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

Climate change is challenging all species. To persist, organisms must respond to fast-changing and perhaps extreme conditions. Phenotypic plasticity likely plays an important role and can occur within an organism’s lifetime but may be insufficient over a longer time. Adaptation via genomic changes requires time and sufficient variation on which natural selection can act – both of which are often limited in natural populations. Hybridisation between species can rapidly increase genetic variation, boosting plasticity and adaptive potential. However, our understanding of the effects of hybridisation on phenotypic traits under climate change is limited, despite its potential to promote persistence and reduce biodiversity loss. In the project HYPE, I will assess if hybridisation can mitigate the effects of climate change by studying mound-building wood ants, geographically widespread keystone forest species. Across three research objectives, I will 1) quantify the extent of hybridisation across Europe and its impacts on genetic diversity; 2) assess the impact of hybridisation on acute heat tolerance; and 3) experimentally test the effect of hybridisation on seasonal phenotypic plasticity and adaptive potential under simulated climate change in three key traits, specifically acute heat, desiccation, and humidity stress tolerance. I will combine European-wide fieldwork, cutting-edge population genomics, and large-scale phenotypic lab assays in a multidisciplinary and ambitious project. The results will push boundaries in our understanding of whether and how hybridisation influences the response of natural populations to climate change and can fuel adaptation to it. As such, they will be of high scientific and social impact, such as on UN Sustainable Development Goals. The training-through-research will significantly advance my skills under excellent supervision and thus help me obtain a permanent position, apply for an ERC Starting Grant, and launch my independent career.

Mots clés : hybridisation mound building wood ants adaptation under climate change phenotypic traits formica rufa group consequences of hybridisation phenotypic plasticity

Participants :
- Université Louis-et-Maximilien de Munich (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 232916.16 €
Projet PlaneTS (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Project PlaneTS is focused on one of the big questions of science: are we alone in the Universe? At this moment, we are urgently in need of improved models of the planet formation process in order to make reliable theoretical predictions. The needed improvement comes from recent studies that argue that the evolution of life on Earth depended on the presence of seasons and ocean tides, which have so far not been taken into account in astronomy. As these phenomena are caused by the tilt of Earth's rotation axis and our Moon, it is time to include planetary spins and satellite systems to the planet formation model. This big step forwards towards realistic models of habitable planets has been a major challenge, but has recently become feasible with the publication of my unique N-body code TIDYMESS, which solves the orbit, spin and tidal evolution of chaotically interacting planets and moons. With a novel approach for combining direct and secular integration methods, I will be able to obtain complete evolutions of ensembles of planet-moon systems and quantify the likelihood for planetary systems to produce a habitable planet with seasons and tides, i.e. Earth-Moon analogues. Three capture mechanisms will be studied in detail: tidal capture, few-body interactions with in-situ formed moons, and dynamical friction with planetesimals. The demographics of the ensemble will provide new insights into the formation of Earth-Moon analogues, while also quantifying their expected cosmic number density. The results will be used to derive a novel statistical method that can be used by the community to include the effects of planetary spins and satellite systems in other large-scale planet formation models. In conclusion, project PlaneTS represents a large step forwards in our understanding of the habitability of worlds by scrutinising the role played by seasons and tides.

Mots clés : planet formation, planetary dynamics, solar system, exoplanets, computational astrophysics, n body simulations, chaos

Participants :
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203464.32 €
Projet TriDeTo (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2023)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Insects like whitefly are virus-vectors causing substantial crop losses worldwide. They gain resistance to current commercially available pesticides, which are harmful to the environment. Therefore, there is a clear need to integrate sustainable alternatives in crop protection. Wild tomato species have the capacity to defend themselves by producing a wide variety of natural defense compounds that have a toxic or repellent effect inside trichomes. Glandular trichomes are hair-like structures on the surface of green tissues of tomato for the synthesis and storage of specialized metabolites that exhibit insecticidal properties. From the site of synthesis in the plastid and cytosol these natural insecticidal metabolites need to pass barriers including the cell wall and cuticle, to be accumulated in a dedicated storage compartment. Contrary to the current understanding of insecticidal metabolite biosynthesis, little is known about the development and composition of these glandular trichomes though it appears to differ between cultivated and wild tomato. Non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) are known to transfer hydrophobic molecules (lipids) between membranes in plants. I hypothesize that a specific tomato LTP gene affects the formation of trichomes through binding of fatty acids and transport of lipids in the cuticle. I aim to study and discover the molecular mechanisms associated with the role of LTPs in trichome development and gland constitution characterizing LTP mutants (knockout and gland specific overexpression lines). I will study these mutants in detail at the metabolome, proteome and lipidome level, as well as compare them to a number of wild accessions. In the future this research would have implications in development of insect resistant cultivated tomato cultivars. This proposal will help me become an independent researcher, combining my background in plant biochemistry with knowledge on molecular biology.

Mots clés : tomato, trichome, natural insecticide, ltp2 protein, cuticle

Participants :
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203464.32 €
Projet HeliCoM (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

The project HeliCoM (Helicoid molecular devices for coupled motion) is a 24-month postdoctoral research project to be conducted within Prof. B. Feringa’s group at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Netherlands). This ambitious research aims at developing new molecular motors and switches based on an overcrowded alkene scaffold appended with an helical dibenzo[c,g]fluorene moiety. The chiral information resulting from the introduction of this axially chiral fragment will allow to control the rotational direction of molecular motors without the need of a stereogenic carbon. Oppositely by embedding such scaffold in a molecular switch design and lowering the helicity inversion barrier, we aim at inverting the helicity of the dibenzo[c,g]fluorene through a photoinduced coupled motion of both halves of the overcrowded alkene resulting in a remote control of the helicity. Achieving these goals will require to finely tune the racemization barrier of the dibenzofluorene core in order to produce the desired stimuli responsive compounds. All these objectives aim towards improving the level of function of molecular devices with a potential important scientific impact with numerous applications of the developed methodologies through transdisciplinary collaborations. Preliminary DFT modelling have been performed in order to assess the feasibility of this project and refine the design of the synthetic targets presented herein. The conduction of this project will drastically enhance the employability of the Researcher thanks to the development of new skills (scientific, technical and transversal) and give him the opportunity to perform high-impact research in a renowned group. The Researcher will be directly supervised by Prof. B. Feringa, who is the inventor of synthetic molecular motors and greatly contributed to the field of molecular switches. His experience, completed by the expertise of other members of his group will allow for the straightforward achievement of this project.

Mots clés : molecular machines, coupled motion, dynamic stereochemistry, helicity, molecular motor, molecular switch, chiroptical switch, overcrowded alkene, dibenzo c, g fluorene

Participants :
- Université de Groningue (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187624.32 €
Projet XENIA (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Xenia refers to the ancient Greek concept of hospitality. It is a traditionally established host-guest relationship rooted in reciprocity. Earth (the host) has served this institutionalized notion for millions of years providing inhabitable conditions to humans (the guests), and thus, allowing them to thrive. However, the human activities of recent centuries have violated the Xenia rules leading to the disruption of the Earth’s climate. As a consequence, the planet is becoming less hospitable. The global warming and the consequent intensification of weather and climate extremes induce severe impacts to humans, including losses of millions of lives. The most important threat is related to the thermal environment. Extreme heat in particular, is responsible for more premature deaths than any other natural disaster, especially in cities due to the urban overheating. Exposure to incompatible with human life heat conditions is expected to increase in the future as climate change escalates. Yet, there is a critical lack of robustness concerning the projections of future heat-health outcomes. This is primarily driven by the fact that both thermo-physiological and behavioral adaptation of humans to local climates is ignored. In order to address this significant gap in future climate impact assessments, the current project will eXplore futurE humaN thermal bIoclimate pAthways (XENIA), considering the physiological and behavioral responses of different groups of people with particular focus on the most vulnerable.

Mots clés : human biometeorology extreme heat human thermal bioclimate human health diverse populations autonomous adaptation environmental epidemiology

Participants :
- Université de Fribourg-en-Brisgau (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 217965.12 €
Projet eGreenchem (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Medicinal chemistry is a fast-evolving discipline. Since the early 2000s is shifting its interest from a traditional small molecule's “flat” domain to a 3D molecular space that can address the ongoing demand for therapeutic solution targeting unmet clinical diseases. In this context, during the last years new classes of compounds are being used as therapeutic agents; among them, DNA- and RNA-based therapeutics agents are gaining a prominent role in drug process development. Natural nucleosides, the fundamental building blocks of these therapeutic agents, are numerically limited and show poor biological stability properties. To overcome these limitations and to have access to a DNA/RNA based drug with an improved profile, the synthesis of nucleosides analogues is a cornerstone strategy pursued by medicinal chemistry. Although several sites of modifications of the natural occurring nucleosides can be identified, the most widespread decorations involve the ribose moiety in C1, C2 and C3. Moreover, the reported methodologies often require many synthetic steps and make these approaches poorly sustainable. The aim of the eGreenchem project is to allow the access to an unprecedent class of nucleosides analogues by C-H functionalization of the C-5 position of the ribose moiety. We plan to perform such transformation via the electrochemical-mediated radical generation of a C5 carbon centered radical and its subsequent reaction with various radical acceptors. Organic electrochemistry can facilitate the selective formation of the radical, instead of others regioisomers, and thus the specific functionalization of complex scaffolds. This transformation would represent a state-of-the-art advancement in the decoration of sp3-based scaffold, another popular trend in medicinal chemistry. The outcome of this project will further result in the synthesis of a nucleosides analogues library targeting a new molecular space for the development of novel drug candidates.

Mots clés : nucleosides electrochemistry late stage functionalisation analogues radical chemistry sustainable chemistry

Participants :
- Chiesi (Italy) (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 193643.28 €
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet BIOSTAB-DIFF (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2022)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

To cope with an ever changing environment, bacteria often develop a bet-hedging strategy like bi-stable cellular differentiation, resulting in cell populations with different properties. For example, the industrially relevant model bacterium Bacillus subtilis can become motile, genetically competent, secrete degradative enzymes, or sporulate, and these cellular differentiations can occur simultaneously in a single genetically homogenous population. This cellular heterogeneity exhibited by bacterial cells from the same parent with similar genetic properties is a carefully regulated process that prepares the population for unpredictable environmental stress. Unfortunately, this cellular differentiation can pose serious challenges for the production of enzymes via industrial fermentation, since it means that not all cells in the fermentor are actively involved in enzyme production. This Marie Curie BIOSTAB-DIFF project aims at investigating how enzyme expression differs between individual cells of B. subtilis, and how this cellular heterogeneity can be possibly controlled by genetic interventions. B. subtilis has become a universal microbial cell factory for many industrial products such as enzymes and vitamins. Better enzyme yield would be achieved by reducing cellular heterogeneity in this organism, and that would serve as an asset to the biotech industry. The project will be carried out in the Swammerdam Institute of Life Sciences (SILS) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), under the supervision of Prof. Leendert Hamoen, one of the leading experts in heterogenic protein expression in the model organism B. subtilis.

Mots clés : bacillus subtilis, industrial enzyme production, heterogenic cellular differentiation

Participants :
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 203464.32 €
Projet EPOQ (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2021)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

This project addresses polar question meaning and its variation by documenting and analyzing nuanced polar question meanings and their expressions across languages. Under current models of polar question meaning, meaning nuances across languages are heavily undergenerated and certain effects such as negative polarity licensing and forms of bias remain elusive. We use the idea of the Duality of primary polar question meanings introduced in the applicant’s recent work as a departure point, which defends a separation between polar and other propositional alternatives. This view makes correct predictions in the treatment of existing problems and generates hypotheses as to the limits and structural correlates of variation. The project will generate a crosslinguistically viable semantic model of polar question meaning and a framework of its variation based on a sizeable empirical contribution detailing polar question usage profiles from a diverse set of languages, elicited with a state-of-the-art twin questionnaire. The project combines advanced insights and techniques from the semantics and pragmatics of questions, semantic variation, and linguistic documentation, and is particularly timely in the context of the applicant’s recent work. The applicant and the host possess crucial, complementary skills in addressing these issues. The applicant is an expert in syntax, intonation and linguistic variation. The entire host institute and in particular the supervisors are world-renowned for their work on semantics and pragmatics, with a strong focus on questions. Their collaboration will thus create a unique opportunity to thoroughly reanalyze a central topic from multiple theoretical and empirical angles while furnishing the applicant with skills in semantics, pragmatics and advanced empirical methods with which she intends to launch further crossmodular linguistic variation projects and position herself as a leader in this domain of research.

Mots clés : polar questions, semantics, pragmatics, linguistic variation, negation, bias, alternatives, nuanced meanings

Participants :
- Université d'Amsterdam (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187624.32 €
Projet MALEFICENT (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

The continued growth of artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud is driving up global energy costs. As a result, a paradigm shift is taking place where new intelligent devices are placed right at the edge. MALEFICENT will create a new framework for implementing sustainable AI at the edge using standard and novel technologies. Neuromorphic systems using emerging memory devices such as resistive switching devices (ReRAM) or ferroelectric capacitors (FeCap), are a promising alternative for AI systems thanks to their energy efficiency and non-volatility. However, the deployment of these devices in real-world applications poses some challenges, due to their intrinsic variability and limited bit precision. I will use advanced learning techniques such as meta-learning to create a self-adaptive neuromorphic system based on emerging memory devices able to exploit the intrinsic features of the devices while mitigating their limitations. I will then apply it to a real-world environment, such as robotics. This will have a significant impact on the research of emerging memory technologies, by opening up the possibility of exploitation in an industrial context.

Mots clés : meta learning spiking neural networks neuromorphic memristor online learning neurobotics edge computing

Participants :
- Université de Séville (Espagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Bielefeld (Allemagne) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université de Groningue (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 217076.16 €
Projet RatioLED (Horizon Europe, appel à projets 2024)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

One of the major challenges with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is their short lifespan. Flow of electric current causes an increase in its internal temperature which damages molecules consequently reducing the lifetime of OLED devices. To enhance the stability of OLEDs and increase their lifetime, monitoring and controlling the internal temperature of OLEDs is of fundamental importance. However, no systems/techniques are currently available to measure the internal temperature of working OLEDs. RatioLED introduces an innovative approach that exploits the thermally activated delayed fluorescence to measure the internal temperatures in OLEDs under working conditions for the first time using a robust ratiometric approach. It will have a significant impact and will extend the boundaries of thermometry and OLED technologies. This interdisciplinary project will be made possible by incorporating the researcher's quantum chemistry and spectroscopy skills and extensive experience in the luminescence thermometry of the host. RatioLED aims to enhance the energy efficiency of OLEDs which is in line with the Energy Efficiency Directive of the European Parliament and the EU’s climate ambition. Further, thermometry is also pivotal for the design and fabrication of devices for applications in several other disciplines, including microelectronics, photonics, and nanofluidics, therefore, RatioLED will pave the way to industrial innovation and economic growth that aligns with UN sustainable development goals (SDGs 8 & 9). Prof. Markus Suta is an expert in luminescent materials and has vast experience in thermometry, making him an ideal supervisor for this project. Additionally, UDUS, due to its excellent infrastructure and credible support system, will provide a conducive environment for research and the researcher’s personal growth. The project will help the researcher's career development by providing interdisciplinary technical skills and comprehensive management training.

Mots clés : luminescence thermometry, thermally activated delayed fluorescence tadf , thermometry, organic light emitting diode oled

Participants :
- Université d'Aveiro (Portugal) — Partner, associated partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- Université Heinrich Heine de Düsseldorf (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 217965.12 €