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

Increasing plastic waste poses significant environmental and health risks through pollution, toxic chemical release, and CO2 emissions. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), used in bottles, is especially challenging to recycle effectively and often ends up in landfills. This proposal aims to develop an innovative solar-driven technology that efficiently combines two waste streams (PET and CO2) to produce useful fuels and chemicals, contributing to a more circular and eco-friendly future. Based on the applicant’s expertise in the synthesis and characterization of MOFs, we aim to harness this knowledge to further develop MOF-based photoelectrodes. Additionally, by leveraging the host institution’s research on silicon-based photoanodes and photocathodes for solar photoelectrochemical (PEC) processes, we have identified three key objectives. The first is to create a new and simple method for engineering defects into MOF-based silicon for efficient PEC applications by incorporating monocarboxylic acids during synthesis. The second objective is to study the role that defects and imperfections play in controlling the efficiency and selectivity of PEC reactions. The third objective is to apply the developed catalysts for the first time in the solar driven PEC oxidation of pretreated real-world PET into glycolic acid (used as a feedstock in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries) while coupling it with PEC CO2 reduction reaction to concurrently produce value-added products at both electrodes, demonstrating the advantages of PEC devices for scalable commercial applications. The success of this proposal relies on the applicant’s expertise in MOF synthesis and defect engineering, along with the host institution’s proficiency in electrode modification and development of functionalized semiconductors for PEC applications. The fellowship will provide the candidate with new research competencies, networking opportunities, and experience in teaching and outreach programming.

Mots clés : photoelectrochemistry, sunlight, environmental chemistry, coating and films, structural properties of materials, plastics recycling, co2 valorisation, silicon, metal organic frameworks

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 242260.56 €
Projet Lullby (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Afro-Baloch (AfB) refers to the people of African origin in Balochistan who were enslaved people and brought as slaves from Eastern Africa. AfB are not officially slaves, but, in practice, they are still treated as enslaved people and they are given away as gifts instead of sold. Lullabies are relevant for the study of AfB communities and particularly in the context of slavery and a society formed on a caste system. AfB adapted the Balochi language- an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-European family. The study and analysis of lullabies will open important perspectives on the linguistic of AfB, the history of the people, their oral traditions of slavery, and the social and culture of the south- eastern Iranian coastal region. The aim of the proposed project is to explore the AfB history, their current status and also the social and cultural conditions that determine their life as manifested in lullabies. Lullabies are used because they represent a special genre which is very different from other text types and understudied. The present project undertakes for the first time a systematic documentation and description of such songs. The proposed project will focus on seven regions along the coast, viz. Pishin, Bahukalat, Sedighzaei, Tis, Konarak, Kahir, and Karevan. In each region, the applicant will record and videotape lullabies of AfB women and document the cultural and social contexts. In the second step, songs will be transcribed and double-checked with the speakers, and translated into English. In the third step, the songs will be annotated and glossed them into morphemes and build online corpora. In the fourth step, the contents of the songs will be analyzed, particularly their forms, functions, themes, and motifs. Finally, the project result will be published and recordings be archived and open access.The project will be implemented in CNRS (The French National Centre for Scientific Research) institution under the supervision of Dr habil. Agnes Korn.

Mots clés : african diaspora, lullabies, oral narrations, documentation

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 242260.56 €
Projet MiMi-AD (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects over 55 million people worldwide, with no effective treatments currently available. Understanding early-stage mechanisms of the disease is critical to developing new therapeutic approaches. Microglial cells, key regulators of amyloid-beta (Aβ) clearance and neuroinflammation, are implicated in the progression of AD. Emerging evidence suggests that the gut microbiota, through its influence on microglial function, may play a pivotal role in AD pathogenesis. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms of the gut-microbiota-brain axis in AD remain unexplored. The MiMi-AD project, aims to elucidate the role of gut microbiota in modulating microglial activity across AD progression stages, using the Tg2576 mouse model of AD. Specifically, the project will investigate whether exercise-induced alterations in gut microbiota can prime microglial cells to promote Aβ clearance, delay cognitive decline, and reduce neuroinflammation. The research will employ cutting-edge transcriptomics, metabolomics, and microbiota analysis to explore these dynamic interactions, along with in vivo and in vitro studies to identify targetable microbial metabolites. The outcomes of this research could identify novel gut-brain axis pathways, providing a foundation for therapeutic strategies aimed at delaying the onset of AD. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, this project aligns with European and global priorities in promoting healthy aging, offering potential benefits for individuals at risk of developing AD.

Mots clés : microbiota gut brain axis, microglia, alzherimer s disease, neuroinflammation, hippocampus, exercise, multi omics, microbial metabolites, metagenomics

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 226420.56 €
Projet PhoQC (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Recent technological advances allow to build revolutionary devices for information processing by making use of the laws of quantum mechanics. Most strikingly, quantum communication allows to transmit information with physical security guarantees at rates exceeding the capacities of classical links and quantum computers provide a means to speed up certain computations solving certain problems faster than any (present or future) classical computer. One such problem is factoring large numbers into their primes. This problem is the basis of much of modern cryptography such as the security of any information transfer through the internet. But the factoring problem was shown to be efficiently computable on a quantum computer using Shor’s algorithm. A functional quantum computer would therefore jeopardize the security of the internet. Quantum computation with a discrete-variable system such as a two-level electron spin demands temperatures colder than those found in deep space. However, continuous-variable systems, such as photons (particles of light) can operate at room temperatures and are more robust against decoherence, allowing for full miniaturization and mass manufacturing. The theory of quantum error-correcting codes provides a new set of techniques to run a quantum algorithm with an arbitrary level of accuracy despite using imperfect noisy photons. Photonic quantum codes exhibit either translational or rotational symmetry in phase space. Potential of the latter has remained largely unexplored despite convincing evidence for a striking advantage. In PhoQC, I will develop a novel stabilizer formalism to systematically study rotational symmetry in phase space. I will find quantum codes operating on the entire or a part of the Hilbert space and I develop the corresponding universal logics. We are at the dawn of the quantum computing age and the quantum codes and techniques developed in PhoQC will bring (photonic) quantum computation closer to industrial deployment.

Mots clés : bosonic error correction, continuous variable quantum computation, information theory

Participants :
- Université libre de Berlin (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 280751.52 €
- Université de Waterloo (Canada) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet BESCLING (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : TERMINATED

The goal of BESCLING is to shed light on the physics of the beam self-cleaning (BSC) effect. This is driven by Kerr nonlinearity and consists of the spontaneous increase of the spatial quality of a multimode beam, which turns from speckles in the linear regime to a bell shape at sufficiently high power. Since its first observation, BSC has attracted great interest, mostly because it allows for improving the performances of state-of-the-art optical fibre technologies; remarkable examples are the power scale-up of fibre lasers and the resolution enhancement of multiphoton imaging devices. Despite these successes, the physical mechanisms behind BSC are still largely debated. Specifically, recent experiments demonstrated that for achieving BSC the temporal beam evolution plays a pivotal role. Whereas the temporal dimension has been often ignored in the investigation of BSC. Here, I propose a new approach to dig into the physics of BSC. I will build up a holographic mode decomposition tool, which, in addition to retrieving the mode occupation at the fibre output, allows for obtaining information on the beam temporal profile. This will pave the way to a fully spatiotemporal interpretation of BSC, e.g., it will enable the understanding of the simultaneous occurrence of BSC and supercontinuum generation, whose physical interpretation has been largely disregarded, so far. In addition, to survey the generality of BSC, I will explore photonics platforms beyond standard multimode optical fibres like few-mode optical fibres and lossy fibres made of soft glass or polymer. To date, theoretical models do not apply to these types of systems and, from the experimental point of view, only a few observations of BSC have been reported. To this goal, the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne is the perfect Host Institution since it is the only laboratory in Europe that combines expertise in all aspects of BESCLING, from nonlinear guided optics to special fibre fabrication.

Mots clés : multimode fibres beam self cleaning supercontinuum generation multimodal optical thermodynamics

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 242260.56 €
Projet MAGNETIC-ESTEEM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Innovation in scientific instrumentation is essential for advancing technology and pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge. Cutting-edge tools enable researchers to explore previously inaccessible physical phenomena, leading to breakthroughs in new materials and processes. One promising application is the use of lanthanide single-molecule magnets (SMMs) in quantum information science, due to their magnetic bistability, which can be controlled by external stimuli. The design and control of magnetic properties in molecular magnets—and their practical applications—depend on the understanding and manipulation of the energy levels that define their electronic structure. To further the development of future quantum technologies, it is critical to understand how external stimuli, such as light and pressure, influence the electronic states of SMMs. This project aims to develop two innovative scientific probes to investigate the effects of light (via magneto-chiral luminescence) and high pressure on the electronic energy levels of chiral lanthanide-based single-molecule magnets. By expanding the toolbox of techniques available to chemists and physicists working in molecular magnetism, this research will address current limitations in both instrumentation and theoretical understanding. Ultimately, this work seeks to bridge these gaps, with potential applications extending to the field of quantum information science for optical data-readout mechanisms.

Mots clés : single molecule magnetism molecular magnetism chirality dichroism luminescence light matter chemical physics lanthanides pressure instrumentation design

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 226420.56 €
Projet HiResProtDNP (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) has recently emerged as a transformative technology to address the sensitivity limitation of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. In the solid-state, hyperpolarisation has the potential to reveal unique insight into the structure of complex biological assemblies such as amyloid fibrils, membrane-embedded proteins, virus capsids or plant cell walls. However, despite key pioneering studies, several challenges must be resolved before DNP Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) NMR can be widely adapted as a routine analytical approach for studying biomolecules. The primary bottleneck is the resolution of 13C and 15N DNP enhanced NMR spectra of solid-state biomolecules which is compromised by severe line broadening at the cryogenic temperatures at which DNP experiments are performed. The second limitation is the absence of robust site-specific assignment strategies. Leveraging progress in fast MAS and high-field DNP NMR systems, the project will focus on improving spectral resolution through the development of (i) new sample formulations and labeling strategies, (ii) advanced radio-frequency pulse sequences using unique instrumentation at the host laboratory, and (iii) innovative methods for site-specific assignment of backbone and side-chain resonances. These methods will first be tested on model microcrystalline samples, then applied to complex biological targets like vaccines and fibrillar assemblies. The proposed work is highly interdisciplinary, connecting biochemical techniques, spin physics, and physical chemistry, and will have a broad impact across fields including structural biology, pharmaceutical science, and materials science. The methods developed will streamline data collection in biomolecular NMR and push the boundaries of what is currently possible with hyperpolarisation today. The project will significantly advance both fundamental and applied research, benefiting large communities of chemists and biologists.

Mots clés : solid state nmr hyperpolarisation biomolecules formulations ultra fast mas resonance assignment parallel acquisitions

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 242260.56 €
Projet EVALUATOR (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Access to healthy and sustainable foods is an existential priority as recognized by the UN, WHO, and EU. Replacing animal-based proteins with their plant-based counterparts is expected to be a major step forward, due to a 2-8 fold (depending on the species) increase in protein efficiency. In order to speed up this protein transition, methods need to become available to allow for high-throughput evaluation of protein ingredients, in terms of technical functionality that rules food properties, and physiological functionality that ultimately decides on effects taking place in the body. The EVALUATOR project focusses on plant protein properties in colloidal emulsion systems, for which a tailor-made microfluidic platform will be developed to dynamically assess technical emulsion stability and digestibility. For this, we choose to work with pea and bean proteins that are readily available at low cost within the EU. The microfluidic platform allows real-time investigation at micro and nanometre levels, the scales at which basic food structure elements are formed and degraded, and within very short time spans through high-speed recording, therewith closely mimicking the actual process conditions. EVALUATOR will not only lead to the design of healthier and greener food systems but also supply a versatile microfluidic platform that allows design from first principles, i.e., the actual protein properties as they are relevant for food production and digestion. This brings food design, that currently revolves around trial and error, into a completely different realm, and even more importantly, establishes the currently missing link between technological functionality and digestion. The key for success is the combination of my background in microfluidic design and digestion, that of the hosts in emulsions (WUR, The Netherlands) and the secondment (INRAE, France) in advanced digestive systems, which allows me to cover all aspects of the EVALUATOR project in a ground-breaking way.

Mots clés : colloidal emulsions plant proteins protein transition in vitro digestion microfluidics encapsulation controlled release sustainability techno functionality physiological functionality

Participants :
- Wageningen University & Research (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 213071.1 €
- Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (France) — Partner, associated partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet EIG (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The EU-2030 Biodiversity Strategy (COM/2020/380) aims to ensure Europe’s biodiversity will be on the path to recovery by 2030. Freshwater fish are among the taxa most-threatened by extinction in Europe, with a decline proven in abundance and biomass in most common European freshwater fish species. For Europe’s biodiversity to be on the path to recovery, researchers, environmental managers and policy makers must identify and mitigate environmental factors and anthropogenic pressures that impact freshwater fish populations. Chemical pressures are impacting 38% of European surface water. Among the 56 priority hazardous substances monitored in the EU-regulation in surface water, more than one third of them are classified as carcinogenic or suspected to be carcinogenic for humans. These substances may induce embryotoxicity, abnormal development, metabolic disorders and long-term initiation and promotion of carcinogenic pathways in fish species. There is a need to ascertain what ecological risks result from the exposure of aquatic organisms to genotoxicants in the environment, as well as a need to urgently develop innovative diagnostic tools to assess ecological risks in EU surface water. As proteins play a critical role in tumorigenesis, onco-proteomics has become a growing field in medical cancer research. In this project, we aim to develop next-generation biomarkers for two European endemic freshwater fish species by leveraging emerging high-throughput proteomics methods. Through lab and field experiments, we aim to identify toxicity pathways and relevant biomarkers in fish exposed to genotoxicants as well as relevant biomarker responses that are induced early, before individuals’ survival is threatened. This project will not only pioneer the use of diagnostic tools developed for medical research in the discipline of freshwater fish ecology but will also apply these tools in the field by measuring genotoxicant exposure of native fish populations in the Rhone River basin.

Mots clés : ecological risk assessment freshwater fish populations

Participants :
- Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 211754.88 €
Projet MAGPIEZ (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

During the last decade, the possibility to remotely control intracellular pathways using physical tools has opened the way to exciting applications, both in basic research and clinical applications. The use of magnetic fields in combination with magnetic nanoparticles provides with an exclusive tool to study how cells transform mechanical stimuli into biochemical signals, shedding light on these mechanotransduction processes. This tool is emerging as a new instrument to remotely manipulate biological functions with high spatiotemporal control at a deep-tissue level, a hot topic in regenerative medicine. The overall aim of MAGPIEZ is to develop a novel platform to study mechanotransduction linked to Piezo1 channels in endothelial cells by remotely manipulating magnetic nanoparticles. A secondary goal is to validate the potential of this tool to stimulate signalling pathways related to cell proliferation in order to selectively boost angiogenesis. This can stand as a promising approach for therapeutic angiogenesis in ischemic disorders. This ambitious project will be validated using 2D endothelial cells and a 3D vascular network developed using a microfluidic chamber. MAGPIEZ is a highly multidisciplinary project that takes advantage of the Fellow´s Dr. Del Sol knowledge in Materials Science (advanced synthesis and characterization of magnetic nanoparticles, magnetism and physics) and the expertise of the host group supervisor (Dr. M. Moros, Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon INMA-CSIC) in biofunctionalization of nanoparticles and magnetogenetics. This project will offer the applicant the possibility to work in a top European institution who pioneered the use of nanomaterials for biomedical applications, and to develop new skills and knowledge necessary for the progress of her scientific career towards an independent position

Mots clés : magnetic nanoparticles, magnetogenetics, mechanotransduction, piezo1

Participants :
- Conseil supérieur de la recherche scientifique (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 181152.96 €
- Beonchip sl (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €