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

Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs), benefiting from low operating temperature, environment-friendly operation, simplicity, quick start-up and shutdown, have been demonstrated as sources of portable and backup power in consumer electronic devices. If bio-ethanol, as the most used bio-fuel world-wide with an existing supply chain and infrastructure, is used, the carbon emission from DEFCs can be considered as zero. These advantages make the DEFC a potential alternative to existing technologies to fill the increasing gap between energy demand and energy storage capacity in the low power applications. However, the power performance of DEFCs is low, mainly limited by ethanol crossover through polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and the slow kinetic activity of ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR) at the anode. Thick membranes required to reduce the ethanol crossover but significantly increasing proton conducting resistance. A very high catalyst loading also needed at both electrodes to overcome the sluggish EOR and compensate the poisoning of the crossed ethanol. Challenges for DEFCs include reducing Pt loading and ethanol crossover to increase energy and power density, improve reliability and reduce cost. In GemDEFC, inspired by the unique proton conductivity and high impermeability to molecules of single layer graphene, the excellent mass transfer performance and catalytic activities of aligned 1D nanostructure electrodes, we’ll develop low ethanol crossover and highly proton conductive PEM modified with single layer N-doped graphene on the surface, and further hybrid with aligned Pt alloy or even platinum group metal–free (PGM-free) ZnS nanowire catalyst electrodes to achieve low-cost, high power performance and reliable DEFCs that can meet the targets for commercial applications in the low power applications. GemDEFC is built on the complementary skills of the Experienced Researcher (graphene and surface modification) and supervisors (1D nanostructures and fuel cells).

Mots clés : direct ethanol fuel cell, electrode, graphene, ethanol crossover, nanowire, plasma, surface modification

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet GuideArtifEvol (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Directed evolution is an effective method for protein engineering. The host laboratory is designing innovative techniques for the directed evolution experiments of enzymes, with the possibility to test millions or billions of variants to be tested at each cycle. In this project, I will introduce the use of full-gene next generation sequencing to supervise the exploration of variants at the sequence level and quantitatively characterize the fitness landscape, with a focus on non-additive effects of mutations into fitness (epistasis). Furthermore, this information will be included in DE protocols to guide a more efficient exploration of the sequence space. The project is a strongly interdisciplinary project consisting of experimental synthetic biology, physics modelling and bioinformatics analysis. It is focused in the study of DNA processing enzymes such as polymerase and endonucleases. The proposal includes the development of specific tools which should have an immediate impact on the scientific community: i. extend the applications of next generation sequencers to characterize full length genetic libraries of protein variants ; ii. adapt quantitative methods, previously developed for sets of structurally homologous proteins and derived from Potts model to study the catalytic properties of during directed evolution. iii. develop a new experimental protocol to control the number of mutations in libraries. The analysis will provide a better understanding of the topology of the fitness landscape of an enzyme, and its distortions under selective pressures, thereby clarifying the relations between sequence,function and evolution in proteins.

Mots clés : directed evolution, next generation sequencing, epistasis, direct coupling analysis, molecular programs, microfluidics, synthetic biology

Participants :
- École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet DIS-ABLED (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Disabled constitute around 20% of nowadays society and were a significant number in the past. The remains of disabled are part of archaeological heritage, and reconstruction of the life of the disabled enriches our understanding of common human heritage and the past. The goal of this project is to reconstruct lifeways and deathways of disabled in the 14th-18th century in Central Europe. As a result I expect to gain knowledge on: definition of disability, social status, gender, origin and burial customs of disabled as a group and individuals. I will investigate two populations (300 skeletons) from Poland as well as medical texts, chronicles and ethnographic sources from Central Europe that describe aspects of life and death of disabled. The project is highly interdisciplinary because it integrates archaeology (analysis of artefacts and graves), bioarchaeology (paleopathology, stable isotopes), history and ethnography (heuristic and hermeneutic analysis). These methods have not been linked before to study disability in archaeology. This project continues the socio-cultural approach in research on disability that emphasizes importance of archaeological and textual data to research on disability. This project extends this approach by developing interdisciplinary and cutting-edge methodology and studying new topics: the origin of disabled and new regions: Central Europe. The project will constitute the first comprehensive study on disabled from Central Europe and include them in academic narration, culture and social debate. The project will uncover heritage of disabled from Central Europe that is part of the European and worldwide heritage. Science communication activities will show the public the treatment of disabled in the past and help the disabled to understand their history better. Outreach and the knowledge gained from this project will help Europe become more inclusive, reflective and barrier-free.

Mots clés : disability, medieval archaeology, post medieval archaeology, mortuary archaeology, archaeology of disability, bioarchaeology, paleopathology, stable isotopes, history, ethnography, central europe

Participants :
- Arizona's Public Universities (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Liverpool (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251857.8 €
Projet CMCG (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Disadvantaged youth in urban environments often experience marginalization and disenfranchisement that can lead to disastrous consequences for them, their families, and wider society. We know that successfully engaging these young men and women in the institutions, communities, and contexts in which they live and building their capacity as social actors can be a critical factor in their positive development as individuals and future role as citizens. Yet, there is still relatively little known empirically about the specific contexts, strategies, and mechanisms through which disadvantaged urban youth can be most effectively engaged. This research is designed to develop the expertise of the experienced researcher to enable him to contribute much needed in-depth knowledge of how best to engage young people as citizens both civic and political actors with autonomy and responsibility for contributing to the common good. This work will be done through a comparative case study in three Irish cities. The methodology will involve a consultative process with designated stakeholders in each city including local politicians, policy leaders, service providers, service users, youth representatives and youth workers. It will involve field observations and interviews with young men and women in three selected case study cities, each having a distinct urban identity: Large multi-cultural (Dublin); Post-Conflict ( Belfast) and Smaller Regional City (Galway). Dissemination and Public Engagement are central to this proposal. The research will impact on the participating stakeholders by providing tangible and accessible research findings. It will impact on the field of urban youth studies by offering a comparative framework applicable to other urban contexts in Europe and globally. The impact for the experienced researcher will be the development of specific expertise with a view to developing further European and global studies of this important field.

Mots clés : urban youth citizenship ireland social exclusion participation democratization of young people comparative framework

Participants :
- National University of Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187866.0 €
Projet HTS MALDI-TOF MDD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Discovery for drug targets is a key step within the process of drug development, and is the corner stone in the pharmaceutical industry. This is mostly achieved by high-throughput screening (HTS) approaches in which a large number of chemical substances are assayed for a specific effect or activity in diverse areas of biology. Mass spectrometry (MS) has become a widely adopted tool in this field as it offers the possibility to simultaneously track molecules in a label-free manner, provides excellent signal to noise, reproducibility, assay precision, and a significantly reduced reagent cost when compared to fluorescence-based assays. Matrix-assisted laser/desorption ionisation time of flight (MALDI-TOF) is the most validated surface ionisation method for HTS approaches, but reported applications of this technology have been limited to in vitro assays with simple readouts and to peptide/protein-centric activity assays. To date, comprehensive and unbiased metabolomics based HTS approaches for cellular assays with MALDI-TOF have not been explored. The objective of this fellowship is to set up a MALDI-TOF based cellular assay for HTS metabolomics drug discovery in order to identify a set of metabolites to screen which will enable us to unbiasly and comprehensibly measure, in a HT manner, how drugs affect different metabolic pathways while simultaneously mapping the metabolic profile of the cell. First, I will develop a robust protocol for the detection, identification, and quantification of ~50 small metabolites for cellular assays. Then, I will apply this protocol to track metabolites in a pulmonary fibrosis cellular model, as well as in fibrotic lung tissue sections using MS imaging. The goal is to compare a disease model with the control to see how drugs are affecting these metabolites, and to see if identified biomarkers can be used to identify disease in tissue samples. As a final validation step, I will implement this platform in Boehringer Ingelheim in Germany.

Mots clés : maldi tof, high throughput screening, drug discovery, mass spectrometry, mass spectrometry imaging, untargeted metabolomics

Participants :
- Newcastle University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet VorDIST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Disorder is omnipresent in nature and has a strong impact on quantum materials. The paradigmatic example is Anderson localization of a single particle but many more intriguing situations can arise for many-body systems depending on the interplay between interaction and disorder. The metal-insulator and superconductor-insulator transitions, which highlighted the importance of interaction, still remain enigmatic phenomena. Another profound effect of disorder in superconductors takes place in type-II superconductors, which involve quantum vortices. A quantum vortex in a superconductor is highly influenced by the presence of defects and its mobility is the key ingredient for superconductivity. Despite its importance, a clear understanding of disorder physics is still lacking because of unavoidable complexities in condensed matter systems. In this project, we explore disorder physics with ultracold atomic gas. The ultracold atomic gas system has been recognized as an excellent quantum simulator because it provides an unprecedentedly controllable and clean testbed. Quantum simulations with quantum gas have successfully addressed important, yet unsolved physical problems in many different fields. Here, we will carry out experimental studies of two-dimensional (2D) Fermionic quantum gas under disorder potential. Our first goal is the observation of 2D Anderson localization. Then we will further investigate the interplay between interaction and disorder. We aim to reveal the robustness of the order parameter of superfluid when the superfluid is transformed into an insulating phase. Next, we will obtain a phase diagram of a disordered 2D system. Lastly, we want to address the paradigmatic problems of vortex matter in a superconductor, both in a single and a bilayer system. Thus, we can unveil vortex dynamics in disordered superfluids.

Mots clés : vortex, superfluid, disorder, transport, interaction

Participants :
- National Research Council (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 183473.28 €
Projet CarbEx (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) consists of a complex mixture of molecules generated from the degradation of living organisms. Surface waters of the Arctic Ocean (AO) have high concentrations of DOM and freshwater (FW) due to the massive supply from large rivers. Great part of it is exported to the Atlantic Ocean through the Fram Strait (FS). Climate change is expected to increase riverine FW and terrestrial DOM supply, with consequences to the hydrological and carbon cycles. However, such changes remain poorly understood and CarbEx will contribute to rectifying this. The three central goals are to (1) estimate the DOM and FW fluxes from the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean through the FS, (2) assess their variability and (3) develop an approach to assess the amount of both terrestrial DOM and FW, from optical measurements of DOM. A major challenge is to obtain sufficient data from the region and CarbEx will apply three complementary approaches: oceanographic expeditions (OE), ocean color remote sensing (OCRS, satellite-based Earth Observation) and numerical modelling (NM). Riverine FW and DOC fluxes will be estimated using a combination of observations and NM. Hydrographic and biogeochemical data acquired during a series of OE conducted annually in the FS (Summer 2009–2018) is available. The in situ data will be complemented with OCRS and NM to develop a continuous time series, filling the temporal coverage gaps from OE, to analyse possible trends and links to climate change in the Arctic. CarbEx also has a non-academic character and will provide the necessary foundation to develop new technologies to monitor the FW and carbon dynamics in the AO and aquaculture sites, i.e. in situ multi-channel fluorometers. This aligns with the host’s strategy to develop observational technology and Arctic research, and with the EU’s goal for the IF programme about stimulating the creative and innovative potential through advanced training and international and intersectoral mobility.

Mots clés : dissolved organic matter, arctic ocean, oceanography, freshwater export, biogeochemistry, ocean color remote sensing, numerical modeling

Participants :
- Technical University of Denmark (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 219312.0 €
Projet MetaTarGet (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Distant metastases, i.e. secondary tumors, are the leading cause of cancer deaths. Many patients (especially with breast cancer) are diagnosed when cancer cells have already disseminated to distant organs. Thus, it is of profound importance to prevent the metastatic outgrowth of these disseminated cancer cells into secondary tumors. The ability to remodel the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the metastatic niche is essential for disseminated breast cancer cells to promote their own metastatic outgrowth. This process is to date believed to be transcriptionally regulated. However, the Fendt laboratory has discovered that the nutrient pyruvate metabolically drives ECM remodeling by breast cancer cells. In my project, I will build on this discovery and explore how to target ECM remodeling in metastatic outgrowth. First, I will determine the interaction between the discovered metabolic and the known transcriptional regulation of ECM remodeling. Secondly, I will translate this novel finding into therapeutic potential by defining how to selectively target it, thereby impairing metastatic outgrowth in the lung environment. Thirdly, I will define how the metastatic site and the cancer cell origin affect the discovered metabolic regulation of ECM remodeling, and thus metastatic outgrowth. To address these aims, I will use metabolomics, 13C tracer analysis, genetic engineering and nanotechnology-based drug-delivery in breast cancer 3D cultures and mouse models. With MetaTarGet, I will deliver (i) a mechanistic understanding of pyruvate metabolism as a regulator of ECM remodeling, and (ii) a novel therapeutic strategy to target metastatic outgrowth. This project will allow me to bridge my nanotechnology-based drug-delivery knowledge with the expertise of the Fendt laboratory in metastasis metabolism. Consequently, I will strengthen my research competences and enhance my personal research profile.

Mots clés : extracellular matrix remodeling, collagen hydroxylation, metabolic regulation, microenvironment, pyruvate metabolism, metastatic growth, metastatic, niche, nanoparticles, targeted drug delivery

Participants :
- Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet EduWell (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Do teaching styles affect students’ happiness? Despite a plethora of studies on a variety of factors and youth happiness, we do not yet grasp possible influences of teachers’ teaching methods on student happiness. This project, EduWell, aims to (i) understand the relationship between different types of classroom teaching styles and youth wellbeing, and (ii) contribute to a more nuanced approach in scientific and policy comparisons of students’ experiences and subjective evaluations of happiness across three national contexts: Japan, France, Finland. This is an important issue because, even among rich countries today (i.e. OECD members), a sizeable number of youths are unhappy in schools. The research aim (i) will be achieved by data collection and analysis (interviews/focus groups with students and teachers, classroom observations) in selected secondary schools in Tokyo, Paris, and Helsinki. Each case study has a dominant, distinctive teaching style: from more hierarchical (France) to more participatory (Finland) to hybrid (Japan), so that context-dependent youth happiness can be discerned. The research aim (ii) will be achieved with assistance from the two secondment hosts. Active in education consultancy and policy advice respectively, the two secondment hosts undertake to help exploit and communicate research outputs to curriculum planners in Finland and policy advisors in France. Lastly, this EduWell project is relevant to the Horizon 2020's work programme on "Health, demographic change and wellbeing" (societal challenge 1). With ageing population and shrinking numbers of youth in much of the developed world, the young has to live with such consequences longer than adults. Hence, understanding their happiness at the most formative stage of growing up, and to make relevant education policy adjustments when necessary, enhance the long-term state of wellbeing of today's youth in their adulthood.

Mots clés : happiness research  most relevant to project, area studies  japan europe, teaching styles in classrooms

Participants :
- Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 196707.84 €
Projet EMOMETER (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Dogs have great social (e.g. companion dogs) and economic (e.g. working, assistance, therapy dogs) values. Their increasing presence in our society (~63 million in Europe and 500 million worldwide) calls a timely understanding of emotional processing in dogs, in order to promote human-dog bonds, ensure dog welfare and reduce dog related costs to society (e.g. dog-bite related incidents). Emotional functioning is a complex process and we currently have very little understanding of it in non-human animals, with no consensus on the theoretical framework and limited robust empirical research on dog emotion. Given recent theoretical advances (e.g. multi-component emotion process theory) in human emotion research and improved technology (e.g. integrated wearable wireless sensors), there are new opportunities to address this fundamental issue. This interdisciplinary research programme will break new ground by developing an integrated toolbox (a range of behavioural, cognitive and physiological measures) for emotion assessment, and providing the first systematic study of multi-component emotional functioning in dogs. The novel findings will result in a step change in our understanding of dogs’ capability for processing and functionally responding to emotional signals, such as subtle or even subliminal human expressions. This has significant practical implications for various human-dog interactions and dog welfare. The development of such an integrated toolbox for dogs will pave the way for emotion assessment in a variety of animal species in everyday settings and will ensure Europe remains at the forefront of animal emotion and welfare research. With combined expertise in animal cognition, behaviour and welfare, cognitive neuroscience and computer science, the interdisciplinary supervisory team will provide structured training of research and complimentary skills to the Fellow, and facilitate her development as a future leader in this emerging field.

Mots clés : animal emotion, animal cognition, animal behavior, human dog interaction

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