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

Three-dimensional neural models such as spheroids and organoids hold the potential to recapitulate several aspects of the human brain at the level of gene expression, cell differentiation, network and formation, thus representing one of the most promising technology to study brain development as well as neurodegenerative disorders. Suitable for large-scale production and genetic engineering, 3D brain models represent a highly encouraging model for next-generation drug screening assays. However, the electrical functionality assessment of such 3D models and its relevance to the human brain is still at its infancy, with current techniques limited to acute electrophysiology recordings through invasive or superficial tools. In this project, through the combination of expertise from the researcher in flexible neuroelectronics and surface functionalization, and from the host in nanotechnology-based electrophysiology and iPSC organoids, the overall scientific objective of the SPHELECTRO project is to develop a Seamless Array of Flexible Electronics (SAFE) with 3D nanostructured electrodes, integrated into 3D matrix-free brain models (spheroids and organoids) during early stages of development for prolonged, routine electrophysiology recordings with cellular resolution. This original proof-of-concept would provide an exceptional tool for the neuroscience community to advance our understanding of brain development and neurological disorders, with high industrialization potential in the pharmacology field. The timeliness and high interdisciplinarity of this project, at the intersection of fast-growing research topics such as flexible electronics, nanotechnology and organoids, will greatly build up skill transfer between the host laboratory and the researcher, as well as to enable the latter to establish a unique research profile towards the perspective of becoming a group leader in the field.

Mots clés : micro nano technology, organoids, spheroids, nanowires, electrophysiology, 3d cell culture, biosensors, flexible electronics, surface functionalization

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 295061.76 €
Projet ICEPRINT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Through this MSC action, I propose to design, test, and apply new genetic proxies for reconstruction of past sea ice extent. Satellite observations show an abrupt decrease in the extent of seasonal sea ice and state-of-the-art projections point to a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean by mid-century. Predicting the full range of climate change impacts on the Earth system requires an understanding of past variability. Past sea ice information is, however, limited by the fact that sea ice leaves no direct fingerprint in the geological record. The identification of new reliable proxies for sea ice is one of the most important challenges facing paleoclimatology today. DNA from sea ice microalgae offers an exciting possibility, as the sea ice environment harbours an enormously diverse and highly specialized community of protists, including diatoms and dinoflagellates. Because only a small fraction of sea ice microalgae leave a microfossil imprint in marine sediments and many species are only identifiable by advanced microscopy techniques, one limitation is that molecular references are lacking for many potential DNA gene markers. To identify the potential proxies I will apply classical taxonomy and DNA metabarcoding to study the vertical export of microalgae in the spring, after sea ice melt. The potential of the new sea ice proxies will be tested and selected markers will be applied by exploring sedimentary ancient DNA preserved in marine sediments records from the Arctic.

Mots clés : sea ice, proxy development, sedimentary ancient dna, microalgae

Participants :
- Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities (Danemark) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 273687.36 €
- Université Laval (Canada) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet UNI-SEL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Throughout the years, it has become conventional wisdom in social policy literature that universal policies, accessible to all citizens/residents, enjoy higher levels of popular support than selective policies targeted at the poor only. At first sight, the empirical evidence in support of this claim seems convincing. A large number of public opinion studies, conducted in different countries and different years, reveal the same pattern: universally targeted programs, such as most old-age pensions and healthcare systems, consistently receive higher levels of support than selective programs, such as means-tested social assistance and housing allowances. There are, however, two very good reasons why we need further research into the social legitimacy of universal vis-à-vis selective welfare. First, the studies that are typically cited to support the claim that universalism is more popular are inconclusive, because they conflate the institutional design of welfare programs with their respective target groups: the programs that are compared differ not only in terms of their design, but also in terms of the groups they target. Second, there appears to be considerable variation in public support for universalism and selectivism across countries, time, and policy domains. Therefore, the social legitimacy of universal vis-à-vis selective welfare provision remains very much an open question for future research to explore. Based on a unique combination of cross-national, experimental and longitudinal data, this project will reveal under which circumstances -when, where and why- one social policy design option is more popular than the other. In doing so, it makes a vital contribution to ongoing academic and political debates on the institutional design of the future welfare state.

Mots clés : welfare state, public opinion, universalism, universal basic income, selectivism, means testing

Participants :
- Tilburg University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet RECOWERS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Timber construction following circular economy principles and reuse of building waste materials are important for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation. The demolition sector generates a large amount of timber products that could be reused directly or recycled for structural purposes. However, nowadays there is no established recovered timber market due to the lack of a standardized classification system for this product. The overall objective of this project aims to develop a grading system for recovered timber and create a European standardized framework. A first step of analyzing available data is following by a secondment at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) with an internationally recognized expert in European standardization. After that, innovative solutions using non-destructive grading procedures and testing techniques like infrared thermography will be developed and the grading procedure will be validated in companies. Finally, the grading system will be presented in the European committees of standardization of timber construction and circular economy to publish a standard. The project will involve national and international standardization committees of timber construction and circular economy, stakeholders and companies apart from exploring the potential market and structural uses of recovered timber.

Mots clés : circular economy, mechanical properties, reuse of materials, standardization, timber construction, wood

Participants :
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet GLOTECH (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Time, Technology, and Globalization. A study of the role of technology in processes of modernization and globalization using the Press, Big Data, and Computational Research Methodologies (GLOTECH), will explore the role of technology as a factor of time standardizations in Western, industrialized societies, as well as a booster of cultural homogenization, and as a consequence, an agent of modernization and globalization. The object of analysis will be the press of different countries. France: Le Figaro, Le Monde, Spain: ABC, Italy: Corriere della Sera, Portugal: Diario de Noticias de Madeira; Switzerland: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, United Kingdom: The Times; The United States: The New York Times, being all of them digitally accessible since their different starting dates of publication around the second half of the nineteenth century. The selected time frame will be 1840-2019, and the methodology will include different computational research methods (Quantitative Narrative Analysis, Semantic Networks, NER, Topic Modelling, Word Embeddings, Sentiment Analysis). GLOTECH is a highly innovative research project that will push the state of the art in Digital Humanities and Computational Social Sciences. It will as well propose computational methodologies that other researchers interested about information behaviour historically can adapt to their own research agendas, therefore being of high value for the research community. It will grant me, the researcher, the possibility of acquiring new competences in computation and transferable skills, that, together with my secondmet at the Competence Centre on Text Mining and Analysis, part of the Joint Research Center of the European Union, will allow me to become a driver of excellence in the European Digital Economy, as well as to actively contribute to advance the European Knowledge Society.

Mots clés : computational linguistics, natural language processing, data science, intellectual history, cultural studies, globalization studies, media and communication studies, technology in society

Participants :
- University of Zurich (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet LAF-GRAFT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tissue engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) hold great promise in the field of regenerative medicine and also possess the true potential to revolutionise the way in which clinicians treat the growing burden of cardiovascular disease. Treatment is achieved by incorporating an appropriate cell source onto a biodegradable scaffold and implanting the graft to bypass non-patent vascular segments. However, numerous issues regarding TEVG cell source render the technique unviable in a clinical setting as the cells require high levels of manipulation including digestion, isolation and culture. These issues increase processing costs, decrease cell stability and raise numerous regulatory issues. The use of minimally manipulated liposuction aspirate fluid (LAF) may offer a safer and more efficient cellular source in regenerative TEVGs. However, the capacity of LAF to act as a viable cell source for TEVGs is untested. The aim of this pr oject is to determine the capacity of LAF derived cells to act as a viable cell source for TEVGs. This will be achieved through characterisation of the LAF cells, investigation of the environment that best promotes favourable cellular behaviour, an in vivo study on the viability of the graft to act as a vascular interposition in a small animal model, scaling of the graft to appropriate human size and finally an in vivo study of the grafts ability to function as a vascular bypass in a large animal model. This fellowship will have an outgoing phase to Prof David Vorp’s Lab at the University of Pittsburgh and a return phase to Prof Fergal O’Brien’s Lab at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Having recently completed my PhD, which focused on the mechanical and morphological characterisation of human diseased vascular tissue, this fellowship will allow me to expand my existing repertoire of research and complementary skills to consolidate and build upon what I have learned to date as I evolve my independent, professional research career.

Mots clés : tissue engineering, small diameter vascular bypass, liposuction aspirate fluid

Participants :
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 248063.4 €
- University of Pittsburgh (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet MIP4CELL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Tissue engineering or regenerative medicine, with its ultimate aim of developing true human replacement parts, has recently made enormous progress. The field refers to the use of human cells to replace or regenerate tissues or organs. Ideally, biomaterials for tissue engineering should efficiently mimic functionalities of the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). Hence surfaces of biomaterials should be engineered for dynamic control of cell behaviour. The objective of this proposal is to exploit molecular imprinting as a dynamic methodology for biofunctionalization and tissue engineering. Building on our previous proof of concept demonstration of systems for cell sheet harvesting, we expect to hereby obtain dynamic biofunctionalization of surfaces and overcome limitations of currently used methodologies (e.g. ligand leaching in non-covalent approach, loss of bioactivity in covalent approach, and lack of means for dynamic control of cells adhesion in both). The specific objectives of the proposal are as follows: 1) To establish bioimprinted hydrogels with thermo-responsive affinity to bioactive cell adhesive peptide as a generic platform for dynamically regulating cell adhesion and migration. 2) To develop thermo-responsive DNA aptamer imprinted hydrogels for dynamic recognition of specific cells via cell-aptamer interactions, and using as a platform for capture and release tumor cells. Therefore, this proposal will mimic the in vivo dynamic characters of the ECM and allow to obtain controllable cell behaviours in artificial biomaterials, thus having potential applications in medical diagnostic and regenerative medicine. Bringing together a highly talented and creative experienced researcher, who has already contributed decisively to the field, with a leading research group in the field of molecular imprinting and biomedicine will allow for the aforementioned objectives to be successfully accomplished.

Mots clés : molecular imprinting, dynamic biofunctionalization, cell adhesion, dna aptamer, capture of circulated tumor cells

Participants :
- Malmö University (Suède) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 185857.2 €
Projet STELLA (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Tissues of animals undergo constant renewal. This is enabled by pools of tissue-resident stem cells that differentiate to replace aged cells and maintain homeostasis. However, stem cell self-renewal and differentiation capacities gradually start to decline during aging, leading to compromised organ function. Nutrition has a prominent effect on aging and the maintenance of stem cell function. Therefore, investigating the mechanisms responsible for nutrient regulation of tissue stem cells is of direct relevance to understanding the regulatory basis of animal lifespan. The proposed project will focus on the intestine, which undergoes high cellular turnover and adaptability in response to changing nutrition, and as such is an optimal model for nutrient regulation of tissue stem cells. The use of Drosophila provides advantages including the availability of a powerful genetic toolkit, a short lifespan and the ability to quantitatively analyse stem cell function at the organ-wide level. Specifically, my project will address the regulatory role and physiological relevance of Periodic tryptophan protein 1 (PWP1), a conserved chromatin-binding protein that acts downstream of nutrient-responsive Insulin/mTOR signalling. PWP1 is known to be implicated in embryonic and germline stem cell regulation, but its role in somatic stem cells and aging has remained unexplored. Our unpublished data shows that PWP1 has a role in intestinal stem cell regulation, downstream of Insulin signalling, and that it has a significant impact on organismal lifespan. The results obtained in this study will go beyond the current knowledge of nutrient-dependent regulation of intestinal stem cells, and will push the boundaries of scientific research on stem cell aging, with substantial societal relevance for the aging population. Along with its scientific objectives, the proposed project has been designed to support my professional development and my career goal of scientific independence.

Mots clés : stem cell, aging, intestine, drosophila, nutrient, insulin, mtor

Participants :
- University of Helsinki (Finlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 190680.96 €
Projet EconCell (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

To address environmental hazardous impact of fossil fuel energy technologies and the high dependency on them, clean energy systems have been developed for future energy fulfilment. Among them, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is considered as a highly potential electrochemical energy conversion technology because of its low operation temperature, quick start-up and shutdown, high energy efficiency and power flexibility. However, the sluggish cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) undermines the overall performance. Up to now, the commonly used catalysts are still carbon supported Pt-based nanoparticles, with which the high cost of Pt undesirably increases the overall cost of the system. In EconCell, we will develop a new generation of low-cost, active site enriched and durable PEMFC electrodes from three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures of non-platinum group metal (non-PGM) electrocatalysts. It consists of protic hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) encapsulated nanowire arrays (NWAs) of electronically conductive porous coordination polymer (E-PCP) selectively assembled on N-doped aligned carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs). The ambitious aim will be achieved with the complementary skills of Experienced Researcher (E-PCPs and nanowires) and supervisors (fuel cells and ionic liquids), based on the unique porosity, conductivity and stability of E-PCPs, the excellent catalytic activities of nitrogen-containing (N) transition metal complexes (MCs), and oxyphilicity and hydrophobicity of ILs. EconCell will extend significantly the existing knowledge of coordinated N active sites, transition metals, ILs and 1D nanostructure electrodes, making available for predicting the catalytic performance of new non-PGM catalyst systems for PEMFCs. The advancement will improve the development level of related fields, bringing about both fundamental and practical impact on various electrochemical energy conversion systems, e.g. electrolyzers, batteries, supercapacitors, etc.

Mots clés : polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, electrode, one dimensional  1d, porous coordination polymer, ionic liquid

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet LeSoDyMAS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

To date most successful machine learning techniques for the analysis of complex interdisciplinary data predominantly use significant amounts of vectorial measurements as input to a statistical system. The domain expert knowledge is often only used in data preprocessing and the subsequently trained technique appears as a black-box, which is difficult to interpret or judge and rarely allows insight into the underlying natural process. However, in many bio-medical applications the underlying biological process is complex and the amount of measurements is limited due to the costs and inconvenience for the patient. The main aim of this project is the formulation of a generalised framework for learning in the space of probabilistic models representing the complicated underlying natural processes with potentially very few measurements. This includes the development of a similarity measure for posterior distributions, task-driven model simplification and a new learning paradigm to combine those modules. The method will be developed for the prediction of steroid flow in the treatment of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) incorporating dynamical models of Adrenal Steroidogenesis. With the successful execution of this project we expect not only better prediction performance for individual treatment success, but also deeper understanding of the pathophysiologic processes due to the incorporation of the pathway models. The project combines the expertise of the Fellow (Dr. Bunte) in task-driven similarity learning and dimensionality reduction with the expertise of the Host Coordinator (Prof. Tino, The University of Birmingham (UoB)) in probabilistic modelling, dynamical systems and model-based learning. The UoB and all participants (University of Sheffield,Warwick and the company Diurnal Ltd) provide further bio-medical and modelling expertise, and have already successfully collaborated in previous projects, including the clinical data targeted in this proposal.

Mots clés : learning in the model space, dynamical systems, probabilistic modelling, supervised distance learning, model simplification, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, pathway modes

Participants :
- University of Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €