end, eCat-MOF will target the design of novel CPET mediators based on an interdisciplinary approach: incorporation of molecular redox and acid/base mediators in the structure of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and the immobilization of the resulting materials on carbon-based electrodes. This strategy merges the fields of molecular inorganic/organometallic chemistry, reticular materials and heterogeneous electrocatalysis to overcome challenges associated to undesired bimolecular reactivity, low current density, limited Faradaic efficiency, difficult product separation and catalyst recovery. The expected implications of eCat-MOF will have a broad impact in the progress towards the integration of renewable energy schemes into the chemical industry.

Mots clés : metal organic frameworks mofs conductive mofs, electrocatalysis, concerted proton electron transfer, small molecule activation, renewable fuels, organic electrosynthesis

Participants :
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet SHIELD (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

SHIELD addresses a critical challenge in aquaculture: improving the resilience of Manila clams (Ruditapes philippinarum) to environmental stressors like Perkinsus infections and heatwaves. These stressors have caused widespread mortality in clam populations, threatening the sustainability of this important industry. Through a combination of laboratory and field experiments, SHIELD seeks to investigate two key hypotheses that aim to tackle these challenges from a new perspective. The first hypothesis focuses on the transgenerational effects of Perkinsus infections, examining how parental exposure to the pathogen may affect their offspring's health, growth, and survival. This area remains largely unexplored, and SHIELD aims to shed light on how the effects of infections can be passed down through offspring. By using advanced genomic and epigenomic tools, SHIELD will examine how these changes are inherited and influence the overall fitness of future clam populations. The second hypothesis examines how early microbial exposure can influence the clam’s ability to cope with environmental challenges. Hatcheries typically raise clams in sterile conditions, which might leave them more vulnerable to stressors later in life. SHIELD will test whether exposing clams to a microbiota-enriched environment early in their development can lead to better growth, disease resistance, and survival outcomes when facing real-world stressors like heatwaves and pathogens. By integrating advanced genomic techniques and insights from fieldwork, SHIELD will provide a deeper understanding of how microbiota, pathogens, and environmental stressors interact. This research could offer valuable insights that support more sustainable aquaculture practices, helping ensure the resilience of Manila clam farming in a changing climate.

Mots clés : manila clam, environmental stressors, climate change, heatwaves, marine pathogens, microbiota, perkinsus, infectious diseases

Participants :
- Université de Padoue (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 193643.28 €
- Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation en Santé de l’Université de Porto (Portugal) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet NFROGS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project will focus on some issues regarding front propagation in reaction-diffusion systems, geometrical problems with a variational structure and solutions of elliptic and parabolic problems exhibiting singularities. These are important problems in the vast field of (nonlinear) Partial Differential Equations which are motivated by Physics and Biology. The first part of the project will be devoted to the study of reaction-diffusion systems. An important type of solutions for these systems are fronts which, in many situations, play a distinctive role in the long-time dynamics. However, these issues are not well understood for some important classes of reaction-diffusion systems due to the non-applicability of the more standard and widely used mathematical tools. Our purpose will be to fill this gap. The second part will be devoted to several problems in geometry. These problems are formulated within the framework of Geometric Measure Theory (GMT) and can be understood through a PDE approximation of Allen-Cahn or Ginzburg-Landau type. Following this approach, we will tackle several of these problems which remain unsolved and the outcome will be of interest to both the Geometry and the PDE communities. The third part, also intimately related to GMT, will be centered on the classical topic of singularities of harmonic maps and Ginzburg-Landau equations. We will study the existence of new types of solutions with distinguished behavior. The second and the third part of the project are intimately interconnected, and their interactions have been explored for a long time. However, the project also aims at establishing new relations between the first and third part, whose interactions have not been studied in depth so far. The project is autonomous but it has been enriched by several collaborators. The role of Prof. Orlandi as supervisor is particularly adapted to the project's purposes and it will be crucial for its correct and effective development.

Mots clés : parabolic equations, reaction diffusion systems, variational methods, geometric measure theory, traveling waves, long time behavior, allen cahn, ginzburg landau, constant mean curvature surfaces

Participants :
- Université de Vérone (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172750.08 €
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet BioCiTrees (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

There is a huge pressure on cities to build robust urban ecosystems in a way that can withstand global change while providing good living conditions for citizens. The accomplishment of this goal is essential to ensure an equitable future maintaining the benefits of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) that the urban green infrastructures (UGI, i.e., trees, parks and urban forests) provide. To achieve this challenge, we first must identify which type of UGI better adapt to present and future conditions and hence increase its long-term ecosystem functionality and resilience. Thus, there is an urgent need of empirical research to optimize UGI functions and NCP, which are still insufficient. Additionally, society’s preferences for given UGIs may not coincide with UGIs that maximize nature’s benefits to people. This could add new trade-offs between social and ecological dimensions of those benefits. The main objective of BioCiTrees is to build mechanistic models testing which species maximize different NCP (i.e., air purification and insect biodiversity support) while exploring trade-offs between society’s preference for certain UGIs and the provision of those contributions. For this, BioCiTrees will apply trait-based approaches to identify key traits and community functional components that maximize the benefits of those contributions in the context of global change, an evidence that is lacking. Moreover, this project will develop a survey to identify different stakeholders’ preferences for certain UGIs, providing support for establishing targets to co-develop UGIs taking cultural values into account. BioCiTrees will help to fill a major gap in our understanding of the underlaying mechanisms controlling NCP in urban ecosystems so that we can use the full potential of the UGI for the benefit of urban citizens while tackling global challenges, a priority of the Horizon Europe and the EU Green Deal.

Mots clés : nature s contributions to people functional traits people s perceptions air pollution insect biodiversity cities climate change

Participants :
- Université nationale de Córdoba (Argentine) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet ROLEPS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Lotmaria passim is a trypanosomatid parasite of bees, highly prevalent in honeybee colonies, considered a major factor in colony loss. Yet, the molecular mechanisms it uses to survive both inside and outside its host are unknown. Preliminary studies showed that L.passim secretes extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and differentiates into surface attached colonies mimicking the mechanism of bacterial biofilm formation. EPS provides environmental resistance to changing and extreme physicochemical conditions (e.g. in bacteria). Thus, I hypothesise that EPS confers resistance to L.passim and have an active role in the bee gut. In ROLEPS I aim to explore the role of EPS secretion and the mechanisms of biofilm formation in the prevalence and resilience of L.passim chasing three objectives: i) study the response of L.passim biofilms to biotic and abiotic stressors, ii) identify the genes involved in EPS secretion and the developmental differentiation into biofilms using CRISPR/Cas9, and iii) explore the function of EPS in honey bee health. ROLEPS will be developed at the University of Granada (Spain), within the Biochemistry and Molecular Parasitology group lead by Prof. de Pablos, who has developed a protocol to isolate trypanosomatid strains from field isolates, optimized the isolation of the secretome of trypanosomatids and settled all the facilities for genetic engineering assays. A secondment is planned at the Centro de Investigación Apícola y Agroambiental (CIAPA) in Marchamalo (Spain), supervised by Dr. Higes, expert on bee health. ROLEPS is an innovative project as it will analyse for the first time the role of EPS and biofilms in a trypanosomatid parasite of bees, it will integrate genetic engineering in the field of bee parasitology and test parasite-secreting substances as protection against contaminants in bees. ROLEPS is fully achievable due to the easy handling of the model organisms. Thus, I expect ROLEPS has important repercussions in bee health.

Mots clés : crispr cas9, trypanosomatids, biofilm, eps, honey bees, beekeeping, animal health

Participants :
- Instituto regional de investigacion y desarrollo agroalimentario y forestal de castilla-la mancha (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 169822.91 €
Projet EDHI (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Approximately 40–60% of the European population is at risk of developing hearing loss due to exposure to unsafe noise levels. The EDHI fellowship will develop a novel toolkit sensitive to the first signs of hearing loss – appropriate for use as an early diagnostic. This objective will be achieved by (1) ideating innovative behavioural and neurophysiological tests that will provide novel biomarkers of hearing performance, and (2) developing an automatic classifier that estimates the degree of hearing damage based on these biomarkers. The encouraging pilot data obtained to date, along with the background experience of the applicant and supervisor in developing advanced signal-processing methods and conducting hearing research situate them in an optimal position to conduct the planned research. This fellowship has the potential to transform current clinical practice by providing clinicians with the necessary tools to diagnose hearing disorders that are currently undetected in approximately 1 out of 10 patients. The early diagnosis of hearing difficulties will enable the provision of individualised recommendations to ameliorate a person’s hearing difficulties and prevent any further deterioration, thus reducing the risk of social isolation, anxiety, depression and dementia. Further, a ‘hearing-pathology demonstrator’ will be developed for use in outreach activities to increase awareness amongst the general population of the adverse impacts of hearing loss, and to assist policy makers in the design of effective prevention strategies. In addition, this fellowship lays the groundwork for a substantial bidirectional transfer of knowledge with the host institution and provides the opportunity to engage with top hearing-related industry partners who have an interest in the commercial exploitation of this technology.

Mots clés : auditory evoked potentials hearing loss auditory neuroscience

Participants :
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 181152.96 €
Projet MITO-GARAGE (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Mitochondrion is a crucial integrator of various cellular metabolic pathways in the intermediary metabolism, and it has the ability to produce oxidatively-derived energy by the oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) system. The OxPhos complexes are composed of subunits encoded by both mtDNA and nuclear DNA (nDNA), and mutations in either class of genes can cause severe OxPhos defects, leading to mitochondrial diseases (MD). Remarkably, the mitochondrion is unique among the cell's organelles, as it contains its own DNA (mtDNA). The deoxynucleotides triphosphates (dNTPs) required for mtDNA synthesis are produced by the salvage pathway in the own mitochondrion. However, recent data suggest that de novo pathway for dNTPs synthesis is also critical for mtDNA replication. In fact, defects in enzymes involved the de novo pathway have been recently reported as causes of MD. MITO-GARAGE aims to better understand how the different pathways involved in dNTPs metabolism work in mtDNA replication and to develop therapeutic strategies when it is impaired. This will allow us to better comprehend basic metabolic processes and their integration in pathophysiological and therapeutic aspects for MD. With that purpose, we will use unique in vitro and in vivo models with defects in RRM1, GUK1 and COQ2, and a combination of modern and classical reductionist approaches. MITO-GARAGE will be carried out in international-recognized groups at Columbia University and the University of Granada. The workplan includes one key short visit to learn an specific technology; training in basic-clinic and public-private partnerships; training in academic skills; scientific and non-scientific work-packages, tasks, milestones and deliverables; a contingency plan; the landscape for results’ exploitation and the development of a career plan. Overall, MITO-GARAGE clearly define the four-way transfer of knowledge and will achieve significant advances in the progress of the hyper-personalized medicine.

Mots clés : mitochondria, mitochondrial diseases, rare diseases, therapies, personalized medicine, nucleotide metabolism, mtdna depletion, mouse models, tissue specific mechanisms, mitochondrial metabolism

Participants :
- Université Columbia (Etats-Unis) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Grenade (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 261380.64 €
Projet ChirLog (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

With the ever-growing demand for carrying and processing data in a fast and efficient way, optical computing and processing methods have become a promising candidate for the next-generation computing and processing applications, due to many advantages, such as high-speed and parallel data processing, compared to their electronic counterparts. In this project, I plan to construct the world first chirality-based all-optical logic gates. The initial plan is to significantly extend the preliminary results to many other nonlinear optical processes in monolayer two-dimensional layered materials with the aim to construct various chirality logic gates such as XNOR, XOR, NOR, AND, NAND, OR, Buffer, and NOT gates. I will also construct ultrafast (<10 fs) multiple-logic functions simultaneously with phase-matching-free nonlinear optics. Further, I will combine the valley properties of two-dimensional materials to demonstrate electrically configurable chirality logic gates. The chirality logic gates built in this project will work fundamentally different from the previously demonstrated optical gates, which will offer numerous advantages (e.g., atomically thin footprint, multiple processing, parallel operation, and ultrafast processing speed across a wide range of wavelengths).

Mots clés : computing logic gate chirality two dimensional layered material

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Aalto (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 215534.4 €
- Université de Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 0.0 €