Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet EARLYSTART (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The early developmental period is very sensitive to disturbances. Parents are known to shape the early environment of their offspring through physiological and behavioural modifications. In this project, I am going to investigate what are the short- and long-term consequences of different family scenarios in development and fitness. For that, I will consider female promiscuity as a modifier of the early environment because (a) promiscuous females are more exploratory, more active, and thus, less nest-attending, and (b) males paired with promiscuous females decrease their paternal input. Therefore, offspring raised under such conditions might reach independence with a compromised body condition, decreasing their chances to survive until reproductive age. Moreover, I will explore whether females are able to compensate for the losses of paternal effort by increasing their own breeding effort, or whether chicks can compensate for the reductions in parental support. For that I will use two approaches: an empirical study with spotless starlings where I will focus on both the short- and long-term effects of promiscuity for fitness of mothers and offspring (survival and reproduction), and a comparative analysis where I will investigate the short-term effects of different breeding systems on the fitness of females and offspring. Both approaches will be integrated following a causal framework.

Mots clés : dysfunctional families, early environment, extra pair, fitness, paternity, personality

Participants :
- Université Paris-Saclay (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet MedDis (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The early modern period witnessed the gradual emergence of the unified field known today as science. The primary linguistic medium of all educated communication was Latin. Accordingly, Latin played a crucial role in how new scientific ideas were advanced and transmitted in (early) modern Europe. One of the most central – yet most neglected – literary forms employed to this end was the dissertation. Over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, what was originally a collection of orally defended theses evolved into a self-sufficient piece of research. However, this transformation still lacks a systematic diachronic analysis and seems to be understood only broadly. Focusing on a corpus of medical dissertations published at the Royal Academy of Turku (Finland) between 1640 and 1828, MedDis action aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of this crucial process in the history of Western science. To this end, the ER will first transcribe the corpus into an easily searchable database with the aid of Trankribus software; second, he will examine the history of medical education at the Academy of Turku; and, third, he will investigate the evolution of the genre at the Academy of Turku in its wider European context. Combining digital tools with more traditional philological methods, the action will yield completely new information on how the dissertation transformed from its early modern to its modern form and function. The ER has expertise in Neo-Latin, intellectual history and digital humanities. The action will take place at the Department of Classical Philology and Neo-Latin Studies at the University of Innsbruck. Home to the ERC project 'Nova Scientia: Early Modern Scientific Literature and Latin' (NOSCEMUS) and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neo-Latin studies, the host institution is the best place in the world to carry out this action. The knowledge and training received during this action will contribute significantly to the ER’s career prospects.


Participants :
- Universität Innsbruck (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186167.04 €
Projet Plant-FATE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The earth is projected to experience higher climate variability in future, with increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events such as droughts and wildfires. Drought is a severe threat to world’s forests, and incidents of drought-induced forest die-back are already being reported. The resistance of the world’s forests to drought will be key to maintaining crucial ecosystem services, such as sequestering carbon and maintaining biodiversity. To understand what plant traits are responsible for drought-resistance, we aim to push the envelope of contemporary eco-evolutionary dynamic vegetation modelling. Accounting for trade-offs in growth via acquisition of resources and resistance to drought-induced mortality, we will allow plant traits to evolve under realistic drought regimes. We will calibrate and test our model using data on plant traits and long-term demography available from two tropical forest sites – a wet site from Costa Rica, and a seasonally dry site from southern India. We will then parametrize our model at a wider scale, using available data on traits and environmental fluxes from sites across the globe in different biomes. Bringing together expertise from plant physiology, evolutionary dynamics, and high-performance computing, our approach will advance our abilities to predict evolutionarily emergent plant strategies, plant productivity, and ecosystem services under current climatic conditions, and identify species and regions that are likely to be vulnerable to future changes in climate. Our models and methods could potentially be adopted for similar analyses in the agriculture sector. We will communicate our results to policymakers and the public via an interactive web-based dashboard. IIASA will provide the researcher with the perfect platform for research training, and for a dialogue with policymakers and other stakeholders to prepare for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Mots clés : plant functional traits, evolutionary dynamics

Participants :
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 186167.04 €
Projet IMPACTEBU (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The economic and financial crisis that hit Europe a decade ago showed that the rules in force in the European Union (EU) could not cope with a banking and debt crisis appropriately. To tackle this problem, the European Banking Union (EBU) was established (2013), leading to the EU gaining competences in bank supervision and bank resolution. Yet, the creation of the EBU has numerous and multi-dimensional consequences for both the EU and its Member States. This project aims to examine those consequences. Taking France, Germany and Italy as representative case studies, it firstly analyses the impact that the EBU’s creation has had on the institutional balance at national level. Secondly, it considers its impact on the EU’s institutional framework, and in particular the consequences for the European Central Bank as well as specifically-created agencies and bodies such as the European Banking Authority. Thirdly, this project examines the EBU’s impact from a multilevel perspective, assessing whether accountability is sufficiently guaranteed or whether any gaps have emerged. Indeed, as shown by the crisis, bank failures have very significant consequences for Member States’ economies and tax payers’ money, which means that the transfer of bank supervision and resolution to the EU arguably requires high(er) levels of administrative accountability (i.e. auditing control), as well as judicial (i.e. judicial review) and democratic accountability. This project analyses these three types of accountability both as stand-alone issues and overlapping concerns. In employing a unique combination of legal and political science methods, while being informed by (political) economic research, and in addressing an emerging but under-researched topic, this project is original and will contribute greatly to making the EBU less obscure to citizens and stakeholders, while informing on-going reform discussions.

Mots clés : european banking union, european central bank, accountability, multilevel governance

Participants :
- Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet GREEN FORESEEN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Economic Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The economic role of the forest sector in Greece is a neglected field of academic inquiry. Studies of the markets for Greek forest products, are few and far between. This reflects a general lack of investment in the forest sector of the country. An example of this is that the last national forest census was carried out in 1992. Meanwhile, the economic crisis that has plagued the country since 2008 has made matters worse, not only in terms of funds to study the sector but also in terms of environmental outcomes. For instance, as a result of increasing poverty levels, many people have resorted to the use of fuelwood to satisfy their energy needs. This may seem like a good thing, in light of the Renewables Directive's targets for renewable energy adoption. In reality, the switch to fuelwood has led to a severe increase in illegal logging. Despite the numerous and frequent media reports, scientific evidence of this is lacking. The GREEN FORESEEN project has two main objectives: to study the consumption of fuelwood by households in Greece and, by doing so, to lay down the foundations for the development of the first Greek Forest Sector Model (GFSM), which will be a partial-equilibrium model of the forest sector. The first goal will be achieved by way of designing and carrying out a survey of the fuelwood market in Greece, as well as by analysing national statistics on energy consumption. This will give insights on all aspects of fuelwood demand and supply and will allow for the characterisation of the illegal logging problem. It will also assist in the development of the GFSM, as fuelwood constitutes over 65% of total timber production in the country. The ultimate goal of the GFSM will be to enhance forest management by simulating impacts of policy and market changes on the sector. An intentional byproduct of the GFSM will be the generation of knowledge that can be utilised by other models, such as the EC's European Forest Information Scenario Model (EFISCEN).


Participants :
- Democritus University of Thrace (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 44925.63 €
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Grèce) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 106006.47 €
Projet OTOLOG (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The effect of temperature changes on ecosystems is determined by the physiological responses of individual organisms, but most studies predict responses at the species level. This conceptual convenience allows us to use relatively simple models but does not allow for phenotypic plasticity or adaptation: the extent to which individuals are able to mitigate combined direct and indirect effects of temperature change by modifying their behaviour or energy budgets. The role of phenotypic plasticity in predicting population, species and ecosystem responses to change is one of the most pressing, but challenging areas in modern ecology. The importance of adaptation in moderating the ecological effects of warming in marine systems is very poorly understood. Field metabolic rate (FMR) is the amount of energy consumed by an individual while performing day to day biological functions. An individual’s field metabolic rate therefore integrates a wide range of physiological and behavioural responses to the ambient environment, and is an ideal metric for understanding how individuals respond and adapt to temperature change. Unfortunately, there are major scientific challenges to measuring field metabolic rates in natural conditions. We will meet the challenge of recording FMR in marine ectotherms by exploiting a new biogeochemical measurement field metabolic rate in marine fishes based on the stable carbon isotope composition of otoliths. We will measure metabolic responses of a model organism, the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), and test a series of fundamental ecological hypotheses relating between-individual diversity in respiratory physiology to population scale resilience. Our research will break new ground by turning otoliths into internal metabolic loggers and significantly impact on our ability to investigate the links between individual adaptations, climate change and the distribution and persistence of populations.

Mots clés : otolith, stable carbon isotope, field metabolic rate, atlantic cod, climate change, fishery

Participants :
- Aarhus University (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 200194.8 €
Projet TeRrIFIC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The efficient generation of Quantum states of light is a vital task in Quantum Photonics technologies. Current approaches are generally bulky and expensive with low generation rates. The state of art solutions do not scale. In this project, the Fellow l will develop a new integrated photonic platform based on the Lithium Niobate on Insulator platform, which will provide compact and highly efficient sources of the , heralded single photons and entangled photon pairs at the telecommunication that are now vital to the secure transmission of information. The Fellow will be able to use the training provided by the project to restart her career after a break to rear children. Her skills in nanofabrication will be refreshed and brought up to date. She will learn skills in the discipline of Quantum photonics, which is new to her, including the design design and simulation and the characterisation of the generated quantum states of light. In the final stages of the project, the devices will be validated in an industrial environment and the Fellow will be trained in the requirements of industrial qualification.

Mots clés : lithium niobate, nanophotonics, photonic crystal, heralded single photons, entangled single photonics

Participants :
- Munster Technological University (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187866.0 €
Projet MANGE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

The emergence of agriculture, and the associated dietary shifts, fundamentally changed how humans interacted with their environments, but the nature and timing of this process is debated. In 2019 a team of 250 scientists from across the globe published a landmark paper in Science, which synthesised current knowledge, and highlighted the early beginnings of the transformative global environmental change that is the basis of the emerging Anthropocene paradigm. This synthesis also highlighted significant gaps in our knowledge, particularly how the process varied in different parts of the world. This research will address these issues by developing an entirely new analytical approach, looking at dietary signals in human coprolites (fossilised faeces), to assess the relative contribution of animal and plant products, and cereals compared to other types of plants. Through the application of an innovative multiproxy methodology, that integrates macroscopic and microscopic analysis of contents, and lipid biomarker analysis of the ‘invisible’ residues, this project will provide a new evidence of diet in the Neolithic. We will focus on Neolithic subsistence and diet in two regions, Britain and China. These contrasting case studies reflect the expertise of the applicant and supervisor and will form the basis of future research which expands this approach to other regions. We will address a major question in Neolithic archaeology concerning the importance of cereals and how this varied in different regions within China and Britain. Our aims are to assess whether coprolites can be used to demonstrate consumption of cereals and other specific plant species, to examine how the dietary profiles of coprolites differ from thosereconstructed from other lines of evidence and to investigate the relative importance of plant and animal products in Neolithic diets.

Mots clés : geoarchaeology

Participants :
- Newcastle University (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet ScLamprey (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The emergence of vertebrates was accompanied by a major increase in nervous system complexity, as a sophisticated brain and spinal cord evolved to process enhanced sensory input and direct co-ordinated motor output. Such complexity is achieved by an increase in cell number, a greater diversity of cell types and sophisticated mechanisms to organise them. Is has long been debated whether the “2R” whole genome duplications, which occurred just before the vertebrate split, contributed to the vertebrate increased complexity. To address this, we will focus on the lamprey spinal cord –a representative of the first branching vertebrates – and relate gene duplication events to the emergence of new neural cell types. Bulk RNA sequencing and developmental studies have started to shed light on neural patterning mechanisms in lamprey, but they do not provide cellular resolution in this complex tissue. This proposal combines traditional molecular methods with cutting-edge single cell mRNA profiling, to explore (1) the cellular diversity of the lamprey spinal cord, (2) the molecular mechanisms that specify those cell types and (3) the evolutionary origins of these mechanisms. First, I will identify marker genes that define specific cell types in lamprey embryonic spinal cord. Second, I will characterise each cell type transcriptional profile at single-cell resolution. Third, I will manipulate pattering signals and assesses the effect on gene expression, particularly on 2R paralogs. Finally, I will compare the lamprey spinal cord to that of other chordates, and relate gene duplication to the evolution of new cell types. This project will generate a cellular atlas of the lamprey spinal cord, which will be the framework for future studies, and shed light onto whether the 2R genome duplications supported the evolution of vertebrate complexity.

Mots clés : gene regulation, evolution, vertebrate nervous system, spinal cord, single cell transcriptome

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet MY MITOCOMPLEX (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The emerging field of immunometabolism has a strong potential to uncover novel targets for the manipulation of immune cell function. Myeloid cells are involved in innate and adaptive immunity and tolerance, therefore the identification of pathways that regulate their activity may have implications in many diseases. Research in the host laboratory has focused on how sensing of innate stimuli (infections and tissue damage) lead to mitochondrial adaptations in myeloid cells. These mitochondrial adaptations can influence the electron transport chain (ETC), resulting in differences in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, ATP synthesis, redox balance and metabolites. The ETC consists of four respiratory complexes (CI-CIV), which can, excluding CII, form super complexes. The formation of these super complexes is regulated and this regulation has been shown to have biological relevance. However, whether mitochondrial SC organization couples to regulation of immune cell function and the molecular mechanisms involved is not known. Therefore, we propose to investigate how mitochondrial SC formation affects macrophage and dendritic cell function. Identification of the mechanisms connecting mitochondrial adaptations and myeloid cell function could potentially unveil therapeutic targets. Much immunometabolism studies could be improved by in vivo models, therefore we aim at studying the effects of SC formation regulation in vivo. We intend to use targeted and non-targeted approaches to address this question. A mouse model that exhibits a non-active SC assembly factor (SCAF1) will be a key tool to address this question in vivo. The non-independent approach includes state-of-the-art metabolomics and transcriptomics.

Mots clés : dendritic cells, immunometabolism, mitochondria, supercomplex

Participants :
- Ministry of Health (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet FAST (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The end of scaling according to Moore’s law will reinforce the need to look for energy efficient and faster devices based on alternative materials and concepts that are however compatible with Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS). A new generation of logic and storage devices might arise from promising antiferromagnetic materials because of the absence of a net magnetic moment and of the characteristic frequencies of THz-order. In an antiferromagnet, the electron spins on adjacent atoms cancel each other out. An antiferromagnet has thus no associated magnetic field meaning that individual devices can encode information and be packed ultimately densely without interacting with one another. Simultaneously, the origin of this stability makes the antiferromagnet state difficult to read and control. The recent combination of antiferromagnets and spintronics has however opened the road towards the electrical control of their magnetic order. The aim of the project is first to establish a “gold standard” to electrically control the dynamics of antiferromagnetic thin films. In ferromagnets, electrical switching via the spin transfer torque is presently the most promising path to low power random access memories. Similar considerations are expected to apply here based on non-staggered and staggered spin-orbit torques in innovative multilayer systems consisting only of a bulk low damping antiferromagnetic insulator and a heavy metal, and layers of the promising metallic antiferromagnets with bulk broken inversion symmetry. Identifying the systems in which spin-orbit torques can effectively compensate the magnetic damping will permit to achieve an ultra-fast domain wall motion induced by short pulses, and contribute towards antiferromagnetic based devices such as memristors or nano-oscillators for real technological applications. FAST will thus pave the way to establish the use of spin-orbit torques in antiferromagnets as a new paradigm for magnetic device concepts.

Mots clés : antiferromagnet, spin orbitronics

Participants :
- Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159460.8 €