Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet STARCloud (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Today the cloud market is restricted to few providers, which entails higher prices, vendor lock-in and lower service quality. Smart Contracts (SC) and blockchain could reshape this market since they lower costs and provide trust without resorting to intermediaries. This paradigm, named blockchain-based clouds, prevents vendor lock-in and has the potential to make market's barriers so low that anyone with idle or spare computational resources can offer cloud services. The STARCloud project systematically utilises formal methods for the static analysis and runtime control of the next generation clouds for creating support for Quality of Service (QoS). To this aim, since the state-of-the-art solutions cannot be used in this domain, this project provides novel approaches and tools, including consensus mechanisms, a domain specific language for QoS definitions and QoS formal analysis tools, and a framework for the matchmaking and negotiation of SCs. Supporting QoS will boost the adoption of decentralised clouds; thus reducing prices and environmental impact; and improving QoS, which make the cloud providers and consumers that use blockchain-based clouds more competitive, specially in Europe, where the most advanced commercial solutions are located. Moreover, these solutions will enable geographically sparse micro and traditional cloud providers to join the market, which will leverage cloud and edge computing in Europe. The project is timely and, besides involving collaborators from many of the best European research institutes, it is supervised by I. Brandic, one of the main cloud experts in the world and actively involves one of the main players in the market: iExec. Overall, the solutions proposed here will contribute to the disruptive blockchain-based cloud paradigm and find immediate use in industry and academia by addressing the fundamental requirement of most cloud consumers, in particular business: QoS definition and enforcement in completely distributed systems.

Mots clés : quality of service, blockchain based systems, cloud computing, distributed systems, smart contracts

Participants :
- TU Wien (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 186167.04 €
Projet MINERVA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Today's rapid technological and social changes have clear parallels in Prehistory. ‘Mapping Intentionality’ aims to investigate how a new technology (pottery) was transferred during the European Neolithisation. Pottery was an essential component of the 'Neolithic package' of cultural traits that spread from the Anatolian source. While the chronology and physical forms of the Bulgarian earliest pottery are known, the social processes by which pottery transfer occurred have not been studied. The non-uniform raw material geology (clay, mineral temper, pigments) of the Balkan Neolithisation routeways, and variable plant tempers from subsistence practices, means that pottery adoption must have involved a degree of adaptation (intentional change) as is it progressed. By identifying innovation across 20 target sites, MINERVA will effectively map the social responses to the challenges of adapting a new technology, providing a window into the wider Neolithisation process for this gateway region. Recognising intentional change requires an understanding of all the raw materials options that were available to the first potters. MINERVA will therefore combine programs of pottery analysis (mainly optical and scanning electron microscopy to identify the technology of manufacture) and geoarchaeology (clay sample collection and resource modelling using field geology methods and GIS). Comparison of the clays and tempers (mineral and plant) observed in the pottery fabrics with the reconstructed raw material and social landscapes will make visible the extent to which there were intentional departures from the homeland tradition of pottery-making as it was progressively adopted. In going beyond existing typo-functional studies to target the actual decision-making inherent to pottery adoption, MINERVA will provide a new scientific framework by which to explore large-scale cultural processes such as the European Neolithisation.

Mots clés : prehistoric archaeology, neolithic in europe, archaeometry, technology transfer, adoption vs adaptation, intentional change, pottery

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet SunDROPS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Today, reducing energy consumption and utilization of natural resources whilst maintaining high productivity is a necessary step to accomplish both sustainable agricultural and the supply of an increasingly worldwide food demand. For these reasons, improving precision and automation in horticulture farming are the main future challenges. In this context, the project focuses on the development of an automated hydroponic cultivation system driven by the plant “itself” able to optimize the request of light, water and nutrients. The aim is to develop an automated system able to detect the needs of the plants by the interpretation of the electrical signals generated by the plants under specific stresses. For these purpose the project main objectives are to: • Develop a self-driven dynamic and manageable hydroponic system able to modify the flow and the nutrients compositions supply by monitoring the plant status. • Study and optimise light quality and quantity demand by using pulse width modulated-high brightness-light emitting diodes lights (PWM-HB-LEDs) capable of pulsing at high frequency, to investigate the different light spectra required and the optimum values of frequency/duty in the cycle of the flashes. By performing these tasks the project is expected to: i) develop an auto-piloted hydroponic set-up able to interpret and process the plant electrical signals for a crop growing system based on plant’s need, thus able to avoid water and nutrients waste; ii) give new insights on mechanisms influenced by intermittent/alternate nutrient supply using a Flood-Drain-Flow (FDF) hydroponic system to improve adaptation, increase salt stress resistance or modulate plant features; iii) determine the optimal pulsing RGB-light regime supply (in terms of frequency and duty) to reduce energy consumption whilst optimizing plant growth and modulating specific plant traits; iv) build a flexible and modular hydroponic set-up to be scaled-up for automated plant factories.

Mots clés : hydroponic system, plant electrical activity, leds, light, plant tolerance, salt stress, drought stress, volatile organic compounds, hydroponic nutrients, automated cultivation, plant growth

Participants :
- University of Florence (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 168277.2 €
Projet ACU-AHvE (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Today, we live immersed in a new globalized universalism, an increasingly homogeneous planet where architecture remains dominated by mass media, hindering renewal. However, in the aftermath of WWII, the Dutch architects Aldo and Hannie van Eyck already proposed a profound rethinking of the eurocentrism of his time. In their work, one can observe a hybrid of universalist and exoticist attitudes, looking for both continuity and renewal of the pre-war avant-garde and for critique on capitalist and nationalist ideologies of his time. This research aims to scrutinize the blending of non-western and modern art in the Van Eycks’ designs in a holistic way where space, inhabitants, political ideas and ways of living merge to shape a multiculturalist notion of society and architecture. There have been earlier attempts to study Van Eyck’s relation with the vernacular by Strauven (1998) and recently Jaschke (2011) and Rodríguez (2016), but they focused on form relations or lacked the full archival sources to tackle the issue. Recent research (2018) has uncovered an enormous amount of information that will be used to go beyond state-of-the-art. The multidisciplinary nature of the project is strong, since it will develop an innovative qualitative approach to the architect’s oeuvre from his private house, an Anthropology of Architecture, using his full ethnographical art collection, books, travel pictures and conference slides as an entry to document and unpack the ways domesticity, global travels and art collecting intersect and sustain a non-universal view from which architecture was re-conceptualised. Proper measures will be taken to integrate the research into different areas of expertise. The results would constitute the first critical inquiry on the influence of the "ethnographic paradigm of the 60s" in postwar architecture, an example of open and inclusive design practices, hence in line with EU global strategies, helping debates in a post-colonial globalised world.

Mots clés : aldo van eyck, non western art, postwar architecture, team 10, multiculturalism, vernacular architecture

Participants :
- Delft University of Technology (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 175572.48 €
Projet ECHO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Toothed whales (Odontoceti) are a spectacular example of evolutionary adaptation, highly specialised apex predators and a key component of modern ocean ecosystems. The key innovation that has facilitated their evolutionary success is echolocation. Research into odontocete hearing has so far been biased towards physiological experiments and auditory pathway identification; quantitative studies on the cochlea are lacking, despite its critical role in audition. I will fill this gap in knowledge of the cochlea in cetaceans by: (1) quantifying differences in the morphology of odontocete cochlea through the application of cutting-edge scanning, visualisation and quantitative analytical techniques (e.g. 3D geometric morphometrics) to gather in depth data of all features of a fully representative range of odontocete cochlea; (2) testing through statistical analysis whether these differences correlate with, or are driven by, factors such as diet, behaviour or auditory sensitivity; (3) incorporating fossil taxa to pinpoint the timing of the evolution of echolocation; and (4) identifying convergent evolution of specialised high frequency hearing in river dolphins using novel methods for testing and quantifying morphological convergence. This project will create the most comprehensive data set of odontocete inner ear models ever compiled and will mark a major advance in the understanding of cetacean sensory evolution, providing profound insights into how this enigmatic group of marine mammals came to dominate the oceans - making sense of a sixth sense. The data gathered will be made openly available to other researchers.

Mots clés : odontoceti, toothed whales, cetaceans, evolution, hearing, fossils, cochlea, anatomy, morphology

Participants :
- Natural History Museum (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes publics (hors enseignement & recherche), subvention : 195454.8 €
Projet ToPIKS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Topological P-wave superfluids with Isotopic K mixtureS: Pairing of fermions lies at the heart of superfluidity and superconductivity, paradigmatic many-body phenomena arising at all energy scales in Nature – from ultracold to Quark matter. In particular, pairing between fermions with non-zero angular momentum emerges as a key mechanism at the basis of a wealth of unconventional fermionic superfluids, as for the A phase in 3He or electrons in high-Tc superconductors. More specifically, p-wave pairing in 2D is expected to induce superfluid phases with non-trivial topological features, as chirality and anyonic vortex excitations with non-Abelian braiding statistics. The high level of control over the system parameters, together with detection and probing capabilities down to the single atom level, makes of ultracold atomic gases an ideal platform towards the realization and investigation of such paradigmatic yet elusive strongly interacting phases. Despite this, the experimental observation of p-wave superfluidity in atomic gases has never been achieved so far. ToPIKS plans to realize a 2D system with strong p-wave interactions in ultracold Bose-Fermi mixtures of 39K and 40K atoms, on the repulsive side of a Fose-Bose s-wave Feshbach resonance, where the system sustains a heteronuclear fermionic molecular state. The virtual exchange of the lighter 39K bosonic atoms between two 39K40K molecules will in turn induce an effective dimer-dimer p-wave attraction. The key novelty of this approach consists in the possibility to stabilize the system against inelastic losses by promoting a small but finite Bose-Bose repulsion. This is a striking advantage in comparison with previously existing systems exploiting homonuclear p-wave Feshbach resonances, intrinsically suffering from strong 3-body recombination. At the same time, the system maintains the high degree of controllability of atomic gases with Feshbach tunable interactions.

Mots clés : condensed matter physics, quantum gases, ultracold mixtures, strongly interacting fermi systems, low dimensions

Participants :
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet AttoPES (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Topological materials (TM) show fascinating properties such as small bulk bandgaps and robust surface states with Dirac dispersion, Floquet-Bloch states and spin-momentum locking. Their topological nature means these states are resistant to change, and thus stable to temperature fluctuations and physical distortion, features that could make them useful in quantum computers and ultrafast electronic devices. In order to reap the full benefits of TM and tailor their properties, understanding of the phenomena related to electron-electron, electron-spin and electron-phonon interactions, occurring on a femto- to attosecond timescale, is required. Ultrafast Time- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (tr-ARPES) is the expertise of the experienced researcher (ER) and is the technique that will be implemented in this work. It will be employed for investigating novel industry-grade TM that are developed in parallel research activities at the host IMEC in Leuven, Belgium. State-of-the-art attosecond high harmonic generation laser light coupled with a powerful imaging electron spectrometer will be employed in ultrafast pump–probe experiments to disentangle all coupled interactions between the charge, spin, lattice and electronic degrees of freedom of novel TM. The researcher’s academic background in ultrafast laser spectroscopy perfectly complements research conducted at the host IMEC, one of largest independent R&D centers worldwide in the field of nanoelectronics delivering industry-relevant technology solutions by leveraging its global industrial partner network. AttoPES will take attosecond science to the next level and contribute to accelerate the development of new TM complement for nanoelectronics. It will benefit from the extensive expertise available in IMEC’s groups and enable the ER to diversify his competences, creativity and innovation potential to strengthen his profile as a time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy top-class researcher

Mots clés : topological materials, arpes, band structure, time resolved spectroscopy, floquet bloch states, ultrafast dynamics, attosecond science, materials for quantum device application

Participants :
- IMEC (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 166320.0 €
Projet DEPTH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Topological superconducting matter has attracted much interest in the recent years, carrying the long-term vision of next generation of quantum electronic devices. Its potential stems from fundamental underlying properties, specifically the presence of topologically protected currents or low energy modes such as Majorana fermions. This project aims at exploring a novel type of topological superconducting matter solid-state device (Topological Josephson Junctions) resulting from coupling a high temperature d-wave superconductor and recently discovered two-dimensional Topological Insulators (2DTIs). The project will rely on 2DTIs made from transition metal dichalcogenides. These Dirac materials support 1D channels at their boundaries which are protected from backscattering by time reversal symmetry. While in proximity with a superconductor, superconductivity can be induced in the Quantum Spin Hall states, resulting in topologically protected superconducting 1D channels. If the superconductor is a high temperature d-wave, new devices can be envisioned based on the specific nodal pairing symmetries coupling with the 2DTI. This project aims at exploring the potential of such new devices for quantum electronics, leading the way to the realization of topological electronic devices and fault-tolerant topological quantum information applications. This reintegration project relies on the unique complementary competences of the researcher on TIs (imported from his US post-doc) and of the host institution on high temperature d-wave superconductors and 2D materials. The acquired knowledge and IP training by the industrial partner will give the researcher a unique profile in the European research environment. This will give the researcher a strong edge to seek for a position at the interface between academia and industry.

Mots clés : superconductivity, topological insulators

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 131069.32 €
Projet SedTraceFlux (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) are powerful tools for studying the ocean system and tracing its interaction with the other Earth System components. Many TEIs exert influence on the surface environment by participating in the global carbon and oxygen cycles. Incorporating TEIs into state-of-the-art global models is thus crucial to better predict future changes of ocean biogeochemistry and climate. This effort, however, is hampered by our limited understanding of the source and sink fluxes of TEIs across the sediment-water interface, which are recently hypothesised to play much greater roles in setting the distributions of TEIs in the ocean than previously assumed. Yet insufficient knowledge results in large uncertainties in model implementations of sedimentary fluxes, severely limiting the applications of marine TEIs. The objectives of SedTraceFlux are to constrain the sedimentary TEI fluxes and provide robust parameterizations of such fluxes suitable for global models. This project will focus on iron, neodymium, zinc and their respective isotopes, which are among the most useful TEI tools in oceanography. I will model the chemical speciation and the processes controlling the distributions of these TEIs in sediment pore water and solid phases. The resulting mechanistic parameterizations of sedimentary fluxes will be fine-tuned using Transport Matrix Methods in global biogeochemical modelling. The modelling effort will be complemented by generation of sedimentary Fe data from under-sampled locations. This project represents an ideal synergy between my ability in geochemical modelling and sediment geochemistry, and the expertise of the host group in a broad range of chemical, isotopic and global modelling approaches. It will enhance my innovative potential toward an independent researcher and strengthen the host’s international network and mobility. The results will also help inform the ocean and climate policy-making of the European Union.

Mots clés : biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and isotopes in the ocean, trace element flux across the sediment water interface, sedimentary cycles of iron, neodymium and zinc, sediment diagenesis

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet CASBAHS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tracing the imagined criminality of the “Casbahs” of Marseille and Algiers, this project examines the intimate and oppositional everyday relationship of police officers and North Africans during the politically tumultuous period from 1918-1954. Beginning with the surge of Algerian immigration to France after World War I and ending with the first battles of the Algerian War of Independence, CASBAHS examines how both national policy and local concerns shaped the interactions of police officers and North Africans. Focusing on connected histories of migration, repression, and crime, I argue that the police of Marseille and Algiers helped to create the putative criminals they sought to control. Interrogating the interpersonal experience of structural police power, I demonstrate that the racialized policing of North Africans in these Mediterranean urban centers built not just on visual codes of race, but on mapping racialized bodies in particular urban spaces. The thin line between public and private, personal and political, blurred in police interactions with North Africans in Marseille and Algiers. By emphasizing the interpersonal level of policing through a novel bottom-up methodology, CASBAHS highlights the fissures within colonial policing, challenging narratives of monolithic colonial power while also revealing the capacity individual officers had to shape the lives of North Africans. Through an innovate, interdisciplinary, and comparative approach to the study of policing, this project creates new ways of examining historical questions with continued contemporary relevance.

Mots clés : police, empire, france, algeria, critical race theory, mobility

Participants :
- University of Leeds (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €