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

Unauthorized development, informal real estate & housing markets and informal settlements, referred to collectively here as 'informal urbanization' (IU), remain durable, and likely expanding, in much of the global South. IU hampers the implementation of any urban development plan or policy that require land and which require adequate information about land use and above and below ground infrastructure. While much is known about how capital is accumulated and regulated in sectors of the formal economy, much less is known about how this works in the informal economy and very little is known about how this works in IU sectors. This is due to the assumption, influenced by de Soto's work, that the lack of formal property rights leads to 'dead capital', i.e., capital that cannot accumulate. This wisdom must be challenged for if IU is a significant domain of accumulation, then policies and politics by planners and lawmakers for sustainable & inclusive urban development range from inadequacy to lack of fitness for purpose. This Fellowship integrates David Harvey's accumulation theory with Barbara Harriss-White's social structure of accumulation approach to the informal economy to establish a new strand of research. Fieldwork will occur in two municipalities in India where IU is widespread. The aims are: (1) synthesize the theory & evidence of accumulation via IU and its consequences for urban governance and inclusive development more generally (2) qualitatively study & record the phenomena in six cases (3) apply cross-case analysis and (4) disseminate findings via journal articles, policy briefs, city reports, roundtables with respondents, curriculum input & guest lectures. Based at the Contemporary South Asian Studies Program in the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies at Oxford, with fieldwork in India, the project strengthens my: research networks, research & project management skills and contributes to fields of urban studies, geography & development studies.

Mots clés : urban studies, urban informality, political economy, secondary circuit of capital accumulation, unauthorized development, informal settlements, india, urban development, area studies

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet hsPCF-FRET (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Under physiological conditions, localized acidification of brain tissue serves as neuronal signal that get synaptically transduced via acid-sensing ion channels (ASIC1a). Local acidosis has, however, also been linked to some of the most prevalent neurological disorders such as chronic pain, ischemic stroke and psychiatric diseases. ASIC1a has thus emerged as drug target with great potential, but no drugs are currently available that specifically target the channels under pathological conditions. A few known neuropeptides modulate ASIC1a and could thus serve as scaffolds for a new generation of ASIC1a-selective drugs to, for example, treat pain without the typical downsides of opioids. Advances have, however, been hampered by the limited understanding of detailed protein-peptide interactions. Thus, the aim of the proposed project is to directly characterize the binding of the neuropeptide Big Dynorphin to ASIC1a in real time. Here, I will use a unique in-house developed high-sensitivity fluorescence patch-clamp electrophysiology setup and establish a protocol for a FRET-based ligand-binding assay. Together with site-directed mutagenesis, this approach will be able to identify state-dependent binding sites and key interactions, and allow direct analysis of binding affinity and kinetics under pathological conditions; all in intact membranes and with unprecedented (microsecond) temporal resolution. This information will aid future design of ASIC inhibitors with the potential to treat chronic pain and ischemia. The technology developed for this work will also enable ligand-binding studies of other membrane proteins in living cells and with high temporal resolution and will thus be of great potential value for a broad field. The project will expand my existing electrophysiology skills and add highly versatile expertise in fluorescent measurements. I thus anticipate my project to have significant personal and scientific impact beyond the scope of this proposal.

Mots clés : acid sensing ion channels, electrophysiology, allosteric modulation, ligand binding, fret, high sensitivity patch clamp fluorometry, neuropeptide, dynorphins, chronic pain, ischemic stroke

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 207312.0 €
Projet MadridERN 2018-2019 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Under the motto Researchers, the key drivers of growth in Europe, the European Researchers’ Night in Madrid aims to highlight the important role researchers play in European citizens welfare not only as the engine of technological innovation but also by their contribution to the advancement of knowledge in Europe and beyond, finding answers to the main challenges facing modern societies. The MadridERN project as a communication and public engagement action is addressed to citizens of the Region of Madrid that aims to bring researchers and their work closer to the public at large and to promote research careers among young people without gender barriers from very early ages. To achieve this goal a wide and strong awareness campaign with a sound communication plan will be launched combining the traditional communication vectors (written press, radio, tv public advertising or street adverts) with the new ones (websites, social networks: YouTube Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) with the purpose of making known the event and if possible to become “trending topic” for a while. The event aims to attract as much people as possible by transmitting the main messages of the Night, i.e: Science is for all of us; The diversity of Researchers, Researchers are amongst us; Researchers are ordinary people with an extraordinary job; Research is fun; Being researcher is exciting; Researchers improve your everyday life; Play researcher for a night; Discover what researchers do and can do for the welfare of Europe.

Mots clés : european researchers  night, researcher, society, public recognition, public engagement, research job, schools, citizens, entrepreuners, students

Participants :
- Fundación Madrimasd Para el Conocimiento (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 200000.0 €
Projet MadridERN2014-2015 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : European Researchers' Night
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Under the motto “Supporting researchers, supporting the progress in Europe”, the European Researchers’ Night in Madrid 2014-2015, highlights the importance of researchers’ work, its contribution to the progress and welfare of the European Society and the need of getting support by the citizens. A democratic and participative society requires the involvement of citizens in scientific and technological issues. Researchers from the cutting-edge research centres in Madrid Region will show their work, their knowledge, their interests, their personal profiles, hobbies and enthusiasm. They will share all this to the public in a playful and fun atmosphere. Students and children will also have the opportunity of meeting researchers and entrepreneurs, asking questions, debating and being an active part of the activities. All scientific disciplines will be represented. Gender balanced will be also taken into account. Different European corners will show the advantages of the transnational research. Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellows and researchers of EU-funded projects will share with the public about their experiences working and living in Madrid. Common actions will be performed together with another European Researchers’ Night in Europe and in Spain and also if appropriate in the same Region. Special activities on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the European Researchers’ Night during 2015 will be performed.

Mots clés : european researchers  night, researcher, society, public recognition, research job, schools, citizens, entrepreuners, students

Participants :
- Fundación Madrimasd Para el Conocimiento (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Autres, subvention : 175000.0 €
Projet AQUAHYDRO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding ecological functioning of large aquatic ecosystems provides an essential framework for conservation and management of aquatic resources. The degree to which aquatic and terrestrial primary production fuel Afrotropical aquatic food webs remains poorly understood, since quantifying the relative contributions of these resources is methodologically challenging. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios have provided valuable insights regarding the contributions of terrestrial resources, but this approach has limitations in its resolving power. Recently, the promising use of stable hydrogen isotope ratios (δ2H) has gained attention to complement those ‘traditional’ isotopes for aquatic food webs due to their greater power of separation between aquatic and terrestrial subsidies. However, measurements of δ2H of complex organic materials have faced several methodological issues related to the isotopic H exchange and the effect of residual moisture in samples. This proposal will combine the expertise of applicant in H isotopes and the host group expertise in tropical aquatic biogeochemistry to link terrestrial inputs to invertebrate and fish productivity in the Congo River basin and Lake Edward to understand their ecosystem functioning, building on a large set of available samples (Congo River) as well as new fieldwork (L. Edward). The aims of this research are: to test new preparation systems to control H exchangeability and absorbed water for H isotope analysis; and to quantify to which extent aquatic communities in the Congo River basin and L. Edward depend on aquatic and terrestrial primary production using a multiple tracer approach during different hydrological conditions, and over different temporal scales (recent versus historical, using museum-archived specimens). The information obtained through this project will be of direct relevance for the conservation and management of important goods and services offered by these ecosystems (i.e. fisheries).

Mots clés : aquatic food webs, nutrient transfer, terrestrial subsidies, stable isotope analysis, deuterium, afrotropical ecosystems

Participants :
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172800.0 €
Projet PIM PROTEOMICS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding how T cells integrate alternative signal combinations to determine immune response strength and functionality is of critical importance for rational design of immunomodulatory therapies. The PIM kinase family have been identified as important regulators of cell division, survival and protein synthesis independent of, but in parallel to the key signalling molecule mTOR. I propose to use cutting-edge quantitative proteomic technology to identify substrates and downstream protein networks regulated by PIM kinase in activated T cells. I will investigate where these downstream targets qualitatively diverge from, or quantitatively interact with, the mTOR signalling pathway (Objective 1 and 2). Using advanced cell culture and mathematical modelling I will quantify how this co-ordinated activity regulates T cell division, survival and differentiation outcomes (Objective 3). This comprehensive exploration of PIM kinase and mTOR signalling pathway integration will provide important fundamental insight into how these signals combine to regulate T cell fate and may be manipulated in the context of immunotherapy or cancer.

Mots clés : t lymphocyte, pim kinase, mtor, interleukin 2, lymphocyte division, death and differentiation, signal integration, protein networks

Participants :
- University of Dundee (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet DISPMIC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding how biological communities assembles and maintains is continuously one of the key questions in ecology and, in view of the global biodiversity crisis, now more relevant than ever. Novel trait-based approaches are key tools to explain processes that lead species to coexist. The advantage of this new theoretical framework is the use of functional characteristics of species, instead of a mere species abundance accounting, to describe the emerging ecosystem properties. However, contrary to the wide use in plant ecology, its use in microbial ecology is very scarce. The objective of the proposed project is to apply a trait-based approach in combination with molecular techniques to trace the nature of ecological processes governing dispersal and establishment of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities, the most common and widespread plant symbionts. This fungal group plays an important role in ecosystems and is commonly used as model organisms in ecological studies. Natural newly emerged island systems in the coast of Denmark provide a unique temporal and isolation gradient, yet hitherto unexploited, to explore such ecological processes. Using the combined molecular and trait-based characterization of AM fungal communities, we will infer whether stochastic, i.e. random, or deterministic ecological processes are driving the fungal community assembly during dispersal and the subsequent succession. Answering these questions will be very valuable inputs into both basic ecological sciences due to the novelty of the theoretical and practical approach as well as for applied conservation biology. Getting knowledge on dispersal and establishment of organisms is crucial to infer ecological consequences of the Global Change, for example regarding the migration of species.

Mots clés : community assembly, ecological processes, functional traits, dispersal, environmental filtering, molecular analysis

Participants :
- University of Copenhagen (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212194.8 €
Projet CFQMLD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding how form emerges in living organisms is a fundamental challenge for biology. Progress, however, has been confounded by the complex chain of interactions underlying the organization of macroscopic forms from molecular processes. Consequently, insights into the manner in which individual genes contribute to the development of form have been elusive; even in well-studied model organisms. In this context, leaves provide a striking example of the self-organization of form – displaying remarkable diversity within and between species. Now, exploiting the close relation between simple leafed A. thaliana and compound leafed C. hirsuta, the Tsiantis lab has identified the key genetic factors underlying their distinct leaf shapes. This opens the door to a detailed understanding of the developmental factors sculpting leaf form. Due to the complexity of leaf development, however, a mechanistic understanding of these factors requires computational models, informed by detailed quantitative measurements of growth and gene expression. Such models permit the systematic interrogation of the interactions linking genetic regulation, cell division and tissue growth to final form. This action proposes to develop such a computational framework. When combined with experimental efforts, these models promise to help elucidate the regulation of leaf form and provide essential insights into shape regulation in eukaryotic systems. The proposed research is deeply interdisciplinary, working at the interface of computer science and developmental biology. Falling directly at the intersection of the Tsiantis lab's expertise in studying the molecular determinants of leaf form and my expertise in computational modeling of plant development, it fully exploits our relative strengths. Thus providing an ideal vehicle to facilitate essential training while addressing a fundamental research problem.

Mots clés : leaf form development, computational morphodynamics, comparative development, quantitative modeling, arabidopsis thaliana and cardamine hirsuta

Participants :
- Max Planck Society (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 159460.8 €
Projet SCAPA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding how stem cells differentiate into the myriad of cell types that compose an organism is a fundamental question in biomedical sciences. The recent development of single-cell transcriptomic techniques has already allowed the study of the cell composition of organs and tissues, developmental stages, and even whole adult organisms. Yet, in most cases, these studies are primarily descriptive and often provide little insight into the mechanisms regulating gene expression during cell differentiation. Here, I propose to study the role of alternative polyadenylation (APA) and associated RNA binding proteins (RBPs) in neuronal differentiation. For this purpose, I will: (i) develop new computational tools to detect and quantify APA events from single-cell transcriptomics data; and (ii) perform a single-cell-based functional CRISPR screen. The results obtained from this study will provide an in depth analysis of the changes in gene expression and APA during neuronal differentiation at a single cell resolution and identify dozens of APA targets specifically associated with individual RBPs. Together, this study will provide a solid molecular knowledge of the role of APA in neural differentiation, enabling the development of new personalized medicine therapies, which is in compliance with the Horizon H2020 Health demographic change and wellbeing programme.

Mots clés : single cell transcriptomics, crispr screening, alternative polyadenylation, rna binding proteins

Participants :
- Centre for Genomic Regulation (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet PulsatERK (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding how stem cells maintain homeostasis in the epidermis is of great interest to regenerative medicine. Previous studies have identified the crucial role ERK signalling plays in coordinating homeostasis. Intriguingly, and somewhat paradoxically, ERK signalling has been shown to regulate divergent epidermal stem cell outputs; from maintenance, to commitment, and terminal differentiation. Uncovering how the activity of a single signalling pathway can regulate such divergent responses can not only allow us to robustly control epidermal stem cell behaviour but will also have far reaching implications for both the fields of stem cell and cancer biology. Importantly, ERK signalling manifests in a dynamic/pulsatile manner, and these dynamics have been shown to encode information in other epithelial cell lines. If ERK dynamics can encode information that regulates the divergent outputs of epidermal stem cells remains to be explored. My goal is to employ an interdisciplinary approach that combines electrical, and biomedical engineering approaches with those of stem cell biology to decipher the information encoded in the dynamics of ERK signalling that control epidermal stem cell outputs. To achieve this, I will first identify ERK activity signatures associated with the different cell states of the epidermis (stem, committed, and differentiated) using live primary human epidermal cells expressing a Förster Resonance Energy Transfer based ERK reporter. I will then decode these signatures using quantitative Fourier analysis to identify the key amplitude and frequency parameters associated with each epidermal cell state. Further, these parameters will then be tested for their ability to maintain the associated states under experimental conditions that enable control of ERK dynamics. The precise regulation afforded by these experimental conditions will also be harnessed to achieve dedifferentiation of committed cells into a stem cell state.


Participants :
- University of London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet SpikeControl (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Understanding how the brain processes and represents information is at the core of experimental studies of the Central Nervous System (CNS). A network of brain subsystems mediates information processing through distributed neural computation and dynamic patterns of neural activity. Over the last decades, studying how these patterns are elicited in the CNS under specific behavioural tasks has become a break through research topic in integrative neuroscience. These specific tasks are related to the concept of embodied cognition, according to which the primary goal of the CNS is to solve and facilitate the body-environment interaction. This project focuses on the cerebellum, a brain region that plays a crucial role in body-environment interaction, with a primary function related to adaptive motor control and coordination. The functional characteristics of the cerebellum make it a perfect candidate to start modelling and building an embodied nervous system. The cerebellar capability of performing adaptive information processing mediating sensorimotor control will be evaluated in specific tasks. Additionally, the emergence of cognitive-like representations will be studied by focusing on how models of the environment/tools can be acquired through a closed-loop sensorimotor interaction. This project sets forth a multidisciplinary methodology combining neuromimetic models and embodied neurorobotics. Simulated neural models and robotic experiments will guarantee full access to the system properties, which will be assessed through both qualitative and quantitative performance indicators to facilitate a constructive cross-validation against neurophysiological data. This approach will also allow us to predict new functional roles of specific cell/network/topology properties. The goal of this project lies on moving forward the knowledge frontiers in integrative neuroscience and biological control, thus boosting the candidate position at the cutting-edge of these fields.

Mots clés : spiking cerebellar models, light weight robot, spike timing dependent plasticity, distributed plasticity, embody neuroscience, real time sensorimotor control, neurorobotics

Participants :
- Sorbonne Université (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €