Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet AtheroCaSR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The principal cause of death in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients is cardiovascular disease (CVD). Current therapies to treat vascular calcification (VC) and atherosclerosis, which mainly target mineralization and hyperlipidaemia, are not fully effective and have considerable limitations; therefore, additional mechanisms must be investigated. In this respect, hyperphosphatemia is associated with CVD and mortality in CKD patients. Recently, it has been demonstrated that phosphate inhibits Calcium Sensing Receptor (CaSR) signalling, which arise the hypothesis of a direct CaSR implication in vascular (patho)-physiology. Moreover, CaSR promotes opposed effects in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and osteoblast, preventing calcification in VSMC while increasing mineralization in osteoblast. Given the accumulative evidences that CaSR may exert protective vascular effects, the aim of the AtheroCaSR project is to study whether CaSR activation prevents vascular disorders while preserving bone health. To address this aim, the effects of CaSR modulation will be tested in vitro on VSMC calcification and osteoblastt differentiation under CKD conditions. Then, the effects of the specific CaSR deletion in VSMC will be studied on VC and atherosclerosis in mice with renal insufficiency using novel novel Next-Generation Sequencing for analysis of single cell transcriptome and translational efficiency, with focus on vascular lesions and mineral metabolism. In addition, whether calcimimetics prevent VC and atherosclerosis will be investigated in mice with reduced renal function. Finally, if CaSR modulation directly reduces VSMC microcalcification and atheromatous plaque will be analysed in a cohort of CKD patients treated with calcimimetics. The results from this ambitious study will provide new knowledge on the vascular pathology in CKD and may encourage promising clinical trials and the development of new drugs, having a great impact on CVD-associated mortality in CKD.

Mots clés : calcium sensing receptor, vascular calcification, atherosclerosis, chronic kidney disease mineral and bone disorders

Participants :
- National Health Service Wales (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Cardiff (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 325434.9 €
Projet EXPEL (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Parasitic nematode infections are a major threat to human, animal and plant health. Infection prevention or control depends heavily on chemical treatment, but resistance is becoming widespread, and the compounds used pollute surface- and groundwater. To develop new mitigation strategies, it is important to understand host-parasite interactions and fundamental mechanisms of parasitism, but parasites of vertebrates are difficult to study. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) and their hosts offer great potential in this context. EPNs are microscopic nematodes that prey on larval stages of many insects and naturally help regulate insect populations. EPNs are commercially available to target a range of soil-dwelling plant pests, but efficiency depends on the environment and the targeted pest. EPNs have also been used to study immunological responses of insect hosts. In these studies, a fraction of the hosts survives the infection. The aim of research proposed here is to select the surviving hosts and establish a model system of the EPN-host complex to study host-parasite interactions through experimental evolution of parasitism. Traits including life span and stress responses, as well as genomic and transcription changes of the host and the EPN will be studied. The downstream application of this model is the optimization of biocontrol agents of plant and animal pathogens by selecting EPNs that are resistant to environmental stressors like heat, desiccation and UV radiation, and that prey on new host species. The proposed research uses the EPN Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, its symbiont Photorhabdus luminescens, and the host Drosophila melanogaster. The expertise of the supervisor in Drosophila and evolutionary research combined with the Experienced Researcher’s (ER) empirical and computational skills provides a perfect match for the proposed project. Additionally, the project will integrate the ER’s multidisciplinary skillset for a future career as an independent academic.

Mots clés : experimental evolution entomopathogenic nematodes biocontrol

Participants :
- Université d'Aalborg (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 230774.4 €
Projet PhyDAWN (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

To address the challenges of climate change and energy crisis, the European Union (EU) is accelerating the transition to carbon neutrality, using wind power as the key driver. To fully exploit EU’s offshore wind resources, the strategy of constructing wind power hub has been devised recently and will be implemented in the North Sea. However, integration of numerous power converters in wind power hub forms a sophisticated system, making analysis difficult. This project (PhyDAWN) will tackle these challenges by developing physics-informed data-driven modelling and stability assessment methodologies for wind power hub. Firstly, effective impedance model of voltage source converters for varying operation points will be developed based on physics-informed machine learning. Next, a scalable aggregated model for wind power hub will be proposed using transfer learning, improving modelling effectiveness under insufficient data. Then, the stability of wind power hub will be assessed in a probabilistic manner, realizing intensive stability analysis for internal converters. A software toolbox will also be developed for fully exploitation of the research results in the industry. The applicant has expertise in data-driven grid analysis. During the project, she will collaborate with the supervisor at Aalborg University, who has rich research experience on power converter modelling and analysis. Besides, she will collaborate with the secondment supervisor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, who is an expert of control theory. Through these collaborations, PhyDAWN will create novel knowledge for wind power hubs, and also strengthen the applicant’s career prospects. The research results will be disseminated by publications in top journals and conferences, producing a positive impact on raising the Europe knowledge base. Moreover, communication activities are planned to expand the impact of this project to the general public, committing to EU’s carbon neutrality ambition.

Mots clés : power converters, power electronics, wind power hub, modelling and stability analysis, data driven approach

Participants :
- KTH Institut royal de technologie (Suède) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université d'Aalborg (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 214934.4 €
Projet QuESHeFol (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Our understainding of superradiance regards it as a phenomenon of classical amplification. Leveraging techniques from Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetimes and Gaussian quantum information, I will provide a theoretical proof that superradiance generates entanglement and is inherently quantum, calling for a revision of the current paradigm. It is believed that a horizonless system displaying rotational superradiance is unstable. Given that horizons generate Hawking radiation, this prevents the study of superradiance in isolation from the latter, which also generates entanglement and hinders a clean observation of our novel prediciton. I propose to overcome this difficulty through dissipative dynamics. Polariton fluids are dissipative quantum fluids that allow for homodyne detection, thus being ideal platforms to test our predictions. I will quantify the entanglement generated by an isolated ergoregion in a rotating polariton fluid, and characterize it as a function of relevant experimental parameters. I will follow by extending our methods to quantify, for the first time, the entanglement generated by rotating black hole analogues, assessing the interaction between the Hawking effect and superradiance in full detail, and encoding it into new testable observables. I will then theoretically characterize these observables in terms of the relevant parameters for a polariton fluid experiment, such as the local properties of the flow, ambient thermal noise and detection losses -- decoherence --. I will also show how stimulating the polariton fluid with one-mode squeezed states enhances entanglement production by the ergoregion, thus optimizing the signal-to-noise ratio. The results of this theoretical project will shed light into the quantum properties of field theories and their entanglement structure. Thus, they will have a major impact in the fields of analogue quantum simulators, Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spa and, potentially, Relativistic Quantum Information.

Mots clés : entanglement, analogue gravity, superradiance, hawking effect, black holes, quantum simulators, quantum field theory in curved spacetimes

Participants :
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 242260.56 €
Projet FISH-VR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Animals navigate through complex, ever-changing environments, and can adapt to dramatic variations in their sensory inputs, internal states, and the effects of their motor outputs across different contexts. Despite the complexity of the natural environments in which brains evolved, most experiments in neuroscience use simple, artificial stimuli that are designed to evoke specific types of behaviour and neural activity, but are a poor facsimile of reality. Furthermore, most neural recording studies focus on single or few brain regions, and thus ignore the importance of interactions across the brain, especially during complex behaviours. Such hampered experimental approaches have been proven unsuccessful to reveal how diverse cell types across the nervous system interact to produce adaptive behaviour in complex, naturalistic environments. Here, I propose to address these challenges, to contribute to an improved understanding of how the brain works flexibly at large scale, when tackling a sensorimotor task. I will take advantage of the new animal model I established as a PhD student (the small, transparent micro glassfish Danionella cerebrum (DC)), and the techniques I learned and established as a postdoctoral fellow (whole-brain cellular-level calcium imaging, and a virtual reality arena system that allows to reversibly head-tether fish). I propose to conduct brain-wide calcium imaging from tethered adult Danionella as they gauge their behaviour during naturalistic closed-loop and partial open-loop controlled exploration in a complex and immersive virtual environment. My unique expertise will be essential to determine the cellular and network correlates of motor adaptation in an adult vertebrate, to advance our fundamental insight on the neurobiology of behaviour selection, and to establish a research program for exploring brain circuits for experience-dependent behaviours and context-dependent adaptation in the future.

Mots clés : danionella, neural circuits, whole brain imaging, virtual reality, visuomotor behavious, behavioural adaptation

Participants :
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 242260.56 €
Projet TALENT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The new lower THz band from 100 GHz to 1 THz is considered as a candidate for 6G and beyond systems towards 2030 that require even larger system bandwidths. As wireless systems must be designed with constraints set by the radio propagation channels, understanding the lower THz channel characteristics is essential for realistic system design and performance analysis of communication, positioning and sensing operating at this band. However, they are almost remaining unknown with a few works reported, due to challenges in channel sounder development, low-cost high-resolution parameter estimation (HRPE) and establishing comprehensive and realistic 6G-compatible channel models. The applicant will address these challenges with Professor Fredrik Tufvesson, a world-leading researcher in channel measurements and characterization, at the host Lund University. The applicant, collaborating with experts in the host and secondment groups, will introduce basic theory and technology breakthroughs to explore the new lower THz band, which include 1) a novel real-time channel sounder, 2) a generic HRPE algorithm and 3) spatially consistent channel models. The project will result in at least four peer-reviewed journal papers, four conference papers and related presentations, and other broader dissemination, communication and exploitation activities.  Undertaking the formal research and training activities, the applicant will achieve an excellent scientific profile in radio propagation, experienced skills in teaching, supervision, fundraising and management, and enhanced research network. This enables him to develop into an independent and leading researcher and realize his career plan within academia. The project also contributes to Europe’s Digital Decade, a vision and avenues presented by the Commission in March 2021 for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030, by facilitating an efficient, low-cost, credible, better and timely development of 6G and beyond wireless systems.

Mots clés : radio propagation, dynamic channel characterization, sub thz, 140 ghz, spatial consistency, channel sounding, high resolution parameter estimation hrpe , clustering, channel modeling, 6g

Participants :
- Université de Lund (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 222727.68 €
- Université d'Aalborg (Danemark) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet ProCereal (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Clean-label plant proteins have gained a lot of financial, research, and consumer attention globally, fostering a great interest of food scientists in exploring various alternative plant sources and technologies to fabricate protein-rich food products. Cereals being the major nutrient vehicle for the masses and proteins being the second most abundant nutrient in these minor cereals, these grains can be a suitable alternative for plant-based proteins, to meet the increased protein demands. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared 2023 the "International Year of Millets” and owing to its invaluable contribution to the world's food supply, not only millets but also other minor cereals are currently undergoing a revival. When other grains fail due to rising global temperatures, such minor cereals that can withstand drought are anticipated to provide food for the entire world's population. Thus, the overall aim of ProCereal is to generate high-quality cereal proteins by transforming minor cereal flours (like millets) with a zero-waste approach. ProCereal will employ novel green technologies to obtain high-value protein ingredients for food applications and the side-streams produced in the process would be explored for their potential for other high-value ingredients. This will allow the generation of new sustainable value chains for minor cereals like millets.

Mots clés : minor cereals millets protein production green technologies zero waste allergenicity techno economic analysis life cycle analysis

Participants :
- Teagasc (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 215534.4 €
- Moorepark technology ltd (Irlande) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet CHAOS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The formation of Solar-like planetary systems is a complex process that goes through different steps, where not only physical changes occur but also an increasing of the molecular complexity. This gives rise to a rich chemical diversity and complexity of gas-phase molecular species in different astrophysical environments. However, not all the molecules observed can be formed at this state. The presence of interstellar grains (i.e., submicron-sized solid-state particles ubiquitously present in space) is especially important for the synthesis of molecules that would not form in the gas phase in the abundance required to satisfy observations. Interstellar grains are advocated to infer catalytic effects. However, such a “catalytic role” is associated with enhancing the encountering of the reactive species on the grain surface due to adsorption and diffusion, and the capability of the grains to dissipate the energy excess of largely exothermic reactions. In fact, state-of-the-art research on the field mainly focuses on the reactivity happening on the ices covering the grains and whose capability to reduce activation barriers is rather limited. Nevertheless, other materials beyond ices are also present in interstellar environments and can indeed exhibit catalytic properties. Refractory grains containing space abundant transition metals (such as Fe and Ni) are the perfect candidates to perform as heterogeneous catalysts. By using Fischer-Tropsch (CO + H2) and Haber-Bosch (N2 + H2) processes as model reactions and, by means of quantum chemical simulations, the project CHAOS will present for the first time a complete and deep description of the heterogeneous catalytic processes that can occur in the interstellar medium. The data obtained will go beyond representing the catalytic capacity of such materials in the outer space, it will be further used for predictive purposes as inputs in machine learning models.

Mots clés : haber bosch, fischer tropsch, quantum chemistry, interstellar complex organic molecules icoms , surface chemistry, dust grains, machine learning, rrkm

Participants :
- Université autonome de Barcelone (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165312.96 €
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet HYSTHEAS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

When and why does the exposure of the body become, in itself, spectacularised? HYSTHEAS investigates this question by looking at a specific case study: the body affected by hysteria – the most spectacular of neuroses – and its exposure in two contexts, medicine and theatre, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. How do literary and artistic imaginaries influence the scientific study of hysteria? How do hysterical symptoms, identified in a medical context, influence theatrical productions? The project will examine a selection of Italian case studies. Specifically, I will consult the archive of the female asylum of San Clemente (Venice), focusing on the period from the 1870s to the 1930s.The archival sources will be compared with the theatrical writings on the body and gesture that arose in the same years. The starting point will be the little-studied repertoire of the Italian Grand Guignol, complemented with other scenes that attracted audiences through the spectacularity of the pathological body. The staged, posed body is what connects the exhibition of female bodies suffering from hysteria in the medical sphere with the same exhibition in the theatrical sphere. The pose in itself will be considered a form that straddles fiction and reality, art and life. The iconographic apparatus (photos of medical records, but also images for treatises and drawings for newspaper articles) and writings on the body from the two fields (medicine and theatre) will constitute the materials to be compared. The project addresses areas of study – history of mental illness and theatre – that have rarely been compared in Italian studies. Above all, the project's impact and reflection on the performing arts is of primary importance. The contemporary performance scene is increasingly opening up to accommodate dramatic compositions written by/for “non-standardised bodies”. HYSTHEAS will shed new light on the body’s exposure in order to overcome the “disease–spectacularisation” nexus.

Mots clés : hysteria female body exposure spectacularity of the pathological body italian grand guignol actresses bodies hysterical pose and iconography gesture and body writing 19th and 20th centuries

Participants :
- Université Ca' Foscari de Venise (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172750.08 €
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €